Voynich Manuscript Written in Central Europe at the end of the 15th or during the 16th century, the origin, language, and date of the Voynich Manuscript—named after the Polish-American antiquarian bookseller, Wilfrid M. Voynich, who acquired it in 1912—are still being debated as vigorously as its puzzling drawings and undeciphered text. Described as a magical or scientific text, nearly every page contains botanical, figurative, and scientific drawings of a provincial but lively character, drawn in ink with vibrant washes in various shades of green, brown, yellow, blue, and red. For a complete physical description and foliation, including missing leaves, see the Voynich catalog record. Read a detailed chemical analysis of the Voynich Manuscript (8 p., pdf) History of the Collection Like its contents, the history of ownership of the Voynich manuscript is contested and filled with some gaps. References Goldstone, Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone. 2005. Romaine Newbold, William. 1928. Manly, John Mathews. 1921.
5 mind-bending facts about dreams When your head hits the pillow, for many it's lights out for the conscious part of you. But the cells firing in your brain are very much awake, sparking enough energy to produce the sometimes vivid and sometimes downright haunted dreams that take place during the rapid-eye-movement stage of your sleep. Why do some people have nightmares while others really spend their nights in bliss? Here's some of what we know about what goes on in dreamland. 1. As if nightmares weren't bad enough, a rare sleep disorder — called REM sleep behavior disorder — causes people to act out their dreams, sometimes with violent thrashes, kicks and screams. 2. Staying up late has its perks, but whimsical dreaming is not one of them. In the study 264 university students rated how often they experienced nightmares on a scale from 0 to 4, never to always, respectively. 3. As in their wake hours, men also dream about sex more than women do. 4. 5.
Фото и рисунки, арт и креативная реклама They say picture can tell more than a thousand words. Random pictures are always the most important and insignificant moments are always the most valuable. Photographers and painters is akin to the chroniclers the same time. Фотограф - Zilvinas Valeika Одна из лучших фотографий по версии Red Bull Illume 2010 Маленький мальчик собирается попросить у Санты, чтобы его отец вернулся из Ирака. "Спасибо" ветеранам . Эта фотография состоит из 365 фотографий, которые делались каждый день с одного и того же места. Фотограф - Юлия Курбатова Сержант, его жена и их будущий ребенок Фото детского хора из Северной Кореи. Панда на пути в зоопарк Эдинбурга. Празднование 8 марта в Белграде. «Мой 3-летний сынишка Чарли, - рассказывает автор фото Blake Zickefoose, - подружился с этой гусеницей и называл ее не иначе, как Червячок-Собачка».
BBC - h2g2 - The Mysterious Treasure of Thomas Beale - A83646156 About a century and a quarter ago, a slim pamphlet was published in Virginia, USA. Amazingly for such an unassuming little document, it has ruined numerous lives, mostly through greed and obsession. It tells the story of buried treasure, and has snared the unwary ever since it was published. Lynchburg, Virginia, the 1860s Robert Morriss is one of the few characters in this story whose existence is beyond doubt. Morriss faced financial ruin, but his very resourceful wife suggested that they lease a local hotel and set it up as a business. A year before his death, Morriss reportedly invited an unnamed associate into his confidence with a tale of a guest, who left a valuable item in his charge. Hence, in the spring of 1822, he left with Morriss a small, locked iron box, saying that it contained valuable papers. The second letter never arrived. The Treasure In his adventures, Beale and his party of 30 people had apparently stumbled upon a crevice containing seams of gold. The Ciphers Hoard!
Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind by Jeanna Bryner, Live Science Managing Editor | October 09, 2007 01:25pm ET Credit: NIH, NIDA Much of what we don't understand about being human is simply in our heads. The brain is a befuddling organ, as are the very questions of life and death, consciousness, sleep, and much more. Here's a heads-up on what's known and what's not understood about your noggin. Author Bio Jeanna Bryner Before becoming managing editor, Jeanna served as a reporter for Live Science and SPACE.com for about three years. Jeanna Bryner on
Os Gémeos, Don't Believe The Hype, San Diego Os Gémeos, Don't Believe The Hype, San Diego Os Gémeos are in San Diego for MCASD's 'Viva la Revolucion' show, which opens this Saturday (7/17). See more by Os Gémeos. artist: Os Gémeoslocation: San Diego The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever is a logic puzzle invented by American philosopher and logician George Boolos and published in The Harvard Review of Philosophy in 1996. A translation in Italian was published earlier in the newspaper La Repubblica, under the title L'indovinello più difficile del mondo. The puzzle is inspired by Raymond Smullyan. It is stated as follows: Three gods A, B, and C are called, in no particular order, True, False, and Random. Boolos provides the following clarifications:[1] a single god may be asked more than one question, questions are permitted to depend on the answers to earlier questions, and the nature of Random's response should be thought of as depending on the flip of a coin hidden in his brain: if the coin comes down heads, he speaks truly; if tails, falsely.[2] History[edit] The solution[edit] Boolos provided his solution in the same article in which he introduced the puzzle. Boolos' question was to ask A: Equivalently: If I asked you Q, would you say ja?
