Gold For Monday Mystery...!

If all the legends are true, there is still a lot of golden treasure that remains unfound.

Here is a story from the days of the civil war that focuses on one of the most well known of those treasures...the Dents Run treasure.

The Legend Of The Dents Run Gold

There are a lot of hidden treasures still waiting to be found. In the United States, the Civil War in particular spawned many tales of buried gold, and the FBI may have actually uncovered one of these caches.

According to legend, shortly before the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, the Union Army dispatched a wagon full of gold to pay its soldiers. It set off from Wheeling, West Virginia, but disappeared somewhere near Dents Run in Elk County, Pennsylvania. Since then, numerous treasure hunters, historians, and private investigators scoured those woods in hopes of finding the lost gold, all to no avail.

In March 2018, the FBI set up shop nearby in Benezette Township and started digging. They obtained a court authorization to do it, which led to speculation that they had to have convincing evidence that the gold might be there.

The FBI provided few details regarding their intentions. Spokeswoman Carrie Adamowski simply said that they were conducting an excavation, concluding that “nothing was found.”[9] However, local media reported that Dennis and Kem Parada were present at the dig site. The two run a treasure recovery service called Finders Keepers and have been searching for the Civil War loot for decades. Other local historians are far more skeptical regarding the existence of the gold, but even they admit that the involvement of the FBI adds a new layer to the mystery.

Now, I have to ask myself just what was the interest of the FBI in something generally thought of as a legend or myth? Does their involvement mean that something was actually found, despite all the claims to the contrary? Certainly lends an air of mystery to the whole thing, don't you think?

Coffee out on the sunny patio again this morning!

No Sunday Post...!

Big electrical storms in the Houston area, which means power is going off and on a LOT! Sooo, I'm doing this post on Saturday night just to let you know that Sunday I won't be doing one. Make any sense?

Sorry about that, folks!

Last Cartoon Sunday...!

This will probably be the last time I do the 'toons for Sunday. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up about that!







And the final one...



Ok folks...that's all for today. I hope you enjoyed these cartoons and maybe I'll have something more folks will like next Sunday.

Coffee out on the patio this morning, if that's OK with everyone.

That's A Lot Of Cookies...!

Girl Scout cookies are something that nearly everyone is familiar with, right?

Well, here is a story about a troop of Girl Scouts that sold more cookies than even they thought possible. Kinda gives you a little more faith in mankind again.

The First-Ever Troop of Homeless Girl Scouts Just Crushed Their Cookie Sales Goal

BY MICHELE DEBCZAK APRIL 24, 2018

Selling 32,500 boxes of cookies in a single week would be noteworthy for any team of Girl Scouts, but it's an especially sweet achievement for Troop 6000: The New York City-based chapter is the first-ever Girl Scout troop composed entirely of children living in homeless shelters.

According to NBC News, this season marked the first time the troop took part in the organization's annual cookie sale tradition. In early April, they received exclusive permission to set up shop inside the Kellogg's Café in Union Square. They kicked off their inaugural stand sale aiming to sell at least 6000 boxes of cookies: At the end of six days, they had sold more than 32,500.

Some customers waited in line an hour to purchase boxes from the history-making young women. Others gave their money directly to the troop, collectively donating over $15,000 to fund trips and activities. After purchasing their cookies, customers could also buy special Girl Scout cookie-inspired menu items from the Kellogg's store, with all proceeds going to Troop 6000.

The troop formed in 2016 as a collaboration between the Girl Scouts of Greater New York, Mayor de Blasio, and the city Department of Homeless Services. Meetings are held in shelters across the city, and many of the troop leaders, often mothers of the scouts, are homeless women themselves. About 40 percent of New York's homeless population are children, and Troop 6000 had to expand last summer to accommodate a flood of new recruits. Today, there are about 300 girls enrolled in the program.

Now that is definitely a good thing as far as I'm concerned. But then, I do love me some cookies!

Coffee out on the patio once again today!

