Many places around the world use defunct salt mines for storage. We posted about one in Kansas some years ago. In the UK, there's a salt mine storage facility that's being filled up as the mine continues! See, this mine is so big that underground chambers are emptied and used to store not only historical records, but actual historical items that may one day be displayed in a museum, while mining is still going on somewhat down the line, so to speak. The salt itself makes up the walls of the facility, and also causes it to have much lower humidity than above-ground storage or other kinds of underground holes, which is crucial for preserving precious materials. Tom Scott, who can talk his way into any place, takes us on a tour of this underground storage facility and finds out what they'll tell us and what they won't about the treasures stored there for posterity.
A large ship full of passengers sets sail from England to the Unites States in April, but halfway there runs into an iceberg and sinks, causing the death of hundreds of passengers because there weren't enough lifeboats. You might think this is the Titanic in 1912, but it was the Titan, a fictional ship in the 1898 novel called Futility (later republished as Futility: or, the Wreck of the Titan) by Morgan Robertson. The story was about more than just the shipwreck, but when the Titanic sank 14 years later, the novel seemed suddenly like a chilling premonition. The list of eerie similarities goes on and on.
Was Robertson a prophet? No, but he had ten years of experience as a sailor, and kept up with shipping news. As it turns out, he wasn't the only one who wrote about ocean liner disasters of the time, which only makes us wonder why ship designers and those who created maritime procedures couldn't see it coming. Read about Morgan Robertson and how he came up with a fantastic story that came true, at Mental Floss.
This discovery was a great gift for archaeologists! A stone covered with Pictish geometric carvings was discovered in Aberlemno, Scotland. The 5.5-foot-long (1.7 meters) object was estimated to have been designed about 1,500 years ago by the Picts, which were the Indigenous people of the region. The meaning of the symbols remains unclear, but the best guess for now is that they are “a naming system representing Pictish names," according to Gordon Noble, the excavation leader and a professor of archaeology at the University of Aberdeen.
Image credit: University of Aberdeen
While we all have our subjective opinions on what is the messiest or most disgusting part of an airplane, we can all agree that some trash cans in an aircraft are just gross. Matador Network’s Morgane Croissant shared her opinion on this topic, stating that she would bet money “that every single person who has ever used an airplane bathroom trash can in the economy [class] has done so with absolute revulsion.”
The bathroom trash cans in this flight class have a manually operated flap, which forces people to actually touch the equipment with their clean hands– who would voluntarily do that, anyway? Imagine the dirt and bacteria there! Croissant further points out that airplane companies can actually fix this issue, by having as few touch surfaces as possible. “Airplane toilet lids should open and close on their own at every use, the toilets should flush automatically, the tap and the soap dispenser should be motion-activated, and airplane bathroom trash cans should not require that passengers put their hands halfway down the hatch,” she wrote.
Image credit: Alexander Schimmeck
Photographer Alex ten Napel is known for his portraits, especially his focus on avian subjects. His Chickens, Hens, and Roosters series involves showing off the elegance and charisma of these feathered animals. Ten Napel was hit with the inspiration of incorporating animals into his work in 2014 while he was eating breakfast in France. A chicken wandered to him, and that’s when he had an epiphany. “Because we were, in a matter of speaking, on the same level, I saw her in a different perspective and noticed different aspects,” he told My Modern Met. “She was sociable, funny, touching, and curious. She was so human! At the same period, I was looking for a new subject to photograph. I had made many portrait series and had the idea that I had to change course. So why not portray hens and roosters?”
Learn more about his work here!
Image credit: Alex ten Napel
A Viking settlement was established in Greenland 1,000 years ago. However, this group of people, who thrived for centuries, suddenly vanished in the 15th century. There was no evidence that was obtained from their area that could answer experts as to how and why their society collapsed. However, now, thanks to a team of scientists from Brown University, new evidence has arisen about the possible explanation behind the unsolved mystery.
