You might have never heard of the Great Smog of 1952, or you may have been introduced to it by an episode of The Crown on Netflix, like I was. While London is notoriously foggy, it was infinitely worse than usual on December 5, 1952, when a combination of fog and air pollution reduced visibility to only a few feet.     

The smog smothered the city for five days. Transportation came to a virtual standstill. Flights were grounded and trains cancelled. Only the Underground was running. Ambulance services were affected, leaving people to find their own way to hospitals. The fog even seeped indoors though windows and doors. Plays and concerts were cancelled because the audience were unable to see the stage.

Remarkably, there was no panic as Londoners were accustomed to fog. But the death toll increased. Most of the victims were the very young and the elderly with pre-existing respiratory problems. Estimates of how many people died during that period vary from 6,000 to as high as 12,000.

The smog was produced by a combination of weather, geography, and several sources of air pollution. Read about the factors that produced the smog and what's been done about them at Amusing Planet.

Neel Veterinary Hospital in Oklahoma City shows us a four-day-old puppy that has six legs! The veterinarians cannot find any record of such a case where a puppy has survived birth, but the female puppy, named Miracle and called Skipper, seems to be relatively healthy.   

She has a type of congenital conjoining disorders called monocephalus dipygus and monocephalus rachipagus dibrachius tetrapus which simply means she has 1 head and chest cavity but 2 pelvic regions, 2 lower urinary tracts, 2 reproductive systems, 2 tails and 6 legs among other things.

Skipper now has her own Facebook feed so you can find out more, keep up with her progress, and see videos. -via Boing Boing

(Image credit: Neel Veterinary Hospital)

The Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts in 1620 and began a settlement called Plymouth. That's where our history classes about the region begin, but what happened before that? New England was home to 69 villages, each with a few thousand residents of the Mashpee Wampanoag people. The spot where the PIlgrams settled was previously a town called Patuxet. Wampanoag historian Steven Peters tells us what happened to Patuxet.

In 1616, we think the village of Patuxet becomes ground zero for what became the Great Dying. There was a plague that ripped through the Wampanoag nation where there are estimates of over 100,000 Wampanoag dying in just three short years. There were accounts of a French fishing ship that had wrecked off the coast of Patuxet, and of some of the fishermen coming into the village exhibiting signs of sickness, with yellowing of the skin and fever, and dying. Shortly after that, the plague just starts to rip right through the Wampanoag nation. Everyone in Patuxet either dies or fled the village, and they never returned. And that’s how the village of Patuxet ends up vacant in 1620 when the Pilgrims arrived. We know that the Pilgrims knew about the Great Dying, and they also must have known that that village of Patuxet was empty when deciding to make that Plymouth Colony.

The Pilgrims survived with the help of the Wampanoag, especially Tisquantum, who spoke English. Read what was going on in Massachusetts before the Pilgrims landed at Atlas Obscura.

Juanita Moody dropped out of college in 1943 to serve in the US Signal Intelligence Service, analyzing coded messages during World War II. She stayed on after the war, rising in the ranks of the SIS despite being both a woman and a civilian, until she was in charge of intercepting data from most of the world. By the 1960s, that included Cuba. The SIS had by then become the NSA, charged with data collection which was then handed over the CIA for analysis. That became an issue when it came to the Soviet buildup of arms in Cuba, as the White House wanted to be kept up-to-date with any new information, and Moody's boss Louis Tordella was wary of skipping over the CIA.

Impressed by her expertise, alarmed by what she had to say, and perhaps concerned that no one was providing the White House with this level of detail about an aggressive military buildup in Cuba, [assistant secretary of defense Edward] Lansdale asked Moody to write up her findings. Along with a few colleagues, she spent the next three days and nights compiling “wheelbarrow loads of material” into what she called “a special little summary for the assistant secretary of defense.” When she was done, Moody urged Tordella to “publish” her report, meaning circulate it among the intelligence agencies, the White House, the State Department and the military. Cautious not to step outside NSA’s prescribed role, Tordella rebuffed her, but he did send it to Lansdale, who sent it to President Kennedy, who returned it with his initials—signaling he’d read it. “I told my troops, ‘Keep this updated,’” Moody said of her report. “‘If you get anything to add to it, do it immediately and tell me.’”

Over the next few months, Moody repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, pleaded with Tordella to release her updated report. By early 1962, she said she was “really getting scared.” The amount of military equipment piling up in Cuba didn’t square with the Soviets’ repeated assertions that it was all “defensive.” Details about Soviet technicians “moving around in Cuba” were especially worrisome, and by this point the NSA likely knew the Soviets had moved surface-to-air missiles (not to be confused with ballistic nuclear missiles) to Cuba as well.  

Moody was determined to rush data to the president, and the CIA was not happy about it. Read the story of Juanita Moody's role in the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the rest of the NSA career, at Smithsonian magazine.