Terrible Fashion Idea...!

While many fashion statements are a little screwy, this one is downright crazy!

How anyone could begin to even walk in these is totally beyond me. Thank goodness most women didn't even try. I can only imagine the injuries that would come from that endeavour. Besides, in my opinion they are really ugly!

Armadillo Shoes

Photo credit: Christie’s

Though they haven’t been around long enough to really be historic, as they were designed by Alexander McQueen in 2010, armadillo shoes will surely go down as one of the worst of the worst. Everyone hopes these shoes will stay in the annals of fashion history, where they belong, never to be seen on a runway or at an award show again.

The first line of armadillo shoes were carved out of wood, which means they’re probably just as uncomfortable as they appear. The shoes were famously worn by Lady Gaga, who is notorious for bizarre fashion choices, and they sold for around $3,900 to $10,000 per pair. Only a relative few were ever produced—and only for extremely special clients, such as Gaga herself. Though Gaga made them work, one Vogue fashion blogger admitted they are impossible to walk in. No surprise there.

Maybe Lady Gaga could pull these shoes off, but I seriously doubt that anyone else could, no matter how hard they try. That's probably a good thing. Makes a good topic for Freaky Friday, though.

Coffee out on the patio again this morning...OK?

A Roach In The Nose...!

It's bad enough to find one of these critters crawling around in the kitchen, but when they get inside your head...YUCK!

Cockroach

Photo credit: mysanantonio.com

They are the kitchen culprits we all love to hate and often the reason behind a man’s girly squeal. But what if one of them ventured where no roach had ever dared to go? Perhaps . . . your skull.

In early 2017, a 42-year-old woman from India woke up to tingly, crawling sensations in her right nostril. Thinking she was simply catching a cold, the domestic worker tried to go back to sleep, only to be plagued by different movements inside her nose.

She spent the rest of the night awake, waiting for the morning Sun to appear on the horizon before she could go to a hospital. She suspected the problem to be an insect of some kind as every movement made her eyes burn.

The woman was referred to three different hospitals before doctors scanned her skull and discovered an apparent “mobile foreign body.” Finally, they used an endoscope to find the cockroach in the skull base, right between her eyes and dangerously close to her brain.

Doctors quickly used forceps and suction devices to remove the annoyance. After 12 hours, the bug was safely extracted and surprisingly still alive. Doctors were actually relieved to find the insect still alive as it could have caused a deadly infection if it had died.

Ya know, visiting India has never been on my bucket list, and is even less so after reading this story. BTW, I took this from the folks at Listverse.

Coffee out on the patio again this morning.

Burton Mossman For Western Wednesday...!

Burton was an example of how hard work and dedication can make a big difference in a person's life.

From a humble start in the ranching business to a job as an Arizona Ranger, he remained true to himself and his chosen way of living. He did alright by it, so it would seem.

1867

Arizona Ranger Burton Mossman is born

Burton C. Mossman, a rancher turned lawman, is born in Aurora, Illinois.

Little is known about Mossman’s childhood in Illinois, though he apparently learned to be self-reliant and resourceful at a young age. When he was 21, Mossman left home and moved to Mexico, where he quickly began proving himself one of the most canny and successful ranchers in the territory. By age 30, he not only had his own spread in New Mexico, but was also the superintendent of a two-million-acre ranch in northern Arizona running 60,000 cattle.

As the size of the southwestern cattle industry increased, cattle rustlers began to take advantage of the lack of surveillance on the isolated ranges to steal stock. In 1901, the territory of Arizona responded by organizing a ranger force to rid the region of rustlers and other outlaws. The governor of Arizona convinced Mossman to sign on as the first captain of the Arizona Rangers.

