Vocal Majority - When Johnny Comes Marching Home

On July 4, 2014 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, Vocal Majority won the gold medal as the best chorus of 2014. In this video Vocal Majority brings down the house with the American Civil War anthem 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home.'



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Inspection Of Tutankhamun Tomb Reveals Hints Of Hidden Chambers

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Nearly a century after the rediscovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb ignited a worldwide craze for Egyptology, new findings could turn out to be almost as stunning.

Last Monday, after a group of Egyptian and foreign archaeologists examined the famous tomb, Egypt's antiquities minister Mamdouh Eldamaty confirmed that they found evidence suggesting the existence of two previously undiscovered rooms. This indicates that the western and northern walls of Tutankhamun's tomb could hide two burial chambers.

10 Filthy Rich People Who Squandered Their Fortunes

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Throughout history, the advance in technology and production has also come up with the concentration of wealth among the super rich in society. However just as empires rise so do they fall, and the same can be said about people.

Although athletes and celebrities are the most well documented cases of squandered wealth, they are not alone. Many prominent people across various industries have also fell victim to greed, carelessness, and materialism. These are the people who amassed a fortune only to end up in rags.

CableRobot Simulator

The CableRobot Simulator from the research group of professor Heinrich Bülthoff at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany had its first public performance. The presentation showed the results of the two-year development in collaboration with the research group for cable robots at the Fraunhofer IPA.



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Go, Delhi, Go

From the ancient city of Indraprastha to the seven cities during Muslim rule and now to the Lutyen's Delhi, Delhi has seen thousands of years of being a capital. And years form now, no matter how we humans do as a species, Delhi will remain alive in some form.



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(thanks Cora)

Hateful Kitten

(via Bad Newspaper)

Adobe Explains How Space Images Are 'Photoshopped'

image credit ESA/Hubble

It's not exactly a secret that those glorious space images NASA and other space agencies release go through extensive 'Photoshopping,' just like magazines and billboard ads. Now, Adobe has explained what exactly happens during the post-processing stage.

The person who does the retouching can't be an ordinary graphic designer: it usually has to be an astronomer. That's because they have to be able to interpret raw data and differentiate image artifacts that need to be erased from vague planets and cloudy nebulae, among other celestial bodies.

Akhal-Teke

The Akhal-Teke is one of the most beautiful horses in the world. It's a horse breed from Turkmenistan, where they are a national emblem. They are known for their distinctive metallic sheen. The shiny coat of palominos and buckskins led to their nickname 'Golden Horses.'



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'Dame Gi' Is The Last Thing You'll Put On... Ever

As economical as Japan's method of heating individual rooms can be, it does have its issues, the biggest of which being that only a couple of rooms are heated at any one time, leaving everywhere else in the house freezing cold. During winter, trips to the bathroom in a Japanese house are no fun.

This winter brings with it a new clothing item that is going to solve all your lounging and heating issues in one fell swoop. This light-weight but incredibly warm one-piece is so comfortable, it's like you're wearing nothing at all.

(via Neatorama)

NASA Announcement: Water Found Flowing On Mars

image credit NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Liquid water flows on Mars today, boosting the odds that life could exist on the Red Planet, NASA announced yesterday. The enigmatic dark streaks on Mars - called recurring slope lineae - that appear seasonally on steep, relatively warm Martian slopes are caused by salty liquid water.

In light of this discovery, the search is on for finding where this Mars water is coming from, how it finds its way to the surface and how much of it is down there?

Google Doodle Honors NASA's Discovery Of Water On Mars

Now that NASA has confirmed water is presence on the surface of Mars, Google decided to celebrate the landmark discovery in today's Google Doodle, which shows the little red planet taking a big gulp of that wet stuff.

Cars On The Lanes

The musical translation of random patterns of nature or mankind. Since everything moves and every moving pattern can be read as numbers or notes, then everything contains music.



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(thanks Cora)

The Pope Has A Small But Deadly Army Of Elite Warriors Protecting Him

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If you have ever visited the Vatican, you have seen the stoic guards that look like they missed the bus to the local Renaissance Festival. The truth is they are a high-end military force made up of top ex-Swiss soldiers. And don't let those spears fool you, they can shred you to pieces with them.

If that doesn’t work they have one of the finest firearms collections on the planet to finish the job. The Pontifical Swiss Guard is over 500 years old, making it one of the oldest standing military units in the world. Founded officially on January 22nd, 1506 by Pope Julius II, at the time the Swiss Guard was really a mercenary force.

The Dark Hedges In Northern Ireland - The Game Of Thrones' Kingsroad

image credit: Lindy Buckley

Every natural wonder is unique in its own way, so is the Dark Hedges in County Antrim's Bregagh Road, Northern Ireland. What's special about that long, dreamy tree-tunnel? It was a sole family project!

The Stuart family planted those beech trees along both sides of the road leading to their Georgian mansion known as the Gracehill House. With the passage of time, the Dark Hedges road has been turned into one of the most photographed natural phenomenon in Northern Ireland.

Ori Ritual Body Art By Laolu Senbanjo Featuring Azizaa

The Yoruba of West Africa (Benin, Nigeria and Togo, also including parts of Ghana, Cameroon and Sierra Leone) are responsible for one of the oldest and finest artistic traditions in Africa, a tradition that remains vital and influential today. Nigerian visual artist Laolu Senbanjo performs Yoruba Ritual Body Art on Ghanaian musician Azizaa.



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Sneak A Peek At The Facebook Of 400 Years Ago

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Social media may be the poster child of the 21st century, but the ideas behind LinkedIn and Facebook go back a long, long way. Dutch PhD scholar Sophie Reinders is currently exploring how personal books from many centuries ago known as alba amicorum - Latin for 'friend books' - functioned as a sort of pre-dated version of our modern social media.

7 Days A Week?

(via Bad Newspaper)

7 Ancient Mysteries Archaeologists Will Solve This Century

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The 21st century is the 'new age of exploration,' says archaeologist and National Geographic Society fellow Fredrik Hiebert. 'The opportunities for what we can discover in this century - and the questions we'll finally be able to answer - seem almost limitless.' With that enthusiasm in mind, Hiebert predicts the amazing finds we may make in the 21st century.

The Trunk Theater: Amusing People In Traffic Jams

The Trunk Theater is an invention of a Slovenian theater called Mini Teater. It demonstrates the true power of theater as it amuses people when being least amused - stuck in traffic jams.



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(thanks Cora)

Zen And The Art Of Bonsai Maintenance

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Bonsai is a Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers. The tradition dates back over a thousand years, and has its own aesthetics and terminology.

The purposes of bonsai are primarily contemplation (for the viewer) and the pleasant exercise of effort and ingenuity (for the grower). Bonsai practice focuses on long-term cultivation and shaping of one or more small trees growing in a container.

The Cathedral of Valencia

Originally built in 1238, shortly after the Reconquista, the Iglesia Catedral-Basílica Metropolitana de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora de Valencia is the religious center of the Comunidad Valenciana. The cathedral is laid out in the form of a cross, with three wide apses leading toward the gigantic altar, whose centerpiece consists of a series of frescoes.

The atmosphere inside the cathedral is one of sobriety. The walls and columns are of solid, unembellished stone. The paintings tend toward the dark, and the relics toward the creepy. And apart from a few stained glass windows and gold gilding around paintings and altarpiece, there's precious little color or light.

The Tangled History And Mysterious Legality Of 'Happy Birthday'

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The headlines last Tuesday blared, 'Happy Birthday found to be in the public domain.' Unfortunately and confusingly, they were incorrect. A judge's ruling in a suit filed two years against the ostensible current rights holders for the lyrics to that song, Warner-Chappell Music, didn't decide that.

Instead, the judge found that Warner-Chappell lacked valid rights to the lyrics, whether or not they remained under copyright protection, even as it collected fees to the tune of $2 million a year. The lyrics - but not the music of Happy Birthday - may still have outstanding legal protection almost 125 years after they were allegedly conceived. It may never be known for sure whether those rights exist.

MTO – Street Art Labor Intensity

image credit: nolifebeforecoffee

His mother calls him Mateo but most of the world knows the mysterious street artist whose extraordinary work you see here as MTO. French born but Berlin based, MTO's work is characterized by incredibly detailed renditions of über cool actors and musicians with a dash of red as his signature or around his work as a signifier of its boundaries.

How To Build The World's Fastest Car

image credit: lozwilkes

In 2016, a team of engineers and adventurers will travel to the South African desert and attempt to become the first people to drive a car at 1,000mph. The British-made vehicle, Bloodhound SSC, is designed to smash the current world land-speed record of 763mph to become the fastest car ever built.

Amazingly, this incredible target isn't even the project's main goal. The aim was to inspire the next generation of problem solvers to put their great talent into science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The Forest Monster

At the heart of a forest lives a monster, a master of the place, and destroys everything on his passage, unmoved by the fate of his fellow inhabitants.



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(thanks Cora)

Google's 17th Birthday

Today, Google is celebrating its 17th birthday with a commemorative Doodle harking back to the web of the 1990s. The image, featuring a retro, plastic PC, lava lamp and even 1998's Google logo, features on Google's homepage on September 27, which the internet giant has retroactively chosen as its birthday.

However, not even Google seems to really know when it was formed. Google alluded to this confusion, admitting it had celebrated its birthday on four different dates, but September 27 now seems to have stuck.

Top 10 Most Successful Companies Founded By Women

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Despite enduring the association of women with domesticity throughout much of world history, various women have nevertheless been major entrepreneurs and innovators.

A number of unique organizations you may be unaware were founded by women. As such, this list covers a broad range of businesses and organizations founded by famous females.

One Man, 90 Instruments

Brazilian-born musician Joe Penna came to the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix to play some of 6,000+ instruments housed there from roughly 200 of the world's countries and territories.

His sweet one-man cover of Misirlou (theme from Pulp Fiction) features 75+ instruments, including a yak jawbone and a special appearance from MIM's own octobasse.



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(thanks Erin)

No Animal Should Be Allowed To Be This Round

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Not quite a bunny. Not quite a mouse. It's a pika. It's so round.

Momentous

Life gives us both awesome and tragical moments to experience. It's up to us to seek and give a meaning to what's happening, to accept or refuse, to change directions. Momentous is your place to discover and share all these special life-changing moments.

(thanks Matt)

Creepy Robot Baby

This creepy robotic baby boy, named Diego San, was built with funding from the National Science Foundation and serves cognitive A.I. and human-robot interaction research. With high definition cameras in the eyes, the robot sees people, gestures, expressions, and uses A.I. modeled on human babies, to learn from people, the way that a baby hypothetically would.



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How Does A Ballpoint Pen Work?

This video shows you what happens when the tip of a pen hits the paper.



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(thanks Cora)

Petaloudes: The Valley Of Butterflies

image credit: Anita

The Valley of Butterflies, also known as Petaloudes Valley, is located on the western side of the Greek island of Rhodes. The valley is home to thousands of butterflies of the Rhodes subspecies of the Jersey Tiger Moth, who make their annual appearance after the rainy season, towards the end of May, covering the entire landscape in a thick but delicate blanket.

As the dry season approaches, the butterflies migrate, travelling at night in search of humidity, following the water course, and end up in the valley. Once they reach their destination, they settle lightly on the trunks of trees and rocks and whatever surface is available, in great numbers.

Second Republican Debate Debateless

The potential Republican candidates weigh in on a variety of issues.



