[Top image: A “kid” was spotted smoking at a soccer game, except the “kid” is 36 years old, and the “kid” next to him is his son. Image and story found here. (h/t Octo).]
Amazing. The contents of clay cylinders found during the excavation of ancient Babylon is evidence that soapmaking was known as early as 2800BC, and these guys in Nablus are still doing it the ancient way, by hand. Why?
Nice animation that must have taken a while to make [via].
Fishing with John (with Japanese subtitles). From the Utoobage comments: “The problem with other fishing shows is that they are too polished, too normal. And they don’t have enough Tom Waits.”
I don’t know what Fishbone was yammering about here, but I like the vibe.
As long as a tune was good, I never paid much attention to lyrics, but sometimes, years later, I found that the songs I liked a lot weren’t about what I thought they were about at all.
Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow for stuff.
“Footnote (September 2015) Why the list stopped growing. The time it takes to process a new entry increases approximately with the square of the list length, after checking for duplications, spoofs etc. Starting it was based on the naïve assumption that the rate of appearances would decline as opposing evidence accumulated, but the reverse happened. That’s the difference between science andreligion. […] There have since been hundreds more claims of an increasingly ludicrous nature.“
At 0:38, “Teacher” Martha Readyoff actually asked Bernie Sanders, “Educating everyone on the need to curb population growth seems a reasonable campaign to enact. Would you be courageous enough to discuss this issue and make it a key feature of a plan to address Climate Catastrophe?“
Look how CNN rephrased her question:
Bernie responded “YES.” Anyone else smell eugenics? I do.
KimKommando chimed in and posted this link: haveibeenpwned.com. Type in your email address(es) and it will tell you if you’ve logged into a site/service that has been the victim of a security breach that may have compromised your personal information (including birthdates, SSNs & passwords).
A Humble Request. Thanks to all contributors and those of you who continue to donate. She had more surgery last week.
In 1894 there was a recession in the US, and Chicago engineer, industrialist and developer George Pullman had to lay off a large chunk of his workforce (yet he kept about 2/3rds on the payroll).
Some of those laid off were anarchists, socialists and Marxists (the Progressive Movement was on the march) and they organized a strike, not only for the layoffs, but because Pullman wouldn’t reduce the rent for the housing he built and owned. But they did more than protest. They turned to violence and arson.
They burned the buildings and product of their employer (The Pullman Car Company) and others. The damage affected the rail commerce of 27 states, the US Postal Service, and thousands of workers and their families not directly affected by the layoffs. Dozens were killed during the riots.
Note that the arson and violence didn’t affect Pullman nearly as much as it did to the thousands of people who benefited from Pullman’s brilliance, including engineering underground sewage systems for the city of Chicago.
In that year, democrats controlled the House, the Senate AND the Presidency. What did President Cleveland do? He gave the “strikers” an Official Holiday. Then a few days later, he sent in the U.S. Military to kick ass on his own constituents.
Even as Pullman Company and railroad workers were striking, Congress passed legislation in June 1894 making the first Monday in September a federal legal holiday to recognize and celebrate labor. President Grover Cleveland signed the bill into law June 28, 1894, a few days before sending federal troops to Chicago.
“It was a way of being supportive of labor. Labor unions were a constituency of the Democrat Party at the time, and it didn’t look good for Cleveland, who was a Democrat, to be putting down this strike.”
[Richard Schneirov, professor of history, founder of the local chapter of the SDS, 1966, Grinnel University.]
Federal troops were recalled from Chicago on July 20, and the Pullman strike was declared over in early August. Eugene V. Debs, arrested at the height of the violence along with several other ARU leaders, was charged with violating the injunction and served six months in jail. Though the ARU disbanded, Debs would emerge as the leader of the nation’s growing socialist movement, running for president five times on the Socialist Party ticket.
“Grog” is old Brit naval slang for “grogham,” a cloak worn by Vice Admiral Edward Vernon (known as “Old Grogham”) who realized that sailors were hoarding their daily rum rations for later binges. In 1740 he decreed:
“To Captains of the Squadron! Whereas the Pernicious Custom of the Seamen drinking their Allowance of Rum in Drams, and often at once, is attended by many fatal Effects to their Morals as well as their Health, the daily allowance of half a pint a man is to be mixed with a quart of water, to be mixed in one Scuttled Butt kept for that purpose, and to be done upon Deck, and in the presence of the Lieutenant of the Watch, who is to see that the men are not defrauded of their allowance of Rum.”
THAT likely pissed off a lot of swabs. [USNI has more here.]
“On August 29, 1916, the U.S.S. Memphis was wrecked on the beach at Santo Domingo City, Santo Domingo, by enormous seas which were unaccompanied by any wind whatsoever.” [Eyewitness story here.]
After accounting for all income, charity, and non-cash welfare benefits like subsidized housing and Food Stamps—the poorest 20% of Americans consume more goods and services than the national averages for all people in most affluent countries.
A Humble Request. Thanks to all contributors and those of you who continue to donate. We’re trying to hold onto her apartment for when she’s ready to return.)
[Found here and here. The 3rd one I cropped, reversed, spliced, looped and resized from, um, here. Click on any .gif above to hear awesome.]
BTW, this post is kind of a landmark as we’ve been collecting .gif animations and posting three or more every Friday. That means we’ve got about 1,800 cool in our Archives. Have at ’em.