Mossman was suited to the task. Courageous and skilled with a pistol, he had a knack for surprising rustlers while they were still in possession of stolen cattle, freshly butchered beef, green hides, and other incriminating evidence. Though he could use violence to good effect when needed, Mossman preferred to trick his quarry into giving up peacefully when possible. In one instance, Mossman rode south alone in pursuit of the multiple-murderer Agostine Chacon, who had fled to Mexico. Clearly out of his jurisdiction, Mossman had to act with finesse. With the assistance of Burt Alvard, an outlaw turned lawman, Mossman convinced Chacon that he and Alvard were also outlaws and would help him steal several top horses from a ranch in southern Arizona. When the men crossed the border into Arizona, Mossman revealed his true identity and arrested Chacon, who was later hanged.

The Chacon arrest was a typical example of Mossman’s approach to dealing with Arizona rustlers and outlaws. “If they come along easy, everything will be all right,” he once explained. “If they don’t, well, I just guess we can make pretty short work of them… Some of them will object, of course. They’ll probably try a little gunplay as a bluff, but I shoot fairly well myself, and the boys who back me up are handy enough with guns. Any rustler who wants to yank on the rope and kick up trouble will find he’s up against it.”

After a long and adventurous career with the Arizona Rangers, Mossman eventually returned to the more peaceful life of a rancher. By the time he retired from ranching in 1944, he had business interests in cattle operations from Mexico to Montana, and more than a million cattle wore his brand. He lived out the remainder of his life at his comfortable ranch in Roswell, New Mexico, and died in 1956 at the age of 89.

Burton seems to have lived by his own set of values and it must have worked fine for him. He lived a long life and must have been a man worth knowing, for sure.

Coffee out on the beautiful patio today. By beautiful, I mean the weather...not the patio!

Bring On The Batteries...!

Probably everyone I know has a few in a drawer somewhere, more than likely for flashlights and electronics...maybe for a hearing aid or watch. Did you ever stop and wonder just who might have invented the battery?

Turns out that the whole history is longer and more complicated than you would think. As is the case for many inventions, it would seem to be almost a hodge-podge of people to come up with the battery we all know today.

Batteries

The battery is a staple of modern life. They’ve changed a lot over the years, but the core principle is still the same—and it’s probably about 100 years older than you’d think. Most of the electrical pioneering in the world was happening in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Thomas Edison, Nicola Tesla, Heinrich Hertz—these and other great minds were filing hundreds of electrical patents that shaped the 20th century into what we know today.

So it might come as a surprise to learn that the battery was invented a century before any of this—in 1800, by Alessandro Volta (an Italian). His “battery” was called the Voltaic Pile and combined layers of copper, zinc, and cardboard soaked in saltwater. The design was modeled the work of another Italian, who noticed that a dead frog’s legs will twitch if an electrical charge touches them. Volta simple replaced the frog legs with salt water to create a circuit.

As a matter of fact, nearly every stage in the evolution of the battery has come from a different country. An Englishman improved on Volta’s battery, a Frenchman developed the first rechargeable battery, and a Swede invented the nickel-cadmium battery, which we still use today. Really, the only American influence came from Benjamin Franklin, who was the first person to use the word “battery.”

All I know is that if it weren't for the battery, all our lives would be diminished by quite a lot.

Coffee out on the patio again this morning. Sure looks like Spring out there!

Squirrel Goes After The Elderly...!

As if getting older wasn't bad enough, now it seems that even the squirrels (or some of them anyway) are targeting the elderly to pick on.

I can only imagine the chaos that erupted when this squirrel attack happened. These poor folks were more than likely having nightmares for a long time afterwards.

Targeting The Elderly

On the savanna, lions like to target the weak and elderly when they hunt because it’s easier to take down their prey. Apparently, squirrels think the same way. In 2016, a squirrel ravaged a retirement home in Florida.

A squirrel ran through the front door of the Volusia senior home and ran straight for the activity room where several elderly people were quietly seated playing chess, doing puzzles, and reading books. The squirrel began jumping on people, biting into their flesh, and scratching with its claws.