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(thanks Woodcreek Faction)

The Science Behind The Most Popular Infographics

You know it had to come, an infographic about infographics, made by Siege Media. Infographics are easy to understand, easy to share, and provide something of value with very little time invested.

Siege Media wanted to find out if there are common features among the most popular infographics, so they performed a deep analysis of the 1000 most shared infographics in the past year. They looked at characteristics like height, width, character count and color palette to see what the most popular visuals had in common.

(thanks Ross)

The Official Teaser Trailer Of The Angry Birds Movie

Watch the first look at The Angry Birds Movie coming to theaters in May 2016. In this hilarious 3D adventure, we'll finally find out why the birds are so angry.



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New Images Of Pluto Released For Virtual Flyover Animation

New Horizons is in the process of sending back tens of gigabits of data collected during its successful flyby of Pluto in July. The most recent images released by Nasa show the dwarf planet's areas of smooth, icy expanse as well as other varied terrain.



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Top 10 Websites For Free, Non-Cheesy Stock Photography

There are many times when you need a decent picture to complete a bit of content. But many stock photography websites are either too expensive to subscribe to or seem to have too many cheesy images of stuffy characters in suits that would make even the least fussy amongst us cringe.

Here are 10 sites for free yet high quality stock photography. Many of these photographs are free from copyright restrictions or licensed under Creative Commons, which means you can copy, modify and distribute the images for commercial purposes, all without asking for official permission. However, some will require attribution or you need to sign up, so please ensure you double check.

The Monument To Russia's Favorite Bus LiAZ-677

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On Saturday August 29, 2015, in the suburban town of Likino-Dulyovo, 98 kilometers northeast of Moscow, a new monument was unveiled. It's a true size model of a yellow bus hoisted on top of a concrete platform. On the base is a memorial tablet with the words 'Veteran of the Road.'

The LiAZ-677 was the former Soviet Union's most famous bus. It ran on all urban roads all over the union for more than 30 years, and gained fans all over the nation. The bus was manufactured by Likinskiy Avtobusnyi Zavod.

Movie Cars You Can Actually Drive

Sometimes it seems like movies were made to show off cars. Some cars are simply so great that they seem ready to drive their way off the screen, or they become iconic by carving out their own place in cinema history.

In either case everyone who has been to the cinema has dreamt of driving a car they have witnessed on the big screen. In most cases that's impossible. This infographic by Select Car Leasing celebrates cars from movies you can actually drive.

(thanks Keira)

The Presurfer Is 15 Years Old Today

The Presurfer is 15 years old today. Still here after all those years. Can't believe it myself. What started as a personal link page in 2000 is still going strong. Not because of what I do, but because of what you do. You visit this site and some of you have been doing that for many years. Thank you for your loyalty.

I never thought I could maintain this website for so long. But it's been fun the past 15 years and I'm still having a great time. It isn't always easy though, but fortunately a lot of people help me by sending links every now and then. I appreciate that very much. Thank you! You know who you are.

The Presurfer was born on the same day as Everlasting Blort, one of my favourite blogs. Please pay them a visit.

More Than Just Parks | Redwood

MTJP | Redwood is the culmination of several weeks spent exploring Redwood National and State Parks in California. Home to the tallest trees in the world, the mighty Redwood, which can reach staggering heights of over 360ft and weigh more than 500 tons.



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(thanks Cora)

Birthstones Guide Month By Month

Birthstones have been around for thousands of years, and have had religious and societal significance throughout that time in cultures around the globe. Some believe that these stones have healing or other metaphysical properties, while some simply appreciate the gems for their vibrancy and luster.

Everyone from kings to meditation gurus have used and appreciated the properties of these stones. Personal Creations collected information about each of the 12 birthstones and put them into 12 simple yet informative animated graphics.

(thanks Julissa)

10 Bars At The End Of The World

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People have found ways to live in the most inhospitable places on earth. Nearly immediately after finding a way to survive, they have found a way to get drunk.

In this Essential Guide, Atlas Obscura raises a glass to some of the oldest, most remote, and simply unlikely 'Bars at the End of the World' in which to have a drink. Cheers!

(via Neatorama)

Creepy Robot Clapping Hands

Eerie musical performance by a pair of disembodied arms. These 'Ondz' robotic clappers where developed by Masato Takahashi, a researcher at Keio University who crafted them from molds of his own arms.



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Google Brings Street View To Africa's Savanna

North of Mt. Kenya on the banks of the Ewaso Nyiro River lies Samburu National Reserve. The elephants of this region have been studied by Save the Elephants for over 20 years. Get to know the landscape, people and wildlife of Samburu.

(thanks Cora)

You Can Thank Prehistoric Fish For The Enamel On Your Teeth

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Enamel is the hardest tissue in our bodies, made almost entirely of calcium, phosphorus and other minerals. It protects our teeth when we chew and shields them from pain when encountering things that are very cold or very hot.

The enamel that covers your teeth originated in an unlikely place: on the scales of ancient fish. Scientists say they figured this out by examining the fossils of long-dead fish, as well as the DNA of a range of creatures alive today.

A Pekingese Dog Herding Sheep

Sixteen weeks old Percy the Pekingese takes control and shows the kelpie pups how to work sheep.



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Are You An Android Or iPhone Person?

Should you buy an iPhone or an Android device? If you can't decide, this personality quiz will help. It's based on the results of a Yahoo Tech survey of 1,000 smartphone owners. Yahoo asked the respondents whether they were iPhone or Android users and had them select personal preferences about pets, booze and sci-fi fandom.

I took the quiz. It's not very accurate. They said I'm an Android person. Actually, I'm not. I'm definitely an iPhone person.

Adora Levin

Adora Levin is the daughter of Hanan Levin. You may remember Hanan from his blog Growabrain which he started in 2003 and ended in 2010. Since then he has been blogging about his daughter Adora who is now 5 years old. When she was born, Hanan started documenting her life by posting a photo of her every day.

Since then, over 1,100 artists and musicians from all over the world were inspired to create original artworks based on Adora's images and songs. The Adora Art Project had grown to include over 25 companion sites and side ventures, including books, music, videos, cooking and fashion.

Adora says she's very lucky and she's usually a happy child. But she knows that there are many kids who have difficult lives: They don't have food to eat, no home to sleep at night, and no way to have fun and be creative.

Together with the artists, Adora and her Dad are selling these artworks and helping children who never had opportunities like her. You too can help by buying an artwork that you like.

Virtual Tour Of The Enterprise-D Starship

The Enterprise 3D project aims to create this vessel in its entirety, in the Unreal 4 game engine. Take a walk through a few decks of Star Trek's USS Enterprise from ST: The Next Generation.



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Seven Scientific Facts To Ruin Childhood

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Here are seven popular things aimed at children that are absolutely ruined by the application of scientific reality.

Hot Rod Lenny's 1929 Ford Tudor Street Rod

This mean looking 1929 Ford Tudor is owned by Hot Rod Lenny in Richfield, Minnesota. It follows in the time tested tradition of building Ford hot rods, a process that developed through years of high speed testing on the dry lakes and wide open roads of sunny Southern California.



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(thanks Cora)

24 Animals That Are Named After Celebrities

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Aptostichus barackobamai, Calponia harrisonfordi and Aptostichus stephencolberti are all spiders. Agra schwarzeneggeri is a beetle. Here are 24 animals that are named after celebrities.

Honda 'Paper'

Take a journey through six decades of Honda innovation as multiple animators manipulate thousands of hand-drawn illustrations.



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10 Bizarre Beliefs Held By Top Celebrities

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Celebrities often exist within a bubble of their own fame and fortune, with critical thinking and traditional values somewhat optional in terms of staying in the media spotlight.

Much has been said about the influence of Scientology and Kabbalah in Hollywood, and many conspiracy theorists claim that there is Illuminati influence throughout the entertainment industry. But those are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the baffling beliefs of some celebrity figures.

