In the latest video from Condé Nast Traveler, we watch people from around the world count the same stack of dollars. On the surface, it looks like most of them are doing it the same way, but when you look closely, there are variations that would be hard to replicate once you've learned your own way to count cash. Too bad we don't get to practice as much as we should. And you have to wonder whether these ingrained habits will fade away as we move closer to a cashless society. -via Boing Boing
Throughout history, there have been outbreaks of strange symptoms or behavior that no one could explain. Or explain adequately, that is. Some of them in the distant past might have a microbial explanation, but they could also be a contagious mental illness. That sounds like a contradiction in terms, but you've seen how fads and trends spread through mass communication, so is a mania any less susceptible to spreading? One of the more famous examples is the dancing mania of 1518.
It was the summertime dance that just didn’t stop. Dancing mania (also known as dancing plague was a social phenomenon that occurred primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. One of the first major outbreaks was in the Holy Roman Empire, in 1374, which quickly spread throughout Europe. The most notable outbreak occurred in Strasbourg in 1518 when one Frau Troffea broke into a jig on a hot summer’s day in July. Pretty soon, dozens of others had joined, then hundreds — mostly female — who couldn’t stop busting a move. In all seriousness, the condition was horrifying, and the afflicted died from exhaustion and heart attacks.
Even weirder are the manias that spread from person to person in more recent times, even in the 21st century. Read about ten of these strange plagues at Messy Nessy Chic.
Do you recall the end of the book Charlotte's Web, when Wilbur was delighted to see hundreds of Charlotte's babies had hatched, but then almost all of them flew away? Flying spiders of all kinds scare people by throwing out silk that carries them on the wind. Aerodynamics engineer Moonsung Cho observed crab spiders to see how they fly.
He gathered 14 of them and placed them on a small, dome-shaped structure in a Berlin park to see how they reacted to natural winds. He also studied them in the lab using controlled wind tunnels. He found that before flying away, the spiders would lay down an anchor silk strand for safety. They would then reach one of their front legs into the air to evaluate how fast the wind was blowing, and from which direction. That’s the spider equivalent of licking your finger and sticking it in the air.
If the wind conditions were just right—which, for these crab spiders, meant less than 7.3 miles per hour (3.3 meters per second) with a nice upward draft—they stood up very straight, stuck their butts in the air, and produced 50 to 60 nanoscale silks that lifted them into the skies. On average, those silks were nearly 10 feet long. Once they let go of their anchor strands, they were gone.
Cho studied the silk and determined that these strands are so fine that they are thinner than the air they float on. Read more about the research, and see a crab spider take off, at Gizmodo.
(Image credit: Moonsung Cho)
While at the (@TulsaDrillers) game .. dog night at the park .. one dog saw a ball .. and go figure. #Dogs pic.twitter.com/6ws99cEQqR
— Harold R. Kuntz (@HaroldRKuntz3) June 14, 2018
The Double-A Tulsa Drillers celebrated Bark in the Park last night, and welcomed fans with their dogs. A group of dogs and their humans were down by the field before the game doing a media appearance, when one doggo noticed the players warming up. Well, not so much the players but THE BALL! That was his cue for fetch, and no one was going to stop him! He chased that ball around the field, caught it, and dutifully brought it back to the shortstop. That's a good dog. -via Deadspin
The Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC, is responsible for the health and happiness of more than 1,800 animals from all over the world. The nutritional requirements and the preferences of each species is studied and catered to. Some of those preferences may be surprising. Who knew that lions love pumpkin spice?
“The lions take a long time rolling around in that scent and getting it all over themselves,” says Hilary Colton, animal keeper and vice chair of the National Zoo’s Enrichment and Training Committee.
Zoo staff scatter a range of spices, extracts, fur and other scents around the Zoo’s many animal habitats, encouraging animals to sniff and explore. Pumpkin spice is a favorite of the lions, sending them into a flurry of activity—rolling, rubbing and scent marking.
“The lions will scent mark the same way our cats do at home in that space,” says Colton. “We get a lot of behavior from using smell. We don’t have to use a lot because humans don’t have the entire spectrum of scent receptors that some of our animals do.”
The zoo also makes food into an adventure, enrichment, or learning experience for some animals, and that's on top of dealing with odd deliveries, like a truckload of crickets. Read how the National Zoo feeds its residents at Smithsonian Insider. -via Metafilter
See a video of the zoo's scent-enrichment program for cats.
