Fall into the rabbit hole

Have you ever googled the end of World War II and ten minutes later you are reading a Wikipedia page on medieval torture techniques? Here at Cohesive we always end up having a debate of some sort and it is often resolved with a Google search. Some of us then fall into the rabbit hole of clicking between hyperlinks on Wikipedia and expanding our knowledge on the Hall–Héroult process (that’s smelting of aluminium by the way). So in this Grey Issue we present you with our very own Rabbit Hole…

Start here > Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

According to ‘The Annotated Alice’, many of the characters in Alice in Wonderland are inspired by real people, including Alice herself (Alice Liddell), The Mock Turtle (John Ruskin) and Bill the Lizard a play on the name Benjamin Disraeli, also known as Dizzy, the only Prime Minister of the United Kingdom so far to have been of Jewish heritage. He held office from 1874 – 1881, playing a central role in the formation of the modern conservative party. During his tenure, he negotiated the purchase of France’s shares in the Suez Canal Company for Great Britain.

In 1858, the Suez Canal Company was formed by Ferdinand de Lesseps, a French diplomat who built arguably the greatest trade route in the world, shortening the distance for ships navigating past Africa by 4,500 miles. Ferdinand also had a pivotal role in the presentation of the Statue of Liberty from France to his American counterparts.

For its trans-Atlantic voyage aboard the frigate Isère, the Statue was reduced to 350 individual pieces and packed in 214 crates. The ship arrived in New York Harbor on June 17, 1885. While awaiting construction of its pedestal, the Statue remained in pieces on what was then called Bedloe’s Island. The pedestal was completed in April 1886 and finally, on October 28, 1886, President Grover Cleveland oversaw the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in front of thousands of spectators.

The Statue of Liberty, a symbol of freedom, inspiration and hope, has featured in many films. She’s been seen in Cloverfield, Splash and an American Tale amongst others. And ​​whether it’s tidal waves, alien death rays, nuclear folly, or rampaging monsters, sci-fi films have been punishing the Statue of Liberty for decades.

Frantic (1988) by Roman Polanski is another credit for Lady Liberty, starting alongside Harrison Ford. Primarily famed for his prolific film career, Ford is also a licensed pilot and collects vintage aircraft. In 2013 he made a list of 50 heroes of aviation.

Almost certainly not on Ford’s list of aviation heroes is Morgan the Moon – dreamer, inventor, and Welsh legend. History will insist that America won the race to the Moon. In fact, they were the first nation to land a human and return them safely to Earth. For ‘Moc’, who made his valiant effort as the age of steam was drawing to a close, it was unfortunately a one way trip. The Ballad of Morgan the Moon builds a powerful case – albeit anecdotal – for recognising Wales as the world’s first spacefaring superpower. Unfortunately Moc made his landing ‘…like linen’ on the dark side of the moon, robbing sceptical observers of hard visual evidence. The decline in the world-beating Welsh space program mirrors that of the Welsh coal industry whose technology – and in fact property – Moc ingeniously ‘repurposed’ for the mission. 

When we talk about the dark side of the moon, we can choose whether to dive into astronomical science, grammar or music history. For the purposes of my own sanity, we will have to take a look at what the dark side of the moon actually is and if it is actually dark. There is a side of the moon that we never see from Earth – however, it is not darker than any other parts of the moon. The moon is tidally locked to the Earth, so we always see the same part of it. The other side, however, gets plenty of sunlight – in its orbit of about 29.5 days, all sides of the moon are bathed in sunlight at some point. Meaning that the moon completes one full rotation on its axis in the time it takes to orbit the Earth. Just as with Earth, half of the moon is in the dark at any given time but that darkness moves. Yet… it is still a bit crazy that we will see only one side of a coin forever… There is no flipping of the moon, thank you gravitation for that! 

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Just to know – we can go on for a while like this. We invite you engage your own curiosity, and to join us in our rabbit hole journey – just pick a word you like, or one you want to know more about, and post your discoveries in the comments below.