That's right. This train is not powered by a steam or diesel engine, but by the wind. It's called a sail bogey. This was a Nineteenth Century form of transportation in windy areas, especially those close to the sea. It often took the form of a boat that was mounted on a railway chassis.
You can see a photo and a description of another one in northeastern England here. Such sailing bogeys were, I gather, more recreational than practical.
I suspect but am not certain that the sail bogey photographed above is from the historical Ffestiniog Railway in northwestern Wales.
While most of America only recognizes Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, celebrations of Carnival have been going on since Epiphany (January 6) in many parts of the world. That includes the traditional king cake, once called three kings cake for the Magi that visited baby Jesus on Epiphany. The cake itself was repurposed from a Roman Saturnalia tradition. The most common (and easiest) way to make a king cake in America is to make cinnamon rolls, but instead of cutting the roll, you twist it into a ring and bake it, then cover with purple, green, and gold sugar or icing. You might also put a small plastic baby inside the dough. But other countries have different traditional recipes.
France has cakes called galette and gâteau des rois, Portugal enjoys bolo-rei, Mexico has rosca de reyes, and Germany indulges in dreikönigskuchen, among other versions of king cake. They use different recipes, but they all have some things in common- they are either circular or decorated to represent a crown, and most of them have a surprise hidden inside. Read about the traditional king cakes of the world at Atlas Obscura.
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, is known today as Ada Lovelace. She wrote the world's first computer program in 1842, for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, a theoretical computer that was never built, but would have worked with Lovelace's programming.
Lovelace was gifted, both genetically and financially, as the daughter of Lord Byron. But her education differed from that of a privileged son born at the time. She was tutored at home in math, science, and logic, which was unusual for girls, but also in art, needlework, music, and languages, as would be expected. This combination of studies in widespread fields contributed to Lovelace's analytical thinking. For example, she saw that the punch cards used in weaving patterns for fabric would be a logical framework for mathematical commands, and that numbers could be converted into musical notes. Read how Lovelace distilled what she learned in disparate fields and how they contributed to her development of computer programming at Gizmodo. While reading, writing, and math are fundamental basics, there's always value in adding the humanities and other subjects.
We love watching Japanese zoos conduct their emergency drills with dangerous animals portrayed by an zookeeper in an animal costume. The latest is from Hitachi City Kamine Zoo, where the practice scenario is a bear that escapes when an earthquake breaks the glass in the display enclosure. It made no difference that this bear was an adorable teddy bear in a fairly good mascot costume, unlike some of the more ridiculous getups from previous drills. This drill involved not only zoo employees, but the local police, fire department, and the city's "pest damage prevention team." (Now if only US towns had such an agency...) The bear was first blocked in place by vehicles and nets, and then was shot with a tranquilizer dart, which we assume was as fake as the bear.
The drill ended in success, and we can imagine that it was followed by bear hugs all around. -via Boing Boing
If playing Wordle once a day isn't enough for you, you need to try Clickword. It's sort of like a Scrabble game that you can play by yourself. You'll start with a grid that has a few letters on it (orange), and three letters you can place anywhere (blue) -and you have to place them all before you get new letters. When three or more letters form a word vertically or horizontally, they disappear! The game is over when you've placed 60 letters. Like Scrabble, points are based on the letter value. You might be going for a long word, but as soon as three letters that make a word from their dictionary show up, it's gone. On the other hand, there is value in clearing spaces for new words.
I don't know why the actual game that compares you to other players is limited to once a day; but you can play practice games, which will give you a score. Careful, if you like word games, this could become addictive. -via Metafilter
Nature and fluid dynamics have their own way of doing things, and that's why rivers and streams left to their own devices will change over time. But those changes interfere with human settlements and commerce, so various aspects of the Mississippi River have been engineered one way or another ever since the US was established. This video from Half as Interesting tells us about the time riverboat captain Henry Miller Shreve arranged for a channel to be cut through a particularly difficult bend in the river to make navigation easier. But that cut changed the river's eventual direction so much that authorities added the Old River Control Structure to keep Old Man River from dumping all its water into the Atchafalaya River. The video is only 4:18; the rest is an ad.
However, several Louisiana commenters tell us that the tendency of the Mississippi to spill into the Atchafalaya was actually due to the clearing of the Great Raft, a 150-mile logjam in the Atchafalaya and Red River that had been there for a few thousand years and was responsible for the bayous. Who cleared that logjam? Why, it was Henry Miller Shreve, who just couldn't keep his hands off the waterways. Yes, Shreveport was named after him, since removing the raft made the Red River navigable. The Great Raft story would make a fascinating video. -via Digg
Every real life love story has a beginning of how we met, and an ending, meaning where we are now, but the important part is when you realize that this is the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. Gifts and memorable dates are nice, but when you hear about that moment, it's usually when your significant other shows their kindness. Sometimes it's putting in effort to make your life easier. Or maybe going out of their way to support you or a family member through an illness. Or even helping strangers in their time of need. These things aren't usually romantic, but it gives you a glimpse into their character.
The question was posed on the subreddit Ask Women: What's the moment with your partner that confirmed that you're gonna spend your life with them? The stories that came out will brighten your day, and maybe raise your standards for finding a partner. You can read an extensive list of the best of them at Bored Panda.
Through one means or another, you've been given the chance to travel back in time to ancient Rome in order to explore the city. You're not interested in disrupting history, so you're trying to stay inconspicuous. How do you accomplish this?
