Even people who know history well often have a hard time comparing the timelines of disparate subjects. Which came first, Vermeer's paintings or the invention of the Burr truss? Amelia Earhart's date of birth or the development of the atomic clock? The movie It Happened One Night or the opening of Mt. Rushmore? That's the challenge in the Google Arts & Culture game called What Came First?
The matchups seem to be random, and sometimes they are pretty close. They can be confounding, like when one was Fleming's discovery of penicillin, which I very much know, with a painting by someone I'd never heard of. I've played it over and over, and I can't seem to break 500 points. But when one of the comparison items comes up again in a subsequent game, it will give you a bit of a leg up -but only if you are paying attention. Oh yeah, each matchup is timed, so you can't look them up. -via Kottke
We're still trying in the office here!