(via Neatorama)

Here's Your Clearest Look Yet At An Alien Planet In Motion

image credit Vimeo

That pixelated dot you see above may not seem like much, but it's a pretty big deal - it's your best look yet at an alien world. Scientists have used the Gemini Planet Imager to capture the movement of Beta Pictoris b, a gas giant traveling around a star 60 light years away.

That's no mean feat when the exoplanet is about a million times fainter than its host, requiring that the Imager block the star's light and compensate for the distortion of Earth's atmosphere.

Time-Lapse Shows Container Ship's Journey from Vietnam To China

A time-lapse of the container ship Gunhilde Maersk at sea from Ho-Chi Minh, Vietnam to Ningbo, China and the incredible loading sequences at each port.



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(via Twisted Sifter)

10 Surprising Facts About LEGO

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Like Easy-Bake Ovens and Troll dolls, you probably remember these famous plastic bricks fondly from your childhood. But did you know the first one was made in 1932 and out of wood? Here are a few more facts you might not know about the toy of the century

Why Is Light So Fast?

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Light travels at 299,792.458 kilometres (186,282.397 miles) per second. Why not faster? Why not slower? Why this particular speed and not something else? Or, to put it another way, where does the speed of light come from? A new theory inches us closer to an answer.

Treasure Hunters Say They Found Nazi Gold Train

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Treasure hunters Piotr Koper and Andreas Richter claim they discovered the Nazi gold train and that the long-lost £250million Amber Room could be inside. Koper and Richter discovered the train close to the small town of Walbrzych in south-west Poland, after a German man revealed its location on his deathbed.

It is thought be laden with gold, looted paintings and one noted author went as far to claim that it contrained the Amber Room of the Russian Czars which was looted from a Russian palace by Nazi troops in 1941.

2015 World Figure-8 Enduro Race

The World Figure 8 Enduro race at the Indianapolis Speedrome must be the craziest of autosports. The Indianapolis Speedrome is the oldest operating figure 8 track in the United States. It hosts the annual World Figure 8 race, which is considered the world championship event.



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The Man Who Bought Stonehenge - And Then Gave It Away

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Today Stonehenge is England's most important monument, but 100 years ago it was up for sale. The man who bought it helped seal its fate. Standing on Salisbury Plain, its stones visible from afar, Stonehenge has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1986 and attracts a million visitors a year.

So it's strange to think that England's most significant monument was once bought by a barrister as a present to his wife. On September 21, 1915 Sir Cecil Herbert Edward Chubb paid £6,600 for the monument at an auction.

The Truth Behind The Mysterious 'End Of Times' Cloud In Costa Rica

image credit YouTube

A mysterious, rainbow-colored cloud appeared recently over Costa Rica, puzzling many of the residents. As witnesses peered up at the amazing phenomenon, they were left in a complete trance. But experts say the stunning cloud formation isn't really all that rare and what causes it isn't a mystery.

Kikkerlandje

Kikkerlandje (Little land of frogs) is what the Dutch call their country to emphasize its relatively small surface and the large amount of water. The places shown in this time-lapse are all in the Dutch province of South Holland: Dordrecht, Gouda, The Hague and Rotterdam.



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(thanks Pieter)

25 Of The Most Dangerous And Unusual Journeys To School In The World

To the delight (or dismay) of millions, the school season is beginning in many countries throughout the world. But it's important not to forget that, in some parts of the world, school can be a hard-won luxury.

Many children throughout the world have to take the most incredible and unimaginable routes in order to receive the education that some of us may take for granted. This article will show you just how determined some children can be when it comes to getting an education.

Full Construction Time-Lapse Of Cruiseship AIDAprima

AIDAprima is a cruise ship being built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the German cruise operator AIDA Cruises. The new cruise ship will feature 1,643 staterooms of 14 different categories to accommodate up to 3,300 passengers.