Those who could move ran out of the room screaming, but a few of the immobile people were stuck without a way to escape. Someone was brave enough to grab the squirrel and throw it outside. Several people were bleeding by the end of it, and they had to call 911 for an ambulance to help treat the injuries and administer a rabies vaccine.

I got this article from Listverse. Imagine how helpless some of these folks had to feel when they couldn't move fast enough to avoid the critter's rampage.

Coffee out on the patio this morning. Beautiful day coming up!

Sunday Cartoons Again...!

Sunday seems to be the day for comics and maybe something funny. I hope you can find a little humor in today's offering.







And maybe just one more...



That's enough fun to today. Let's go have some coffee this morning...on the patio.

Flushing The Wealth...!

It seems that some countries have more riches than they need. So much that they end up with much of it going down the drains.

Now I realize that much of the treasure is flushed by accident, but still...it seems a shame to me that Switzerland should have so much that they could allow it to go into the sewer.

There’s Gold in Switzerland’s Sewage

Also, a whole lot of silver.

BY SARAH LASKOW OCTOBER 11, 2017

SWITZERLAND HAS SO MUCH GOLD that the country is flushing it down the drain. According to a new analysis by Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, every year 95 pounds of gold, worth nearly $2 million, passes through Swiss wastewater treatment plants.

The gold, the researchers believe, comes from “tiny flecks of gold”—residue from the country’s watchmaking industry and gold refineries. As Bloomberg points out, refineries in this small European country deal with 70 percent of the world’s gold.
In most of the 64 wastewater treatment plants studied—and let’s take a moment to recognize the work of the researchers who had the job of studying “elements discharged in effluents or disposed of in sewage sludge”—the concentrations of gold were small enough that it’s not economically worthwhile to extract it from the rest of the waste. In southern Switzerland, though, where gold refineries are concentrated, enough gold is being wasted that it could be worth recovering from the sewage stream.

The researchers also found that gold isn’t the only precious metal in Switzerland’s wastewater. The sewage plants were also streaming with rare earth elements used in high-tech and medical industries and with silver—6,600 pounds per year, in total, worth $1.7 million. It must be good to be a country so rich that your garbage is gold and silver.

Now that is a problem that I could use a little of, know what I mean?

Coffee out on the patio, even if it starts to rain...OK?

Pedestrianism As A Sport...!

Before baseball became the nation's favorite sport, the main attraction was a sport called pedestrianism was a national pastime.

As in all sports, the leaders quickly became superstars and heroes. Here is the story of one of them from Atlas Obscura.

The ‘Pedestrian’ Who Became One of America’s First Black Sports Stars

In 1880, Frank Hart wowed audiences at New York’s Madison Square Garden by walking 565 miles in six days.

BY DAVID SEIDEMAN APRIL 17, 2018

Frank Hart, taken by an unidentified artist, circa 1880, albumen silver print. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

ON APRIL 10, 1880, NEW York’s original Madison Square Garden was packed with sports fans. Men in the arena roared. Ladies waved their handkerchiefs. A band struck up “Home Sweet Home,” the classic 1823 American folk ballad. They had come to see Frank Hart, one of the best “pedestrians” of his day.

“I’ll break those white fellows’ hearts!” Hart, an immigrant from Haiti, vowed before the race. “I will—you hear me!”

Eighteen men competed in the race. Three of them were African Americans, including Hart. After Hart crossed the victory line, fans showered him with bouquets of flowers. His trainer handed him a broomstick to hold the American flag aloft during his victory laps.

Hart had won a “six-day go-as-you-please” endurance race. “The rules were simple,” explained Mile High Card Company, a sports auction house, in 2010. “Participants, called ‘pedestrians’ were free to run, walk, crawl, and scratch their way around an oval track as many times as possible in the course of six days, sleeping on cots within the oval, and usually for less than four hours per day.” Hart set a new world record by walking 565 miles, or 94 miles per day. His prize was $21,567, including $3,600 he legally betted on himself. It was the equivalent of almost a half million dollars today.

