Friday, April 18, 2014
Ancient shrimp-like animals had ‘modern’ hearts and blood vessels
An international team of researchers from the University of Arizona, […]
Mouth Vision
The Mexican blind cavefish does not have eyes, but it can see
obstacles by puckering its mouth and producing bursts of suction.
Sea Angels
8 Parasites that Create Zombie Animals
by Miss Celania
Five years ago, I wrote The Invasion of the Zombie Animals and 7 More Zombie Animals.
Those two lists covered the best-known cases of parasitic creatures
that take over the minds and bodies of other animals for their own
selfish ends. But there are many more such parasites that do exactly the
same thing. They give us nightmares and feature films, but life is even
worse for their victims. Here are eight more cases of mind control between species in a new article I wrote for mental_floss.
16 Fun Facts About Hedgehogs
Coming Tomorrow
Coming Tomorrow
- Harvard discovers 3 of it's books are bound in human flesh
- The Cheerleader who sued
- Spend the night in the world's deepest hotel room
- The Rossendale Fairies
Thursday, April 17, 2014
The Daily Drift
True that ...!
Carolina Naturally is read in 197 countries around the world daily.
Gimme Five, Dude ... !
Today is - High Five Day
Some of our reader today have been in:
The Americas
Talca, Chile
Caracas, Venezuela
Toronto,
Britannia, Pikangikum, Sioux Lookout, Lansing, Montreal,
Trois-Rivieres, Thunder Bay, Moncton, Mississauga, Vancouver, Ottawa,
Canada
Joao Pressoa, Porto Alegre, Presidente Prudente, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Mar Del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Opelika, Repressa, Omaha, Helena, Ocala, Chelsea, Swansea, United States
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Managua, Nicaragua
Europe
Lubny, Ukraine
Bilbao, Madrid, Spain
Bucharest, Romania
Riga, Latvia
Myre, Oslo, Norway
Vienna, Austria
Magenta, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
Covilha, Portugal
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Newport, Wales
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Athens, Greece
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Zagreb, Croatia
Kiev, Ukraine
Manchester, England
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Geneva, Switzerland
Dublin, Ireland
Kista, Sweden
Espoo, Finland
Asia
La Dagotiere, Mauritius
Noida, Thiruvananthpuram, Kolkata, Jodhpur, Vijayawada, New Delhi, Bhubaneshwar, India
Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Doha, Qatar
Karbala, Baghdad, Iraq
Guangzhou, China
Tehran, Iran
Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Jakarta, Cibodas, Indonesia
Colombo, Puttalam, Sri Lanka
Klang, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Bayan Lepas, Malaysia
Africa
Al Jizah, Egypt
Osogbo, Nigeria
Johannesburg, South Africa
The Pacific
Sydney, Australia
Cebu City, Philippines
Today in History
| 858 | Benedict III ends his reign as Catholic Pope. | |
| 1492 | Christopher Columbus signs a contract with Spain to find a western route to the Indies. | |
| 1521 | Martin Luther is excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. | |
| 1524 | Present-day New York Harbor is discovered by Giovanni Verrazano. | |
| 1535 | Antonio Mendoza is appointed first viceroy of New Spain. | |
| 1758 | Frances Williams, the first African-American to graduate for a college in the western hemisphere, publishes a collection of Latin poems. | |
| 1808 | Bayonne Decree by Napoleon I of France orders seizure of U.S. ships. | |
| 1824 | Russia abandons all North American claims south of 54' 40'. | |
| 1861 | Virginia become eighth state to secede from the Union. | |
| 1864 | General Grant bans the trading of prisoners. | |
| 1865 | Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination. | |
| 1875 | The game "snooker" is invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain. | |
| 1895 | China and Japan sign peace treaty of Shimonoseki. | |
| 1929 | Baseball player Babe Ruth and Claire Hodgeson, a former member of the Ziegfield Follies, get married. | |
| 1946 | The last French troops leave Syria. | |
| 1947 | Jackie Robinson bunts for his first major league hit. | |
| 1961 | Some 1,400 Cuban exiles attack the Bay of Pigs in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. | |
| 1964 | Jerrie Mock becomes first woman to fly solo around the world. | |
| 1969 | Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Senator Robert F. Kennedy. | |
| 1970 | Apollo 13–originaly scheduled to land on the moon–lands back safely on Earth after an accident. | |
| 1975 | Khmer Rouge forces capture the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. | |
| 1983 | In Warsaw, police rout 1,000 Solidarity supporters. |
Curly of the Three Stooges
The Funniest Guy in the World
by Eddie DeezenYoung Jerry was a mediocre student and was fairly quiet and unobtrusive. He played and excelled on the school basketball team. While his older brothers, Shemp and Moe, were playing Vaudeville houses and cutting their teeth as comedians, Jerry graduated from public school and sort of drifted around, trying to find himself.
