Some interesting articles I stumbled across this week:
This first article is so trippy that it needs no introduction: Some Black Holes Erase Your Past.
Sometimes truth can truly be stranger than fiction. In a tale fit to be the next Tiger King, read about how Maesaiah Thabane went from being the First Lady of Lesotho to going on the run for murdering her husband's first wife. She was "re-arrested" earlier this June and currently is in jail. Talk about a crazy 2020.
Here's a fun historical tale of the man who broke the "unpickable" lock in Victorian England.
It's long been rumored that making your baby listen to Mozart can make it smarter. Though that data has been contested, there's a new twist thrown into the mix: apparently, listening to Mozart can help reduce epilepsy.
Last but not least, many people know of Alexandre Dumas, who is the author of many classics such as The Count of Monte Cristo (one of my favorite novels), The Three Musketeers, and The Man in the Iron Mask.
However, fewer people know that he was the son of an incredibly celebrated General -- who also happened to be black in late 18th century France. Elder Dumas was so famous that he was called "the black devil" and was a close confidante of Napoleon Bonaparte. The elder Dumas's story is incredible.
Moreover, it also appears to have been echoed in the younger Dumas's works -- such as the novel Georges in addition to the travails of Edmond Dantés, the protagonist of COMC. Dumas's uncle even once used a Caribbean island called Monte Cristo to smuggle sugar and slaves.
Though Dumas claimed that his inspiration for the was from the Paris police archives, he mischievously added that "everyone is free to find another source forThe Count of Monte Cristo than the one I give, but only a very clever man will find it."