August 24th: Today in 79 Mount Vesuvius erupted and destroyed the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The loss of life was large but the destruction has left us with some great artifacts of Rome near the height of its power. This is near the top of places I want to visit before I die, [...]
Well Pluto seems to be doomed as a planet. Destined to go the way of the Brontosaur. Curse these scientists and their tricky science stuff.
Edit: I am reminded of the famous saying: I said nothing when they came for the Brontosaurus, as I am not a Brontosaurus. I said nothing when they came for Pluto, [...]
August 23rd: Today in 1884 the short lived State of Franklin was founded in what is now Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee. The state was formed in fear that in order to settle debts Congress was going to sell of land in the frontier. The state was never formally recognized by Congress and it [...]
In our hunt for the candidates for Summer of Fear beasts we have completely skipped the insect realm. Perhaps this was foolish. I hate yellowjackets. I try to ignore them, but they don’t seem to want to ignore me in return.
Via Boing Boing
August 22nd: Today in 1863 the first Geneva Convention, a document of common understanding of the rules of war, were signed by 16 European nations. Inspired by the work of Henry Dunant who was appalled by the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino and organized relief efforts to help the wounded the first convention established [...]
Devil’s Den Cannon
Originally uploaded by Tancread.
Went to Gettysburg last week and had a couple of nice days walking around the park with the family. Anyway this is Devil’s Den looking back at the Little Round Top. It was taken with a very wide angle lens [...]
Many people don’t think there is such a thing as sensible religion. I do. I grew up with it both at home early on and via my one of my Grandfathers. I am therefore saddened when I see religion dragged in the mud by idiots, as it so very often is. That made this article [...]
The problem with history is people keep trying to fix it. The more you try to fix history, the more muddled it gets as a couple of stories from the UK show. Recently a family succeeded in getting a soldier who was shot for cowardice in World War One pardoned. This led to the other [...]
Today’s quiz was sent in by Carol who apparently wants to date dead people. Today’s quiz is who is your dead celebrity soul mate! This is a cool and really well done quiz by the folks at Biography Channel and it has a lot more options than you normally see in these things. I apparently [...]
August 21rst: Today in 1831 Nat Turner led a group of slaves in one of the most famous rebellions of slaves in United States history. The rebellion was short lived but Turner and his band killed whites and caused terror in the country for days before the rebellion was crushed. His confessions were a best [...]