By the mid-1920's, Jerry had managed to score a steady gig conducting the Orville Knapp Band. It was a comedy bit of shtick, where Jerry would conduct the band, and as he did, bits of his clothing would fall off, until at last he was left standing in a big diaper. At the age of 29, he replaced his older brother “Shemp", as the third stooge in the Three Stooges slapstick comedy act.
Shemp, Moe, and a frizzle-haired violinist named Larry Fine had made up a comic trio for several years, along with their leader at the time, a man named Ted Healy. But by 1932, Shemp decided he wanted to try making it on his own and left the act. Jerry was brought into the act and, according to Moe, for his first two weeks as a Stooge, all he did was run around barefoot on stage, carrying a bucket of water.
“If you want me, call me ‘Curly,’ he said, and his lifelong (soon world-famous) monicker was set. Being the youngest of five children in the Howard household, he was known lovingly as “Babe." Another version of the “Curly" derivation story has Ted Healy seeing Jerry with a shaved head and saying, “Don't you look girly.” Moe misheard him and thought he said “Curly' and the new nickname was soon adopted.
Although
not as wild and boisterous, Curly really was a lot like the character
he played in the Stooges' shorts- childlike, emotional and excitable. He
loved dogs, buying a new one in every new city he visited. Once, when
he and Moe were walking down the street, Curly's dog was hit by a car
and killed. Curly became hysterical. Moe, thinking fast, ran to his
house and gave Curly his dog. This settled Curly down and he was
alright.Curly and his older brother Moe always had a extremely close relationship. Curly had no financial sense at all, and Moe would help him with his finances and do his income taxes every year.
Curly lived his entire adult life in severe pain. At the age of 12, he had accidentally shot himself in the leg in a hunting accident. The bone did not set properly, and for the rest of his days, Curly had trouble with the leg. If you watch a Three Stooges movie and see Curly running, you will see a very noticeable limp.
This chronic pain he suffered had another bad effect: it caused Curly to drink. It is disputed whether or not Curly was a full-fledged alcoholic, but he did like his alcohol.
Curly had one other major weakness: he loved women. Any good-looking woman with a good approach would latch onto Curly and he was more than happy to spend his money on her. Curly was actually married four times. His first marriage was annulled and he got two divorces. He finally found happiness with his fourth and final wife, Valerie, but more on that later.
Curly's comic character became fully fleshed out and nothing quite like him has ever been seen on the movie screen- before or since. Curly was a surreal kind of man-child. To everyone's happy surprise, it was quickly discovered that Curly was a master of invention and was a virtuoso at slapstick comedy. He had a zest and enthusiasm for life and all of it's adventures. He was Moe's most frequent target for a slap, a poke in the eyes, or a pie in the face.
Curly's
trademark excited yelps of 'woob woob woob,” his dog barks, his
compliant “Soitenlys,” and his brisk face washes (where he is excited
and smooths his hands up and down over his face, briskly, over and over)
were loved- and happily expected- by his legions of fans.
Curly was what Moe called a "slow study,” meaning he simply couldn't remember lines very well. One day, Moe watched as Curly forgot his line in a scene. As Moe recalled, "his eyes rolled back, he fell on the floor and started spinning around like a top." And thus, the “Curly spin" was born.
Jules White, the director of dozens of Three Stooges shorts, was a stickler for detail and did not like any ad-libbing in the films he directed. But, recognizing the genius of Curly, White would direct him by saying, “Look, you do whatever you want. I know you'll be great.”
Curly was what Moe called a "slow study,” meaning he simply couldn't remember lines very well. One day, Moe watched as Curly forgot his line in a scene. As Moe recalled, "his eyes rolled back, he fell on the floor and started spinning around like a top." And thus, the “Curly spin" was born.
Jules White, the director of dozens of Three Stooges shorts, was a stickler for detail and did not like any ad-libbing in the films he directed. But, recognizing the genius of Curly, White would direct him by saying, “Look, you do whatever you want. I know you'll be great.”
