Dillon
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Post by Dillon on May 4, 2015 15:17:38 GMT
TodayIFoundOut.com is a website that posts daily articles about knowledge that is usually pretty interesting. They have a daily newsletter that I subscribe to via email. I find the articles to be interesting, so I thought that I'd start sharing them here.
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Dillon
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Post by Dillon on May 4, 2015 15:28:50 GMT
WHAT IT MEANS FOR A SHOW TO BE SYNDICATED AND HOW THE PRACTICE GOT STARTED
Selling the right to broadcast a television or radio program to independent stations, syndication has enabled the modern system of 24/7 broadcasting by providing producers of content with a consistent revenue stream, and stations with enough programming to satisfy their eager audiences.
There are a variety of syndication types, including movie packages and public broadcasting, although perhaps the two most common, and lucrative, are first-run and off-network (re-runs). First-run syndication refers to shows that have never been aired previously and common examples today include Wheel of Fortune and Judge Judy.
Off-network syndication refers to shows that were first aired on network television, and are being broadcast again (aka: re-run); common examples today include The Big Bang Theory and Modern Family. Note that when these programs were first aired by the networks, they were shown through either stations that were owned-and-operated by the network (O&O) or network affiliates, with which the network has a special contractual agreement that covers programming as well as other issues.
So how did this system get setup? Syndication of entertainment programs has been around since the 1930s, when syndicated radio shows were being distributed throughout the United States. These first radio programs were distributed on transcription disks (similar to old LPs, but with higher audio quality for broadcast). This format was eventually replaced by phonograph records, then tape recordings, cassettes and CDs, and while the practice of buying and selling radio shows is ongoing, today they are likely to be downloaded.
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In any event, early popular syndicated radio shows included The Chevrolet Chronicles and the wildly popular Amos ‘n’ Andy. A cultural phenomenon at the start of the Great Depression, the 15 minute show aired six nights each week and boasted upwards of 40 million listeners. Throughout the 1940s, syndicated radio shows remained popular due in no small part to programs such as The Adventures of Superman, which ran through 1949. (And if you’re curious about how Superman’s curious underwear choices started, see: Why Superheroes Wear Their Underwear on the Outside) While televisions were made and some limited television broadcasting was done in the late 1930s, large-scale, commercial broadcasting didn’t appear in the United States until the late 1940s. Taking a page out of radio stations’ books, independent televisions stations soon realized they were desperate for additional programming to fill the hours in between their original productions. Capitalizing on that need was Frederick Ziv, who had cut his teeth in advertising in the 1930s, developing slogans for the burgeoning radio market, including “The Freshest Thing in Town,” for Cincinnati’s Rubel’s Bakery. The ad campaign was so popular that Ziv was able to transform it into a full-fledged, 15 minute, five-day each week radio program, which he soon syndicated across the South and Midwest. Realizing he had found a new market, within a decade Ziv had built a successful syndication company, selling shows such as Favorite Story and Bold Venture, this last starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, to stations across North America. Jumping with both feet into the fledgling television syndication market, Ziv’s first television show, Fireside Theatre began airing in 1949. It was soon followed by others including Easy Aces (1949-1950),The Cisco Kid (1950-1956), I Led Three Lives (1953-1956) Highway Patrol (1955-1959), Whirlybirds (1957-1960), Bat Masterson (1958-1961) and Sea Hunt (1958-1961). With such a large and early contribution to syndication, it is no wonder Frederick Ziv earned the moniker, the “father of syndicated television.” Over the years, syndication has become even more popular, and lucrative, and those in the highest demand in recent years include NFL regular season games, The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, Judge Judy, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. Between the two game shows alone they average more than 22 million viewers daily which helps to explain why they are among the longest-running syndicated shows in history. Another notable syndicated champion is Seinfeld. Between 1998 and 2013, Seinfeld has generated more than $3 billion in syndication fees, and its co-creators, Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, themselves have each raked in as much as $400 million from selling the show as re-runs. There appears no end in sight either; only a few days ago, Hulu announced it had acquired the online streaming rights for the show, with a deal valued at around $1 million per episode (a total of 180 episodes). Note that programs that are still in first-run can be syndicated as well once they reach the 85-100 episode threshold; for example, Modern Family recently went into syndication on USA, costing the network $1.4 million per episode. Syndicating a current show can offer other benefits as well. After the popular show, The Big Bang Theory, went into syndication, its audience for first run episodes rose by 21%.
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Dillon
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Post by Dillon on May 5, 2015 15:27:59 GMT
THE REMARKABLE LANCET LIVER FLUKE
Making zombies of ants, Swiss cheese of snails and Sherpas of sheep and cows, the lancet liver fluke proves that you don’t need to be big to be powerful.
Growing up to 10 mm by 2.5 mm (0.5 x 0.1 inches), Dicrocoelium dendriticum is a parasitic flatworm (also known as a trematode) that begins life as eggs living in the poop of (generally) cows or sheep. Shortly after being deposited, the eggs are ingested by a snail (such as Zebrina spp. or Cionella spp.) where they hatch into larva (miracidia). In this form they burrow through the snail’s gut and rest in its connective tissue where they develop into a second larval stage (sporocysts). Now they move to the digestive gland where they bear female sporocysts, that themselves produce yet another larval stage (cercariae). These last travel to the snail’s respiration chamber from which the snail finally rids itself of the parasite when it exits as a slime ball.