(Image credit: Flickr user Smithsonian's National Zoo)
Ze Frank tells us about anteaters, tamanduas, numbats, echidnas, pangolins, and other mammals that eat insects. They are a funny-looking group that have nothing else to do with each other, which makes them the perfect subject for the True Facts series. Warning: contains a brief shot of an echidna penis. -via Laughing Squid
The famous 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by a team led by Philip Zimbardo is a classic, taught in introductory psychology classes and referred to by laymen all over. Student volunteers were divided into the roles of prison guards and prisoners, and those assigned as guards became cruelly abusive as they explored their power over their fellow students. But more recent research and interviews with the participants revealed that things were not exactly as published. The "guards" were coached in their cruelty, and the students considered the experiment to be a performance.
Though most guards gave lackluster performances, some even going out of their way to do small favors for the prisoners, one in particular rose to the challenge: Dave Eshelman, whom prisoners nicknamed “John Wayne” for his Southern accent and inventive cruelty. But Eshelman, who had studied acting throughout high school and college, has always admitted that his accent was just as fake as Korpi’s breakdown. His overarching goal, as he told me in an interview, was simply to help the experiment succeed.
“I took it as a kind of an improv exercise,” Eshelman said. “I believed that I was doing what the researchers wanted me to do, and I thought I’d do it better than anybody else by creating this despicable guard persona. I’d never been to the South, but I used a southern accent, which I got from Cool Hand Luke.”
Eshelman expressed regret to me for the way he mistreated prisoners, adding that at times he was calling on his own experience undergoing a brutal fraternity hazing a few months earlier. “I took it just way over the top,” he said. But Zimbardo and his staff seemed to approve. After the experiment ended, Zimbardo singled him out and thanked him.
Some of the "prisoners" also admitted to role-playing during the experiment. Others attempted to replicate Zimbardo's study, and achieved different results. Those studies didn't get the press that the original experiment got -and some say that's because Zimbardo interfered with their publication. The Stanford Prison Experiment isn't the only psychological experiment that doesn't hold up over time. We recently posted about how the Robber's Cave Experiment was retooled to attain the desired results. The same investigator found irregularities in Stanley Milgram's experiments in the willingness of subjects to obey authority even when that means harming others. Even the famous Marshmallow Experiment has been discredited by replication studies. Vox has an overview of famous but discredited psychology experiments, and the difficulty of correcting textbooks and the popular image of these studies. -via Digg
(Image credit: Eric. E. Castro)
Summer officially starts next week with the solstice, even though school is already out, and the temperatures have been high for months. But we've got a lot of summer ahead of us, so we may as well learn something new from Mental Floss about our favorite summer activities. This episode of Scatterbrained has trivia about ice cream, summer travel, iced tea, and more. John Green has some handy tips to make summer easier. Learn the history of the state fair. And don't forget your sunscreen!
In the 1930s, as life for Jewish people in Germany and later German-occupied countries became more and more unbearable, many tried to emigrate. Germany encouraged this up until 1941. The problem was that no other nation would accept them, and to be allowed to leave, one had to have a place to go. The exception was Shanghai, China, where visas were not required for entry, but the city would issue one if you needed it to travel as a refugee. The city was poor, overcrowded, and ruled by various foreign interests, but it was safe.
Nevertheless, many of the Shanghai locals, in spite of their own hardships, welcomed their new neighbors and shared what little they had, whether that meant housing, medical care, or just simple kindness. Gradually, with that support, Jewish refugees began, little by little, to create lives in their new country, and before long, the proliferation of Jewish-owned businesses was such that the Hongkou area became known as “Little Vienna.” Like their Chinese neighbors, they did their best to survive in difficult circumstances. They established newspapers, synagogues, retail businesses, restaurants, schools, cemeteries, guilds, social clubs, and even beauty pageants. They practiced medicine, started hospitals, got married, had babies, and held bar and bat mitzvahs. They learned to cook in coal-burning ovens and to haggle with street vendors.
One Hongkou resident remembers the time and place with great fondness. The artist Peter Max, who would later become known for his signature “psychedelic” works of art, came to Shanghai with his parents after fleeing Berlin. Like many of the Jewish families who immigrated to the city, Max’s father started a business, in this case, a store that sold Western-style suits. It was, Max recalls, an auspicious choice, as Chinese men were just beginning to favor them over their traditional Mandarin clothing.
