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Is It Because You Can't Get Married?

Seeded on Thu Feb 23, 2012 3:08 PM EST ()

My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love.

civil-rights, same-sex-marriage, interracial-marriage, loving-v-virginia

The wondrous database that reveals what books Americans checked out of the library a century ago.

Seeded on Mon Nov 21, 2011 9:58 AM EST (Slate)

So when I learned about What Middletown Read, a database that tracks the borrowing records of the Muncie Public Library between 1891 and 1902, I had some of the same feelings physicists probably have when new subatomic particles show up in their cloud chambers.

books, education, reading, library, libraries

The story behind the world's oldest museum, built by a Babylonian princess 2,500 years ago

Seeded on Mon Jun 6, 2011 9:33 AM EDT (io9)

In 1925, archaeologist Leonard Woolley discovered a curious collection of artifacts while excavating a Babylonian palace. They were from many different times and places, and yet they were neatly organized and even labeled.

history, museums, archaeology, babylon, babylonian

The kids truly are all right

Seeded on Fri Apr 1, 2011 10:09 AM EDT (CNN)

Stop anyone on the street who looks, say, older than 40, and ask whether teenagers are doing better or worse than a decade or two ago. Odds are she or he will say worse -- and be wrong.

families, parents, us-news, teens, kids-these-days

Paleo-Indians settled North America earlier than thought: study

Seeded on Fri Mar 25, 2011 9:50 AM EDT (PhysOrg.com)

"But the kicker was the discovery of nearly 16,000 artifacts below the Clovis horizon that dated to 15,500 years ago," Waters notes.

history, archaeology, clovis, paleo-indians

The Myth of the Panicking Disaster Victim -- and Why We Should Be Inspired This Week

Seeded on Tue Mar 22, 2011 1:48 PM EDT (The Huffington Post)

When the social scientist Enrico Quarantelli tried to write a thesis how people descend into chaos and panic after disasters, he concluded: "My God! I can't find any instances of it." On the contrary, he wrote, in disasters "the social order does not break down...

history, disaster, cooperation, human-spirit

America's ancient cave art: Mysterious drawings, thousands of years old, offer a glimpse of lost Native American cultures and traditions.

Seeded on Mon Mar 21, 2011 12:25 PM EDT (Slate)

Over the past few decades, in Tennessee, archaeologists have unearthed an elaborate cave-art tradition thousands of years old.

history, native-americans, cave-art, mississippian

Arizona Shootings Trigger Surge in Glock Sales

Seeded on Thu Jan 13, 2011 9:20 AM EST (Bloomberg.com)

Greg Wolff, the owner of two Arizona gun shops, told his manager to get ready for a stampede of new customers after a Glock-wielding gunman killed six people at a Tucson shopping center on Jan. 8.

guns, us-news, firearms, glock, nra, gun-bans, arizona-shootings

Cool! A banner ad! Things Real People Don't Say About Advertising

Seeded on Thu Jan 13, 2011 9:18 AM EST (Tumblr)

Things real people DON'T say about advertising.

entertainment, advertising, humor

Humans' treatment of other animals shaped our evolution

Seeded on Thu Jul 22, 2010 4:38 PM EDT (io9)

"Humans are one of the few animals that adopts and cares for other animals. Our cross-species connections might be older and more important than we ever imagined, driving human evolution for millions of years and even helping us invent language.

history, evolution, anthropology, animal-husbandry, prehistory

A Very Scary Fireworks Show: Exploding H-Bombs In Space

Seeded on Fri Jul 2, 2010 3:13 PM EDT (NPR)

Since we're coming up on the Fourth of July, and towns everywhere are preparing their better-than-ever fireworks spectaculars, we would like to offer this humbling bit of history. Back in the summer of 1962, the U.S.

history, space, cold-war, nuclear-weapons, nuclear-testing, very-scary-light-show-source, bomb-parties, hydrogren-bombs

Saturday matinee: the post-apocalyptic library education show Tomes & Talismans

Seeded on Sat Jun 26, 2010 10:35 PM EDT (io9)

In 1986, Mississippi Educational Television created Tomes & Talismans, a poorly acted 13-episode educational program designed to teach children how to use microfiches and the Dewey Decimal System. It also took place in the post-apocalypse. Huh? Read on...

history, information, libraries, public-television, post-apocalyptic

'It's the truth' : Tim Peeler speaks on spotting sasquatch, national attention and more

Seeded on Wed Jun 23, 2010 2:21 PM EDT (The Star Online)

