Tag: History

Scientific Hot Links

You Got Snakes

Sexy People.

The Party Of The Wealthy.

Canada’s House of Common addresses a potential threat to civilization [via].

This song was a hit on pop radio in the early 1960s, and it’s enough to make you wanna puke. [Wiki: The song was composed by Ghanaian musician Guy Warren in 1956 under the original title “An African’s Prayer (Eyi Wala Dong)”.]

The New Dimensions in Testimony program is pretty awesome. More here.

“‘I now have work for 20 years,’ he exclaimed joyfully.” Disturbing true story here.

Classic list of everything blamed on Anthropogenic Global Warming Climate Change: The Warmlist.

ICYMI Department: The Institute for Centrifugal Reasearch: Gravity Is A Mistake. Must see video [via].

Searching for Twitter followers with the promise of absolutely no content, no following and no retweets.

Top image found here, caption inspired by this:

300 A.D. Roman Swiss Army Knife

GR.1.1991

Yeah, you think I’m kidding. Check it out.

Tom & Tommy

Tom Waits and Tommy Ramone.

[Found here.]

The End Of The World Mayan Apocalypse December 2012

Mayan Apocalypse December 2012

Since we don’t know in which time zone the catastrophe begins, this may be my last post on Tacky Raccoons; otherwise, we’ll see you on Friday as usual.

[Concept unashamedly snatched from here. Somewhat appropriate apocalyptic music from Skeeter Davis here.]

We Remember

WE REMEMBER

Scanned image of a rubber stamp that Papa Strutts had made. He used it on much of his correspondence to commemorate that Day of Infamy.

How To Secede Without Really Trying

Conch Republic Flag

With all the recent Huffin’ N Puffin’ N Rapier Rattlin’ from some small sectors about States seceding from The Union (due to rampant fiscal insanity emanating from Washington D.C.) kudos to Key West and Mayor Dennis Wardlow. His preceding secession succeeded.

On April 23, 1982, the Florida keys seceded from the Union. Frustrated that a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint was obstructing the main artery to the mainland, Key West mayor Dennis Wardlow opted for a lighthearted public relations campaign: He proclaimed his “Conch Republic” a separate nation, declared war on the United States, surrendered one minute later, and applied for $1 billion in foreign aid.

Since then the republic has maintained an uneasy peace with its giant neighbor. On Sept. 20, 1995, when an Army reserve battalion forgot to notify Key West of local training exercises, Wardlow mobilized for war. He sent letters to Bill Clinton, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and secretary of state Warren Christopher, and his militia engaged La Dichosa Bakery to bake Cuban bread with which to pelt the convoy (“our historic weapon of choice for dealing with Federalist Forces”) and Key West Lager “to provide the beer.”

By 10:50 p.m. they had received a fax from the battalion’s leaders stating that they had “in no way meant to challenge or impugn the sovereignty of the Conch Republic.” An official surrender ceremony was held two days later.

[Story burgled in its entirety from Futility Closet because Greg Ross is so entirely bitchin’ and everyone should send him money. There’s a somewhat related post here.]

In Memory of Erin O’Keefe

Mountain Rats 1876 a

A somber ceremony at Pike’s Peak 1876. The dangers of the new frontier were many, and there were many horrible ways one could part from the living.

Mountain Rats 1876

The U.S. Signal Service (an early Weather Bureau) built a telegraph station on the summit [of Pike’s Peak] in 1873 to monitor the weather, and a guard was posted in Manitou at the beginning of the trail to collect a toll for hiking to the summit.

In May of 1876, tragedy befell the O’Keefe family when their daughter Erin was apparently eaten by mountain rats. The true story may be found here.

[Bottom image found here, top image here. Related post here.]

Mid-1500’s Half Bath Chair

Okay. Let’s try to suss this one out.

There’s a throne with a hole, and a basin to catch the football that for some odd reason is located in front of the seat. There’s a megaphone to amplify the action, presumably to alert a nearby attendant that a goal has been scored. The attendant opens a small valve and dumps it on the floor. But then, um, it won’t, er, like, you know, it doesen’t, well, work and, uh, hmm. I give up.

Image Description: Subject: Chair with opening in the seat and a tub underneath with a spigot attached; for the purpose of producing steam baths to alleviate the pain of bladder stones.

[Found in here, via here. Related post here.]

L’Abbé Jean-Baptiste de La Chapelle’s Contribution To The World

Father Jean-Baptiste de La Chapelle, born about 1710 and probably died in 1792 in Paris. Before a large audience, he jumped into the Seine, eating, drinking, snuffing, discharging a pistol and writing while floating on the surface. He tried again, three years later, this demonstration before Louis XV near the royal hunting lodge in the forest of Senart, but his attempt failed when the current swept him away so fast that the king could not identify what happened to him.

His invention was a cork suit for soldiers, a precursor to the modern life vest. [Found here.]

On The Other Hand

13 August is “Left Handers’ Day,” and since Friday the 13th comes on a Monday this month, it means a whole week of bad luck – but only for those of the dextral persuasion.

My first inkling that things were not equal, at least handed-wise, was with the q-shaped school desks. Occasionally there was a single p-shaped desk per classroom, but that was a rarity, so us lefties adapted without complaint.

Later on it was penmanship, where part of the grade dismissed content and replaced it with “neatness.”  To further embarrass us non-dextralites, they made us put little green plastic thingys on our pencils and pens as if we didn’t now how to grasp them properly. As late as 4th grade, Mrs. Mikulski grabbed and twisted my hand because I was “hooking” in order to write in cursive with the proper slant.

And all this happened in Public School. Continue reading “On The Other Hand”