As appetizing as that sounds, it’s no wonder that an ant (such as Formica fusca) will soon wander by and eat it. Once in the ant’s intestine, the cercariae are released from the ball and most migrate to the ant’s main body cavity (hemocoel) where they transform into a fourth larval stage (metacercariae).
However, one evil genius metacercaria does not join its siblings in the ant’s hemocoel, but rather travels to a cluster of nerve cells (sub-esophageal ganglion), where it “takes control of the ant’s actions by manipulating these nerves.” When night falls, the metacercaria then directs the ant to climb to the top of a blade of grass, where it stays until the morning; the ant will repeat this nightly ritual (at the behest of its puppet master) until it is eaten by a grazing animal.
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The fluke has now reached the body where it will finally mature (called the primary or definitive host). It makes its way from the animal’s small intestine to its bile duct, where it reproduces and makes eggs, the latter of which are pooped by the animal into the field to start the cycle all over again. D. dendriticum is found throughout the world and although it primarily infects sheep, cows, snails and ants, it has been known to inhabit pigs, goats, alpacas and llamas. In fact, while rare, human infections are not unknown, with the flukes infesting human bile ducts. Usually those infected suffer from only mild symptoms include bloating and diarrhea, although some suffer from enlargement of the lining of the bile ducts (biliary epithelium) that, along with a growth of fibrous tissue, can cause the liver to swell (hepatomegaly) and cirrhosis. Note that human infection is extremely rare, as you might imagine given the way one would have to acquire the parasite. For instance, one documented case happened only after a man drank water that had infected ants in it. Regardless, you have to hand it to the lancet liver fluke that, during the course of its life, commonly forces three different animals to do its bidding, and completely bends the ant to its will. As another tiny powerhouse once said, “Judge me by my size, do you? And well you should not.”
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Post by Monet ♥ on May 5, 2015 21:53:41 GMT
This is awesome. Thanks for this thread.
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thyarchery
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Post by thyarchery on May 6, 2015 22:35:49 GMT
Lol, when I read it I first thought of South Park because the typical ending of a chapter is one of the boys (usually Stan or Kyle) saying "I learnt something today" or "Today I found out something" or something along those lines. But after reading it, I think it's great. Thanks for sharing!
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Dillon
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Post by Dillon on May 7, 2015 3:59:13 GMT
KITS AND CABOODLESMeaning a complete collection of a set of related things, the curious expression the “whole kit and caboodle” has part of its origin in military life. In the 1785 version of his A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, Francis Grose gives us the first mention of the word “kit” with this meaning, as well as the phrase “the whole kit”: Kit, itself, is an older word, seen in use as far back as the late 1200s, and it originally meant a round wooden tub. It was derived, perhaps, from the Middle Dutch kitte, which meant alternately a jug, tankard or wooden container. Caboodle was a more recent invention, first seen around the mid-1800s, although most authorities believe it was derived from the earlier word boodle, which entered the language around 1830. Boodle has several denotations including “phony money,” “graft money,” and “bribe money” as well as “a large amount especially of money;” it also means a collection of people, as one early usage, found in The Journal of American Folklore (1829), demonstrates: “He . . . turnd out the hol boodle of um.” Another early reference can be found in the 1833 Down Easters where its author, J. Neal, wrote: “I know a feller twould whip the whool boodle of ‘em an’ give ‘em six.” Thought to derive either from the English word bundle or the Dutch boedel (meaning property), as with caboodle, boodle originated in America. The definition of caboodle, when standing alone, is generally limited to meaning a collection of people. Its earliest known usage can be found in the December 16, 1848 edition of the Wisconsin Democrat: “It is no use to be a ‘Son,’ it’s no use to be a whig, it’s no use to be nothin’, – I’ll cut the whole caboodle.” It also appeared in the Ohio State Journal that same year as, “The whole caboodle will act upon the recommendation of the Ohio Sun.” When used together with kit, it can denote a collection of things as well, and this meaning dates to the 1860s, where boodle, caboodle and kaboodle were used interchangeably. For example, in 1864, the expression was found in Theodore Winthrop’s John Brent: “Then you’re jess one quarter richer ‘n ef you owned haff, and jess three quarters richer ‘n ef you owned the hull kit and boodle of it.” By the 1880s, New York’s The Dunkirk Observer-Journal discussed the phrase’s origins: “‘The whole kit and boodle of them’ is a New England expression in common use, and the word in this sense means the whole lot.” Finally, together in the modern spelling, kit and caboodle, was first seen in print in 1884 in New York’s Syracuse Sunday Standard: “More audiences have been disappointed by him and by the whole kit-and-caboodle of his rivals.” It’s generally thought that version of the expression survived over the others simply because of the rhythmic alliteration.
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Dillon
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Post by Dillon on May 8, 2015 2:09:20 GMT
THE AMAZING TARDIGRADE- THE TOUGHEST KNOWN CREATURE ON EARTH AND BEYOND May 7, 2015It is surely the stuff of science fiction: An extraordinary being arrives on Earth that can withstand a tortuous array of conditions: boiling, freezing, tremendous atmospheric pressure, near total dehydration, and exposure to massive amounts of ionizing radiation. While many joke that “cockroaches would be the only thing to survive an extreme global nuclear war”, in fact, cockroaches would not. These creatures would. They are also the only life form known to be able to survive the near vacuum of space for extended periods. (Note: humans can actually survive the near vacuum of space for about 90 seconds without long term damage, but we have nothing on this creature.) They can lie dormant for 10-100 years and then come back to life with a drop of water. When it comes to durability, nothing on Earth can match the very real “Water Bear”- a tiny creature the size of a grain of sand (averaging about a millimeter long) that is often lauded as the toughest creature on planet Earth.