“On the ground floor of our building was a Viennese garden-café,” Max recalls, “where my father and mother met their friends in the early evenings for coffee and pastries while listening to a violinist play romantic songs from the land they had left behind. The community of Europeans that gathered and grew below our house kept me connected to our roots.”
However, the war they had fled caught up with them. Japan consolidated its rule over Shanghai in 1941, which put Shanghai's Jewish residents back under the Axis influence. Read about the Jewish population of Shanghai at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: United States Holocaust Museum)
Disney has another live-action remake of an animated classic coming out in 2019. This one is Dumbo, from director Tim Burton. We can expect that the story will be quite different from the 1941 film, which had hardly any humans with speaking roles.
From Disney and visionary director Tim Burton, the all-new grand live-action adventure “Dumbo” expands on the beloved classic story where differences are celebrated, family is cherished and dreams take flight. Circus owner Max Medici (Danny DeVito) enlists former star Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) and his children Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins) to care for a newborn elephant whose oversized ears make him a laughingstock in an already struggling circus. But when they discover that Dumbo can fly, the circus makes an incredible comeback, attracting persuasive entrepreneur V.A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton), who recruits the peculiar pachyderm for his newest, larger-than-life entertainment venture, Dreamland. Dumbo soars to new heights alongside a charming and spectacular aerial artist, Colette Marchant (Eva Green), until Holt learns that beneath its shiny veneer, Dreamland is full of dark secrets.
Yeah, that sounds very different. Dumbo is scheduled to hit theaters on March 29, 2019. -via Laughing Squid
George H.W. Bush had a birthday yesterday, and at 94, he is the oldest living former president in history. None the other men who've held the office ever reached the age of 94. You are forgiven for thinking that Jimmy Carter was older, since he served earlier. The record brought up other tidbits about presidential ages in the comments at reddit.
Funnily enough, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Donald Trump (elected over a span of 24 years) are all the exact same age. Each is 71, having been born in 1946. Clinton was the third youngest person to ever become president; Trump was the oldest. And Bush, at 54, was incredibly close to the median age for presidents at the start of their term, which is 55 years 3 months.
In other words, over the course of just nine weeks in 1946, three different presidents were born. They would go on to be elected in three different decades (and maybe four). One would be one of the youngest ever elected, one would be the oldest ever elected, and one would be elected at precisely the typical age. -IRAn00b
John F. Kennedy was the youngest person ever elected president at age 43, Teddy Roosevelt was the youngest to become president, at age 42, after McKinley was assassinated.
Jimmy Carter is only 4 months behind him. Born: October 1, 1924 (age 93 years) -samtheotter
Somewhat unrelated, but California Governor Jerry Brown is both the youngest California governor since the 1860s (elected at age 36) and the oldest ever (72 years old when he began serving his current term). -jlux999
Until the 2000s, the president who lived the longest was John Adams. The second president. -solidsnake885
John Adams was 90 when he died in 1826.
(Image credit: Pete Souza)
**Record scratch**
— Ohidur Choudhury (@ochoudhury22) June 13, 2018
**Freeze frame**
"Yup, thats me. You're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation. Well, it all started when . . ."#mprraccoon pic.twitter.com/UI6oMtoNbg
Thousands of people have been holding their breath for a couple of days now, because a raccoon has been climbing the outside of a high-rise building in St. Paul. It was first spotted on Monday, perched in a niche on the 7th floor of the Town Square building.
This poor raccoon apparently got itself stranded on a ledge of the Town Square office building in downtown St. Paul, likely on an errant mission to raid pigeon nests on the skyway over 7th Street. It's been there for two days now, without food or water. @mprnews pic.twitter.com/fVI5pmdCWq
— Tim Nelson (@timnelson_mpr) June 12, 2018
When local office workers tried a rescue operation, the creature jumped to the nearby 25-story UBS Tower, where it climbed to the upper floors. Attorney Sheila Donnelly-Coyne watched the raccoon in the window of her 23rd-floor office, where the windows do not open.
The office also had seen some firefighters filtering through. Donnelly-Coyne said authorities set up live traps on the roof, together with some cat food to entice the little one to climb just a few floors more. She says the firefighters told her office that other measures — such as reaching for the animal with window washing equipment — would very likely scare and "endanger the animal." So for now, the high drama has become a waiting game.
