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Little Dude The Alligator Lizard In A Predicament
Little Dude The Alligator Lizard In A Predicament
THIS DAY IN HISTORY: MAY 15TH- NOTHING LESS
This Day In History: May 15, 1869
“Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less!”– The Revolution
On May 15, 1869, The National Woman Suffrage Association was formed in New York City. The group was the result of ideological and political disagreements between two factions of the suffrage movement, one difference being whether to support the 15th amendment, which prohibited the government from denying citizens the right to vote, regardless of their “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
The first signs of dissension were evident as early as 1860, but for all intents and purposes the women’s suffrage movement took a hiatus during the Civil War. During the post-war era, the movement re-grouped as the American Equal Rights Association and set up a new platform.
The Association was divided on how to proceed when faced with the Reconstruction amendments which entailed the inclusion of the word “male” in the United States Constitution for the first time…
America’s Never-Ending Oil Consumption
Why presidents have found it so difficult to ask people to just use less
The United States accounts for less than 5 percent of the world’s population, but it consumes about 20 percent of the global energy supply. The average American citizen uses nearly two times as much fossil fuel as a person living in Great Britain. Americans love cars and big homes and hate public transportation. Constant warnings about climate change and the catastrophic consequences of American energy habits apparently aren’t enough to stop the temptation to consume. Although cars are becoming more efficient, Americans are driving more frequently and across longer distances.
On the campaign trail, even as Democratic presidential candidates talk about clean energy, they don’t often discuss the need to use less. Bernie Sanders says climate change is a moral issue and Hillary Clinton promises to deploy half a billion solar panels by the end of her first term in office. But politicians seem wary of telling Americans they need to cut back. …
Six smog-eating designs that purify the air
Algae helps take a bite out of pollution.
Air pollution is a huge problem in cities around the globe. The widespread burning of fossil fuels combined with the destruction of air-cleaning forests results in dense concentrations of smog in large urban centers. What’s more, the World Health Organization estimates that air pollution contributes to 7 million premature deaths each year. To address this enormous public health problem, engineers from around the world have developed some cool (and crazy) gadgets to help clean up the air. In Italy, the world’s first vertical forest have inspired designers around the world, but smaller projects are actively fighting pollution too. From a sidewalk that eats smog to an air-cleaning vacuum that turns pollution into jewelry, you’ll be amazed by the ways people are working to improve air quality. …
10 Recently Deciphered Ancient Writings
The ancients recorded their knowledge on scrolls, artifacts, and even cave walls. In some cases, the passage of time has erases our ability to understand a disused alphabet. In other cases, knowledge is purposely encrypted in complex codes understood by only a select (and long dead) few.
There are many such ancient writings, pictographs, and ciphers that still defy understanding. Whenever one is cracked, it almost always yields exciting new information. Here are 10 decoded books, paintings, scrolls, and artifacts that allow us an unprecedented glimpse into the secret societies, lost libraries, beliefs, and rituals of Antiquity.
10. Egyptian Book Of Spells
In 2014, after decades to trying, researchers finally deciphered an Egyptian codex, and they were amazed to discover that it was a spell caster’s handbook. The beautifully illustrated pages contain spells for Egyptians who wanted love, success in business, a cure from black jaundice, or to perform an exorcism. Depending on one’s mood, there are options to use a spell to either make peace with an enemy or to crush him.
The 1,300-year-old parchment references Jesus as well as an unknown godlike figure called “Bakthiotha.” Some invocations are even linked to an extinct religious movement, the Sethians, who in this codex, refer to Seth (third son of Adam and Eve) as “the living Christ.” It might sound like the Egyptians were religiously confused during this period, but researchers believe that the document marks the transition of a society moving from other belief systems to Orthodox Christianity. …
Welcome to a Bernie Sanders Wiccan ritual
Attending a rally for Bernie Sanders usually involves long lines and security screenings, but that wasn’t the case at an intimate, informal event Friday evening supporting the Vermont senator’s presidential campaign in a park here.
Instead of metal detectors, entrance required burning ceremonial sweetgrass.
Participants were “smudged,” meaning the smoke from the sweetgrass was wafted over them before they could enter the sacred circle and begin a Wiccan ritual to support Sanders ahead of Oregon’s primary on Tuesday.
