Tuesday links

Dorothy Parker's birthday: quotes, poems, a brief bio, and the weird journey of her ashes.

The etymology of 'orange': Which came first, the color or the fruit?

History of Money Design: How Did American Dollar Bills Change?

These awkward Russian glamour photos are a hoot.

How dinosaurs became birds.

Smartphone screens found to be more than three times dirtier than a toilet seat.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include the histories of 1. macaroni and cheese, and 2. posthumous executions, the anniversary of the death of climate change hero Genghis Khan, Steve Jobs illegitimate daughter, and Davy Crockett's birthday.

Tuesday links

The Swiss Army Survival Tampon: 7 Survival Uses. Related, from the same guy: 11 Ways A Condom Can Save Your Life.

Getting angry and flipping over a table: the supercut.

Interactive Map Shows Where Your House Would Have Been 750 Million Years Ago. Type in your address and use the drop-down arrow at the top of the page to chose how far back to go, or just use the up and down arrow keys.

As a recruiting tool, the U.S. Navy built a battleship in New York City's Union Square. It was there from 1917-1920.

The parakeet has a goiter: the best standard publisher rejection letter ever.

Dinosaur Doom Almost Wiped Birds Out, Too.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include the birthday of Ambrose Bierce (author of The Devil's Dictionary), the history of state liquor laws, awkward pregnancy photos, Japanese spider fighting, and that time the U.S. released a bioweapon in San Francisco.

Friday links

Magna Carta was signed on June 15, 1215: history, quotes, Horrible Histories and Monty Python explanations. Related, Mark Steyn's The Field Where Liberty Was Sown, on re-learning those lessons.

How did nuts and bananas come to mean “crazy”?

Secret Rooms Inside The World’s Most Famous Landmarks.

For Father's Day, a selection of parenting advice from Homer Simpson: “Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try". Related: here are some Father's Day lessons from Walter White, Don Draper and Tywin Lannister, and one of my favorite Dad stories (NSFW- language).

How the West Was Wired: before telephone company wiring was ubiquitous, isolated Great Plains farmers used barbed-wire fences to transmit telephone calls. 

Before Camping Got Wimpy: Roughing It With the Victorians.

ICYMI, Tuesday's links are here, and include how to email a cat, Anne Frank's birthday (including a video tour of the annex where her family hid for two years prior to their arrest), weeding fields with flamethrowers, and that time the U.S. Postal Service tried delivering mail by missile.

Monday links

The Guy Who Makes the World’s Best Paper Airplanes.

The Theater That Shakespeare Stole.

The Invention of the Baby Carrot

Phrases commonly used today which are derived from obsolete technologies.

This device was used to resuscitate canaries in coal mines.

The Surprisingly Complex Design of the Ziploc Bag.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include medieval fitness programs, an interactive map showing all of the roads leading to Rome, lost survival tips from 100 years ago (with illustrations), and the Great Sperm Race, scaled up to human size (plus bonus Monty Python). 

Friday links

March 17 is Saint Patrick’s Day: origin, history, videos, and how to make your own green beer. Related: From Slave to Saint, The Story of Patrick and why are four-leaf clovers lucky?

The first American woman to command a ship was a pregnant 19 year old. She did it while fighting off a mutiny, nursing an incapacitated husband, and braving gale-force winds.

The United States v. Paramount and How Movie Theater Concessions Got So Expensive.

This is nuts - watch these guys changing tires while driving.

The Long Linguistic Journey to ‘Dagnabbit’

Why it’s Impossible to Accurately Measure a Coastline.

ICYMI, Thursday's links are here, and include the Ides of March, a history of hair transplants, what antibiotics are made of, shoe rationing in the U.S. during WWII, and, since Stephen Hawking died on Einstein's birthday, the Hawking vs Einstein rap battle.

Tuesday links

Prohibition in the United States began on January 16, 1920: here's some history, contemporaneous newsreels, the women who tried to telepathically influence the vote, Abraham Lincoln and Milton Friedman.

The Forgotten History Of How Automakers Invented The Crime Of 'Jaywalking'.

Why Do Toll-Free Numbers Start With 800?

The Ultimate Paper Airplane.

Tequila is good for your health, according to top scientists.

Why do we call gadgets "doohickeys?"

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include the 1918 Flu pandemic, Napoleon’s descendants, the 99th anniversary of Boston's deadly 2.3 million gallon molasses flood, and neurological disorders in Alice in Wonderland.

Friday links

How Falconry Shaped the English Language.

What it Takes to Cook Some of Literature's Most Famous Meals.

How long, exactly, is a jiffy?

On June 10, 1964, Democrats Filibustered the Civil Rights Act.

Stunning Photos of Earth from the International Space Station.

The Wartime Spies Who Used Knitting as an Espionage Tool.

ICYMI, Thursday's links are here, and include the cut-throat world of toddler bike racing, early gas station architecture, tequila as a weight loss tool, food photography tricks, and 17th century methods for killing snakes and fleas. 

Wednesday links

How Far Back In Time Could You Go And Still Understand English?

A History of Tug-of-War Fatalities.

The Science of Facial Hair: What Signals Do Beards, Stubble, and Mustaches Send to Others?

It's William Shatner's birthday: here he is in 1978 'singing' Rocket Man, plus a Star Trek/Monty Python mashup.

'London Bridge is down': the secret plan for the days after the Queen’s death.

Why We Have Such Complicated Feelings About Eating Horses.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include silent film-era movie effects, vintage armored cars, blowing up a watermelon with 20,000 volts of electricity, and the first day of Spring.

How Far Back In Time Could You Go And Still Understand English?

The English language has changed over time - if you had a time machine, how far back could you go and still understand English? At what point in history would you not be able to understand?

YouTube:

If you went back in time to the 1800's and 1700's, you'd probably still be okay. This except is from the book 'Robinson Crusoe', in 1719:

"I, poor miserable Robinson Crusoe, 

being shipwrecked during a dreadful storm in the offing, 

came on shore on this dismal, unfortunate island, 

which I called “The Island of Despair”

That's fairly easy to understand, but you might struggle with old slang words like 'batty fang' and 'kickerapoo'.

batty fang - a beating

kickerapoo - dead

land pirates - highway robbers

gutfoundered - very hungry

whapper - a big lie

Nitsqueeger - Hairdresser

Xantippe - an ill tempered wife

Abbess - a nun

Thornback - a spinster

Barber-monger - a vain man

Bleater - someone who complains a lot

Brabble - to quarrel loudly

Crapulous - the feeling of being too full

Hugger-mugger - secretly

Lettice-cap - a medical device like a hair net

Pigarlik - a bald head

Petty fogger - a dodgy lawyer

Mumpsimus - the act of sticking to old mistaken beliefs about language and customs simply out of habit

The 1600s is the time of Shakespeare. 

"Thy natural magic and dire property,

On wholesome life usurp immediately."

Here, Lucianus talking about the natural magic of poison. and how using it to kill the king will usurp the throne.

Trickier to follow, but not everyone spoke like that. You would hear lots of words you didn't understand though.

The bigger problem for you now is the pronunciation. The sound of the vowels has changed, and the accent is becoming much harder to understand. 

For example, "tea" is pronounced "tay", and "gone" is pronounced "goan".

In the 1500s people essentially speak like the Bible. 

"Now therefore thus saith the Lord, 

Thou shalt not come down 

from that bed on which thou 

art gone up, but shalt surely die."

KJV 2 Kings 1:4

There are also hundreds of words that don't mean a thing to you. 

Before about 1400 AD, you'd hear Middle English, and you would hardly understand anything, written or spoken. 

"Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote

And bathed every veyne in swich licour,

Of which vertu engendred is the flour;"

The Canterbury Tales, 1389

If you went all the way back to one 1000 AD, you'd hear Old English:

Lord's Prayer

Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum;

Si þin nama gehalgod

to becume þin rice

gewurþe ðin willa

on eorðan swa swa 

on heofonum.

Good luck explaining that you need 'one point twenty-one Jigawatts' to get home!

h/t PreSurfer

Friday links

An animated history of Valentine's Day, plus an explanation of why the heart is associated with love.

DIY machine sorts M&Ms and Skittles by color.

BBC: The 'untranslatable' emotions you never knew you had.

Supercut of people running in slow motion in movies.

Humans And Booze - A 9,000-Year Love Affair.

Eating spicy food might help you live longer.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include the etymologies of all 50 state’s names, 1649 suggestion for adding weasel brain to your cheese to keep rats and mice away, WW1 meatless (and wheatless) recipes, and a Bill of Mortality showing causes of death in London for the week of Aug 15 - 22, 1665. 

Friday links

Dr. Samuel Johnson was born on this date in 1709: here's a selection of his insults and Scotland-bashing quotes.

25 Unusual Foreign Travel Warnings for Visiting the U.S.

This Father Pulled Out His Daughter’s Wobbly Tooth With A Drone.

Hormone Guide: How to Speak to Women.

Harvard linguist points out the 58 most commonly misused words and phrases.

Close Calls: Three Times When the Human Race Barely Escaped Extinction.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include a selection of really bad book covers (and books), the world's longest (700 miles) yard sale, 10 and 8 year old Seattle girls who launched their own spacecraft, and footage of an 800K gallon Jim Beam spill 1. hit by lightning then 2. sucked into the air by a tornado.