If crucifixion as a means of capital punishment hadn't died out in the ancient world, it would labeled cruel and unusual punishment, and would never fly in the civilized world. The common wisdom is that the practice ended with the reign of Constantine, the first Christian emperor of Rome (306 to 337 CE). However, some accounts of crucifixion appear after he converted in 312.
Even if Constantine did, in fact, end the practice of crucifixion, it’s not clear that he did so out of respect for Christ’s execution. Aurelius Victor, the earliest historian to claim that Constantine banned crucifixion, explained that the emperor was motivated by a sense of humanity rather than piety. Crucifixion is a pretty gruesome way to go—significantly worse than the New Testament makes it seem. Although Christ reportedly expired in a matter of hours, many crucifixion victims clung to life for days. Even in Roman times, it was considered an exceptionally cruel punishment, reserved mainly for those who challenged state authority, such as insurgents and enemy soldiers. (Joel Marcus of Duke described crucifixion as “parodic exaltation,” because it gave rebels the fame they sought, albeit in a grotesque form.) By some accounts, Constantine replaced crucifixion with hanging, a less painful execution method. Constantine’s supposed ban on crucifixion came as part of a package of reforms, further suggesting that he was merely exercising human mercy. Branding prisoners’ faces, for example, was also prohibited around the same time—a reform that had nothing to do with Christ’s execution.
Read more about the history of crucifixion at Slate. Link
A lump of magnetic putty totally engulfs a rare-earth magnet in slow motion. The actual sequence is eight times longer than this video shows. The putty will not rest until the magnet is at the center of the glob. What is this "magnetic putty"? From the YouTube link:
The putty looks and feels like regular silly putty, but the difference lies in the fact that it has been infused with millions of micron-sized ferrous particles (most often iron oxide powder). The magnetic putty is not actually magnetic by itself, since the infused particles are made of iron powder.
The presence of the strong neodymium iron boron magnet (the silver cube in the video) magnetizes the ferromagnetic particles in the putty. When this happens, the ferrous particles align with each other and this alignment generates north and south magnetic poles, making the putty into a temporary magnet. Once magnetized, the putty will remain magnetized even after the rare-earth magnet has been removed from the putty. This effect persists for a few hours until thermal agitation shakes the particles and they lose their alignment.
Scott Lawson has other videos about magnetic putty at his YouTube channel. -via Digg
Arcangelo Bianco Jr. of Blairsville, Pennsylvania, was arrested on charges of reckless endangerment, hunting without a license, and other charges after he shot at a deer in a Walmart parking lot. A representative of the Pennsylvania Game Commision explained the incident.
According to the commission, Bianco fired several rounds at a hapless white-tailed deer from within the Burrell Township store’s parking lot and bagged the animal on the other side of Old William Penn Highway (Old Route 22) one afternoon last November.
The most serious of the charges he faces is a misdemeanor count of reckless endangerment. He also was slapped with five summary offenses, all hunting law violations, including hunting without a license, shooting on or across highways and unlawful killing or taking of big game.
“Obviously, we can’t have someone running through a Walmart parking lot shooting at a deer,” said Jack Lucas, the wildlife conservation officer who investigated the incident.
The deer has was seized as evidence. Biano's actions were also recorded on the store's security camera. Link -via Time Newsfeed
An ad for a cable company -it could be just about any of them- that tells it like it is. NSFW language. I see ads for cable TV on cable TV and wonder why they even bother advertising, since if you aren't getting service from them, you aren't seeing the ads. -via reddit
Three County Cork road workers were returning from a job in Carrigaline, Ireland, when they saw a pothole. They stopped and repaired the pothole. A Health and Safety worker saw them, and the three men were consequently suspended from their jobs because they had not filed the proper paperwork for this particular pothole before repairing it.
Councillor John Mulvihill Snr, a former mayor of Cork, said health and safety was of vital importance.
He said that in recent times three road workers had died in accidents. The result was that the council was enforcing legislation rigorously.
"Health and safety is number one and you cannot put people's lives at risk," he said.
"The law says it was not safe. You need three or four people to fill in a pothole including two with 'Stop and Go' signs.
Mulvihill acknowledged that the three men had exemplary records and 90 years of experience between them, and suggested a warning could have been enough. The workers' union has gone to bat to protest the suspensions. Link -via Arbroath
Comedy Central meets the Cartoon Network in the mashup art series Adventurama! Artist Spencer Duffy took the characters from the TV show Futurama and illustrated them in the style of the series Adventure Time. See the other characters at his blog Squid Ink. Link -via Laughing Squid
From the department of obvious research, an unscientific online poll by the Guardian finds that men are four times more likely than women to underestimate how overweight they are.
More than 300,000 people fed their height and weight into a Guardian interactive project since its launch last month, and each was asked in advance which category they would fall into – underweight, healthy, overweight, obese, or morbidly obese.
Almost one in four men (23%) who participated guessed their weight range was at least one category less than it was in reality – meaning men who guessed they were in the healthy weight range were in fact overweight (or heavier), for example.
The findings, which come from a very large sample (but not a scientifically selected one), suggest millions of men may be unaware they are overweight, and thus of the consequent health risks they are taking: in the UK, 68% of men and 58% of women are overweight or obese.
By contrast, women were if anything possibly too self-conscious about their weight. Only 8% under-estimated which category they fell into, while 27% thought they weighed more than they did – versus just 12% of men.
