Friday links

September 13 - 14, 1814 is the the anniversary of the battle of Baltimore, inspiration for the Star-Spangled Banner.

The code breakers of Renaissance Venice.

The History of Tater Tots.

September 14, 1861 was the Night of the Flaming Ballerinas.

How Did the Ancient Romans Manage to Build Perfectly Straight, Ultra Durable Roads?

Mud Maker: The Man Behind MLB's Essential Secret Sauce - the third generation of a family that collects the mud that is used to treat every single regulation major league baseball, roughly 240,000 per season.

ICYMI, most recent links are here, and include strategies for fighting multiple assailants, the accidental invention of the Slinky, glamorous 1920s beach parties, and the anniversary of the Battle of Borodino, on which War and Peace and the 1812 Overture are based.

Wednesday links

T'was the eighteenth of April in seventy-five: The midnight ride of William Dawes and Samuel Prescott (and Paul Revere).

The Forgotten Nazi History of ‘One-Pot Meals’.

Dorothy’s ‘Wizard Of Oz’ Ruby Slippers On Sale For A Whopping $6 Million.

On April 18, 1906, an earthquake and fire destroyed 80% of San Francisco: here's a documentary, Library of Congress footage of the destruction, and side by side film of Market Street four days before the earthquake compared to afterward.

Why It's Almost Impossible to Throw a 110 MPH Fastball

Kansas locked up more than 5,000 women and girls for having STDs.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include Spring cleaning, 19th century style, a 1940's booklet to “assist male bosses in supervising their new female employees" entitled "Women are teachable", and predictions for 2018 from various times in the 20th century.

Monday links

Infographic: The Flowchart of Medieval Penitent Sexual Decision-Making.

We missed Dog Farting Awareness Day yesterday, but Scientific American's article on the science of dog farts is still worthwhile.

When Does Work Actually Get Done? Work gets done at 11AM on a Monday in October. At all other times of day, we're basically slacking.

A history of the joke "Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?"

The Physics Behind a Baseball Bat’s Sweet Spot. Related: Mark Steyn on the history of the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".

Inside the Secret Workshop of the Louvre.

ICYMI, the most recent links are here, and are all April Fool's Day related.

Friday links

Happy Cinco de Mayo. And here's an illustrated history of Tex-Mex food.

Europe’s Bog Bodies Are Starting to Reveal Their Secrets.

Nazi Board Games of World War II.

Gorgeous X-Ray Photographs of Plants and Animals.

McDonald’s introduces fry-fork utensil with new sandwiches

Take Me Out to the Ball Game: The story of Baseball's National Anthem.

ICYMI, Thursday's links are here, and include International Respect for Chickens Day and Star Wars Day, how to develop Jason Bourne-level situational awareness, the legend of Ludgar the War Wolf, King of the Trebuchets. and a 16th century warning about herb-caused brain scorpions: Take heede therefore ye smellers of Basil.

Friday links

If you grew up in the 1980s, or have kids who did, you'll love this: Supercut of dancing in ‘80s movies (set to Lionel Richie’s “Dancing on the Ceiling”)

Habits of highly mathematical people.

11 Weird Sports That Were Actually In The Olympics. Kind of related: Watch The Opening Ceremony of the 1936 Nazi Olympic Games.

From 1944, head shots of all of the ways US intelligence thought Hitler might try to disguise himself.

A 1730 map of Paris.

The Origins of All 30 Major League Baseball Team Names.

ICYMI, Wednesday's links are here, and include the experimental nuclear reactor secretly built under the University of Chicago, photographs of elegant in-flight airplane dining from the 1950s, the use of trial by touch to determine guilt in colonial America. and a set on anti-communist propaganda posters (including my personal favorite, "Is Your Washroom Breeding Bolsheviks?").

Wednesday links

36 Fascinating Baseball Facts to Kick Off the Season, plus some first pitch history: worst ceremonial 1st pitches in baseball history, 100 Years of Presidential first pitches, Bush vs Obama first pitches.

Researchers may have developed a dolphin-to-English translator that works in real time.

Before there was radar: ships with WW1 era "dazzle" camouflage.  Related, how insects relate to that sort of camouflage, and why a zebra has stripes.

Because it's important to always be battle-ready: How to Poop Like a Samurai

Safecracking for dummies.

ICYMI: Monday's links, which were largely a roundup of April Fool's Day history, pranks and hoaxes, are here.

Compilation: worst ceremonial 1st pitches in baseball history, plus 100 Years of Presidential First Pitches, Bush vs Obama

100 Years of Presidential First Pitches

Obama's 2010 First Pitch vs. Bush's 2001 First Pitch: