A stone tower sits on the Rhine River in Germany. First built by Romans in antiquity, it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. They call it Mäuseturm, or the Mouse Tower. The story behind that name holds that there was a dire famine in the area in the year 970, during which many people starved to death. But the archbishop of Mainz, Hatto II, ignored their distress and continued to enrich himself at the people's expense.

Hatto II had his barn full, but he did not spare a single grain for the starving poor, instead tried to sell them at such inflated prices that most could not afford it. The peasants became angry and were planning to rebel, so Hatto II devised a cruel trick. He promised to feed the hungry people and told them to assemble at an empty barn and wait for him to come with food. The peasants were overjoyed and made their way to the barn to await his coming. Once the barn was full, Hatto II ordered the barn's doors shut and locked, and then set the barn on fire.

When Hatto II returned to his castle, he was immediately besieged by an army of mice. To escape the rodents, the bishop fled his castle and sought refuge in the tower that stands on an island on the Rhine, hoping that the mice could not swim. But the mice followed him, pouring into the river by the thousands, and while many drowned even more reached the island. The swarm ate through the tower’s doors and crawled up to the top floor, where they found Hatto II and ate him alive.

That's the legend, and there's no evidence that it's true. However, like most legends, there are pieces of history, language, and culture that came together over time to create the tale. Read what's behind the legend of the Mouse Tower at Amusing Planet. -via Strange Company

(Image credit: Marion Halft)

Japanese illustrator Kiyomaro (@sobomiyako98) presents a manga tale about her uncle. The elderly man slipped on some ice and his legs were paralyzed. But he wanted to visit his favorite place, Hawaii, again, and worked hard to regain enough mobility for the trip. When he got to Waikiki, he was approached by two surfer dudes. He was frightened at first, but the two guys asked the older man if he wanted to go for a swim. The encounter ended up changing the uncle's life. 

 

The original is in Japanese, but you can get the entire story in English at Sora News. Bring a hankie.  -via Metafilter

The National Audubon Society has announced the winners of the annual Audobon Photography Awards competition. The picture above, of a red-winged blackbird blowing vapor rings in Huntley Meadows Park, Alexandria, Virginia, won the Grand Prize. It was taken by Kathrin Swoboda, who tells the story behind it.

I visit this park near my home to photograph blackbirds on cold mornings, often aiming to capture the "smoke rings" that form from their breath as they sing out. On this occasion, I arrived early on a frigid day and heard the cry of the blackbirds all around the boardwalk. This particular bird was very vociferous, singing long and hard. I looked to set it against the dark background of the forest, shooting to the east as the sun rose over the trees, backlighting the vapor.  

See all the stunning award-winning images at the competition website. See the top 100 images here. -via Kottke

(Image credit: Kathrin Swoboda)

What became known as the Space Window at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC is formally titled the Scientists and Technicians Window. The stained glass artwork was created by American artist Rodney Winfield. His first 11 designs were all rejected by either NASA or the cathedral administrators.

It was when he threw out the rulebook that he had his breakthrough. In his journal, Winfield describes the artistic process that lead him to create the design that ultimately was accepted.

“That was when I decided to forget all the limitations of the visual elements provided me by NASA,” he wrote, “And simply do a window that would show the immensity of the universe.” His 12th, and final, proposal was a boldly-colored, geometric design with dark spheres and tiny stars. It’s what we see today at the National Cathedral.

The window was officially dedicated on the 5th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. It was only later that a rock from the moon was embedded into the window. Read the story the Space Window at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: NASA)

In the annals of ridiculously over-the-top movie concepts, we went through a period where creative minds combined two scary creatures, like Sharktopus and Piranhaconda. Then came the combination of the scary creature and the natural disaster in Sharknado. Six years later, it's time to remix that unlikely scenario and combine a tidal wave with zombies! Zombie Tidal Wave debuts August 17 on SyFy.  -via Geeks Are Sexy

The Awkward Yeti is continuing their series of illustrated medical stories. Most are from patients, but this is from a medical professional named Dee, who has been asked many times if working in a hospital is like a medical TV show. Well, no, but everyone has a story somewhere in their history that would rival anything shown on Grey's Anatomy. Yet Dee's story wouldn't be televised, because A. it requires some explanation of how things work in a hospital setting, and 2. the visuals wouldn't pass the network censors, between the bodily fluids and the nudity. But you can read that story in comic form at the Awkward Yeti.

James Cameron, Linda Hamilton, and some other folks from the movie Terminator: Dark Fate talk about the movie while we watch more fighting footage, in this video that was shown today at San Diego Comic Con. Contains NSFW language, and of course, lots of violence. Terminator: Dark Fate opens November 19. -via io9

More: San Diego Comic-Con 2019 posts

When Thomas Edison released the 18-second film called The Kiss in 1896, one reviewer called it "absolutely disgusting." Cinema became exponentially popular, and pushed the limits until the Hays Code was adopted in 1930. The standards for movies was named for William Hays, a minister hired by the government to decide what was proper for Hollywood. But the Hays Code wasn't the only document of standards that censored movies. There was also the myterious Doom Book listing actors whose behavior off screen could get them banned from studios. And there were practical guidelines, like the Hays Committee's Hollywood Do’s and Don’ts.      

