During the era of absolute monarchy and the divine right, members of the nobility were untouchable. It was considered a punishable offense to lay a hand on nobles. At the same time, corporal punishment was still being implemented in educating children.

This then presents a problem. If tutors of the royal family could not discipline young princes, then what were the tutors to do when their students misbehaved? In comes the whipping boy, whose sole purpose was to be beaten for the misdeeds of their liege.

Whether or not these whipping boys actually existed has been debated by scholars, although several references about them in literature point to the practice having been employed by some royal courts, if not commonly throughout medieval Europe. Generally, people accepted the story of whipping boys to be true.

The concept seems straightforward enough. However, whether the presence of the whipping boys produced the desired effect depended upon the character of the monarchs in question. For example, Louis XV of France was said to have had a whipping boy. Louis' epithet of Louis the Beloved may hint at the effectiveness of the practice.

Another famous depiction of a whipping boy, shown above, was that of Edward VI, whose reign, though short-lived, greatly influenced the history of England as it sparked the flame for the English Reformation.

Despite their designation as the royal scapegoat or fall guy, whipping boys also received the same education as the young princes and kings. Some minor nobles thought of the vocation as a means of climbing the social ladder as it granted them access to future royals and aristocrats. So it wasn't all doom and gloom for whomever was to receive such an assignment.

Back to the question of its effectiveness. Though there are examples which may lend credence to such effect, we can argue that these could only apply to individuals who were predisposed toward empathy and compassion, as seeing their peer being maltreated for their sake would bring out those good traits from them. Meanwhile, those who lacked such traits might inevitably turn into cruel tyrants.

Thankfully, we have moved away from such practices and we can now only encounter them in the annals of history.

(Image credit: Walter S. Stacey/Wikimedia Commons)

Happy Holidays everyone!

Here is a Santa Claus from every province, from west to east and through the territories.

1. British Columbia pic.twitter.com/FY3J8sWU5e

— Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx (@CraigBaird) December 21, 2023

Craig Baird is a historian with a podcast called Canadian History Ehx. As a Christmas gift to his followers, he harnessed artificial intelligence to create a series of Santa Claus portraits for each Canadian province and territory. Sure, there are stereotypes involved, but they are all lovingly rendered. He even takes back the Santa from Nova Scotia by giving him a re-do at the end.

A Santa Claus from every province, from west to east and through the territories.

11. Nunavut pic.twitter.com/o3FkC9vdlc

— Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx (@CraigBaird) December 21, 2023

Wait until you get a load of Quebec's Santa Claus. See the entire collection of Canadian Santas at Twitter, or at Thread Reader if you prefer.

Until today, the only thing I knew about Charles II was that he's the reason the current British King is named Charles III. Charles II ruled Scotland, then went into exile during the reign of Oliver Cromwell, and later became king of England, Scotland, and Ireland. You can bone up on Charle's place in history at Wikipedia, because this video is only concerned with his personal life, meaning his many lovers. Charles II had a wife plus a long line of mistresses and flings that ended up in the history books. They were court members, actresses, commoners, friends of friends, and even at least one spy. One of them could be called the love of his life, but she was not his wife, and neither did she keep him from other women. None of this was kept secret; after all, the king was the king in the 17th century, and popular opinion had no sway over his behavior. Come to think of it, even today when the king has no real power, popular opinion still doesn't have any sway over his behavior.  

Well, maybe you will, because of the picture. But I was surprised to learn that the 1983 film Trading Places (Una poltrona per due) with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd is an Italian Christmas tradition. Although the movie was a hit and is set during Christmas, it barely registers as a Christmas movie today, possibly because of its New York Stock Exchange plot that could have occurred at any time of the year. But every Christmas Eve, TV station Italia 1 airs Trading Places, and the nation tunes in. It's a shared tradition like Swedish people watching Donald Duck cartoons on Christmas Eve, or Germans watching Dinner for One on New Year's Eve. They were all broadcast one year in the days before cable TV, everyone saw it, and it became a thing they did every year.  

Excitement is growing for this year's broadcast, and there's even a Facebook page dedicated to the annual showing. Read about the Italian tradition of watching Una poltrona per due at Cracked.

Based on a 30-year study analyzing how children's development is affected by the size of their family, researchers have found that having a larger family may worsen the cognitive abilities of children.

According to the researchers, this is most likely due to the reduced attention and resources given to each individual child, as every new child is born. Moreover, the research also found that the eldest child's cognitive scores decreased the most as they gained more siblings.

A few interesting observations came about from the study. They found that the youngest were often the most well-behaved, based on their mothers' assessments. Furthermore, the assumption that being an only child will cause behavioral and cognitive issues was not supported by the data. Instead, the reverse was true with the first-borns exhibiting more behavioral problems with each addition to the family.

Although the study seems to have been done with a fair amount of rigor and forethought, I think it all comes down to how parents raise their children.

