What A Way To Go...!

Since this is actually Freaky Friday, you might just appreciate this story from Listverse.

Death By Toilet

Convicted murderer Michael Anderson Godwin unwittingly saved taxpayers a great deal of money at a Columbia, South Carolina, correctional facility in 1989.

After having his death sentence overturned on appeal, he settled into his new reality as a “lifer.” As he was only 28 at the time, he would more than likely have been there for many years to come.

One fateful day, he attempted to repair a set of earphones that was connected to his television. He bit down on one of the earphone’s wires while sitting on the steel toilet in his prison cell. This turned out to be a deadly combination.

The same prisoner who initially escaped the electric chair unintentionally carried out his own death sentence by electrocution. How ironic.

One thing about it...Karma is a bad mama-jama!

Coffee out on the patio this morning!

A Mother's Love...!

While it may seem a bit strange to us now, back then this probably made a lot of sense to many.

The Grave of Florence Irene Ford

Florence’s mother built a stairway down to her daughter’s coffin so she could comfort her during storms.

During her short life, Florence, born September 3, 1861, was terrified of storms. As soon as one rolled in, she’d run to her mother, Ellen, who would patiently comfort her until the storm passed.

In 1871, at the age of 10, Florence died of yellow fever. Her mother, naturally distraught, couldn’t bear the thought of Florence being buried, as she still wanted to comfort her during storms, even as she lay at rest.

So Ellen had a small window fitted at the head of her daughter’s casket, and a narrow stairway built six-feet down to the level of the window. Ellen had hinged metal trap doors installed at the top of the stairs so she could shut them during storms, protecting her from the wind and rain as she sat by her daughter’s coffin, reading or singing to her until the storm passed.

The grave has changed very little since 1871. The epitaph on the gravestone is still easy to read: “As bright and affectionate a Daughter as ever God with His Image blest.” And behind the gravestone lie the metal trapdoors, which can still be opened today, so cemetery visitors can still comfort Florence during storms.

The only real change came with the addition of a concrete wall in the mid-1950s, erected at the bottom of the stairway to cover the glass window, preventing any potential acts of vandalism.

Natchez City Cemetery sits on the banks of the Mississippi River, its white tombstones neatly arranged on the green grass of Adams County. It’s a quiet spot, and home to a handful of notable tombs. There’s the tomb of Rufus E. Case, a large three-tiered structure that contains both Case and his favorite rocking chair. And the Turning Angel, a monument that watches over five graves and appears to turn to look at people as they walk towards it. But the grave with the most peculiar and arguably most touching backstory is Florence’s.

I don't think this would be allowed today, but it was comforting to the mother, I'm sure.

Coffee out on the patio this morning.

One Tough Woman...!

Many times we tend to overlook women in history. That's really a shame, as some of them were pretty dang tough. Here from Listverse is an article of one such woman.

The Woman Who Was Hanged (And Then Some)

Photo credit: W. Burdet

In 1650, housemaid Anne Greene was seduced by the grandson of her employer and became pregnant. But she told no one. She miscarried six months later and buried the body of her son by herself. When the body was discovered, Greene was charged with infanticide despite clear evidence that the child had been born dead.

Greene was found guilty and sentenced to hang. On December 14, she was “turned off” the scaffold, hanging by the neck for almost half an hour while her friends thumped her on the chest and pulled on her legs with all their might to shorten her ordeal.

Finally, her body was cut from the scaffold and was ordered to be sent to a surgeon for experimental purposes. As she was placed in the coffin, a guard heard Greene breathe. He jumped up and down on her chest a few times to finish her off as an act of charity—or so he said.

Despite this, the surgeon revived Anne Greene with “hot and cold cordials,” throat tickling, and a hot enema. The last one, it seemed, did the trick. Anne Greene was later pardoned, got married, and had three more children before finally dying in childbirth in 1665.


See what I mean? One tough ol' bird, I tell ya!

Coffee inside this morning.

Let's Talk About Physics...!

Nature certainly does a few things in Her own way, and sometimes we just don't know why. She is a smart ol' gal, it seems. Here from Listverse is a good example for ya.

Heat Induced Freezing

Water is the most important liquid on Earth. It’s is also one of the most mysterious and counterintuitive compounds in nature. One of water’s lesser know properties, for example, is that hot water freezes faster than cold water. It is not fully understood why, but the phenomenon, known as the Mpemba effect, was originally discovered by Aristotle over 3,000 years ago. The mysterious effect has been attributed to a range of phenomena, but it remains a mystery.

See what I mean? Just one more of Mother Nature's secrets, I reckon.

Coffee out on the patio before it gets too hot.

The Golden Sword...!

Just imagine finding something like this on your property.You just never know when these things are going to show up. This reported find is from Listverse.

Gold-Hilted Sword

Photo credit: Paul Reid via the Archaeology News Network

While excavating a new soccer field, Scottish workers unearthed a treasure trove of Bronze Age artifacts. Among these, they discovered a mysterious sword with a golden hilt. Believed to be 4,000 years old, the sword is so delicate that researchers are unable to remove it from the ground. Their goal is to lift the entire block of surrounding soil and transfer it to a lab environment. Given its delicate nature, the find may be either a spear point or a broken sword.

Scotland is filled with Bronze Age sites. Researchers were recently able to recreate the likeness of a Scottish woman, “Ava,” who died 3,700 years ago. It turns out the Bronze Age inhabitants of the Scottish Highlands are physically indistinguishable from their modern counterparts. Work on the soccer field has been halted until archaeologists can investigate the site.

It is always amazing to me that objects buried that long in the ground survived at all!

Coffee inside because it is just to hot to sit on the patio.

Built In Lie Detector...!

Here is a little something you might find interesting. Seems we all have a built in lie detector. I didn't know that, did you? Here is the thinking behind this idea.

If you feel like someone is lying, even if you have no logical reason to think so, they probably are. It turns out your gut is much better at detecting lies than your brain. Studies show you’re more successful at determining whether someone is lying when you jump on your first instinct, because having too much time to think about it can make you wrong more often.

Just thought you might find that interesting. Read more about this study here.

Coffee on the patio this morning!

Need A Job? Try This...!

When times get hard for many of us, sometimes the answer is a second job. If you can qualify, this one might just fit the bill.

Professional Mourner

Photo credit: atlasobscura.com

The death of a loved one can be difficult to deal with, and everyone copes in his own way. Some people mourn for days before getting their lives back to normal. Others shut themselves away until they can be around people again.

Still others take it one step further and get professional mourners to do their grieving. Although it may sound weird to the rest of us, these mourners are dedicated professionals in quite a few parts of the world.

Professional mourning has been a thing for thousands of years in many regions, including Africa, China, and ancient Egypt. However, China is mostly where it’s still big business.

The job consists of showing up to the funeral and staging a believable session of mourning—complete with physically breaking down and wailing. This may sound alien to the rest of us, but it’s completely normal in Chinese culture. These pros can also earn quite a bit depending on how good they are.

I found this over on Listverse, of course.

Coffee out on the patio, where the temps are climbing every day.

I Like This Version Best...!

Once in a while, a change in a recipe makes for a better product. At least, it did in my opinion, with ketchup. Here is the story of the change from Listverse.

Ketchup

Americans call it ketchup; others call it tomato sauce. Whatever you call it, the tomato-based sauce is slathered all over tons of meals every day. However, does squirting fermented fish guts on your breakfast sausages sound appealing? This was actually the origin of the sauce so many know and love today.

The Chinese ke-tsiap was a pungent sauce made from fermented fish. During the 18th century, the British tried to copy the unique flavor of this Asian sauce using foods such as anchovies, mushrooms, and nuts.