The #mprraccoon is doing a little grooming now that he's a social media star. You know, on a 23rd floor window ledge. @MPRnews pic.twitter.com/pGcwh7OJ6L
— Tim Nelson (@timnelson_mpr) June 12, 2018
The TV stations KARE11 and WCCO set up livestreams so everyone could watch the critter's progress. Crowds gathered in the streets below. Someone launched a Twitter account under the name The MPR Raccoon.
I made a big mistake. #mprraccoon
— The MPR Raccoon (@TheStPaulRacco1) June 12, 2018
Folks nationwide began to follow the story, as the raccoon climbed to various floors. James Gunn, director of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies who has a soft spot for raccoons, offered a reward.
I'll donate a thousand bucks to the non political charity of choice to anyone who saves this raccoon. I can't handle this. Poor dude. https://t.co/2F5reAKkKa
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) June 12, 2018
Last night, people began to breath a little easier when the raccoon started climbing down the building.
The #mprraccoon is that little dark spot up on the building. He's coming down, one floor at a time. Four stories so far. pic.twitter.com/emHwCh8gts
— Tim Nelson (@timnelson_mpr) June 13, 2018
But that didn't last long. He/she descended to the 16th floor, then reversed and went back up! And then, about 2:30 this morning, the raccoon made it to the roof!
On top of the world! #mprraccoon pic.twitter.com/8DBqKafMP4
— Raccoon Brand® (@raccoonbrand) June 13, 2018
There's no word yet on whether the raccoon went for the cat food or made it to the traps. You can follow the story on Twitter.
Update: Good news! -Thanks, Edward!
Top floor law firm @donnelly_law says UBS building management has told them the #mprraccoon formerly in their window HAS BEEN TRAPPED.
— Tim Nelson (@timnelson_mpr) June 13, 2018
And so we can wrap up the saga of the MPR Raccoon with a music video.
What you've all been waiting for... #MissionImpossible #MPRraccoon @kare11 @ElleryTV @DPet_KARE11News @timnelson_mpr pic.twitter.com/SZKNem45yf
— Alicia Lewis (@alicialewisKARE) June 13, 2018
With Incredibles 2 coming out this weekend, Screen Junkies takes a long-overdue look at The Incredibles for an Honest Trailer. That movie came out in 2004, which was so long ago that the theater I saw it in has been torn down and replaced with a clothing store. Maybe the reason they haven't done an Honest Trailer before is that they can't find much to snark about. They got around that by using this time to compare The Incredibles to all the other pop culture heroes they are better than. I almost thought that they were going to completely overlook Edna Mode, but she makes an appearance before the video is done. -via Tastefully Offensive
Alexander Graham Bell introduced the telephone in 1876, and before you know it, cities were being wired for communication. That infrastructure was pretty much limited to cities, though, and later to small towns that weren't too far apart. Out in the western US, farmers and homesteaders were ignored by Ma Bell because of the expense of running phone lines to isolated farms and towns spread out over many miles. However, two years before Bell's invention, barbed wire was patented, and it had already transformed the West by making miles of fencing affordable.
Then came a rural revolution. American farmers already had a long tradition of cooperative association. There were thousands of farmers' cooperative insurance groups, grain elevators, and irrigation systems. By the turn of the century, farmers had come to see many uses for the telephone: dealing with emergencies, getting weather reports, pricing crops, recruiting labor, and even overcoming rural isolation. Not surprisingly, they started rural telephone cooperatives by the thousands. Their telephone "mutuals" were crude affairs. Each linked together a few, or a few dozen, farm households. Some used a switchboard, located in a store or more often in someone's kitchen, while others operated as a community party line.
It was in building the network connecting homestead to homestead that the farmers' ingenuity came to the fore. Instead of erecting new poles and wires, many either ran phone wires along the top of wooden fence posts or used the barbed wire itself to carry signals. The latter hardly worked as well as insulated copper wire, but with the lines already in place, installation and operating costs could be kept to a minimum. By one estimate, service ran a mere $3 to $18 a year, far less than the regional phone companies charged, and labor for maintaining the network was supplied by volunteers.
Read about how barbwire phone networks worked at Inc. There's more on how these networks were used by the people who needed them most at Atlas Obscura. -via Metafilter
(Image source: Library of Congress)
She locked herself out of the house. However, there's a sliding glass door that's only held shut by a sawed-off broom handle, and the dog is inside with it. All Sam has to do is retrieve the stick. His years of training in stick-fetching suddenly pay off! That's a good dog. -via reddit
