Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Brite
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse

The New Coffee Room

  1. TNCR
  2. General Discussion
  3. Mildly interesting

Mildly interesting

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General Discussion
2.7k Posts 34 Posters 475.9k Views 1 Watching
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • kluursK Offline
    kluursK Offline
    kluurs
    wrote last edited by
    #2704

    image.png

    1 Reply Last reply
    • kluursK Offline
      kluursK Offline
      kluurs
      wrote last edited by
      #2705

      image.png

      taiwan_girlT 1 Reply Last reply
      • kluursK kluurs

        image.png

        taiwan_girlT Offline
        taiwan_girlT Offline
        taiwan_girl
        wrote last edited by
        #2706

        @kluurs I remember reading something similar about tardigrades (water bears). The US army actually had given a grant to scientists to study them. If I remember, it related to being able to re-hydrate blood, and possibly being able to use de-hydrated blood because of its easier to store and transport.

        1 Reply Last reply
        • MikM Offline
          MikM Offline
          Mik
          wrote last edited by
          #2707

          Since 1630, land reclamation has made Boston over 10 times larger

          IMG_5219.jpeg

          "The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell." Simone Weil

          1 Reply Last reply
          • jon-nycJ Online
            jon-nycJ Online
            jon-nyc
            wrote last edited by
            #2708

            I hope when Indians stand in that reclaimed land they do a land acknowledgment honoring the European population that first settled it.

            If you don't take it, it can only good happen.

            1 Reply Last reply
            • MikM Offline
              MikM Offline
              Mik
              wrote last edited by
              #2709

              IMG_5220.jpeg

              "The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell." Simone Weil

              1 Reply Last reply
              • HoraceH Offline
                HoraceH Offline
                Horace
                wrote last edited by
                #2710

                Link to video

                Education is extremely important.

                1 Reply Last reply
                • MikM Offline
                  MikM Offline
                  Mik
                  wrote last edited by
                  #2711

                  “Bill of mortality” from the Great Plague of London's deadliest week, which ended on this day in 1665, leaving a count of 7165 dead.

                  In addition to the high count attributed to "Plague" and other expected maladies of the time, we see deaths assigned to more enigmatic causes — “Frighted”, “Suddenly”, “Winde”, “Teeth”, and “Planet”. In addition to those that paint a very specific and vivid picture, e.g. “Burnt in his Bed by a Candle at St. Giles Cripplegate”.

                  More info, and the whole year of "bills" to view, here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/londons-dreadful-visitation-bills-of-mortality

                  image.png

                  "The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell." Simone Weil

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  • A Offline
                    A Offline
                    AndyD
                    wrote last edited by AndyD
                    #2712

                    Screenshot_20250930-065132_TikTok.jpg

                    Can't recall seeing a relief map of this area; look at all those mountainous areas in Yemen etc!

                    bachophileB 1 Reply Last reply
                    • markM Offline
                      markM Offline
                      mark
                      wrote last edited by
                      #2713

                      IMG_0245.jpeg

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      • kluursK Offline
                        kluursK Offline
                        kluurs
                        wrote last edited by
                        #2714

                        image.png

                        AxtremusA 1 Reply Last reply
                        • A Offline
                          A Offline
                          AndyD
                          wrote last edited by
                          #2715

                          Super photo(shop) of what it may have looked like when new; nonetheless true
                          https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/spain-uncovered-megalithic-monument/

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          • A AndyD

                            Screenshot_20250930-065132_TikTok.jpg

                            Can't recall seeing a relief map of this area; look at all those mountainous areas in Yemen etc!

                            bachophileB Offline
                            bachophileB Offline
                            bachophile
                            wrote last edited by bachophile
                            #2716

                            @AndyD said in Mildly interesting:

                            Screenshot_20250930-065132_TikTok.jpg

                            Can't recall seeing a relief map of this area; look at all those mountainous areas in Yemen etc!

                            yemen is not on the map, thats over to the east across the red sea, maybe you are referring to the Sinai peninsula, which in the south is quite mountainous (eg...Mount Sinai)

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            👍
                            • jon-nycJ Online
                              jon-nycJ Online
                              jon-nyc
                              wrote last edited by
                              #2717

                              If you don't take it, it can only good happen.

                              taiwan_girlT 1 Reply Last reply
                              • jon-nycJ jon-nyc

                                taiwan_girlT Offline
                                taiwan_girlT Offline
                                taiwan_girl
                                wrote last edited by
                                #2718

                                @jon-nyc Interesting. I would not have guessed that. I would have thought it was younger 100+ years ago.

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                • W Offline
                                  W Offline
                                  Wim
                                  wrote last edited by
                                  #2719

                                  WW II

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  • kluursK kluurs

                                    image.png

                                    AxtremusA Offline
                                    AxtremusA Offline
                                    Axtremus
                                    wrote last edited by
                                    #2720

                                    @kluurs said in Mildly interesting:

                                    image.png

                                    What, no companion articles on sighting of UFOs landing there?