Tomatoes were eventually added to the recipe in the early 19th century, but the tomato-based ketchups spoiled easily. Ingredients such as coal tar were added to the mix in an attempt to improve the shelf life of the sauce.

It wasn’t until the late 1800s that a man named Henry Heinz decided to not only modify the type of tomatoes used but to take advantage of the fruit’s natural preservatives. He also added a healthy dash of vinegar to the mix to make the world’s favorite condiment we enjoy today.

I really like the taste of ketchup on certain foods, like french fries and hash browns. However I use it sparingly on other foods as well.

Coffee out on the patio this morning. No ketchup in mine, thanks.

Jello Socks...?

It seems like everyday we are finding a new use for plants and animal by-products. All the rage right now is a plant based replacement for meat. However, think of all the other uses for the making of clothes and the like. From Listverse, here is an article about gelatin.

Gelatin

You know gelatin as the stuff in your JELL-O, some frosted cereals, and sometimes even yogurt. Where you won’t find gelatin is in your clothes.

Yet.

While you probably think of gelatin as being gooey and jiggly in consistency, it’s actually a powder made from crushed skin, cartilage, bone marrow, and other animal by-products. This makes it a perfect candidate for a sustainable, less wasteful material from which to make clothes.

Researchers have succeeded in spinning yarn out of gelatin. The yarn is then treated with a spray of formaldehyde gas and lanolin, producing a strong, warm yarn you can spin into gummy-bear mittens (sugary flavor not included).

Using gelatin to make clothes isn’t all that weird, either. The textile industry experimented with using vegetable and food by-products as far back as a century ago, until the petroleum-based industry took over.

Today, as we look for greener and less biologically harmful ways to live, scientists—and designers—are looking for more natural sources for what we wear. It might sound strange now, but you probably won’t give a second thought to wearing JELL-O socks, bamboo dresses, or sour milk shirts in the future.

I guess it's all fine and dandy to find alternative ways to use plants, but are we really to the point in our lives where this is a major concern? How about focusing on something a bit more important...like curing diseases. Worry about the jello socks later.

Coffee out on the patio this morning.

What Became Of Richard Cox...?

Every now and then, a truly mysterious disappearance comes along that just defies explanation. From the folks at Listverse, this case is certainly one of those.

Richard Cox

Richard Colvin Cox was a cadet in the US Army, stationed in West Point, New York, in 1950. On January 14, he disappeared. He had told his fellow cadets that he was going to dinner with his friend George, who was never found despite extensive investigations by the police. Many theories abound as to what became of Cox, from joining the CIA to being imprisoned by the Soviets. Perhaps the most compelling is the he staged his own disappearance in order to run away with another male cadet. Despite the fact that Cox was engaged, evidence was found from both government files and firsthand interviews to suggest that Cox had same-sex encounters with other cadets.

In 1986, an anonymous letter was sent to a retired man who devoted much of his time to investigating Cox’s disappearance. The letter suggested that Robert Frisbee, who was a prime suspect in a separate murder case, was a person of interest. Following up on this lead revealed that Frisbee had previously been known as Robert Dion, and had been stationed with Cox. Furthermore, Dion had previously been involved in a fake-ID ring, so it’s possible that he not only created a new identity for Cox, but could have been masquerading as a man named George at the time of the disappearance. “George” had previously been seen visiting Cox before the night he disappeared, and descriptions of him matched up with Dion. Many people believe Cox actually lived an entirely new life and may still be alive today. He would be 85 years old.

Is it really necessary that we find Richard Cox, or discover what happened top him? I say leave the guy alone. It really isn't any of our business!

Coffee inside this morning. Rain is supposed to happen again.

What A Useful Invention, I think...!

The human mind is forever surprising with the crazy inventions that it can create. Although not of much use today, in their day these inventions of the Victorian age must have been handy. Here is one, taken from the pages of Listverse.