Boyang Zhao and his associates aimed to learn about the possible effect of climate change on the Viking settlement. “From the climate change perspective, there are not actually many reconstructions from this area, so we wanted to revisit this spot in order to provide more detailed and updated records of climate history from this region and see if there's any connection between climate change and the demise of the Vikings,” Zhao explained. Learn more about the study here!
Image credit: wikimedia commons
Sometimes we tend to be overwhelmed with the tasks we need to finish, to the point that we actually get nothing done. This feeling of having too many things on our mind is called decision fatigue, where we get caught in paralysis-by-analysis due to trying to pick and decide what to do. Inc.com’s Benjamin Harvey explained a simple method for how to reduce this overwhelming feeling and actually be productive. It all boils down to stripping down your list and picking only what’s needed to be done in a significant timeframe. “You've got to strip everything down to the bare essential,” he explained.
Image credit: ian dooley
If you know the names Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall, you should also know Biruté Mary Galdikas. Galdikas was the third member of the "Trimates," women who dedicated their lives to the study of primates, specifically great apes, under the auspices of anthropologist Louis Leakey. They were also sometimes referred to as "Leakey's Angels." Galdikas operated far away from Leakey, Fossey, and Goodall because she went to Borneo to study orangutans. That was in 1971, and she's still there.
Of the three, Galdikas' work may have the most lasting impact. Orangutans are critically endangered due to both habitat destruction and poaching. Galdikas not only gained the orangutans' trust and studied them, but also worked with local people and governments to protect them and their environment. She founded a rescue and rehab center, and has been fighting poachers for decades. This work led to the founding of the Orangutan Foundation International. Read what Galdikas has gone through in her quest to save orangutans at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Simon Fraser University-University Communications)
Twitter user Enfys J. Book (Lucky) accompanied their cousin to the Ax-Man Surplus store in Fridley, Minnesota. They found an odd collection of items, as expected, but what struck them most were the signs labeling the goods, which are well worth sharing.
Staff members have a lovely sense of humor. They see that the goods are odd, and their impressions reflect what customers are thinking anyway. We don't know what these are or what they are for, either, but they are darn cheap!
See all the pictures and replies in the original Twitter thread, although you can see the images without having to open them at Threadreader. -via Bored Panda
(All images credit: Enfys J. Book (Lucky))
There was a time when all we knew were the nine planets (now eight) that revolve around our sun. Then we developed amazing space telescopes that can capture images outside our solar system. On March 21, NASA confirmed the 5,000th exoplanet. To celebrate this milestone, NASA put together a data visualization, a timeline on a 360° map, showing when each exoplanet was discovered.
As each exoplanet is discovered, a circle appears at its position in the sky. The size of the circle indicates the relative size of the planet's orbit and the color indicates which planet detection method was used to discover it. The music is created by playing a note for each newly discovered world. The pitch of the note indicates the relative orbital period of the planet. Planets that take a longer time to orbit their stars are heard as lower notes, while planets that orbit more quickly are heard as higher notes.
The big blue blob that appears on the left in 2013-14 represents data picked up from the Kepler space telescope. That data confirmed 1,284 exoplanets and hinted at thousands more possible exoplanets. -via Metafilter
The would-be viral skateboarding star failed on his first attempt at the trick. Although he did flip successfully, he also lost control of his board. It was up to a Mercedes Sprinter work van passing by to rescue the recording. It performed an impromptu trick when the errant skateboard slipped under a back wheel.
Although the driver brought the van to a quick halt, it was a lot of force for a board to hold. Still, it held together remarkably well and the human was able to complete the trick, despite the damage to at least one truck.
