Ryan Andrew drew a wordless story about grief and fear ...and overcoming those fears. Each part is linked to the next part of the story. http://ryan-a.tumblr.com/post/1325972211/nif01 -via Metafilter
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Ryan Andrew drew a wordless story about grief and fear ...and overcoming those fears. Each part is linked to the next part of the story. http://ryan-a.tumblr.com/post/1325972211/nif01 -via Metafilter
(YouTube link)
This is why no one goes to the Consumer Electronics Show anymore -because it's so crowded! This is the line to get into CES:Unveiled, the first event of the trade show going on now in Las Vegas. -via Boing Boing
During the Civil War, Confederate leaders didn't just want to defeat the Union Army, they wanted to create a giant Latin American empire.
In the years leading up to the Civil War, many Northerners and Southerners alike wanted the federal government to take a more aggressive approach to acquiring new territory. In fact, some private citizens, known as filibusters, took matters into their own hands. They raised small armies illegally; ventured into Mexico, Cuba, and South America; and attempted to seize control of the lands. One particularly successful filibuster, William Walker, actually made himself president of Nicaragua and ruled from 1856 to 1857.
For the most part, these filibusters were just men in search of adventure. Others, however, were Southern imperialists who wanted to conquer new territories in the tropics. Abolitionist forces in the North greatly opposed their efforts, and the debate over Southern expansion only increased tensions in a divided nation. As the country drifted into war, U.S. Vice President John Breckinridge of Kentucky warned that "the Southern states cannot afford to be shut off from all possibility of expansion towards the tropics by the hostile action of the federal government."
But Abraham Lincoln's election in November 1860 put an end to the argument. The anti-slavery president refused to compromise, and war broke out in April 1861.
CONFEDERATE COLONIES, SOUTH OF THE BORDER
Winning the war was clearly a higher priority for the Confederacy than conquering Latin America, but growth was certainly on the post-war agenda. Confederate president Jefferson Davis made sure the Confederate constitution included the the right to expand, and he filled his cabinet with men who thought similarly. He even hinted that the slave trade could be revived in "new acquisitions to be made south of the Rio Grande."
During the Civil War, Confederate agents attempted to destabilize Mexico so that its territories would be easy to snatch up after the war. One rebel emissary to Mexico City, John T. Pickett, secretly fomented rebellion in several Mexican provinces with an eye to "the permanent possession of that beautiful country." Pickett's mission ended in failure in 1861, but fate dealt the South a better hand in 1863. French Emperor Napoleon III seized Mexico, and the move provided the South with the perfect excuse to "liberate" the country after the Civil War.
Of course, Mexico was just part of the pie the South hoped to inherit. Confederate leaders also had their eyes squarely on Brazil -a country of nearly 4 million square miles and more than 8 million people. Prior to the outbreak of the war, U.S. Naval Academy founder Matthew Maury dispatched two Navy officers to the Amazon basin, ostensibly to map the river for shipping. Instead, they were secretly plotting domination and collecting data about separatist movements in the region. When the South lost the war, Maury refused to abandon his plans. He helped 20,000 ex-rebels flee to Brazil, where they established the Confederate colonies of New Texas and Americana. To this day, hundreds of descendants of the Confederados still gather outside Americana to celebrate their shared heritage of rocking chairs and sweet potato pie. In a strange way, a part of the Old South still survives -thousands of miles below the U.S. border.
Be sure to visit mental_floss' entertaining website and blog for more fun stuff!
In the years leading up to the Civil War, many Northerners and Southerners alike wanted the federal government to take a more aggressive approach to acquiring new territory. In fact, some private citizens, known as filibusters, took matters into their own hands. They raised small armies illegally; ventured into Mexico, Cuba, and South America; and attempted to seize control of the lands. One particularly successful filibuster, William Walker, actually made himself president of Nicaragua and ruled from 1856 to 1857.
For the most part, these filibusters were just men in search of adventure. Others, however, were Southern imperialists who wanted to conquer new territories in the tropics. Abolitionist forces in the North greatly opposed their efforts, and the debate over Southern expansion only increased tensions in a divided nation. As the country drifted into war, U.S. Vice President John Breckinridge of Kentucky warned that "the Southern states cannot afford to be shut off from all possibility of expansion towards the tropics by the hostile action of the federal government."
But Abraham Lincoln's election in November 1860 put an end to the argument. The anti-slavery president refused to compromise, and war broke out in April 1861.
CONFEDERATE COLONIES, SOUTH OF THE BORDER
Winning the war was clearly a higher priority for the Confederacy than conquering Latin America, but growth was certainly on the post-war agenda. Confederate president Jefferson Davis made sure the Confederate constitution included the the right to expand, and he filled his cabinet with men who thought similarly. He even hinted that the slave trade could be revived in "new acquisitions to be made south of the Rio Grande."
During the Civil War, Confederate agents attempted to destabilize Mexico so that its territories would be easy to snatch up after the war. One rebel emissary to Mexico City, John T. Pickett, secretly fomented rebellion in several Mexican provinces with an eye to "the permanent possession of that beautiful country." Pickett's mission ended in failure in 1861, but fate dealt the South a better hand in 1863. French Emperor Napoleon III seized Mexico, and the move provided the South with the perfect excuse to "liberate" the country after the Civil War.
Of course, Mexico was just part of the pie the South hoped to inherit. Confederate leaders also had their eyes squarely on Brazil -a country of nearly 4 million square miles and more than 8 million people. Prior to the outbreak of the war, U.S. Naval Academy founder Matthew Maury dispatched two Navy officers to the Amazon basin, ostensibly to map the river for shipping. Instead, they were secretly plotting domination and collecting data about separatist movements in the region. When the South lost the war, Maury refused to abandon his plans. He helped 20,000 ex-rebels flee to Brazil, where they established the Confederate colonies of New Texas and Americana. To this day, hundreds of descendants of the Confederados still gather outside Americana to celebrate their shared heritage of rocking chairs and sweet potato pie. In a strange way, a part of the Old South still survives -thousands of miles below the U.S. border.
(Image source: Os Confederados)
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The above article is reprinted with permission from the July-August 2008 issue of mental_floss magazine.Be sure to visit mental_floss' entertaining website and blog for more fun stuff!
Astrophotographer Thierry Legault (featured previously at Neatorama) went all the way to Oman to take a picture of a solar eclipse. The shot he wanted was only available for a split second today, and he got it! Not only is the moon moving across the sun, but you can see other things in the picture (see the full-size version at the link). The small spot towards the bottom is a sunspot twice the size of the earth, and toward the top is something that looks like a TIE fighter. That is the International Space Station (ISS)! The Bad Astronomer explains how rare this picture is:
That’s why Thierry sojourned to Oman; due to the geometry of the ISS orbit, it was from there that he had the best chance of getting a picture of the station as it passed in front of the Sun during the relatively brief duration of the actual solar eclipse. But talk about brief; the ISS was in front of the Sun for less than second, so not only did he have one chance at getting this spectacular once-in-a-lifetime shot, but he had only a fraction of a second to snap it!
The ISS was only in front of the sun for .86 seconds during the eclipse. Link
(Image courtesy of Thierry Legault)
Rocky Balboa vs. the Soviet giant Ivan Drago. The fate of the Cold War rests in his hands. That was 25 years ago already? I guess so! Rocky IV is the subject of today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. I guess it was a long time ago -I only got 3 out of 10 correct! Surely you will do better. Link
Most insects have wings that appear to be transparent. Researchers from the University of Lund have found that they actually have rainbow colors, but the background of those wings makes all the difference in what the human eye sees.
“You hold the wing up against the light, so you can see the veins,” said study co-author Daniel Janzen, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Pennsylvania. “If you’re looking through a microscope, you try to get a clear view behind the wing. It’s the antithesis of getting wing color.”
The researchers studied wings under microscopes, against black backgrounds. But once Janzen, who breeds wasps for his research on caterpillar-parasite symbioses, started to look, colors could be seen by the naked eye as wings passed over insects’ black bodies.
This study looked at the wings of wasps and flies, and the team believes they may find similar results in other orders of insects. Link
Looking for a new job can be stressful enough without the interviewer throwing a curveball that has nothing to do with the position you are seeking. Many job interviews feature questions that are designed to see how fast you think, or how well you cope under pressure, but some of these questions are mind blowing!
The list at Glassdoor has links to possible answers from readers. I think the correct answer to many of these might be, "I don't know, but I know how to find the answer." http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/top-25-oddball-interview-questions-2010/ -via Austin Business Journal
(Image credit: Flickr user Tiffany Trewin)
2. “How many ridges [are there] around a quarter?”
6. “How many basketball[s] can you fit in this room”
12. “An apple costs 20 cents, an orange costs 40 cents, and a grapefruit costs 60 cents, how much is a pear?”
20. “You are in charge of 20 people, organize them to figure out how many bicycles were sold in your area last year.”
The list at Glassdoor has links to possible answers from readers. I think the correct answer to many of these might be, "I don't know, but I know how to find the answer." http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/top-25-oddball-interview-questions-2010/ -via Austin Business Journal
(Image credit: Flickr user Tiffany Trewin)
(YouTube link)
Oh no, this is nothing about a dog pulling a sled. This little guy just thinks it's his turn to ride! -via I Am Bored
Herschel Geguzin was born in Lithuania, but he eventually became Prince Michael Alexandrovitch Dmitry Obolensky Romanoff, the toast of Hollywood. His extensive travels, friendships, and brushes with the law left him with enough experiences to pull the wool over the eyes of many wealthy Americans. However, many others saw through him or found out about his masquerade, and didn't mind because he was so entertaining! Actor David Niven remembered the prince:
Eventually Romanov went legit and opened a restaurant in Beverly Hills that catered to his famous friends, many of whom invested in the business. How Romanoff achieved such acclaim is a fascinating story. Link
Niven, who was himself a man of preternatural charm and roguish tendencies, recognised a kindred spirit, and his account of Mike is notable for its penetrating insights. For Niven, the root of Prince’s unquestionable likeability was a humorous talent for the not-quite-plausible improvisation, the half-truth and the flamboyant gesture. When the British actor left Hollywood for Britain in 1939 to fight Hitler, Mike delighted in discussing his own alleged experiences of war, making him a present of a hand-knitted balaclava helmet (“Saved me near St Petersburg, old boy”) and a large blue and white spotted scarf with a burn in the centre (“mustard gas… Cambrai… silk is the only thing against it.”) The balaclava helmet Niven lost, but the scarf he kept long enough to consult a laundress about the mysterious mark of mustard gas it bore. “She told me that careless ironing was responsible for the burn.” [Niven p.154]
Eventually Romanov went legit and opened a restaurant in Beverly Hills that catered to his famous friends, many of whom invested in the business. How Romanoff achieved such acclaim is a fascinating story. Link
by Catherine Maloney, Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut, Sarah J. Lichtblau, University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois Nadya Karpook, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida Carolyn Chou, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Anthony Arena-DeRosa, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
A feline subject reacts to a photograph of a man with a full dark semicircular beard.
Cats were exposed to photographs of bearded men. The beards were of various sizes, shapes, and styles. The cats' responses were recorded and analyzed.
Boone (1958) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to clean-shaven men. O'Connor and Brynner (1990) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to shaven heads. Quant (1965) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to bangs. Seuss (1955) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to hats. Ciccone (1986) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to hairy legs. Other related studies (Smith/Brothers 1972, Conroy 1987, Schwartzenegger 1983) have since been retracted because the investigators were not able to reproduce their results.
Norquist (1988) performed a series of experiments in which cats were exposed to photographs of Robert Bork[1] (not pictured here), a man whose beard is confined largely to the underside of the jaw. After viewing the Bork photograph, 26% of the cats exhibited paralysis of the legs and body, including the neck. An additional 31% of the cats exposed to the Bork photograph showed other types of severe neurological and/or pulmocardial distress and/or exhibited extremely violent behavior. Because of this, we did not include a photograph of this type of bearded man in our study.
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A feline subject reacts to a photograph of a man with a full dark semicircular beard.
Abstract
Cats were exposed to photographs of bearded men. The beards were of various sizes, shapes, and styles. The cats' responses were recorded and analyzed.
Findings of Prior Investigators
Boone (1958) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to clean-shaven men. O'Connor and Brynner (1990) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to shaven heads. Quant (1965) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to bangs. Seuss (1955) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to hats. Ciccone (1986) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to hairy legs. Other related studies (Smith/Brothers 1972, Conroy 1987, Schwartzenegger 1983) have since been retracted because the investigators were not able to reproduce their results.
Norquist (1988) performed a series of experiments in which cats were exposed to photographs of Robert Bork[1] (not pictured here), a man whose beard is confined largely to the underside of the jaw. After viewing the Bork photograph, 26% of the cats exhibited paralysis of the legs and body, including the neck. An additional 31% of the cats exposed to the Bork photograph showed other types of severe neurological and/or pulmocardial distress and/or exhibited extremely violent behavior. Because of this, we did not include a photograph of this type of bearded man in our study.
by Emeritus Professor Sam Shuster, MD, PhD, FRCP Consultant, Dept of Dermatology, University of East Anglia, U.K.
This piece of work presented itself by accident. As a retired clinical scientist, I waste time worrying about problems I’ve opened and left unclosed. One such is stretch marks,1 and the body bulk that produces them. Would body builders carry some of the answers? These massive men downloaded with sylph-like ease, but then ousted the original problem with a bigger one, albeit of smaller amplitude: it was immediately and inescapably obvious that the bodybuilder’s crutch was mostly apparent by its absence – in short, bodybuilders appeared to have small balls.
Platitudes are what we learn from experience: there are lies, damned lies and clinical impressions, and a clinical hunch is poor evidence of its reality; I needed hard evidence. I needed to see body builders, but the responses, some of which were polite, made it clear that my study would have to be indirect. Fortunately, research is easier when its limits are defined: the trick was going to be how to measure changes in the male genital trio, the “meat and two veg” of this scientific meal, when it is covered and presented as an image.
Materials and Methods
It's time for our giveaway collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog! Can you tell us what this object is?
Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.
Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?
For more clues, check out the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!
Update: Vince had the right answer: the device is to hold logs while they are cut! Kelly gets the funniest answer prize for "The jawbone of a Domokun." She was the first of many to see a Domo-kun in this device. Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop!
It's time once again for the Fill in the Bubble Frenzy with boy genius Mal and his talking dog Chad! What goes in this empty speech bubble? Tell us and you might win any T-shirt available in the NeatoShop -take a look around, pick one out and tell us what shirt you’d like with your submission in the comments. If you don't specify a t-shirt with your entry, you forfeit the prize. Enter as many times as you like (text only, please), but leave only one entry per comment. For inspiration, check out Mal and Chad’s comic strip adventures by Stephen McCranie at malandchad.com. Have fun and good luck!
Update: Mysfyt had the winning line: "Avast, I be Peg-eye the pirate." and wins a T-shirt from the NeatoShop!
(YouTube link)
Hear New Year greetings in languages used all over the world. WojtekNYC assembled this with help from friends at Columbia University and the International House. If you can contribute any translation as to what was said, please leave them in the comments. -via The High Definite
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