The deadliest fire in the history of the United States occurred in a town you probably never heard of. On October 8th, 1871, Peshtigo, Wisconsin was totally consumed by fire, and over 1,200 people died. The fire was not widely reported in the press, because the Great Chicago Fire (October 8-10) got the headlines. Read a harrowing account of the Peshtigo fire at Damn Interesting. Link
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The deadliest fire in the history of the United States occurred in a town you probably never heard of. On October 8th, 1871, Peshtigo, Wisconsin was totally consumed by fire, and over 1,200 people died. The fire was not widely reported in the press, because the Great Chicago Fire (October 8-10) got the headlines. Read a harrowing account of the Peshtigo fire at Damn Interesting. Link
OK, admit it. You’ve thought about this before, haven’t you? Click on image or go to College Humor. -via Gorilla Mask
46-year-old Carnegie-Mellon professor Randy Pausch delivered his final lecture, entitled “How to Live Your Dreams†on Tuesday. Paush has terminal pancreatic cancer. The lecture is powerful and uplifting.
Link to story. Link to video. http://wms.andrew.cmu.edu/001/pausch.wmv to full lecture (opens in new player). Link to Pausch’s website. -via Reddit and Fark
"What we're not going to talk about today," he continued, "is cancer, because I've spent a lot of time talking about that ... and we're not going to talk about things that are even more important, like my wife and [three preschool] kids, because I'm good, but I'm not good enough to talk about that without tearing up."
What he was there to discuss was how to fulfill your childhood dreams, and the lessons he had learned on his life's journey.
Link to story. Link to video. http://wms.andrew.cmu.edu/001/pausch.wmv to full lecture (opens in new player). Link to Pausch’s website. -via Reddit and Fark
This is so true, whatever medium you’re working in. Everyone’s got to put their two cents in. Flags of the world, with comments from the client.
Link -via the Presurfer
Jason at mental_floss ran down where the advertising icons of yesteryear are now. What does the Gerber Baby look like now? Who inspired the Dutch Boy and the Coppertone Girl? And where did Mikey end up? Find out about ten of these! Link
New x-ray techniques will be used on some of the Dead Sea Scrolls that are too fragile to unravel.
They will look at the texts using x-rays produced at the £360m Diamond Light Source in Didcot, Oxfordshire. The machine works by propelling electrons at great speeds around a giant tunnel. As they corner, they emit x-rays 100bn times brighter than a medical x-ray.
Researchers led by Tim Wess have developed computer software that can "unravel" x-ray images of rolled up parchment documents to reveal the writing, even if the parchment has text on either side.
Link -via the Presurfer
In this photo essay in JPG Magazine, Mr. Fly takes on a number of different jobs to support his 173 wives and 2,184 children. Link -via Dump Trumpet
The Aquarius Mission 2007 began Monday and will continue through September 23rd.
Four live webcams are set up for you to follow the mission, plus two cameras attached to divers and a surface camera. The first camera choice is the current active feed. http://www.oceanslive.org/portal/ -via Discovery News
Aquarius is an underwater ocean laboratory in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. World renowned sponge biologists Dr. Niels Lindquist and Dr. Chris Martens will provide a first hand look into how reefs interact as a real life colony in this ecosystem, and the many daily issues that impact them. Watch as they perform their scientific experiments with sponges to better understand these complex organisms and what they have to tell us.
Four live webcams are set up for you to follow the mission, plus two cameras attached to divers and a surface camera. The first camera choice is the current active feed. http://www.oceanslive.org/portal/ -via Discovery News
This marketplace in Bangkok shares space with a commuter train. This illustrates how crowded the city is. Push play or go to Break.com. -via the Presurfer
H. Piddy in the role of his life! I thought I would have to listen to this two or three times to catch all the pop culture reference, but the lyrics are avilable if you scroll down this MySpace page. Push play or go to Viral Video Chart.
The Astronomy Picture of the Day today features the eruption of Volcano Tungurahua in Ecuador. The photo was taken by Patrick Taschler last year. Tungurahua becomes active roughly every 90 years, and continues to erupt today. Link -via Reddit
Five graduate students are bicycling across Asia and Europe on a goodwill tour.
Starting September 15th of this year we will be biking across Asia and perhaps Europe. We will begin in Beijing, continue through India, and then proceed further West, if possible.
Along the way we will bike through rural areas and play music in villages. We feel that the people in these areas have a lot to teach us, and that this bike trip will be an excellent opportunity for spreading international good will on the local level. We also intend to advocate reducing carbon emissions and living slower-paced, more enjoyable lives.
You can follow their progress as they update their blog and photo gallery. http://fueledbyrice.org/index.html -via Metafilter
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