Tuesday, August 01, 2017

Miss Cellania's Links

Relative Genius. Meet the very accomplished people who were overshadowed by a family member.

School segregation didn’t go away. It just evolved.

Finland Has a Sports Screw Loose. That country is where the world's weirdest tournaments originate, including swamp soccer. (via Metafilter

How the Hass Avocado Conquered the World. There are other varieties of avocado, but you won't see them at most groceries.

The Dangerous Stink of the World's Smelliest Chemical. Experiments with thioketones can cause disturbing neighborhood backlash.

Tacopaj is the culinary love child of Sweden and Mexico. Invented in 2000, it's a cross between a taco and a quiche.

The Accidental, Slightly Controversial, but Mostly Fun History of the Super Soaker. It was a side effect of some serious engineering research. (Thanks, Tim!)

Nineteenth-century Manhattan was also home to pigs that roamed the streets while the human population of the city exploded. The battle against the hogs became an early example of gentrification. (via Metafilter)

5 Horrifying Tragedies Behind Everyday Routines. The precedent that sets the standard is often lost to memory.

We've Stopped Even Pretending to Care About Children. http://jezebel.com/weve-stopped-even-pretending-to-care-about-children-1797309634

Washington's secret Doomsday plans. During the Cold War, our government developed a strategy to survive Armageddon.

2 comments:

xoxoxoBruce said...

I'm not so sure I'd want to survive Armageddon, it would probably be a dystopia... like now.

gwdMaine said...

The Doomsday plans brought back a lot of memories. I
might put the book on my reading list. This link will
take you to a PDF that's a fascinating look at how the
system works (or at least how it worked in my time):

The Probability of Accidental Nuclear War

Some of the pages were scanned out of order so it takes a
bit of maneuvering back and forth.