Sunday Surprise...!

How would you classify your neighborhood...quiet or not so quiet. No matter how you rate it, I'll bet these folks would trade places in a heartbeat.

If you live in China, a metro might go right through your apartment building.

Photo Credit: East News

And you thought living near the train tracks was a bad thing – this metro station in Chongqing is located inside a residential building and trains pass through the sixth floor. The solution has also been used in crowded spots in Japan, and residents are typically not too thrilled about the feat of architecture.

I wonder if they charge extra for fast access to the train station?

Coffee inside one more time.

The Killer Was Clueless...!

In a case almost worthy of Sherlock Holmes, this case started off with a missing body and many, many clues. Here is the story from Listverse.

The Case Of The Disappearing Passenger

One July evening in 1864, two men stepping into a first-class train compartment in Hackney, England, stumbled upon a scene of carnage. Blood on the seats and on the door but nobody within—more specifically, no body within. Women in the next carriage even reported having been spattered with red droplets through an open window.

The eerily empty compartment was replete with clues as well as gore. Those included a leather bag, walking stick, and beaver hat. Eventually, the battered body of a still-breathing, 70-year-old banker named Thomas Briggs was found along the tracks, but he died shortly thereafter.

Acting on tips from a jeweler and cabbie, Inspector Richard Tanner pursued a suspect named Franz Muller to New York. Besides leaving his own beaver hat at the crime scene, Muller apparently had been dim-witted enough to keep the silk top hat and gold watch he’d stolen from the victim. His hanging turned into such a spectacle that public executions were banned shortly thereafter.

Somehow I don't think the killer was very smart. In fact, he was about one sandwich shy of a picnic

Coffee inside this morning. More rain coming in.

To Shower Or Not To Shower...!

We have all seen examples of some crazy studies done around the world, I'm sure. This might be one that I can almost see the logic of what they were thinking, but I don't know what to think about the whole thing.

Showering Is Bad

Research by the Genetic Science Center of the University of Utah found that showering could be bad for us. Although it is good to shower frequently, too much showering can kill certain important bacteria and viruses that live on or in our bodies, which leaves us less resistant to diseases. It also increases our risk of heart problems and causes the digestive system to work improperly.

A study on the indigenous people of Yanomami village in the Amazon revealed that they have the most diverse bacteria on their skin as compared to any other human population. They even had bacteria that were resistant to antibiotics, although they had never used antibiotics.

While the researchers believe that excessive showering by Westerners affects the diversity of the human microbiome, they never told us exactly how much we should shower.

So now I have to wonder just how much I am supposed to shower. Could be that my routine is all wrong, as I take a shower at least once a month, whether I need it or not! (Kidding...)

Coffee out on the patio this morning!

The Forever Tree...!

Actually, that's not the name of this tree, but is just my take on it. The tree itself is nothing short of a modern miracle, and is as baffling to scientist as to how it can still exist.

The Indestructible Tree

Photo credit: onlinetrees.com.au

Most people have heard of the Gingko biloba. Popular as the source of a medicinal supplement, this unique species of tree was likely around when the dinosaurs lived.

The most wondrous story about the Gingko biloba, however, starts unexpectedly with the Hiroshima bomb. The Shukkeien Garden in Japan, which was approximately 1,370 meters (4,500 ft) from the atomic blast, had a ginkgo tree. After almost everything in the area was entirely destroyed, the ginkgo tree grew new branches and thrived once again.

To this day, no one really knows how this was possible, but it shows that gingko trees have fantastic abilities to rise from the ashes. Since then, seeds have been collected from the survivor trees and distributed around the world.[9] As these second-generation nuclear trees grow, they are symbols of hope to all those affected by the shocking events of 1945.

If I were to take any health supplement, then I would want to take something from this tree. Seems to be pretty sturdy to me!

Coffee inside again this morning, due to more rain.

Death Of A Legend...!

Few people have a name more recognizable in our early western history that Daniel Boone. Many tall tales, songs, and even some truths grew around this gentleman, and he will always be in our minds as a true pioneer.

1820

The famous frontiersman Daniel Boone dies in Missouri

On this day in 1820 the great pioneering frontiersman Daniel Boone dies quietly in his sleep at his son’s home near present-day Defiance, Missouri. The indefatigable voyager was 86.

