Scarey Old Photos

Horatio Gordon Robley, a collector of the obscure, with his collection of severed heads, 1895.

William Henry Wheeler manipulates early photography to appear as though he has been decapitated, 1875.

French neurologist Duchenne de Boulogne electrocuting a man’s face to study facial muscles, 1862.

Melted and damaged mannequins after a fire at Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum in London, 1925.

Source: http://themindcircle.com/terrifying-old-photos/?utm_content=buffer671cf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Monitor Lizards - Fearsome Predators on Land and Water

 

Komodo Dragon Attack

Monitor Lizards - Fearsome Predators on Land and Water

  by Roddy Smith

If, like me, you are routinely tricked by changes in classification of birds and trees, brace yourself: the whole class of reptiles may well be in for a shake-up.

There is no identifying characteristic which is typical of all reptiles and nothing else, in the way that all birds and only birds have feathers, and modern research has revealed new information about evolutionary relationships.

The various groups traditionally lumped together as reptiles are believed to have a common ancestor, but they share it with birds, which are considered a different class. Crocodiles are more closely related to birds than to other reptiles, and it is now known that snakes and amphisbaenians are merely unusual lizards, rather than separate from them.

Monitors, agamas and chameleons are more closely related to snakes than to other lizards; they are all believed to fall into the "venom clade" because, although they do not have fangs which can inject venom, they do have salivary glands that produce toxic proteins.

Monitor lizards (or leguaans, although in South Africa we commonly use the Afrikaans name, "likkewaan") are fascinating but neglected animals, possibly because only an enthusiast would find them attractive.

Rock Monitor (Varanus albigularis) using its forked tongue to pick up scents, Chobe National Park, Botswana

This family has 59 species worldwide in a single genus (Varanus), including the fearsome Komodo Dragon.

The two species in southern Africa are the Nile Monitor or Water Leguaan (Varanus niloticus - Africa's largest lizard) and the Rock Monitor or Tree Leguaan (Varanus albigularis). (In places like Zimbabwe there are occasional sightings of Election Monitors - these are not strictly lizards and their impact on their environment is so negligible they might as well be extinct.)

The Nile monitor may possibly reach 2m, 60% of which would be tail, but this would be exceptional. Rock monitors are slightly shorter and bulkier, with tails slightly longer than the body.

Monitors are fearsome predators, hunting on and under the ground, in trees and (in the case of the Nile monitor) in the water. They differ from snakes in having movable eyelids and external ears, but they do have forked, snake-like tongues which they use in conjunction with the Jacobson's organ, a fluid-filled bi-lobed sensory organ in the roof of the mouth.

The twin ends of the tongue collect odour particles from the air and then deliver them to the corresponding receptors of the Jacobson's organ, which can detect differences in strength on each tongue tip and from this gauge the direction of the scent, allowing the monitor to follow scent trails.

They will eat practically anything: insects, reptiles, frogs, small mammals up to the size of domestic cats, birds and eggs, carrion and rubbish.

Water monitors also catch fish and are among the most important predators of crocodile eggs. They have been observed using teamwork for this; one distracts the mother crocodile while others rush in to dig up the nest.

Their short powerful legs are armed with strong claws which they use both for digging and climbing; I have seen one emerging with a chick from a bee-eater's nest in a vertical bank which would be inaccessible to snakes.

Water monitors are excellent swimmers, folding their legs in and using their tails like crocodiles, and can stay underwater for well over half an hour. They can run astonishingly fast over a short distance, and invariably head for water when disturbed.

Water monitor lying on a rock, Kruger Park, S.Africa

They are often found up trees and will hurl themselves into the water from considerable heights; this has caused a certain amount of consternation on canoe trips when one has landed next to, and on one memorable occasion actually in, a canoe.

Rock monitors are generally found further from water and are more likely to hold their ground when disturbed, hissing and swishing their tails, or in extreme cases shamming death.

Both species will defend themselves if necessary by biting, scratching and lashing their powerful tails; these last can deliver a stinging blow but can not, as I was brought up to believe, break your leg.

They do however have very powerful jaws and will hold on like a bull terrier. I know someone who rashly prodded one with his foot; it latched onto the toe of his velskoen and he eventually had to abandon the shoe as the only alternative was to kill the leguaan.

A mature female can produce clutches of eggs weighing almost as much as she does - about 10-40 in rock monitors and 40-60 in water monitors. Reports of incubation periods vary widely and seem also to depend on temperature.

Rock monitors lay their eggs in burrows, but the cunning water monitors usually use a hole dug in a live termite mound. The industrious termites immediately close the hole and the eggs are thus left in a secure temperature-controlled incubator, with termites for the ungrateful hatchlings to eat when they emerge.

Roddy Smith is a wildlife conservationist and safari guide based at Mwambashi River Lodge in the Lower Zambezi National Park, Zambia.




Source: http://www.wildlife-pictures-online.com/monitor-lizards.html

Bill Haast, the Snakeman treated people suffering from various ailments

The Man Who Injected Himself With Snake Venom

By Nolan Moore on Tuesday, April 15, 2014

“Sometimes they pretend to be harmless, but they are not. That is snake’s nature, believe it or not.” —S.L. Hamilton, Snakes

In A Nutshell

While most people are terrified of snakes, Bill Haast handled these legless reptiles every single day. After opening his famous Miami Serpentarium, Haast devoted his life to studying and milking snakes. Even more impressive, Haast injected himself with snake venom every day . . . a bizarre treatment that actually saved lives.

The Whole Bushel

Bill Haast loved snakes. He started catching them when he was seven and was bitten by a copperhead and timber rattlesnake before his 13th birthday. During the 1920s, he dropped out of high school and toured with a traveling snake show. Eventually ending up in Florida, he went to work for a bootlegger and spent his spare time hiking around the Everglades, searching the marshes for fork-tongued reptiles. After his boss was arrested, Haast worked as a mechanic for Pan American World Airways, a job that let him travel the world and smuggle home cobras in his toolbox.

However, Haast wanted more than just to catch snakes. He wanted to study them and show these legless wonders to the world. In 1947, Haast opened his very own “serpentarium,” a snake farm just outside of Miami. Guarded by a 10.5-meter-tall (35 ft) cobra statue, the park attracted visitors clamoring to see the “Snakeman” in action. Every day, Haast put on performances where he handled deadly snakes and milked them for their venom, the key ingredient in antivenin. Afterward, Haast sold the toxins to pharmaceutical companies, and by the 1990s, he was producing 36,000 samples of snake venom every year and saving countless lives.

When he wasn’t milking snakes, Haast was busy mixing up his own bizarre brews. A big believer in the medical properties of venom, Haast treated over 6,000 patients with his homemade venomous elixir. With the assistance of a local doctor, the Snakeman treated people suffering from various ailments like arthritis, Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis.

However, after CBS did a story on his controversial therapy in 1951, the Food and Drug Administration ordered Haast to cease and desist—but they didn’t say he couldn’t treat himself.

For over 60 years, Haast regularly injected himself with a crazy concoction made of venom from serpents like mambas, kraits, cottonmouths, and cobras. Not only did he claim it made him healthier, the toxins also seriously built up his immune system, something which probably saved his life on multiple occasions.

During Haast’s long career, he was bitten over 170 times by deadly snakes like Malayan pit vipers and eastern diamondbacks. On one occasion, his wife had to chop off the end of his blackened finger, and another time, the White House secretly sneaked antivenin out of Iran to save the Snakeman’s life. (He wasn’t immune to “that” particular snake.)

On the flip side, Haast’s blood was so full of antibodies that it was actually used to save lives. On multiple occasions, Haast was flown to remote locations like the jungles of Guatemala where he donated his superhuman blood to rescue snakebite victims. In fact, his poison-proof plasma saved over 21 people.

Sadly, Haast shut down his Miami Serpentarium after a young guest was killed by one of his crocodiles. After closing up shop, Haast spent a few years in Utah before moving back to Punta Gorda and reopening his snake farm sans the showmanship. The Snakeman continued milking deadly reptiles until his 92nd birthday when he lost his finger to a pit viper. Despite his nubby hands, he kept on injecting himself with his snake serum every day, famously saying, “I could become a poster boy for the benefits of venom. If I live to be 100, I’ll really make the point.” Bill Haast died on June 15, 2011. He was 100 years old.

Show Me The Proof

Bill Haast obituaries from the New York Times, LA Times, and Washington Post

Bill Haast and King Cobra (CBS documentary)

Attachments area

Preview YouTube video Bill Haast and King Cobra, the Polio Project, circa 1951

Bill Haast and King Cobra, the Polio Project, circa 1951 

 Link: http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/04/15/the-man-who-injected-himself-with-snake-venom/

GIF's and PIC's

Elephant Soccer

Mink in White?

