Mildly interesting
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ORNAMENTAL HERMITS were hired by wealthy landowners in the 18th century in Britain and Ireland to live on their landscaped estates.
Ornamental hermits were part living garden ornament, part conversation piece. They were meant to evoke a sense of ancient wisdom, solitude, and rustic wildness, aligning with the era’s fascination with nature, ruins, and the sublime. Sometimes the contracts were bizarrely specific: the hermit might be paid to grow out his hair and beard, wear rags or druid-like robes, never wash, avoid speaking to visitors, and remain on the estate for years, providing an atmosphere of poetic decay.
Some estates advertised for hermits in newspapers. One famous example is Charles Hamilton’s estate at Painshill Park in Surrey. He built a hermitage and offered a seven-year post to any man willing to live as a recluse under strict conditions. Legend says the first hired hermit was discovered at a local pub after only a few weeks and was promptly dismissed.
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More surprises that I would have guessed.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16vRBZrtyL/?mibextid=wwXIfr
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@Mik said in Mildly interesting:
Indeed. What's Mixue? The meteoric rise of Subway, Starbucks.
Subway, in particular, was interesting to me. I wonder if their success has much to do with the simplicity in terms of food prep and kitchens? No grills, no deep fryers and the infrastructure that goes along with that. Just refrigerators, a couple of toaster ovens and standard kitchen prep stuff… Lower retail space needed, lower equipment costs and maintenance, lower training, it really is simple.
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"Imagine standing in a neighborhood reduced to rubble—no homes, no shelter, no signposts of life—only silence where once there was vibrant community. Now picture that devastation unfolding beneath the waves, where coral reefs—once the rainforests of the sea—are fading into ghost towns. Over half of the world’s coral reefs have disappeared since the 1950s, and in Australia alone, nearly 50% of the Great Barrier Reef’s coral died in just two heatwaves.
But where destruction leaves a void, innovation dares to fill it.
Off Australia’s coast, scientists are turning to an unlikely hero: 3D printers. With ceramic blocks designed like underwater Lego, they’re building homes for fish, one interlocking piece at a time. And the wildest part? The ocean is responding. Fish are already moving in. Coral is beginning to regrow. Nature is adapting to what humanity has created—this time, not out of exploitation, but restoration"
