The following article is from the book Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Nature Calls.

Most people think biological warfare is a modern phenomenon created by scientists in a laboratory, but it’s actually been in use for centuries. From ancient times, whenever humans needed help defeating their enemies, they drafted Mother Nature into their army.

YOU CATCH MORE ENEMIES WITH HONEY

When the ancient Greeks besieged the town of Krissa in the sixth century BC, they poisoned the local wells with the toxic hellebore plant, a flowering perennial. The enemy was knocked out with extreme stomach distress, diarrhea, and in strong enough doses, death.

Another case of mass poisoning took place in the first century BC. Knowing that rhododendron was poisonous and that when bees made honey from rhododendron nectar, the honey contained alkaloids that could severely sicken humans, the Heptakomotes (who lived in what is now Turkey) used it to defend themselves against the Roman legions led by Pompey the Great. They left batches of the toxic honey near the path of Pompey’s advancing troops, and the soldiers, who thought they’d found abandoned spoils of war, ate it all. The fierce Roman soldiers— now suffering from delirium, vomiting, and diarrhea— were easily defeated by the weaker Heptakometes.

SNEAKY TRICKS WITH SNAKES

In the fifth century BC, Scythian archers (who lived in what is now the Crimea near the Black Sea) dipped their arrows into viper venom mixed with blood and animal dung. They were crack shots, the Scythians, and already famous because each archer could fire off about 20 arrows per minute, but the arrow mixture made them even more formidable. The venom contained toxins that destroyed red blood cells and caused a lot of pain; a wounded man would suffer until his eventual death from heart failure or respiratory paralysis. If, by chance, the venom didn’t work, the infection caused by the blood/ feces combination would do the job.

That is one fat ‘possum. Redditor P_bryant562 has a friend who works at a pet store and had to snap this customer. If it wasn’t a marsupial, you’d call this a Rodent Of Unusual Size. She’s obviously raised this opossum from a very young age, or else it would be skinny, bitey, and would not be wearing a tutu. In the discussion under this picture, there are many tales of more common, yet funny, encounters with yard vermin.

The Insectarium in Montreal is the largest deliberate collection of bugs in North America, with over a quarter-million insects, from butterflies to cockroaches, from scarabs to centipedes. Some are dead and mounted for study, while others are alive and on display for observation. There are even hands-on exhibits! Mike Powell and Jeurgen Horn went on a cold weekend, when the Insectarium was full of children. Even so, they had a wonderful time.  

Perhaps I liked the stick-bug village best; I had been searching through this big enclosure, trying to locate the bugs, until realizing I had been staring at them the entire time. And then, I was able to see dozens. I also had the chance to hold an Orchid Mantis, which, when it stands still, resembles a flower petal almost exactly.

There were so many bugs… big ones, small ones, cute ones, ugly ones, coughing and sneezing ones, some that were crying, and one that cleverly dodged all my attempts to smash it underfoot… oh wait, I’m talking about the kids again. Actually, the truth is that the exhibits are so engaging that we were able to ignore the chaos and concentrate on the insects. And it was fun to watch kids interact with them. I waited by the tarantula cage while one little girl searched for its hiding spot. When she finally found the monster, she nearly jumped out of her skin

To get up close and personal with these insects, you can visit the Insectarium in Montreal, or see pictures and video at For 91 Days.

Some are expecting a free-for-all at the Republican National Convention this July in Cleveland. Honestly, that may seem unusual to younger people, but party nominations used to be much more public fights. Even in my lifetime, there have been political conventions in which we had no idea who the eventual nominee would be as they began. Yes, little kids watched the conventions because 1) we wanted to find out what happened and 2) there wasn’t anything else on TV. But even those were tame compared to the 1912 Republican convention. Former president Teddy Roosevelt challenged incumbent president Howard Taft for the nomination. Two presidents fighting for a nomination? No party would allow that to happen today.

When Donald Trump told CNN, “I think you’d have riots,” if the Republican Party’s leaders denied him the nomination, people were understandably disturbed. But on the eve of the 1912 convention, Roosevelt told his nephew that his supporters were prepared to “use roughhouse tactics” to “terrorize” the party’s leaders if they denied him the nomination. His delegates included men who were used to barroom brawls, including several who had been with his Rough Rider brigade in the Spanish American War. When the proceedings started, Roosevelt’s managers flooded the Chicago Convention Center bleachers with rugged supporters who were prepared to use their voices and even their fists to fight for their demand that Roosevelt be selected.