(Image credit: Department of Defense)

You might expect that imported pop culture would be changed somewhat in order to be better understood in a different country, or to make it more relatable. That's not the only reason things get changed. Sometimes it's to make the finished product more lucrative, as in getting enough episodes of a TV show to sell in syndication. But one movie in this list was changed beyond all reason.

It's mind-blowing to think of Casablanca without Nazis, and without World War II. That's the whole point of the story! You can imagine it turned out to be about ten minutes long. I had to look that story up, and it's true. The German version of Casablanca brought the movie down from an hour and 42 minutes to an hour and 17 minutes, and wasn't particularly well received. See other movies and TV shows that changed dramatically when they crossed borders at Cracked.

Last week, NASA landed another robot on Mars, one with its own helicopter, using a sky crane, 131 million miles away, after a journey of a year and a half. Now, NASA has released a video that shows the Perseverance rover landing on the red planet. Even if you watched the coverage live, this is something special. The point of view is from several GoPro-type cameras installed on the various components.

The views include a camera looking down from the spacecraft's descent stage (a kind of rocket-powered jet pack that helps fly the rover to its landing site), a camera on the rover looking up at the descent stage, a camera on the top of the aeroshell (a capsule protecting the rover) looking up at that parachute, and a camera on the bottom of the rover looking down at the Martian surface.

Notice the graphics at the bottom to keep us up on what stage the descent is in. It also contains audio from Mission Control and a reaction shot when it's all said and done. If all that's not exciting enough for you, there's also a fan version with music.    -via reddit

Daft Punk released their first video in five years today. "Epilogue" is mostly a clip from their 2006 film Electroma, and it serves as a goodbye to everyone. This video may be disturbing to sensitive viewers. Yes, the duo have broken up, or maybe just retired after 28 years. Read more about it at Pitchfork.  -via Metafilter

In the summer of 1959, polio swept across Canada, causing panic among parents who feared for their children's lives and health. In Quebec, there were thousands of cases, and 88 people died. Folks lined up for vaccinations, but the supply of vaccine could not keep up.

By August, Montréal was waiting desperately for more vaccines. It was a great relief when a huge shipment of the cherry-red vials arrived from Connaught Labs at the end of the month. The supply was enough to cover the city, and the surplus was planned for redistribution across the province.

Yet the redistribution never came to pass. One man by the name of Jean Paul Robinson, a temporary vaccine worker, had found the circumstances too enticing. Robinson had been tasked with running vials between the various clinics. He knew there was a shortage and that people were desperate. He also knew where the main supply of vaccine was stored: at the Microbiology Institute in the University of Montréal.

At 3 a.m. on Aug. 31, 1959, Robinson and two accomplices broke into the university armed with revolvers. They first locked the night guard in a cage with 500 lab monkeys. The thieves then broke the lock on the massive refrigerator, looted all the cases of the vaccine and stole the guard’s car as the getaway vehicle. In the end, they made away with 75,000 vials, valued at $50,000 (equivalent to almost $500,000 today). Robinson rented an empty apartment building and stashed his prize.

The crime shocked the country. The next day, the city announced it had completely run out of its vaccine supplies. Reporters seized on the situation, publishing reports of desperate mothers turned away from vaccine clinics in vain.

While the vaccine was infinitely valuable, one has to wonder what Robinson thought he was going to do with 75,000 vials of it. The vaccine had to be kept cold, or it would lose effectiveness. Selling it would only draw scrutiny. It turns out that Robinson hadn't really thought his cunning plan all the way through. Read the story of the polio vaccine heist at The Conversation. -via Damn Interesting

For some reason I've been offered my first covid jab and am now wondering whether I'm actually much older than I think I am

— Liam Thorp 💙 (@LiamThorpECHO) February 16, 2021

Liam Thorp, the political editor of the Liverpool Echo, got a notice from the National Health Service that he needed to come in for a COVID vaccine. Thorp is 32 years old and has no condition that would warrant a vaccine at this stage of the rollout. Why was he flagged to get one? He called to ask if it were really his turn, which led to some checking. His doctor later called back to say there had been a mistake and he wasn't due for a shot yet.

I mean I’ve put on a few pounds in lockdown but not that many

— Liam Thorp 💙 (@LiamThorpECHO) February 17, 2021

For reference, a BMI of 40 or more is considered morbidly obese - so I'm not sure what this would have made me.

The man's nervous tone cracked into a laugh when I joked about putting on weight and losing a significant amount of height during the lockdown.

If I had been less stunned, I would have asked why no one was more concerned that a man of these remarkable dimensions was slithering around south Liverpool.

