At the Brünnlisau shooting range in Switzerland, the shooters are on this side of the road, and the targets are on the other side. Meanwhile, traffic is passing along in between. What could possibly go wrong? What might surprise you is that this shooting range has been in operation for twenty years with no incidents involving the vehicles passing by!

The explanation lies in the design of the shooting range and the rules that govern it. These rules are bolstered by the gun culture of Switzerland, in which shooters are numerous, but also highly trained and regulated. Also noted: this range has some very cool technology for scoring your shots.   

Europeans who saw this video tell us that Brünnlisau is far from the only shooting range in Switzerland that ranges across a road like this. They also had a laugh at Tom mentioning that it's about two hours from Zurich. The response was that every place in Switzerland is about two hours from Zurich, including parts of Zurich during rush hour.  

PSA for anyone who might be dealing with robot gun dogs, from a farm robot specialist who wasn't really looking at robot wrangling from the public safety standpoint but here we are. https://t.co/PhQSmEnzOn

— Dr Sarah Taber (@SarahTaber_bww) October 17, 2021

You may have seen the "robot gun dog" on the internet in the last few days. Ghost Robotics, a company that makes quadruped robots for the military, attached a "special purpose unmanned rifle" to the robot to show off at an army conference last week. Its appearance is frightening, and so are your thoughts about what it can do.  

Crop scientist and industrial safety expert Dr. Sarah Taber is here to reassure you that there's no need to fear the latest lethal robot just yet. In a Twitter thread, she explains the troubleshooting challenges that await any new technology, particularly if it is designed to be used outdoors or in any unfamiliar environment. Her knowledge comes from working with hi-tech farm equipment, which is designed by very smart robotics engineers who have never worked on a farm. Taber lays out a list of problems these robots will face, which she admits is far from a complete list.

it's just really funny to me that these are supposed to be scary but probably can't stand up to a water balloon full of pickle juice

— Dr Sarah Taber (@SarahTaber_bww) October 17, 2021

See the original thread with replies at Twitter or at Threadreader if you prefer. -via Metafilter

These bottles of sand aren't decorated with colorful labels. The entire artwork is made of sand inside the glass bottle! This is the work of Andrew Clemens, who made these primarily between 1880 and 1886. Clemens was rendered deaf by a case of encephalitis in his infancy. During his summers away from the Iowa State School for the Deaf, he collected naturally colored sand from Sand Cave at Pikes Peak State Park and sorted the grains into various tints. Then he carefully layered the sand inside a medicine bottle, using tools he designed himself, with no glue or foreign substances to hold the design together.

While the most complex designs could take up to a year to produce, most of Clemens' bottles were completed somewhat faster. He suffered from poor health all his life, and died at 37. Of the hundred or so sand bottles Clemens completed, only a few survive today and sell for a pretty penny when they are put on the market. One of them went up for auction on September 30th. It was estimated to be worth $100,000, but eventually sold for $956,000! -via TYWKIWDBI

(Image credit: Wikifreaking)

When we think of jaguars, we picture them in the Central and South American rainforests, which is where 99% of them live. But at one time, jaguars roamed through the southern US, from California to Louisiana and even beyond. A government-backed campaign of eradication wiped them out in the first half of the 20th century. There are some jaguars in Mexico, where a preserve has been set aside for them, and occasionally one of the cats moves into the US. Solitary male jaguars wander a large territory, and there are two of them suspected of living north of the US border as of now.

Some conservationists believe the US should welcome jaguars back. We know from our experience with wolves that re-introducing apex predators will improve an ecosystem from the top down. Expanding the range of jaguars will also improve the species' chances of survival in the long run. One plan is to bring jaguars in from Mexico and Argentina to live in the Central Arizona/New Mexico Recovery Area (CANRA), a 20-million-acre area owned by Native American tribes and the federal government. Other conservationists believe it would be better to support the jaguar population in the Mexican preserve and encourage them to cross into US territory on their own.

There are people opposed to both plans. Some are concerned for livestock and other wildlife. Some believe it to be a waste of money and resources. And some jaguar fans believe that the US is just too dangerous for the cats in the 21st century, between fences, highways, hunters, and poorly-managed habitats. Read about the controversial plans for re-introducing jaguars to the US at Vox.

(Image credit: Leonardo Ramos)

A recent post at AskReddit said, "Autopsy Doctors of Reddit, what was strangest discovery you’ve made while preforming an autopsy?" (sic) Responses came in from medical examiners, autopsy techs, EMTs, pathologists, embalmers, med students, and plenty of other folks who have seen. Some. Stuff. Here is one example.

6. "When I was in my intro to EMS class, my teacher brought in a death investigator and former autopsy examiner to speak to our class. She told us while she worked as an autopsy examiner, she got this woman who, at the time, mysteriously suffocated after a car accident. Apparently, while she was driving, she grabbed her lighter from her purse and was holding it in her mouth while she fumbled through her bag for her cigarettes. While doing this, she got T-boned."

