Legend has it that the Vikings used a navigation device called the sunstone to tell the direction of the sun, even on a cloudy day. The device was dismissed as myth ... until today:

... experiments have shown that a crystal, called an Iceland spar, could detect the sun with an accuracy within a degree – allowing the legendary seafarers to navigate thousands of miles on cloudy days and during short Nordic nights.

Dr Guy Ropars, of the University of Rennes, and colleagues said "a precision of a few degrees could be reached" even when the sun was below the horizon.

An Iceland spar, which is transparent and made of calcite, was found in the wreck of an Elizabethan ship discovered thirty years ago off the coast of Alderney in the Channel Islands after it sank in 1592 just four years after the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Link (Image: Treasure Mtn Mining/YouTube)

Should you write with wine? Casa Mariol, a vinyard in Poland, thinks so. It developed an ink that contains its Cabernet Sauvignon. The vinyard then filled pens with the ink and sent them to potential customers along with order forms on which to use them.

Link -via GearFuse

A clapping-type game called "cups" is spreading rapidly among young schoolgirls. The modern revival, with its accompanying song, is considered to have started with Lulu and the Lampshades' video You're Gonna Miss Me. Their routine was included in the movie Pitch Perfect, which was released on video in December. But why are cups and other clapping games so appealing?

The games are encoded with sociocultural significance, said Elizabeth Tucker, a folklorist and English professor at Binghamton University in New York.

They have existed since at least the late 19th century and their functions include teaching dexterity and serving as tools for forming friendships. And new research is showing that these primitive clapping and chanting games have endured around the world, despite competition from hand-held technology.

Kyra Gaunt, a social science professor at Baruch College in New York, researches hand games. There are so many distractions these days, Gaunt said, that hand games are harder for children to master. And as playtime has become more structured — soccer leagues and play dates — students are discovering the games in different ways, often through music classes, movies and, of course, on the Web.

The spread is easy to explain: you see it, and you say, "That's neat! I wanna learn to do that." Luisa Gerstein of Lulu and the Lampshades said she doesn't know who invented cups, as she had learned it years earlier in school. Some things never change. Link -via TYWKIWDBI

(Image credit: Matt McClain/Washington Post)

Pickled Wine Bottle Stopper 

Are you looking for a intoxicatingly fun way to preserve your favorite bottle of wine? You need the Pickled Wine Bottle Stopper from the NeatoShop. This deliciously delightful silicone stopper is shaped like a pickle. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Barware & Cocktail items. 

Link

Collectors Weekly has a pretty comprehensive article on the evolution of black dolls, from homemade dolls to racist caricatures to darker versions of white doll molds to specialty doll companies to what's available today. Because children should have dolls that reflect who they are -and that reflect the people around them. One of the people who contributed to the article is Debbie Behan Garrett, author of the book Black Dolls: A Comprehensive Guide to Celebrating, Collecting, and Experiencing the Passion.  

"Because of the false belief that anything white was better than anything black, some early dolls that black parents and children made from household items were often in the image of white people,” Garrett says. “I didn’t personally make any dolls as a child, but I have heard of those who used a Coke bottle as the doll’s body and undyed rope as hair. The undyed rope represented blonde hair.

“In the early movies and television, there were not very many positive images of black people,” she continues. “White characters always had positive roles: There was Shirley Temple, ‘Leave It to Beaver,’ and Opie on ‘The Andy Griffith Show,’ to name a few. Black people had Buckwheat in ‘The Little Rascals’ and other characters that were not positive images for young children. The negative characterization of black people not only affected black children. It was a way to embed in the minds of young white children that all black people were like the ones seen in the media.”

The end of World War II in 1945 brought about a boom in U.S. manufacturing featuring new plastics developed during the war. Suddenly, vinyl and hard plastic dolls were cheap and easy to churn out of the factory. These manufactured dolls were so affordable that middle and lower class people didn’t have to hand-make their dolls anymore.

The mass-production of plastic dolls was so streamlined that, for manufacturers, making special molds of dolls with African American features seemed like an unnecessary cost. That’s why most of the vinyl and hard plastic dolls were white. The black dolls that were sold by companies like Horsman or Terri Lee were most often white dolls painted brown or dipped in brown dye, Garrett explains. “You couldn’t look at the doll and classify it as a true representation of a black person,” she says. “Because it was just a brown counterpart of the white doll.”

