Category Archives: General

The World’s Oldest Profession…?

Absolutely fascinating -and reasonably brief- article by Forrest Wickman presented on Slate Magazine concerning, yes, the “world’s oldest profession”:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2012/03/is_prostitution_really_the_world_s_oldest_profession_.html

What truly blew me away, apart from the interesting information regarding prostitution throughout the various eras (and who it was that coined the phrase “the most ancient profession”, which over time became the more familiar “world’s oldest profession”), was the information regarding the exchange of sexual favors for items in the animal kingdom, specifically in monkeys and penguins (!).

Amazing bit of information that once again suggests that we as human beings are not as far removed from our animal “cousins” as we may think.

Again, fascinating, fascinating piece.

8 Grisly Archeological Discoveries

Interesting article from Livescience.com concerning the above:

http://www.livescience.com/13637-8-grisly-archaeological-discoveries.html

I found item #6 particularly intriguing.

Dinosaur fleas…

If you have a pet dog or cat, one of the biggest nuisances you probably face are fleas and ticks.  Thankfully, the fleas we have to deal with nowadays aren’t anywhere near as fearsome as those that existed back in the age of dinosaurs!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/29/dinosaur-fleas-giant-bugs-wielded-saw-like-pointed-nose-_n_1310784.html

Given the information on these prehistoric fleas, I’m reminded of the mosquito joke in The Land of the Lost.

 

Disembodied foot in British Colombia solves 25 year old mystery…

Fascinating clip from Huffington Post regarding finding the identity behind one of the several (!) disembodied feet found in the British Columbia area:

When I first heard about the many dismembered feet found in the British Colombia area, my first thought was:  Why feet?  Why didn’t they find, for example, heads or legs or arms?  After seeing the photograph of the boot -and assuming it is the boot which housed the dismembered foot mentioned in this story!- that particular element of the story, at least to me, a bit clearer.  The boot, as shown, remains in great shape despite the passage of many years.  Given it hasn’t disintegrated all that much over that time, it is logical to assume that what was inside the boot also remained in place.  While the rest of a person’s body decomposes and -no other nicer way to say it- breaks apart, the foot tucked inside the boot/shoe would stay in place.
Thus, people who died in the waters of the lakes, whether their deaths were caused by natural or darker means, would have their bodies eventually decompose but their feet, trapped within their shoes, had a better chance of eventually being found.

Girl possibly murdered during Roman Invasion Found in England

I was looking around History.com. the website of the History Channel, and came upon this story:

http://www.history.com/news/2011/04/29/girl-possibly-murdered-during-roman-invasion-found-in-england/

Despite the fact that this murder occurred so very long ago, I felt a great deal of sadness reading about this unknown girl/woman (she was between 16 and 20 at the time of her death) and her fate.

Given the times this young woman was living in, around 50 A.D., and the events occurring in England, it chills me to think of the possible terrors she faced during her final days of life.  One imagines she could well have been a prisoner of the advancing Roman army and, as mentioned in the article, once she outlived her “usefulness” to the invaders, she was murdered and hastily buried.

A tragic -albeit small- piece of history that nonetheless gives us a window on ancient times.  Given what we know about modern warfare and its victims, stories like these makes one wonder how much we have truly advanced in all these years.

Dave Mustaine endorses….Rick Santorum?!

Say it ain’t so!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/15/rick-santorum-megadeth_n_1279794.html

Back in the later 1980’s and for a several years afterwards, I really got into the heavy metal music of Anthrax, Stormtroopers of Death, and Megadeth.  Though I tried a few other bands at that time, including the ever-popular Metallica and heavy metal favorites Slayer, the ones I really liked was that original group of three…two if you count Stormtroopers of Death as what they were, half the members of Anthrax doing an offshoot project.

Megadeth, fronted by ex-Metallica member Dave Mustaine, were in my mind sensational.  While the fact that he was kicked out of Metallica resulted in plenty of “which band is better” comments among the fans, to me there was no question:  Megadeth was the better group…if not the better selling and more popular one.

