Anatoly Yurevych Moskvin lived in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, where he was a professor of Celtic history and linguistics. He also collected dolls and was an expert on cemeteries, which only branded him as an eccentric academic, a designation which drew little notice. Because of his knowledge of cemeteries, Moskvin was commissioned to do a "census" of sorts of those buried in the cemeteries of the area. It was a job he took seriously, often camping out in the graveyards while he took notes.

It might seem odd that this man was out in the elements sleeping amongst gravestones and generally lurking about the shadows very much as a ghost or specter might, but this was his job, and no one really thought much of it at the time. This would change in 2011, when it was discovered that there had been a series of desecrated graves around the same cemeteries where Moskvin was known to frequent, although at the time there was no connection made between the two, with the academic questioned but never considered a person of interest. After all, he was a well-respected, highly regarded professor and academic out doing what he was commissioned to do, there was no reason at all to seriously think he was up to anything too nefarious out there in the dark left to his own obsession with death and his own devices. Indeed, the police ended up approaching him to actually help them find out who might be doing it.

Over the course of their conversations, police got steadily more suspicious of Moskvin, as his apartment was not only full of often life-sized, meticulously brightly dressed dolls, but also toys, books, and clothing that were meant for children, even though the man had no kids, and there was an undefinable, yet unpleasant smell permeating the air of the abode. This all seemed rather odd to the authorities, and they proceeded to do a cursory search of the place just to see what was going on. They no doubt were not expecting the show of horrors they would uncover there, and here unfurls one of the most demented cases in Russian history.

I'm sure you can see where this is going, but the details are quite gruesome. Read the story of Moskvin and his dolls at Mysterious Universe. -via Strange Company

Geum Hyok Kim had no idea that the rest of the world was different from his home country of North Korea, until he studied abroad and met students from South Korea. That changed everything for him. He tells Soul Pancake how his eyes were opened about democracy and human rights. Then his embassy called him to come in. -via Digg 

In the latest of their "job secrets" series, Mental Floss talked to people who make a living developing new scents that may or may not become best sellers. It's not an easy field to break into, and not everyone has what it takes to make the cut.

Master perfumers are sometimes called a nez—the French word for "nose"—for good reason. They commit hundreds of scents to memory and can distinguish between ingredients that would smell identical to the untrained nose. Many perfumers can also tell an essential oil from a synthetic material, which is no small feat. “You’re talking maybe 200 essential oils and about 1500 synthetic materials,” Jodi Wilson, a classically trained perfumer who now works as a fragrance sales manager for Orchidia Fragrances in Chicago, says of the ingredients perfumers typically employ.

But it takes more than a keen sense of smell. Read what goes into the profession of perfumery at Mental Floss.

(Image credit: Christopher J. Fynn)

A crocheted dinosaur rushes to save his friend the fox in this animated tale about friendship. It starts out as goofy and overdramatic, but ends up being profoundly touching. This short film is an Oscar contender, and you'll find more links about it at Metafilter.

Louis XIV of France could spend the modern-day equivalent of millions of dollars with a snap of his fingers. In 1674 he commissioned an “apartment of the baths” at the palace in Versailles containing a tub made of marble that later generations would mistake for a swimming pool. He also constructed an "orangery" to hold 2,000 orange trees for the purpose of making orange blossom perfume.

The king was crazy about the odeur de Nerolie, a floral essence produced from the blossom of the bitter orange tree, first introduced as a fashionable fragrance in the 17th century by an Italian princess, who was using it to perfume her gloves and bath. But Louis took it a step further by replacing his bath water entirely with the most delicate of fragrances. While Europe was trying to rid itself of the plague, bathing in natural water was considered a great risk. Paddling around in a pool of perfume was not only guaranteed to have him smelling like an orange blossom for his next appearance at court, but it was also just a safe bet in the dark ages of medicine. Today the essential oil is one of the most widely used floral oils in perfumery, but can you imagine bathing in the stuff?

After the French Revolution, the bathtub was covered with a floor, then removed completely, and it roamed around France before finally being restored to the palace in 1934. Read about Louis XIV's perfume bath at Messy Nessy Chic. Note: the photo of the orangery shown above does not show the bathtub, but you'll see it in the linked article.    

(Image credit: Tkx)

Little Debbie snack cakes are quite familiar to us, but the company is actually McKee Foods, which goes back a couple of decades before the name Little Debbie was coined. Like many long-lived family companies, they've gone through a lot of changes since the Great Depression, yet the business is still in the same family. Simon Whistler of Today I Found Out takes us through the story of Little Debbie.

Some genetic diseases flourish in the human population because they don't affect everyone who carries the gene, meaning they can be passed along without knowing. By the time the gene is identified, they could be all over the world. Other diseases strike later in life, when the genes may have been passed to another generation or two already. That was the case in the Linder family, when William Linder developed a mysterious, painful, and slowly fatal condition in his 40s. He already had two college-age daughters -who are now showing symptoms of the disease. William's brother had also died from the condition. Doctors traced a gene mutation back to their mother, and possibly their grandmother.     

The genome defines us as a species, shapes us as individuals, and through its idiosyncrasies—the random deletions, additions and mutations in each of our cells—exerts a profound influence on the way we live and die. Knowing this, geneticists have begun to look back in time to find the origin of the genes that cause much of the world’s disease. They’ve traced a heightened risk for breast cancer back to a woman in 16th century Iceland; found the same for colon cancer in a man in 17th century England; and walked sickle cell anemia back to 18th century Africa.

The tantalizing question is, what if science could have been there at the founding? What if the first carriers of every disease knew it and chose not to pass it on? Would we have Cystic Fibrosis or Huntington’s? Would we even have disease as we know it? And given what we know now, will science one day be able to eradicate all but a baseline of genetic illness?