Boone was born in 1734 to Quaker parents living in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Following a squabble with the Pennsylvania Quakers, Boone’s family decided to head south and west for less crowded regions, and they eventually settled in the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina. There the young Daniel Boone began his life-long love for wilderness, spending long days exploring the still relatively unspoiled forests and mountains of the region. An indifferent student who never learned to write more than a crude sentence or two, Boone’s passion was for the outdoors, and he quickly became a superb marksman, hunter and woodsman.

Never satisfied to stay put for very long, Boone soon began making ever longer and more ambitious journeys into the relatively unexplored lands to the west. In May of 1769, Boone and five companions crossed over the Cumberland Gap and explored along the south fork of the Kentucky River. Impressed by the fertility and relative emptiness of the land–although the native inhabitants hardly considered it to be empty–Boone returned in 1773 with his family, hoping to establish a permanent settlement. An Indian attack prevented that first attempt from succeeding, but Boone returned two years later to open the route that became known as Boone’s Trace (or the Wilderness Road) between the Cumberland Gap and a new settlement along the Kentucky River called Fortress Boonesboro. After years of struggles against both Native Americans and British soldiers, Boonesboro eventually became one of the most important gateways for the early American settlement of the Trans-Appalachian West.

Made a legend in his own time by John Filson’s “Boone Autobiography” and Lord Byron’s depiction of him as the quintessential frontiersman in the book Don Juan, Boone became a symbol of the western pioneering spirit for many Americans. Ironically, though, Boone’s fame and his success in opening the Trans-Appalachian West to large-scale settlement later came to haunt him. Having lost his Kentucky land holdings by failing to properly register them, Boone moved even further west in 1799, trying to escape the civilized regions he had been so instrumental in creating. Finally settling in Missouri–though he never stopped dreaming of continuing westward–he lived out the rest of his life doing what he loved best: hunting and trapping in a fertile wild land still largely untouched by the Anglo pioneers who had followed the path he blazed to the West.

I would say he did make quite a name for himself, despite his lack of book learning. Seems his primary lessons were earned in learning how to survive.

Coffee out on the patio again this morning.

World's Biggest Insect...!

While most of us don't care for insects in general, there are some insects that are scarier than others. That's where this guy comes in.

Largest insect

Little Barrier Island giant weta

The giant weta native to the Little Barrier Island of New Zealand (Deinacrida heteracantha) proudly bears the name of the heaviest and largest adult insect in the world, the record weight for one being of 71 grammes or 2.5 oz and more than 8.5 centimeters or 3.4 inches in length. A relative of the grasshopper and of the common house cricket, the giant weta is nowadays a vulnerable species.

Thank goodness I don't have any of these guys in my yard...or worse, in my house! What a nightmare that would be!

Coffee on the patio this morning.

Strange Forest For Monday Mystery...!

Many forest from around the world have strange stories attached to them. Ghostly tales and creepy legends abound around some of them. Here is one such forest from Listverse.

Pokaini Forest Mysteries

Photo credit: www.latvia.travel

Pokaini forest in Latvia is steeped in myth and mystery. Legend has it that visitors to the forest in ancient times brought rocks with them as penance for their sins. These rocks would then also symbolize the absolution of their sins. Considering that this is just a myth, it remains a mystery as to where the rocks in the forest actually come from.

The rocks are grouped together in a specific sequence around 30 hills. There are rumors that some of the rocks have healing powers (because some of them are hot to the touch) while others have destructive powers. People are advised against taking a rock home as a souvenir, as bad times may befall them if they do.

There is also an old pine tree under which the temperature remains higher than anywhere else in the forest. Some visitors to Pokaini believe that this anomaly as well as malfunctioning watches and compasses mean that the forest could be a gateway to a parallel universe.

I don't think I'll be carrying away any rocks from this forest, even if I were to visit.

Coffee inside again due to the rain.

No Post Sunday...!

Sorry, but I totally forgot about getting a post together for today. Hope you don't think to badly of me. Just wanted to let you know...OK?

Trip Down Memory Lane...!

I thought today we would take a trip back to the 60s era to look at some of the popular toys of the day back then. Heck, you might have had some of these toys yourself, who knows?



Hope you enjoyed this little slice of the past.

Coffee out on the patio again.

The Liver Eater On Freaky Friday...

Sadly, some often think of revenge when when a loved one is killed or murdered. Few actually carry it to the extreme aas did Jeremiah Johnson. From Listverse here is his tale.

Liver-Eating Johnson

Photo credit: Montana State Historical Society

Born in 1824 in New Jersey, Jeremiah Johnson is known for the legendary dark stories attached to his name. Johnson served during the Civil War as a logger, trapper, scout, and sheriff. However, he is better-known for the 15-year-long war he waged with the Crow Native Americans who killed his wife.

It’s believed that in 1847, his wife, who was a member of the Flathead Native American tribe, was murdered, and he sought his revenge. According to history books, he scalped more than 300 Crow and cannibalized their livers. It wasn’t long before his reputation grew, and he became known as “Liver-Eating Johnson.” Eating the liver was an insult to the Crow, as it was believed to be vital for the afterlife. Johnson avenged his wife and died in 1900 at a veterans’ home in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 75.

While I can understand how much Johnson must have been hurting, I do think that his methods of revenge were over the top and a bit extreme.

Coffee out on the patio this morning...again!

The Lie Of Joan Lowell...!

Every so often we are so engrossed in the life of a famous person, we just take what they tell us as fact, often without researching the particulars.

The Cradle of the Deep

1929

Joan Lowell had one of the most remarkable childhoods anyone could ever wish to have. From the ages of one to seventeen, Lowell lived aboard her father’s schooner, the Minnie A. Caine, sailing the high seas.

Her remarkable life included many adventures: she claimed she’d never had a female role model, and only learned about female anatomy by cutting up a shark; she once harpooned a whale; she frequently played—and lost—strip poker with the crew; witnessed grown men drowning overboard; and survived a shipwreck three miles off the coast of Australia by swimming to shore with—wait for it—three kittens clawing on to her back.

All her adventures were recorded in her autobiography, The Cradle of the Deep, published in 1929 by Simon and Schuster, and for which Lowell was paid $50,000. Film rights followed, as did numerous outstanding reviews for the book (adventure-autobiographies were all the rage at the time). But as often happens, naysayers soon crawled out of the woodwork—and doubts as to the truth of the tale were confirmed when the San Francisco Chronicle examined Lowell’s upbringing. It turned out that she’d really grown up in Berkeley, California, and had been out to sea for a handful of short trips.

Lowell always claimed that the book was eighty percent genuine, although she did admit to taking some artistic license with the tale. In a famous interview some years later, she admitted that if she hadn’t added a little spice to the story of her life, it would all have been a bit dull.

I'd say this gal managed to fool a whole lot of folks, for sure. I'm glad she made a little money out of the deal, and I hope she felt it was worth it.

Coffee out on the patio again this morning!

Eleanor Dumont On Western Wednesday...!

In keeping with our sometimes favorite topic of wild women of the Old West, let's look at one Eleanor Dumont. Quite a story in her own right, that's for sure!

Eleanor Dumont

First and foremost, Eleanor Dumont was a businesswoman. Although her background is unclear, when she showed up in Nevada City with a French accent and a plan to open a casino, she was an instant success. She was a hit among the gamblers, and her business was so profitable that she opened a second casino as well. But over time she grew tired of the life, bought a ranch, and fell in love with a man named Jack McKnight. But as it turns out, McKnight was a conman, who sold her ranch and ran away. Not one to let that stand, Dumont tracked him down and shot him dead. Broke, but free of charges, Dumont went back to gambling, and created an even larger name for herself. There were (largely unsubstantiated) stories of her foiling robbers, or threatening steamboats at gunpoint. She eventually killed herself when her gambling debts became too large, but her reputation lived on.

Told ya she was an interesting character, didn't I?

Coffee out on the patio this morning.

A Very Creepy Mushroom...!

We all know that Mother Nature can come up with some strange looking plants, but this is one mushroom that is just plain creepy...at least to me!

Devil’s Fingers Mushroom

Photo credit: Fendy/Blogger

Clathrus archeri, better known as devil’s fingers or octopus stinkhorn, is a truly creepy mushroom. In its mature form, it has four to eight fingers as red as a fire engine with black spheres that resemble suction cups on an octopus’s tentacles. These black spheres are gleba, which emit a rancid smell reminiscent of rotting meat. This attracts flies, which disperse the plant’s spores. The smell explains the “stinkhorn” part of its name.

Like all stinkhorns, devil’s fingers start life in a white, partially buried, egg-like bulb. When it bursts from the bulb, the fingers are white and look like a corpse’s hand and sleeve rising from the grave. Eventually, the fingers stand erect, rising to 10 centimeters (4 in) in height and spreading out to 20 centimeters (8 in) in width. Although it is not toxic, its smell makes it inedible.