Curly loved to go out dancing and drinking and most of all, he loved smoking cigars. He definitely did not take care of himself, and like a child, was always just looking for the next good time. In the mid-1940s, he was admitted to the hospital with very high blood pressure and he had a series of strokes. As any Stooge fan well knows, it is sad to watch Curly's last few Stooges shorts, because he looks so anemic and wasted. His trademark high energy and vitality seems almost gone.
Curly
had trouble remembering any of his lines, and there are memories of
brother Moe, slowly and patiently, going over Curly's lines with him,
one by one, before an upcoming scene- as an adult might rehearse with a
child.Finally, on May 6, 1946, the final, sad moment occurred. As the Stooges were filming their 97th short together, Half Wit's Holiday, Moe went over to get Curly for his next scene. He found Curly slumped in a chair with his head on his chest. Curly had had a major stroke, and this one was the end of his career as the third Stooge.
Curly was rushed to the hospital, not knowing that his movie career was over. Curly's older brother, Shemp, replaced him in the act and in the films. Shemp, an undisputedly good comedian, just never could really replace the great Curly in the hearts of millions of Three Stooges fans. As movie critic Leonard Maltin so aptly put it: “Shemp just couldn't replace Curly's other-worldliness".
As Curly was now "retired" and without any income, brothers Moe and Shemp volunteered to give a percentage of their weekly pay to their kid brother. Larry Fine, although not related, immediately offered to give a portion of his salary to his old partner, too.
Curly
lived out his final days with his new wife, a woman named Valerie
Newman. Happily, Curly finally found that "great love" he had looked for
all of his life. Valerie deeply loved Curly (unlike his previous
three wives) and would nurse him in his chronic illness, 24 hours a
day. She would even bathe poor Curly as his body atrophied.
Curly's health grew worse and worse until finally he was committed to a sanitarium. Moe would often visit and remembers how on his final visit, Curly was so weak, he could only communicate by squeezing Moe's hand.
The reality of this incredibly vital, life-of-the-party, comedic genius dying in such a slow, cruel fashion is sadly ironic. Jules White was to remember visiting Curly in the hospital during his final days. As he and Curly were chatting and reminiscing, Curly looked up wistfully and said, “Gee Jules, I guess I'll never be able to make the children laugh again, will I?”
Curly Howard finally passed away on January 18, 1952. He was barely 48 years old.
Happily, Curly Howard is now recognized by countless comedy critics as one of the finest comedians in movie history, many ranking him along with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and the Marx Brothers. The Three Stooges are beloved around the globe by their devoted fans and Curly Howard is the indisputable most popular Stooge of all-time.
A woman who lives in the past ...
... the 1930s, to be exact
by Ilyce R. Glink
In a small apartment in the modern center of Amsterdam, Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse parties like it’s 1938.
The owner of a historical consultancy company,
Teeuwisse, 41, lives her work, forgoing most modern belongings and
conveniences of the 21st century in favor of a life straight out of the
1930s.
“The only modern thing I have in my house is my computer; I need it
for my work,” she said. “I also have a modern fridge, but only because I
haven’t found a nice 1930s one yet and they no longer deliver ice for
ice boxes.”Teeuwisse’s obsession with the era began when she was a little girl growing up in the 1970s. She was surrounded by the decade’s aesthetic and thought, even then, that the style was, well, ugly. To find something more pleasing to her eye, she began collecting old things, first from the 1950s, then earlier as she explored history.
Building dates back to 1918
Her favorite year, specifically,
is 1938, because in addition to being a great example of the time she
loves – the “golden age” of architecture, design, fashion and movies –
it was also before the start of World War II and Nazi Germany’s invasion
of the Netherlands.
In her apartment on the second
floor of a building constructed in 1918, Teeuwisse lives with all the
“modern” amenities of a 1930s woman. She describes her space as “a
typical working-class house with a front room, back room, bedroom, ‘wet
room’ (bathroom) and kitchen.”
The cozy apartment is filled with Dutch furniture from the 1920s and 30s, with a fireplace and radio and no television.“Making sure that everything is at least pre-1945 gives the home automatically the right atmosphere, and of course I’ve done a lot of research to see how I can recreate some of the details correctly,” Teeuwisse said.
Those details are what really
give the apartment its old-world charm – small things such as
matchboxes, magazines, an old sewing kit, antique magazines, family
photos and ashtrays all add to the authentic ambience.