“Welcome to the ‘Feeling the Bern ritual,’” Leigha Lafleur, 41, told the gathering as she prepared to lead them in the “amplification of positive energy of Bernie Sanders and the progressive movement.” …
Not Walgreens, Not CVS: Life as an Independent Pharmacist
Family-run drug stores are an American tradition, one that Vincent Hartzell has wanted to take part in since the fourth grade.
Before the U.S. licensed its first pharmacist in 1816, ailing Americans visited apothecaries based solely on reputation. Two hundred years later, there are nearly 300,000 licensed pharmacists working in the U.S., according to the CDC.
The independent pharmacy is an American tradition: Even some national chains, which many believe are crushing independent pharmacies, started out as family-owned businesses.
Hartzell’s Pharmacy in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, has been in business for nearly 50 years. In 1968, Bob Hartzell purchased Sterner’s Pharmacy, a storefront that dates back to 1874, and it has remained in his family since. Vincent Hartzell, Bob’s son, now runs the pharmacy. I talked with him about his job, how to run a family business, and the challenges of running an independent pharmacy. A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows. …
10 Unbelievable Soda Flavors
Everybody likes a nice refreshing soda now and then, and everybody has their favorite flavor. I’m a Mountain Dew man myself—I especially love the specialty varieties. Sometimes, though, a soda will pop up that must be some kind of elaborate joke. To each their own, of course, but no one can seriously enjoy these bizarre concoctions. Can they?
10. Yogurt
You would think this one wouldn’t be that bad. After all, people eat yogurt all the time—it’s delicious. However, the yogurt that people usually eat has been sweetened and flavored to mask the fact that it’s fermented milk. Yogurt soda, not so much.
Popular in the Middle East, yogurt soda (doogh) has the consistency of whole milk and a pungent sour milk aroma. It has a salty tang, and pepper or mint is sometimes added to enhance the flavor. Reviews of the drink mention its tendency to settle upon sitting, requiring the drinker to shake it before enjoying. …
Mike Holmes: Building codes are the building blocks of construction safety
May is Building Safety Month by the International Code Council (ICC) — a not-for-profit organization dedicated to developing codes and building standards that ensure safe buildings and structures. Building Safety Month focuses on bringing awareness to all aspects of building safety and how it affects families, homeowners and communities. That includes highlighting measures that help ensure our homes and the places we work and play in are safe — and stay safe.
Building Safety Month focuses on building codes and educating the professional workforce on what it takes to build and maintain safe and sustainable structures. This is also important to homeowners looking to do renovations or construction.
Building codes were put in place to protect us and establish minimum standards for construction. It’s important that builders and contractors stay up to date on local building codes, as well as any updates that are made to code. Building codes change depending on where you live, and there might be various codes that builders need to comply with, such as the National Building Code of Canada, as well as provincial and municipal building codes. …
When Being Human Got His Goat, This Designer Became One
Not long after publishing his first book, London designer Thomas Thwaites found himself with no real job and in relationship trouble. His book, The Toaster Project — about his attempt to build a toaster from scratch — was a huge success, but he found the whole business of being a celebrity thinker a hard act to follow.
To be human is to worry about getting by, doing better, finding love and accepting the march of mortality. Thwaites decided to try to escape the burden of being human — and he would do it by becoming a goat.
“Human life can just be so difficult,” he tells NPR’s Scott Simon. “And you look at a goat and it’s just, you know, it’s free. It doesn’t have any concerns.”
Thwaites’ new book is Mi>GoatMan: How I Took A Holiday From Being Human. …
THIS DAY IN HISTORY: MAY 15TH- GEORGE WALLACE SHOT
Today in History: May 15, 1972
On May 15, 1972, Alabama’s controversial governor George Wallace was shot at close range during an outdoor rally in Laurel, Maryland. The assailant, clad in red, white and blue, was arrested immediately at the scene.
The 52-year-old Wallace was campaigning in his third bid for the U.S. presidency and was speaking before a crowd of a thousand people. While shaking hands with well-wishers following his speech, Wallace was hit by two bullets that struck his stomach and chest. Three other people were also injured in the attack.
The Governor was rushed to Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring where he underwent five hours of surgery. He survived the ordeal, but Wallace would be permanently paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life. …
This popular painkiller also kills kindness
If your job, or simply your state of mind, depends on feeling empathy for others, you might want to reconsider reaching for the Tylenol the next time you have a headache.
In research published online in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, scientists from the National Institutes of Health and Ohio State University describe the results of two experiments they conducted involving more than 200 college students.
