Most people – despite toiling over it for hours – have probably never managed it. But 40 years after its birth, the Rubik’s Cube continues to beguile, frustrate and – like a Filofax or Walkman – evoke its 1980s heyday when schools were full of children puzzling over its brightly coloured squares.
The Magic Cube was invented in 1974 by Hungarian architecture professor Erno Rubik. After being relaunched in 1980 as the Rubik’s Cube, it sold an estimated 350 million around the world.
What would you say is the most dangerous animal on Earth? Sharks? Snakes? Humans?
Of course the answer depends on how you define dangerous. Personally I’ve had a thing about sharks since the first time I saw Jaws. But if you’re judging by how many people are killed by an animal every year, then the answer isn’t any of the above. It’s mosquitoes.
Star Wars Day is celebrated on May the 4th every year because of a simple play on words: “May the Force be with you,” becomes “May the 4th be with you.” Its origins can be traced all the way back to 1979, but Star Wars Day has only really been a thing in more recent years thanks to its legend spreading via Star Wars geeks using the Internet and social media.
IT may sound as if I’m exaggerating when I say that a high-tech, heated, warm-water-spraying bidet toilet seat ruined me for regular toilets, but I’m not. I don’t know how you guys do it. I look at your normal toilets, the ones with seats that are as cold as ice, the ones that don’t spray and buff your nethers with a soothing shower of cleansing H2O, and I shake my head. I look at your dry-wiping ways, and I wonder how your mom raised you. Don’t you want to be clean? Don’t you ever feel … not so fresh?
Microsoft Edge is the all-new Windows 10 browser built to give you a better web experience. Write directly on webpages and share your mark-ups with others. Read online articles free of distraction or use the offline reading feature for greater convenience. Microsoft Edge is the new browser that works the way you do.
Rome’s rich literary and visual culture can also provide clues. Petronius’ over-the-top Satyricon (late 1st century) is probably the inspiration for our imagined decadent banquet. Poets like Horace (65 – 8 BC) and Juvenal (1st – 2nd century) leave clues. A 10 volume cookbook, Apicius’ De re coquinaria (4th – 5th centuries AD) survives and Pliny the Elder’s great Natural History (c77 AD) is a fine source on edible plants.