Cleaning, 1930s-style
Even the way Teeuwisse keeps house is old-fashioned.
She runs a 1920s vacuum cleaner
over the rugs, and washes the floors with vinegar, scrubbing on her
hands and knees. She does all her laundry by hand using a washboard, a
block of soap, bleach and a brush – “the smell is lovely,” she said.
“I just started doing it as an
experiment to see what it was like, to learn about the past, and then I
realized that I liked doing it that way and saved lots of money, that it
was better for the environment, and that I didn’t have to put a big
ugly white metal or plastic noisy box in my house,” Teeuwisse said,
referring to modern appliances like washers and dryers.
Teeuwisse spends many of her
mornings getting to know neighbors, going to a flea market in her
neighborhood with her dogs and chatting about “the good old days” with
seniors.
But because she has a company to
run, she also spends part of her day with her laptop, doing research,
“so that part is not very 1930s,” she said. However, she does use a
Bakelite phone, introduced in 1931, instead of a cell phone to conduct
business.
And when the workday is done, she
spends her evenings listening to old music, reading magazines or books,
or playing board games with friends.
“And of course sometimes I have to darn stockings,” she said.
Despite all this, Teeuwisse said she’s not particularly nostalgic. After all, she didn’t live through the era she mimics.
“I combine the best of the past
with the best of the present to create a new tomorrow,” she said. “I
don’t hide from reality. I do not pretend it is the 1930s. I do not
ignore what goes on in the modern world. In the end, it is just a
lifestyle.”
And to see many more photos of Teeuwisse's lifestyle, go to her Flickr page.
Return to Sender ...
101-Year-Old Message in a Bottle Finally Arrives
by Jaime Lutz
A
message in a bottle that was thrown into the ocean in 1913 and recently
found by a fisherman off the coast of Germany was returned to the
sender's granddaughter.
"It was very surprising," said Angela Erdmann, 62, to The Guardian.
"A man stood in front of my door and told me he had post from my
grandfather. He then told me that a message in a bottle was found and
that the name that was on the card was that of my grandfather."The message, found last month by fisherman Konrad Fischer, is largely indecipherable. However, the name and address of the sender - Richard Platz - is still legible, as is his request that the message be forwarded back to him.
Platz wrote the postcard, thought to be the oldest message in a bottle in the world, when he was just 20 years old.
Erdmann never knew Platz, who at age 54. But she had heard plenty of stories about the man from her mother, his daughter.
"I knew very little about my grandfather, but I found out that he was a writer who was very open minded, believed in freedom and that everyone should respect each other," she said. "He did a lot for the young and later traveled with his wife and two daughters. It was wonderful because I could see where my roots came from."
The postcard will be on display in a German museum.
Early Polaroid SX-70 photos from LIFE
In 1972, Polaroid introduced its iconic SX-70 camera. It was an
evolutionary leap from the groundbreaking "Land Camera" invented in 1947
by Polaroid co-founder Edwin H. Land (image right). LIFE has posted a gorgeous gallery of SX-70 photos
from a time when instant photography was still in the realm of magic.
The shots were taken by LIFE photographer Co Rentmeester who had a
chance to put the SX-70 through its paces before it was available for
purchase. #nofilter
The Untold Story Of The First Woman To Fly Around The World
Jerrie Mock was 38 years at the time and she accomplished what Amelia Earhart is famous for having failed to do. But in the decades since, as Mock's life began to unravel, history all but forgot the pilot who made it.
6 People Who Were Literally Erased From History
Jang Song-thaek disappears in the photo on the right
But it wouldn't be the first time a political leader has attempted to wipe a person clean out of history — here are five other people who were erased from existence:
Nikolai Yezhov, Joseph Stalin's head of secret police
Stalin (center) with Nikolai Yezhov to his left.
After Yezhov's execution, he was airbrushed out of the photo.
After Yezhov's execution, he was airbrushed out of the photo.
Yezhov, a loyal Stalinist, was head of the secret police during Stalin's Great Purge, overseeing mass arrests and executions of those deemed disloyal to the Soviet regime before ironically being arrested, tortured, tried, and executed himself for disloyalty.
Stalin was known for eliminating all traces of those who fell out of his good side, or whom he no longer had use for, Yezhov included.
Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister
Goebbels
(second from right) appears with Adolf Hitler and others at the home of
film maker Leni Riefenstahl in 1937. In later images, he is missing.
