Most babies love to receive affection, such as hugs and kisses, from their parents. And then there are babies, such as this one, who seem to not like the idea. As to what the baby was thinking when this happened, we have no idea. We can only infer.
What are your thoughts about this one? Was the baby just surprised, or did he just not like the kiss?
Image via Awkward Family Photos
Traders from the Middle East brought cinnamon to Mediterranean civilizations beginning around 2,500 years ago, but kept the origin of the spice a secret. Europeans loved it, but didn't know where it came from or how to find out, but they kept looking. This continued after Europeans sailed for the New World. It had so many natural resources, surely there was cinnamon there somewhere!
Among those excited about potential new sources of cinnamon was Francisco Pizarro. Fresh from his destruction of the Incan Empire, Pizarro recruited his brother, Gonzalo, to conquer a place he had heard of not far from his base in Quito called la Canela, the Land of Cinnamon. Contemporary accounts of what happened next are both confused and horrific.
Another Spanish explorer apparently told Gonzalo Pizarro he had found the “Valley of the Cinnamon,” though he hadn’t been able to explore it. He said local people had told him if he continued on he would find a flat land of prosperous people. Dalby suggests that what he had probably actually found was South American trees of the family Lauraceae, which smell sort of like cinnamon. The prosperous land was most likely the Amazon basin, where people cultivated many crops like cassava, maize, and yams—but not “cinnamon trees.”
There were no cinnamon trees, but that didn't stop Pizarro from committing atrocities in his quest. Read about the search for American cinnamon at Jstor Daily. -via Damn Interesting
(Image credit: Simon A. Eugster)
This umbrella might just be one of those things that you didn’t know you needed until you saw it. Instead of the regular tip, this umbrella has a paw-shaped tip that makes it look like you have a cat at home.
Well, what do you think?
Image via 9GAG on Facebook
A snapshot of what could be the Air Force’s spy drone surfaced on Instagram. Suspiciously, the image was taken down soon after it was posted. Don’t worry, people of the Internet are very fast when it comes to saving receipts, and the image has been archived and reposted on Twitter. The photo depicts a flying wing-shaped aircraft , as Popular Mechanics details:
According to Aviation Week & Space Technology, the aircraft “was flying in a racetrack pattern at an estimated altitude of 20,000 [feet].”
The mystery aircraft, as Kolinsky points out, does indeed look like the new B-21 Raider bomber. The B-21 Raider is a new strategic bomber under development by Northrop Grumman.
The U.S. Military currently operates the RQ-4 Global Hawk for high-altitude reconnaissance missions, but the plane lacks the stealth to allow it to operate near modern air defenses. In June 2019, Iran—not exactly a giant in the world of air defense—shot down an RQ-4 in the Strait of Hormuz. It was a wakeup call for a Pentagon that relies on persistent surveillance of adversaries as an early warning system.
The Air Force has never publicly acknowledged the RQ-180’s existence. In early 2020, the service sought early retirement for more than two thirds of the 35-strong RQ-4 Global Hawk fleet. This is a curious decision considering the platform is relatively young, with the average age being less than 10 years. It’s not so curious, however, if there’s a newer, stealthier replacement for the giant drone already flying.
Image via Popular Mechanics
The question is: did a hacker successfully steal the whopping amount of money, or did the long-dormant owner of the wallet move out their savings? Whoever has the control of the money from the Bitcoin address "1HQ3Go3ggs8pFnXuHVHRytPCq5fGG8Hbhx” is now 69369.16716000 BTC or roughly $964,000,000 richer. Damn, that’s a huge amount of money! The digital wallet has been a long topic of discussion for hackers and cryptocurrency enthusiasts for years:
More recently, several hackers have been trying to break into it, trying to bruteforce the passcode that protects the wallet in an attempt to steal the funds.
Now, the money is gone, moved to another Bitcoin address, and we will never know what happened unless the person who ordered the transfer comes out publicly.
"It was either the person who cracked the password or the original owner who may have noticed the recent articles about his wallet being circulated among hackers," Alon Gal, a security researcher who's been keeping an eye on the wallet, said on Twitter. "Maybe the owner? Hard to know."
The wallet was considered "dormant" since 2015, meaning the owner didn't move any Bitcoin out of it since then, As Gal, the Chief Technology Officer of cybercrime intelligence company Hudson Rock, explained.
Image via Vice
Thousands of women were burned at the stake for witchcraft in later Renaissance Europe. Some were burned alive, while some were hanged, strangled, or beheaded prior to being burnt. Besides the grim and tragic tale of the Nordic Witch Trials that people know, an exhibition at Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen, Denmark aims to provide more information concerning the tragic event:
Titled “Witch Hunt,” the show juxtaposes contemporary commissions with historical works by the likes of Albrecht Dürer and Claude Gillot.
“The participating artists explore discriminatory fear and hatred as it spreads from both the bottom up and the top down—between neighbors onto larger communities and from governments to other political institutions, questioning how such narratives are often written out of history,” says the gallery in a statement. “At a time of global unrest, as the politics of commemoration are in question, ‘Witch Hunt’ suggests the need to revisit seemingly distant histories and proposes new imaginaries for remembering and representation.”
Featuring such female artists as Louise Bourgeois, Carol Rama, Carmen Winant and Aviva Silverman, the exhibition contextualizes works of art on view by presenting scholarship and archival materials that detail the social, gendered and geopolitical aspects of Nordic witchcraft trials.
“From the impact of Danish colonialism to the multifaceted violences of misogyny, the exhibition proposes a present haunted by persecutions of the past—but one that is also occupied by new critical voices of opposition,” says Kunsthal Charlottenborg in the statement.
