A fireworks display Friday at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton, California drew crowds of people -and yellow jackets! A swarm of insects stung fairgoers when their nest was disturbed.
The wasp attacks began shortly after the fireworks show started at 9:15 p.m. About 5,000 people were in the grandstands, and 15 minutes later sting victims started showing up in the first aid area, Knowles said.
"Apparently there were a number of (yellow jackets) also in attendance for the fireworks display last night," Knowles said Saturday.
She said emergency personnel at the fair set up a triage area to care for those who were stung. Everyone was treated on site and there were no hospitalizations, Knowles said.
By midnight Friday, an exterminator located and removed a ground nest, Mitchell said. The yellow jackets were probably disturbed by the vibrations as the fireworks were launched, not the explosions overhead, she said.
None of the victims were allergic to the stings. Link
Mark Lamster interviewed 97-year-old Morris Moel, who immigrated to the United States from Ukraine, a part of the Soviet Union in 1922. The story is typical of that era's immigrants, which means it was a heroic struggle to get here. His father came first, then Moel was separated from this mother when she went to Warsaw, and then his grandmother died. But Moel's mother arranged for strangers to get the youngsters out of Ukraine.
The Russian part of the border was all forest. And we were stopped. I heard rifles being cocked while we were walking. Russian soldiers. And the soldiers searched everyone and took everything that was valuable and said you’ve got to go back, and I guess they [the guides] knew another route so we got through. And the Polish border was absolutely free, but it was all snow. I was so little and my older borther dragged me across that border. Finally we got to the other side inside Poland. Stayed in a house for half a night and we were then taken to a train station. And that train took us into Warsaw. The first time I was in a train. And my mother was waiting for us in an office. We told her my grandmother died. She never knew about it.
It took many more months for Moel to actually reach America. Link -via Jason Kottke
Kelly Moss of Germantown, Tennessee was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving when police officers found her parked on the sidewalk and slumped over the steering wheel. The 48-year-old was unable to stand and could not complete a field sobriety test. What had she been drinking?
An officer noticed partially empty bottles of vanilla extract, labeled as 35 percent alcohol by volume, and Diet Coke in the front seat, and they said they smelled a strong vanilla odor on the woman's breath. A grocery receipt found in the vehicle listed two 8-ounce bottles of vanilla extract, purchased Wednesday.
This is Moss' third DUI arrest. http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/jul/01/police-germantown-woman-drove-drunk-vanilla/
Cook's Illustrated magazine advises you to find out where your broiler's "hot spots" are by positioning bread slices all across the oven and studying the results after they are toasted. Link -via Nag on the Lake
What happens when the Jawas of Tatooine encounter Nazis on a secluded Mediterranean island? They end up as the heroes of the story, at least in this re-edited scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark! Even the Tusken Raiders are afraid of the little guerrillas. Link
This map, or geoid, shows the contours of the earth in a more precise manner than ever before. It was constructed with measurements taken by Europe's Goce satellite.
Launched in 2009, the sleek satellite flies pole to pole at an altitude of just 254.9km - the lowest orbit of any research satellite in operation today.
The spacecraft carries three pairs of precision-built platinum blocks inside its gradiometer instrument that sense accelerations which are as small as 1 part in 10,000,000,000,000 of the gravity experienced on Earth.
This has allowed it to map the almost imperceptible differences in the pull exerted by the mass of the planet from one place to the next - from the great mountain ranges to the deepest ocean trenches.
Two months of observations have now been fashioned into what scientists call the geoid.
This technology allows mapping of places that were too inaccessible for such precision before, such as the Himalayas. The BBC has a lot more on this project. Link -via TYWKIWDBI
No matter where you are or what you are supposed to be doing, you can be watching TV! Block out everyone around you and stay in your own little world with the TV Hat! Now there's no reason to ever turn away from your personal video experience, whether you are at work, in your car, or at the beach! As a commenter at Metafilter said, "a feed bag for your eyes"! https://www.trytvhat.com/flare/next?etag=asotv -via Metafilter
When Robert Blake was arrested in 2002 and charged with the murder of his wife, a lot of people began to look back and wonder if the kids who starred in the Our Gang films were under some kind of cloud.
BACKGROUND
According to Our Gang producer Hal Roach, 176 kids played in the 221 Our Gang films made between 1922 and 1944. Only a few of these became major stars in the series.
It's not unusual for child stars to have a difficult time as they move into adulthood, and if anything life in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s was even tougher. Children who worked in the series typically started out earning less than $100 a week, and they never earned residuals-when the Our Gang films made their way to television in the early 1950s, the kids didn't get a penny. Result: when their fame ended, they didn't have any money to fall back on like child stars do today.
When you consider how many kids cycled through the Our Gang series, it stands to reason that quite a few of them would have problems later in life. Even so, the number of kids who suffered misfortune over the years is startling. You can't help but wonder: Are the Little Rascals cursed?
LOSS OF INNOCENCE
*Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer: Like many of the Little Rascals, Switzer had trouble finding movie roles as he grew older. He landed bit parts in films like It's a Wonderful Life and The Defiant Ones, supporting himself at such odd jobs as bartender, dog trainer, and hunting guide between acting gigs. He was shot to death in 1959 following an argument over $50. He was 31. (Carl's older brother, Harold, also appeared in the Our Gang series; in April 1967 he murdered his girlfriend and then killed himself. He was 42.)
