No one, outside of high school, uses The Scientific Method. It is a good start, but Statistical Design of Experiments and Null Hypothesis are far more powerful and less error prone.
Supply chain security. Not unusual. Had a friend doing felony time. Back then, lots of prison stuff was equally weird. Likely it has gotten much more different. (BTW, heat the plastic slowly until it get brittle. Recover the blade by immediately gluing it to a pencil with anything sticky. Wrap it tight with thread.)
http://www.clickspringprojects.com/ The owner of this site tried to recreate the mechanism with period tools. In that process, he discovered new insight so profound, he authored scholarly papers.
This has so much to unpack! Rattlesnake should have run, but that is not in its nature. Bobcat can slap a rattlesnake mid-strike. Bobcat acts like snake is made of catnip. Rattlesnake tires out after too many strikes. Wonder if snake shot venom onto the ground when bobcat stopped it mid-strike. Bobcat might be rolling in that.
It did not belong to any king. It implies that the wool was dyed before spinning (dyed-in-the-wool) and this appears to be a less than perfect cast-off. That, and it being discovered in an area dedicated to slaves.
I am put off by the tone of the drop quote. Calling a wild animal that makes its home on White House property a pet is a stretch. But, after all, it is Slate.
The owner of this site tried to recreate the mechanism with period tools. In that process, he discovered new insight so profound, he authored scholarly papers.
Check out Tim Faust or Avi Kaplan.