quote:

A numbers station is a type of shortwave radio station characterized by unusual broadcasts, reading out lists of numbers or incomprehensible morse code messages.[1] The voices are often created by speech synthesis and are transmitted in a wide variety of languages. The voices are usually female, although sometimes men's or children's voices are used.

DEAR RICHARD posted:

Can we put a 'no sleep paralysis' rule in the OP?

Icon Of Sin posted:

Then we get to things that are from beyond Earth orbit; these are asteroids, comets, and occasionally a spent Saturn V fuel tank from the Apollo program (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J002E3) and are moving extremely fast, relative to Earth. If the orbits line up just right, these can hit the atmosphere so fast that they only spend a second or two burning through the entirety of the atmosphere before hitting the ground.

Wikipedia posted:

Circumstantial evidence suggests that a 600 meter fragment shed by Halley's Comet may have impacted into Earth in 536 during the annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower. This may have contributed to drought and famine making humanity more susceptible to the Plague of Justinian in 541-542.

Rapman the Cook posted:

Why start a new thread just to post all the same things again?

WIkipeda posted:

Nathan Freudenthal Leopold, Jr. (November 19, 1904 – August 29, 1971)[1] and Richard Albert Loeb (June 11, 1905 – January 28, 1936), more commonly known as "Leopold and Loeb", were two wealthy University of Chicago law students who kidnapped and murdered 13-year-old Robert "Bobby" Franks in 1924 in Chicago.[2]

The duo was motivated to murder Franks by their desire to commit a perfect crime.

A letter from Leopold posted:

"A superman ... is, on account of certain superior qualities inherent in him, exempted from the ordinary laws which govern men. He is not liable for anything he may do."

quote:

Though Leopold went about his day to day routine quietly, Loeb involved himself in the police investigations as much as possible. He offered theories to reporters and whoever else would listen. He even went as far as to say "If I were to murder anybody, it would be such a cocky little son of a bitch as Bobby Franks".[citation needed]

For a while, the hunt for clues seemed hopeless. However, Detective Hugh Patrick Byrne, while searching for evidence, discovered a pair of eyeglasses near the body. Though common in prescription and frame, these glasses were equipped with an unusual hinge mechanism (patent 1,342,973[19]). In Chicago, only three people had purchased glasses with such a mechanism, one of whom was Nathan Leopold.[20] (Leopold's glasses are now in the Chicago History Museum.[21])

KoRMaK posted:

Just to be clear, the plague wasn't riding through space on the comet right? It's just that it kicked up enough dust to make humans change how far they would travel, and some far off place had a disease that propagated. Am I paraphrasing that correctly?

This is just referring to the dust and not embedded fossilized plague stuff that originated from the comet, right?

FrozenVent posted:

Yes; the temporary climate changes affected migration patterns and the alimentary supply chain, which caused plague-carrying parasites to be carried into previously unaffected area.

Helena Handbasket posted:

Bridget Driscoll died in one of the first pedestrian/automobile accidents in 1896. The car was going about four miles per hour.

Mr. Flunchy posted:

Just watched the excellent doc Dreams of a Life about the sad case of Joyce Vincent:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Vincent


The weirdest thing is that she wasn't some complete loner, she was a smart, attractive and popular woman with four sisters and a pretty large circle of friends. Over the years she'd hung out with Isaac Hayes, Gil Scott Heron and Stevie Wonder. But when she disappeared people either didn't notice, or didn't care enough to find out what had happened to her, so for two years her corpse lay rotting in the middle of London. The TV was on the whole time.

Her rent was partly paid by government benefits so it took two years for arrears to build and her utilities were direct debits, so the power and heating stayed on.

Creepy.

edit: This is also a very good article about her: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/09/joyce-vincent-death-mystery-documentary

Mr. Flunchy's AV posted:

Supreme Allah posted:

Is it, DryGoods. Is the article about self-mummification, a bit dryyyyy.

quote:

A man engine is a mechanism of reciprocating ladders and stationary platforms installed in mines to assist the miners' journeys to and from the working levels. It was invented in Germany in the 19th century and was a prominent feature of tin and copper mines in Cornwall until the beginning of the twentieth century.

quote:

In the afternoon of 20 October 1919 an accident occurred on the man engine at the Levant Mine, St Just, Cornwall. More than 100 miners were on the engine being drawn to the surface when a metal bracket at the top of the rod broke. The heavy timbers crashed down the shaft, carrying the side platforms with them, and thirty-one men lost their lives. The man engine was not replaced and the lowest levels of the mine were abandoned.

