Caligula was only 25 years old when he became the emperor of Rome, the son of the general and politician Germanicus and Agrippina, the granddaughter of Augustus Caesar. Conflict with Tiberius, Germanicus' uncle, resulted in Caligula being the only male survivor of the family. After Tiberius' death, Caligula ascended the throne.

The annals of history record Caligula as being a madman, and his four-year reign filled with scandalous affairs. However, one perspective suggests that these rumors were mere smear campaigns to discredit the young emperor. Seeing how Caligula was not on good terms with the Senate and the historians who had been part of it, it lends credence to that point of view.

Some of the rumors about Caligula involved an incestuous relationship with one of his sisters, hinted at by the historian Suetonius. However, this rumor had been refuted by other historians like Tacitus and Philo of Alexandria, who shrugged it off as a baseless rumor. Another tall tale was how Caligula supposedly made his horse Incitatus the consul of Rome. But this story may have simply been a prank that the emperor pulled on the Senate to rouse them.

It's possible that the Senate's hatred for Caligula and their authority over writing history made it such that the records showed that Caligula's reign was one of insanity. Furthermore, the rumors about his sexual perversity along with the stories of his madness were a means to show poor government, giving people a reason to depose him.

In the end, Caligula's strained relationship with the Senate became his undoing as they plotted to assassinate him, and succeeded. Afterwards, his uncle, Claudius, was elected by the Praetorian Guard. For more infamous tales about Caligula, check it out on The Collector.

(Image credit: British Museum)

High cholesterol levels can lead to heart disease, stroke, and other chronic ailments which mostly require a lifetime of medication for maintenance. It's costly and very limiting for individuals as someone who has hypercholesterolemia will have to restrict themselves from eating foods that increase levels of bad cholesterol. It's a great piece of news then, that a new clinical trial of a CRISPR-based treatment has been found to successfully cut cholesterol levels by up to 55 percent.

The trial involved ten people who had been determined to be genetically prone to hypercholesterolemia, by infusing the gene editing tools directly into the bloodstream, contrary to other typical CRISPR treatments, wherein scientists extract cells, edit them, and then reinsert them into the patient.

It may sound like a risky procedure, but Verve Therapeutics, the biotech company responsible for the trial, mitigated the risks of side effects by pairing the gene editing tools with nanoparticles. What this new treatment aims to do is to target the liver protein PCSK9 so that LDL levels can be maintained.

Although the results were astonishing, the trial was not without a hitch. One of the participants of the trial died from cardiac arrest. However, a review board indicated that the cause of death was likely due to underlying conditions.

Another patient suffered a heart attack, which might have been due to the treatment. But the patient had not disclosed having intermittent chest pains which would have excluded him from the trial. It's not completely perfect yet, but this first human trial bodes well for the future of CRISPR treatments of hypercholesterolemia, and possibly other conditions like sickle cell disease.

(Image credit: Scientific Animations/Wikimedia Commons)

The invisible hand refers to the market forces that influence behaviors and decisions within a free market economy. It explains how the market moves toward equilibrium, balancing out demand and supply, and how individuals, who are making economic choices in their own interest, are contributing to that effect.

Disney has been struggling recently with poor performances of its latest releases in the box office, with both The Marvels and Wish flopping. How the invisible hand factors into Disney's woes is reflected in a statement out of their annual SEC report saying how the company has been misaligned with the public and consumers' tastes and preferences.

At the end of the day, Disney is a large corporation that seeks to profit from their products, which are primarily driven by the content they create, and how these resonate with consumers. Despite their efforts in trying to jump into the bandwagon, the market doesn't seem to buy into it, and now they are faced with trying to stem the bleeding.

For the remainder of this year, Disney Studios still has three upcoming films which will round out its 2023 slate. Perhaps the next films that consumers are anticipating are Inside Out 2 and Deadpool 3, which are both scheduled for summer next year. Whether these will help Disney "realign themselves with the public" is something we have to wait and see. In any case, a happy 300th birthday to Adam Smith.