"The airbag went off and on the way to the hospital, they kept trying to put tubes down her throat to open her airway cause she was having trouble breathing. But no luck. She said when they cut open her throat during the autopsy they found her lighter jammed down there. Apparently, when the airbag went off, it got jammed down her throat and no one knew."

—u/I_Feel_Dizzy

You can read more weird causes of death in the original thread, or the 13 best stories at Buzzfeed.  Some of them may be disturbing.

When the red delicious apple was developed a hundred years ago, it was supposedly the best-tasting apple around. But the variety became a victim of its own popularity, as the apple was altered to suit the industry. By the time you and I came along, we were unimpressed and made jokes about the use of the word "delicious." Oh yeah, the red declicious apple stayed popular for a long time after it lost its taste, mainly because it was all you could find at the grocery store. Then just in the last few decades, better apples were developed to replace it.

What we have in this video is really a history of apples that leads up to the rise and fall of the red delicious. A neat story altogether, but it bothers me that the host cites Charles Darwin to explain crossbreeding of plants to develop new varieties when it should have been Gregor Mendel. -via reddit

Veijo Rönkkönen worked in a paper mill in Parikalla, Finland. He was also an artist, but never sold his works. He made concrete sculptures that over time numbered about 500 figures, all secluded in the woods around his home. Rönkkönen's sculptures are not altogether lifelike, but neither are they abstract. They portray people doing all kinds of everyday activities. The biggest number of them resemble a young Rönkkönen doing yoga poses. The artist would sometimes add quirky things to the sculptures, like speakers inside so they could produce sounds, or human teeth. Rönkkönen worked on these sculptures for 50 years until his death in 2010. He never exhibited them or sought fame for his artworks. In fact, he was quite shy as well as eccentric, but if someone came to visit he would show them around.



The Veijo Rönkkönen Sculpture Garden is now open to the public. The 500 or so human figures impress up to 25,000 visitors a year as creepy, funny, scary, whimsical, mysterious, or haunting. Rönkkönen is one of five people featured in a Cracked article who went all in on hobbies that others would consider downright creepy.

When Gustave Eiffel erected his eponymous tower in Paris, the deal was that it would be the cornerstone of the 1889 Exposition Universelle, and then remain for twenty years. Yet 132 years later, the tower is still there. Finagling longevity for his creation required a bit of cunning on Eiffel's part. To make the tower useful enough to avoid demolition, he made it a radio tower. Or rather, a "wireless telegraph" tower, harnessing the new communication technology that was at first limited to the military. To make the military staff more unobtrusive, a bunker was dug beneath the tower to house the radio operations. The radio transmissions were experimental at first, but later proved to be quite important.

During World War I, its bunker took on an even more important role as a potential escape route with a complex underground network and secret tunnels. The Iron Lady’s communication infrastructure proved especially useful when French forces jammed German communications, a significant factor in winning the First Battle of the Marne. The French military were also able to decrypt enemy messages; notably, an intercepted communiqué between Germany and Spain led to the arrest of exotic dancer and spy Mata Hari.

The bunker beneath the Eiffel Tower is still there, no longer a secret, although it's not open to the public. Read the history of this facility and see what it looks like now at Messy Nessy Chic.

What's the scariest movie you ever saw? If a particular horror film keeps coming back to keep you awake at night, part of the reason may be its spooky setting. Many horror films rely on someone visiting a new and unknown place that turns out to be haunted or maybe occupied by a killer lunatic. And those places are out there, somewhere, because that's where they filmed the movie. You might even want to visit someday, maybe to relive the thrill, or maybe to reassure yourself that it's not like the movie. You can still go to the gas station featured in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (and eat barbecue), tour the lighthouse from The Fog, or climb the stairs where the priest and the demon battled it out in The Exorcist. Check out eleven iconic horror film locations and make your plans for a pilgrimage with the help of Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Rshao)

The Civil War consumed all of President Lincoln's time in the White House. He presided over the battle campaigns, of course, but he also worked outside the military on several fronts to bolster the Union. These schemes ranged from boosting morale on the home front to enticing southern states to leave the Confederacy with a bit of a bribe. This came in the form of the Land Grant College Act, in which the federal government pledged help to establish higher education across the country- but only in states that stayed loyal to the Union.

There was also the continued construction of the US Capitol Building. There was the Emancipation Proclamation, telegraphing the stakes of the war to the enslaved people of the rebellious states. Then Lincoln resurrected the forgotten holiday of Thanksgiving, designed to build unity and a sense of purpose. In 1863, there were actually two days of Thanksgiving.

