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Photo: George Skadding/LIFE Archives
Ah, the life of a teenager. Long before the era of Facebook, texting, and clubbing, there's the hopping soda shop scene. LIFE photographer George Skadding documented the lives of Iowa high school teenagers in the late '40s. Gosh darn it! They're so wholesome!
From Teenagster:
... when I saw these LIFE Magazine photos of teen life in Des Moines, Iowa in 1947, I was pleasantly surprised to see cute sweater sets, co-ed mingling (in cars!), slumber parties and even spin the bottle. (Granted, Des Moines is “the city” in Iowa, so, there ya go.) I stand corrected! That soda shop is bumpin’.
by Mike Dubik, MD
Brian Wood, MD
For hundreds, if not thousands, of years it has been accepted as an axiom that inanimate objects, such as nails, are dead. This self-evident truth has been expressed in the phrase: “dead as a doornail.” Thus, someone who is unequivocally dead is said to be “dead as a doornail.”
Advanced life support technology now allows us to maintain the heart and lung’s functionality in patients who no longer have any brain function. This ability has created legal, moral and religious conundrums. Until a generation ago, these problems were solely the domain of a few ethicists who entertained them as theoretical exercises.
However, now most states have laws concerning brain death. The American Medical Association, the American Bar Association, the American Neurological Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics came together and formed a Special Task Force1,2,3,4 and have endorsed the following as a definition of death: Irreversible cessation of all function of the entire brain, including the brain stem.
If the definition of death as expressed by the AMA et al has validity, it should be possible to compare this recent criteria against the widely accepted and time-tested “doornail” standard. We did just that.
We subjected a large doornail (see Figure 1) that was forged in 1986 to thorough examination, prolonged close observation, and an electroencephalogram (EEG).
Our Findings
The doornail was repeatedly examined and closely observed over a 24 hour period.
1. The nail did not exhibit any vocalizations of volitional activity.
2. The nail evidenced no spontaneous eye movements; neither could respiratory movements be detected.
3. There was no evidence of postural activity (decerebrate or decorticate).
4. The nail made no spontaneous or induced movements whatsoever. Thus, the nail met the “physical examination” criteria of death.3.4
A well-executed and reliably read electroencephalogram is a useful adjunct in the diagnosis of brain death. We performed a 30-minute EEG to document electrocerebral silence (see Figure 2). As is of ten the case with small children, it was not possible to meet the standard requirement for 10 cm electrode separation. Instead, the inter-electrode distance was decreased proportionally to the size of the nail’s head. The EEG was isoelectric, i.e. flat. Further, there was no electrical response to rousing stimuli. When we subjected the doornail to rousing stimuli, there was no response.
We conclude that the criteria for death as described in modem medical literature 1,2,3.4 is valid and may be used with confidence by clinicians.
References
1. “Determination of brain death,” Ad Hoc Committee on Brain Death (The Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA), Journal of Pediatrics, vol. 110, January, 1987, pp. 15-19.
2. “Guidelines for the determination of death,” President’s Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research, Washington, DC, Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 246, 1981, p. 2184.
3. Report of a Special Task Force: Guidelines for the Determination of Brain Death in Children,” Pediatrics, 1987, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 298-300.
4. “Guidelines for the Determination of Brain Death in Children,” Task Force for the Determination of Brain Death in Children, Neurology, vol. 37, June, 1987, pp. 1077-8.
5. You should see the door it came from.
6. The patient was seven years old at the time of the study.
(Title image credit: Flickr user topher76)
__________________________
This article is republished with permission from the November-December 1995 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!
Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.
It's probably a bit too soon to welcome our new inorganic life overlords, but that doesn't mean that scientists in Scotland aren't trying hard! They're busy at work to create self-replicating, evolving cells made from inorganic chemicals:
LinkResearchers say the cells, which can also store electricity, could potentially be used in all sorts of applications in medicine, as sensors or to confine chemical reactions.
The research is part of a project by Prof Cronin to demonstrate that inorganic chemical compounds are capable of self-replicating and evolving - just as organic, biological carbon-based cells do.
Prof Cronin believes that creating inorganic life it is entirely feasible.
