Melissa from Shakesville is keeping a list of sexist remarks against Hillary made by the media, blogs, etc… It’s a comprehensive list with 76 items (and counting) which I fear doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface.
Day: April 16, 2008
The British Officer Who Went Into Battle with a Bow & Arrows and a Sword…. During WW2
From Damn Interesting:
In 1940, some of the German commanders who were overseeing the push into France began to receive seemingly random reports of soldiers having been killed with broad-head arrows or hacked with a English Claymore. Effective enough weapons it would seem, but archaic even in that day and age. They likely could have guessed the bowman was an English soldier, but they couldn’t have appreciated these as the calling card of the rabid eccentric, Captain Jack Churchill.
In another attack Mad Jack and one of his enlisted men managed to sneak up on a pair of German sentries making rounds. He leapt at them, sword in hand and shouted, “haende hoch!†The Germans obeyed by dropping weapons and raising their hands. One sentry was taken back to camp while the other had Jack’s belt wrapped round his throat, and together they continued the rounds. At each guard post his prisoner would say something to lull the guards into complacency, then a mustached-mad-man with a sword would jump out and order them to drop their arms. All in all, the two Brits rounded up forty-two prisoners that night.
And from his Wiki entry comes this gem:
Eccentric until the end, Churchill would toss his briefcase out of the window of the commuter train he rode home every day. Passengers and conductors were shocked because they didn’t know he was throwing the luggage into his own backyard as the train passed by. It saved him the trouble of carrying it all the way home from the station.
Kudzu Covered Houses
Few houses are abandoned and allowed to be taken over by vegetation. However, in parts of the south including the city of Atlanta those that are, are susceptible to being engulfed by kudzu. Some make interesting natural sculptures. Here are 40 buildings and old houses in 52 images which are visible from highways and streets in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina.
Space Debris: Evolution in Pictures
From the European Space Agency:
Between the launch of Sputnik on 4 October 1957 and 1 January 2008, approximately 4600 launches have placed some 6000 satellites into orbit, of which about 400 are travelling beyond geostationary orbit or on interplanetary trajectories.
Today, it is estimated that only 800 satellites are operational – roughly 45 percent of these are both in LEO and GEO. Space debris comprise the ever-increasing amount of inactive space hardware in orbit around the Earth as well as fragments of spacecraft that have broken up, exploded or otherwise become abandoned. About 50 percent of all trackable objects are due to in-orbit explosion events (about 200) or collision events (less than 10).
(via Delicious Ghost)
Flying vs. Driving
Wired compares flying vs. driving to St. Louis from Boston:
We all love to bash the airlines, it’s easy and fun. But here’s something that usually doesn’t make the headlines: When you sit down and really do the math, flying has a lot going for it. Compared with driving, it’s safer, faster, cheaper and cleaner.
Let’s say I’m heading from Boston to St. Louis to visit my grandfather. It’s a 1,038-mile trip, and I need to decide whether I’m going to fly or drive my 2002 Volkswagen Jetta. If I had the time, here are some of the things I might consider:
South Oak, IL Dodge’s Racist Commercial
(via Reason)
Oscar The Naked Dancing Cockatoo
(via Radmila)