Another of Lincoln's non-battlefield accomplishments was the Lieber Code, written by Francis Lieber. This military code set the standard for how to run an army that became an inspiration worldwide, and no doubt contributed to the relative cohesiveness and sense of moral superiority of the Union army that helped to win the war. Read about all these programs that, along with the fighting, took up Abraham Lincoln's time and last full measure of devotion at Military History Now.

Something really weird happens to Baxter the cat on RamsesThePigeon's security camera. Don't blame me if it gives you the willies. You'll need to watch this more than once to catch all the easter eggs, like the sampler on the wall.

Continue reading to see that scene again. You might learn a little more from this version.

At the almost-900-year-old village church in Sauherad, Norway, you'll find murals that are hundreds of years old. But look closely at one wall, and you'll see that it is covered with tiny devils and demons, crowded together like doodles in a bored student's notebook. This is the demonveggen, or demon wall. The mystery of the demon wall is not in how old it is or who did it, because those things are known. The real question is why.

Experts in historical preservation and restoration are dedicated to bringing history to life accurately. But in 1940, Gerhard Gotaas, a renowned conservator of medieval church art, completely painted over an artwork on one wall of the church in Sauherad and left it with the demons. Locals who knew the church were confused, but bowed to Gotaas' authority and reputation. It was assumed that he found and revealed what had been there for hundreds of years. Then World War II came along and the demons on the wall were ignored due to other priorities. Gotaas continued his work elsewhere with no complaints, and his alterations in Sauherad were only recently discovered. Now, Norwegian cultural heritage laws say Gotaas' demons must remain as a historical artwork of their own, despite the fact that they cover a painting that is 300 years older. Read the story behind the demonveggen at Atlas Obscura.

The article is part of Atlas Obscura's Fright Club series for the month of October.

Rapa Nui, now known as Easter Island, was first populated by Polynesians somewhere between 690 AD and 1200 AD. But that appears to be a singular event, as the culture of the island developed in complete isolation afterward, due to the distance it lay from other populated islands of the Pacific. That is, until 1722, when Europeans found their way to the island. Along the way, the people of Rapa Nui developed a system of writing called rongorongo, consisting of around 600 hieroglyphs.

Rongorongo was mainly used by the elite, and was not accessible to most of the population. Europeans had no clue about rongorongo documents etched in wood until a missionary found them in 1864. Tragically, by then there was no one left on Rapa Nui who could read the written language. Peruvian raids had taken many islanders away into slavery, and when they returned, they brought diseases that wrecked the native Rapa Nui population.

Writings in rongorongo are rare, with only 23 known examples still in existance. A new study takes a look at a wooden tablet from Rapa Nui known as the Berlin tablet. The rongorongo symbols on it are barely decipherable thanks to erosion and woodlice, but a 3D scan reveals the tablet, which is the largest rongorongo tablet ever found, contains 387 legible glyphs, and may have contained up to 5000 symbols before the wood was damaged. That would make it the longest rongorongo document ever found, if it were still a full document. The research was aimed at determining the age of the Berlin tablet by the species of wood and the history of its deterioration. Read about rongorongo and the Berlin tablet at The History Blog. -via Strange Company

(Image credit: Rafał M. Wieczorek et al/CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

How well would you be able to spot a predator stalking you in the jungle? Or even an urban jungle? Redditor donibobes took this picture of his cat. You might assume he was taking picture of the front of the house, but the cat is there. You just can't see him because of his feline camouflage skills. I had to go to the comments for a spoiler.   

If you need to, and you probably will, you can enlarge the picture greatly here. Then imagine if this were a hungry tiger sitting in a tree you just walked by. You'd never know what hit you. 

We all know someone of whom it has been said "could drink anyone under the table." However, pushing the limits can be dangerous, and binge drinking has led to many deaths. The problem with drinking alcohol in a hurry is that you can imbibe too much before the effects show at all, and then you are suddenly too drunk to understand your limits. A competition to see who can drink more than someone else may remind you of a certain scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, in which Marion Ravenwood not only survived the contest, but also an attempted murder and the fact that her bar burned down. Real life is not as exciting, nor as survivable.

That said, there was a drinking contest in which two young, large, and wealthy men felt compelled to outdrink each other. Lord Louth, age 34, was visiting from England, and made the acquaintance of 32-year-old Albert Haller Tracy, Jr., of Buffalo, New York. Tracy was showing Louth around Buffalo, as the two were of comparable social standing and had much in common. However, both prided themselves on the ability to drink copious amounts of whiskey, and Louth challenged Tracy to a public showdown. They engaged a bartender to prepare and keep count of how many whiskey cocktails each man drank. Word got around, and spectators came and placed their bets between the British lord and the American. The contest made the papers for years afterward. While the story grew in later years, even the immediate reports had the men drinking an astonishing number of cocktails. Read the entire story of the drinking contest, plus notes on how it was researched, at The Daily Beast. -via Digg

(Image credit: Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast)