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How a Ghost Army of American artists helped defeat Hitler
If you’ve never heard of the Ghost Army, you’re in good company. The unit was a classified secret until 1996 — it’s still partially classified — and Rick Beyer, the director of The Ghost Army, only found out about the covert troop of artist-warriors by chance, in a Boston-area cafe, from the niece of one of the unit’s veterans.
Armies have been using subterfuge to fool enemy forces for eons, but the Ghost Army was unusually audacious, and especially good at its job: Designing and deploying inflatable tanks, airplanes, and artillery, plus sound effects and other illusion-spinning tactics to convince the German army that the Allied forces were stronger and more omnipresent than they were.
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The world’s most bizarre taxes:
- Beard-token:
King Henry VIII of England set up a tax on beards in 1535, perhaps as a convenient way to raise funds (the bearded king was himself exempt from the fee). His daughter, Elizabeth I, reintroduced the tax, penalizing “every beard of more than two weeks’ growth.”
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Pannage: was, in medieval England, “a tax paid for the privilege of feeding swine in the woods.” It was apparently a common practice to release domestic pigs in the forest to let them feed on ” fallen acorns, beechmast, chestnuts or other nuts.”
- Sheriff-tooth: In 13th century England, the sheriff-tooth was levied for “the service of providing entertainment for the sheriff at his county courts.”
Photo from: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
- Beard-token:
King Henry VIII of England set up a tax on beards in 1535, perhaps as a convenient way to raise funds (the bearded king was himself exempt from the fee). His daughter, Elizabeth I, reintroduced the tax, penalizing “every beard of more than two weeks’ growth.”
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Tips from old etiquette books:
- “Don’t say gents for gentlemen or pants for pantaloons. These are inexcusable vulgarisms.”
- “A little graceful imitation of actors and public speakers may be allowed. National manners, and the peculiarities of entire classes, are fair game. French dandies, Yankee bargainers, and English exquisites, may be ridiculed at pleasure.”
- Never ask a lady a question about anything whatever.”
- “In the company of ladies, do not labor to establish learned points by long-winded arguments. They do not care to take too much pains to find out truth.”
Photo from: Thinkstock
- “Don’t say gents for gentlemen or pants for pantaloons. These are inexcusable vulgarisms.”
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8 brilliant scientific screw-ups
Anesthesia (1844)
Mistake leading to discovery: Recreational drug use
Lesson learned: Too much of a good thing can sometimes be, well, a good thingFor decades Nitrous oxide was considered no more than a party toy. Finally, in 1844, a dentist came upon the idea after witnessing a nitrous mishap at a party. High on the gas, a friend of fell and suffered a deep gash in his leg, but didn’t feel a thing. In fact, he didn’t know he’d been seriously injured until someone pointed out the blood pooling at his feet.
7 other accidental scientific discoveries
Photo from: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images
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As we reflect on Margaret Thatcher’s legacy, we are reminded of this gem surfaced by our Bad Opinion Generator.
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Beneath Margaret Thatcher’s steely and polarizing public persona was a grocer’s daughter with a high voice and a sharp tongue, a woman who held onto a childhood love of poetry and science throughout her life.
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This 19th century shark-tooth sword reveals extinct biodiversity in the Gilbert Islands. These “badass” weapons feature dagger-like teeth from eight different shark species, one of which oddly isn’t found in the area. While trading with other far-away cultures could explain how the teeth got there, it’s more likely the spottail sharks were fished out.
Photo from Drew J, Philipp C, Westneat MW (2013)
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On this day in 1970, President Nixon signed a bill limiting cigarette advertisements on TV and radio. Nixon, who was an avid pipe smoker, indulging in as many as eight bowls a day, supported the legislation at the urging of public health advocates. There had been warnings about the dangers of smoking as far back as 1939, and by the end of the 1950s, all states had laws banning the sale of cigarettes to minors. In 1964, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) agreed that advertisers had a responsibility to warn the public of the health hazards of cigarette smoking.
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Today, a majority of the Supreme Court justices voiced strong skepticism of the Defense of Marriage Act’s constitutionality.
Indeed, DOMA may be doomed. -
Dick Cheney publicly supported allowing gay couples to marry in 2009 — what took the rest of these folks so long?
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Between pensions, office space and staff, postage, travel, and other benefits, the U.S. spent nearly $3.7 million in 2012 on our four living former presidents and Ronald Reagan’s widow, Nancy Reagan, according to new analysis from the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Here’s how that breaks down:
- $1.32 million — Allowance paid to George W. Bush in 2012
- $85,000 — Bush’s telephone bill
- $46,000 — Bush’s postage and printing tab
- $395,000 — Rent for Bush’s Dallas office
- $978,000 — Allowance paid to Bill Clinton in 2012
- $442,000 — Rent for Clinton’s New York City office
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Look at this baby picture of our universe. Wasn’t it cute?
The European Space Agency on Thursday released this image yesterday, which depicts what the universe looked like a mere 380,000 years after the Big Bang. While that may sound like a fair amount of time, the universe was virtually an infant then, giving scientists new insight into its origins.
“The new satellite data underscored the existence of puzzling anomalies that may yet lead theorists back to the drawing board. The universe appears to be slightly lumpier, with bigger and more hot and cold spots in the northern half of the sky as seen from Earth than toward the south, for example. And there is a large, unexplained cool spot in the northern hemisphere.”
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On this day in 1980: President Jimmy Carter told the U.S. Olympic team that he was ordering a boycott of the Summer Games in Moscow. Carter’s boycott of the Moscow Olympics was retaliation for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and Kremlin rejection of his demand to pullout. Carter also cut off grain shipments to the Soviets and banned Soviet fishing boats from U.S. territorial waters. The Soviets retaliated for the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, by boycotting the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