It is true that with the pressures of society today, parents have the tendency to spread themselves too thinly if they were to have more than two children. However, I think it is entirely possible for parents to have a larger family without compromising their children's development. The opposite is also possible. Not all only children will receive an abundance of resources.

It might be good to understand how the parents, who participated in the study, raised their children so that we can figure out if the main factor for the deterioration of children's cognitive scores was really due to having more siblings or if there were other external factors. Otherwise, I will tend to look at this study with a grain of salt.

(Image credit: National Cancer Institute/Unsplash)

No one can completely understand how several wonders of the ancient world had been constructed by human beings thousands of years ago, or why they were even erected in the first place. Monuments like Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Giza, and Machu Picchu both inspire awe and bewilderment.

Though scientists are continuously researching on these structures to find out what ancient peoples and societies were up to, and how they came about with the building of these landmarks, other people have different explanations. One such idea proposed by English antiquarian Alfred Watkins was the concept of ley lines.

By looking at the alignment of different monuments on the map, Watkins claimed that ancient peoples had been aware of this invisible grid of straight lines and so they erected structures along that grid. It also provided a route that Stone Age traders used to arrive at the next settlement.

Many in the scientific community rejected the idea because Watkins' method of connecting these landmarks faced some challenges such as the geographical terrain which would have prevented people from following a straight path from one landmark to the next and the fact that drawing a straight line on a map would inevitably touch upon several of these landmarks.

Then in the '60s, Tony Wedd unearthed the ley lines idea, and suggested that they were used as runways for alien spacecraft. However, without any evidence, this too was shelved pretty quickly.

In 1969, perhaps one of the more plausible attempts at having the ley line idea accepted was John Michell's introduction of the 'Earth energies' concept. He asserted that these monuments oozed spiritual energy from deep within the earth, and ones with psychic consciousness could sense them.

However, through a decade-long research into the idea, scientists found no evidence that such things existed. -via Strange Company

(Image credit: Alfred Watkins/Wikimedia Commons)

Starting from 2017, the team from BookMarks.reviews has had a tradition of curating some of the most savage criticisms of books published that year. This year is no different with some books by or about celebrities and political figures comprising majority of their 2023 list including: a biography of Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson, a memoir by Paris Hilton, a self-help book by Arnold Schwarzenegger, and an attempt at literary fiction by Tom Hanks. -via Nag on the Lake

(Image credit: Freddy Kearney/Unsplash)

We're not talking about the peachy pigs being raised in farms. Wild pigs, boars, hogs (Sus scrofa) may just simply eat entire ecosystems away if they were to be left on their own. And this is because they are considered extreme generalist foragers which means they can practically eat anything that they can get their hooves on.

Although 90% of their diet consists of plants, they can also eat insects, fungi, clams, and mussels. But more than this, they can apparently engage in predatory behavior as well, killing and eating rodents, deer, birds, snakes, frogs, lizards, and salamanders.

This is the reason why the US has launched initiatives and efforts to control and eradicate these wild pigs, as they can cause wildlife to become extinct, whether directly by predation or indirectly by hogging (pun intended) the resources from other animals.

In fact, just recently, some wild pigs from Canada were reported to have migrated into Minnesota which can make things more difficult. What's so troubling about this is that these wild pigs, called "super pigs", were crossbred to make them larger and hardier than the wild pigs found in the US.

One might think that simply introducing a predator to these wild pigs may assuage the situation. However, these wild pigs apparently have no natural predators, so the only way to get rid of them is to hunt them.

(Image credit: Ed van duijn/Unsplash)

(Video credit: WCCO - CBS Minnesota/Youtube)

That title belongs to King Felipe VI of Spain. Last year, he revealed a full breakdown of all his wealth as a way of being transparent with the public.

From this report, it was revealed that his net worth amounted to €2.57 million (~$2.8 million), which is quite low for a reigning monarch. In fact, it's not even enough to break through the top 100 wealthiest in Spain. Most of this wealth comes from bank deposits and investment funds along with jewellery, antiques, and works of art, since the Spanish monarch has no land or properties to his name.

Apparently, his bank accounts, amounting to €2.26 million, make up almost 90% of his wealth, with the remaining €300,000 from collectors' items and jewellery. Sadly, Felipe VI has no pension plan either.

In comparison, the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 had a net worth of about €444 million (~$490 million). But the former British monarch was not even the richest among the European royals. That would be the grand duke of Luxembourg, Henri, whose family's estate was roughly €3.75 billion (~$4.1 billion). Closely following him is Prince Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein, with an estimated net worth of €3.3 billion (~$3.6 billion).

Around the world, the title of the richest royal belongs to King Rama X, the Thai king with a net worth valued at €27 billion (~$29.8 billion). After him is Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei with €18 billion (~$19.8 billion), then King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia with €16 billion (~$17.6 billion).

Note: Figures were from 2022.

(Image credit: Vox Congreso/Wikimedia Commons)

You may have heard about the story of Sankt-Vaters-Bier (Beer of the Sacred Father), which they later called Salvatorbier, a strong, sweet malty beer which the Paulaner friars had brewed for themselves back in the 17th century.

According to certain accounts, the monks had crafted this beer as a means of sustaining themselves during the Lenten fast. Since they could not eat any solid food, they drank the beer throughout the day for several days until the period of Lent ended. The beer contained calories, vitamins, and minerals, so it was enough to keep them going.

But that isn't exactly the story of Salvatorbier, by the reckoning of Mark Dredge, a beer expert. Though it is true that monks' diets were limited during Lent, they were allowed to have bread, smoked fish, herbs, and oil in the evenings. Alcohol, on the other hand, was allowed throughout the day.

Furthermore, the Paulaner friars had even stricter diets than other orders, as they were expected to maintain the Lenten diet all the time. And not just this, but their founder, Saint Francis of Paola, was a strong advocate for the complete absence of cruelty, thus encouraging his brothers to stick with what we now know as the vegan diet.

With this in mind, the Paulaner friars had brewed their beer as a necessity for their lifestyle. But the story behind Salvatorbier is one that is not concerned at all about fasting, but feasting.

As the Paulaner friars settled in Nockherberg, they started brewing their own beer as per usual. And even though they were prohibited from selling their beers, they simply sold the beer illegally for 150 years.

During that time, they would celebrate Saint Francis' Feast Day every year on April 2nd. At this feast, they would serve Salvatorbier to the people. Later on, they will be granted a license to sell their beer, at first only on the Feast Day, and after a while, they were allowed to sell it the whole year round.

After celebrating this feast for over a hundred or so years, it lost all its religious connotations, and simply became a Volksfest or folk festival. And the tradition of serving and selling Salvatorbier continued, as it still does today, every year during Salvatorfest (Strong Beer Festival).

(Image credit: Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons)

I have two sisters. They are both single.

Another Holiday is approaching with no brother-in-laws in sight.

We need to change that.

The girl on the far left is my wife - she’s not looking for a boyfriend (at least I don’t think so).

32 Year Old Sister - far right.

•… pic.twitter.com/RID467r7Vt

— Jared Doerfler (@DoerflerJared) December 21, 2023

Jared Doerfler is a businessman with a focus on the golf industry. He thinks like a businessman and it shows in how he is trying to recruit husbands for his sisters, who are currently unmarried. He is, accordingly, requesting applications from gentlemen interested in dating his sisters.

Applicants should complete this Google Form, the results of which are evaluated by a search committee consisting of himself, his mother, his wife, but not his father, who disapproves of the enterprise.

The blog Core77 shows us this curiously designed baseball cap. It has notches cut into the brim, one on either side. Why? The answer is below the fold.

Tom BetGeorge always goes all out in producing extravagant computerized holiday light shows, but I was surprised to find that we haven't posted his Christmas lights since the Star Wars show in 2015! We've always posted them for Halloween, however. BetGeorge launched his 2023 Christmas light show with aplomb and a standup routine delivered by Christmas trees. The full show comprises five musical interludes, so you can skip through to listen to your favorite. They are:

“I Believe in Santa” Meghan Trainor
“You Make It Feel Like Christmas” Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani
“Noel (He Is Born)” Tommee Profitt Feat. Stanaj
“Livin’ On A Prayer” Bon Jovi
Taylor Swift Medley (mix created by Tom BetGeorge)

Veering away from labor-intensive drones, this year's extravaganza has fireworks instead. Two of the songs are accompanied by fireworks because it's too expensive to shoot off fireworks during the whole show every night. You can try to guess which songs. At the YouTube page, he gives a shout out to the Linden-Peters Fire Department for standing by just in case. (via Geeks Are Sexy)

Furoshiki is a traditional Japanese form of wrapping objects, such as gifts or bento boxes, in cloth. Much artistry goes into the cloths used and the means by which they are folded and tied.

Pictured above is a shoe likewise called Furoshiki which is inspired by that traditional artform. The shoemaker Vibram offers a line of shoes that, instead of tying with laces, one wraps around the feet.

We can all think of names that are no longer given to babies because they seem old-fashioned. For my generation, that included Mabel, Gertrude, and Ethel, which reminded us of our grandmothers. Now I'm afraid my own name signals "old." That happens with men's names, too, but for men it's often less because of fad and fashion and more for their association with someone famous, whether real or fictional.

When discussing baby names with my daughter, I mentioned Michael, and she shot that down. She said that name will always remind people of Michael Scott, the lead character of the TV series The Office. Really? Not Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, or the archangel? You never know what will stick in the minds of a different generation.

The graph above from Memetic shows some men's names that fell out of favor rather long ago, and for some of them, you can see the association that did them in. I would have added the steeper drop off for Herman when The Munsters was on TV. Clarence faded out for babies when It's a Wonderful Life became a hit movie, decades after its release. No doubt there are many other men's names that suffered the same fate. -via Digg