Hart broke racial barriers in sports just 12 years after African-Americans achieved full citizenship with the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. And yet, in the 21st century, he has been largely forgotten. However, the recent discovery of a Frank Hart trading card, now for sale through Heritage Auctions, the nation’s largest collectibles auction house, has illuminated his legacy once more.

The very fact that these guys managed to do that many miles walking or running for 6 days just boggles my mind.You can read the rest of the story right here.

Coffee out on the patio one more time before the weather changes again.

What's With Those Zombie Squirrels...?

Now here is a news story that many of you may not have heard about. Zombie squirrels...really!

So far as I can tell, they have only been reported in Russia. That's fine with me 'cause around my house I have a lot of the tree rats, and I would hate for them to start going after the cats, ya know?

Zombie Squirrels

It’s very normal for dogs to bark at squirrels. Their simple existence is enough to drive a pup insane. Apparently, though, squirrels are not fans of being yelled at in another animal’s language. In 2005, a stray dog was barking at a group of black squirrels in a small village called Lazo in Russia.

When the dog approached their tree, several squirrels jumped down and began attacking it. Three local men witnessed the scene. They described watching the squirrels gut the dog and eat it alive. The men started running toward the scene to try to save the dog. The squirrels looked up, and when they saw the humans, they ran away carrying pieces of flesh in their mouths.

Local authorities and scientists were baffled by the case, calling it “absurd.” If there had not been multiple witnesses to confirm the truth, it would be enough to brush it off as a tall tale. The only explanation they could come up with was that there was a pine cone shortage and the critters didn’t have enough to eat.

I got this story from the folks over on Listverse, where they have even more tales about squirrels attacking. Check them out.

Coffee inside today. A small cold front has moved in, it seems.

General Lee's Chicken...!

For this episode of Western Wednesday, let's talk about battlefield pets.

General Lee had a pet chicken, believe it or not. How he came by the hen is an interesting story in and of itself. Apparently Lee was very fond of his chicken, though, and until the hen made the ultimate sacrifice Lee treated it well.

General Lee’s chicken.

In 1862, a Virginia farmer gave Robert E. Lee a flock of chickens. Confederate General John Bell Hood’s men ate all of them—except for one, who had survived by making her roost in a tree overhanging Lee’s tent. Lee took a liking to the chicken. He named her “Nellie” and raised the flap of his tent so she could come and go as she pleased. She began laying eggs nearly every day under the general’s cot. On the eve of the Battle of the Wilderness, Lee invited a group of generals to dine with him, but his slave cook, William Mack Lee, couldn’t find sufficient food to make a meal. Although he “hated to lose her,” the cook said he “picked her good, and stuffed her with bread stuffing, mixed with butter.” He said it was the only time in four years that Lee scolded him. “It made Marse Robert awful sad to think of anything being killed,” he said, “whether ’twas one of his soldiers or his little black hen.”

Sad that the pet chicken made it's way into the cook pot, but like they say...War is Hell!

Coffee out on the patio again this morning, where the temps are going back up into the 80s.

Some Telephone History...!

You would think that after all these years, nothing new in regards to the telephone would be talked about.

One thing about it though, there is almost always a little bit more to the story than what we thought we knew. Case in point, how did we ever decide to start saying "hello" on the phone? This might be the answer to that right here.

We say ‘hello’ because of Thomas Edison. When Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876, ‘hello’ was mostly used to grab attention (‘Hey, you!’). Bell favored ‘ahoy’ as a greeting, but Edison envisioned phones as business tools with always-open lines that didn’t “need a call bell as Hello! can be heard 10 to 20 feet away.” Edison won the battle, but Bell was so tied to ‘ahoy’ that he used it for the rest of his life.

I have tried to imagine myself saying "Ahoy" when I answer the phone, but I just don't see it ever happening somehow. Seems awkward to me, ya know?

Coffee out on the patio once again.

Creepy Monday Mysteries...!

Here for your pondering are some really creepy mysteries. 5 of them altogether, so I hope you will enjoy them.