Their conclusion: Acetaminophen, the most common drug ingredient in the United States, can reduce a person’s capacity to empathize with another person’s pain, whether that pain is physical or emotional. …
Mother of Colorado Movie Theater Shooter James Holmes Speaks Out for First Time
The mother of the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater shooter James Holmes, spoke out for the first time this week to raise awareness for Mental Health Awareness Month, condemning her son’s actions and highlighting the importance of early detection of mental illness.
In an interview with ABC News affiliate KGTV in San Diego, Arlene Holmes described her son as a “happy” and “friendly” child, who would frequently invite friends over to their home. But, things changed around the time he turned 12 or 13-years-old, she said.
“I noticed that he was sadder than a child should be,” Holmes told KGTV.
James saw a family therapist for about a year, but he continued to become more quiet, irritable and isolated, and was having trouble “being around people,” she said. …
9 Lame Hobbies White People Love (For Some Reason)
There’s a type of person who continually tries out a combination of varied yet lame hobbies in a quest to find something to replace the sense of endless possibility that died long ago. For some reason, such people are usually white. I’m not sure what draws them to some of the least cool pastimes ever created. It’s not like people of color couldn’t try this shit if they wanted to. But it is much more fun to sit back and watch as the paler members of the species attempt to convince themselves and everyone around them that they are enjoying themselves doing dumb shit like …
#9. Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro
Mount Kilimanjaro’s name might literally mean “White Mountain.” This would be totally appropriate, considering how crowds of white people flock to its many easily-hikeable paths and impressive-sounding name each year. For them, summiting Kilimanjaro is an excuse to talk about training for months while only having to train for weeks. It also offers the rare opportunity to use the word “summit” as a verb, as demonstrated in the previous sentence.
For real, though, it’s not as difficult as the terrifying name makes it seem. The most popular path up Kilimanjaro is derisively referred to as “the Coca-Cola route,” on account of how it’s jam-packed with tourists and gift shops the entire way up. Yes, it’s a long walk, one that takes around five days on average to complete, but there’s certainly none of that “stick a pickax in a jagged ridge and hope it holds your body weight” stuff that you envision when you hear someone say they’re mountain climbing. …
When Websites Won’t Take No for an Answer
Harry Brignull, a user-experience consultant in Britain who helps websites and apps develop consumer-friendly features, has a professional bone to pick with sites that seem to maneuver people into signing up for services they might not actually want.
He even has a name for the exploitative techniques: “dark patterns.” To him, these are debased versions of the typical sign-up, sharing, shopping, checkout and download processes that are standard practice online.
“It’s a term for patterns that are manipulative, that you are doing on purpose to get one over on users,” Mr. Brignull said when I recently called him.
A few years ago, Mr. Brignull started a site called darkpatterns.org to call attention to the practices. …
Boulder County shooting suspect saw squirrels as conduit to his deceased parents
Letter: Jon Marc Barbour fed animals to commune with parents
The suspect in a Gunbarrel shooting that reportedly started over his habit of giving “pounds” of peanuts to squirrels said the feeding was a way of communing with the spirits of his deceased parents, according to a letter he posted for his neighbors.
The letter, dated May 8 -— which was sent to the Daily Camera by a neighbor and confirmed by other residents -— was signed by “The Squirrel Guy” Jon Marc Barbour. The letter starts off by thanking people who were supportive of his feeding the squirrels.
“Firstly, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to those who have supported me in my communing with the spirits of my deceased parents for the last year,” Barbour wrote. “My parents were great animal lovers and have shown themselves to me through the squirrels in the area.”
But the letter goes on to say that the “haters” in the neighborhood had resorted to calling police and animal control on him and spread “innuendo” and “lies,” to get him to stop. …
10 Cultural Icons Found In The Last Place You’d Expect
The global economy is truly a wonderful thing. More than ever before in human history—thanks to quick transportation and the Internet—the cultures of the world now mingle and interact. But this has led to some cultural peculiarities, where now we’re finding cultural quirks existing in the last places or with the last people you’d expect.
10. Quaint Little German Town ~ Venezuela
South American country Venezuela is known for its tropical climate, its Latin roots, and its beautiful jungles. Yet in one northern corner of the country lies a tiny town that is a 100 percent German. Meet La Colonia Tovar—the quaint little town founded by 300 German immigrants who sailed to Venezuela in 1843 and managed to keep their culture and heritage intact for nearly 200 years.