Like Stalin, Hitler was known for "erasing" people who fell out of his favor, though it remains unknown what Goebbels did that led to his being deleted from this famous 1937 photo taken at the home of German film maker Leni Riefenstahl.
Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary
Formerly
close comrades, Trotsky appears in the image on the left at one of
Lenin's speeches; the same image, altered after the two split, shows
Trotsky deleted.
Lenin later denounced Trotsky as a "scoundrel" in 1917 (though Trotsky eventually rejoined the Bolsheviks), and after Lenin's death Trotsky was eliminated from photos by Stalin. Trotsky was eventually exiled from the Soviet Union completely.
Bo Gu, senior leader of the Chinese Communist Party
Bo Gu, far left, appears in the photo with Mao Zedong and comrades; in the later photo, he is missing.
However, as a result of some miscommunication on tactical military defense at the Zunyi Conference during the Long March, Bo Gu was criticized for "serious partial political mistakes" and replaced in command by Zhang Wentian in 1935.
The exact miscommunication differs in most historical accounts, but it could be what led to Bo Gu's fallout with Mao Zedong, and therefore could have been the reason for his elimination from this photo.
Grigoriy Nelyubov, Soviet cosmonaut
A founding member of the "Sochi Six," Nelyubov is eliminated in the later photograph.
A founding member of the top space team known as the Sochi Six, some say Nelyubov was the third or fourth person in space; others say he never made it into space before being expelled from the Soviet space program for alcohol-related misconduct. The incident led to his being deleted from program records.
Nelyubov was ultimately struck by a train and killed; his death was ruled a suicide.
'Gospel of Jesus's Wife' isn't a modern forgery
Analysis suggests that the controversial fragment is indeed ancient, but not everyone is convinced
A controversial document that suggests that Jesus of Nazareth had a wife is most likely ancient and not a modern forgery, according to a paper published in the Harvard Theological Review. The papyrus fragment, known as the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife," has been the subject of widespread debate since it was discovered in 2012 because it includes the phrase "Jesus said to them, 'My wife...'." It also mentions that "she will be able to be my disciple," which led some to question whether women should be allowed to become Catholic priests.
The Vatican has previously said
that the document is most likely a modern forgery, but scientists from
Columbia University, Harvard, and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology say their analysis strongly suggests that it is indeed part
of an ancient manuscript and that it wasn't edited or tampered with. The
researchers used micro-Raman and infrared spectroscopy to analyze the
composition of the ink, looking for clues as to whether it may have been
applied after the original document was damaged."It would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible."
"There is absolutely no evidence for that," Timothy Swager, an MIT chemistry professor who worked on the project, tells the New York Times.
"It would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible." The
researchers dated the fragment to between the sixth and ninth century
AD, noting that it bears a strong resemblance to other texts from that
era.
Lead researcher Karen King
acknowledges that her findings don't prove that Jesus had a wife, though
she believes it does indicate that early christians were discussing
issues related to sex and marriage. In her view, the document proves
that "women who are mothers and wives can be disciples of Jesus," though
not everyone is convinced of its authenticity.
The Harvard Theological Review is also publishing a rebuttal
to King's findings today, authored by Brown University professor Leo
Depuydt. Depuydt maintains that there was never any need to conduct
tests on the fragment, because it includes "gross grammatical errors"
and its text matches writings from another early christian text
discovered in 1945. According to him, the document is so blatantly fake
that it "seems ripe for a Monty Python sketch." Depuydt also dismissed
King's claims that the fragment's ink doesn't match the carbon inks used
today, telling the New York Times: "An undergraduate student with one semester of Coptic can make a reed pen and start drawing lines."
The 1900 Paris World's Fair In Color Photos
The Exposition Universelle of 1900 was a world's fair held in Paris,
France, from April to November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of
the past century and to accelerate development into the next. The style
that was universally present in the Exposition was Art Nouveau.The Paris World's Fair, visited by nearly 50 million people, displayed many machines, inventions, and architecture that are now nearly universally known, including the Grande Roue de Paris Ferris wheel, Russian nesting dolls, diesel engines, talking films, escalators, and the telegraphone.
Patent Medicine
Patent medicine and 'cures' were prevalent in the lat 19th and early 20th centuries (they have been around since before the 'beginning' of history and at times just as prevalent or more so).
They were by and large very detrimental to one's health, but that didn't stop them from being 'best sellers'.