Well, what do ya think? Creepy enough for ya?

Coffee out on the patio once again.

Sunday Riddles...!

Instead of having cartoons for today, let's have some riddles instead...OK? OK!



Coffee out on the patio again this morning!

The Two Year Old Sandwich...!

Now I have eaten a lot of military type food in my life, and some of it isn't that bad. However, I have never run across any of these sandwiches. I would like to try one, just to say I did...ya know?

Battle Butties, The Sandwich That’s Fresh Two Years After You Buy It

Photo credit: US Army

The military has had a tradition of feeding personnel long-lasting, freeze-dried meals, but soldiers would always ask for the one thing they’d rather be eating: a simple fresh sandwich.

Scientists found two problems while trying to create a non-perishable sandwich. Bread goes stale, and the filling makes the bread soggy. Both problems may have been solved with the invention of “Battle Butties” a new, long-lasting sandwich that can sit for an astounding two years before going stale.

The creators say their ultimate goal is to create an immortal peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but in the meantime, soldiers have been generally positive about the fillings already on offer.

As once soldier put it, “They’re the best two-year-old sandwiches I’ve ever eaten.” We guess that’s as a good a review as they’re going to get.

Ya know, maybe a two year old PB&J would hit the spot. I reckon it would all depend on how hungry you were. I'd give it a try!

Coffee out on the patio this morning. Kinda cool, but that's alright.

Social Security For Freaky Friday...!

Many of us are receiving a check from Social Security, although some of them can be rather small. Here is a bit of history about one of the first recipients.

The first person to receive Social Security benefits was a lady by the name of Ida May Fuller, who retired in 1939 at the age of 65, and received her first check — for $22.54 — on January 31, 1940. Fuller had worked for three years under the Social Security system, so she had made some contributions to the overall fund, but only $24.75 worth. She came out ahead by the time she cashed her second benefits check — the second of very, very many. Fuller lived to be 100, passing away on January 31, 1975, thirty-five years to the day she received that $22.54. Her total lifetime Social Security benefits? $22,888.92.

Now that is one freaky story for sure! Someone actually coming out ahead of the Government for a change. Don't you agree?

Coffee inside this morning. The rain is back again!

No Wonder I Forget...!

I know that many folks about my age, or in the neighborhood, sometime have a few problems with their memory. It isn't that uncommon, I understand.

According to this article though, our minds are really just making room for new information. That should be somewhat comforting, I think.

The physical act of passing through a doorway is the reason why you often walk into a room and completely forget what you were doing. Because going through a door signifies the beginning or end of something, this creates an ‘event boundary’ within your mind. Basically, every time you go through a doorway, your brain starts filing away thoughts from your previous location to make room for a new group of memories in the next.

So now you know the reason why you sometimes can't remember what you entered a different room to find. It happens to me when I go through the door into my pantry sometimes. I often forget what I was looking for, and stand there like an idiot for a second until I remember.

Coffee ot on the patio this morning. Temps are headed to the mid 80s.

Glowing Wounds On Western Wednesday...!

Sometimes a legend from long ago turns out to be true. Such is the story about some glowing wounds during the battle of Shiloh.

Angel Glow

After the Battle of Shiloh in 1862, soldiers reported a peculiar phenomenon: glow-in-the-dark wounds. More than 16,000 soldiers from both armies were wounded during the battle, and neither Union nor Confederate medical personnel were prepared for the carnage. Soldiers lay in the mud for two rainy days, and many of them noticed that their wounds glowed in the dark. In fact, the injured whose wounds glowed seemed to heal better than the others. In 2001, two Maryland teenagers solved the mystery (and won a top prize at an international science fair). The wounded became hypothermic, and their lowered body temperatures made ideal conditions for a bioluminescent bacterium called Photorhabdus luminescens, which inhibits pathogens.

You can find out more interesting facts about the civil war right here.

Coffee out on the patio this morning...OK?