Wikipedia: Global optical effects posted:

The eruption darkened the sky worldwide for years afterwards, and produced spectacular sunsets throughout the world for many months.
British artist William Ashcroft made thousands of colour sketches of the red sunsets half way around the world from Krakatoa in the years after the eruption.

The ash caused "such vivid red sunsets that fire engines were called out in New York, Poughkeepsie, and New Haven to quench the apparent conflagration."[15] This eruption also produced a Bishop's Ring around the sun by day, and a volcanic purple light at twilight.

In 2004, an astronomer proposed the idea that the blood red sky shown in Edvard Munch's famous 1893 painting The Scream is also an accurate depiction of the sky over Norway after the eruption.[16]

Weather watchers of the time tracked and mapped the effects on the sky. They labeled the phenomenon the "equatorial smoke stream".[17] This was the first identification of what is known today as the jet stream.[18]

For several years following the eruption it was reported that the moon appeared to be blue and sometimes green. Blue moons resulted because some of the ash clouds were filled with particles about 1 µm wide—the right size to strongly scatter red light, while allowing other colors to pass. White moonbeams shining through the clouds emerged blue, and sometimes green. People also saw lavender suns and, for the first time, noctilucent clouds.[15]

kinmik posted:

^^^^ This entire post. I wish I could give it an individual rating of 5.

Thanks Kermit, but drat will I sleep uneasily waiting for a geyser to blow up beneath my bed.

quote:

The people and buildings of Pompeii were covered in up to twelve different layers of tephra, in total 25 meters deep, which rained down for about 6 hours.

TheModernAmerican posted:

I think this is the "What do you think this thread is becoming" thread.

RevSyd posted:

Here's the definitive book on that scenario: Motel of the Mysteries, which is about a famous archaeological discovery in the year 4022.











The authors point is that while archaeologists are truly dedicated to their work, once history gets remote enough their guesses are just that. The book is really funny because all of their guesses are wrong... its "present day" seems equivalent to about the nineteenth century, and the grand burial plaza they uncover is just a 20th century motel. It never occurs to the archaeologists that the civilization they've uncovered might have been more technologically advanced than their own.



How these ceremonial accoutrements may have been worn (note the outhouse in the background). When they uncover the parking lot for instance, they confidently assume that the rusted metal coffins they find were designed to transport souls to the afterlife, since they are all labeled with the names of powerful ancient gods and totems (Saturn, Thunderbird, Eagle, Ford etc.)


Then there are the misfortunes that befall some of the excavators... the dreaded and mysterious Curse of Toot n' Come In.

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:

I just bought this book in hardcover thanks to this post.

benito posted:

Jean Thurel lived from 1698 to 1807 and spent 90 years of his life serving as a French soldier under everyone from Louis XV to Napoleon I.

Khazar-khum posted:

He was in the infantry for 90 years. He wasn't a desk soldier; he was a fusilier, which meant active. He refused to ride in carriages or wagons while in the field, marching with his unit even when in his late 80s.

quote:

On 8 November 1787, Thurel was presented to the royal court at the Palace of Versailles.

The 33-year-old king of France, Louis XVI, addressed the 88-year-old Army private in a respectful manner as "father", and asked whether Thurel would prefer to be awarded the Ordre Royal et Militaire de Saint-Louis (Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis) or a third Médaillon Des Deux Épées medal, in recognition of the period from 1764–1788.[3]

This was a highly unusual request—not only because enlisted men and non-commissioned officers were not normally eligible to receive the Ordre Royal et Militaire de Saint-Louis, which was reserved for commissioned officers of the Army or the Navy[7]—but also because Thurel still had four more months of military service to complete before being eligible for a third Médaillon Des Deux Épées medal.

Thurel opted to receive a third Médaillon Des Deux Épées, on the condition that the king himself attach the medal to his uniform. Louis XVI granted Thurel his wish.

The Comte d'Artois offered Thurel his sword, and the ladies of the court put a carriage at his disposal during his stay in the Paris area.[3] The king also granted Thurel an annual pension of 300 livres.[4] Very few men ever completed the 48 years of military service required to receive a second medal. Thurel was the only one to have received it thrice.

benito posted:

The article was in Slate:

http://www.slate.com/articles/healt...be_patient.html

A CRUNK BIRD posted:

Holy mother gently caress. This guy was loving bad rear end as all poo poo. He had some mother loving balls the size of loving boulders. loving gently caress me.

