Quote of the Day: “Fear is a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life.” – Donald Miller
Photo by: Ishan Gupta
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(Note: Children or sensitive individuals should avoid this article.)
Across Europe, it’s not uncommon to find museums of torture stocked with black cast iron pieces of the most unimaginable cruelty.
However a clever internet snoop and aspiring historian Spencer McDaniel presents the case that several of the most famous torture devices were actually invented in the 19th century by con men and hucksters looking to make a buck off tourists.
McDaniel focuses her analysis on a Buzzfeed video entitled “5 Of The Most Gruesome Medieval Torture Devices,” and proves that only one likely even existed in the Middle Ages, and was rarely used in any case.
This is not to say that our European ancestors weren’t capable of terrible cruelty, but the mechanical nature of these so-called medieval torture devices implies that there were people who spent months thinking about the most revolting methods of pain infliction.
The torture devices they did use weren’t really devices at all, and they were more for executions than for torture. Furthermore, they carry the hallmarks of hot-blood cruelty rather than cold-blood, as in, they tended to use whatever was easily available such as fire or horses.
The first device which McDaniel tackles is called “The Brazen Bull” which was allegedly a large bronze bull statue with a compartment wherein could be placed the victim. Underneath a fire would be kindled until it burned the victim alive, whose screams would sound like a bull bellow resonating out through the statue’s nose and mouth.
This was allegedly used by a Greek tyrant Phalaris of Akragas in 570 BCE. But despite its depictions during the Renaissance, no such device has ever been found. One was referenced by a lyrical poet of all people (because they’ve never lied), who lived decades after Phalaris’ death. The only other reference was from Greek historian Diodorus Sikeliotes nearly 500 years after Phalaris’ death.
Other more iconic devices such as the “iron maiden,” and “pear of anguish” have histories replete with frauds. As to the former, historians living in the 18th century were able to ascertain that an iron maiden—a sort of vertical sarcophagus filled with spikes—was fraudulent, when it was reported from Nuremberg, Germany that in 1515 it was used to execute a coin forger.
Iron maidens showcased in museums today were all built long after the historical record was well-illuminated, and no case of them ever having been used in the Middle Ages, nor of an individual device built from that time, has come down to us.
The “pear of anguish” was supposedly a sort of pear-shaped metal object that when inserted into an orifice could be expanded outward via a screw, causing horrible pain. The oldest surviving account of this being used was from the 18th century by a Parisian criminal—not exactly an organ of law and order, and certainly not medieval.
CHECK OUT: Woman’s Name and Tiny Sketches Found in 1,300-Year-Old Medieval Text was Hidden for 12 Centuries
McDaniel also claims that the mechanical features of those found in museums would not have worked the way they were supposed to anyway.
The last instrument she mentions probably arose from someone’s imagination of the burnings during the Inquisition, but as she details “the Spanish Tickler” was invented during our own lifetimes by torture-focused con men on the internet, who wanted to propose that a kind of rake was used to remove the flesh of victims as leaves might be piled up in autumn.
“The so-called ‘Spanish tickler’ was totally made up on 15 December 2005 by a Wikipedia editor with the username ‘Andyok,'” writes McDaniels. “The hoax article… was ultimately discovered by responsible Wikipedia editors on 2 March 2018 and has now been deleted.”
While this seems to be a slightly frivolous rabbit hole of disproving already hard-to-imagine things, one commenter on McDaniels’ work reveals its value.
MORE FROM HISTORY: This Lost Roman Era ‘Miracle Plant’ May Have Been Rediscovered
“Inhumane medieval torture devices depicted by the media such as the pear and the iron maiden upset and haunted me greatly since childhood, as I could not help but vividly imagine the victims’ agony. You have finally lifted my nightmares and restored some humanity in the medieval era for me! Thank you!”
McDaniels reminds the commenter there was definitely torture during the medieval period, but concurrent to what’s written above, they tended to involve readily available materials and were more methods of execution than torture.
HELP Restore Your Friends’ Faith In The Medieval Era With This Story…
There aren’t many willing to voluntarily go out to spend the day on Skid Row, and even fewer with the goal of giving away free stuff, but Dr. Kwane Stewart, also known as “The Street Vet” is nearly famous because of it.
Kwane runs the 501(c)3 non-profit Project Street Vet, that takes donations and volunteers out onto the streets and to homeless encampments to provide free medical care for their pets, and last year they were able to help nearly 600 animals receive medical care.
It’s estimated that 10-25% of the homeless population of America own pets, for companionship, and occasionally for security. It goes without saying that many don’t have the means to take proper care of these animals, whom they often love more than anything else in the world.
In 1997 Stewart was buried in student loan debt when he graduated from the University of Colorado, before bouncing from one miserable rescue shelter to the next. Out of frustration for his career choice, he just started spending a few hours a day providing free medical care to pets of the homeless in LA.
This went on for 7 years until he had an encounter with show biz that spawned Dr. Kwane: The Street Vet, a one-season Canadian TV show that attracted pet product firms, volunteers, and philanthropists to his mission.
In 2020, he and his brother Ian started his non-profit that provides free exams, vaccines, flea medications, supplies, and information to people experiencing homelessness on how to raise their animals with the limited means they possess.
Charity organizations partner with animal clinics and Project Street Vet to open pop-up clinics where the homeless can bring in their pets for even more sophisticated medical care, as well as procedures like spaying and neutering. Project Street Vet also assists qualified pet parents with their pet’s veterinary care through financial assistance grants.
RELATED: This Hero Dog-Lover Keeps Seniors and Their Pets Together With ‘Peace of Mind’
Their website produced a 2021 year-in-review which they describe as being very generous.
Their 2022 report for activities in Atlanta, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Webster, Florida, report that Project Street Vet saw and helped nearly 600 pets, as well as nearly 150 people receive financial assistance.
They rely entirely on charitable contributions, and anyone who wants to donate time or money can do so here.
WATCH that recap… And the trailer for the TV show…
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Most people imagine robots at work in a factory, but there’s no less innovation going on at the farm—take this spoke-wheeled robot plant nurse who can inspect 50 acres of row crops for disease, pests, or other issues.
Trundling through fields a little like a tumbleweed, the SentiV scouting robot is currently just a prototype, but its designers hope that the high unit cost can be offset with savings on pesticides and fertilizer, as the SentiV can determine exactly which plants need what.
Planting is a seriously stressful time for farmers, as all the input costs stack up while profit lies far away in the distant months. Furthermore, many things can go wrong between planting and harvest time, whether that’s a sudden outbreak of disease, pests moving into the area, or a proliferation of weeds.
Manually inspecting crops can take hours while airborne drones can’t see under the leaves.
That’s why a 33-pound robot that moves about on spokes rather than wheels or treads which crush plants could be ideal for farmers looking to reduce labor costs and hours.
Placing the GPS coordinates of the field’s boundaries, the SentiV then uses these boundaries as a guide to map the whole field—up to 50 acres in a day, scanning both the underside and topside of plants with a pair of cameras.
SIMILAR: Solar-Powered, Weed-Killing Robots Could Save Farmers Billions of Dollars on Herbicides
Smart algorithms then look for threats, monitor the plants’ growth, and identify signs that the plant might need more or less water or nutrients.
The wheel height is easily adjustable to make sure it passes over a farmer’s crops without damaging them.
MORE ROBOTS LIKE THIS: New Smart Farming Robot Unveiled That ‘Smokes’ Weeds With High-Powered Lasers For Healthy Weeding
The nearly timeless image of a field of crops being worked by farmers and animals is soon going to look a lot different, as robots of all different sizes are being developed to phase out extensive labor and materials costs on farms.
This robot has 50 nozzles that spray weeds with de-weeder and plants with fertilizer at a rate of 20 shots per second, while this robot tractor can plow on 24-7 all by itself.
WATCH the little fellow at work…
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In a major archaeological discovery, a team of Peruvian and Japanese researchers have discovered 168 new geoglyphs in the ancient Nazca Plain in Peru, near to the enormous glyphs that remain as mysterious as they are famous.
Found during 2 years of aerial surveys, their discovery led to the creation of a new archaeological park to protect them.
The famous Nazca Lines are enormous depictions of humans and animals carved into the ground of a flat plain by ancient peoples. Their monumental scale was only discovered after flight, when a pair of eyes could be high enough to see the whole two dimensional image.
The originals measure hundreds of yards, but the new discoveries are smaller. Jorge Olano, head archaeologist for the Nazca Lines research program, said the new geoglyphs averaged between two and six meters (6.56 to 19.7 feet) in length.
They were made by removing the black stone of the plain to uncover its white soil below, and line series of ancient trails.
Masato Sakai of Yamagata University and his team of Japanese archaeologists have been working in the area since 2004, and this is not their first discovery.