Mr. Mustaine certainly had his demons, including alcohol and drug use and the group went through more personnel changes than any other band I had followed.  For the most part, however, it didn’t appear to hurt their music.  Each successive album was quite good, at least in those early years.  The band, in my opinion, released not one but two absolutely classic heavy metal albums:  1986’s Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying (their second album) and 1990’s Rust in Peace (their fourth album).  Their biggest chart topper would be the album that followed Rust in Peace, 1992’s also quite excellent Countdown to Extinction.

After that came Youthanasia, a decent effort but the band was clearly slowing down and not producing music that was quite as “heavy”.  Their next album, Cryptic Warnings, didn’t do all that much for me.  The album after that, Risk, did even less.

The band underwent more turmoil, but in 2001 and with the release of The World Needs a Hero, I heard faint distinct echoes of what made me like the band in the first place.  While the album as a whole wasn’t as good, IMHO, as some of the “classic” albums, for the first time in a while I was optimistic that maybe, just maybe, Mr. Mustaine and company (whoever he had in the band at that time) could make a comeback.  For the first time in a while, I had hope.

Unfortunately, this hope seemed to be dashed permanently when news came out that Dave Mustaine suffered nerve damage to his arm in 2002 and it looked like he might never be able to play the guitar again.  Mr. Mustaine went on to announce the end of the band and an era appeared over.

But, after extensive therapy, Mr. Mustaine recovered and was back to playing.  Finally, after so many years, could there be a rebirth?

Well, since that time the band has released three more albums.  And in the intervening years, Mr. Mustaine has changed.

A lot.

When it was announced he had become a born again Christian, I noted that his songs began to have a certain…rightward…bend.  Then I heard Mr. Mustaine refused to sing some of the songs off his earlier albums.  They simply didn’t fit his current mind set.  His politics, too, headed right, and therefore it isn’t terribly surprising to find his endorsement of Mr. Santorum, a man who I strongly suspect would be only too happy to ban all of Mr. Mustaine’s music.

It’s a funny world we live in.  I can’t help but wonder what a younger Dave Mustaine would think of the older version of himself.  The personality change is about as complete as one could imagine.

Regardless, I’ve always felt that people should do whatever makes them happy, provided they do no harm to others in the process.  Unfortunately, the subject matter and music in Mr. Mustaine’s latest albums just haven’t been my cup of tea.  At all.  I’ve given up on the hope that Megadeth might one day surprise me and release an album that stands toe to toe with their best.

Luckily, and when the mood hits me, I can still enjoy the works from the past.

Museum discovers earliest copy of Mona Lisa…

Surely the world’s most famous painting is the Mona Lisa.  Even if you have absolutely no interest in art at all you know of that painting, not just by name but by its subject.

In Madrid, the earliest copy of the Mona Lisa has been discovered, a piece most likely done by someone in Da Vinci’s studio concurrently with the production of his work and using the same model!

www.cnn.com/2012/02/01/world/europe/mona-lisa-copy-prado/index.html

I just hope it doesn’t turn out this is some elaborate hoax.  Otherwise, a terrific, intriguing story!

 

Politically correct Disney

This post originally appeared in November of 2011.

When you have a company that primarily caters to younger audiences, it isn’t too terribly surprising the people behind the scenes make sure the material presented to these young people is in no way controversial.  There is added difficulty when your company also happens to have existed for many, many years, and what might have been acceptable at one time becomes unacceptable in another.

Of the many films produced by Walt Disney Studios, the one you cannot get your hands on is an official release of Song of the South.  This despite the fact that the film features one of the more recognizable Disney songs ever created (Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah) and has a ride (Splash Mountain) based on the animated segments in the film.  It is the non-animated segments, however, that are -to put it mildly- a source of controversy given the depiction of African Americans in post-Civil War times.  But the movie isn’t a unique example of Disney studios going back and changing things that may be, in these modern times, deemed at best “touchy” and at worst “offensive”.

I’ve been going to Walt Disney World near Orlando for years, and it is curious to note the subtle and not so subtle changes to some of their rides.  The 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage ride has been completely done away with.  Two others have featured some notable changes.