Multipurpose Cane

Admittedly, though bizarre, I can see the value in this particular invention. What this invention does is quite clear: it serves its standard function as a cane, as well as providing many other uses to its bearer. Some of the noble pursuits which the cane was tailored to were flute playing, horse measuring, and the capturing of butterflies. Should a gentleman ever be caught in the rain, fear not: for the cane contained an umbrella as well, keeping the man nice and dry to light his cane-pipe. I see nothing more bizarre about this invention than a standard Swiss army knife, and can you use a Swiss army knife as a cane? That depends upon how tall you are, but I have my doubts.


We may think of these inventions as useless now, but they did show quite a bit of imagination for their time.

Coffee out on the patio this morning!

Historical Bombing Of Wall Street...!

The people wanting to spread fear and chaos in our country have been doing so for a very long time. Luckily, not many achieved the level of mayhem they wished for. However, those that were more successful did some major damage to life and limb. Here is an article of the bombing of Wall Street from Listverse you might find interesting.

The Bombing Of Wall Street

At noon on September 16, 1920, a wagon pulled up in front of the Wall Street offices of J.P. Morgan & Co., the most powerful banking firm in the world. Its infernal cargo consisted of dynamite with window sash weights for shrapnel. The driver fled, and seconds later, a powerful explosion ripped through lower Manhattan.

Windows shattered. People were lifted from the street, including a young stockbroker named Joseph P. Kennedy. In an eerie foreshadowing of a future attack 81 years later in the same area, World War I veterans thought the bombs came from planes roaring through the skies. A mushroom-shaped yellow-green cloud of smoke and flame rose 30 meters (100 ft) over America’s busiest financial district. Ashen-faced people fled from the chaos that eventually killed 39 and injured hundreds more—the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil until the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.

The bomb missed J.P. Morgan the man, who was on vacation, but wounded his son Junius and killed his chief clerk at his desk. The rest of the dead were unfortunate souls caught in the wrong place at the wrong time—ordinary messengers, clerks, stenographers, and brokers. A woman’s severed head was discovered stuck to the concrete wall of a building, with the hat still on. Mutilated bodies littered the ground. One victim, burned and half-naked, tried to rise and toppled back dead in the gutter.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, and no one would be brought to answer for the atrocity. But the finger of suspicion turned to Anarchists, who had been harassing the Morgans with letter bombs. A message was found in a nearby mailbox which read: “Free the political prisoners. Or it will be sure death for all of you. American Anarchist Fighters.” It perhaps referred to anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti, indicted the day before for robbery and murder.

Among the suspects taken in for questioning were well-known Anarchist Carlo Tresca and eccentric tennis champion Edward Fischer. Fischer had allegedly predicted the bombing to his friends, but he turned out to be simply mentally unhinged and was sent to Bellevue Hospital.

It is a sad and gruesome fact that the folks wanting to inflict death and destruction just to prove or labor a point...will always find a means to do just that. The targets are usually lost in a sea of innocents, and have no idea of the deadly message being sent.

Coffee out on the patio this morning. Gonna be hot later, but it's still pleasant enough in the mornings.

Dead And Still Saving Lives...!

Who would have ever thought that reading a book could help save a life. That's what happened thanks to Agatha Christie, and one of her novels. Here is the story from DidYouKnowFacts.

Despite being dead for over a year, famous author Agatha Christie saved a baby’s life in 1977.

Her novel The Pale Horse described thallium poisoning so well that a nurse who’d been reading it was able to diagnose a sick infant, who had doctors stumped.

The baby was immediately tested, they found traces of thallium, doctors changed treatments, and her life had suddenly been saved by a 16-year-old murder mystery novel.

You can read more about this right here. Good read, if you ask me.

Coffee out on the patio today!

So That's The Problem...!

I probably have posted this one before, but I don't remember for sure. Anyway, even if I did, I am using it again...just because I think it's cool!

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 walk 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.

Now doesn't that make sense? C'mon...you know it does!