I really don't care what you call it, but I say again that this is one creepy mushroom. I want no part of it, thanks all the same. Thanks to Listverse for this nightmare.

Coffee out on the patio this morning. No rain in the forecast.

Mysterious Doorway For Monday Mystery...!

Many times we run across something from olden civilizations that we just have no clue as to what they are, or for what purpose they were intended. This is one of those mysterious items.

Aramu Muru

Photo credit: PuccioEnatolia/TripAdvisor

The Incan Doorway of Aramu Muru in Peru is a large square carved into a surface of rock. It’s 7 meters (23 ft) on each side, smoothed into a flat surface on an outcrop. In the center of the square at the bottom is an alcove a few feet wide and about as tall as a person. It looks like someone had started carving a building into the rock and just gave up.

The door has gained a cult following among believers in the paranormal, who say it’s a magical portal. Locals say it leads to the underworld and can be opened by magicians with special keys or enchantments. Some say it opens at midnight and there is a city on the other side. It’s even been suggested as a gateway to a distant part of the universe.

Could South American natives really have accomplished magical interstellar travel thousands of years ago? It would be nice if that’s what they were attempting. The alternative is that someone was forced to give up their awesome construction project, and that’s just a little bit sad.

I can't help but wonder what this doorway could be, ya know?

Coffee out on the patio this morning!

Did You Know About This Poison...?

Many of the every day foods we possibly eat every day could very well kill us, in case you weren't aware of it. I'm talking about things like apple seeds, green potatoes, cherry pits and other things like that. Here is just one of the many things I found that could do us all serious harm.

Almonds

In 2014, Whole Foods had to recall some of its bitter almonds, which contain traces of hydrocyanic acid as well as glycoside amygdalin, which, when heated or exposed to certain other conditions or chemicals (like the kinds in your digestive system), will be converted to hydrogen cyanide.[3] That’s right: amygdalin again, just like with the apricot seeds. Both raw almonds and apricot seeds are marketed health products, but both can be deadly when ingested.

Cyanide compounds are actually pretty ubiquitous and plentiful in nature; in fact, if you walked out into nature and just began eating food, many of the things you ate raw could kill you, as is, without human intervention.

This information is available, along with another group of possibly poisonous foods at Listverse. Just follow the link to see the list.

Coffee out on the patio this morning!

Let's Talk About The Rain...!

I guess that really should read "the lack of rain." Most of us, especially along the Carolina coast, don't have that problem right now. It's hard to even think about the lack of rain when the stuff is falling at record breaking levels. Here is something to think about though. Ever wonder where the most arid place in the world is? It may surprise you.

Arid Land

Where is the driest place on earth?

The Sahara desert? Nevada? Actually, it’s Antarctica. Some parts of the continent hasn’t seen any rain for two million years! A desert is technically defined as an area of land that receives less than 254mm (10 inches) of rain a year. The Sahara gets 25 mm, Antarctica gets around the same amount, but some areas of Antarctica never get rain, and haven’t for millennia. Making Antarctica the driest place on earth. Also, Antarctica can claim to be the windiest place on earth, with wind speeds of up to 200mph, the fastest ever recorded.

Just another silly fact that I thought you could file away in the vast warehouse of almost useless info I have furnished you with over time. This one came from Listverse, of course.

Coffee out on the patio this morning!

Murder By Ghost...?

Often we hear stories about hauntings and things that go bump in the night, but then there are times when so many coincidences leads us to think that maybe there is more to some of the tales than we originally thought.

Carl Pruitt’s Cursed Grave

Photo credit: CoolInterestingStuff.com

This story goes back to Kentucky in 1938, when a man named Carl Pruitt came home one day to find his wife in the arms of another man. In a wild fury, he strangled her to death with a chain before killing himself immediately afterward. (The other man fled.) After Pruitt was buried, visitors to the graveyard noticed that discoloration was starting to appear on his tombstone, and it looked eerily similar to a chain.

Before long, a boy trying to impress his friends chipped the tombstone by throwing a rock and immediately afterward fell victim to a freak accident that claimed his life—his bicycle chain somehow came off and strangled him as he rode home. The mother of the boy, naturally devastated, decided to vent her anger on the gravestone, hitting it repeatedly with an ax. The following day, she, too, became a victim of the Pruitt grave’s curse. She was found strangled by her own clothesline, which had inexplicably wrapped about her neck as she was hanging laundry.