A gene mutation that recent offers the opportunity to stop it in its tracks before it affects a wider population, since we have tests to detect it in fetuses and even in-vitro. But there is pushback on selecting out genes, no matter how destructive they may be. Hilary and Joselin Linder are negotiating this minefield in order to have children without passing along the mutated gene. Read the story of the Linder family at NBC. -via Strange Company   

(Image courtesy of Joselin Linder)

Anna Brisbin trained her mini dachshund Remus to do all kinds of things in response to the magic language of Harry Potter! I guess that makes him "Harry Pupper." That's a good dog. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Remember the the Historic Tale Construction Kit, that helps you build your own panels using images from the Bayeaux Tapestry? Some of the crew at Ars Technica had fun with it over the holidays, and made comics that retell the stories of modern movies, using the embroidered medieval images. Surely you recognize the beginning of a terrifying tale pictured above, and the unforgettable scene below

Enjoy Ye Silence of ye Lambs as well as Commando: the Tale of Sir Jon of Matrix, Evente Horizone, and William and Theodore's Most Excellent Adventure. All are presented in slideshow form here. -via Metafilter

We know the coelacanth as a fish that hasn't changed in millions of years, that was thought to be extinct. The creature itself is fascinating, but the story of how it was discovered in 1938 is also an interesting tale, told in a papercraft animation from BioInteractive. -via Nag on the Lake

"There is no dino, only Zuul."

A new dinosaur discovered in 2014 has been named after the demon Zuul from Ghostbusters. The ankylosaurid fossil now goes by the name Zuul crurivastator. From the recreation shown above, it certainly looks terrifying, but this dinosaur was a herbivore. And it's now on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, or, at least its skull and tail is. The rest of the dinosaur is still being carefully excavated from the sandstone that encased it.

Releasing this unusually detailed fossil is achingly precise work, but it will be well worth it. Ankylosaur fossils are rare, and even when they are found, they're often scattered like puzzle pieces due to the decay process. With Zuul, it's almost as if the whole animal was instantly turned to stone.

“It's among the very, very best-in-class of specimens out there,” says paleontologist Victoria Arbour, a curator at Canada's Royal BC Museum and an ankylosaur expert. Already, the scientists can see broken armor along its flank, a clue that Zuul sustained battle damage from other ankylosaurids.

“The quality of the armor and skin preservation has exceeded our wildest dreams,” adds Royal Ontario Museum paleontologist David Evans, who is studying the dinosaur.

Zuul lived around 76 million years ago, and was about twenty feet long. Read more about Zuul at National Geographic.  -via Cracked

How many times were the words "yes" and "no" uttered in Star Wars? You might be able to guess which one was said more often, but Star Wars Kids actually counted. Even better, they created a supercut where we can witness each "yes" and "no" over all ten movies so far, and some of them are pretty memorable. -via io9

Athletes work very hard to get to the point where they can make a living playing sports. Depending on the sport, there are side effects to that hard work. For hockey players, that can mean trouble finding jeans that fit. It's the butt.

"I've never really talked about it," Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews says. "But it's definitely a thing a lot of guys go through."

"It's an absolute nightmare between the quads and the glutes," Montreal Canadiens center Max Domi says. "The glutes especially, because it just throws off your waist. You have, like, a 48 waist with your ass, but without it, you're a 32. So what do you do? Meet halfway, and you still have all this extra stuff."

New York Islanders winger Anders Lee often goes to the mall with his wife. "I'll try on, like, 40 pairs of pants or jeans," he laments, "and we'll walk away with one ... or none. Oh, and anything that says 'skinny'? Trust me, I'm not getting into that."

At least one hockey player spent his entire college career wearing sweatpants, but once in the NHL, players find they need to consult a tailor. Read about the difficulty of covering hockey butts at ESPN.

(Image credit: Grant Kratzer)

Kate Wagner at McMansion Hell hosted a gingerbread house competition with a twist. She invited bakers to send in their best gingerbread McMansion! Fans who follow her blog pulled out all the stops to recreate the real estate monstrosities that have taken over the landscape in the past few decades. See combined architectural styles, oversize garages, mis-matched roof lines, and a variety of window sizes in tasty gingerbread and candy McMansions. The grand prize winner is Casa de McGingerHell by Beth and Tina C, shown above. Like all the entries, it came with a real estate listing.

Located centrally and literally dominating the entire living room, this McGingerMansion features over twenty handcrafted stained glass windows, a double sized garage, and three hand laid rock face walls! This gingermansion also has not one, but two incredible water features including a delightful frozen waterfall in the spacious backyard. Boasting several pre-decorated pine trees surrounding the property, this festive gingermansion showcases several dozen strands of lights and as well as a handful of charming wreaths.

The one hundred percent genuine pretzel log deck overlooking the backyard is the perfect place to entertain friends and family alike, especially during the holiday season! Standing at just over a foot and a half tall, this truly massive gingermansion has a total composition of just over twenty pans worth of gingerbread. Call now to schedule a tour today; this gingermansion won’t last long! *Disclaimer: As required of us by law, we must disclose the presence of a minor pest infestation in the form of roughly a dozen cute, but possibly rabid penguins on the property.  

See the top three winners from all angles plus five great honorable mentions at McMansion Hell. -via Kottke

The Sahara Desert was once green and inviting, but that obviously changed. For at least a hundred years, people have dreamed of turning the desert from an ominous travel barrier back into livable space for people, wildlife, and crops. Some of those ideas are stranger than others. They range from "too expensive" to "what were they thinking?" -via Digg