By 2018, the team had identified 190 geoglyphs by collecting images from aerial surveys and drones, which when added together with this latest batch makes for a total of 358 previously-unknown geoglyphs discovered by the Japanese-Peruvian team.
Believed to have been carved between 100 BCE and 200 CE, they depict humans, camelids such as llamas, alpacas and guanacos, birds, orcas, felines, and snakes, and at times can look almost childish.
Their purpose, as well as their larger cousins which make up a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is unknown.
WATCH aerial footage released by the university… (Note: GNN has no affiliation with any ads displayed)
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Quote of the Day: “If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.” – Thomas Aquinas (a quote about hand-wringing)
Photo by: Joakim Honkasalo (cropped) – Helsinki, Finland
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Celebrate the Chinese New Year—or Lunar New Year—this Sunday, as we say farewell to the celestial sign of the Tiger and enter the year of the Rabbit (tù (兔).
In the Chinese zodiac, rabbits are born every twelve years—in 2011, 1999, 1987, 1975, 1963, 1951, and so on.
Rabbit is a zodiac sign associated with the element of wood, although 2023 is the year of the water Rabbit.
For the uninitiated, there are 10 heavenly stems, represented by the five elements and the yin/yang dichotomy (5 x 2 = 10) which make up traditional Chinese astrology of a 60 year cycle.
Water years of yin will end in 3, i.e. 2023, while water years of yang will end in 2, i.e. 2022. Therefore this is the earthly-branch sign Rabbit, in the heavenly stem of water, in the year of yin. The last year of the water Rabbit was 1963.
With that out of the way, what will a yin-water Rabbit expect this year?
The horoscopes published in anticipation of the Year of the Rabbit suggest a year that’s anything but dull for. This is partially because, when averaged across a variety of horoscope websites—there’s almost no overlap—they all say completely different things.
Expect either incredible challenge, incredible reward, or anything in between. It’s a good year to have a baby, it’s also a bad year to have a baby. It’s a good year to start a new business, it’s also a bad year to start a new business. Rabbits will be healthy, but they also shouldn’t eat too much if they live in a temperate climate, but they also need to spend a lot of money to prevent aging, and they should have a lot of check ups, but they will also experience a lot of physical training breakthroughs… one gets the point.
FUN QUIZ: Baboon, Bear, or Bison: Find Out Which Animal Personality Best Matches Yours in a Free Fun Quiz
The reason the Rabbit is the fourth Chinese zodiac sign sounds a lot like the old tale of the Tortoise and the Hare.
When the Jade Emperor called all the animals to his palace, the Rabbit who was mighty proud of his speed, arrived first only to see no other animal was there. Taking a nap aside the road, he woke up to discover that Tiger, Ox, and Mouse had all arrived before him.
The most famous water Rabbit of modern times is Michael Jordan—the greatest basketball player to ever live. Although the horoscope for the water Rabbit, and the rabbit in general is of a quiet, super-polite (masculine trait) scholar that is gentle, weak-willed and quick to learn, and no one who ever met Michael Jordan described him as any of these things.
Famous Rabbits in general include Albert Einstein (Earth), Angelina Jolee and former spouse Brad Pitt, David Beckham (Wood), and Lionel Messi (Fire).
One thing the horoscopes agree on is that Rabbits, especially in this year of the water Rabbit, since water is the weakest point of matter, either when it is already dead or decaying, should stay away from Roosters—the least compatible sign for Rabbits.
Lucky numbers are 3, 6, and 9, and the auspicious direction is southwest. Unlucky colors are brown, white, and yellow; lucky colors are essentially everyone else.
RELATED: Seeing a Glass As Half-Full May Say More About Someone’s Personality Than Just Being Optimistic
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Scientists working in techno-agriculture have found that by covering crops with canopies of translucent solar panels, they can separate the light which generates energy from the light that leads to photosynthesis in plants.
This not only means a farmer could generate solar energy and crops at the same time, but better crops, and more energy than could be achieved with the two operations separately.
Different-colored light from our sun impacts biology on Earth in different ways. The blue spectrum of sunlight for example is what life uses to detect daytime, and is a trigger for major hormonal shifts in animals and plants from active to inactive behaviors.
Red light on the other end is preferentially what plants use to turn carbon dioxide into sugars. Red light isn’t as hot as blue light, and plants exposed to growing conditions with red light spectra show less heat stress than those exposed to blue light. Blue light on the other hand is what is needed to generate solar power in any meaningful way.
