The wreck of the HMS Victory has been found

This is not the HMS Victory that was Lord Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar; that one is in dry dock in England as a floating museum.

This HMS Victory was that one's predecessor - a 100-gun ship-of-the-line. In 1744 while traversing the English Channel on a return voyage, she encountered stormy weather and was damaged on the Casquets, but did not sink immediately, having now been found over 50 miles away. At least 900 men went down with her when she sank, including some of the cream of the British navy.

The images above are from a photo gallery at Der Spiegel. The top one shows 12-pound and 42-pound cannon - brass, mind you, and not iron - and therefore virtually pristine and uncorroded. The second image shows an unsuccessful attempt to insert a floppy disk into the cannon barrel. The final image shows the emblem of King George I emblazoned on the cannon, identifying the time period of the wreck.

Oh, one other point of interest. When she went down, she was carrying 4 tons of gold coins. Four TONS of gold coins. 100,000 gold Portugese coins...

Wallowing in ignorance

Excerpts from "A Quibble," an essay by Mark Slouka in the Notebook section of the February 2009 issue of Harper's Magazine.

We have every reason to be pleased with ourselves. Bucking all recent precedent, we seem to have put a self-possessed, intelligent man in the White House...It would be churlish to quibble. Still, let’s... I’d like to believe that we’re a different people now; that we’re more educated, more skeptical, more tough-minded than we were... but it’s hard work; actual human beings keep getting in the way...

What we need to talk about... is our ever-deepening ignorance (of politics, of foreign languages, of history, of science, of current affairs, of pretty much everything) and not just our ignorance but our complacency in the face of it, our growing fondness for it... We’re deeply loyal to it. Ignorance gives us a sense of community; it confers citizenship; our representatives either share it or bow down to it or risk our wrath.

Wherever it may have resided before, the brain in America has migrated... as far as the gut—where it has come to a stop. The gut tells us things. It tells us what’s right and what’s wrong, who to hate and what to believe and who to vote for. Increasingly, it’s where American politics is done. All we have to do is listen to it and the answer appears in the little window of the eight ball: “Don’t trust him. Don’t know. Undecided. Just because, that’s why.” We know because we feel, as if truth were a matter of personal taste, or something to be divined in the human heart, like love...

I don’t believe I have the right to an opinion about something I know nothing about—constitutional law, for example, or sailing—a notion that puts me sadly out of step with a growing majority of my countrymen, many of whom may be unable to tell you anything at all about Islam, say, or socialism, or climate change, except that they hate it, are against it, don’t believe in it...

The average German or Czech, though possibly no less ignorant than his American counterpart, will probably consider the possibility that someone who has spent his life studying something may have an opinion worth considering. Not the American. Although perfectly willing to recognize expertise in basketball, for example, or refrigerator repair, when it comes to the realm of ideas, all folks (and their opinions) are suddenly equal...

If nothing else, the fact that so many have convinced themselves that one man, thus far almost entirely untested, will slay the culture of corruption with one hand while pulling us out of the greatest mess we’ve known in a century with the other suggests that a certain kind of “clap your hands if you believe” naiveté crosses the aisle at will.

...it comes down to the unpleasant fact that a significant number of our fellow citizens are now as greedy and gullible as a boxful of puppies; they’ll believe anything; they’ll attack the empty glove; they’ll follow that plastic bone right off the cliff. Nothing about this election has changed that fact. If they’re ever activated—if the wrong individual gets to them, in other words, before the educational system does—we may live to experience a tyranny of the majority Tocqueville never imagined.

(The full essay is available here.)

February 3 - the day Waylon Jennings didn't die

While everyone else is remembering the 50th anniversary of the death of Buddy Holly, I'm going to use the occasion to note that someone else was supposed to be on that plane, but in the midst of that "Tour from Hell," he gave up his seat and continued on toward Minnesota by bus.

Waylon Jennings was 21 years old in 1959, touring the Midwest with fellow Texan Buddy Holly. As a result of the persistent cold weather during that "Winter Dance Party" tour, J.P. ("Big Bopper") Richardson had become ill, and he asked Waylon Jennings to give up his seat on the plane.

Jennings agreed to give up the seat. When Holly learned that Jennings wasn't going to fly, he said, "Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up." Jennings responded, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes." This exchange of words, though made in jest at the time, haunted Jennings for the rest of his life.

