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The Telegraph has reprinted the unseen final letter than Captain Robert Falcon Scott [wiki] wrote to his wife from his ill-fated journey to the South Pole in 1912:
"To my widow,
Dearest Darling – we are in a very tight corner and I have doubts of pulling through – In our short lunch hours I take advantage of a very small measure of warmth to write letters preparatory to a possible end – the first is naturally to you on whom my thought mostly dwell waking or sleeping – if anything happens to me I shall like you to know how much you have meant to me and that pleasant recollections are with me as I depart.
Read the rest of the letter: Link
Someone doodled over Sir Wilfrid Laurier [wiki] on a 1986 $5 Canadian banknote, and made Spock instead! Found at Kontraband
From Historic Photo Archive has a fantastic collection of vintage photos of Americana. This one above is from their collection of train photos, specifically a train that pushed through the Portland Flood of 1948 – the train looked like it was floating on water!
For her art exhibit, Dulce Pinzón portrayed Mexican immigrants as "the real superheroes":
The Mexican immigrant worker in New York is a perfect example of the hero who has gone unnoticed. It is common for a Mexican worker in New York to work extraordinary hours in extreme conditions for very low wages which are saved at great cost and sacrifice and sent to families and communities in Mexico who rely on them to survive. …
This project will consist of 12 color photographs of Mexican immigrants dressed in the costumes of popular American and Mexican superheroes. Each photo will picture the worker/superhero in their work environment, and will be accompanied by a short text including the worker’s name, their hometown in Mexico, the number of years they have been working in New York, and the amount of money they send to Mexico each week.
Elevated Landscape Technologies has built some awesome living walls. Here’s their portfolio: Link
See also: Living Wall at the University of Guelph-Humber
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Scientists identified an amazing concentration of species in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania and Kenya, with unusual characteristics:
“The wild areas of the Eastern Arc Mountains are pockets of Eden–the last remaining safe havens for over 1000 plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth and some with ancient lineages stretching back in time over millions of years,” said Dr. Neil Burgess, lead author of the two studies and Eastern Arc expert, World Wildlife Fund and University of Cambridge. “Side by side, these species and their human neighbors struggle for survival as more and more people need more and more farmland for food. …”
The studies point out another unusual characteristic of the species in the Eastern Arc Mountains: a number of them are genetically ancient. DNA analysis of forest birds indicates that some species have lineages stretching back 25 million years and some are most strongly related to birds in Southeast Asia than birds in Africa. Some plants and animals–like tiny little shrews with elephant-like trunks known as elephant shrews and nocturnal primates with large eyes known as bushbabies–are thought to have evolved early in the species lineage, known as "primitive" or "ancient relic lineages."
This week’s What is It? game, in collaboration with the What is It? Blog, is this strange looking device (approximately 3" long). More photos (and clues) can be found at What is It?
Guess what it is and win a free Neatorama T-shirt! Game rules are simple: place your guess on the comment section but post no URL links (let others play, please). First one to guess right gets the prize!
Update 2/2/07: Robb of What is It? Blog gave us this answer:
According to the person who sold this to its current owners, it’s a railroad communication device. If men were working on the tracks and needed to know when a train was coming, someone would walk a mile or two up toward where the train would come from. A .22 caliber blank was put in the small hole in this item, then when the train was spotted, he would suspend it over one of the rails and drop it, firing the blank and alerting the workers of the coming train.
I haven’t been able to confirm this explanation, and I’m thinking that it’s only partly true. I believe that it’s a noise making device that uses a .22 caliber blank, but I have doubts about whether it was really used by rail workers.
Doesn’t seem like anyone won this round!
Think you’ve got the worst job ever? You’ve got nothing on this: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – via Miss Cellania. (warning: strong language near the end).
As if durian [wiki] (the stinkiest fruit on earth) isn’t an odd enough on its own, a fruit stall owner in Seremban, Malaysia, found this little durian growing inside of a durian! Link – via Random Citations
From Lateral Science:
Belgian mining engineers at Shinkolobwe unearthed this seven ton lump of rich uranium ore in 1922. It contained enough fissile material to construct two Hiroshima type atomic weapons.
The man’s got some balls (though soon afterwards, they probably fell off!) Link – via Scribal Terror
Shi Yulan from Shanghai is now the youngest TV chef in China (and probably the world). She’s only nine years old!
Shi has been working in the kitchen at home for almost as long as she has been able to walk.
She said: "At two-years-old, I already helped my mom by washing bowls in the kitchen and I started to cook for the family for fun from the age of six."
Shi hosts a cooking show for a local TV station and in her spare time she is writing a book recalling her cooking experiences and many of her cooking recipes.
And she’s writing a recipe book too! Link – via Spluch
Found at Say No to Crack.
Here’s something for Doctor Who fans: the Tardis 4-way USB Hub.
The Doctor Who Tardis USB Hub boasts four ports in which to plug your various gizmos. Simply plug in and you’re away. But here’s the good bit: every time you connect or disconnect a device, the blue light on the top of the Tardis flashes and that unmistakable de-materialisation ‘vworp, vworp’ sound starts sawing away at your lugholes. Thankfully it doesn’t actually vanish into the time vortex, so you can enjoy the classic grating din again and again by plugging in more devices or pressing the demo button.
Link – via Random Good Stuff and Gizmodo
A chicken in Colombia was born with feet of a duck!
The odd-looking bird isn’t the result of a duck sneaking into the hen house. Veterinary experts said it’s impossible for the two species to breed.
Instead, experts said the bird is simply a genetic mutation.
Link – via A Welsh View
In his 1993 movie City Hunter (directed by Wong Jing), there is a scene where Jackie Chan fights à la Street Fighter! Check out the hilarious fight scene: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – via Eduyayo.