The first is the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  With the success of the movie franchise, audiences have witnessed the appearance of an animatronic version of Capt. Jack Sparrow.  His presence isn’t all that bad, but it does change the focus of the ride from one of amorphous idealized pirates to a focus more in line with the movies.  What I found most intriguing was the way they changed one of the ride’s more elaborate jokes.  After we pass the “women’s” market (where a pirate group is selling women off to leering pirates, the joke being that the current woman on sale, a fat one, is of no interest in the buyers.  They have their eyes on the next woman in line, who is a knockout.  The way things are going, I suspect this particular joke won’t remain in the ride much longer!), we come upon a besieged town.  Originally the joke presented here was that we see one pirate chasing a woman around her house.  Then another doing the same.  When we get to the third house, however, the woman is far larger than the pirate and, instead of him chasing her, she’s chasing him around the house, swinging her broom at his head!

This joke was completely killed off for obvious reasons.  After all, what are the pirates doing chasing the women?  Because they are hungry and want the women to make them some breakfast or lunch?  Are they cold and want the women to fetch them a warm drink?

Clearly, this is not the case.  In fact, the “joke” presented here is that these women are in the process of being assaulted.  Once the pirates “catch” them, what follows can only be one thing.  The people behind the scenes at Disney, I’m quite certain, decided this “joke” was a little too risqué and nixed it.  Now, the first house has a pair of pirates running around in circles while carrying a (no doubt pilfered) treasure chest.  The second house has (I believe) a woman chasing away a pirate, and the third has the same big woman chasing a pirate.  The joke is officially expunged.

This last time I went to Walt Disney World, I noted another change.  If you go to the Haunted Mansion ride, in the preamble, you’re “locked” in a room with your fellow park attendees and listen as the narrator talks about the mansion.  The walls seem to move, and the lower parts of painted pictures reveal humorous “hidden” bottoms containing macabre jokes.  Toward the end of this segment, the narrator notes that the audience is trapped in a room with no doors or windows.  How, he wonders, are we to find a way out?  Our narrator then states that in a room without doors or windows, there is only one way out.  Then, you hear a scream and lightning reveals a hidden attic above us, showing…not much.

At least now.

Yes, there’s the sound of crashing and you see a ragged figure above you, but the whole conclusion to the narration makes little sense.  Why?  Because the original “way out” was clipped.  For the original “way out” was…suicide.

When the narrator says there is a way out, originally when you heard the screams and the lightning flashes illuminated the room above you, the ragged figure you saw was clearly hanging from her neck on a rope.  The implication was that in a room with no exit, the only exit is to kill yourself.  Not the most ideal of “jokes” to present little kids!  Now, the ragged figure does not sway on any rope, but is immobile, making the ending of this part of the ride rather confusing (although, granted, far more politically correct than showing the ragged remains of some poor forgotten soul who has committed suicide!).

Anyway, if you’re interested in more changes (some dealing with far less controversial material within the parks), I found this pretty interesting website that details some of those people have noted:

http://www.wdwradio.com/forums/i-remember-lost-attractions-wdw-more/18772-attraction-changes-over-years.html

Funniest Animal Photobombs Ever

Found this on The Huffington Post.  Too funny:

www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/best-animal-photobombs-photos_n_1224360.html

My favorite has to be photo #6 (the look on that cat’s face is priceless).  The rest aren’t too bad, either!

Lincoln assassination witness…

I couldn’t find the actual post, but as I was thinking about posts from my old blog that I wanted to re-post to this new one, there was one that simply had to appear again.  The video below is from the Feb. 9, 1956 episode of I’ve Got A Secret, a game show involving celebrities figuring out, natch, what “secret” the person appearing before them has.

In the case of one Samuel J. Seymour, it turned out his secret was something both unique and quite incredible:  As a very young child, he was present in the Ford Theater the night that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

The fact that he could still remember some of the details all those years later is incredible.  I think it’s fair to say on the night of the taping of this program Mr. Seymour was the very last living person to have been present at the Ford Theater that tragic night.