Coffee out on the patio this morning!

A Ghost Ship Mystery...!

As most tales from the sea can go quite mysterious, the story of the ship known as the Baychimo is quite unique. Here is the story from the folks at Listverse.

The SS Baychimo

Some would call it a ghost ship, but the Baychimo was real—and she could still be out there.

Built in 1911, the Baychimo was an enormous steam-powered cargo ship owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company. Mainly used for transporting furs from northern Canada, the Baychimo’s first nine journeys were relatively uneventful. But on its final journey, in 1931, winter came early. Totally unprepared for the bitter weather, the ship eventually became completely trapped in the ice.

Most of the crew were rescued by plane, but the Baychimo‘s captain and a few crew members decided to stick it out, making camp in sight of the ship. One day, a fierce blizzard blew up, obscuring the ship. When the storm abated, the Baychimo had vanished. A hunter eventually spotted the steamer and alerted the remaining crew. After salvaging what they could, they set the ship adrift, fearing it wouldn’t last the winter in the thick pack ice

As it turned out, the Baychimo was tougher than anyone gave her credit. Over the next few decades, she was repeatedly sighted all across the Arctic, often drifting aimlessly out to sea. The last sighting was in 1969, a full 37 years after she was abandoned.

In 2006, the Alaskan government finally launched a “ghost ship” project to track down the Baychimo. Despite their efforts, the ship has not been found. For all intents and purposes, the Baychimo has now disappeared without a trace.

This is the kind of mystery that you kinda don't want to end. Being an open ended mystery can only make it longer lasting, I think.

Coffee on the patio this morning!

No Post Saturday...!

Starting today I am not going to do any posting on Saturday or Sunday. I had already stopped posting on Sunday, so now I'll have the weekend off. Just didn't want anyone to worry, ya know?

Have a great Saturday...

Just Like The Nursery Rhyme...!

Once in a great while, life does seem to follow a nursery rhyme. In this case, I think the farmer involved was making a statement that just happened to involve sheep. It was pretty cool, though.

They Go To School

Photo credit: dailyhunt.in

In 2019, French parents heard that a class at a local school might shut down due to dropping student numbers. They were understandably upset. After all, the “drop” was small. For some reason, the national education authority decided it would be the best move after numbers went from 266 to 261.

The primary school, located in the French Alps, served the village of Crets en Belledonne. One of the village’s farmers took his flock of sheep and went to the school. He had a plan.

After arriving at the school, he produced birth certificates for 15 sheep and enrolled them as students. In most other places, the act would have caused a legal incident, a call to the police or animal welfare, or perhaps a psychiatrist.

However, in this case, the woolly students were signed up during a ceremony watched by the school’s staff, children, and the kids’ parents. Although the sheep never sat through a history lesson or received homework, the initiative worked. The class stayed open.

Seems like the showy demonstration did the job. All without violence or fighting...COOL!

Coffee in the kitchen again this morning. More rain expected.

A Common Household Poison...!

Have you ever noticed just how many everyday things we have around the house that could be poison to us? Here is one that might surprise you.

Toothpaste

You may have never noticed the poison warning that the FDA requires on every tube of toothpaste. This is largely because a staggering 95 percent of toothpaste in the United States contains fluoride.

While the severity of effects ranges in tandem with the amount consumed, the FDA urges you to contact a poison control center if you consume even just a bit more than used for brushing. The Fluoride Action Network explains that the dental community has “failed to educate the public about the dangers of swallowing too much fluoride toothpaste.”

Shockingly, most toothpastes suggest using only a pea-size amount. However, advertisements depict much larger portions, which can be dangerous. This can be especially harmful to children, who may not accurately gauge the amount of toothpaste needed or even overindulge because of artificial flavoring.

The FDA originally required the aforementioned poison warning because overconsumption of fluoride toothpaste in children can result in acute fluoride poisoning and even death. Another major risk factor of toothpaste is dental fluorosis, which is a side effect that attacks tooth enamel and can result in severe reactions.