The plans for taking over the convention were even messier than what really happened. You know that Roosevelt went on to run on the Bull Moose ticket and both he and Taft lost to Woodrow Wilson. But you might not know about the extremely contentious 1912 Republican National Convention, which you can learn about at the Atlantic. -via Digg

The season six premiere of Game of Thrones is tonight on HBO. Jon Snow is dead, but we know he won’t stay that way. Bringing someone back someone from the dead isn’t as unbelievable in Game of Thrones as it would be in other shows because there’s plenty of supernatural stuff going on in the series. Meaning, it won’t be as stupid as having the last season be a dream. While everyone associated with the show has confirmed that Jon Snow is really, really dead, George RR Martin has been quoted everywhere:

“If there’s one thing we know in A Song of Ice and Fire is that death is not necessarily permanent.”

So what will happen in season six? Fans are not ready to say goodbye to Jon Snow, but are speculating on how he will be resurrected. If you're reading this from the front page, scroll past the poll and hit "continue reading" to take a look into some of the theories, and then make your prediction. Possible spoilers, but only if you’re not current on the show and the news stories about it. The books are no help at this point.

Naturalist John James Audubon combined his science interests with his talent for art, and left a legacy of knowledge contained in his book The Birds of America. He had identified 25 new species and documented thousands more. Recently it came to light that he left behind a massive prank as well. Smithsonian curator Neal Woodman has been studying the notes of French naturalist Constantine Rafinesque, and found how much he had been influenced by his time spent with Audubon on a riverboat trip in 1818.

Rafinesque was an extremely enthusiastic namer of species: during his career as a naturalist, he named 2,700 plant genera and 6,700 species, approximately. He was self-taught, and the letter of introduction he handed to Audubon described him as “an odd fish.” When they met, Audubon noted, Rafinesque was wearing a “long loose coat...stained all over with the juice of plants,” a waistcoat “with enormous pockets” and a very long beard. Rafinesque was not known for his social graces; as John Jeremiah Sullivan writes, Audubon is the "only person on record" as actually liked him.

During their visit, though, Audubon fed Rafinesque descriptions of American creatures, including 11 species of fish that never really existed. Rafinesque duly jotted them down in his notebook and later proffered those descriptions as evidence of new species. For 50 or so years, those 11 fish remained in the scientific record as real species, despite their very unusual features, including bulletproof (!) scales.

You might say Rafinesque was taken hook, line, and sinker. But fish were just the beginning. Woodman has uncovered birds, plants, and mammals that Rafinesque detailed, all from information Audubon fed him two centuries ago. Read about those “species” and see pictures at Atlas Obscura.  

(Image credit: Smithsonian Institution Archives/SIA2012-6095)

In this episode of Simon’s Cat Logic, we explore the cat’s desire to always be on the other side of the door, and why they particularly want to be with you in the bathroom. As a bonus, we get the full cartoon “Let Me In.”  

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We’ve reached the point at my house where we have more cats than people now, so I’m known as “Door Opener.” The rest of the family will feed them, but no one is as responsive to their desires about going in or out. I've also noticed their ability to communicate their desires clearly depends on the cat's age and intelligence. Yes, I’m turning into a crazy cat lady.

Iron Man has been on TV and in movies for 50 years, although the first 40 years of that was in animation only -and most of them after that! The look of the character has changed yet stayed the same, usually pretty faithful to the comic book version.

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So, Robert Downey, Jr. is the only man to portray Iron Man as a live action hero? Okay, at least we have a lot of him. And a lot of Iron man incarnations you’ve never seen, in this timeline by Burger Fiction.   

See also: The Evolution of Batman in Television & Film

Thrill-seekers line up to see the latest scary movie, tour a haunted house, or ride a roller coaster. These same people would hate the idea of being the victim of an armed robbery. But some will step close to the edge of a real cliff just for the thrill of it. What makes us do these things? It’s chemistry, of course, acting on our brains. Adrenaline and endorphins are a thrill in themselves.   

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But the effect varies from person to person, and I can tell you it varies within a person’s lifetime, too. I once waited in line for the latest roller coaster or horror films, too. But at a certain point, the memories of those chemical rushes is enough. Now I am more concerned with the resulting indigestion or sleepless nights that may follow. This animated TED-Ed lesson is from Margee Kerr. -via Laughing Squid

The National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, has an exhibition called “American Stories.” A recent donation to the museum came from Minnijean Brown Trickey, who presented the Smithsonian with her high school graduation dress, a graduation program from the New Lincoln School in New York, and a suspension slip from her previous high school. And that’s where Trickey’s story begins, of how she became a part of history in 1957 as one of the Little Rock Nine.    

