Futility Closet

In the 19th century, a Native American woman lived alone on a California island for 18 years.

In 1940 Swedish mathematician Arne Beurling confronted a sophisticated German cipher.

In 1911, three men traveled 70 miles through the Antarctic winter to collect penguin eggs.

Ranald MacDonald ventured into Japan's closed society for "the mere gratification of a love of adventure."

Joshua Norton "reigned" over San Francisco for 21 years.

Did an 18th-century engineer manage to build a chess-playing automaton?

For centuries, navigators sought a way to reckon their precise position at sea.

T.J. Cobden-Sanderson deliberately threw a ton of beautiful type into the river Thames.

A classic locked-room murder from 1920.

During World War II, two Americans set out to sail 3,000 miles from the Philippines to Australia.

The conviction of Adolph Beck, "one of the strangest true stories in British legal history."

Augustine Courtauld was marooned at a remote weather station in Greenland in 1930.

Twelve Americans were enslaved in Africa after an 1815 shipwreck.

One stormy morning in 1880, naturalist John Muir set out to explore a glacier in Alaska's Taylor Bay, accompanied by an adventurous little dog that had joined his expedition. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe the harrowing predicament that the two faced on the ice, which became the basis of one of Muir's most beloved stories. We'll also marvel at some phonetic actors and puzzle over a season for vasectomies. Intro: In 1904 a 12-year-old J.R.R. Tolkien sent this rebus to a family friend. In 1856 Preston Brooks beat Charles Sumner with a gold-headed cane on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Sources for our feature on John Muir and Stickeen: John Muir, Stickeen, 1909. Ronald H. Limbaugh, John Muir's "Stickeen" and the Lessons of Nature, 1996. Kim Heacox, John Muir and the Ice That Started a Fire, 2014. Ronald H. Limbaugh, "Stickeen and the Moral Education of John Muir," Environmental History Review 15:1 (Spring 1991), 25-45. Hal Crimmel, "No Place for 'Little Children and Tender, Pulpy People': John Muir in Alaska," Pacific Northwest Quarterly 92:4 (Fall 2001), 171-180. Stefan Beck, "The Outdoor Kid," New Criterion 33:4 (December 2014), 1-6. Edward Hoagland, "John Muir's Alaskan Rhapsody," American Scholar 71:2 (Spring 2002), 101-105. Ronald H. Limbaugh, "John Muir and Modern Environmental Education," California History 71:2 (Summer 1992), 170-177. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "John Muir" (accessed July 2, 2017). "John Muir: Naturalist," Journal of Education 81:6 (Feb. 11, 1915), 146. William Frederic Badè, "John Muir," Science 41:1053 (March 5, 1915), 353-354. Charles R. Van Hise, "John Muir," Science 45:1153 (Feb. 2, 1917), 103-109. Listener mail: Delta Spirit, "Ballad of Vitaly." Wikipedia, "Aftermath (2017 Film)" (accessed July 14, 2017). Wikipedia, "Überlingen Mid-Air Collision" (accessed July 14, 2017). Anthony Breznican, "'The Princess Bride': 10 Inconceivable Facts From Director Rob Reiner," Entertainment Weekly, Aug. 16, 2013. Wikipedia, "Charlotte Kate Fox" (accessed July 14, 2017). Wikipedia, "Incubus (1966 film)" (accessed July 14, 2017). Wikipedia, "Esperanto" (accessed July 14, 2017). Toño del Barrio, "Esperanto and Cinema" (accessed July 14, 2017). Wikipedia, "Phonetical Singing" (accessed July 14, 2017). Wikipedia, "Deliver Us (The Prince of Egypt)" (accessed July 14, 2017). This week's lateral thinking puzzle was inspired by an item in Dan Lewis' Now I Know enewsletter. (Warning: This link spoils the puzzle.) You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

In 1971 high school student Juliane Koepcke fell two miles into the Peruvian rain forest when her airliner broke up in a thunderstorm. Miraculously, she survived the fall, but her ordeal was just beginning. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe Juliane's arduous trek through the jungle in search of civilization and help. We'll also consider whether goats are unlucky and puzzle over the shape of doorknobs. Intro: Before writing about time machines, H.G. Wells calculated that he'd earned a single pound in his writing endeavors. In 1868, as an engineering trainee, Robert Louis Stevenson explored the foundation of a breakwater at Wick. Sources for our feature on Juliane Koepcke: Juliane Diller, When I Fell From the Sky, 2011. "She Lived and 91 Others Died," Life 72:3 (Jan. 28, 1972), 38. "Jungle Trek: Survivor of Crash Tells of Struggle," Los Angeles Times, Jan. 6, 1972, A11. "Didn't Want to Steal: Survivor of Crash Passed Up Canoe," Los Angeles Times, Jan. 9, 1972, A7. Jennings Parrott, "The Newsmakers: It's Back to School for Peru Survivor," Los Angeles Times, March 20, 1972, A2. Werner Herzog, Wings of Hope, 2000. Dan Koeppel, "Taking a Fall," Popular Mechanics, February 2010. Jason Daley, "I Will Survive," Outside 29:9 (Sept. 1, 2004), 64. Stephan Wilkinson, "Amazing But True Stories," Aviation History, May 2014. Tom Littlewood, "The Woman Who Fell to Earth," Vice, Sept. 2, 2010. "Juliane Koepcke: How I Survived a Plane Crash," BBC News, March 24, 2012. Frederik Pleitgen, "Survivor Still Haunted by 1971 Air Crash," CNN, July 2, 2009. Sally Williams, "Sole Survivor: The Woman Who Fell to Earth," Telegraph, March 22, 2012. Katherine MacDonald, "Survival Stories: The Girl Who Fell From the Sky," Reader's Digest (accessed July 2, 2017). Listener mail: "America's First Serial Killer - H.H. Holmes," geocaching.com (accessed July 7, 2017). Colin Ainsworth, "Mystery in Yeadon: Who Is Buried in Serial Killer's Grave?" Delaware County [Pa.] Daily Times, May 21, 2017. Robert McCoppin and Tony Briscoe, "Is 'Devil in White City' Buried in Tomb? Remains to Be Unearthed to Find Out," Chicago Tribune, May 4, 2017. ShaoLan Hsueh, "The Chinese Zodiac, Explained," TED2016, February 2016. Wikipedia, "Erdős–Bacon Number" (accessed July 7, 2017). Erdos, Bacon, Sabbath. Natalie Portman (Erdős-Bacon number 7) co-authored this paper under her birth name, Natalie Hershlag: Abigail A.Baird, Jerome Kagan, Thomas Gaudette, Kathryn A. Walz, Natalie Hershlag, and David A.Boas, "Frontal Lobe Activation During Object Permanence: Data From Near-Infrared Spectroscopy," NeuroImage 16:4 (August 2002), 1120–1126. Colin Firth (Erdős-Bacon number 7) was credited as a co-author of this paper after suggesting on a radio program that such a study could be done: Ryota Kanai, Tom Feilden, Colin Firth, and Geraint Rees, "Political Orientations Are Correlated With Brain Structure in Young Adults," Current Biology 21:8 (April 2011), 677–680. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Alon Shaham, who sent this corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website or browse our online store for Futility Closet merchandise. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for …