With this in mind, associate professor Majdi Abou Najm from the Univ. of California, Davis, tested organic solar panels made from translucent material that absorb the blue light to generate electricity, but allow the red light with its longer wavelengths to pass through to the crops below.
At the UC Davis Agricultural Experiment Station, Abou Najm and his team planted three different plots of processing tomatoes, a common central valley California crop, under a canopy of selective red light, another of selective blue, and a third uncovered plot.
MORE AGRICULTURE NEWS: California Begins Covering Canals with Solar Panels to Fight Drought
While the filtered light crops resulted in one-third less yield from the reduced sunlight, they produced half as many heat stressed, or “bad” tomatoes as the uncovered plot.
When the electricity and water savings are added in, the resulting picture becomes very profitable.
GNN has reported before on the recent phenomenon of “agrivoltaics,” a practice of growing shade tolerant crops under solar panel arrays. The shade protects the crops from heat stress, while the plants’ transpiration humidifies the air beneath the panels, cooling them down and increasing their electricity output.
MORE SOLAR NEWS: Solar Company Gets Bright Idea to Cover Storage Facilities in Solar Panels—Brings Power to 1,400 Homes
Abou Najm sees his translucent solar canopies as the inevitable next step in this practice as one doesn’t need to alternate rows of panels, nor deprive plants of the sun’s feeding rays.
Another benefit of these panels is that like plants’ leaves, they absorb light from the sun indirectly, unlike the large metal panels typical of arrays and rooftops that need direct sunlight to function.
SHINE A LIGHT On Your Friends’ Social Media Pages With This Hot Story…
2022 saw major advances, and even victories in the efforts to combat several diseases, from industrialized to tropical ones.
Starting at home, a study last year found that US cancer deaths had declined by 33% since 1991. This is equivalent to around 3.8 million people alive thanks to various efforts to combat the disease family.
The report was authored by the American Cancer Society, and published in the journal CA. American Cancer Society CEO Karen Knudsen called the drop “truly formidable,” while the report attributed the fall to the development of better treatments, the reduction in smoking habits, and earlier detection methods.
Just between 2019 and 2020, cancer death rates dropped 1.5%, while the deployment of the HPV vaccine was correlated with a 65% drop in cervical cancer rates from 2012 through 2019 among women in their 30s.
The report also found that not only are death rates falling, but 5-year survival rates for detected cancers have increased 68% among all diagnoses made between 2012 and 2018.
Cancer research often involves cutting edge medical research, but across West Africa and India where cutting edge medicine is not widely available, human determination has succeeded in nearly eradicating Guinea Worm disease.
There are records of this truly unpleasant parasite affecting human health going back thousands of years, and in 1989, there were nearly 1 million cases globally.
But in 2022, this unwelcome waterborne guest created just 15 cases worldwide—a decline of 99.998%, and almost all 15 of those cases occurred in Chad.
MORE MEDICINE NEWS: Nigerian Mom Designs Solar-Powered Cribs That Put an End to Baby Jaundice Disease
This monumental turnaround was not the result of some experimental vaccine, but simple education, teaching people how to avoid drinking contaminated water, when and where this mostly seasonal parasite is likely to be found, and how to treat water to purify it of the Guinea worm.
Other than Chad, Guinea Worm disease was also found in Uganda, which produced another medical milestone with the successful eradication of a recent Ebola outbreak.
The outbreak began in September, driven on by the incurable Sudan strain of the virus. It was the worst outbreak in 20 years, but even though there is no vaccine for the Sudan strain, the health authorities managed to contain it to just two administrative districts, and 142 confirmed cases.
READ ALSO: The Humble Potato Could Hold the Key to Beating Hospital Superbugs as Well as Crop Diseases
“The magic bullet has been our communities who understood the importance of doing what was needed to end the outbreak, and took action,” said health minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero last Wednesday.
Vaccine trials involving Oxford University are currently underway for the Sudan strain, but until that time, health authorities received congratulations for their swift actions, and were thanked for the “lessons learned.”
SHARE These Big Health Victories On Social Media…
A man from Luck, Wisconsin, population 1,191, just won the highest Megabucks lottery jackpot in 8 years after picking up $15.1 million.
Mark Cunningham bought the big winning ticket at Wayne’s Food Plus on 151 Butternut Ave. Luck.
Cunningham came to the Wisconsin Lottery office in Madison on Monday to claim his winning ticket, saying in a release that “Dreams really do come true,” while adding “I actually won $15.1 million and two dollars, [because] I also had a $2 winning ticket for the same drawing.”
