"...we should pass over all biographies of 'the good and the great,' while we search carefully the slight records of wretches who died in prison, in Bedlam, or upon the gallows."
~Edgar Allan Poe

Friday, January 7, 2022

Weekend Link Dump

 

"The Witches' Cove," Follower of Jan Mandijn


Welcome to the first Link Dump of 2022!


Married at 15, (possibly) murdered at 20.

The Fairy Coffins of Arthur's Seat.  One of my favorite weird little mysteries.

Scientists are teaching goldfish to drive.  I still wouldn't trust them with my car keys.

Dogs can differentiate between human languages.  And I'm betting cats can speak them.

The first person to be killed in a railway accident.

China has an artificial sun that's hotter than the real thing.

The futility of trying to predict the future.  Man proposes, God disposes.

The imperfect marriage of John Quincy and Louisa Adams.

Domestic violence and an athlete's diet.

More about the curious goings-on between the U.S. Navy and UFOs.

"Living in sin" in Victorian Britain.

Some taverns of Old London.

Two daring medieval queens.

A significant moment in India's fight for independence from Britain.

The influence of two Dutch families on British history.

Some of the quirkier Good Samaritans.

Neanderthals may have explored a volcano.

An ancient pregnant mummy.

The unexpectedly popular pastime of stealing cremated human remains.

The ancient Jerusalem elite had a lot of health problems.

A look at female pirates.

Some newly-discovered structures near Machu Picchu.

The efforts to save an archaeological site in Iraq.

Eustace the Piratical Monk.

Australia's 6,000 year old fire.

So, let's talk shrunken heads.

Sleigh-riding in Old New York.

Imagine the humiliation of losing a race to a dead man.

The question of whether we should posthumously pardon witches.

Life in the London area of Pimlico, circa 1800.

In which we learn that caterpillars hate lots of noise.

The origins of "swear like a sailor."

An inventive constable sneaks a drink.

The evolution of red lipstick.

Mayan time-keeping.

The lost history of Yellowstone.

A legendary fabric that no one knows how to make anymore.

A 3,600 year old tsunami victim.

A 2,000 year old murder victim.

In praise of booze.

The largest known flying animal.

America's first "media murder."

An Elizabethan New Year.

That's all for this week!  See you on Monday, when we'll meet a particularly odd poltergeist.  In the meantime, here's a blast from the 1980s past.


1 comment:

  1. "Swearing like a sailor" I've heard, but also, "swearing like a navvie". I suspect that language in the past was much more polite than it is now, which is why certain groups gained a reputation for bad language. If usual talk wan't without obsenities, why would other milieus be singled out? I've read more than once that civilians never knew swearing until they became soldiers (during the bigger wars, for instance.)

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