There are over 1000 known species of Water Bears (called such because when they walk, their gait loosely resembles plump little bears ambling along on eight legs). Also known as “tardigrades” (from the Latin “tardigradus” meaning ‘slow walker’), they thrive in the most extreme environments on every corner of the Earth- from the Equator to the Polar regions- forests, swamps, deserts, tundras, mountains, glaciers, hot springs- from the highest point on Earth
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along the Himalayan mountain range, to the deepest parts of the sea, tardigrades are there. Less excitingly, they can also be found in your backyard where you can usually find them in common moss, lichens and ferns, feeding on natural detritus in the undergrowth. Although the scientific community has long known about tardigrades (since 1773), it is still somewhat of a mystery how they manage the amazing feat of cryptobiosis, that is, the ability to almost completely halt their metabolic processes, losing up to 97%-99% of their total moisture. When they then encounter water again, they reanimate, with the current record being 120 years to reanimation (though that particular creature simply moved a little and then died when reanimated. But when we go to spans such as 10 years, most tardigrades are able to fully reanimate with no problem.) One of the keys to this hardy creature’s success seems to be the presence of a cellular sugar called trehalose which preserves the membranes that form their bodies. Although hardly the answer to human suspended animation, scientists are looking at trehalose as a viable way to preserve human eggs during freezing for later fertilization. In any event, when tardigrades dry up, they become “tuns”, little capsules that are easily transported and dispersed over the Earth via the wind, the oceans, or in an animal’s gut. (Yes, they can sometimes survive there too.) Besides their dehydration abilities, these little creatures can also go without oxygen for a time and withstand temperatures ranging from well above water’s boiling point to nearly absolute zero. (They’ve been shown to be able to survive as low as 1 degree above absolute zero for several minutes.) Not remarkable enough for you? Tardigrades can also survive as high as 5,000 grays or 500,000 rads of ionizing radiation, though above 100,000 rads does seem to make them sterile. For reference, humans die around a “mere” 1,000-2,000 rads and will suffer significant damage with much less. In order to test some of the tardigrade’s amazing abilities, in 2007, the European Space Agency launched the FOTON-M3 spacecraft hurtling a capsule full of science experiments into the heavens. Its subjects included live tardigrades, who returned from space after orbiting Earth for 12 days, all the while being subjected to the near vacuum of space and the full spectra of deadly solar and cosmic radiation. How did the Water Bears hold up? No problem for a large percentage of them. About 68% of them were just fine and kept on amblin’ once back on Earth. For reference, besides surviving the near vacuum of space, some species of tardigrade can also withstand up to 6,000 times atmospheric pressure at sea level. This is about 6 times more pressure than at the deepest point in the ocean. I, for one, welcome our new tardigrade overlords.
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Dillon
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Post by Dillon on May 8, 2015 2:45:28 GMT
WHAT ARE GOOSE BUMPS? May 7, 2015A holdover from an earlier stage in our evolution, goose bumps are a function of the autonomic nervous system reacting to a primal threat. Technically, the phenomenon is called the pilomotor reflex, and occurs when the arrector pili muscle, which runs between the base of a hair follicle and the outer layer of skin, contracts.
In the absence of cold or danger, the hair extending from the follicle comes out at a shallow angle, such that it rests (or nearly so) against the skin. When stress is encountered (either cold temperatures, a threat, or a time where your emotions are going a little haywire, such as when walking down the aisle during your wedding), messages are sent through the nervous system to nerve endings that trigger the arrector pili muscles. These in turn contract, pulling the bulb of the hair follicle toward it, and the adjacent outer layer of skin; this results not only in the characteristic bump on the surface of the skin, but causes the hair to stand on end.
Note how, for an animal living a more primitive existence than the modern human, this would be a benefit. As the hair stands on end, if as a result of cold, it provides more insulation to the body below by trapping a thicker layer of air between your skin and the elements – ameliorating the problem. Likewise, if the hair stands on end as the result of a threat, the puffed up hair makes the animal appear larger and more threatening, and thus helps ward off potential attackers.
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Of course, a variety of animals experience this involuntary reaction, and for those of us who own a tom cat who lives outside, it’s not uncommon to see them become remarkably bushy if stuck out there in the cold rain or when faced with an aggressive foe. Obviously, humans no longer need this reaction as our clothing and weapons satisfy these needs, and we really don’t have all that much hair anymore to make this physiological response useful… well, most of us, anyway; as such, at least for these purposes, goose bumps are considered a vestigial trait. And if you’re curious as to why this physiological response is called by this particular name, the word, goosebumps, dates back to 1859 and was coined due to the similarity between human skin in the midst of an attack and that of the skin of a freshly plucked goose. Earlier iterations of this same idea were known as goose-flesh from the early 1800s and goose-skin or goose’s skin from the late 1700s.