-via Born in Space
For almost a hundred years, Tavira, Portugal, was a town centered around the tuna fishing industry. When the supply of tuna declined, the town focused on other things, but a remnant of that legacy remains. No one knows who first arranged out-of-service boat anchors on the beach at Praia do Barril, but after they did, it became a custom for others to add to the collection any time they discarded an anchor. Now hundreds of them stand in formation as a monument to bygone days of fishing. It's called the Anchor Graveyard, and draws tourists to Tavira.
The Anchor Graveyard is just one of the many specialty scrapyards, er, cemeteries around the world where old objects go when they are no longer useful. Messy Nessy Chic takes us on a tour of graveyards for bicycles, airplanes, fiberglass statues, concrete statues, phone booths, rickshaws, tanks, firetrucks, and even ice cream.
(Image credit: VITIMan)
An awful lot of "family movies" (translation: for kids) involve talking animals interacting with people, or some other feature that doesn't happen in the real world. That's done almost exclusively with CGI today, but there was a period of several decades in which robots were used for those animals, often with some CGI used to smooth over the finished scenes. Working with animatronics not only displays the uncanny valley effect, but seeing these robot animals -or even humans- without their skin or with their heads removed can scar you for life. Let's hope the child actors who had to witness such carnage are okay. A few animal characters were played by humans, which can also be traumatic. See the nightmare fuel behind "live action" animations from five beloved movies at Cracked.
Dr. Ernesto Di Maio is a professor of Materials Science and Technology at the University of Naples. He is also allergic to yeast. Naples is the birthplace of pizza. In a confluence of biology and geography, Di Maio was destined to develop a way to make pizza crust without yeast. In a normal pizza crust (and most bread), yeast produced carbon dioxide bubbles as it ferments, which causes the dough to rise, making it light and airy. Di Maio's team looked for a way to infuse raw dough with carbon dioxide artificially.
To artificially aerate the crust, the team placed the dough—a mixture of flour, water, and salt—into an autoclave, a chamber with controlled pressure and temperature settings. They then flooded the golf ball–sized dough with gas at high pressure, similar to carbonating a soda. When they gradually released the pressure and increased the heat inside the chamber, the team watched the dough rise.
They ended up with several mini-crusts, which they declared tasty. This experiment may lead to specialty pizzas and even breads that can be tolerated by people with yeast allergies. Read more about the experiment at Smithsonian. -via Damn Interesting
(Image credit: Breville USA)
😺 It's a fact of life that cats shed (and sometimes, they throw up a hairball) but you don't have to let all that fluffy fur go to waste. Instead, just do what Twitter user @MiniraDairy did and needlefelt some house slippers for your cat. A-meow-zing!
🐋 This lost young narwhal have found a new family: a pod of beluga whales that "adopted" it.
🎹 There are many cover of this famous video game theme music, but Scott Bradlee of Postmodern Jukebox has managed to give us chills some playing the Super Mario Bros. theme music as ragtime piano medley. Fantastic!
🗄️ The one thing that's more impressive than the quantity of Sailor Moon collectibles owned by @clipnotebook is the next level organization she employed.
Image: @MiniraDiary/Twitter
🤖 Doctor Frankenstein, I presume? Scientists have made lab-grown living "xenobot" robot that can replicate and make more of themselves. And they're shaped like Pac-Man!
💑 Hollywood rom-coms are wrong: science has debunked "opposites attract" as researchers found that friends and lovers actually tend to share beliefs, values, and hobbies.
🦥 Got a home gym? Perhaps a Peloton that's now serving as a laundry station? Then this comic title "Smart" Home Gym Equipment for the Less Active by Gemma Correll will surely resonate.
🎵 "Every song has been tempo matched, beat synced, harmonized and spliced together perfectly. Honestly, it's a work of genius": 600 Songs from 1990 to 1999 remixed. What a fun musical blast from the past.
Image: @Douglas Blackiston and Sam Kriegman
Want more neat stories? Check out our new sites: Pictojam, Homes & Hues, Infinite 1UP, Laughosaurus, Pop Culturista, Supa Fluffy and Spooky Daily.
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