New York Mayor Calls for Restrictions on Sugary Soft Drinks Goodbye, Big Gulps. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is calling for a ban on large-sized sugary beverages from most dining establishments. The new measure would prohibit New York City delis, movie theaters, sidewalk food carts, stadiums and restaurants from selling cups or bottles containing more than 16 fluid ounces of sweetened drinks, the New York Times reports. Bloomberg’s proposal is the first of its kind in the U.S., but not the first aggressive stance he’s taken on obesity. Stefan Friedman, a spokesman for the New York City Beverage Association, told the Times that the mayor is unfairly singling out soft drinks. But the chairman of the Board of Health, Dr. “Your argument, I guess, could be that it’s a little less convenient to have to carry two 16-ounce drinks to your seat in the movie theater rather than one 32 ounce,” the mayor said.
Kitchen Helpers I found these helpful charts last week and just had to share! Both of these beauties are from Chasing Delicious (aka one of the most fab foodie blogs out there)! Aren’t they faaaaabulous?! Buy them here. I love tea, but I’m no expert. For people of the UK, have this one with you while you’re meal planning or grocery shopping! I’ve fond some other helpful charts that I’ll share in another post! Yay charts!
Fallacy List 1. FAULTY CAUSE: (post hoc ergo propter hoc) mistakes correlation or association for causation, by assuming that because one thing follows another it was caused by the other. example: A black cat crossed Babbs' path yesterday and, sure enough, she was involved in an automobile accident later that same afternoon. example: The introduction of sex education courses at the high school level has resulted in increased promiscuity among teens. A recent study revealed that the number of reported cases of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) was significantly higher for high schools that offered courses in sex education than for high schools that did not. 2. SWEEPING GENERALIZATION: (dicto simpliciter) assumes that what is true of the whole will also be true of the part, or that what is true in most instances will be true in all instances. example: Muffin must be rich or have rich parents, because she belongs to ZXQ, and ZXQ is the richest sorority on campus. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.
Countdown: 7 Medical Myths Even Doctors Believe | Untrue Medical Myths & Common Medical Misconceptions Robert Roy Britt | January 24, 2012 10:00am ET Credit: sukiyaki | shutterstock Popular culture is loaded with myths and half-truths. Most are harmless. But when doctors start believing medical myths, perhaps it's time to worry. In 2007, a study published in the British Medical Journal looked into several common misconceptions, from the belief that a person should drink eight glasses of water per day to the notion that reading in low light ruins your eyesight. "We got fired up about this because we knew that physicians accepted these beliefs and were passing this information along to their patients," said Aaron Carroll, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Click on for the top 7 most common medical myths — debunked.
The Coolest Elevator in New York Last week, I was scouting office space in a building in Queens. My guide brought me to this totally unassuming elevator: Really, I have to show you this as I encountered it: WOW. Here’s a full panorama looking toward the rear of the elevator (that’s a railing beneath the mirror)… …and a reverse pan showing the front: Lining the ceiling are these great monster heads made out of mechanical bits… Each is poking through its own hole: More characters, including a king: Another character: The elevator is a last remnant from when the former Macy’s warehouse building catered to a more artsy clientele. Best of all, there’s a cool fish-eye mirror at one end, which makes it look like you’re leaning out of some parallel dimension: I’m a big fan of anything that makes my day a little more surreal, and this is the last thing I was expecting on the other side of those bland white elevator doors. Not sure if this hand is causing the accident or saving it…
15 Film Production Credits Explained Ever wonder what all those strange credits are when they roll by at the end of a film? I used to, until I moved to LA, where I started meeting Best Boys and Dolly Grips with their kids when I took my son to the playground—yes, Hollywood, where you meet Gaffers and Armourers at your average Saturday night house party. So I started asking questions, and here's what I've learned: 1. Boom Operator No, this job has nothing to do with explosives or pyrotechnics. 2. Now this job does deal with explosives, of a sort. 3. Though the gaffer manages the entire electrical department, all the guys who run cables and hang lights, his main responsibility is mounting and positioning lights and lighting rigs. 4. Grips are sort of like worker bees. 5. This guy runs the Grips dept and assists the Gaffer. 6. This guy has nothing at all to do with a wedding, unless we're talking something like Wedding Crashers . 7. A dolly grip operates the movie camera dolly. 8. 9. 10. This guy oversees the painting dept. 11.