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Dillon
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Post by Dillon on May 9, 2015 4:33:55 GMT
THE ORIGIN OF THE MALE AND FEMALE SYMBOLS May 8, 2015 Representing two planets, iron, copper and a couple of Olympian gods, the classical symbols for male and female pack a lot of meaning into a few squiggly lines. The symbols themselves are ancient, and the associations they make date back to the dawn of civilization. The ancients, after observing how the movements of heavenly bodies like the Sun and planets heralded a corresponding change in events on our planet, eventually came to believe that there was a causal relationship. Logically, then, ancient scholars began to study the heavens in order to better predict, and prepare for, the future. They also came to associate different heavenly bodies with their powerful gods- Mercury, Venus, Mars, Zeus (Jupiter) and Cronus (Saturn).
Each heavenly body, along with its god, was also associated with a particular metal. So, for example, the Sun (Helios) was associated with gold (note: in truth, the Sun is white in the human visual spectrum, not yellow); Mars (in Greek, Thouros) was associated with the hard, red metal used to make weapons, iron; and Venus (in Greek, Phosphorus) with the softer metal that can turn green, copper. Writing about these metals, the Greeks would refer to them by their respective gods’ names, and then as now, these were spelled with a combination of letters; after awhile, a type of shorthand arose; for example, relevant to Mars (Thouros) and Venus (Phosphorus):
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In medieval times, European alchemists relied on these shorthand symbols, which were retained through the Enlightenment and used by such notables as Carolus Linnaeus (the father of modern taxonomy who made binomial nomenclature popular), to refer to such metals in his 1735 work Systema Naturae. Linnaeus was also the first to use these signs in a biological context in his dissertation Plantae hybridae (1751), where he used the symbol for Venus to denote a female parent of a hybrid plant and the symbol for Mars to denote a male parent. Linnaeus continued to use the symbols for the purpose of distinguishing male and female, and by 1753’s Species Plantarum, he was using the symbols freely. Following in Linnaeus’ footsteps, other botanists incorporated the symbolism, as did scientists from other fields including zoology, human biology and, eventually, genetics. Modern geneticists no longer use these familiar symbols and instead rely on a square (for male) and circle (for female): This symbolism was developed by Pliny Earle, a doctor with the Bloomingdale Asylum for the Insane in New York in 1845 while explaining the inheritance of color blindness: While it is not entirely clear why Earle deviated from the classical symbols, one explanation was later given by Royal Society Member, Edward Nettleship, who claimed that Earle had been “unable to get any printer’s symbols capable of use . . . except those employed in printing music.”
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StrongSweet
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Post by StrongSweet on May 9, 2015 11:36:14 GMT
thank you !!!
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Dillon
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Post by Dillon on May 12, 2015 16:04:18 GMT
THE LEGEND OF THE GREEN MAN May 11, 2015According to legend passed down by residents in Western Pennsylvania, you can spot a mysterious “Green Man” walking alongside the road late at night or in a local tunnel where his touch will disrupt a car’s electrical systems. His trademark disfigured face and glowing green skin are said to be the result of an electrical accident. One version of the story says he was struck by lightning, and another claims he worked on the railroad as a laborer until an electrical accident killed him.
While sometimes urban legends are based on nothing but complete fiction, occasionally there is a kernel of truth to the stories, albeit with more fantastical details added over the years. This is one of the latter. You see, the legend of the Green Man, also known as “Charlie No Face,” is based on a real person who suffered a horrific accident as a child.
Raymond Robinson was born on October 29, 1910. He had a normal childhood until he was eight years old. It was then that Ray decided to make a fateful climb in June of 1919. Ray and his friends were out playing when they noticed a bird’s nest on a railroad bridge spanning Wallace Run in Big Beaver, Pennsylvania. There are conflicting accounts on whether Ray was dared to climb up to see if there were any birds in the nest or not. According to the Beaver Falls Evening Tribune, it was Ray who instigated the challenge, with his friends chickening out.
You see, in September the year before, a twelve year old boy, Robert Littell, had also climbed around on the bridge and was killed after coming in contact with one of the electrical lines on the structure. Ray and his friends reportedly knew of the accident, but he decided to risk it anyway.
When Ray scrambled up to check in the bird’s nest, he touched one of the electric lines, though which isn’t clear. According to Bill Fronczek, who researched the Harmony Line for the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, the main transmission line in question carried approximately 22,000 volts of AC electricity. There was also a second line that powered the Ellwood City/Beaver Falls daily trolley that carried approximately 1,200 volts DC.