The Beautiful Butterfly Orchid
Look once, look again. This is not a butterfly taking a rest on a piece
of shrubbery. It is Psychopsis papilio - better known as the butterfly orchid.It has petals of an incredible length which look like antennae and its speckled brown and yellow sepals look like outspread wings. Little wonder that this amazing orchid reputedly started the orchidmania of the 1800s.
Rare 18th century red Jolly Roger pirate flag goes on public display for first time
It once sent a shiver down the timbers of sailors everywhere
but now this rare 18th century pirate flag has taken pride of place at
the National Museum of the Royal Navy.
A rare 18th Century red Jolly Roger pirate flag
It once sent a shiver down the timbers of sailors everywhere but now
this rare 18th century pirate flag has taken pride of place at the
National Museum of the Royal Navy.
The unusual red Jolly Roger flag was captured in a battle off the coast of North Africa in 1780 and has gone on public display for the first time in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
The red background was the most feared as it meant that the pirates would kill anyone they defeated, paying no heed to the usual rules of engagement.
The red flag was known as the ‘Jolie Rouge’, meaning ‘pretty red’, and it is thought the name may have been corrupted into English as Jolly Roger.
Curators at the museum believe the feared skull and crossbones symbol is an excellent example of those used at the time.
The skull and crossbones on a black flag was originally used to denote disease and quarantine, as the symbol stood for death.
Pirate flags, which became popular in the 1700s, later developed to include full skeletons, cutlasses and bleeding hearts.
The ensign belongs to Pamela Curry, who is descended from Lt Richard Curry, who captured the flag in the 18th century.
The flag was restored at the Winchester School of Arts Textile Conservation Centre in 2007 where it was found to have traces of gunpowder on it.
A new gallery, set to open in 2014, will reportedly show how the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary fought and continue to fight piracy.
The unusual red Jolly Roger flag was captured in a battle off the coast of North Africa in 1780 and has gone on public display for the first time in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
The red background was the most feared as it meant that the pirates would kill anyone they defeated, paying no heed to the usual rules of engagement.
The red flag was known as the ‘Jolie Rouge’, meaning ‘pretty red’, and it is thought the name may have been corrupted into English as Jolly Roger.
Curators at the museum believe the feared skull and crossbones symbol is an excellent example of those used at the time.
The skull and crossbones on a black flag was originally used to denote disease and quarantine, as the symbol stood for death.
Pirate flags, which became popular in the 1700s, later developed to include full skeletons, cutlasses and bleeding hearts.
The ensign belongs to Pamela Curry, who is descended from Lt Richard Curry, who captured the flag in the 18th century.
The flag was restored at the Winchester School of Arts Textile Conservation Centre in 2007 where it was found to have traces of gunpowder on it.
A new gallery, set to open in 2014, will reportedly show how the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary fought and continue to fight piracy.
The Strange Truth Behind Nine Baseball Traditions
We look back at the origins of baseball's long and rich history of oddball traditions.
Hitler May Have Married a Jew, DNA Study Suggests
Mysterious Nazi Rings
For more than 60 years these places, 170 kilometers to the North of Murmansk, were considered confidential. Nowadays a strict regime of access operates also.
These mysterious objects were built during World War II by the Germans. They are located near the village of Liinakhamari, in the Pechenga district, close to the Barents Sea. There are different stories about their purpose, one says that it is a platform for artillery guns, but they are aimed back from the Gulf, to where the Soviet warships could appear, another says that they are launching pads for the Wehrmacht’s unknown flying objects.
Cursed Things
The Woman from Lemb Statue
Originally
made around 3500 B.C.E. in Cyprus and then found in 1878 in Eastern
Europe, this statue has killed so many people its often referred to as
"The Goddess of Death." Supposedly, the first owner was a Lord Elphont,
whose seven-member family all died within six years of Elphont receiving
the statue. The Woman from Lemb was then acquired by Ivor Manucci, who
died along with his entire family within the next four years. Then it
went to a Lord Thompson-Noel. He and his family died. The statue
disappeared for a bit, but its next confirmed owner was Sir Alan
Biverbrook, who wife and two daughters shortly croaked. With two sons
left, Biverbrook wisely donated the damn thing to the Royal Scottish
Museum.
Ancient Eskimo Artifacts Reveal Animal Connection
Artifacts from an early Eskimo winter village reveal how intertwined human and animal lives were at the site.