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(thanks Cora)

Dino Pet Is A Living Toy That Glows In The Dark With Bioluminescence

Have you dreamed of owning your own living dinosaur, but just haven't been able to find the space or time (or dinosaur)? Meet BioPop's Dino Pet, the glow-in-the-dark, living dino for adventurers of all ages.

Technically, Dino Pet isn't actually breathing, but he is filled with dinoflagellates and - with a little bit of light, food and a playful shake - you and your kids can keep Dino Pet alive and happy while enjoying the amazing natural glow.

Magical Bird Show

A magical bird show in the Netherlands. An amazing bird of prey tucks its wings to fly through a narrow gap.



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(thanks Cora)

The World's Largest Burls

image credit: rhymeswithbombs

Port McNeill is a small town in the North Island region of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. It is home to the world's largest burls.

A burl (or burr) is a large knot or wart-like outgrowth on the trunk of a tree, that happens when the tree undergoes some form of stress caused by an injury, virus or fungus.

Who Decides What Names Go On A Map?

image credit National Geographic

Would a place by any other name smell as sweet? Maybe. But how would you find it on a map? The U.S. Board of Geographic Names has spent the past 125 years making sure that's not an issue.

By standardizing place names on government maps, it eliminates problems that arise from inconsistencies and redundancies - a boon to mapmakers and map-readers alike.

To Scale: The Solar System

On a dry lakebed in Nevada, a group of friends build the first scale model of the solar system with complete planetary orbits: a true illustration of our place in the universe.



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10 Offbeat Travel Destinations That Feature Brilliant And Bizarre Hoaxes

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Who doesn't love the story of a good hoax? There's something epic about them, especially those perpetrated on such a large scale that they become tourist attractions in their own right.

Here are a series of offbeat travel destinations that have 'hoax' written all over them. Some are definitely forgeries, others most probably. But the jury remains out on one or two, if only locally for the benefit of tourism likely trumps authenticity.

(via Miss Cellania)

46 Vintage Photos Of Boston After The Great Fire Of 1872

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The Great Boston Fire of 1872 was Boston's largest urban fire, and still ranks as one of the most costly fire-related property losses in American history. The conflagration began on November 9, 1872, in the basement of a commercial warehouse on Summer Street.

The fire was finally contained 12 hours later, after it had consumed about 65 acres (26 ha) of Boston's downtown, 776 buildings and much of the financial district, and caused $73.5 million in damage. At least 30 people are known to have died in the fire.

How To Make Whipped Cream Like A Boss

How to whip cream really quickly. Simple cooking hack.



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Inside A German U-Boat

image credit Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums

Throughout World War I, Germany used its fleet of 351 Unterseeboote (colloquially called U-boats in English) to wage submarine warfare against Allied ships. Facing an overwhelming naval blockade by the British, the Germans responded on February 4, 1915 by declaring the waters around the British Isles a war zone.

While the U-boats had limited success against nimble British warships, merchant vessels and civilian ships operating in the 'war zone' were ripe targets for torpedoes. The sinking of civilian vessels such as the R.M.S. Lusitania ultimately caused the United States to join the war on the side of the Allies.

10 Glorious Facts About Sunflowers

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Sunflowers, in all their colorful glory, are a happy sight to behold - but there's more to their nature than just beauty. The multipurpose plants deliver healthy snacks, useful oil, and birdseeds. Let your garden knowledge flourish with these facts about Helianthus Annuus.

Chinese Table Tennis Players Amazing Rally

Amazing rally during this Chinese Super League 2015 match between Xu Xin and Zhu Linfeng that lasted for 42 shots.



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(thanks Cora)

14 Dumbest Ways That Humans Will Survive The Apocalypse

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The whole point of a post-apocalyptic story is that someone survives. But when you have a calamity that wipes out 99.9% of all humans, then how exactly do you explain the survivors?
In honor of the new Maze Runner movie, here are the 14 dumbest ways people survive the apocalypse.