Not long after that, there was another incident which cemented the grave’s reputation for being cursed. A farmer fired a gun at the tombstone while passing the graveyard in his wagon. The horses sped up, frightened by the gunshot, and the farmer was thrown out of the wagon. As he fell, one of the reins wrapped itself about his neck and strangled him. By now, the number of strangulations linked with the grave was starting to look like more than a coincidence, but that didn’t stop two policemen from tempting fate by trying to take photos of themselves at the graveside. When they drove away from the cemetery, they noticed they were being followed by a bright light. As they sped away, the vehicle crashed into a fence, and one of the policeman died, his head almost entirely severed by the chain that hung between the fence posts.

For years, people avoided the cemetery, terrified of meeting a hideous death, but in the 1940s, one man decided that he would take the risk of attacking the tombstone with a hammer. He was later found dead by the cemetery gates. How did he die? Yes, you guessed it: He was strangled by the chain that locked the cemetery gates. It’s no wonder that shortly afterward, the cemetery was stripped, and the cursed tombstone was removed permanently.

Just seems to me that this tale from Listverse has way too many coincidences not to have at least a kernel of truth to it. Just a thought...

Coffee in the kitchen again. Lemon snap cookies to share.

Shame On Project Artichoke...!

We have talked before about some of the Government sponsored experimental programs and the harm many of them caused. Here is yet another example of such a project.

LSD And Morphine Experimentation

Photo via Strangify

On April 20, 1950, the CIA officially approved Project BLUEBIRD, which was later renamed Project ARTICHOKE. The agency was investigating interrogation techniques in order to create amnesia and new identities as well as new memories in experimental subjects’ minds. Part of the research entailed giving them morphine in order to create an addiction followed by a subsequent withdrawal.

The experiments were conducted by leading psychiatrists, neurosurgeons, and pharmacologists in North America. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the program was when the agency experimented on children aged 7–11 years old, giving them 150 micrograms of LSD per day for weeks and months at a time. The details of the research only came to light in 15,000 pages of documentation obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

You know, the more I read about some of the so-called "Scientific" projects sponsored by our own government, be it past or present, the more I am disturbed by all of them.

Coffee inside due to more stormy weather.

Black Jack Ketchum On Western Wednesday...!

In most cases, gunfighters were considered as outlaws and punished accordingly. However, there were a few cases where the public demanded more harsh punishment and, in this case, were awarded just that.

Black Jack Ketchum

Tom “Black Jack” Ketchum, shown here after he was captured and his right arm amputated, and shortly before he was hanged in 1901 for attempted train robbery, had emptied his rifle into the bodies of two posse members chasing him and his brother for robbing a store in Liberty, New Mexico, in 1896, before continuing on his life of crime as a train robber. The citizens of New Mexico Territory were so mad at the daring of train robbers that they made Ketchum pay with his life, marking him as the only person who suffered capital punishment for “felonious assault upon a railway train,” a law later deemed unconstitutional.

Looks like the change in the law didn't come in time for ol' Black Jack. Too bad !

Coffee inside again today. Rain is coming and going again today!

Way To Go, Edison...!

We sometimes overlook the mistakes of famous people, so this piece of history should come as no surprise. In all fairness, I will admit that I have no fondness for Edison at all. He has never been one of my favorite people.

Clarence Dally

Photo credit: smithsonianmag.com

Clarence Dally, a glassblower by trade, worked at Thomas Edison’s laboratory. In 1895, Edison and Dally started experimenting with X-rays and Dally stood in radiation for hours at a time.

Five years later, Dally was already developing lesions. His left hand had been X-rayed for countless hours. When that hand became too painful to use, he switched to his right. It wasn’t long before he needed to keep his hands immersed in water to try to relieve the burning.

The burns on his hands were repaired with skin grafts from his legs. His left arm was eventually amputated, and four fingers were removed from his right hand. It was only then that Dally stopped his work with Edison, although Edison promised to support him for the rest of his life.

Dally’s right arm was removed in 1903, and he died in 1904. Edison gave up on X-rays because of the dangers.

Just one more reason to dislike Edison, as if I needed any more.

Coffee in the kitchen this morning!

Saturday Mthiyane On Monday Mystery...!

Stories of children being raised by wild animals are unusual, but not unheard of. This story from Listverse shows just how strange a tale of this kind can be.