Whichever line he touched, Ray ended up with severe burns on his upper chest, lost both of his eyes, part of an ear, his nose, and an arm below the elbow, as well as had the area around his mouth severely disfigured. Unlike Robert Littell, though, Ray survived his injuries in spite of the doctors’ and local newspapers’ predictions that he would die. Remarkably, just two months after the accident, not only was he alive and
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relatively well, the Daily Times reported on August 16, 1919, “In spite of all his affliction, the boy is in good humor.” This is something that became a defining personality trait, even into adulthood. As one of his nephews later stated in an interview, “He never complained about anything.” Ray returned home after a lengthy stay at the hospital. His family cared for him, and the boy grew to be a man. As an adult, he enjoyed sitting for hours listening to the radio to pass the time. For money, he made door mats and leather goods, such as wallets and belts, to sell. Apart from doing chores like mowing the lawn (something he reportedly did reasonably well considering his lack of eyes), going out in public during the day was something he generally avoided. A prosthetic nose attached to a pair of glasses helped give him a semblance of a normal appearance, but Ray still attracted a lot of, sometimes negative, attention whenever he went out. But he still enjoyed walking wooded hiking trails, keeping one foot on the path and one off to find his way, and using a walking stick to make sure he didn’t run into anything. Eventually a coal company destroyed the trail near his house, so when the weather was favorable, Ray developed a habit of walking Route 351 between Koppel and New Galilee, PA at night. This was much to the chagrin of his mother, Louise Robinson, and family as he often stayed out well past midnight. Walking at night without light wasn’t any trouble, of course, because for him the world was always dark. To find his way, similar to the wooded trails, he would keep one foot on the road and one foot off. The legend of the “Green Man” began circulating around the 1950s when drivers spotted Ray during his walks along the side of the road. Locals believe the name “Green Man” originated from the green shirts Ray reportedly occasionally wore out on his walks. However, it should be noted that locals more commonly called him “Charlie No Face.” It was those from outlying areas that called him “Green Man.” As his legend grew, teenagers and other thrill-seekers began setting out at night to find the so-called Green Man. As a result, and the fact that some seeking him out were none-to-kind when they found him, Ray often hid in the bushes and trees alongside the road if he heard a car coming. But not always. He occasionally agreed to let passersby take his picture in exchange for cigarettes or beer. (A fact his family did not appreciate, as he would sometimes get drunk from this and get lost, with it not generally being easy to find him if he wandered away from the road.) He even chatted with people who took the time to get to know him. His family thought this might be the reason he seemed to enjoy the late night walks so much, being a fairly lonely person. More than a few people noted Ray’s kindness. Late former resident John Maranciak told an interviewer of his experience coming across Ray.Ray’s nighttime walks became fewer and far between as he aged. Then they stopped completely in the 1980s when he moved into the Beaver County Geriatric Center. He died there of natural causes at the age of 74, on June 11, 1985.
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Dillon
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Post by Dillon on May 12, 2015 16:43:50 GMT
THE MYSTERY OF THE FOREST SWASTIKA AND THE ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOL May 12, 2015Being an intern at a German landscaping company during 1992 meant Ökoland Dederow was handed the tedious task of looking through aerial photographs for irrigation lines in a forest located in East Germany. During the course of this, Dederow came across something that definitely was not an irrigation line in photo 106/88. Approximately 140 larch trees in the middle of forest of green pine trees had turned brown in the autumn, forming a large swastika. He immediately showed the picture to his boss, Günter Reschke, who chartered a plane to take him over the section of forest and saw the symbol with his own eyes.
The forest swastika in Brandenburg, Germany most likely had been around since the 1930s, based on estimates of the age of the trees. Why did it take more than a half a century for anyone to discover it? One factor was that the larch trees only changed color, making the swastika visible, for a short period of time in the fall. The other factor was that the symbol can only be seen from the air and private planes were for a time banned from flying over the region. Any commercial planes flying over the area would have been too high for the passengers or pilots to see this.
No one knows who bears responsibility for the forest swastika in Brandenburg. A number of rumors surfaced shortly after Dederow discovered the symbol. One possible explanation places the blame on nearby villagers. One of their own was caught listening to a BBC radio broadcast in secret and ultimately sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp for this act. The story goes that the villagers then planted the trees in the shape of a swastika to show their loyalty to the Nazi Party. One more version claims the planting occurred in honor of Hitler’s birthday when a local Nazi leader ordered it done. Alternatively, a newspaper, the Berliner Zeitung, wrote that the Reich Labor Service constructed a road in a nearby village and the trees were planted in gratitude for this road.
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Whoever really planted it, the forest swastika in Brandenburg is not the only one discovered in Germany after World War II. National Socialist foresters commonly created swastikas via planting trees during the Nazi regime, many of which have only been discovered relatively recently. For instance, in the 1970s, United States soldiers in Hesse discovered such a swastika and the numbers “1933” on a hillside. Another such swastika was discovered in Hesse during the 1980s, and a backwards swastika constructed of Douglas firs was found in Wiesbaden in 2000. Three years after Dederow discovered the Brandenburg swastika, in 1995, the local German officials took action. Foresters armed with chainsaws cut down forty of the larch trees and reported back to their superiors that the symbol was no longer recognizable. However, a picture published in 2000 showed the foresters had been wrong. Those larches that remained after they cut others down filled in the spots left open, allowing the trees to still form the symbol, albeit slightly frayed, when they changed to yellow and then brown. Officials in Brandenburg worried that if the swastika remained in the forest, it would become a pilgrimage site for Neo-Nazis. They also wanted to avoid a situation where the stumps were left behind and continued to show a swastika-shaped outline between the trees. To get around these issues, they planned to remove all the trees in that section of the forest, but ran into legal issues in doing so as the ownership of some of the land was in dispute. In the end, the Bodenverwertungs- und -verwaltungs