The Lawrence Massacre, also known as Quantrill's raid during the Civil War took place 150 years ago today. Pro-slavery forces from Missouri attacked the town of Lawrence, Kansas, because its citizens were anti-slavery. Historians (with accounts in the names of real people who were there) are reenacting the entire sequence in real time …on Twitter! You can follow along as different characters give 140-character updates on what they are experiencing. Link -via Boing Boing
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Minute Physics gives an incredibly concise overview of what we know, and what we don't know, about the beginning of the universe. Of course, the most tantalizing part is the point "where we don't know what we're talking about." Perhaps knowledge is like infinity; no matter how much we learn, we also learn how much more there is to learn. -via Viral Viral Videos
See this beard? Ain't it weird? Don't be feared -it's just Ben Garvin in a supremely silly stop-motion video starring his magical beard. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
Nicola Peate tried to eat a a "triple-patty" burger at Almost Famous Burgers in Liverpool, England. It didn't go so well, as the effort left her in pain -which just got worse. By the next morning, it was so bad that she went to the hospital and found that her jaw was dislocated!
An x-ray in the emergency department at the Royal Liverpool university hospital confirmed her fears and a doctor quickly manipulated her jaw back into place using his thumbs.
"The minute it went back in it was like turning a tap off in my head," Peate said.
"All the tension just went."
A second x-ray assured medics that everything was back to normal and she was discharged and warned to "stifle yawns" and not to open her jaw too far for a fortnight.
Peate has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), which means she has hyper-flexible joints that are unstable and therefore prone to dislocation, so she has visited many hospitals over the years.
The restaurant has offered Peate another burger on the house -complete with cutlery and painkillers if necessary. Link -via Digg
(Image credit: Royal Liverpool university hospital/PA)
Oh my, how times change. A decade ago, proponents of the proper use of English were bemoaning the use of the word "like" as an annoying filler in the language of younger people. In fact, that's how I first found Neatorama. Now, those who grew up sprinkling "like" throughout their spoken dialogue are defining its usefulness, namely English professor Paula Marantz Cohen.
Cohen remembers intentionally slipping “like” into a lecture on Paradise Lost. “The thing you have to realize with Milton is that even if you don’t, like, ‘believe,’ there is a wealth of profound observation about human relationships in the poem,” she told students. Here, like “opens up the idea of belief.” It stretches the statement to include not only pure religious faith, but things like it: the desire to believe, maybe, or the conviction that comes out of social pressure—both feelings relevant to Milton. (What does it mean to believe in a poem, anyway? Maybe it makes more sense to, like, believe in it?)
Some uses of “like” achieve an emotional accuracy that would not be possible if you insisted on speaking literally. “The bakery is, like, two seconds away from my apartment, so I can pick up the cake” captures not just that the bakery is close by, but also the subjective experience of convenience. It telegraphs more (useful) information than “The bakery is approximately a seven-minute walk from my apartment, give or take a few minutes and depending on which lights I catch and whether I’m wearing sneakers or flip-flops—so I can pick up the cake.” Also, by the time you’ve finished uttering that sentence, you could have gone to the bakery and back.
Well, you know, like, whatever. Link
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
Okay, let's level with each other. Is there anyone out there reading this who isn't afraid of something? Come on, I know it's hard for some of us to be open about stuff like this, but you can be honest. You'd have to think that with all the varied and unique experiences each of us has had in our respective lives, some fears have developed.
Well, don't feel bad about it. I would think having a phobia or two (or three or whatever) is pretty much inevitable. These fears are nothing to laugh at or ridicule. On the contrary, they are pretty much a part of "the human experience." Let's take a look at some major fears, dislikes, and full-out phobias of some well-known people.
Gustave Eiffel, the designer of the famed Eiffel Tower, was terrified of heights.
LSD advocate and guru Timothy Leary was deathly afraid of barbers. He started cutting his own hair at the age of nine. He even refused to enter a barber shop.
Megan Fox hates paper. Megan says it's not a full phobia, it's more like the people who get chills from fingernails scratching on a blackboard. Megan says she has to have a paper cup around to immediately wet her fingers to turn the pages if she is reading a script or a book. She hates dry paper.
Can you imagine a series about a hotel in Barstow, California, run by a retired football player? That premise eventually became Cheers, a sitcom about a bar in Boston run by a retired baseball player. Those are just some of the many bits of trivia about the hit series Cheers that you find in a list at Buzzfeed. Link
Screen Junkies presents another Honest Trailer, and this time they've teamed up with the guys from How It Should Have Ended to describe the latest Star Trek film, which disappointed so many viewers, and also give a glimpse into what may come in the next installment. -via Viral Viral Videos
In the world of business, you have to be ready to switch gears, or even make a complete turnabout, for a better opportunity. If what you're selling isn't optimal, sell something else. If the bonus you're giving away is more popular than your main product, maybe you should rethink your main product. That was the case with William Wrigley, who started out in 1891 trying to sell some exciting products: soap and baking powder.
Like Avon, the chewing gum company got its start with a popular freebie. William Wrigley, Jr. founded the company in 1891 with the goal of selling soap and baking powder. He offered chewing gum as an enticement to his customers, and eventually the customers didn't care about the baking powder; they only wanted the gum.
Yes, what eventually became Avon started out as a guy selling books door to door. Read that and other stories about companies that changed their product and became renowned for their better idea. Link
Chris-Rachael Oseland made a batch of Fougassee bread in the style that is designed to be pulled apart into individual servings. But these are extra special, because instead of a traditional leaf pattern, they are made in the likeness of Transformer faces! You'll find the recipe, plus illustrated instructions for cutting the Transformers, at Kitchen Overlord. Link -via Boing Boing
While the phone call tells the story of a breakup, the visuals show a classic martial arts movie that illustrates, minute by minute, the emotions in the audio. Jonathan Ng's water ink animation style contribute greatly to this bittersweet tale of love lost. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy
Yes, there are awards for pictures taken with an iPhone ...which include the iPod, too. In fact, the awards have been bestowed annually since 2007! Shown here is the 1st place Photographer of the Year winning entry, from Holly Wesley. You can see the runners-up and winners in the many different categories: animals, children, nature, flowers, food, landscapes, etc. at the competition site. Link -via Nag on the Lake
(Image credit: Holly Wesley)
Despite the variety of colors, most of the 435 members of the House of Representatives identify themselves as Christian, with the biggest group being Catholic. However, there are 31 different religious affiliations listed by members of Congress. In a nation founded on the principle of freedom, including freedom of religion, a representative's faith shouldn't matter as much as whether they adhere to the principle of separation of church and state. You can see that most of Hawaii is represented by a Hindu, Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, but to find the areas in the Muslim and Buddhist colors, you can see more maps that highlight individual responses at Buzzfeed. Link
This friendly reminder was erected by the Arlington County Police Department just outside Washington, D.C. The article frames it as an example of wasted tax dollars, but it is more likely that the people who program the sign, to warn of traffic jams and other hazards when they occur, just ran out of helpful default slogans. Link -via Arbroath
(Image credit: @amandaxanderson)
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