Climate Change and the Mongol Empire
Ancient Egyptian Coffin Unearthed in Israel
A 3,300-year-old cylindrical clay coffin complete with the
skeleton of a man buried with a gold scarab seal of Pharaoh Seti I, has
been unearthed in Israel.
Ancient Egyptian Mummy Found With Brain, No Heart
An ancient Egyptian mummy found with an intact brain, but no
heart, has a plaque on her abdomen that may have been intended to
ritually heal her.
Egyptian Coffin Holds Bronze Age Artifacts
Israeli archeologists have unearthed an ancient Egyptian
coffin complete with the skeleton of a man and several burial offerings.
Risque Women 1937
In 1937 two women caused a car accident by wearing shorts in public for the first time
Fashions of the Future as Imagined in 1893
Illustrations from a delightful piece called the “Future Dictates of Fashion” by W. Cade Gall and published in the January 1893 issue of The Strand magazine. On the premise that a book from a hundred years in the future (published in 1993) called The Past Dictates of Fashion has been inexplicably found in a library, the article proceeds to divulge this book’s contents – namely, a look back at the last century of fashion, which, of course, for the reader in 1893, would be looking forward across the next hundred years into the future. In this imagined future, fashion has become a much respected science (studied in University from the 1950s onwards) and is seen to be “governed by immutable laws”.The “fashions” look like a Renaissance costume ball of some sort, celebrating form over function to a ridiculous degree. Of course, the aim was humorous, but we can imagine it’s funnier now than it was when it was published. See “fashions” from the 1900s through 1993 at The Public Domain Review.
***
What is so ironic about these 'fashions' is that they were about as tacky as one could get and the actual fashions of the 1970s were about as tacky as you could get - gads, how did we ever make it out of that decade?!
What the well-dressed woman wore 200 years ago
A Dutch chintz jacket from 1810-1820.
For those who are unclear about what chintz is, this from the Wikipedia entry:
Chintz (from the plural of chint) was originally glazed calico textiles, initially specifically those imported from India, printed with designs featuring flowers and other patterns in different colours, typically on a light plain background. Since the 19th century the term has also been used for the style of floral decoration developed in those calico textiles, but then used more widely, for example on pottery and wallpaper. Chintz designs are mostly European patterns loosely derived from the style of Indian designs themselves reflecting, via Mughal art, decorative traditions in Islamic art such as the arabesque...
These early fabrics were extremely expensive and rare. By 1680 more than a million pieces of chintz were being imported into England per year, and a similar quantity was going to France and the Dutch Republic....
In contemporary language the word "chintz" and "chintzy" can be used to refer to clothing or furnishings which are vulgar or florid in appearance....
Coming Tomorrow
Coming Tomorrow
- 10 surprising facts about animal intelligence
- Ferns are old
- Oarfish in Baja
- Do animals have a sense of humor
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
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Today in History
| 69 | Defeated by Vitellius' troops at Bedriacum, Otho commits suicide. | |
| 556 | Pelagius I begins his reign as Catholic Pope. | |
| 1065 | The Norman Robert Guiscard takes Bari, ending five centuries of Byzantine rule in southern Italy. | |
| 1705 | Queen Anne of England knights Isaac Newton. | |
| 1746 | Prince Charles is defeated at the battle of Culloden, the last pitched battle fought in Britain. | |
| 1818 | The U.S. Senate ratifies the Rush-Bagot amendment to form an unarmed U.S.-Canada border. | |
| 1854 | San Salvador is destroyed by an earthquake. | |
| 1862 | Confederate President Jefferson Davis approves a conscription act for white males between 18 and 35. | |
| 1862 | Slavery is abolished in the District of Columbia. | |
| 1917 | Vladimir Lenin returns to Russia to start Bolshevik Revolution. | |
| 1922 | Annie Oakley shoots 100 clay targets in a row, setting a woman's record. | |
| 1942 | The Island of Malta is awarded the George Cross in recognition for heroism under constant German air attack. It was the first such award given to any part of the British Commonwealth. | |
| 1944 | The destroyer USS Laffey survives horrific damage from attacks by 22 Japanese aircraft off Okinawa. | |
| 1945 | American troops enter Nuremberg, Germany. | |
| 1947 | A lens which provides zoom effects is demonstrated in New York City. | |
| 1968 | The Pentagon announces the "Vietnamization" of the war. | |
| 1972 | Two giants pandas arrive in the U.S. from China. | |
| 1977 | The ban on women attending West Point is lifted. |
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