GmbH (BVVG), the federal entity in charge of property management, only granted a permit to cut down twenty-five of the remaining trees. Foresters again headed to the tree swastika on December 4, 2000; they strategically marked and cut down twenty-five trees ensuring the swastika would no longer appear from the air. This all might have you wondering how the Nazis came up with the swastika in the first place. It turns out, the Nazis weren’t the first to use this symbol prominently. The first known record of this symbol popping up was over 12,000 years ago in the region of present day Ukraine, with a version of the swastika carved into a tusk of a mammoth. As we traverse through history, we find the swastika, or some version of it, was prevalent pretty much all over the world in a remarkable number of cultures- from the Navajo and Hopi Native Americans (among others) to the Celts, the Jews, the early Christians, the Indus Valley Civilization, the ancient Greek and Romans, the Egyptians, etc. How is this possible? Some of it can be explained by cultural diffusion. Beyond that, it has been theorized that the swastika shape would necessarily be something any society that weaves baskets would be familiar with as, when weaving baskets via a square weave, this basic shape is readily apparent. An alternative possible origin was put forth by Carl Sagan in 1985. He noted in his book, Comet, when studying a Chinese text from the Han dynasty (second century BC) that included drawn comet tails, one of the depictions showed a comet with a tail that had four bent arms, strongly resembling a swastika. Sagan theorized that a comet, or comets over time, could have approached so close to the Earth that the jets of gas streaming from the spinning comet(s), could form these arms, making the swastika shape in the sky and thus leading to the adoption of the swastika as a symbol of importance across the world almost literally overnight. So why did the Nazi’s use the swastika? Heinrich Schliemann found the symbol in the site of ancient Troy in the late 19th century. He theorized that the symbol thus linked the Greek and Germanic cultures as this symbol was also often found on ancient Germanic pottery. The work of Schliemann eventually was used by the völkisch movement, which in turn ultimately influenced Nazism. As Hitler later stated in Mein Kampf, “The basic ideas of the National-Socialist movement are populist (völkisch) and the populist (völkisch) ideas are National-Socialist.” At this time, partially thanks to Schliemann’s work, the symbol experienced something of a resurgence across the Western world. For instance, the picture to the right shows famed American aviator Matilde E. Moisant (the second woman in the U.S. to receive a pilot’s license after Harriet Quimby) in 1912 wearing a version of the symbol as a good luck charm, which is also why certain sports teams, such as the British Columbian Fernie Swastikas women’s hockey team used it in the early 20th century. (In fact, the name “swastika” derives from the Sanskrit “svastika-s,” meaning “being fortunate.”) The swastika was also still a commonly used symbol at this time among various groups of Native Americans, with it having slightly different meanings depending on the group. In any event, Hitler was familiar with the symbol, thinking it connected Ancient Greece to the Germanic peoples as Schliemann had theorized. Whether he remembered it later in life or not, Hitler likely first encountered it as a boy at the Benedictine choir school at Lambach Abbey, Upper Austria, which Hitler attended when a child. The school had a swastika chiseled into the monastery portal and also in the wall above the spring grotto in the courtyard. Hitler stated of why the symbol was chosen for the Nazi flag, among other design elements, “I myself, meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form; a flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black swastika in the middle. After long trials I also found a definite proportion between the size of the flag and the size of the white disk, as well as the shape and thickness of the swastika…” “Those revered colors expressive of our homage to the glorious past and which once brought so much honor to the German nation…” “As National Socialists, we see our program in our flag. In red, we see the social idea of the movement; in white, the nationalistic idea; in the swastika, the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work.” Given the Nazi’s usurping of this once ubiquitously symbol, today it’s firmly taboo outside of regions where Jainism, Hinduism and Buddhism (although with slightly different orientations) particularly are prominent. Needless to say, this has on occasion created a bit of cross-cultural misunderstandings in the ensuing decades, such as in 1999 when a 10 year old from New York bought Pokémon cards imported from Japan that contained the Buddhist version of the symbol on two of the cards in the set. This created quite a stir when the media got a hold of the story after the parents filed a complaint with the company, with many misinterpreting the symbol. Ultimately, the manufacturer removed those cards from the sets exported to North America to avoid further misunderstandings.
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thyarchery
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Post by thyarchery on May 15, 2015 12:06:57 GMT
THE MYSTERY OF THE FOREST SWASTIKA AND THE ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOL May 12, 2015Being an intern at a German landscaping company during 1992 meant Ökoland Dederow was handed the tedious task of looking through aerial photographs for irrigation lines in a forest located in East Germany. During the course of this, Dederow came across something that definitely was not an irrigation line in photo 106/88. Approximately 140 larch trees in the middle of forest of green pine trees had turned brown in the autumn, forming a large swastika. He immediately showed the picture to his boss, Günter Reschke, who chartered a plane to take him over the section of forest and saw the symbol with his own eyes.
The forest swastika in Brandenburg, Germany most likely had been around since the 1930s, based on estimates of the age of the trees. Why did it take more than a half a century for anyone to discover it? One factor was that the larch trees only changed color, making the swastika visible, for a short period of time in the fall. The other factor was that the symbol can only be seen from the air and private planes were for a time banned from flying over the region. Any commercial planes flying over the area would have been too high for the passengers or pilots to see this.
No one knows who bears responsibility for the forest swastika in Brandenburg. A number of rumors surfaced shortly after Dederow discovered the symbol. One possible explanation places the blame on nearby villagers. One of their own was caught listening to a BBC radio broadcast in secret and ultimately sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp for this act. The story goes that the villagers then planted the trees in the shape of a swastika to show their loyalty to the Nazi Party. One more version claims the planting occurred in honor of Hitler’s birthday when a local Nazi leader ordered it done. Alternatively, a newspaper, the Berliner Zeitung, wrote that the Reich Labor Service constructed a road in a nearby village and the trees were planted in gratitude for this road.