Saturday Mthiyane

Photo credit: earthweek.com

In 1987, residents of Sundumbili, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, discovered a young boy about five years old living in the wild. He had a broken leg and displayed animal-like behavior.

Those who found him took the boy to the nearest police station. From there, he was taken to a school for disabled children where he was given the name Saturday Mthiyane: Saturday because that’s the day on which they discovered him, and Mthiyane because this was the last name of the principal of the school.

He displayed violent tendencies toward the other children in the school, hitting them and refusing to play with them. He used windows to get in and out of the building and stole raw red meat from the fridge.

Experts believed that the boy may have been raised by monkeys in the wild, conjuring up an image of a scene from The Jungle Book. The boy also dug holes in the ground, had a penchant for bananas, and loved tossing food into his mouth. Ten years after he was found, Saturday only had one friend at the school, still didn’t speak, and hadn’t been sick once.

While it is obvious that Saturday was abandoned or perhaps got lost, his mother was never found. His reason for being raised by animals in the wild remains a mystery. In 2007, Saturday died in a fire, his story forever unresolved.

This boy seemed to have been treated well by the monkeys that raised him and that alone makes him better off than many children today...sad, but true.

Coffee out on the patio, if we can beat the rain.

Cartoon Sunday Again...!

I know it just wouldn't seem like Sunday without some 'toons, so here ya go.







And one more for good measure...



Probably a lot of truth behind that last one, if ya know what I mean.

Coffee out on the patio this morning!

Ever Heard Of A Hipposandal...?

The Romans have been credited with many useful things over the years, but one of the most interesting things to me was a special type of horseshoe. That's right, a special horseshoe.

Rare Hipposandals

Photo credit: BBC

In 2018, a volunteer offered to help with excavations at an ancient landmark. While digging in a ditch at the Roman fort Vindolanda in Northumberland, the volunteer found something exceedingly scarce.

Hipposandals were early Roman “horseshoes” made of metal that were meant to protect the hooves. They were a bit more elaborate than today’s crescent-shape shoe. What made the find an archaeologist’s dream was that the set of four hipposandals was complete and in an exceptional state of preservation. Even the ribbing underneath—to prevent the animal from losing traction and skidding—could still be seen.

One of the sandals showed a hairline fracture, which could be the answer to why a perfectly good set was discarded. Maybe the owner decided to chuck away the whole lot when he noticed one was cracked. Forged between AD 140–180, these iron devices were found in a ditch that was originally a trash site. It was covered with new clay foundations when another fort was built, preserving the shoes and countless more Roman treasures.

Pretty clever of those Romans, wouldn't you say?

Coffee out on the patio again this morning!

Bizarre Death For Freaky Friday...!

If you ever had the doubt that the world was filled with a lot of crazy people, this story from Listverse should remove all doubt.

Manner of death: Volunteered to be tortured and murdered

Sharon Lopatka was an internet entrepreneur and one sick puppy. Living in Hampstead, Maryland, USA, Sharon was killed by Robert Frederick Glass in a case of consensual homicide.

While advertising unusual fetishist pornography on her web site, Sharon began her hunt for a partner willing to torture and kill her for their mutual sexual gratification. After many false starts, of course most replies were not serious, she finally found Robert Glass; more than willing to fulfill her fantasy. They exchanged many messages, culminating in their meeting in North Carolina. Glass tortured her for several days before strangling her with a nylon cord. He was later convicted of voluntary manslaughter and possession of child pornography.

Way too many crazy folks out there sometimes, I think.

Coffee out on the patio this morning.

Very Old Art...!

I think that we tend to sell our ancestors a little short when it comes to their creative abilities. For instance, this piece found by archeologist would certainly indicate a more refined sense of decorating than we though possible.

The Thinker Is Several Thousand Years Old

Photo credit: timesofisrael.com

Archaeologists at a Bronze Age site in Yehud, Israel, found some basic funerary goodies—including daggers, arrowheads, and animal bones—offered to accompany a prominent Canaanite into the afterlife. They also found something way better, a ceramic jug topped with a clay figurine that resembles Rodin’s famous The Thinker.

The 3,800-year-old statuette is considered historically unique. Along with some nearby Copper Age discoveries (in modern-day Jordan) like an irrigation system with terraced gardens, this suggests that an advanced civilization tamed this “fatally uninhabitable” land 6,000 years ago.

Here is my question...how can men be creative enough to fashion lasting art such as this, and at the same time be so talented  creating horrible ways to kill one another?