I've embedded two videos above. Nowadays when anyone thinks of Waylon Jennings, they picture him in his "outlaw country" years, dressed in black.. The top video shows what he was like in the 1960s, in a traditional country outfit and venue.

For an updated Waylon Jennings experience, choose the bottom video of The Highwaymen (Waylon, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson)  performiing"Good Hearted Woman".

A foxy First Lady

Recognize this woman? That's a "reverse engineered" portrait of what Martha Washington would have looked like in her 20s. Forensic anthropologists back-extrapolated from existing portraits, all of which were done when she was advanced in age.

Our image of the mother of our country, vague and insubstantial as it is, is drawn from portraits painted after her death showing a frumpy, dumpy, plump old lady, a fussy jumble of needlework in her lap, wearing what could pass for a shower cap with pink sponge rollers rolled too tight underneath...

"We always see Martha with a withered face in her old age. But she was quite a beautiful woman in her younger years, and Washington loved her deeply," said Edward Lengel, senior editor at the Papers of George Washington project at the University of Virginia. "What's happening now is revisionist. But I think it's a whole lot closer to the reality of what she was."

More at the WaPo link, including a photo of the deep purple, silk and sequin, high-heel shoes she wore for her wedding.

Addendum: I discovered by reading a backlink, that the same process was applied to George Washington several years ago. The handsome young couple can be seen in adjacent portraits posted at Sevens.

You know this bear's name

The man next to the bear is army lieutenant Harry Colebourn, who was en route to a training camp during World War I when he bought the bear cub from a hunter for $20. He named the bear after his home town and eventually smuggled it back to Britain.

You know the bear's name.

Hint: The lieutenant was from Canada. He named the bear cub after his home town.

Don't know? See the "comments" section.

Found at Futility Closet.

"S" is yellow. Enter the world of synesthetes

Fascinating video about synesthesia from the Discovery Channel, found at Joanne Casey's I have seen the whole of the internet.

Those interested in such phenomena should read Alex Santoso's Neatorama piece on 10 Fascinating Savants. Also this video on Daniel Tammet, and my previous writeup on Austistic Pride Day.

Apartment dweller makes dog very happy

Original source unknown.

Sunday smörgåsbord

So much stuff to blog, so little time. Here's just a taste of the stuff I didn't have time to blog this week, and there's more in the freezer.

Hospitals in the U.K. are being encouraged to eliminate meat from the menus of food served to patients. The primary reason is not to save money. Noooo. It's to cut carbon emissions and decrease global climate change.

Based on the nutrients available and the pH, it appears that the soil of Mars is best suited for growing asparagus and turnips. Which means if I'm stranded there, I will die.

A raccoon has bitten off a certain appendage from a human male pervert. TYWKIWDBI strives to be family-friendly, so I'll omit the details here.

At the Obama inauguration, the violin and cello music was pre-recorded. Not because anyone expected Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma to make mistakes, but because the cold weather would have affected the performance and could even damage the instruments (the Stradivarius instruments were left home and cheaper ones substituted). A Slate article explains why.

Some people believe the Disney movie The Lion King was a remake of a 1965 movie called Kimba the White Lion. Side-by-side comparisons of screenshots and character descriptions, plus various historical tidbits do suggest an amazing resemblance. Plagiarism or coincidence?

Seven people in Japan were hospitalized with neurologic problems and respiratory distress after eating testicles. Blowfish testicles.

H1B visas are "speciality occupation visas." In fiscal 2007, 349 of these visas were given to fashion models. A lobbyist for the fashion industry says that number needs to be increased to protect American jobs.

Do you like taking tests? Here is the one for entry into the Swedish Armed Forces. Try it. I guarantee, it is NOT EASY.

An impressive photoessay of famous pictures of President G.W. Bush. Not just the usual funny pix, but a broad spectrum of some key moments in the presidency.

Highway workers in Indiana found $100,000 in an old tire on the side of the interstate highway.

Everyone knows that the economy of Iceland has collapsed and the government has been ousted. Foreign Policy magazine online has an article listing the five countries on the verge of following Iceland into economic ruin and political meltdown: Latvia, Greece, Ukraine, Nicaragua, and ... Great Britain!!!