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    • MikM Offline
                                      MikM Offline
                                      Mik
                                      wrote last edited by Mik
                                      #2721

                                      This is interesting, if true. Complete opposite of what we learned from monopoly, which was to amass wealth and mercilessly crush your opponents. Of course we were like that with everything. All competition was blood sport.

                                      The original Monopoly was invented by a woman in 1904 to highlight the dangers of unchecked capitalism, she was told her concept was too complex, then the idea was stolen.
                                      Long before Monopoly became a family game-night staple, it was a pointed critique of economic inequality. The game was originally created in 1904 by Elizabeth Magie, an American writer, inventor, and staunch supporter of economist Henry George’s ideas about land reform. She called it The Landlord’s Game and designed it to demonstrate how wealth accumulation and rent-seeking concentrated power in the hands of a few while impoverishing everyone else.
                                      Magie patented the game in 1904, including two rule sets: one where players competed to monopolize property and another where everyone benefited equally from shared wealth — a direct moral lesson about the difference between greed and fairness. She hoped it would teach players that monopolies harm society.
                                      Years later, Charles Darrow encountered a version of Magie’s game, modified and circulating informally among friends and communities. He sold it to Parker Brothers in the 1930s, claiming it as his own invention. The company bought Magie’s patent for just $500 and erased her name from history. Monopoly went on to become one of the best-selling board games of all time — ironically celebrating the very capitalist spirit it was meant to criticize.
                                      Added Fact: Elizabeth Magie’s original 1904 patent for The Landlord’s Game remains one of the earliest known board game patents filed by a woman in the United States.

                                      alt text

                                      "The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell." Simone Weil

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      • MikM Offline
                                        MikM Offline
                                        Mik
                                        wrote last edited by Mik
                                        #2722

                                        There's a lesson here. I'd never heard this story.

                                        𝗗𝗿. Frank Mayfield was touring the Tewksbury Institute when, on his way out, he accidentally bumped into an elderly floor maid. To ease the awkwardness, Dr. Mayfield struck up a conversation.

                                        “How long have you worked here?” he asked.

                                        “I’ve worked here almost since the place opened,” she replied.

                                        “What can you tell me about the history of this place?”

                                        “I don’t think I can tell you much,” she said, “but I can show you something.”

                                        She led him down to the basement beneath the oldest wing of the building and pointed to a small, rusted cell. “That’s the cage where they used to keep Annie Sullivan,” she said.

                                        “Who’s Annie?”

                                        The maid explained that Annie was a young girl brought there because she was considered incorrigible—wild, uncontrollable, impossible to manage. She bit, screamed, and threw her food. Doctors and nurses couldn’t even examine her.

                                        “I was just a few years younger than Annie,” the maid continued. “I used to think, ‘I’d hate to be locked in a cage like that.’ I wanted to help her, but if the doctors couldn’t, what could someone like me do?

                                        “One night I baked some brownies after work. The next day, I set them on the floor outside her cage and said, ‘Annie, I baked these just for you. You can take them if you want.’ Then I hurried away, afraid she’d throw them. But she didn’t. She took the brownies and ate them. After that, she was a little nicer to me. Sometimes I’d talk to her, and once I even got her laughing.

                                        “One of the nurses noticed and told the doctor. They asked if I’d help them with Annie. So whenever they needed to see her, I went in first to calm her, explain things, and hold her hand. That’s how they discovered Annie was nearly blind.”

                                        After a year of slow, difficult progress, the Perkins Institute for the Blind opened. Annie was sent there, where she learned to read, write, and eventually became a teacher herself.

                                        Years later, Annie returned to Tewksbury to visit and to help. The Director remembered a letter he had just received from a desperate father. His daughter was blind, deaf, and thought to be “deranged.” He didn’t want to put her in an asylum and asked if anyone might come work with her at home.

                                        That is how Annie Sullivan became the lifelong companion and teacher of Helen Keller.

                                        When Helen Keller later received the Nobel Prize, she was asked who had most influenced her life. She answered, “Annie Sullivan.”

                                        But Annie replied, “No, Helen. The woman who influenced us both was a floor maid at Tewksbury who brought a little girl some brownies.”

                                        alt text

                                        "The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell." Simone Weil

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        • MikM Offline
                                          MikM Offline
                                          Mik
                                          wrote last edited by
                                          #2723

                                          I never knew there were this many breads. I suppose there are many more.

                                          alt text

                                          "The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell." Simone Weil

                                          AxtremusA 1 Reply Last reply
                                          Reply
                                          • Reply as topic
                                          Log in to reply
                                          • Oldest to Newest
                                          • Newest to Oldest
                                          • Most Votes


                                          • Login

                                          • Don't have an account? Register

                                          • Login or register to search.
                                          • First post
                                            Last post
                                          0
                                          • Categories
                                          • Recent
                                          • Tags
                                          • Popular
                                          • Users
                                          • Groups