The day was almost as crazy for the manager of Wayne’s Food Plus, who said he got “lots of phone calls.”
“I was told by the Lottery people that, now you’re going to be that Mecca,” Manager Paul Wondra said in a release from the state lottery company. “You sold a big ticket. You’re going to be the place to go. So far, it’s holding true.”
The village of Luck is about 2.5 square miles, and was founded by Danish immigrants in the late 1800s on the shores of Big Butternut Lake. Another town called West Denmark was founded by the same people to the northwest, on the shores of Little Butternut Lake.
The two settlements knew it was impractical to remain separate entities, but disagreed about which would be the center of town.
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The humor is reminiscent of GNN’s recent report that the town of “Dull” in Scotland decided in 2012 to twin itself with “Boring,” Oregon in the hopes it would make both more exciting.
In 2017, the mayor of a town called “Bland” in New South Wales, Australia, decided they wanted to get in on the act, and suggesting that together the towns could promote a tourist circuit known as the ‘Trinity of Tedium.’
Other US towns like Dreary and Ordinary have also been touted as potential partners.
MAKE Your Friends Laugh With This Incredible Turn Of Luck…
Quote of the Day: “Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.” – Swami Sivananda
Photo by: copyright GWC
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A study looking to find the bare minimum of physical activity required to prevent the well documented ill effects of continuous sitting determined that 5 minutes of walking every half hour was enough.
By looking at blood sugar levels and blood pressure, two important metrics of heart disease, the scientists were able to determine how much daily movement was required to get back to equilibrium from the negative effects of sitting.
Picture if you will, an office worker. Waking in the morning in time for coffee and perhaps breakfast with perhaps a spouse or perhaps children, the day begins with at least some sitting. Then climbing into one’s car, the office worker drives in a seated position to the office. There, between lunch and desk work, the worker spends 8-9 hours sitting before returning home, sitting in their car. Once home, they likely sit down for dinner, and perhaps a bit of television or reading; both done from the seated position.
Sitting time for adults in industrialized nations has been climbing for decades, and it increases the risk for all the diseases typical of those nations, i.e. type-2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, fatty liver disease, etc.
In a new study published in Medicine Science in Sports and Exercise, Keith Diaz et al. asked 11 healthy middle-aged individuals to complete an experiment in which they sat in a lab for 8 hours a day for 5 days to represent a normal workweek.
On some days they sat for the whole 8 hours, only rising for bathroom breaks. On others they were engaged in short bouts of walking with differing regularities to find the lowest amount of movement required to reduce their blood sugar and blood pressure.
CHECK OUT: Exercise Can Help Older Adults Retain Memories
“We found that a 5-minute light walk every half-hour was the only strategy that reduced blood sugar levels substantially compared with sitting all day,” Diaz wrote in The Conversation.
“In particular, 5-minute walks every half-hour reduced the blood sugar spike after eating by almost 60%, [and] that strategy also reduced blood pressure by four to five points compared with sitting all day.”
Defining exercise, and time spent in exercise has become a focus of physiologists of late, as recent evidence points out that time spent in movement for work purposes doesn’t confer the protections from the diseases mentioned above the same way exercise does. Where the dividing line between movement for work and movement for exercise sits is not well understood.
MORE EXERCISE NEWS: Intensive Exercise the ‘Best Way to Alleviate Symptoms of Chronic Anxiety Without Drugs or Therapy’
Furthermore, multi-day bouts of prolonged sitting creates an “exercise resistance” that can render even something like a 60-minute moderate intensity run meaningless in terms of its improvement for cardio-metabolic health.
This new research offers a concrete guideline for desk workers or office managers to employ, one that doesn’t rely on general guidelines from government agencies like the Dept. of Health and Human Services that simply state “move more, sit less,” or which recommend 150 minutes of moderate to intense physical activity per week, and which don’t address potential solutions for the workplace.
READ MORE: There’s ‘No Link’ Between Exercise and Developing Arthritis in the Knee
Exercise targets should be set if at all possible at levels to maintain robust muscle mass and cardiovascular strength, since there’s much more to life than just avoiding early death by common disease.
Exercise can protect against several forms of dementia, and of course maintaining muscle mass protects joints from age-related wear and tear or impacts—as goes the saying, “break your hip, die of pneumonia.”
GET UP AND MOVE PEOPLE! Share This Story With Your Friends…
For the first time in 400 years, beavers are back in the wilds of Hampshire, southern England.
Once hunted to extinction, this toothy engineer is now in high demand, and it’s hoped their building of dams will restore much of the local fresh water features that have suffered in their absence.