Image via the Smithsonian
Never judge a book by its cover. Alternatively, never judge a problem’s difficulty until you try solving it. The ‘three hats’ logic problem might look simple at first glance, but only 36 percent of people actually managed to solve it. The problem is as follows:
"There are three hats, each with an accompanying statement.
Hat One: The cat is in this hat.
Hat Two: The cat is not in this hat.
Hat Three: The cat is not in Hat One.
Exactly one of the statements is true. Exactly one hat contains a cat. Which hat contains the cat?"
If you would want to see the answer (and how the problem can be solved), check out Prevention’s full piece on the problem here.
Image via Prevention
Let’s get real, we’re not living in the best of times right now. Unemployment is high, there are political tensions all over the globe, and the pandemic seems to be the cherry on top of the chaotic year of 2020. Most of us just want to fast forward through the next year, hoping things will get better. While I say that we should take our time and try to live through the year at our own pace, there is also no harm in aiming for continuous learning. We need every advantage we can get if we want to stay employed, or find a job, right? CNBC lists some skills that people can learn before the next year hits, along with some online courses that can help us learn them. Check the full piece here.
Image via CNBC
Today was a good sunny day and I decided to shoot the place where the most beautiful jacaranda tree in Sydney grew not so long ago. It was in the courtyard of the main building of the University of Sydney. Blooming in late spring at the end of the academic year, it became closely associated with examination time at the university. It has formed the background to many events, and the original tree was on the City of Sydney's Significant Tree Register. At the University of Sydney, students say: "Start preparing for the exams before the jacaranda blooms. Then it will be too late." No wonder the jacaranda is known here as the "examination tree".
This year's LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special will feature time travel, as the characters from the final trilogy go back to meet the characters from the original trilogy, plus all the other Star Wars properties. As you'll see in this trailer, we even get a paradox when Solo meets Han. Will Rey make it back to her own timeline in time to celebrate Life day? How could she not? The special will begin streaming on Disney+ on November 17. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Researchers have discovered the genes that are responsible for governing height in related people. Researchers have identified nearly 10,000 DNA markers that explain the influence of common genetic variants over height. The geneticists involved in the study were able to amass genome data for four million people. Yes, that many! Science Magazine has more details:
“This is a genuine landmark,” says Daniel MacArthur of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Australia.
If the missing genetic contributors to other traits and diseases can be identified, and extended to other ancestries, the results could “inform new biology and contribute to personalized medicine,” suggests Loïc Yengo of the University of Queensland in St. Lucia, Australia, whose team presented the work online this week at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics. For example, geneticists could more accurately assess people’s risk of diseases from genome scans. But the study leaves some scientists dissatisfied because it identifies only markers linked to genes that sway height, not the genes.
But it turned out that each identified marker, which may be in or just near a relevant gene, only contributes slightly to a trait or disease risk, and tallying them up didn’t solve the problem. For height, the first 40 DNA markers linked to the trait explained just 5% of its variation.
Image via Science Magazine
The results of the election in Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, have been announced. The new mayor is Wilbur, the French bulldog. With 13,143 votes, Wilbur has unseated mayor Brynneth Pawltro, who has been in office since 2016. Wilbur defeated two opponents in the vote, but those also-rans will be rewarded with the title of Rabbit Hash Ambassador. Wilbur is ready and eager to assume his duties.
Since 1998, the mayor of Rabbit Hash has been a dog. Rabbit Hash’s canine mayors don’t make legislative decisions for the town, which is owned by the Rabbit Hash Historical Society, but their elections raise money to keep the town’s historic buildings in good condition.
The new mayor already has an official Facebook page in order to update fans on the goings-on in Rabbit Hash. -via reddit
(Image credit: Mayor Wilbur of Rabbit Hash KY)
Haines, Alaska, is home to 2,500 people and about 500 eagles who live there year-round. But in November, up to 3,000 bald eagles show up! A geologic anomaly means that the nearby Chilkat River is one of the last places the surface water freezes, so eagles go there to catch salmon that are no longer available elsewhere. The town makes the most of it, hosting birdwatchers year-round and hosting a festival in November.
One of those locals is Pam Randles, a now-retired high school science teacher and naturalist guide in Haines. Randles began counting the fall eagle migration 20 years ago as part of her teaching curriculum, and can’t quit.
“I watched them for so many years, I just have to go out to look,” she admits. On an overcast afternoon in mid-October, Randles drives her rig roughly 12 miles out to the Chilkoot River on the other of the peninsula, one of three rivers spawning salmon swim up before ending in the Chilkat River. Her binoculars bounce over potholes on the passenger seat.
“The eagles were everywhere, sitting in the trees waiting for the tides to go down so they could get some fish,” Randles recounts later that day. She laughs, describing an opportunist eagle who once snatched a fisherman’s pole with pink on the line. “It’s so cool to see them.”
Read about the yearly bald eagle meeting at Smithsonian.
We know from an earlier video that Maple loves music. Here she is, emerging into the sunlight as her buddy Acoustic Trench plays the Beatles hit on kalimba. There's no suspense or even a plot, but it's such a lovely moment that it should be shared. -via a comment at Metafilter
If you're fired from your job for fighting with the boss or using drugs, it rarely affects anyone outside the family or workplace. But on a successful TV show, an actor quitting or getting fired means his character must move out of town or more likely, dramatically get killed off. Or the producers may get creative, as in the case above. But there was a very important character who continued on after the actor bowed out.
Who knew that one of the main features of the Doctor was born from a practical production reason instead of an existing mythology? But that's why we still have Doctor Who today. See a pictofacts list of TV characters and the reasons they left their shows at Cracked.
