The Simpsons began as a few animated shorts that Matt Groening improvised in a lobby waiting for a pitch meeting

pop & funWikipedia1987 · United States

The Simpsons began as a few animated shorts that Matt Groening improvised in a lobby waiting for a pitch meeting

the gist

The Simpsons started as short animated sketches on The Tracey Ullman Show, which producer James L. Brooks wanted between commercial breaks. Matt Groening had planned to animate his comic strip Life in Hell, but he realised that would mean giving up the rights to his life's work. So he sketched a dysfunctional family in the lobby while waiting for the meeting. The first shorts aired on April 19, 1987. The animators traced his rough drawings, which is why the characters looked crude, and the colourist made them yellow because the children have no hairlines.

so what

The show became the longest-running American animated series and set the template for adult animation. Its origin shows how a small decision about rights and a rushed sketch can shape a cultural institution for decades.

fun fact

Tracey Ullman sued Fox in 1992, claiming her show was the source of The Simpsons' success, but the courts rejected the claim.

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