Jaguar Swims

Paul Gauguin playing the harmonium

 Paul Gauguin playing the harmonium in Alfons Mucha’s studio, Paris, c.1895

 http://bit.ly/2cm2kA2 

Zen and the Art of Fountain Pen Maintenance

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

Some fountain pen owners are fastidious about cleaning their fountain pens. They keep an ongoing record of which pens are inked, the date of inking, the color, when the pen needs to be cleaned, and the date the pen moved out of rotation. They typically have only a small number of pens inked at any given time. Then, each week or so, on an appointed day, they clean out their inked pens, dry them carefully, and choose a new set of pens to ink and use.

I am not one of those people.

I just spent an entire morning cleaning my fountain pen collection of about 70 pens. A few of these pens had been properly cleaned and stored, but, I am sad to say, most had been left with ink, unused, for months. I am a very naughty fountain pen owner. Honestly, it's not that I neglect my pens. I really do love them–all of them. I simply want to be able to use any given pen at a moment's notice as the mood calls for it. Plus, I'm disorganized and clutter-muddled and I can't keep track of which pens are inked and which are not. Thus, the Mega Pen Cleaning Morning involved the following sets of pens (I didn't take a photo of the first batch, so, really, there were five batches in all).

Now that all my pens are clean, I hope to do a better job of keeping track of them. To be sure, I have plenty of empty notebooks to do this. Special notebooks also exist for this purpose, such as the InkJournal and Pen Habit's "Currently Inked" log.

All of this made me think about the art of fountain pen maintenance, in particular cleaning.
Equipment

You really don't need much in terms of equipment to clean fountain pens. Here's what I use:
Water. I do all my cleaning at the kitchen sink using tap water. But some people prefer to use distilled water to avoid hard water deposits affecting their pens.
Pen flush. You can purchase commercial flush such as Goulet's Pen Flush $11.00, or you can make your own. Basically Pen Flush is 1 part ammonia to 10 parts water and a couple of drops of Dawn Dish Detergent. If you use pen flush, draw it into the pen or converter, soak, and then rinse with plain water repeatedly to insure all the cleaning solution is gone.
Bulb Syringe. You can get one of these in the baby aisle of any supermarket. This is useful for cleaning out nib units.
Q-Tips. I use these only to wipe out and dry caps after I've rinsed them. I don't recommend using them on any other parts of your pens since fibers can get lodged in fountain pen barrels or nibs.
Towel. I just use paper towels, but you can use a dedicated soft towel for wiping down your pens. Paper towels are fine for letting your pens dry and wiping off nibs.
100% Pure Silicone Grease. If you have a sticky piston or converter, silicone grease is the answer. You can buy this from Goulet $3.00 or, if you've purchased a TWSBI, you get a vial of it with the pen.
Toothpicks. I use these for dabbing silicone grease where it needs to go.
Methods

The way you clean a fountain pen depends on the type of pen you're working with. Some fountain pens are easier to clean than others. I will discuss the various methods I use with the fountain pens I own. I no longer own any vintage pens with sacs or complicated filling systems, so I will leave that for others to discuss.
Eyedropper Fountain Pens

This is probably the easiest kind of fountain pen to clean. Just unscrew the nib, empty the ink, and rinse the barrel thoroughly. Put the nib unit under running, room-temperature tap water to rinse out the bulk of the ink. Then use the bulb syringe to gently finish cleansing the nib unit.

Squeeze gently (too much force and you might pop the nib off the feed. I've managed to do that). Repeat until the water is clear.
Cartridge/Converter Fountain Pens

The next easiest kind of pen to clean is cartridge/converter fountain pens. Empty the ink and separate the nib from the converter. Put the nib unit directly underneath running tap water to rinse out most of the ink, then finish with the bulb syringe.

The converter can be rinsed separately. Reassemble and you're done.