But Peeler said the incident hasn't been blown out of proportion. Far from it. "No, it's the truth. It just spread so I can't believe it."

odd-news, bigfoot, cryptozoology

Cleveland County man reports encounter with Bigfoot

Seeded on Tue Jun 15, 2010 4:29 PM EDT (The Charlotte Observer)

He was 10 feet tall, with a long beard and yellowish-blond hair, Tim Peeler says. And in the early-morning hours of June 5, Peeler told authorities, the creature – a Cleveland County version of Bigfoot – wandered onto Peeler's property in the rural northwest part of the co …

odd-news, bigfoot, cryptozoology

The million mummy question: Why are there a million mummies buried near Snefu's Seila pyramid?

Seeded on Sat Jun 12, 2010 7:06 PM EDT (heritage-key.com)

Nearly 4,600 years ago a third dynasty pharaoh named Snefru launched one of the greatest construction projects in human history.

history, egypt, archaeology, mummies, pyramids

Pagan Antiquities Unearthed in Israel

Seeded on Thu Jun 10, 2010 2:29 PM EDT (Discovery.com)

Israeli archeologists have found a large cache of intact pagan vessels piled one atop the other in a natural hollow of bedrock in Tel Qashish, southeast of Haifa.

history, israel, archaeology, pagans, israel-antiquities-authority

Librarians Do Gaga At The University Of Washington (VIDEO) ... Awkward Or Amazing?

Seeded on Fri Jun 4, 2010 5:00 PM EDT (The Huffington Post)

A group of University of Washington librarians and library science students have made their own rendition of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" -- library-style, of course.

entertainment, videos, parody, librarians, lady-gaga, pokerface

Face of medieval knight reconstructed by computers

Seeded on Thu May 20, 2010 9:34 AM EDT (Telegraph)

The mysterious skeleton was uncovered along with nine other people's remains underneath a chapel at Stirling Castle in 1997.

health, archaeology, forensics, stirling-castle

Stanford University prepares for 'bookless library'

Seeded on Wed May 19, 2010 12:09 PM EDT ()

Box by box, decades of past scholarship are being packed up and emptied from two old libraries, Physics and Engineering, to make way for the future: a smaller but more efficient and largely electronic library that can accommodate the vast, expanding and interrelated literature of …

education, research, stanford-university, libraries, scholarship

Nothin' wrong with 'teen fiction'

Seeded on Fri May 14, 2010 12:09 PM EDT (Guardian Unlimited)

At 11, it didn't occur to me to take issue with my teachers' characterisation of Blume and Danziger as "easy reading"; literary muzak.

entertainment, books, reading, teen-fiction

14th-Century Aqueduct Found in Jerusalem

Seeded on Wed May 12, 2010 12:41 PM EDT (ABC News)

Archeologists said Tuesday they have uncovered a 14th-century aqueduct that supplied water to Jerusalem for almost 600 years along a route dating back to the time of Jesus — but unlike most such finds, this time the experts knew exactly where to look. Photographs from the late …

history, archaeology, jerusalem, acqueduct

The Art of Onfim: Medieval Novgorod Through the Eyes of a Child

Seeded on Thu Apr 29, 2010 3:38 PM EDT ()

One of the most fascinating archeological finds in Russia has been the discovery of hundreds of "birchbark documents" (messages written on the bark of birch trees with a sharp stylus) that were created from the 11th to the 15th century.

history, archaeology, historical-documents, doodles, doodling

Loch Ness Monster Files Show Scottish Cops Were Worried

Seeded on Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:38 PM EDT (The Huffington Post)

What lurks beneath the dark waters of Scotland's Loch Ness? Newly released documents on display Tuesday in Scotland show that during the 1930s, police in Scotland were convinced some sort of creature inhabited the Highlands lake – so sure, in fact, that they worried about how t …

odd-news, loch-ness-monster, nessie, cryptozoology

Vanished: 'Chupacabra' walks away from Fiesta booth

Seeded on Thu Apr 22, 2010 5:59 PM EDT ()

If you think you have seen it all at Fiesta, then you must have stopped in at this unusual booth at Fiesta Fantasias held at Market Square. On display was a mummified chupacabra.

odd-news, cryptozoology, chubacabra

Lead from a Roman ship to be used for hunting neutrinos

Seeded on Fri Apr 16, 2010 9:02 PM EDT (PhysOrg.com)

The National Laboratories of Gran Sasso (LNGS) of Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) has received 120 2,000-year-old lead bricks from the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari in Sardinia.

science, archaeology, neutrinos

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