*William "Buckwheat" Thomas: When his career in front of the camera ended, Thomas became a film technician with the Technicolor Corporation. In October 1980, a neighbor who hadn't seen Thomas in several days entered his home and found him dead in bed. Cause of death: heart attack. Thomas was 49.
The symbolism of historic icons usually gets simplified over the years, and often co-opted by groups with their own agendas. Along the way, the actual history gets lost, which is the point of this Cracked article 8 Historic Symbols That Mean The Opposite of What You Think. Take, for example, the inverted cross that is sometimes used to symbolize satanism.
If those Satanists had paid attention in Sunday school, they would probably realize that the inverted cross is actually the personal trademark of Saint Peter, the first Pope, and one of the most revered figures in Catholic lore. When Peter was martyred by crucifixion he was said to have requested to be crucified upside down because he didn't feel worthy of dying the same way as Jesus. As a result, many dyed-in-the-wool Catholics actually consider the inverted cross to be a more acceptable thing to attach to your tacky jewelry than a regular right-way-up one.
And there are seven other symbols that might surprise you. Link -via Gorilla Mask
The annual Keep Austin Weird Festival took place just last weekend in Austin, Texas. Who better to show us what it's all about than Zach Anner? This is the third part of his Zach Anner Rolls Over Austin series; see parts one and two as well. -via Bits and Pieces
Heavy rains in St. Petersburg flooded the streets. What's a woman to do? This act of chivalry not only kept them dry, but also made the women recording the video squeal with delight. There's also a bonus surprise that passes by. -via Arbroath
During this holiday weekend in the USA, you may be looking for something to read in between picnics and parades. We've posted a lot of links for you this week, so just in case you've found it hard to keep up, here are the original features posted this week at Neatorama.
From Steven M. Johnson's Museum of Possibilities, we saw some strange and wonderful ideas in Inflatable Swimwear for Summer and It’s Time to Design Slow, Colorful and Asymmetrical Cars.
Jill Harness took her geekery to new heights with two articles at NeatoGeek this week: 12 Hacked Nintendo Controllers and 10 Ways to Cook Up Some Star Wars Fun.
The biggest post of the week was also at NeatoGeek, when Alex gave us 10 Neat Facts About Tron to refresh our memories of the 1982 film before we see the new Tron: Legacy coming in December.
I posted a list of strange cases of people sneaking around with contraband in 10 Weird Items People Tried to Smuggle.
TV fans won't want to miss David Israel's interview with Stacey Abbott, editor of The Cult TV Book. Congratulations to Neatoramanauts Kelly Kirkpatrick and Bob Penick, who won copies of the book!
Did you guess what the object was in the What Is It game?
Over at mental_floss, Neatorama is collaborating on another How Did You Know? contest. The winners do far this week are Sarah Blask, Jimmy Luth, kkirkpat, and Sharon and Keith, who all won prizes from the NeatoShop. The contest continues on Monday, with another chance for you to win!
Three new artists were added to the Neatorama Art Blog: painter Kristin Kwan, shoe artist Ken Turner, and multi-media artist Claire Hardman.
From Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, we strolled back in time to find out how The Little Rascals shot to stardom in the 1920s and 30s, and are still a hit today.
You've heard the story of the Pied Piper, who lured away all the children of Hamelin because the town wouldn't pay him for getting rid of the rats. There's a real story behind the legend, and the town of Hamelin, Germany lives with the events of June 26th, 1284. Contemporary accounts are lost, but writings from the 14th century apparently reference early reports. What really happened to the children of Hamelin? Were they recruited for some crusade? Did they die of the plague? Did they just run away? Or could they have been victims of mass hysteria?
Another episode that shares features with the Pied Piper events took place in 1237 in the town of Erfurt, 271km south-east of Hamelin. A group of children marched in a dancing procession towards Arnstadt, 15km to the south, where they were said to have collapsed with exhaustion. Unlike the children of Hamelin, the Erfurt youngsters were rescued by their parents, who took them back to their homes. Still, some of them were said either to have died or remained afflicted with a permanent tremor.
The events at Erfurt are considered to be one of the first manifestations of the mediæval phenomenon known as the Dancing Mania (see FT:203:30–34), usually interpreted as a form of mass hysteria related to religious fervour. Dancing Mania was reportedly spread by “the sight of sufferers, like a demoniacal epidemic, over the whole of Germany and the neighbouring countries to the northwest”. [2] Those affected were described as unable to control their movements, or to stop their endless dance, and many were said to have died of exhaustion. As with Hamelin, we have an image of a crowd of children led away by music, perhaps to their deaths.
An article at Fortean Times lays out several possibilities for the disappearance of 130 children from Hamelin. Link
Would you recognize that someone is drowning if you saw them? Real-life drowning looks nothing like the way Hollywood depicts drowning: the yelling, the arm-waving, the violent panic.
The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening (source: CDC).
gCaptain has a list of signs that indicate the instinctive drowning response. Link -via Dark Roasted Blend
