Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]

Those are real?! They look like cheap computer animations.

The Squirting Cucumber

Ecballium elaterium, also known as the Squirting Cucumber, is a flowering plant native to Europe and northern Africa. Its name stems from its unique method of violently releasing seeds when ripe via a stream of liquid. The internal pressure causes the fruit to disconnect from the main plant and launches the seeds outwards. The plant and its fruit are both poisonous and was considered to be an abortifacient in the ancient world.

That is amazing Makes me believe that plants are more of a living thing than we think. The force of that liquid jetting out is astonishing for, as people say, just a plant.

Must make for a wild garden party when the start popping off.

chris63 wrote:The Squirting Cucumber

Ecballium elaterium, also known as the Squirting Cucumber, is a flowering plant native to Europe and northern Africa. Its name stems from its unique method of violently releasing seeds when ripe via a stream of liquid. The internal pressure causes the fruit to disconnect from the main plant and launches the seeds outwards. The plant and its fruit are both poisonous and was considered to be an abortifacient in the ancient world.

That has got to be an Australian plant, I don't believe its European/African. the most scary flora and fauna on the planet.

This is a Levitron... it's a top that floats due to magnetism and gyroscopic stability... pretty cool huh??

science is so much more fun now than it was when I was at school My teachers were boring old farts in tweed suits, they just droned on in a guttural hum till one by one we all fell asleep till the bell went.

I have one of those, but I don't do the liquid nitrogen and soap!

The glass bowl trick for launching it is pretty nifty. Normally you spin it and it has to pop up itself without sliding out of balance. Usually takes about 10 tries.

I've been transcribing my boss' grandfather's WW2 journal. I partly just wanted to read it, and partly wanted to be paid for doing it. It's not the easiest to understand, but it's quite interesting so far. 

The author is a 17-year-old (he lied about his age apparently) kid from Pennsylvania. He shipped out from the U.S. on March 23rd, 1944 aboard the re-purposed troop transport ship Highland Queen. It was a British ship, apparently, and the author has a rather low view of the British sailors aboard, who apparently cook terrible food (haha, sounds like it could be true) and "hook" soldiers like him (that is to say, cheat out of their money) by charging too much for cigarettes and candy and so on. The author points out that the cigs. and candy is all U.S. made as well, which rankles him further.  

Anyway, the ship stopped briefly in Algeria and Naples, stayed some time in Suez at the southern end of the Canal, and then made it's way to Bombay (modern-day Mumbai if my geography serves). The author (and he doesn't write his darn name for some reason.  I'll have to ask my boss) enjoys dancing quite immensely, and went on several dates with "Iris", a 3/4 English 1/4 Indian girl who is quite "intelgent" (that's an actual quote). I'm stopping for the night, but he's now on a train on his way to Burma, apparently.

I thought I'd share!


Oh, and as for action, it's only been reports of German subs. in the water, which have three times now been driven off by depth charges from the destroyers that usually accompany the ship.

Interesting! I don't want to spoil the ending for you, but I'm guessing that he survives the war.

I enjoy stories like this I hope you will post some more snippets ? My grandad was in the merchant navy in the war yet he never spoke of it even when I asked him. I would have loved to have known how he felt, how it was, hear his stories. But he never did & all my family have pegged it now & there's no one to ask

love stories like that. I think all Tolkien lovers do. Once knew an old lady who was great grandmother to my best friend at school she was born in the late nineteenth century was about 100 and remembered Queen Victoria, horse drawn everything, ladies with long dresses and white gloves, she fascinated me.

Mrs Figg wrote:love stories like that. I think all Tolkien lovers do. Once knew an old lady who was great grandmother to my best friend at school she was born in the late nineteenth century was about 100 and remembered Queen Victoria, horse drawn everything, ladies with long dresses and white gloves, she fascinated me.

I thought you attended Victoria's coronation though? Really that great grandmother must have found you fascinating Figgs! 

I will post some more snippets now and then. It's been fun typing out the journal, like a mellow sort of story that moves on at a comfortably predictable pace.

http://shareably.net/zeugma-ancient-greek-mosaics-unearthed/?utm_source=killpics&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=unique

The ability to get such subtlety in mosaics always amazes me.

Im amazed at the hard work it must have taken They are lovely

Those are amazing! It's like looking into the faces of real people from 2200 years ago. Perhaps Mrs Figg can say something about the naturalism that the ancient Greeks brought to art( probably for the first time in human history?)

The Gates of Hell, Derweze, Turkmenistan,






"If Atlas Obscura has a mascot, it might be the Gates of Hell. This 200-foot hole in the desert was created in 1971 when a Soviet drilling rig fell into a massive natural cavern. The scientists decided it was best to let the natural gas leaking from the hole burn itself off, so they lit it on fire. It has been burning for 45 years."

These incredible architectural masterpieces call to mind M.C. Escher illustrations. Hundreds of carved stone steps lead down to water; these were built to serve as local sources of water. A French traveler in 1864 described seeing a 'vast sheet of water, covered with lotuses in flower, amid which thousands of aquatic birds are sporting.' Built as early as 550 A.D. and through the medieval period, there are over 3,000 stepwells throughout India."

Fingal's Cave, Isle Of Staffa, Scotland,






"On the Scottish island of Staffa is an unusual sea cave, 270 feet deep. The walls of this sea cave are perfect hexagonal columns. Formed by ancient lava flows, the striking site has become something of an artistic inspiration. It is the basis of a famous classical work, the name of a Pink Floyd song, and the location of a Matthew Barney 'Cremaster' video."

