The Olympics are never free from controversy and criticism: infrastructure problems and doping allegations in Rio 2016; political boycotts of Los Angeles in 1984 and Moscow in 1980; apartheid South Africa being banned from participation from 1964 to 1992; and, of course, the Nazi-fication of the 1936 Berlin games. One consistent critique of the Olympics…
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One of our earlier shows addressed some of the myths and misunderstandings about cracking the “uncrackable” German Enigma code during World War II. But perhaps the biggest popular misconception about Enigma really deserves more detailed attention. That biggest myth is that British codebreakers, led by Alan Turing, were solely responsible for breaking the code during…
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This week’s mini-myth tackles the idea that slaves built the ancient and famous pyramids in Egypt. This myth goes all the way back to at least the 5th Century BCE, which is a fairly reliable estimate for when the Book of Exodus, in the Bible’s Old Testament, was finalized. Exodus says that the Israelites were…
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Hello again Buzzkillers. In this week’s mini-myth, we take on the Iron Maiden! No, not the heavy metal band. I’m talking about the medieval torture device. It was a kind of a cabinet with spikes on the inside (and pointing inward). Allegedly, people were threatened with being put in the Iron Maiden and having the…
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The Olympics have always been controversial: Rio’s infrastructure problems and the zika virus in 2016; political boycotts of Los Angeles in 1984 and Moscow in 1980; apartheid South Africa being banned from participation from 1964 to 1992; and, perhaps the most famous of all, the 1936 Berlin games, held under Hitler’s Nazi government and chock…
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It’s all fun and games until someone loses their arms It’s the 8th of April 1820. On the Greek Aegean island of Milos, a man named Yorgos Kentrotas was collecting stones from an ancient ruin near his farm. He came across a small niche in a wall in that ruin. It caught his attention because…
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The accomplishments of Earhart & other female aviators Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) was one of the most famous Americans of the twentieth century. Most of you know the basic outlines of her career. She was a very important aviator, and she set all kinds of records for solo flying, and for being the “first female aviator”…
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Thought it was so kids could help out on the farm?Think again. It’s the middle of summer, Buzzkillers, and thank goodness the kids are home from school, helping out on the farm. They’re working here at the Buzzkill Institute, too, mowing the lawn and doing other laborious tasks that are essential to our success as…
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An ode to Revolutionary War camp followers The more we study the American Revolutionary period and the stories that are told about it, the more we realize that many of those stories are really about 1876, rather than 1776. In other words, a lot of our perceptions about the American Revolution come from stories crafted…
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Examining the source of the crack It’s a dramatic and poignant story, Buzzkillers. July 4, 1776: the Second Continental Congress had been meeting in Philadelphia for over a year, trying to hammer out how to win the Revolutionary War and establish an independent nation. On that day they agreed to adopt the Declaration of Independence. The…
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