He added: "The grand aim is to construct complex chemical cells with life-like properties that could help us understand how life emerged and also to use this approach to define a new technology based upon evolution in the material world - a kind of inorganic living technology.
"Bacteria are essentially single-cell micro-organisms made from organic chemicals, so why can't we make micro-organisms from inorganic chemicals and allow them to evolve?
In The Fall is not about autumn. This animation is a slightly frightening look at how we spend our lives. And it may induce vertigo. -via The Sparrow
I love this gallery at Life.com that shows just-missed film roles. I think it’s fun to imagine movies as they might have been if casting had veered off on a slightly different course. Shirley Temple as Dorothy Gale? Laurence Olivier as Vito Corleone? O.J. Simpson as the Terminator? (Check out the gallery… James Cameron makes the joke that you’re thinking right now.) Film history could be so different.
Cool but kind of odd! Here are some ways that video games inspired real-life entertainment and other services. Or were these places created specifically to pull gamers away from the computer? Either way, you can visit them yourself!
"The story of gamers is the modern equivalent of the Ugly Duckling tale. Long ago they were an outcast bunch, looked down upon by most of society, until something changed and gaming became more available to the general public. Now everyone, from your postman to your grandparents, plays video games. The geek culture has truly taken over, and with it video games reached out into the world and influenced every area of normal life."
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by milos87.
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Sixty five years ago, on April 30, 1945, Hitler and his wife Eva Braun ended their lives in an underground bunker after Berlin fell.
Shortly afterwards, LIFE photographer William Vandivert was on scene to photograph the destroyed city and the bunker itself. These never-before-published images are now available from LIFE Photo Gallery WWII: Inside Hitler’s Bunker.
This one above is captioned:
With only candles to light their way, war correspondents examine a couch stained with blood (see dark patch on the arm of the sofa) located inside Hitler’s bunker. In his typed notes Vandivert wrote: "Pix of [correspondents] looking at sofa where Hitler and Eva shot themselves. Note bloodstains on arm of soaf [sic] where Eva bled. She was seated at far end …. Hitler sat in middle and fell forward, did not bleed on sofa. This is in Hitler’s sitting room." Remarkable stuff — but, it turns out, only about half right. Historians are now quite certain that Braun actually committed suicide by biting a cyanide capsule, rather than by gunshot — meaning that the blood stains on the couch are quite likely Hitler’s, and not Eva Braun’s, after all.
Link – Thanks Ben!
Previously on Neatorama: 17 Strange Facts About Hitler
Fifty five years ago, the world’s most brilliant scientist, Albert Einstein, died of heart failure. Today, the death of such eminent figure would’ve sparked a media circus – but back then, his funeral was a private affair. No one knew of the existence of any photos of Einstein funeral until today:
His funeral and cremation were intensely private affairs, and only one photographer managed to capture the events of that extraordinary day: LIFE magazine’s Ralph Morse. Armed with his camera and a case of scotch — to open doors and loosen tongues — Morse compiled a quietly intense record of an icon’s passing. But aside from one now-famous image (above), the pictures Morse took that day were never published. At the request of Einstein’s son, who asked that the family’s privacy be respected while they mourned, LIFE decided not to run the full story, and for 55 years Morse’s photographs lay unseen and forgotten.
Gallery: Link – Thanks Ben!
Previously on Neatorama: 10 Strange Facts About Albert Einstein
Photo: Nina Leen/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
If you haven’t seen it before, LIFE has a pretty nifty set of galleries to feature some of the most interesting photos from their vast archives. Sure there are photo galleries on such serious topics like World War II, notorious assassinations, and the Haiti Earthquake devastation, but this is Neatorama and I’m particularly drawn to one about dressing up squirrels:
Tommy Tucker was a squirrel adopted by a woman in Washington, DC, in the early 1940s after she found the critter orphaned in a tree. He soon became part of the family, as it were — accompanying the lady of the house on shopping trips, for instance. She also, it turned out, enjoyed dressing him up in specially made outfits. And so it begins …
Link: A Squirrel’s Guide to Fashion | LIFE Photo Gallery Archives
HIFI spectrum of the Orion Nebula, superimposed on a Spitzer image of Orion: ESA, HEXOS and the HIFI Consortium
This spectrograph of the Orion Nebula (biggified here) was made by the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared (HIFI), which is integrated into the Herschel Telescope, and measures molecular characteristics to identify them. Throughout the enormous span of the nebula, scientists have identified every chemical, compound and ingredient needed for life to cook.