Piston Fountain Pens

Piston fountain pens are simple to operate, but getting all the ink out can be a chore. Turn the piston to empty out any remaining ink. Fill a bowl with water and insert the nib unit. Fill and empty until the water runs clear or your patience runs out. I flick the pen to empty out any remaining water, but be careful to hold onto your pen and watch where you flick–you don't want to mangle your nib on the side of the kitchen sink.
Vacuum Filler Fountain Pens

One of the most difficult kinds of pens to clean are Vacuum-filler fountain pens. It just seems that getting all the ink out requires an awful lot of plunging, but unless you can disassemble the pen (as you can with a Conid Bulkfiller), you simply have to rinse and repeat. Empty the ink out, pull out the plunger, put the nib unit in clean water, and plunge. I gently shake the pen to help remove the ink from the barrel walls. Empty and repeat until the water is as clear as you can get it.
Caps

Occasionally, ink leaks into pen caps, so I usually rinse out my caps when I'm cleaning my pens. Afterwards, I use a Q-Tip to wipe out any remaining ink and dry the pen cap. I leave the cap upright on a paper towel to complete the drying process.
Dealing with Sticky Pistons/Converters

Sometimes pistons get sticky and are difficult to move. If the fountain pen has a removable nib (as Pelikans do), the problem is easily remedied. Simply retract the piston, remove the nib unit, put a bit of silicone grease on a toothpick, and gently rub the grease onto the walls of the barrel as close to the piston seal as possible. You don't need much. Move the piston in and out to lubricate the pen and reinsert the nib unit.

Some converters (such as Platinum and Sailor) can also be disassembled and lubricated. I have to do this quite often with Platinum converters which get gummed up easily. Unscrew the gold/silver portion (getting it started can sometimes be difficult. Use rubber gloves if you need to get a better grip).

Pull out the piston assembly carefully. On Platinum converters, there's a tiny gasket that comes off and can easily be lost, so do this at a table or counter.

Dry off the end and smear a small amount of silicone grease on the portion that touches the converter sides. Reassemble and move the piston in and out until it works smoothly.

Obviously, there's a lot more to fountain pen maintenance than cleaning and lubricating pistons/converters. But this article provides a starting point.

How often you clean your pens is really up to you. You may decide on a rotation system as I described in the introduction. Or you may use your pens until the ink runs dry and clean them before refilling. Most modern fountain pen inks won't harm your fountain pens (but use extra caution with vintage pens). If you use highly saturated inks and/or iron gall inks, clean your pens more often.

Cleaning your fountain pens really can be an enjoyable, zen-like task. There's something quite satisfying about emptying a pen, flushing it clean, and readying it for a new color of ink.

Just don't wait to do your entire collection on one day.


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Posted on July 1, 2016 by Susan Pigott and filed under Fountain Pen Maintenance.
23 Likes Newer / Older


 
Link: http://www.penaddict.com/blog/2016/7/1/zen-and-the-art-of-fountain-pen-maintenance

South American Magellanic penguin and the man who saved his life.

 South American Magellanic penguin who swims 5,000 miles each year to be reunited with the man who saved his life.

Today’s most heartwarming story is brought to you from a beach in Brazil.

It’s the story of a South American Magellanic penguin who swims 5,000 miles each year to be reunited with the man who saved his life.

Retired bricklayer and part time fisherman Joao Pereira de Souza, 71, who lives in an island village just outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, found the tiny penguin, covered in oil and close to death, lying on rocks on his local beach in 2011.

Joao cleaned the oil off the penguin’s feathers and fed him a daily diet of fish to build his strength. He named him Dindim.

After a week, he tried to release the penguin back into the sea. But, the bird wouldn’t leave. ‘He stayed with me for 11 months and then, just after he changed his coat with new feathers, he disappeared,’ Joao recalls.

And, just a few months later, Dindim was back. He spotted the fisherman on the beach one day and followed him home.

For the past five years, Dindim has spent eight months of the year with Joao and is believed to spend the rest of the time breeding off the coast of Argentina and Chile.

It’s thought he swims up to 5,000 miles each year to be reunited with the man who saved his life.

‘I love the penguin like it’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me,’ Joao told Globo TV. ‘No one else is allowed to touch him. He pecks them if they do. He lays on my lap, lets me give him showers, allows me to feed him sardines and to pick him up.

It’s thought Dindim believes the fisherman is also a penguin (Picture: TV Globo)

‘Everyone said he wouldn’t return but he has been coming back to visit me for the past four years. He arrives in June and leaves to go home in February and every year he becomes more affectionate as he appears even happier to see me.’

Biologist Professor Krajewski, who interviewed the fisherman for Globo TV, told The Independent: ‘I have never seen anything like this before. I think the penguin believes Joao is part of his family and probably a penguin as well.

‘When he sees him he wags his tail like a dog and honks with delight.

And, just like that, the world seems a kinder place again.

 

 

 

 

XRay Biker

#PhotoOfTheDay from @ironandair