Ok I want to preamble this drunken ramble by saying I think I should first state my view on what I think males of the species basically are- which is a necessary biological offshoot of females.
By that I mean if nature presumably thought it would work women could have all the genetic material required to make another life already within them ready to go at the right time.
Unfortunately this method would produce clones, or close enough genetically that disease would probably wipe the population out before it could get established.

The solution- males- store some of the needed material in an external receptacle, that upon proper beckoning and displaying to will then give you it back- and better it will be a slightly different version, compatible but with built in variation, so reducing the risk of entire population loss to disease.
We men are basically sperm holders.
Mind you, the whole aggression violence side of things is probably cause early women didn't really like all that ripping live things apart and painting themselves in blood bit, so selectively bred for bigger, more aggressive males to do it for them, whilst they did whatever the early equivalent of watching This Morning and Loose Women was. So you've only yourselves to blame really.

So, you might ask, Petty, you may say, 'what the fuck has this got to do with history in any way shape or form?'

Well there is something which has niggled me for years about anciewnt history, and I was readng something earlier and I thought,. 'No Petty! You should have another buckie!' and then I thought, "Bugger it no! There is something damn peculiar here.'

And the damn peculiar thing is this- all our earliest history we have written down, our earliest archeology for towns and settlements and agriculture ect all point to a simple fact- women were top dog in religion. Female deities were revered more, women High Priests, and entire priesthoods of women were common.
And it was all over the early civilised world- Celtic worlds- female goddeses at the heart of everything- mother earth, Ceredwenn. Ancient Egypt Isis and her Priestesses- an entire Temple complex and she exists in one form or anther right back to the Old Kingdom and its beginning.
Nannu, Ninurta (mother earth) in Sumeria, Inana, Ashnan. The list goes on and on.

My basic point is for centuries, possibly for thousands of years women both held high office in the all influential priesthoods of their day, their female deities were among the most powerful and revered of their times and women rulers were by no means common, but not were they unknown or entirely uncommon ether, and that goes right back to the earliest days in Sumeria.

And then without any seeming turmoil to explain it or accounted for in any archeology record I know of they all either disappear completely, or the female aspect gets downplayed.

A good example is Ninhursag, the Mother of Living, one of the main Gods who in the Sumerian creation tale gives birth to the first modern humans. She ends up as Eve in the Old Testament, from supreme goddess to just one of the first humans, though she got to keep the title Mother of All Living at least. By the NT the female aspect is down to Mary Magdelen Mother of the important male guy. Downplayed.
And this happens throughout its not just the rise of Christianity, Islam does the same slightly later, but all over the same pattern is emerging.
Female religion is being destroyed and replaced with a male dominated one. All the old female aspects and gods are downplayed or removed.

But more than that the male religions replacing the old female ones go out of their way to strip women of authority or much hope of having any- eventually it would bar them from all sorts of spheres of human life they previously moved freely in.

So what happened? And why? And why is there no record of anything happening when clearly something happened that made different societies, all previously strong with female based religious aspects and roles for women, switch to the complete opposite, all with an emphasis on 'putting women in their place' and keeping them there.
Its taken 2000 years for women to get their rights back this much after all.

Anyone got any ideas as to this mystery as its doing my bloody head in! }}}}

It is odd ! We say "Mother Earth" & "God" is the Father ? Women were once seen as wise & predictors of the future, Faith Healers & Ladies of herbs & healing. Women were mid-Wives not men, Women couldn't be that underrated surely as we did have Boudicca running amuck with many followers ? Are women ignored for what ?? When did we decide women were witches & cohorts with Satan & should be tortured & executed ? Fleming is more heard off for his lump of mould than we hear of Marie Curie ? Bravery, or lack off, wont stand as women were ( & are ) just as brave in war, Florence Nightingale had to have some bravery to tend to the wounded men surely ? And its only now we hear of the brave things women did in the 2nd world war. I wish there was no,"men are better " etc. Its so childish.Somewhere along the line women weren't trusted anymore.

Somewhere along the line women weren't trusted anymore.- Azriel

{{{ That's the very impression it gives me Azriel. Its almost like something happened and the counter reaction to it was 'right fuck that, women are not being allowed to do those roles ever again, and we are going to reshape all their religions to make sure of it and get rid of the women in it' yet there is no record I know of that would hint at what could cause this weird complete turn around from strong female presence in religion, to allowed nowhere near it and punished often by the new religions that replaced them. Why was there felt a need to include the punishment aspect at all? I mean the OT puts the blame for original Sin- pain, disease, childbirth labour pain for all hum,ans for ever more and even death and mortality on the head of the very first woman. Thats some pretty heavy shit to blame one woman for.
I feel like Winston in 1984, I understand the how, but I don't understand the why.' }}}

You're far from the first person to notice this Petty, haven't you stumbled across the ocean of literature about the Earth Mother Goddess being displaced, and warfare and whatnot being the result?

Encapsulated here:  http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/earthmother.htm

Still boggles the brain tho  Why is it that, at least, men & women are not even or a shared neutrality ? We are all the same, the only difference I see is that men have testicles & smelly feet & Ladies have breasts & are keen on botox ? We all laugh the same, we all get scared the same, I'm doing Shylock now but, is it not true ? Women can also be yobs, like men. Women can pack a punch,swear,spit,be aggressive & even....beat up their husbands ! Royalty has done its bit to kick down women by preferring males to be King.