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Whoever really planted it, the forest swastika in Brandenburg is not the only one discovered in Germany after World War II. National Socialist foresters commonly created swastikas via planting trees during the Nazi regime, many of which have only been discovered relatively recently. For instance, in the 1970s, United States soldiers in Hesse discovered such a swastika and the numbers “1933” on a hillside. Another such swastika was discovered in Hesse during the 1980s, and a backwards swastika constructed of Douglas firs was found in Wiesbaden in 2000. Three years after Dederow discovered the Brandenburg swastika, in 1995, the local German officials took action. Foresters armed with chainsaws cut down forty of the larch trees and reported back to their superiors that the symbol was no longer recognizable. However, a picture published in 2000 showed the foresters had been wrong. Those larches that remained after they cut others down filled in the spots left open, allowing the trees to still form the symbol, albeit slightly frayed, when they changed to yellow and then brown. Officials in Brandenburg worried that if the swastika remained in the forest, it would become a pilgrimage site for Neo-Nazis. They also wanted to avoid a situation where the stumps were left behind and continued to show a swastika-shaped outline between the trees. To get around these issues, they planned to remove all the trees in that section of the forest, but ran into legal issues in doing so as the ownership of some of the land was in dispute. In the end, the Bodenverwertungs- und -verwaltungs GmbH (BVVG), the federal entity in charge of property management, only granted a permit to cut down twenty-five of the remaining trees. Foresters again headed to the tree swastika on December 4, 2000; they strategically marked and cut down twenty-five trees ensuring the swastika would no longer appear from the air. This all might have you wondering how the Nazis came up with the swastika in the first place. It turns out, the Nazis weren’t the first to use this symbol prominently. The first known record of this symbol popping up was over 12,000 years ago in the region of present day Ukraine, with a version of the swastika carved into a tusk of a mammoth. As we traverse through history, we find the swastika, or some version of it, was prevalent pretty much all over the world in a remarkable number of cultures- from the Navajo and Hopi Native Americans (among others) to the Celts, the Jews, the early Christians, the Indus Valley Civilization, the ancient Greek and Romans, the Egyptians, etc. How is this possible? Some of it can be explained by cultural diffusion. Beyond that, it has been theorized that the swastika shape would necessarily be something any society that weaves baskets would be familiar with as, when weaving baskets via a square weave, this basic shape is readily apparent. An alternative possible origin was put forth by Carl Sagan in 1985. He noted in his book, Comet, when studying a Chinese text from the Han dynasty (second century BC) that included drawn comet tails, one of the depictions showed a comet with a tail that had four bent arms, strongly resembling a swastika. Sagan theorized that a comet, or comets over time, could have approached so close to the Earth that the jets of gas streaming from the spinning comet(s), could form these arms, making the swastika shape in the sky and thus leading to the adoption of the swastika as a symbol of importance across the world almost literally overnight. So why did the Nazi’s use the swastika? Heinrich Schliemann found the symbol in the site of ancient Troy in the late 19th century. He theorized that the symbol thus linked the Greek and Germanic cultures as this symbol was also often found on ancient Germanic pottery. The work of Schliemann eventually was used by the völkisch movement, which in turn ultimately influenced Nazism. As Hitler later stated in Mein Kampf, “The basic ideas of the National-Socialist movement are populist (völkisch) and the populist (völkisch) ideas are National-Socialist.” At this time, partially thanks to Schliemann’s work, the symbol experienced something of a resurgence across the Western world. For instance, the picture to the right shows famed American aviator Matilde E. Moisant (the second woman in the U.S. to receive a pilot’s license after Harriet Quimby) in 1912 wearing a version of the symbol as a good luck charm, which is also why certain sports teams, such as the British Columbian Fernie Swastikas women’s hockey team used it in the early 20th century. (In fact, the name “swastika” derives from the Sanskrit “svastika-s,” meaning “being fortunate.”) The swastika was also still a commonly used symbol at this time among various groups of Native Americans, with it having slightly different meanings depending on the group. In any event, Hitler was familiar with the symbol, thinking it connected Ancient Greece to the Germanic peoples as Schliemann had theorized. Whether he remembered it later in life or not, Hitler likely first encountered it as a boy at the Benedictine choir school at Lambach Abbey, Upper Austria, which Hitler attended when a child. The school had a swastika chiseled into the monastery portal and also in the wall above the spring grotto in the courtyard. Hitler stated of why the symbol was chosen for the Nazi flag, among other design elements, “I myself, meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form; a flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black swastika in the middle. After long trials I also found a definite proportion between the size of the flag and the size of the white disk, as well as the shape and thickness of the swastika…” “Those revered colors expressive of our homage to the glorious past and which once brought so much honor to the German nation…” “As National Socialists, we see our program in our flag. In red, we see the social idea of the movement; in white, the nationalistic idea; in the swastika, the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work.” Given the Nazi’s usurping of this once ubiquitously symbol, today it’s firmly taboo outside of regions where Jainism, Hinduism and Buddhism (although with slightly different orientations) particularly are prominent. Needless to say, this has on occasion created a bit of cross-cultural misunderstandings in the ensuing decades, such as in 1999 when a 10 year old from New York bought Pokémon cards imported from Japan that contained the Buddhist version of the symbol on two of the cards in the set. This created quite a stir when the media got a hold of the story after the parents filed a complaint with the company, with many misinterpreting the symbol. Ultimately, the manufacturer removed those cards from the sets exported to North America to avoid further misunderstandings. I've always thought that swastikas are a very beautiful geometric composition that had the misfortune to be used as the symbol of the nazi party, even if it had been used for far more pacific purposes for centuries. In my country, for example, there are some really old churches with swastikas depicted as symbols of the sun because of Jesus being "the world's light".