Arson, pregnancy, interracial love – the list of what you couldn’t include in a film was exhaustive, complicated and costly. Known within the industry as the code of “Don’ts and Be Carefuls”, the guidelines were Hays’ attempt at working with the movie studios to reduce their rising editing costs as a result of censorship laws. Rather than banning films outright, the presbyterian pastor and past chairman of the Republican Party was hired to “clean up the pictures” and shape them into something the public “ought to be watching”.  

All these guides affected not only movie productions, but individual people. Read a collection of stories of Hollywood censorship, from the three-second rule to the Communist blacklist, at Messy Nessy Chic.

If you never had the opportunity to see the Broadway musical Cats in its 18-year run (21 years in London), well, you knew they'd make a movie sooner or later. It has a star-studded cast and seems to stay faithful to the stage production, but your attention may be distracted by trying to figure out how much is makeup and costume, and how much is CGI. Cats opens nationwide on December 20. -via Digg  

Hummingbirds flap their wings so fast that they appear to be a blur to the naked eye. We only see them fully in flight with the results of high-speed cameras. Photographer Christian Spencer not only caught a hummingbird in mid-flight, but in front of the sun. The sunlight is filtered through the black-and-white bird's feathers, scattering the colors of the spectrum.

A Black jacobin hummingbird flies in front of the rising sun in the atlantic rainforest in Brazil revealing wings of rainbows as the sunlight penetrates the wings. The prism effect
This photo contains NO digital manipulation

See more pictures of this hummingbird, and more of Spencer's gorgeous nature photography, at Instagram. -via Laughing Squid

Gasoline is sold at x dollars, x cents, and then an extra 9/10 of a cent. This makes no sense, except when it does. Simon Whistler of Today I Found Out looks into the history of fractional gas pricing and why it has stuck around so long. In the middle, he has to digress to express amazement at US gas prices, from the perspective of someone who doesn't live in an oil-producing country.

It's been quite a while since we've seen a new video from Cyriak Harris. This one happened when he became obsessed with an old piece of film footage and had to do something with it. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Someone else's ranking of anything is an invitation to argument. This one, like many we've seen, seems to lean on more recent Disney movies at the expense of the classics. But then, the more recent Disney films have some killer songs. Really, no one can be that disappointed that "Bibbety-Bobbity-Boo" is not included. "When You Wish Upon a Star" is, and ranks fairly high amid the competition. Of course, the term "more recent" goes back to the Disney renaissance of the 1980s, so not really that recent. These songs are all from movies, meaning you won't see "It's A Small World," which you probably wouldn't expect in such a list anyway. You might quibble about some of the rankings, but the top songs are all stellar. Read the entire list, which will make you want to run to YouTube to listen to a few, at The Ringer.

French magician Alexander Herrmann, also known as Hermann the Great, toured North America, South America, and Europe with a production that brought ever-increasing crowds. His show was spectacular, and relied on his innovation and expertise, and also that of his talented and versatile assistant- Hermann's wife, Adelaide. But then Hermann died in 1896.

Alexander Herrmann’s December 20 funeral at Masonic Hall on 23rd Street in Manhattan was so crowded it blocked the streets. After the burial, Adelaide was alone, with the show and its debts. As the Chicago Tribune reported on December 22, she went to the Queens County Courthouse and “declared the property left by the magician to be worth not more than $2,000,” and that the “debts of the dead man far exceeded the amount of the estate left by him.”

She lamented: “It is among the most pathetic aspects of the stage — of which the general public knows little or nothing — that it allows no time for the indulgence of private sorrows.” Even in her immediate mourning, a crew of 16 people, a show with expensive contraptions, and a menagerie of animals were all waiting for her to decide their fate.

Adelaide knew that show must go on, and that Hermann's nephew, who resembled him, was a poor substitute for the master magician. So she took control and added new acts- like the one in which she caught bullets from a firing squad in her hands, and the one where she was shot out of a cannon. Read how the grieving magician's assistant Adelaide Hermann became the Queen of Magic and led the show for 25 years, at Narratively.  -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Jared Boggess)

In 2006, fossil hunter Clayton Phipps discovered a large pelvic bone on a ranch in Montana. Many weeks later, while excavating the find, he identified the dinosaur as Triceratops horridus, a plant eater. But then there was a theropod claw, belonging to a meat-eater. Phipps had found two different dinosaurs together in death.

The meat-eater was either a juvenile T rex or its relative, Nanotyrannus lancensis, a rare dwarf species whose existence is disputed. Both dinosaurs were extraordinarily well-preserved, fully articulated, with envelopes of skin and, possibly, mummified internal organs.

Best of all, they seemed to have died together, not washed into their grave separately. And they appeared to have been battling when they died: teeth were found in the spine and near the pelvis of the ceratopsian, and the theropod’s skull was split laterally, as if it had been kicked.

Phipps dubbed them the Montana Dueling Dinosaurs. “They’re remarkable specimens,” says Mark Norell, chairman of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History. “Especially the tyrannosaur – it could go a long way toward resolving whether nanotyrannus was its own species.”

So why isn't this find in a museum or a research facility? There are two reasons. The spectacular set of fossils is no doubt valuable, but no one wants to spend millions for it. The second reason is the question of who owns the fossils. The ranch they were found on is a split estate, with one owner holding surface rights and another holding mineral rights. Is a fossilized dinosaur a mineral? That question is still working its way through the courts. Read the story of the Montana Dueling Dinosaurs at the Guardian. -via Digg

(Image credit: Clayton Phipps)