Josef K. Sourdust posted:

Technical query: why wasn't the tamping iron habitually sheathed in copper at the tip/s? It would have prevented accidental ignitions, which must have been not uncommon with iron rods.

quote:

For decades after World War I, some authors questioned whether Richthofen achieved 80 victories, insisting that his record was exaggerated for propaganda purposes. Some claimed that he took credit for aircraft downed by his squadron or wing.

In fact, Richthofen's victories are unusually well documented. A full list of the aircraft the Red Baron was credited with shooting down was published as early as 1958[60]—with documented RFC/RAF squadron details, aircraft serial numbers, and the identities of Allied airmen killed or captured—73 of the 80 are listed as matching recorded British losses.

A study conducted by British historian Norman Franks with two colleagues, published in Under the Guns of the Red Baron in 1998, reached the same conclusion about the high degree of accuracy of Richthofen's claimed victories. There were also unconfirmed victories that would put his actual total as high as 100 or more.[61]

quote:

After being educated at home he attended a school at Schweidnitz before beginning military training when he was 11

quote:

Disappointed and bored at not being able to directly participate in combat, the last straw for Richthofen was an order to transfer to the army's supply branch.

His interest in the Air Service had been aroused by his examination of a German military aircraft behind the lines,[10] and he applied for a transfer to Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches (Imperial German Army Air Service), later to be known as the Luftstreitkräfte.

He is supposed to have written in his application for transfer, "I have not gone to war in order to collect cheese and eggs, but for another purpose."[c]

In spite of this unmilitary attitude, and to his own surprise, his request was granted,[10] and he joined the flying service at the end of May 1915.[11]

quote:

After his first confirmed victory, Richthofen contacted a jeweller in Berlin and ordered a silver cup engraved with the date and the type of enemy aircraft.[d] He continued this until he had 60 cups, by which time the dwindling supply of silver in blockaded Germany meant that silver cups like this could no longer be supplied. Richthofen discontinued his orders at this stage, rather than accept cups made in pewter or other base metal.

quote:

My father discriminates between a sportsman and a butcher. The latter shoots for fun. When I have shot down an Englishman my hunting passion is satisfied for a quarter of an hour. Therefore I do not succeed in shooting two Englishmen in succession. If one of them comes down I have the feeling of complete satisfaction. Only much, much later I have overcome my instinct and have become a butcher.

quote:

By 1918, Richthofen had become such a legend that it was feared that his death would be a blow to the morale of the German people.[38]

Richthofen himself refused to accept a ground job after his wound, stating that the average German soldier had no choice in his duties, and he would therefore continue to fly in combat.[39]

Certainly he had become part of a cult of hero-worship, assiduously encouraged by official propaganda. German propaganda circulated various false rumours, including that the British had raised squadrons specially to hunt down Richthofen, and had offered large rewards and an automatic Victoria Cross to any Allied pilot who shot him down.[40]

Passages from his correspondence indicate he may have at least half-believed some of these stories himself

quote:

At the time, the Baron had been pursuing (at very low altitude) a Sopwith Camel piloted by a novice Canadian pilot, Lieutenant Wilfrid "Wop" May of No. 209 Squadron, Royal Air Force.[42] In turn, the Baron was spotted and briefly attacked by a Camel piloted by a school friend (and flight commander) of May's, Canadian Captain Arthur "Roy" Brown, who had to dive steeply at very high speed to intervene, and then had to climb steeply to avoid hitting the ground.[42] Richthofen turned to avoid this attack, and then resumed his pursuit of May

quote:

It was almost certainly during this final stage in his pursuit of May that a single .303 bullet hit Richthofen, damaging his heart and lungs so severely that it must have caused a very quick death.[43][44]

In the last seconds of his life, he managed to make a hasty but controlled landing ( 49°55′56″N 2°32′16″E) in a field on a hill near the Bray-Corbie road, just north of the village of Vaux-sur-Somme, in a sector controlled by the Australian Imperial Force (AIF).[42] One witness, Gunner George Ridgway, stated that when he and other Australian soldiers reached the aircraft, Richthofen was still alive but died moments later.[44]

Another eye witness, Sergeant Ted Smout of the Australian Medical Corps, reported that Richthofen's last word was "kaputt".[45][f]

Neo_Crimson posted:

Killing enemy combatants in war is one thing, but the Baron took a strange and excessive amount of glee out of it (ordering trophies of every kill, the hunter/butcher thing). Was he a serial killer? No, but his mindset is still pretty disturbing and who knows what he would have done in peacetime.

