Snow ravioli

Or a raviolo, to be more precise.  Image cropped for emphasis from the original.

"Goodbye, Crook"

"Even during the height of the American Civil War, presidential security was lax. Throngs of people entered the White House every day. "The entrance doors and all the doors on the Pennsylvania side of the mansion were open at all hours of the day and, often, very late into the evening." Lincoln finally gave in to concerns for his safety in November 1864, and was assigned four around-the-clock
bodyguards...

On April 14, 1865, [William] Crook began his shift at 8 am. He was to have been relieved by John Frederick Parker at 4 pm, but Parker was several hours late. Lincoln had told Crook that he had been having dreams of himself being assassinated for three straight nights. Crook tried to persuade the president not to attend a performance of the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater that night, or at least allow him to go along as an extra bodyguard, but Lincoln said he had promised his wife they would go. As Lincoln left for the theater, he turned to Crook and said "Goodbye, Crook". Before, Lincoln had always said, "Good night, Crook". Crook later recalled: "It was the first time that he neglected to say 'Good Night' to me and it was the only time that he ever said 'Good-bye'. I thought of it at that moment and, a few hours later, when the news flashed over Washington that he had been shot, his last words were so burned into my being that they can never be forgotten." Crook blamed Parker, who had left his post at the theater without permission."

1959 comic book advertisements

I'm giving a goodbye read to old comic books before disposing of them.  Yesterday evening I encountered the above page of advertisements on the inside back page of an issue of Caspar the Friendly Ghost.

I presume the "Safety Deposit Bank Vault" was of a size that a thief could pick it up and put it in their pocket.  But I'm more intrigued by the "Record Your Voice At Home" advertisement.  I believe in that era my father owned an Edison Voicewriter, which I thought was rather sophisticated (and which generated a couple records which I don't expect ever to be able to listen to).  I'm surprised that an equivalent device was marketed in childrens' comic books.

Russian cursive looks like scribbles

Image cropped for clarity from the original, where there is a little bit of relevant commentary about why this happens and how someone can use context to read it.  Readers here may be able to offer additional insights.

Addendum:   Several good comments from readers, and a hat tip to Aleksejs for providing this dissection of the cursive "chinchilla":

"Yooperlites"

YouTube link.

Next time I visit the North Shore I'm going to take my black-light flashlight.

Bottle-feeding babies in prehistory

As reported in Nature:

The earliest known clay vessels that were possibly used for feeding infants appear in Neolithic Europe, and become more common throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages. However, these vessels— which include a spout through which liquid could be poured—have also been suggested to be feeding vessels for the sick or infirm. Here we report evidence for the foods that were contained in such vessels, based on analyses of the lipid ‘fingerprints’ and the compound-specific δ 13 C and ∆ 13 C values of the major fatty acids of residues from three small, spouted vessels that were found in Bronze and Iron Age graves of infants in Bavaria. The results suggest that the vessels were used to feed infants with milk products derived from ruminants.

It's not just a quaint curiosity.   Breast-feeding inhibits ovulation, rendering the mother temporarily infertile until the newborn is weaned.  Bottle-feeding with ruminant milk would shorten the interval between pregnancies and lead to significant population expansion.

Indian giant squirrel

That's really its name.  And those are its true colors.

The Regal Birdflower (Crotolaria cunninghamii)

Horticultural details at Seattle Garden & Fruit Adventures; photo via.

First-ever Disneyland ticket

Purchased by arrangement in 1955 by Walt Disney's brother Roy Disney.  I was wondering what today's cost is, and found this comment in the Reddit thread: "In 1955 minimum wage in California was .75 cents. A ticket cost an hour and fifteen minutes of hourly pay. Today, California’s minimum wage is $12.00 and ticket admission to just the original Disneyland Park is $149.00. That takes just over eleven and a half hours of work to pay for one ticket admission."

In Sweden, a "fart" can go backwards or forwards

Explained at Neatorama.

About those dimples on the sides of milk jugs - updated

I had never paid attention to these dimples before; if I had I would have assumed they were to facilitate gripping the jug, but they are on the wrong side and seemingly superfluous for that purpose when a handle is present on the other side.

I have seen claims that these are pressure relief valves that pop out if the jug is dropped or the milk spoils and produces gases or freezes, or that they are structural supports for an otherwise smooth wall, or that they allow the size of the container to be varied without changing the mold,

As soon as this jug is empty I'm going to test the pressure-relief theory by dropping a water-filled one and/or freezing it.

Update:

It worked - sorta.   When the jug was empty I refilled it with water, adjusting the level to match the new unopened jug (airspace about 5cc under the cap).  I then tightened the cap and took the jug to the driveway, where I dropped it from waist level to simulate a shopper's misadventure...

Both dimples popped, one of them blowing out completely.  I'll plan to try once more, next time dropping from a lower height.

iBrows

I stole the title of this post from the discussion thread at the mildlyinteresting subreddit, where I encountered this photo [croppped by me for emphasis] of headphones that had been dropped in sand with high iron content.  Two comments from the thread:

"I grind metal at work and its super annoying. I have to wipe the metal off meticulously after every shift or else it starts to stain the airpod case."

Iron sand beaches are fairly common around the world. The ones I've been to have fine grain like a regular beach but it's a lot darker because of the iron mixed in. They get ridiculously hot on a sunny day - as in they will burn your feet if you stand still for more than half a second

Why walk around the pole?

Perhaps it could be bicyclists not wanting to duck.  But that logic is harder to apply to this taller space:

I've spent countless hours walking trails in the woods, so I understand a healthy respect for spiderwebs might be a logical reason, but that wouldn't apply in this case:

And those are not bicycle tracks.  So... what's the reason.  Superstition?

Top image via.  Second and third photos via.

Hereditary gap in an eyebrow

There is some discussion of the genetics in the mildlyinteresting subreddit thread, though most of the comments center on the great-great-grandfather's tie.

Scheendijk Islands, Netherlands

Video here.  Those interested in the topography may want to zoom in and out of this Google map.

The truck is not completely invisible - updated

You can see the tire.  And the door handle.  Discussion thread.

Here's another one:

Via.

An albino painted wood turtle

Via Albino Turtles.

Not an elephant

An overflowing cupcake - "both the blowout and the dark color on top can signal an oven that was too hot. Or maybe the cakes were too close to the top element? Too hot and the cake will form a crust too early in the bake, not allowing for an even rise. Instead the rising batter will find the path of least resistance and force itself the heck outta there."

Guiness World Record longest horns

"...a Lone Star longhorn has broken the Guinness World Record for having the longest horn spread on a steer. The record-breaking horns -- they have a 10-foot-7 span -- belong to Poncho Via, a 7-year-old specimen who actually lives in Alabama."

I seem to remember that when I lived in Texas, some people referred to a boring lecture as a "longhorn lecture" (two points separated by a lot of bull).

And this seems to be as good a place as any to post a photo of calf earmuffs:

Apparently they are fairly common.

Gila monster skull

Not bumpy skin.  Bumpy skull.

You learn something every day.  Via.