Given the names ‘Hazel’ and ‘Chompy’ through a naming competition by local schoolchildren, the Eurasian beavers have never met each other, but it’s hoped they will breed.
Hazel and Chompy were released onto the 925-acre (370-hectare) Ewhurst Estate near Basingstoke, Hampshire, owned by a Malaysian-born model and actress Mandy Lieu who was “thrilled” to have them, and who sees them as key to restoring ponds, streams, and wetlands on the estate.
Throughout Europe and America, beavers were hunted in many places to extinction for their furs, but they’re now in high demand for their incredible natural abilities as engineers. By building their dams they create and enrich ponds and streams, which for Eurocrat lawmakers means more carbon dioxide absorption in the soil.
The dams slow the passage of water through landscapes which has a variety of effects, including reducing flood risks downstream by expanding adjacent wetlands, and increasing the habitat for aquatic and semi-aquatic animals in the ecosystem.
To do the same thing with humans would undoubtedly cost millions in labor and administration, with on-site safety procedures, zoning and council planning, regulation, the renting of earth-moving equipment, accompanied scientific observational studies, reports to higher-ups, etc.
MORE REWILDING: Irish Metalhead Turns His Ancestral Estate into Model of Rewilding: It Naturally Grew Into Biodiverse Eden
“[B]eavers do this all for free!” said the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, who helped organize the reintroduction at Ewhurst after a similar program on the Isle of Wight.
“…Beavers offer a nature-based solution to improving the health and function of river catchments. The beaver-created wetlands can act as sponges which can capture organic sediments, and reduce the effects of agricultural runoff and harmful chemicals such as pesticides, which in turn helps to improve water quality downstream.”
Ms. Lieu helped with their release as part of her designs to rewild the Ewhurst Estate into an edible landscape that restores nature while providing wild foods. She said she was thrilled to see and help them settle into their environment.
WATCH the release here from the BBC.
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A man who may have saved the lives of 24 people by breaking into a school in Cheektowaga, upstate NY during the ‘worst storm in a generation’ has been given Super Bowl Tickets by his hometown team.
Jay Withey, the 27-year-old mechanic and hero, received the reward for his live-saving actions from the Buffalo Bills in collaboration with Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Legendary former Bills running back Thurman Thomas personally delivered the surprise to Withey on Friday, reports CNN.
“We love you. We know what you did on Christmas Eve was very heroic, and you’re our hero,” Thurman told Withey in a video released by the team.
“I can’t believe how far [the news of his deed] got. I got thank you letters from Australia, it’s wild,” says Withney.
He rescued 24 people from their cars during the Buffalo blizzard and sheltered them in a nearby school.@ThurmanThomas, @PThomas3434, and @BCBSWNY thanked Jay Withey for his acts of heroism with two tickets to Super Bowl LVII! ❤️💙 pic.twitter.com/ftHmXcRkzZ
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 13, 2023
Jay broke a window of Edge Academy on Christmas Eve in order to get 2 dozen people, including several seniors and two dogs, out of hurricane-force winds, snow, and deathly cold temperatures. He borrowed the academy’s snowblower to get people unstuck from the roads and into the school.
MORE LIKE THIS: McDonald’s Workers Open Their Restaurant as a 24-hour Storm Shelter During Blizzard in North East
Once inside, he found granola bars, water, and blankets in the nurses’ office, and gathered apples, juice, and cereal from the kitchen. The group sat out the storm, and before leaving cleaned up every trace of their presence.
One of the group, Mario Johnson, went back to the school to replace their stock of granola bars and inquire about the cost of the window.
The school declined to press any charges, nor accept any of Mario’s repeated attempts to pay for the window. “They’re just happy that we were safe and warm,” Mario said.
READ THE ORIGINAL STORY: Local Hero Broke into School to Save 24 People During a New York Blizzard
“The selflessness that people showed to help others during the storm is what Western NY is really made of,” a Police spokesperson said about the incident on Facebook.
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Poised to become one of the largest libraries in China, the new Wuhan Central Library takes inspiration from its geographical positioning at the confluence of two rivers.
Just as the waters at the confluence of the Yangtze and Han rivers are pulled into a central channel, visitors are swept into the library as if into a monumental canyon, with sedimentary layers replaced by shelves of books.
The 140,000-square-meter project connects to its surroundings via three large openings that will act as visual displays of life inside the building, sparking curiosity and intrigue. This distinctive, three-faced flowing shape celebrates the position of the “city of 100 lakes” at the confluence of two rivers, and will become a new recognisable landmark for Wuhan.