Although about 80 African-American students had been approved by the Little Rock School Board to transfer to Central the following year, the number dwindled to 10 after the students were told they couldn't participate in extracurricular activities, their parents were in danger of losing their jobs, and there was a looming threat of violence. The parents of a tenth student, Jane Hill, decided not to allow their daughter to return after the mob scene on the first day.

According to Trickey, her real motivation for attending Central was that it was nine blocks from her house and she and her two best friends, Melba Pattillo and Thelma Mothershed would be able to walk there.

“The nine of us were not especially political,” she says. “We thought, we can walk to Central, it’s a huge, beautiful school, this is gonna be great,” she remembers.

“I really thought that if we went to school together, the white kids are going to be like me, curious and thoughtful, and we can just cut all this segregation stuff out,” she recalls. Unfortunately, she was wrong.

It took the 101st Airborne to get the students into the high school, but staying there was just as difficult. Read Trickey’s story at Smithsonian.

Life is hard. As you age, some parts of it get better while other parts get worse. All you can control is your attitude toward those things. You have to shrug off the bad and be grateful for the good, and that’s the way to be happy. A image challenge at Cracked produced some visualizations of life ahead for young people that will make you laugh -if you don’t take it too seriously or personally. This one really struck home:

My kids, at 17 and 19, are in the valley of respect. That’s comforting in a way, because the only way to go from here is up. See all 14 charts at Cracked.

While some conspiracy theorists want to unveil the administration in Washington as the lizard people they are, and others want the truth about UFOs to be revealed, one presidential candidate wants to reveal government breakthroughs in time travel, teleportation, and travel to Mars. Seattle lawyer Andrew D. Basiago is running for president.

To be fair, Basiago has seen great leadership in action. He says he once traveled back in time to 1863 and witnessed Abraham Lincoln’s speech at Gettysburg. He also says he’s been to the future, 2054 specifically, so he has a notion of the historical pitfalls a commander-in-chief must avoid. One could even argue that his sojourn on Mars in 1981 is relevant foreign relations experience. After all, there were aliens.

Basiago says he’s had conversations with both President Bush’s, President Clinton, and President Obama literally decades before they served as president. They were given prior notification of their presidencies. And that’s part of the reason Basiago went public about Project Pegasus a few years ago. “Our secret time-travel capability is informing things like the process by which we select the president,” he explains, sounding every bit the reformer. “The cover-up has gone on for too long.”

Read more of Basiago's platform and views at Inverse. -via Digg

Get a head start on Sunday’s episode of The Simpsons with a sneak peek at this week's guest animator couch gag! This time, it’s a taste of different eras of Disney.

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Animator Eric Goldberg has worked for both Disney and for Warner Brothers. For this couch gag, he cast Marge as Snow White, Lisa as Cinderella, Maggie as Steamboat Willie, Homer as Baloo, and Bart as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. -via Tastefully Offensive 

When we see the great pyramids of Egypt, we are in awe of how they built such wonderful edifices so big and long-lasting. We rarely see the early attempts, the pyramids on the short side of the learning curve. They are still standing. We just don’t see them front-and-center in movies or documentaries, and even those touring Egypt are given little explanation about them. These are the pyramids of King Sneferu.

When King Sneferu came to the throne of Egypt, the cool thing that all the pharaohs had was a Step Pyramid, like the original one built by King Djoser and designed by Imhotep (not the mummy).  King Sneferu could easily have had one one because his predecessor King Huni had died before his could be finished. All Sneferu had to do was step in and put the last few blocks on.

But King Sneferu had a vision.  He didn’t want any old Step Pyramid.  He was going to build Egypt’s first smooth-sided pyramid, and make King Huni’s pyramid way taller in the bargain.  It didn’t work.  The core of Huni’s pyramid couldn’t handle the modifications and nowadays the Step Pyramid at Meidum looks like this:

It’s not on a hill - that’s the outer layers of the pyramid that have fallen down all around it.  The name of the structure in Arabic is Heram el-Kaddaab, which means something like The Sort-Of Pyramid.

And that was only his first attempt. There would be others, with their own problems. Bitey Mad Lady tells the story of Sneferu’s pyramids in a truly amusing way. 

-via Metafilter

Except for possibly the west coast, Passover has begin, and will run until the 30th.  

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Aish tells the Passover story to the tunes of Adele’s “Hello” and Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself,” using clips from The Ten Commandments, starring Charleton Heston and Yul Brynner. Does that sound weird? It is. But it’s clever and rather well done.