(Image credit: Elijah Chen/Unsplash)

Although we know Agatha Christie to be the queen of crime, who had become famous for her 66 detective novels and 14 short stories, along with the fictional characters Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple, there are other lesser known facts about the dame. Like the fact that she had a stained glass window designed and installed at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Churston Ferrers, Devon.

What urged the mystery writer to propose such an idea was that she had hated the plain glass windows on the east side of the church, and so she decided to commission someone to design the window to her specification. However, there was the matter of the cost, legal fees, and taxes.

Negotiations between Christie's literary agent, Edmund Cork, and the diocese came at an impasse, and the dame, who wanted none of the fuss, settled with having the windows installed without being specified as the donor. Later on, her daughter Rosalind put up a plaque explaining the origin of the stained glass window.

(Image credit: The Oldie)

Devil's Church Cave, or Pirunkirkko in the local language, found in eastern Finland, has been the site of rituals and magical practices by shamans and faith healers for centuries, but the supposed mystical properties of the cave may be attributed to its unique acoustics.

A pair of researchers, Riitta Rainio and Elina Hytönen-Ng, have been studying the cave and discovered that the shape of the cave's back wall may be responsible for the supernatural beliefs associated with it. They started their research by observing a shaman performing a healing ritual which often used drums and a cacophony of sounds including screams, yells, shouts, stomps, and loud bangs.

The mix of sounds are then amplified by the wall of the cave producing a "distinct resonance phenomenon" which were more pronounced at a frequency of 231 Hz. They write that this resonance may have been what shamans and people of the past deemed to be a supernatural presence or exceptional energy that helped them connect with nature and one's own roots.

(Image credit: Trip Advisor)

The authors of the book "The Exorcist Effect" looked at the way horror films and culture shape each other as well as the dangers of simply pinning the blame of horrific real-life cases on supernatural beliefs without addressing the underlying causes or getting down to the truth of the matter, as what happened in the trial of The West Memphis Three.

Another example they gave which might be interesting was how serial killers like David Berkowitz (the Zodiac Killer), and Jeffrey Dahmer had used the film The Exorcist as a means of stacking up a defense for the horrible things they had done. Or the fact that Ed and Lorraine Warren, who were the inspiration for the film The Conjuring, had argued that Arne Johnson was not guilty of murder because he was possessed.

With this book, they are not trying to debunk supernatural beliefs or advocate for censorship in horror media, but rather, they want to urge people to use critical thinking when looking at real-life scenarios, instead of immediately jumping the gun on someone simply because they looked like a member of a cult or an occultist. -via The Daily Grail

(Image credit: Tarik Haiga/Unsplash)

The US' involvement in WWII had been much debated during the time and its detractors had much to say why the US should stay out of it. History tells us that the US did enter the fray and through the combined efforts of the Allied Forces successfully defeated the Axis Powers. However, what would have happened had the US lost in WWII? The map above shows how the states would have been divvied up in that scenario.

The map shows portions of the west coast, Hawaii, and Alaska in yellow. New York would become an international free port while the rest of the east coast, highlighted in red, will be split up among the Axis Powers. Right next to that, in blue, is a "buffer state" referred to as the "corridor of death" with its trove of steel, coal, and cotton. 

On the other hand, part of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona will also be stripped from the US, presumably going to Mexico. Meanwhile, a green zone in the north comprising of Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island along with parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan will be given to one of the Axis Powers.

That leaves the rest of the area in the middle under the control of the US. The map was published on the Chicago Herald and Examiner on November 28, 1937. Thankfully, this alternate history didn't happen, as we can only imagine how the world would have been had that been the reality.

(Image credit: Vivid Maps)

I will never recover from this student email. pic.twitter.com/Jzj5nyGKsa

— John Penniman (@Historiographos) November 28, 2023

This viral tweet posted by John Penniman, an associate professor and chair of religious studies at Bucknell University, is hilariously gut wrenching when you realize how the turn of the century or even the turn of the decade can make us all look ancient in the eyes of young'uns.

Posted about a day ago, the tweet has already received over 19 million views, 253k likes, and 29k retweets, with almost 3k comments, many of which were pointing to that part of the email which makes the 1990s sound as if it were ancient history. I was born in the late 1900's, mind you, and referring to that period as the late 1900's makes me sound like an artifact.