MightyJoe36 posted:

Yeah, I had my car stolen in New Jersey in 1995. They recovered it. It was wrecked in a high-speed chase, and then put in the impound lot, which cost me $200 to retrieve. My insurance covered most of the repair bill, but my premiums went up substantially.

So I applied to the Victim's Compensation Board for restitution and I was told that the thug who stole my car first had to pay the fines that he was charged as a result of the crime, then when that was paid, he was responsible for making restitution. The scrote was in jail for armed robbery and grand theft auto, so I was probably going to see my money sometime in the next 30 years.

Wick E. Pedia posted:

Whether Goetz actually said aloud the words, "You don't look so bad, here's another," or only thought them, is still a matter of dispute. He has subsequently denied on several occasions making the statement.
“In all probability, the defendant uttered these words only to himself and probably not even mouthing the words, but just saying them in his own mind as he squeezed the trigger that fifth time.”

...

Asked what his intentions were when he drew his revolver, Goetz replied, "My intention was to murder them, to hurt them, to make them suffer as much as possible."[28] Later in the tape, Goetz said, "If I had more bullets, I would have shot 'em all again and again. My problem was I ran out of bullets." He added, "I was gonna, I was gonna gouge one of the guys' [Canty's] eyes out with my keys afterwards", but said he stopped when he saw the fear in his eyes.

quote:

On November 1, 2013, Goetz was arrested for allegedly selling $30 worth of marijuana to an undercover female NYPD officer in Union Square.[85] At a December 18, 2013 court appearance he rejected a 10 day community service plea, stating "Either dismiss it, or let's take it to trial and let a jury decide". Outside court Goetz said he offered the undercover female officer the marijuana three times for free but she insisted on paying for it, and that he thought the arresting officer was trying to get him to punch him to escalate the case.[86]

At a February 20, 2014 court appearance Goetz again rejected a 10 day community service plea and called on Mayor de Blasio to stop all marijuana arrests in NYC for a few months.[87] On September 10, 2014 the case against Goetz was dismissed for lack of a speedy trial, with the prosecution being two weeks too late to proceed.[88]

Following his court appearance, Goetz made statements in support of pot legalization,[88] instant-runoff voting, vegetarianism, carriage horses, and the policing of New York today.[89]

JacquelineDempsey posted:

Either very goony, or this coincidence is just too good:

Yvershek posted:

"Goetz's racial language about criminal activity on 14th Street, allegedly made at a community meeting 18 months before the shooting, "The only way we're going to clean up this street is to get rid of the spics and niggers," was offered as evidence of racial motivation for the shooting."

Please don't buy him an account.

Arsenic Lupin posted:

I'm not sure what qualifies this as "scary or unnerving".

BobbyK posted:

Holy poo poo I knew that voice sounded familiar. The Schuler's family attorney is Dominic Barbara, I'm pretty sure that's the celebrity lawyer that called into Howard Stern all the time and was just recently disbarred right?

Rochallor posted:

This reminds me of the story of Times Beach, MO, in which a guy makes big money off of coating the town's various properties in oil to keep the dust down. Oh, and he also made a lot of money off of accepting toxic waste to dispose of. Gee, I wonder if there's a connection.

Three-Phase posted:

Want to know what one of the proposed alternatives by Roger Fisher to the nuclear football was?

The guy would have a briefcase containing a knife. The man carrying the briefcase would have the launch code surgically implanted in a device near or under his heart. If the president wanted to get the code out, he'd have to take the knife and cut the guy open to get the launch codes, killing him in the process.

This proposal was shot down because it was said that the president would be too traumatized by having to kill him to get the launch codes. (The hundreds of millions of deaths in nuclear fire and fallout, well, that's not so bad.)

Wasabi the J posted:

Ok wait maybe he's onto something, if only assholes destroy priceless poo poo like that.

blunt for century posted:

It's alright to dislike two things at once while recognizing that one is worse than the other. Let's get back on topic folks

Steampunk iPhone posted:

This is horrifying. The pictures in the article are NSFW and may ruin your day.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Springfield_Three