Coffee in the kitchen again, so we can talk about this.

King Fisher On Western Wednesday...!

Some of the greatest gunfighters in the Old West were all but unknown by today's standards. This article is about one of them.

King Fisher

One the lesser-known but more notoriously violent gunslingers of the Old West was John King Fisher, who was in and out of prison from the age of sixteen. In the early 1870s, Fisher became known as a bandit when he started running with a group of outlaws who raided ranches in Mexico. Fisher was known both for his flamboyant style, which saw him wear brightly colored clothes and carry twin ivory-handled pistols, as well as for his propensity for violence. He famously gunned down three members of his own gang when a dispute arose of money, and then killed seven Mexican pistoleros shortly after that. In his most famous gunfight, Fisher is said to have taken on four Mexican cowboys single-handedly. After hitting one with a branding iron, he supposedly outdrew another and shot him. In his typical brutal style, he then shot two of the man’s unarmed accomplices. In 1884, Fisher was ambushed and killed, along with Ben Thompson, by friends of a man whom Thompson had previously killed in a gun battle.

This guy is not someone you want to make angry, I think.

Coffee inside once more...sorry about that!

Strange Medical Condition...!

Sadly, there are many illnesses and medical conditions around that we don't fully understand. This article from Listverse is about one of the strangest conditions of all.

Haemolacria

Maybe one of the strangest conditions in medicine, haemolacria is better known as crying blood. In 2009, a teenager named Calvino Inman randomly began weeping blood one day. Reasonably thinking he was dying, Inman was rushed to the hospital and had a CT scan, MRI, and ultrasound. None of these revealed any abnormalities. Today, researchers are still puzzled as to why Calvino keeps bleeding from his eyes.

Another sufferer, Michael Spann, felt a violent pain in his head and suddenly began bleeding from his eyes, nose, and mouth. Ever since then, he has wept blood at least once or twice a week. Spann’s life has been badly impacted: “Any job I get, I lose, because my eyes start bleeding and they can’t keep me on.” Oddly, both Spann and Inman are from Tennessee.

A 2004 study looked at four children with haemolacria, all of whom eventually recovered without any medical treatment. It is unclear what caused Spann and Inman to develop the condition, but Spann at least appears to be recovering—he used to weep blood up to three times a day.

See what I mean? Unknown medical conditions that we will probably never understand fully!

Coffee in the kitchen this morning...raining again.

Strange Amnesia On Monday Mystery...!

Did you ever wish you could be someone else? Maybe you could be...like this guy.

Michael Boatwright

One of the strangest recent tales of amnesia is the story of Michael Boatwright. On February 28, 2013, the 61-year-old was found unconscious in a Motel 6 in Palm Springs, California. When he awoke in an emergency room, the American—who had a driver’s license in his own name—spoke only Swedish and claimed his name was Johan Ek. Not only had he forgotten his native language, but he no longer recognized his own face. Boatwright’s sister later emerged, claiming her brother was a “wanderer” and saying that she hadn’t seen him in a decade. Other than his memory loss, Boatwright is in good health.

Diagnosed with “transitive global amnesia,” doctors believe that Boatwright suffered some kind of psychological trauma. Others believe he might be faking in an attempt to escape some element of his past—however, this seems unlikely, as the case has only put him under intense public scrutiny. The true story of Michael Boatwright may never be uncovered.

Nothing in the world is more of a mystery than the workings of the human mind. I found this mystery on Listverse.

Coffee in the kitchen again, thanks to the rain.

Sunday Cartoons Again...!

I know it seems I get in a rut, but 'toons are always fun...right?







And maybe one more...



That's all for now...

Coffee inside once more. A little damp outside.

They Just Wanted A Taste...!

So many times nature manages to get back at us for messing with her, one way or another. Here is a story that proves that very point!

Fish-Stealing Sperm Whales

Photo credit: BBC

Rather than this being a crime committed by one specific animal, it’s apparently a common occurrence according to Alaskan fishermen. The sperm whales seem to target fishing boats as easy food sources by using an intelligent technique which involves getting the fish off the hooks and swiping them into the water.

This theft has become quite a nuisance to the fishermen, but it’s not likely that it will change anytime soon.

The engine sound of the boat is said to attract the animals, who hunt using sound. They peacefully swim next to the boats, waiting for their moment to strike. They’re certainly clever, so we’d argue that they deserve some snacks.

See what I mean? One way or another, nature always gets even.

Coffee inside this morning!