You'll also read about Samantha Knowles and her new documentary Why Do You Have Black Dolls? and the many companies that sprung up over the years to fill the need for authentic black dolls. Link

Chemical analysis indicates that this brick--embelished with a cat's pawprints--is of Roman origin. How did it end up in the western United States? It is likely that the Hudson's Bay Company, a British corporation that explored and settled the Pacific Northwest, shipped it to Fort Vancouver all the way from Britain. Alexis Madrigal writes in The Atlantic:

While there were roughly 25 Native American tribes in the region, there were not any brickmakers among them, which meant there weren't any bricks. So, the Hudson's Bay Company, which ran the Fort, had to order them from a world away.

"You can certainly bring over brickmakers to look at the local lays and the Columbia River silts are great for making common brick. But at the time, when they are out there establishing their post, if they want some brick for their chimney, there just isn't any," Gurcke said, when I reached him at his job with the Park Service in Skagway, Alaska. "So they ship them from, in this case, England. We do have some records of them shipping bricks very early from England."

Link | Photo: Fort Vancouver Historic Site

Now here is an eminently sensible art project. The craftsmen at Lola Madrid are developing a highly marketable post-apocalyptic skill: turning useless old car parts into bikes. Transmission belts become drive chains, car seats become bike seats and turn signals become reflectors. Each one is a unique, handmade machine that will transport you across future wastelands.

Link -via Designboom

French artist Lowra cuts out her cartoon characters so they can interact with the real world. She's nice enough, but I'd be careful around the cat. You're bite-sized to him.

Link -via Pleated Jeans

A Krispy Kreme delivery truck stopped at the Quick Shop on Dacula Road in Gwinnet County, Georgia. While the driver was inside unloading doughnuts, security camera footage shows how another man, later identified as James Freddy Major, jumped into the truck and drove off!  

The store clerk immediately called police.

Police said Major led them on a nearly 15-mile chase. He went from Dacula Road, down Highway 316, to Interstate 85.

"Could you imagine going down the interstate and seeing the Krispy Kreme donut truck with the cops chasing behind it?; Flashing lights? What would you think,” said store worker Susan Patterson.

He eventually came to a dead end in a residential neighborhood. Police said he tried to run but a police dog tracked him down.

Police arrested Major on several charges, including theft and driving under the influence. Link -via Fark

Do you remember the British ad campaign that discourages immigration from Romania and Bulgaria? That peeved some Romanians. They responded with their own ads that encourage Britons to immigrate to Romania. That nation, the authors of the website Gandul claim, is a land filled with beautiful women, lovely roads and palatable food.

Link -via Marginal Revolution | Images: Gandul

Scotland's latest tourism ad series features Shetland ponies wearing handmade cardigans of pure Shetland wool. If that isn't the cutest thing you've ever seen! The ponies are named Fivla and Vitamin. Continue reading to see them getting dressed, and see more pictures at Visit Scotland. Link

(Image credit: Rob MacDougall)

Like you, I get hungry whenever I see an octopus. But donedirtcheap has made our tentacled friends even more delicious. His Octopizza is baked with a yeast dough and covered with pepperoni suckers. You can find step-by-step instructions at the link.

Link -via That's Nerdalicious!

Judge him by his size? By his furriness? This guinea pig, like the others painted by Lesley DeSantis, will defy your expectations.

Link -via Landa Calrissian

What do you do -should you call an electrician or a plumber? Good luck getting either one to touch this! -via reddit

Photo: nikon@rte

After the death of its owner two months ago, a brokenhearted dog waits in vain in the church where her funeral was held.

Many years ago, Maria Lochi of San Donaci, Italy, found a stray dog abandoned in a field near her home and adopted it. The dog followed her everywhere, including to church for weekly mass. After her funeral, Father Donato Panna let the dog come to Mass to wait patiently:

'He's still coming to Mass even after Maria's funeral, he waits patiently by the side of the altar and just sits there quietly. I didn't have the heart to throw him out - I've just recently lost my own dog so I leave him there until Mass finishes and then I let him out.

'Tommy's been adopted by everyone in the village now and he is everybody's friend. Everyone looks out for him and leaves food for him - although it would be nice to find a proper home for him.'

Nick Pisa of The Daily Mail has more: Link | More on the loyalty of man's best friend: And My Dogs Can't Even Roll Over