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| "The Witches' Cove," Follower of Jan Mandijn |
This week's Link Dump is hosted by an early 20th century celebrity: Rags, the star of the "Rotograph Cat" series of postcards.
Isaac Newton calculated that the world will end in 2060. We seem to be right on target. Maybe even ahead of schedule.
The wreck of the "Arniston."
Florida's radioactive water fountain.
George Patton's forgotten corps.
Just a really nifty signature.
The U.S. Army vs. the Nez Perce tribe.
Tales of the Tower of London.
Did leadership conflicts prolong WWII?
A female Georgian-era artist.
Norway's love affair with hot dogs.
The oldest joke in the world.
A look at jet tiaras.
The first American daredevils.
The oldest known blueprints.
An 18th century castaway.
The megalithic site even older than Gobekli Tepe.
The world's most expensive ice cream...sounds pretty disgusting, frankly. As someone who grew up poor, playing silly buggers with food has always annoyed me.
How Robert Clive went from hero to villain.
The first Victoria Cross winner.
1930s Populism and the "Wizard of Oz."
Hyperinflation and the death of the Weimar Republic.
The first records of humans kissing.
Identifying the fallen of USS Arizona.
Humans were controlling fire far earlier than we thought.
A particularly scary "close encounter."
The days of divorce by combat.
A murderer escapes from Death Row.
When the BBC banned the Beatles.
The ghosts of Mr. and Mrs. Huckleberry.
The "love poisoner."
The teenager who helped open up Japan.
Queen Victoria and the sultan's savage.
That's all for this week! See you on Monday, when we'll visit the wild, wild world of libelous tombstones. In the meantime, here's a fun bit of music history: Bob Dylan's first recorded live performance.
Isaac Newton surely isn't the only genius to have an eccentric side that made him seem a bit odd. This relates to the story of Clive, who was both hero and villain within a few years. People then seemed to have a hard time accepting that someone could have both good and bad qualities as much as people do now. The first Victoria Cross may seem to have gone to someone who didn't do much for it by later standards of the award - but there wasn't any other award to give him, as the article points out. As lower awards proliferate, the standards for winning the highest rise. And on the subject of rising, the inflation of Germany in the early 1920s has long fascinated me. I've read instances of foreigners being woken in hotels by waiters bringing breakfast - and a piece of chalk to print the new day's cost of the room on the blackboard over the bed. It's interesting that, in the article, it lists a glass of beer as costing thrice as much as a pound of potatoes...
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