Of course, the story went viral, and Thorp is now known as "the Morbidly Obese Pancake Man." You can read the entire story at the Liverpool Echo. -via Nag on the Lake

"You Give Love a Bad Name" by Bon Jovi was a catchy song, but you know what it needs? A disco beat!  Shahar Varshal mashed it up with Boney M's "Rasputin." Oh, those Russians...  -via Metafilter

Black-footed ferrets were in danger of going completely extinct in the 1980s. Scientists collected the few ferrets they could find in Wyoming for a breeding program, which has been successful, but the species is still endangered and the gene pool is rather thin. In fact, all the black-footed ferrets in the US are descended from just seven individuals. But Elizabeth Ann could change that. She is the first cloned animal of an endangered species in the US. Elizabeth Ann was produced from a frozen cell of Willa, a black-footed ferret that died in 1988. Willa has no known descendants today, so her clone now has the potential to refresh the black-footed ferret gene pool.

Elizabeth Ann was born on Dec. 10, 2020, and resides at a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service black-footed ferret breeding facility in Fort Collins, Colo. The team waited several months to introduce her to the world.

"The first few weeks of their life can be really critical for any ferret, natural-born or clone, and so we wanted to know that she was going to be good," Novak said.

"She is thriving and growing and becoming more and more black-footed ferret-like every day."

Elizabeth Ann was born as part of a litter of domestic ferrets, which are a different species. There are plans to produce other ferret clones for the breeding program. Read more about this ferret and see more adorable pictures at CBC.  -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: USFWS Mountain-Prairie)

The Muppet Show won 11 Emmys during its initial run from 1976 to 1981. The 120 episodes then aired in syndication for years, and now they are only available on Disney+. But you can see clips anytime, lots of them in a list at Vulture detailing the 25 best episodes of The Muppet Show in chronological order. The show let the Muppets run wild, drew top guest hosts, and gave us memorable characters and skits like Pigs in Space, the Swedish Chef, Statler and Waldorf, and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker. Many of the guest hosts share their remembrances of the show, and one thing they have in common is how they came to see the Muppets as real characters instead of puppets. John Cleese was one such host.

“One of the happiest experiences I’ve ever had in this silly business. It’s about as much fun acting as I’ve had because those Muppets were so real. I have worked with actors who were less responsive. I’ll tell you how believable they are. I had to do a song at one point and I was dreading it, but once I more or less got it right on the third or fourth take, I was so delighted that when the director said cut, I patted Kermit on the head. I thought the sketch with Gonzo was one of the funniest things I ever did. I have to say this, though I shouldn’t, it’s very well performed. The atmosphere on set was very relaxed, everyone was happy. I think that helps the comedy. People are at their best when they’re relaxed and having fun.”

See skits from all 25 episodes in the list at Vulture. -via Digg

A long-running Icelandic game show called Gettu betur (Guess Better) pits teams of students against each other. During Friday's game, when the results were announced, one member of the losing side took issue with the ruling. You don't have to understand Icelandic to follow this. He even makes a spectacle of himself after going off camera!  -via Boing Boing

Couldn't help myself. Draw an iceberg and see how it would actually float in water: https://t.co/HSqRwjVVk7 https://t.co/ziobrmDknV

— Joshua Tauberer (@JoshData) February 19, 2021

Glaciologist and climate scientist Megan Thompson-Munson wants to correct the popular image of icebergs. Yes, 90% of an iceberg is underwater, but they don't float the way you see them in stock photos. Read her explanation at Twitter.

Inspired by that thread, Joshua Tauberer made Iceberger, a web toy in which you can draw your own iceberg. As soon as you're finished, the iceberg will orient itself naturally as physics would dictate. Sure, you can draw a unicorn or any other shape that comes to mind, but it won't float the way you intended, and you'll only see a small fraction above the waterline. Have fun with it! -via Metafilter

Researchers from UNSW Sydney and the South Australian Museum have been studying the rings of ancient New Zealand kauri trees, which can record environmental changes over many thousands of years. They found clues about the last time the earth’s magnetic poles switched, around 42,000 years ago. The environmental effects of the magnetic field thinning to a small fraction of normality would have been cataclysmic not only to the environment, but to people who witnessed it. Solar flares, ionized air, aurora, and electrical storms would have been quite frightening.

The researchers theorise that the dramatic environmental changes may have caused early humans to seek more shelter. This could explain the sudden appearance of cave art around the world roughly 42,000 years ago.

"We think that the sharp increases in UV levels, particularly during solar flares, would suddenly make caves very valuable shelters," says Prof. Cooper. "The common cave art motif of red ochre handprints may signal it was being used as sunscreen, a technique still used today by some groups.

"The amazing images created in the caves during this time have been preserved, while other art out in open areas has since eroded, making it appear that art suddenly starts 42,000 years ago."

While the temporary flipping of the magnetic poles (which lasted 800 years) is called the Laschamps Excursion, the researchers in this study refer to the beginning of the flip 42,000 years ago as the Adams Event, in honor of Douglas Adams, who knew the answer to everything is 42.

"The more we looked at the data, the more everything pointed to 42," says Prof. Turney. "It was uncanny.

"Douglas Adams was clearly on to something, after all."

There are a lot more possibilities about the Adams Event and how it may have shaped human history at Phys Org.

(Image credit: Gabinete de Prensa del Gobierno de Cantabria)