Since this is an example of a stellar nursery, where new stars are born, it seems to me that these components of life are flourishing throughout the Universe. The debate about whether we are obligated to seed it with life can be put to rest. At the very least, the foundation for life to form is not specific to our neighborhood; and it’s entirely probable that life is out there, in many places. But for now, it’s an exciting look at what the Universe is made of.
A characteristic feature is the spectral richness: among the organic molecules identified in this spectrum are water, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, methanol, dimethyl ether, hydrogen cyanide, sulphur oxide, sulphur dioxide and their isotope analogues. It is expected that new molecules will also be identified. This spectrum is the first glimpse at the spectral richness of regions of star and planet formation. -Link
(via Wired Science)
In this Discovery video, which has hit the tubes recently, you’ll see what is called an oarfish. Normally fish that look like this don’t rise anywhere near the surface of the sea. They say in the video that this critter is 5 to 10 meters long. If that is true, then it may account for the old mariner tales of sea serpents that were like fish, but huge and sporting tendrils. Aside from the giant squid, oarfish fits the bill perfectly, especially if it’s :
A huge oarfish was caught on camera in the Gulf of Mexico, giving scientists a rare glimpse of the bizarre fish in its native deep sea habitat. Researcher Mark Benfield describes the fish, a likely inspiration for the sea serpent myth.
via It’s Animals!
Photo: NASA
Michael Mautner of Virginia Commonwealth University says that part of the human condition we enjoy is a responsibility to ensure life continues after our home, Earth, dies. It will happen, someday. And panspermia missions now will fulfill our moral obligation to see that life on other planets gets a fair chance, even if we won’t ever see the results.
As Mautner explains in his study published in an upcoming issue of theJournal of Cosmology, the strategy is to deposit an array of primitive organisms on potentially fertile planets and protoplanets throughout the universe… (he) has identified potential breeding grounds, which include extrasolar planets, accretion disks surrounding young stars that hold the gas and dust of future planets, and – at an even earlier stage – interstellar clouds that hold the materials to create stars.
To transport the microorganisms, Mautner proposes using sail-ships. These ships offer a low-cost transportation method with solar sails, which can achieve high velocities using the radiation pressure from light. The microorganisms could be bundled in tiny capsules, each containing about 100,000 microorganisms and weighing 0.1 micrograms.
The article addresses criticisms such as the possibility of interfering with any pre-existing extraterrestrial life.
First of all, Mautner explains that we can minimize these chances by targeting very primitive locations where life could not have evolved yet. In addition, he argues that, since extraterrestrial life is not currently known to exist, our first concern should be with preserving our family of organic gene/protein life that we know exists.
So what’s the consensus? Are we morally obligated to “keep the ball rolling” as far as life in the Universe goes?
In the movie Avatar, there is a plant that disappears into the ground the instant it’s touched. The good news for those afflicted with Pandora Depression it that we have a similar plant organism, right here on Earth! The Sea Pen (a soft coral) expels water from its body when touched, so as to avoid being eaten.
nudibranch photos from Raymond's Flickr
WebEcoist rocks with an informative piece on a species commonly confused with a sea slug, and yes the name is pronounced how you think it is-
Nudibranchs’ unusual name comes from their distinctive breathing method: “naked” branchial (breathing) tubes on their backs which resemble branches or bushes. However, not all nudibranchs sport this unusual-looking breathing apparatus. While nudibranchs are commonly referred to as “sea slugs,” which is technically a valid title, it should be noted that not all sea slugs are nudibranchs.
William Hoffman is a New York filmmaker who put this video together and uploaded it last August. It’s finally getting some viral activity, and rightfully so. It’s “a celebration of life that was inspired by David Eagleman’s book, Sum.”
I do enjoy a perfectly realized edit, and this one’s full of them. William’s website.