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Dillon
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Post by Dillon on May 15, 2015 19:02:30 GMT
I've always thought that swastikas are a very beautiful geometric composition that had the misfortune to be used as the symbol of the nazi party, even if it had been used for far more pacific purposes for centuries. In my country, for example, there are some really old churches with swastikas depicted as symbols of the sun because of Jesus being "the world's light". Yeah, it's a shame that the Nazis associated the symbol with such a horrible event and idea. Although the symbol is still used with its original meaning in several cultures, I don't think the cultures/countries involved in WWII will ever be able to see the symbol without associating it with the Nazis and the horrible things they did. Its mostly cultures outside of those involved in WWII who still use the symbol as it was meant to be used.
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Dillon
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Post by Dillon on May 15, 2015 19:03:40 GMT
ROGER COURTNEY AND A WATERY GAMBLE - THE ESTABLISHING OF THE SBS May 13, 2015Described by the BBC as the “Shadowy sister of the SAS”, The Special Boat Service (more commonly known as the SBS) is likely one of the most well-trained and elite special forces units around today that few in the world have ever heard of, despite performing countless harrowing missions, dozens of hostage rescues and more than its fair share of daring night time raids going all the way back to WWII when an officer by the name of Roger “Jumbo” Courtney risked a court-martial to demonstrate to his superiors just how valuable a unit like the SBS could be.
Little is documented about Courtney’s life prior to his military service in WWII other than that he was an avid big game hunter and adventurer in Africa for a number of years. This is particularly important to the story at hand as he often regaled his fellow soldiers with stories about hunting lions and other big game in a canoe.
When Courtney heard about the outbreak of WWII, he returned to Scotland and enlisted in the military; sometime in 1940, he began serving with the now defunct No 8 Guards unit. Almost as soon as he became a commando with the No 8’s, Courtney managed to score a meeting with the Admiral of the Fleet, Roger Keyes. In the meeting, Courtney tried to sell the sceptical Admiral on the benefit of using canoes to quite literally “hunt Germans”. He argued that small, collapsible canoes could be used to silently sneak where powered boats could not. Keyes summarily dismissed Courtney’s proposal, stating that canoes were better suited for the boy scouts than the army. | |
Undeterred by Admiral Keyes’ lack of vision, Courtney arranged for a meeting with another high-ranking military official, Admiral Theodore Hallett, in the hopes that he would see the benefit of the proposal. Like Keyes, Hallett dismissed Courtney’s idea outright. Frustrated with how quick his superiors had been to dismiss his proposal, Courtney, later described by Major David Sutherland as “a hard-drinking white hunter with a big line of bullshit and a persuasive tongue”, came to the conclusion that the only way to prove that his idea could work was to put it into practise. Four days after his failed meeting with Admiral Hallett, Courtney silently paddled a canoe along the River Clyde and stealthily climbed aboard the HMS Glengyle. Once aboard, Courtney sneaked his way to the Captain’s quarters and scribbled his initials on the door. Just for good measure, before leaving he stole one of the ship’s deck gun covers, which had the ship’s name on it.
| Courtney then slyly slipped away undetected and made a beeline for the nearby Argyll Arms Hotel where he knew Admiral Hallett was currently meeting some military bigwigs. Once there, Courtney waltzed up to Hallett’s private room, reportedly dressed only in a pair of swimming trunks, barged in and proudly proclaimed that he’d just managed to sneak aboard the Glengyle and make it to the captain’s quarters unmolested. When the captain of the Glengyle, who just so happened to be present at the meeting, scoffed that his ship could be infiltrated in such a way, Courtney unrolled the deck gun cover and placed it on the table.
Although Courtney had committed a potentially court-martial-able offence, as well as risked getting himself mistaken for an enemy and shot during the infiltration of the Glengyle, the fact that he’d been able to do this and make it to the captain’s quarters without being spotted during war time while half naked to boot, so impressed his superiors that they reconsidered their stance on how effective soldiers with foldable canoes could be. |
After his stunt, Courtney was asked to provide another demonstration, this time sanctioned, infiltrating a submarine depot ship. When that was successful as well, he was promoted and given command of 12 men, who he then trained in clandestine operations and the use of the “fol-boat”, a collapsible canoe made of rubber and wood that could be assembled or broken down rapidly.
The “fol-boat brigade”, as it was then known, carried out numerous missions during WWII, most notably paddling into an enemy port near the mouth of the Gironde and destroying several key ships harboured there in an operation that Winston Churchill claimed accelerated the end of the war by “six months”.
As for Courtney, despite being highly involved in the gruelling training of the first waves of SBS commandos, he wasn’t with the force very long, having to return to the U.K. due to health issues. He was ultimately relegated to a desk job and died just a few years after the war ended.
Today his legacy lives on in the form of one of the most highly trained and terrifyingly effective units of soldiers on Earth. | |
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