Toothpaste, ironically intended to keep us hygienic and healthy, can ultimately be deadly.

Trying to keep up with the list of things that could be bad for us is becoming a full time job.

Coffee inside cause it's raining on the patio.

Some Killer Weather...!

As bad as we think the weather is locally, there have been sme rather disturbing cases where the weather, namely smog, was responsible for deaths. Here is a case from the folks at Listverse.

London’s Killer Smog

December 5, 1952

Photo credit: N.T. Stobbs

Killer smog sounds like the plot of a horror movie, but this was the real thing. For five days in December 1952, a smothering cloud descended on London, killing thousands.

December 5 was a cold day, and as Londoners woke, they stoked their fireplaces and lit their coal stoves, sending plumes of black smoke into the air. Smoky diesel-fueled buses carried people to work, and factories belched tons of pollution into the air.

Unfortunately, on this day, an inversion set in, trapping pollutants on top of the city. With no wind to clear the air, the smog had nowhere to go. By noon, it had turned a sickly yellowish brown and began to smell like rotten eggs. Parents were warned to keep their children home from school, for fear they might become lost in the vaporous haze. The air was so thick that people couldn’t see their feet, and river traffic was halted on the Thames. Birds died when they flew into buildings, and livestock suffocated. People suffered similar fates.

It is estimated that as many as 12,000 people died of respiratory ailments related directly to the sulfurous air. Finally, after five nightmarish days, a fresh breeze blew in and whisked the killer smog out to sea. It was not until 1956 that a clean air act was finally passed.

Makes the weather in my area seem pale in comparison, ya know?

Coffee out on the patio until the rain starts.

Is This The Grail...?

As far back as I can remember, folks have been talking about finding the Holy Grail. Did it actually exist? Where could it be? Does it really have healing powers? So many questions and so few answers. From Listverse, here is an interesting look at a cup fragment that is worth looking at.

The Nanteos Cup

Photo credit: National Library of Wales

The Nanteos Cup, considered by some to be the Holy Grail, is a wooden cup (or, more precisely, the remains of what used to be a wooden cup). Originally kept at Strata Florida Abbey in Wales, the cup is now on permanent display at the National Library of Wales.

The cup has long been believed to have the power to heal. The cup’s poor condition is probably due to the habit of lending it to the sick, the lame, and the dying. No charge was made for the loan of the cup, though borrowers were required to leave their most valuable asset as a deposit to ensure its return.

The cup was stolen in 2014 but returned safely via an anonymous source a year later. It is not known whether the thieves took the cup for its mystical properties, though police might have considered investigating anyone who had recently made a miraculous recovery.

I guess it would be nice if this legend would come true, but I fear there would be fighting and war over ownership. Maybe we should leave it alone in the museum.

Coffee out on the patio this morning.

What Are These Spheres...?

That question has been asked by many folks a lot smarter than I, believe me. I'm not sure if we will ever know what they are. Here is the story from Listverse.

Purple Spheres of the Arizona Desert

Early this year, a woman named Geraldine Vargas and her husband were walking through the desert near their home in Tucson, Arizona, when they came across a phenomenon that, so far, has completely baffled scientists. They discovered a large patch of land covered in strange, purple spheres with no perceivable explanation for what they were or how they came to be.

They appear to be a jelly-like fungus, but botanists in Arizona have so far been completely stumped as to their cause or composition. The spheres ooze a liquid substance and some people have speculated that they must be of an extraterrestrial origin considering nothing like them has ever been seen in the area, and no one has the slightest clue how they came to be there in the first place.

Whatever these things are, they are very pretty to me.

Coffee out on the patio.

A Trip To The Past...!

Today I want to do something a bit different. On this video is some of the important and memorable inventions of the time, and the year they were first introduced. Boy, I'm getting old!



Remember any of these?

Coffee out on the patio this morning.