Many people chimed in with some funny responses, and I especially liked Lawrence Krubner's comment posting a picture of King Arthur saying that was him in 1994.

This is an actual photograph of me from 1994. I know what you’re thinking: why was my hair so long? Was I a hippie? Well, the real answer is that I was going through a difficult time, a Dark Ages, you could call it. pic.twitter.com/LKoHekAzqp

— Lawrence Krubner 🇺🇦 (@krubner) November 28, 2023

This and more funny comments from this thread on The Poke.

(Image credit: Historiographos/X; Krubner/X)

We all know that Australia is home to the deadliest and most dangerous animals on earth, but sometimes new discoveries from Australian species can provide levity to this grim side of the land down under. A couple of scientists recently found a species of Australian mosquito that fed only on frogs' noses.

Initially, the scientists, John Gould and Jose Valdez, were studying frogs but then, after taking several photographs of different species of frogs in their natural habitat, they noticed that when there were mosquitoes biting the frogs, they did so through the nose.

From this observation, they looked into this behavior by the mosquito Mimomyia elegans, and found that this species of mosquito always went for the snout and nowhere else. Even though the mosquito may land on other parts of the frogs' bodies, it would work its away up to the snout.

Why this mosquito targets the nose is still a mystery and needs further research, but this observation is crucial as there are frogs such as the Litoria aurea which are almost extinct, and these mosquitoes might be transmitting deadly fungal diseases to these frogs.

(Image credit: Ethology (2023). DOI: 10.1111/eth.13424)

If we were to talk about the unsung heroes during World War II, then we must not be remiss in giving credit to the librarians and researchers whom the US government recruited to become, essentially, the first intelligence officers and agents before the establishment of the CIA.

And if the British had Alan Turing who helped intercept German messages, the US had Adele Kibre among the cadre of librarian recruits to gather Nazi publications which proved crucial in gathering vital information during the war. It is said that her acquisition of periodals such as Zeitschrift für Physik and Die Naturwissenschaften helped the scientists involved in the Manhattan Project to develop the nuclear bomb ahead of the Nazis.

Apart from this, the librarians and researchers of the Interdepartmental Committee for the Acquisition of Foreign Publicatioins (IDC), developed networks and ties with other resistance forces throughout Europe which helped them smuggle the periodicals to the US. After publications were ceased, they turned to human sources by interrogating prisoners of war and other Allied sympathizers.

Joining forces with the British army, they rummaged through abandoned Nazi territories and bombed-out bookstores, as well as confiscating books that could have been used to spread genocidal messages, or to harbor other information such as military weaponry. In the end, all these materials had become US properties where they were stored in universities and other cultural organizations.

(Image credit: Smithsonian Institution/Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons)

Traditional medicine has often been set aside in favor of modern technology and medical advancements because we find that modern medicine has undergone rigorous research and testing that proves the effectiveness of treatments and medication in curing diseases.

It was quite surprising, then, for Ronald Quinn, a professor emeritus at Griffith University and a member of the Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery, to hear how John Watson used the bark of a mudjala mangrove tree as a painkiller when a crocodile bit off his finger. This began the 30-year quest to research this ancient painkiller, and turn it into a commercial drug that could benefit Australians.

Knowledge about the mudjala's medicinal properties was quite common among the Nyikina Mangala people as Watson had quickly searched for the tree, and created a makeshift analgesic dressing for his bitten finger until he got to the hospital.

In their years studying the mudjala, Quinn and his team found that the bark of the mudjala contained two active compounds which ease inflammation and nerve pain. Furthermore, Quinn and Watson believe that it is ten times stronger than morphine.

To create a commercial over-the-counter drug from the mudjala, the team received funding from the Jacka Foundation for Natural Therapies and they are hoping to formally launch the product in the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

(Image credit: Steve Fitzgerald/Wikimedia Commons)

Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system and that's one of the reasons why we haven't been able to send a lander that could last long enough to probe much of the planet. Due to the dense atmosphere on Venus' surface, much of the sun's heat gets trapped and the temperatures could go up as high as 464 degrees Celsius (867 degrees Fahrenheit).