Managed by Dutch architects MVRDV, the library celebrates the sculptural force of rivers, and is set to be the focus of a “city versus nature” exterior scene, with tall vertical windows looking out over Wuhan’s central business district, and a long horizontal windowed wall looking out on a large park coming as part of the project.
“The topography of Wuhan was an important source of inspiration: we have this idea of a horizontal view towards the lakes and on the other hand, we have this more vertical view towards the city with the high rises,” says Jacob van Rijs, founding partner of MVRDV on their website.
MORE ARCHITECTURE NEWS: ‘Best New Skyscraper’ Mimics Nature: Looks Like 2 Mountains With a Valley, Water, and Greenery Between – LOOK
“This is nature versus the city, and the building is somehow focusing on this. I think this makes it an exciting place to gather.”
Large native trees will shade exposed areas of the interior from Wuhan’s hot climate. The advantage of using native vegetation is that little maintenance is needed to support their growth.
Sets of angled slats fixed at regular intervals called “louvres” will coat the roof of the building to reduce heat absorption.
“Openable elements for natural ventilation, combined with the use of smart devices and an efficient lighting system further reduce the building’s energy demands, while solar panels incorporated into the library’s flowing roof shapes provide the building with renewable energy,” the architects’ website explains.
SHARE This Stunning Concept Construction With Your Friends…
Quote of the Day: “You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old.” – George Burns
Photo by: Jaddy Liu
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A device that can harvest water from the air and provide hydrogen fuel—entirely powered by solar energy—has been a long-held dream of scientists, but it’s now close to fulfillment.
Chemical engineer Kevin Sivula and his team have made a significant step towards bringing this vision closer to reality by developing an ingenious yet simple system.
It combines semiconductor-based technology with novel electrodes that have two key characteristics: they are porous, to maximize contact with water in the air; and transparent, to maximize sunlight exposure of the semiconductor coating.
When the device is simply exposed to sunlight, it takes water from the air and produces hydrogen gas, which can then be injected into trucks, trains, or planes with hydrogen fuel cell batteries for green combustion.
In their research for renewable fossil-free fuels, engineers at the Federal Polytechnic School at Lausanne, in collaboration with Toyota Motor Europe, took inspiration from the way plants are able to convert sunlight into chemical energy using carbon dioxide from the air.
A plant essentially harvests carbon dioxide and water from its environment, and with the extra boost of energy from sunlight, can transform these molecules into sugars and starches, a process known as photosynthesis.
“Developing our prototype device was challenging since transparent gas-diffusion electrodes have not been previously demonstrated, and we had to develop new procedures for each step,” said Marina Caretti, lead author of the work.
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“However, since each step is relatively simple and scalable, I think that our approach will open new horizons for a wide range of applications starting from gas diffusion substrates for solar-driven hydrogen production.”
Coating a silicon oxide felt wafer with a transparent thin film of fluorine-doped tin oxide, resulted in a a transparent, porous, and conducting wafer, essential for maximizing contact with the water molecules in the air and letting photons through. A second transparent coating of semiconductor materials absorbs sunlight, and completes the process.
SIMILAR: New Solar-Powered Invention Creates Hydrogen Fuel from the Air
A proof of concept study in truth, the researchers nevertheless proved that hydrogen gas can be produced via sunlight and moisture in the air at a rate of 12%, compared to a 19% rate found in similar technologies for producing liquid hydrogen fuels, work which Dr. Sivula has also been a part of.
Will We Generate Hydrogen Fuel From Sunlight Someday? Share With Your Friends…
An empire which lasted 500 years was famous among writers for making a place in its society for animals, and the “bird palaces” of Istanbul are testament to that testimony.
Dating back as early as the 13th and 14th centuries, the bird palaces reflected an Ottoman Empire policy of compassion towards all living things, created as they are by god. Found on the sides of mosques, houses, fountains, libraries, baths, inns, and madrasas, these functional works of art make parts of the huge metropolis which is modern Istanbul an unlikely place for migratory birds like swallows and even storks.
“Storks and swallows can nest in birdhouses without fear of being shooed away. Dogs run loose on the streets, and people walk among them, carrying meat to feed cats and dogs,” wrote French traveler and painter Antoine-Laurent Castellan in 1812.
To wit, GNN reported just last year about how Istanbul pays for outdoor cat shelter areas for strays who become intertwined with the fabric of society due to their excellence as rat catchers and friendly companions.
