October 14 is the anniversary of the 1066 Battle of Hastings. After Harold surrendered, William the Conqueror seized all of the lands and divided them among his supporters — most of Britain still remains in the hands of the descendants of those early Norman conquerors.

Four Unofficial Rules Native English Speakers Don’t Realize They Know.


How Will Police Solve Murders on Mars?

From 1960, here’s how to build your own fallout shelter.

A Sasquatch timeline: The Story of the Search for Bigfoot.


Retrofuture: How We Envisioned the Classroom of the Future.

ICYMI, Wednesday’s links are here, and include the centenary of the Spanish Flu epidemic (it killed more Americans than all the wars of the 20th century combined), the anniversary of the October 10, 732, clash of civilizations at the Battle of Tours, how to get started with knife-throwing, and the ever-increasing hippopotamus herd of the late drug lord Pablo Escobar.