The upshot is that the men who are unaware or in denial about their weight may also be unaware of the health risks associated with their weight, which prevents them from seeking a healthier lifestyle. By the way, if you participate in the poll, weight is only given in kilograms or stone, so you'll need to calculate pounds. Link
Motorville is a large city that appears to lie in the general area of Los Angeles. It runs on oil, as its body is made of streets where cars circulate. When oil gets scarce, the city goes looking for more to feed its body. Read more about this short film by Patrick Jean at CNET. Link
Jennifer Lewis of Flavorwire has another round of posters created by making a pun of two themes, at least one of them a movie. Spring Beakers is a movie I'd want to see! Don't miss Jennifer Lawrence of Arabia, Winter is Coming to America, and the others. Link
Photographer Matthew Rolston took a series of "portraits" of the ventriloquist's dummies at the Vent Haven Museum in Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky. They are now part of his book Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits. Slate has a selection of those portraits, which are altogether creepy, especially at full size. Link -via mental_floss
From the number that defeated the Nazis to the one that put a smile on the faces of drunken sailors, here are 10 digits with real value.
1. 2.3 Milligrams of B1: The Recommendation that Won a War
Food nutrition labels were originally designed to do a lot more than make you feel guilty about eating Cheetos. The dietary recommendations were created in the 1940s to help America accomplish one of the most important missions in its history -- defeating Hitler.
On the brink of entering World War II, U.S. military leaders discovered an unexpected problem. Our soldiers weren't only hungry for victory; they were just plain hungry. After screening some 1 million young men for potential service in the armed forces, the Selective Service discovered that about one in seven candidates suffered from "disabilities directly or indirectly connected with nutrition." The recruits were unfit for duty, and the nation needed a way to turn these malnourished men into Axis-pummeling Captain Americas.
The administration pounced on the problem. President Franklin Roosevelt gathered a committee of nutrition experts to create a practical diet that would keep Americans in shape -- both at home and while fighting abroad. Within months, the committee released its "Recommended Dietary Allowances" for each nutrient. For example, a "very active" man would need 2.3 mg of vitamin B1 per day, while a "very active" woman would need about 1.8 mg.
The system worked, and today, the recommendations have morphed into the nutrition labels now standard on packaged foods. Every few years, the numbers are revised and expanded to reflect new developments in nutrition science, and they've picked up the snazzy name "Dietary Reference Intakes." But don't be fooled by the titling. At their core, they're still the same recommendations that helped a nutrient-starved nation defeat the Nazis.
2. $435: The Price that Humiliated the Pentagon
Back in the 1980s, there was one simple way to win any argument about wasteful government spending -- just bring up the Pentagon's infamous $435 hammer. The absurdly priced tool, which made headlines in 1983 following the publication of a federal spending report, became a popular symbol of government excess.
The truth, however, is more complicated. Sure, there were invoices that showed the Pentagon shelling out $435 a piece for hammers, but the documents were more of a testament to the government's odd accounting practices than its wastefulness. Per Pentagon accounting rules, defense contractors were expected to spread their overhead costs evenly across products to simplify bookkeeping. As a result, massive expenses for things such as research and development and factory maintenance were averaged into the costs of everyday office supplies. That meant that while super-expensive items such as missiles came in cheaper on the register, the price of small-ticket items such as hammers were distorted in the other direction. And because "Pentagon Gets Real Bargain on Missile!" makes a lousy headline, the media latched on to the $435 hammer story.
Since then, the Pentagon has changed its accounting rules, but it's still trying to live down the urban legend about the costly tools lurking in its overpriced toolbox.
The security camera caught the whole thing at Kent's Meats & Groceries in Redding, California. When the glass broke, a burglar alarm was set off. The suspect is still at large. Kent Pfrimmer, the store owner, doesn't think the perpetrator is dangerous. He said, "He don't look too, you know, intelligent to me." KRCR-TV has a video report. Link -via reddit
In 1909, back when tall buildings had elevator operators, one such worker was caught stealing from an apartment. A Pinkerton detective confronted the elevator operator to arrest him. But his mistake was to enter the elevator, where the operator was right at home. A newspaper carried the detective's account of the incident:
We had only gone down three floors before he made a desperate break at me. With one arm he grabbed me around the neck, while with the other he made a grab for the pistol, which I was holding with my right hand. We grappled, and the elevator shot downstairs at its full speed with both of us struggling for possession of the revolver.
When the elevator got to about the second or third floor I had almost lost my strength when the revolved exploded and off went my left forefinger. This sudden shock seemed to give me strength and I managed to get possession of the revolver again, it having dropped to the floor in the struggle. As I stooped to reach the gun, Johnson grabbed the elevator rope and the elevator shot to the roof again. Then he grabbed me and the gun went off again and again.
I don't know where that shot went, but I remember that as the elevator reached the top Johnson still had the controlling rope in one hand and was fighting me with the other, for he reversed the machine and down it shot full speed. We grappled again and again, and then there were two more shots from the gun, and Johnson dropped crouching in the corner of the elevator.
The Highland Trouveres, a group of students at Highland High School in Pocatello, Idaho, performed a lip-dub of thd mashup Pop Danthology 2012 by Daniel Kim. This video was made from a single take -although I doubt it was the first one. They did an awesome job! -via Digg
