Eleven Things I Learned From Reading Last Month
Ethan Cassidy
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Here are eleven things I learned from reading last month.
I read in the newspaper that three-times Melbourne Cup winning mare Makybe Diva died, aged 27. Spookily, the same age as Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jimmie Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse when they died. The Diva however was the only one of the six to have died of colic.
More from Don Quixote: “Nothing is so reasonable and cheap as good manners”.
Champion ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”.
The surface area of an adult human lung is about 100 square metres.
“It is the job that’s never started that takes longest to finish” – Tolkien.
Stand in the middle of a flat paddock. If you drop a bullet from your hand at shoulder height at the same instant the someone alongside you fires a rifle, which of the two bullets hits the ground first? The answer is they do so at the same time. The bullet’s rate of fall (ie force of gravity) is independent of its horizontal motion.
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” – Eleanor Roosevelt.
“Remember to dig the well long before you get thirsty” – Chinese proverb.
Thucidides paraphrased: “Of all the manifestations of power, the most admired is restraint.”
What we commonly refer to as a “spiral staircase” is not a spiral. It is a cylindrical helix. A true spiral has radius of curvature with every revolution. Eg. A snail shell and many sea shells.
What is the only number, when written in English, has all its letters in alphabetical order? As an incorrect example, THREE is not because T comes after H. Write to About Time to find out the answer…
Date Published
May 6, 2026
By About Time
Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding. It allows you to turn a flat piece of paper into nearly anything you can think of, like an animal, flower or a hat.
ISSUE NO. 26
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2 MIN READ
By The Research Unit for Indigenous Language at the University of Melbourne
If you drive from Melbourne to Sydney, you will travel through 10 different First Nations language groups. And there’s the same number between Melbourne and Adelaide.
ISSUE NO. 25
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3 MIN READ
By Jeff
“There is no happiness on earth equal to that of liberty regained” – more wisdom from Don Quixote
ISSUE NO. 24
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3 MIN READ
By Shae Wiedermann
Astrology and the interpretation of the stars and planets have been around for millennia. First originating in ancient Mesopotamia, astrology began by using the stars to decipher messages from the gods.
ISSUE NO. 23
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4 MIN READ