Michael Phelps has been photographed with a bong. Yes, the same Michael Phelps who won 8 gold medals at the last summer Olympics. He has uttered the expected mea culpas and has said "it will not happen again" (presumably referring to the getting caught).

The unmarried woman who gave birth to octuplets already had six children. She had these additional eight because some frozen embryos were left over from previous fertilizations, and she didn't want them destroyed.

Any ice fishermen reading this blog? Here's some photos from Russia.

How running a cozy little coffeeshop can ruin your finances and your marriage.

Chemists explain why garlic is good for you.

I grew up in Minnesota when the world's first indoor shopping mall was opened, and also when the first Target store opened. You may have seen the animation of the growth of WalMart. The person who did that has now animated the growth of Target.

Divers have found the wreck of the HMS London - blown up accidentally in the Thames in 1665.

Rubbing a sore spot actually does diminish pain. You knew this, but now there's proof, and the neuroscientists have suggested how to rub something to maximize pleasure.

A 13-year-old boy lost his hair and eyelashes after a severe illness. He wears a baseball cap because he's embarassed and gets teased, but his school has said the baseball cap violates the dress code.

Here's the link if you like Calvin and Hobbes. (and if you don't like Calvin and Hobbes, the cartoons are still stored there).

(smorgasbord photo credit here)

Chinlone video

"Chinlone is a combination of sport and dance, a team sport with no opposing team. In essence chinlone is non-competitive, yet it is as demanding as the most competitive ball games. The focus is not on winning or losing, but how beautifully one plays the game...

Chinlone means “cane-ball” in Burmese. The ball is woven from rattan, and makes a distinctive clicking sound when kicked that is part of the aesthetic of the game. Players use six points of contact with the ball: the top of the toes, the inner and outer sides of the foot, the sole, the heel, and the knee. The game is played barefoot or in chinlone shoes that allow the players to feel the ball and the ground as directly as possible. The typical playing circle is 6.7 meters (22 feet) in diameter. The ideal playing surface is dry, hard packed dirt, but almost any flat surface will do.

Chinlone is over 1,500 years old and was once played for Burma royalty. Over the centuries, players have developed more than 200 different ways of kicking the ball. Many of the moves are similar to those of Burma dance and martial art. Some of the most difficult strokes are done behind the back without seeing the ball as it is kicked. Form is all important in chinlone: there is a correct way to position the hands, arms, torso, and head during the moves. A move is considered to have been done well only if the form is good."

Text credit above from Wikipedia. "Mystic Ball," an award-winning movie about Chinlone is at this link.

p.s. - even if you don't like sports (or perhaps I should say especially if you don't like sports), you should watch this video for just 30 seconds to see what it's about... Trust me on this.

The U.S. during the Carboniferous period

300 million years ago we were high and dry in my part of the country. Some of the rest of you may not have fared so well...

(Credit here, via)

Countries that don't use the metric system

(image credit to Wikimedia)

Class, before we take your picture...

... have any of you seen the case of steroids that went missing from the local pharmacy?

(image credit here. Found at Reddit)

Curious George maze

It may teach children a cruel principle about achieving one's goals in life...

(Image credit here. Reddit thread here.)

Half of British adults do not believe in evolution

The poll found that 25% of Britons believe Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is "definitely true", with another quarter saying it is "probably true". Half of the 2,060 people questioned were either strongly opposed to the theory or confused about it.

The Rescuing Darwin survey, published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of ­Species, found that around 10% of people chose young Earth creationism – the belief that God created the world some time in the last 10,000 years – over evolution.

About 12% preferred intelligent design, the idea that evolution alone is not enough to explain the structures of living organisms. The remainder were unsure, often mixing evolution, intelligent design and creationism together.

Bald eagles thriving in Minnesota

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is now reporting that there are 872 bald eagle nests in the state - a 670 percent increase from the 113 recorded in 1973. The population increase has been so great that the eagle was removed from the endangered species list a couple years ago.

Bald eagles are a common sight around Leech Lake in Northern Minnesota, where I enjoy spending time in the summer; the birds patrol the shoreline looking for fish, and do so from a great altitude because of their remarkable eyes. Year-round residents report that if they drag a roadkill deer carcass out onto the ice in the winter, a half-dozen eagles will gather. Whether we like it or not, our national symbol is admittedly an opportunistic scavenger [aren't we all...]

(Photo credit unknown)