Pringles were built to fix broken chips and were later ruled not to be crisps

pop & funWikipedia1956 · USA

Pringles were built to fix broken chips and were later ruled not to be crisps

the gist

Pringles were designed to solve a packaging problem. In 1956 Procter & Gamble asked the chemist Fredric Baur to make a potato chip that would not break, go greasy or go stale in an air-filled bag. He made saddle-shaped chips from fried dough and chose a tube as their container, but could not make them taste good. In the mid-1960s another P&G researcher, Alexander Liepa, improved the taste, and the product reached Indiana in 1968. Because the chips were made from potato dough rather than sliced potatoes, rivals objected that they were not real chips, and US regulators required the word chip to be qualified. In 2008 a London court accepted P&G's argument that Pringles were not crisps for British tax purposes, though the Court of Appeal reversed that in 2009.

how it works

Pringles are made from a potato-based dough rather than slices of whole potato, so each piece can be formed into the same shape. Stacking them in a tube protects them from breakage, and the sealed can keeps air out.

so what

Pringles show how a packaging problem can create an entirely new snack category, and how a food's shape and recipe can end up in a courtroom over tax and naming. Their shape is also a textbook example of a surface curving in two directions at once.

fun fact

The saddle shape of a Pringles chip is mathematically known as a hyperbolic paraboloid.

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 ↗