Researchers have taken another look at the famous Whitehall study of over 18,000 middle-aged London men and found that a single measurement of three factors predicted mortality better than any other measures. Those with the three risk factors, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking, had three times the risk of death from cardiovascular problems and a life expectancy that was ten years shorter than those without the three risk factors. The men were examined in 1967-1970 and followed for 38 years. The 4811 surviving subjects were reexamined in 1997.
Dr Robert Clarke (University of Oxford, UK) and colleagues report their findings online September 17, 2009 in BMJ. And when they used more extreme categorization of risk factors, including body-mass index (BMI), diabetes mellitus/glucose intolerance, and employment grade, life expectancy differed by up to 15 years.
Clarke says there has been uncertainty about the limits of life expectancy and the relevance of cardiovascular risk factors for its prediction. “What is unique about this study is the prolonged follow-up; it enables us to put a figure on the life-limiting effects of these risk factors,” he told heartwire.
(image credit: Flickr user Thomas Hawk)
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
Another step in the quest to create life has been made, as scientists successfully transformed one bacteria into another by replacing it’s DNA with a related species’. Now, scientists are setting their sights on creating entirely new microbes with unique genome sequences, from scratch.
Dr Venter likened it to “changing a Macintosh computer into a PC by inserting a new piece of software” and stressed it would be more difficult in other kinds of cells, which have enzymes to snip the DNA of invaders.
But he said to achieve the feat, without adding anything more than naked DNA, “is a huge enabling step.”
“It’s a necessary step toward creating artificial life,” added microbiologist Fred Blattner of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Dr Venter said that, in the light of this success, the culmination of a decade’s work, he will be attempting the first transplant of a lab-made genome to create the first artificial life “within months.”
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by coconutnut.
Is life on Earth special? Not according to Carnegie Institution’s astronomer Alan Boss. The author of the new book The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living Planets
[Boss] made the prediction based on the number of "super-Earths" — planets several times the mass of the Earth, but smaller than gas giants like Jupiter — discovered so far circling stars outside the solar system.
Boss said that if any of the billions of Earth-like worlds he believes exist in the Milky Way have liquid water, they are likely to be home to some type of life.
"Now that’s not saying that they’re all going to be crawling with intelligent human beings or even dinosaurs," he said.
"But I would suspect that the great majority of them at least will have some sort of primitive life, like bacteria or some of the multicellular creatures that populated our Earth for the first 3 billion years of its existence."
A fascinating video clip depicting the 12 billion years life cycle of a Class G type star in 6 minutes (actually 6:29). From its conception, birth, death – and the deaths of surrounding celestial bodies – and then its remnants contributing to the growth of future stars and planets are all shown. No narration just great music and animation so sit back and relax.
* Interesting note for those who don’t know: our Sun (Latin name Sol) is a Class G type star.
Did you used to play the board game LIFE, with those little cars with room for a pink mom, a blue dad, and two kids in the backseat as you motored predictably through college, job, marriage, home-buying, etc?
Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy is coming out with a "spicy" version of the game where a lousy economy, gambling sprees, shotgun weddings, and disappearing family members are the norm.
The name of the game comes from a Japanese idiom meaning "life’s a roller coaster" and is expected to hit the stores in April.
I love me a good game night. Monopoly gets pretty cut-throat when we’re at my in-laws – cheating bankers, people hiding money, my brother-in-law yelling at people about the free market. It’s a blast, actually. But I love the word games too – Scattergories is probably my favorite, but Catch Phrase is a good time. Especially if there’s alcohol involved. I’ve been itching for a good game night lately, so to satiate my urge until I can convince some friends to come over and be mercilessly beaten at Clue, here are a few facts about some of your favorite (at least, my favorite) games.
• For some reason, I always thought the Monopoly guy was Uncle Moneybags. Nope. But “proper” names for him include Rich Uncle Pennybags, Milburn Pennybags and Mr. Monopoly (his most recent name). Some sources say he’s loosely based on J.P. Morgan.
• Marvin Gardens is actually a misspelling of Marven Gardens, a housing area in Margate City, N.J. In fact, all of the properties on the “classic” Monopoly board are named after places or streets near or in Atlantic City, N.J.