The 300 Germans were called by a colonizing group one day, and they all decided to sail off to the other side of the world. Three months later, they landed on Venezuelan shores and began to set up shop. But instead of integrating into Venezuelan culture, eating Venezuelan food, and having part-Venezuelan grandchildren, the Germans made their own small Germany in an isolated and uninhabited part of the mountainous region of Venezuela.
They continued to speak their own dialect (Badisch), they built their houses and buildings with the same German look, and they continued wearing German clothing and eating German delicacies (although the spices were probably a bit different). They were largely ignored by the rest of Venezuela, partly because the only way to travel to their little town was by a river to Caracas. So the rest of Venezuela probably thought of them as something akin to “those weird white people living in our mountains.” …
The Future Is Almost Now
In popular culture, science-fiction stories look more like the real world than ever before.
Last fall, a friend who went to see The Martian in theaters reported back with the following anecdote. Seated nearby was a woman who, during the credits, leaned over and whispered to her companion, “You know, this movie is based on a true story.” It would be easy to feel superior to this misinformed viewer, who seems unaware that humans have yet to set foot on Mars. Yet the mistake seems a little more understandable when you consider how contemporary science fiction has drifted toward plausibility and familiarity. The Martian may be a Ridley Scott film, but unlike the director’s other space odysseys, Alien and Prometheus, or even Blade Runner—movies that all conjure up patently distant times and places—the strangest thing about The Martian may be the sangfroid with which the protagonist Mark Watney receives the news that he’s stuck on the Red Planet.
There are still plenty of films that continue the genre’s tradition of truly fantastical worlds: Mad Max: Fury Road, Snowpiercer, and, of course, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. But recently, such exercises in strong futurism seem to have been outnumbered by more modest speculative efforts—narratives imagining a moment that seems to barely anticipate, if not intersect with, the present. Compared to many of the canonical works of science fiction past (Planet of the Apes, Dune, Alien, 2001, Ender’s Game, The Road Warrior), the visions of the future furbished in recent films like Ex Machina, Her, and Gravity, or series like Orphan Black or Black Mirror, feel positively cautious in their predictive scope. It’s as if the genre has been struck by some combination of ambition and restraint: a desire to prognosticate, but not overstep, to achieve maximum prescience with minimum risk. The result is a genre less invested in world creation, per se, than world acceleration. …
How Three Simpsons Fans Created the Most Wonderful Thing on the Internet. (Now With GIFs!)
We’re excited too, Marge. We’re excited too.
Frinkiac is the kind of website that makes the internet feel magical. Type a Simpsons quotation—say, “In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics”—into its search bar and you’ll be greeted with an array of still images from Simpsons episode associated with that scene, drawn from a database of more than three million screen grabs. Click on one of them, and you’ll have the opportunity to build a shareable meme image, superimposing the quotation over the picture. On Thursday, Frinkiac’s creators added a new function, incorporating the option to create short animated GIFs, which quickly filled up my Twitter timeline with a delightful array of moving witticisms from the show.
Despite its seemingly enormous scope, Frinkiac is the creation of just three individuals—Paul Kehrer, Sean Schulte, and Allie Young. Kehrer, who describes the project as “a love letter to the show that defined our childhood,” told me that Frinkiac emerged in large part out of his friendship with Schulte. “Sean and I mostly communicate at work by quoting the Simpsons,” he told me by email. Since it was sometimes hard to find images from their favorite moments, they set out to develop Frinkiac as a way of facilitating those interactions. …
A SHRIMP IS ONE OF THE LOUDEST ANIMALS ON THE PLANET
Today I found out that a tiny shrimp known as the Snapping Shrimp or Pistol Shrimp, is on one of the loudest creatures in the World.
This tiny shrimp species (Alpheus heterochaelis) belonging to the Alpheidae family grows to only 1-2 inches (3-5 cms) long, but don’t let its size fool you. The tiny finger sized critter is capable of producing a sound louder than a jet engine!
These crustaceans are often a dirty-green color. They prowl the shallow waters of tropical seas like the Mediterranean. They can be easily identified as it sports one normal claw and one noticeably larger snapper claw. Its disproportionately large claw can be up to half its body size which makes it look like it’s wearing an overgrown boxing glove. …
Video Goodnesses
(and not-so-goodnesses)
(and not-so-goodnesses)
CAUTION: Some language may not be appropriate for work or children.