i tell all my buddies who are sharpening a stick in order to stand in the shallows and spear fish the same thing: you gotta adjust your aim to compensate for light refraction
In XVIII century smallpox was a dangerous matter. In Europe several reigning monarchs were sent to the grave by smallpox. In Russia one of the victims was Peter I the Great’s grandson, 15-year-old Emperor Peter II who died of smallpox on his wedding day. Another victim was the future Emperor Peter III, the husband of future Catherine II the Great. He suffered from a rather severe case of smallpox that left him with ugly scars and very little hair. In 1767 a smallpox epidemic in Siberia wiped out some 20,000 people.
Fear for herself, her son Paul, and the nation prompted Empress Catherine the Great to investigate a new, controversial method of inoculation that assured permanent immunity: the injection of matter taken from the smallpox pustules of a patient recovering from a mild case. This medical technique was shunned in continental Europe as being too dangerous. Catherine invited the greatest expert of the day, Dr. Thomas Dimsdale of England to perform inoculation on herself, her son and her court. She wanted to set a personal example to the people of Russia and demonstrate them that the procedure was safe.
On 12 October 1768, Catherine was inoculated in both arms with smallpox matter taken from a peasant boy named Alexander Markov, whom she subsequently ennobled. She developed a mild case of smallpox that was gone by the 28 October. After that young Paul was inoculated and Catherine’s example was followed by nobility. A Russian translation of Dimsdale’s treatise explaining his technique was published in St. Petersburg, and inoculation clinics were established in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan, Irkutsk, and other cities. By 1780, twenty thousand Russians had been inoculated; by 1800, two million. As a reward for his service, Catherine made Dimsdale a baron of the Russian Empire and awarded him ten thousand pounds plus a life annuity of five hundred pounds. In 1781, Dimsdale returned to Russia to inoculate Catherine’s first grandson, Alexander (future Emperor Alexander I).
Source: Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman byRobert K. Massie @ourgraciousqueen
Pointless LOTR headcanon of the day: Frodo & Merry both take after their mothers, meaning Frodo looks more like a Brandybuck than a Baggins and Merry looks more like a Took. This is a constant source of petty contention.
(Pippin meanwhile absolutely takes after his father & is the most Tookish looking)
Merry: call me a Took one more time
Gandalf: if it looks like a Took and acts like a Took it’s a Took
Merry: I will END you
Gandalf is the only nonhobbit in the fellowship who understands the minutiae of Took Vs Brandybuck Vs Baggins rivalry & he delights in it, everyone else baffled
Frodo: look it’s perfectly simple. The Brandybucks don’t like the Tooks because they play golf and think they’re better than everyone because they occasionally go on adventures. The Tooks don’t like the Brandybucks because they live on the wrong side of the river and like boats. And nobody likes the Bagginses because they’re annoying.
Aragorn: are you… Including yourself in that
Frodo: I said what I said.
Frodo: now the Bagginses don’t like the Brandybucks OR the Tooks because they’re highly disrepectable but also richer than they are. And as far as a lot of the Bagginses are concerned I’m a Brandybuck because I grew up in Buckland and I have the Brandybuck Profile
Merry: which just means he’s not pug-ugly
Frodo: quite.
Aragorn: this is all ridiculous. Keep going.
Gandalf: Hm now I wouldn’t say UGLY but… every Baggins I’ve ever met has been perfectly Round or perfectly Square… There is no middle ground.
Gimli, baffled: Frodo isn’t round OR square
Merry: that’s because he has the Brandybuck profile
Gimli: so… Is he a Brandybuck…
Merry: ABSOLUTE not
Frodo: slander!! I’m a Baggins how dare you
Pippin: was your father a Round Baggins or a Square Baggins
Frodo: my father… Was the ROUNDEST Baggins who ever lived… A perfect Sphere of hobbit…
A BOTTLE containing a mystery liquid dating back to the time of
Jesus Christ has been hailed as a “unique” discovery after being
unearthed in Russia.
The 2,000-year-old artefact was uncovered on the site of the Phanagoria city, which was founded in the 6th century BC.
The ancient city was the largest Greek settlement on the Taman peninsula in the present-day Krasnodar Krai region of Russia.
The extraordinary object was discovered in the grave of a warrior in the Eastern Necropolis of the city.
It is filled with a mystery liquid which has not been identified.
Vladimir Kuznetsov, head of the expedition, described the discovery as “unique”.
He
said: “The discovery of the large glass filled with unknown liquid in
the sarcophagus of the Phanagorian horseman warrior is unique.”
The
discovery is the first of its kind, with Mr Kuznetsov revealing that
bottles previously found have been empty or full of soil.
He said: ”There are hundreds of similar bottles that were found in Phanagoria before that did not have the liquid.
“They were either empty or filled with soil.”
The large glass bottle contains a clear liquid with dark sediment at the bottom.
The discovery is the first time the expedition team have found liquid to have survived for that length of time.
Mr Kuznetsov said: “This is the first time me or my colleagues are seeing a liquid surviving that long.”
For what it’s worth, 2018 has been a really terrible year for the world,
but it’s been a really great year for archeologists digging up and
opening things that will unleash unspeakable eldritch horrors upon
humanity.
Granular mixtures with particles of different sizes will often segregate themselves when flowing. In this half-filled rotating drum large red particles and smaller white ones create a stable petal-like pattern. As the drum turns, an avalanche of small particles flows down, forming each white petal. When the avalanche hits the drum wall, a second wave – one of the larger, red particles – flows uphill toward the center of the drum. If the uphill wave has enough time to reach the center of the drum before the next avalanche of smaller particles, then the petal pattern will be stable. Otherwise, the small particles will tend to fall between the larger ones, disturbing the pattern. (Image and research credit: I. Zuriguel et al., source; via reprint in J. Gray)
North Carolina’s industrial hog farms are clustered in a region with the state’s densest population of rural African-American residents. Coal ash ponds are located in low-income rural areas. Compounding the issue, in July, the Trump administration loosened Obama-era requirements for coal-ash disposal.
A Middleground 