• In the London version of the game, Trafalgar Square is a red property, Piccadilly is yellow, Regent, Oxford and Bond Streets are green and the blue properties are Mayfair and Park Lane. The railroads are replaced by Underground stops (King’s Cross, Marylebone, Fenchurch Street Station and Liverpool Street Station).
• Neiman Marcus once sold an all-chocolate edition. The whole set, including dice, money, hotels and board, was edible.
• F.A.O. Schwarz in NYC sold a $100,000 version, which included 18-carat game pieces, a rosewood board, real money, street names written in gold leaf and various gems scattered across the board.
• The most expensive board even made is a set worth $2 million It’s made of 23-carat gold and has rubies and sapphires embedded in the top of each house and hotel.
• Various versions of Monopoly include Batman, ESPN, Family Guy, American Idol, Nintendo, Sephora, and, honestly, just about any other version you can possibly think of.
What we in North America know as Clue, the rest of the world knows as Cluedo. Would you believe that it was invented by a part-time clown? Totally true. Anthony E. Pratt invented the game in England and it was published for the first time in 1949 by a British company. Bought by Parker Brothers, the U.S. version came out the same year.
• The dead dude is known as Mr. Boddy in North America, but he’s Dr. Black everywhere else. Also, Mr. Green is apparently alias Reverend Green in some parts of the world.
• Also, some of the Clue characters have little-known first names. They are: Colonel Michael Mustard, Miss Josephine Scarlet, Professor Peter Plum, Reverend/Mr. John Green, Mrs. Blanche White and Mrs. Elizabeth Peacock.
• Characters used in other or deluxe versions of Clue include Miss Peach (not to be confused with Princess Peach), Lady Lavender, Prince Azure, Rusty Naylor and Captain Brown.
• The original nine weapons were axe, shillelagh, bomb, rope, dagger, pistol, syringe, poison and poker.
Life has been around since 1861… not in the format we recognize today, of course. Milton Bradley himself invented “The Checkered Game of Life” when his lithography business started to go down the tubes (his major product was a portrait of clean-shaven Lincoln… when Lincoln grew the beard, Bradley went out of business).
He had actually been circulating the game on a smaller scale before his clean-shaven Lincoln lithograph took off, but he abandoned it once demand for his lithograph increased. After that plummeted, he focused more attention on marketing and ended up selling more than 40,000 games in 1861 alone – no small feat for that time period!
• Milton Bradley used a spinner to count the number of spaces people could move because dice were associated with gambing.
• In the original Checkered Game of Life, landing on the “Suicide” square put people out of the game completely. Obviously.
• Other squares on the original game board included Prison, Infancy, Ruin, Gambling, Disgrace, Honesty, Truth, Cupid, Industry and “Happy Old Age” (the goal of the game).
• One interesting variant (among many) is The Game of Redneck Life. Careers include Mullet Salon Operator and Monster Truck Announcer. The goal of the game is to get out with as many teeth as you can – through the various fights and brawls you get into over the course of the game, this can prove to be pretty challenging. I’m dead serious.
Scrabble came about in 1939 when architect Alfred Mosher Butts modified a game he had been working on earlier – Lexiko. At first he called it Criss-Crosswords and based the values of the letters on based on letter usages from the New York Times (and other reputable sources). In 1948, he allowed James Brunot to manufacture the game as long as he got a cut of each board sold… which wasn’t much, at first. They actually lost money the first year they produced it. Legend goes, though, that the President of Macy’s played the game while on vacation and, upon his return to work, was shocked that his store didn’t carry it. When they did start to carry it, sales skyrocketed.
• There are 96 two-letter words that are “legal” in Scrabble… including 10 that are spelled with vowels only. I’m so learning those.
• A typical Scrabble board has 225 squares.
• The highest known score for a single word in competition Scrabble is 392. In 1982, Dr. Saladin Khoshnaw achieved this score for the word “caziques,” which means “Indian chief.”
• The highest possible score a player can get in Scrabble on a first turn is for the word MUZJIKS (128 points).
I realize there’s tons of beloved board games I’ve missed, so maybe I’ll turn this into a series… a three-parter, or something. Sorry!, Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Risk, Trivial Pursuit. Lots of options. Have one you’d like to read about? Leave it in the comments and maybe I’ll add it to the list!