Garrett Ryan, a historian of ancient Greece and Rome, shares his expertise with us. His insights into Roman political history allow us to avoid tumultuous periods, such as the Year of the Four Emperors, in which the streets of Rome were too dangerous for travel. He also has tips about what to bring with you, what not to bring with you, and how to dress. For example, if you're a woman, don't wear a toga unless you'd like to be mistaken for a prostitute.
The case of Joseph Samuel stands out among Australian executions of the 19th century. Samuel was an Englishman, or rather an English boy, sent to a penal settlement at Sydney Cove for a crime committed in 1795 when he was 14 years old. But he was a man in Australia, and continued to commit crimes at the colony, where security was pretty lax due to authorities with the mindset of "Where can they go?"
After being convicted of the brutal murder of a policeman, Samuel was led to the gallows. Yet despite rope inspections, the hanging failed over and over again. Was it divine intervention after Samuel's last minute prayers? Was it a trick arranged ahead of time? Samuel had already tried a last minute stunt to deflect blame for the crime. What should be the legal remedy in such a case? Read about the crimes of Joseph Samuels, the mysteriously botched execution, and what ultimately became of him at Amusing Planet.
Spoiler alert: it wasn’t something that people should be really worried about. A video has resurfaced on the Internet showing a 'disturbing' black ring over Disneyland. Now, this footage was old. Taken in 2016 by Kyle Hawkins, the footage displays a gigantic smoke ring above the crowds in the California theme park.
While other Internet users speculate about what it could be (some even say that it’s like an alien portal), or some joke about the park vaping itself, the explanation behind this phenomenon is quite simple. The ring is from the fire blast during the World of Color show at California Adventure. "I know this because I work there," the Redditor said. "I used to lmfao at people freaking out over this."
We love imagining the future. Whether it comes in tech, setting, or even culture, we love showing off our different takes on how mankind will survive in the coming years. From utopian and dystopian fiction shows and novels to how architects and engineers build cities right now, there is no shortage of how we envision our daily lives in the future.
In recent years, we’ve noticed a trend of announcements from different firms as they launch new projects that showcase their new take on metropolitan areas. AD has listed their picks for the most interesting projects and proposals for futuristic cities.
From Mexico’s Smart Forest City to Saudi Arabia’s 100-mile-long linear city called The Line, these areas, once fully built, will definitely be super cool to visit!
Anyone who got flashed with a car’s high beams knows that they are so bright to the point that you can be blinded. We do need them to see dark places, though.
Following the taller vehicles are how headlights will be placed. According to Matt Brumbelow, a senior research engineer at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, these fixtures can be misaligned. “There’s no testing to make sure that it’s still aimed properly or that it’s putting out enough light on the road and it’s not glaring other drivers,” he stated.
If we add the height of new vehicles being sold in the market, and how their headlights are placed, then there’s a big chance that these lights can cause more harm than necessary, and can make driving difficult at night.
A solution is now being pushed to solve this problem. America’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has required automakers to sell vehicles that have adaptive driving beam headlights. These new lights can adjust the intensity of their brightness to avoid blinding people.
Carnival season has been going on for a while, and will culminate this coming Tuesday on Mardi Gras. When Americans think of Mardi Gras, they think of New Orleans. While the Big Easy goes all out, it is by no means the only place to catch a great Mardi Gras parade. If you want to avoid the crowds and the expense of New Orleans, or if you're looking for a more family friendly celebration, you may want to catch two days of non-stop parades in Mobile, Alabama, a city that's been celebrating Mardi Gras for 320 years. In Mobile, the parade floats throw out Moon Pies as well as the tradition beads.
Lake Charles, Louisiana, has a Mardi Gras Children’s Day on the Sunday before Mardi Gras, in addition to the daily parades. St. Tammany Parish has two boat parades and several dog parades. The towns of Lafourche Parish collaborate to stage more than two dozen parades. Read about these unique Mardi Gras celebrations in places that are not New Orleans at Smithsonian.
So many video game movies follow the story in the game. This one is based on a true story about the game. Tetris follows the work of Henk Rogers (played by Taron Egerton), the Dutch video game designer who pursued the rights to Tetris for the Gameboy from the Soviet Union as the USSR itself was in the process of falling apart. From all accounts, Soviet officials did not understand the concept of intellectual property rights, nor did they see the game's potential. Alexey Pajitnov invented the game in 1984, but did not receive royalties for it until he left Russia in 1991 and founded the Tetris Company with Rogers in 1996.
The history of the rights to Tetris is much more complicated than one movie could possibly illustrate, but this chapter sure looks exciting. Tetris will premiere March 31 on Apple TV+. -via reddit
If you DO want to see a Tetris movie that involves gameplay AND Soviet history, we've already got that. It's a musical, too!
They asked adult heterosexual men to rate the attractiveness of female faces, breasts photographed by cosmetic surgery clinics, and images of women with pronounced hip-to-waist ratios. They also had the subjects rate their own attractiveness and that of their romantic partners, if they had any. The researchers then followed up every three months for a year to see if their opinions changed over time.
Pawlowski and Sorokowski found that the men were quite keen on women’s breasts and hips during the winter as contrasted to the summer. Why? The researchers speculate that, during the winter, the men had fewer opportunities to look at women’s bodies without heavy protective clothing. The scarcity of such views led to their increased value.