“28th Ottoman Sultan Selim III ordered two birdhouses in the form of mansions be built on the walls of Selimiye Mosque,” reports Betül Tilmaç for the Daily Sabah, who came up with the idea of sharing these interesting cultural relics with the world.
It’s a far cry from city ordinances on pigeon spikes covering important buildings in the West today.
Tilmaç continues the historical quotations by referencing another French traveler Jean de Thevenot, who wrote that the Turk’s “benevolence extends to animals and birds,” and that the people who built the bird palaces “gave these houses names such as “birdhouse,” “dove hut” and “sparrow palace.”
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In the 19th century, the Ottomans built the Gurabahane-i Laklakan—an animal hospital in the city for migratory birds, especially the aforementioned storks.
It’s a beautiful reminder that no matter how large a city might grow, and Istanbul has 15 million inhabitants, if there’s room in a human heart for our feathered brethren, there’s room in a city.
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A woodcutter who built his own Hobbit house revealed he has never watched Lord of the Rings, but nevertheless lives in it almost off-grid despite being nearly 90.
Great-grandad Stuart Grant moved into the cottage he bought as a wreck with no roof and no doors in 1984 while he was renovating a house, but found it was so satisfying doing DIY on the quirky building which dated back 200 years, that he decided to make it his home.
He doesn’t have a mobile phone or use the internet and no longer drives due to his age, but he loves getting out and meeting people, which is good considering he has been inundated with visitors to his home in Tomich, near Inverness, after his house was posted on a French tourist board’s recommendations for north Scotland.
“I haven’t watched Lord of the Rings,” said Grant, who worked as a joiner and carpenter for decades. “it’s just a coincidence that my front door is almost the same shape and same kind of wood.”
“It was a shoemakers’ cottage and a croft. There was no roof, just four walls which are 200 years old. It is not a fancy house, it is made from other people’s leftovers.”
The old house had doorways, but no doors; window frames, but no windows, and there was no roof either. Outside there were only cows, chickens, and a donkey as neighbors. Building everything by hand, he described as working in “slow motion,” while living in a shed near to the cabin.
“I was always a glutton for scenic beauty, beautiful houses, and thatched cottages in England,” said Grant. “I cut the wood myself from fallen trees and collected stones from the river for the stonework. I put the stairs in. It took quite a few years, I never counted it. I just enjoyed doing it so much—I was getting such a buzz out of doing it.”
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As the tourists began coming—busloads—they would routinely apologize for disturbing him say they would probably feel a lot better if there were a collection box. He eventually acquiesced but insists no one has to put anything in it. Fast-forward to present day and he’s pulled over £5,000 out of it.
“You get a real buzz out of doing interesting stuff. I’ll be 90 in less than two weeks but I feel like a teenager,” he added.
TAKE a tour and meet Grant for yourself…
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After years of complex restoration work, the villa of two of Pompeii’s richest citizens has been reopened.
Buried by Vesuvius in 79 CE, the House of the Vettii “tells the story of Roman society,” with elegant frescoes flaunting the wealth accumulated in the wine business by two freed slaves.
Their names were Aulus Vettius Restitutus and Aulus Vettius Conviva, and rather than being brothers, it was more likely based on Roman naming customs that they were buddies in slavery to a master named Aulus Vettius.
Whenever they returned as freedmen, they amassed a great fortune with which they bought a house in Pompeii’s wealthy district and filled it with art. The home is protected by the god Priapus—god of fertility, displayed in a wall frieze and marble statue with a comically-large phallus.
Inside, the walls are lined with a large frieze of Cupids doing craftwork, probably representing the business the two men owned, and of other deities like Neptune (Poseidon the god of the sea).
The focal point of the dwelling is a large square garden filled with water fountains and statues.
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In a room beyond the kitchen it’s believed the two men ran a brothel, as the decorations became a lot raunchier. Next to Priapus at the entrance is a small inscription in Latin which refers to a Greek woman with “nice manners.”
It seems the men who had whittled away some years in slavery were not going to waste any time missing out on a chance to enrich themselves.
Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, told the Guardian that if there were one house he could visit in a time machine before the famous volcano buried the city, it would be the House of the Vettii, describing the number of treasures uncovered within as “absolutely astonishing.”
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This is the house which tells the story of Roman society,” he said. “On the one hand you have the artwork, paintings and statues, and on the other you have the social story [of the freed slaves]. The house is one of the relatively few in Pompeii for which we have the names of the owners.”
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