One lander, Venera 12, successfully lasted about 110 minutes and several of its predecessors and successors were able to take a few photos and audio from Venus. The last lander on Venus was Venera 14 which landed on March 5, 1982. No other landers have been sent since, however, space agencies have been planning to do further studies on Venus' atmosphere with Roscosmos intending to revisit the surface.

Despite similarities to Earth in size, composition, and density, Venus' surface temperature caused by its atmosphere have made it uninhabitable. -via The Daily Grail

(Image credit: ESA/Don P. Mitchell/Venera 13)

Any surgical operation these days can be bearable because of the availability of modern anesthetics which numb us from the pain of the procedure. Depending on the dosage, we can just sleep through the whole thing, hopefully without waking up in the middle of it. Surgery today is leagues better than in ancient Rome, and it's not just because there were no anesthetics back then.

Perhaps the most horrifying thing in getting surgery in ancient Rome was the surgeons themselves. Generally, to become a surgeon in ancient Rome, one undergoes an apprenticeship, gaining practical training and experience as they observe the masters at their work. However, since there were no regulatory bodies that certify whether a person was good enough to be a surgeon, practically anybody can claim to be one, despite having absolutely no knowledge of anatomy or physiology.

This led to procedures which often resulted in fatalities. Just from the photo above we can see how these procedures had gone. It supposedly depicts the birth of Julius Caesar who Suetonius has said to have been born through a C-section. Perhaps, that's why it's called a Caesarean. This and other disturbing facts about ancient Roman surgery at Strange Ago.

(Image credit: Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons)

Being seated for a long period of time can be very exhausting and painful. People who have worked at a desk job know the agony of sitting for extended periods of time. Not only does it hurt the bottom, but it also causes neck, shoulder, and back pain, which explains the popularity of ergonomic chairs these days or standing desks, which allow people to work on their computers while standing up.

If we were to hold a competition to see who can outlast the others on a sitting position, no doubt the Japanese will be one of the major contenders to win as sitting has been part of the culture for centuries. In fact, it is one of the etiquette rules taught to them from an early age, and in particular the seiza.

Seiza is a traditional Japanese sitting style wherein the legs are folded underneath the thighs while seated upright. It is used as a means of showing respect to elders or people of higher position.

Since the Edo period, the Japanese have been sitting this way on the floor, and many aspects of their culture from architecture to interior design have been developed around this culture of sitting. Only in the past century has the Japanese culture begun to adopt chairs for sitting, but it took them a while to get used to it.

Now, many designers are incorporating both traditional concepts and newer ergonomic ideas to craft chairs suitable for individuals. Some of them like Kageyu Noro and Hidemasa Yatabe advocate for chairs customized to a person's body. In so doing, not only does one improve posture but also helps relieve them from the stresses of everyday life.

(Image credit: Roméo A./Unsplash)

The title of the book is Otaku Yogo Jiten Daigenkai, or The Dictionary of Otaku Terms, and it started out as a university project by Yoshiko Koide's students. It came about as she had observed how her students normally would say nothing during class, but when she met them outside, they were brimming with excitement to talk about their interests.

So, she had her 2022 class compile the words that they used within their fandoms into a dictionary, and the students self-published their work and sold it at the college festival.

Due to the success of the project, Koide had her 2023 class do the same. Then, Sanseido, the Japanese publishing company known for their textbooks and dictionaries approached them to publish the two volumes of otaku terms into a book, which had just been launched a week ago.

When Sanseido released sample pages of the book, the internet unleashed a firestorm. Dedicated fans from different fandoms lambasted the work, first, accusing it of gatekeeping, then, nitpicking the different terms included in the dictionary, and even threatening the women who had compiled the words. Because of this negative reaction, the publisher removed the names of the contributors from the book, leaving only Koide credited, and revised entries to reflect the sentiments of the slighted fans.

What started out as a fun project became a horrendous affair. The fact that Sanseido picked up the project and decided to publish it added such weight to the work, that people took offense and felt as though their identity had been attacked. It just goes to show how strongly fans feel for the things they love and how protective they are of them.

(Image credit: CDJapan)