The War That Never Was...!

How I wish that our present war situation was like this. Imagine how many lives would be saved...

However, such a thing is not likely in my lifetime. Still, a person can still hope, right?

For nearly 2 centuries, Denmark was at war with the Spanish town of Huéscar – but not a single shot was fired, and no one was killed. After war was declared in 1809, everyone completely forgot about it, so there were never any battles. A peace treaty was finally signed in 1981, when a historian happened upon the official declaration of war and realized the countries technically should have been fighting each other for the past 172 years. Source Source 2 Source 3

I found this bit of history over at a site called Did You Know? Why not check them out...?

Coffee inside once again this morning.

Percy Fawcett For Monday Mystery...!

How about we do a real life mystery about someone who actually existed? Someone like Percy Fawcett?

The story of Fawcett has been a mystery lovers dream case for a very long time. His story is one of many that still linger around the Amazon even today!

Percy Fawcett

Percy Fawcett was a British archaeologist and the inspiration for Indiana Jones. In 1925 Fawcett, his eldest son Jack and Raleigh Rimell set off deep into the Amazon to find a mythical lost city Fawcett named “Z”. They never returned. They were last reported crossing the Upper Xingu River, a southeastern tributary of the Amazon. It is assumed the trio was either killed by natives or simply succumbed to the elements. Wilder theories have Fawcett going mad and living out his days as the crazed chieftain of a tribe of cannibals! In 1927, one of Fawcett’s nameplates was found by locals and in 1933 a compass, of the type used by Fawcett, was found by Colonel Aniceto Botelho.

Over 100 people have died on numerous expeditions to discover the fate of Fawcett and his companions. A set of bones, thought to be Fawcett’s, were discovered in 1951. However, DNA testing proved they were not. The ultimate fate of Fawcett, his son and Rimell, will probably never be known.

As you probably can guess, I got this article from the folks at Listverse.

Coffee inside again this morning. Still rainy and a bit chilly out on the patio.

Sunday Comics Anyone...?

Once again it's Sunday. We all know what that means, right?

Here is hoping that you all can find a little humor in these 'toons. Just try and enjoy.







And maybe just one more...



That's all for now. Coffee in the kitchen thias morning...OK?

Something For Tea Lovers...!

I don't know about you, but I really like trivia...all kinds of trivia. Guess I think it makes me seem smarter than I really am.

Thi8s is a bit of trivia I picked up from the guys over at Listverse and it is especially for you tea lovers.

Tea Bags

The tea bag was yet another common household item that was invented entirely by accident. Around 1908, an American tea salesman began to bag tea rather than use the usual boxes. He did this to distribute the bags as samples, hoping to entice new customers.

People were meant to open the bags and pour the tea into the cup. Instead, the customers dunked the bags into the hot water, thus changing the way that tea was prepared for generations to come.

Although the US embraced the change, the UK did not take to it. Shortages during World War II also delayed the tea bag’s popularity, so they didn’t become a household item in the UK until the 1960s.

It is strange to discover that one of the most stereotypical British products was in fact an American invention. With an average of 165 million cups of tea consumed daily in Britain, it is safe to say that this accidental invention was a success!

Try as I might, I still wouldn't like tea instead of coffee in the mornings. Believe me, I have tried!

Coffee inside this morning. It has decided to turn cold again.

Spiders For Freaky Friday...!

I don't know about you, but I don't like spiders very much. However, in this recently revealed set of facts, here is one that might be surprising to you.

Spiders are your friend. In a given year, humans consume 400 million tons of meat and fish, but spiders eat almost double that volume of meat in the form of bugs and tiny animals. If you imagine all the meat and fish you consumed this week and then picture that same space and weight being entirely occupied by insects, you’re seeing all bugs that could have been stalking you if spiders hadn’t already gotten rid of them.

I also read that spiders could eat every human on Earth in about a year. Now that is one scary fact I'm just going to ignore for now!

