Valentich: The Pilot Who Phoned the Night Sky
On October 21 1978 a small Cessna rang Melbourne approach to report a strange craft, emitted a gobsmacking last transmission and then simply vanished like a badly behaved piece of luggage.Read More 
When Strasbourg Decided to Dance Itself to Bits
In the summer of 1518 one woman started jigging in Strasbourg and within days the town had choreographed its own mild apocalypse - the council's solution was to hire a band.Read More 
Mima Mounds: The Gopher Conspiracy
A neat army of circular earth hummocks baffled geologists for centuries; the leading suspect now happens to be an overambitious burrowing rodent.Read More 
Yarkovsky's Tiny Push: Sun-Heated Rocks Steal Orbits
The Sun gives small asteroids a microscopic shove - over centuries it can turn a pebble into an Earth-bound hooligan.Read More 
How Rome Sweetened Wine with Lead
They boiled grape must in lead kettles to make 'sapa' and then merrily sweetened wine with the resulting 'sugar of lead'-a culinary shortcut that invited lead into every goblet.Read More 
France Lets You Marry The Dead, Quite Properly
Under French civil law you may marry a deceased partner - so long as the paperwork and a presidential nod prove you were sincere and not simply theatrical.Read More 
Dani's Two-Colour Universe and My Mild Existential Crisis
The Dani people of New Guinea famously run the world on two basic colour words and, shockingly, the cosmos keeps functioning.Read More 
They Really Put Waterloo In Your Mouth
In the Victorian era respectable smiles were sometimes built from other peoples teeth-often nicked from battlefields and graves-and nobody used the word 'awkward' with sufficient gravitas.Read More 
How Photographers Sold You Ghosts and Everyone Took the Money
A quickly fashionable Victorian business model: take a portrait, add a faint pallor, bill a grieving family for their dearly departed's cameo and then argue about the receipts in court.Read More 
Camouflage Is For Soldiers, Not Your Saturday Shop
Several countries, notably in the Caribbean and West Africa, actually outlaw civilians wearing military-pattern camouflage to stop impersonation and public confusion.Read More 