Coffee out on the patio this morning...OK?

How Small Is Too Small...?

With the aid of modern technology, it's almost scary how tiny somethings created by man can get.

When you consider just how tiny a particular thing can get and still be functional, it's even more amazing. Here is an example...

Nano-motors

Nanotechnology, nanorobotics, nanomachines. An ever expanding field of science and technology expected to revolutionize the world as we know it. The simplest, (though hardly simple), of nano machines are being constructed for biological study to better understand the mechanics of the cell, and all it’s natural capabilities. The hope is that humans may be able to replicate some of these functions, towards the better health of mankind in the future. Science envisions great strides in the fields of molecular biology, medicine, chemistry, physics, and nanocomputers through the development of these microscopic motors. Many of these machines are as small as 1/2 the width of a human hair and others are so small several hundred would fit in the space of the period at the end of this sentence.

Now here's a question for you to ponder. What kind of tools do they use to make something this small? Must be pretty darn tiny, right?

Coffee out on the patio this morning, where it is kinda cool yet.

Another Woman Of The Wild West...!

It has become obvious over the years that women played quite an important part in the history of the wild west.

Some were very contained and some were more flamboyant...but as always the ladies played an important part of our early history.

Lillian Smith

Lillian Smith was the only woman with the potential to eclipse Annie Oakley, but instead she's an often forgotten figure from the Wild West. Smith gained popularity after she joined Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show at age 15. Like Oakley, she was an incredible shot — but she favored the rifle, instead of Oakley's preferred shotgun. Because of her young age, colorful clothes, and penchant for swearing, Smith was substantially younger than Oakley, and the two were rivals. But while touring in London, Smith shot so badly that she was ridiculed. Soon after, her career ended.

I find it interesting that not many of these strong willed women are mentioned in the history books or in the classes taught today. That is a shame, if you ask me.

Coffee out on the patio again this morning.

The Fish Sandwich Is Born...!

Sometimes all it takes to create something new is some financial incentive. That was the case in today's post. You might find this one entertaining.

Filet-O-Fish

Photo credit: Smithsonian Magazine

To most of us, the Filet-O-Fish is simply one of the many items on the McDonald’s menu. But the invention of the sandwich was unlike any of the others. Lou Groen, a franchise owner, came up with the idea after noticing particularly low sales on Fridays. He realized that most of the area was inhabited by Roman Catholics, who did not eat meat on Fridays for religious reasons.

Thus, the Filet-O-Fish was born. As much fun as it is to find out that something popular was created entirely by accident, it is always inspiring when a businessman shows ingenuity.

Sounds like a good thing to me, but then I always did like the fish sandwich.

Coffee out on the patio this morning. No fish sandwiches, though.

Old Winchester For Monday Mystery...!

Now I've heard of some strange finds of older things before, but I admit that this one is a real mysterious find for me.

1882 Winchester Rifle

Photo credit: Eva Jensen

At the end of 2014, employees of the Great Basin National Park in Nevada were going about their daily tasks when they stumbled across a strange find. Up against a tree leaned a Winchester rifle. Just by looking at the rifle, the employees could tell that it wasn’t new, but they were amazed to find out later that it was more than 130 years old.

It was established that the rifle was a Model 1873 and was manufactured in 1882. More than 700,000 of these guns were made between 1873 and 1919. All of this information, unfortunately, didn’t shed any light on who may have owned the gun or why and how it landed up in the park. Theories include that the rifle may have belonged to a cowboy or gold prospector who left it behind while searching for greener pastures. This would also mean that the rifle had been standing upright in the park for more than 130 years. However, most find this scenario implausible.

According to experts, another, more believable, theory would be that someone inherited the rifle and decided to leave it in the park for unknown reasons. The rifle is being held at the Cody Firearms Museum, but the aim is to eventually return it to the park for display purposes.

You can guess what I would do if I found a rifle like that way out in the wilderness, right??? Finders Keepers!!

Coffee out on the patio this morning.