Dystopian Ant World

Researchers in Poland have discovered a group of ants living a strangely dystopian existence.

It's a group of worker ants that have fallen down a vertical ventilation pipe into an old nuclear weapon bunker and are unable to get out. As described by the researchers, it's "a large amount of workers trapped within a hostile environment in total darkness, with constantly low temperatures and no ample supply of food."

When the researchers first discovered the ant population down in the bunker in 2013, they assumed the ants would soon die. But when they returned to check on the ants in 2015 and 2016 the ants were still there — somehow maintaining a stable population. How were they doing this? This Science Daily article explains:


It's like an ant version of Hell. They struggle along in complete darkness, freezing, slowly starving to death, with new captives constantly replenishing their ranks.

The researchers' full article is in The Journal of Hymenoptera Research: "Living beyond the limits of survival: wood ants trapped in a gigantic pitfall" (Aug 29, 2016).

"View from the bunker corridor over the space with the F. polyctena ‘colony’;
in the foreground, a vast ant ‘cemetery’."

Posted By: Alex - Fri Sep 16, 2016 - Comments (4)
Category:

Thai Commercial for Sylvania

Posted By: Paul - Fri Sep 16, 2016 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Giant People in Ads, Products, Horror, Foreign Customs, Fictional Monsters

Thought she could fly like Batman

On January 28, 1966, Erma Veith was driving along Highway 19 in Wisconsin when suddenly she veered out of her lane and sideswiped an oncoming truck driven by Phillip Breunig.

Breunig later sued for damages, but Mrs. Veith's insurance company offered an unusual defense. It said she wasn't negligent and therefore not liable because she had been overcome by a mental delusion moments before swerving out of her lane. She hadn't been operating her automobile "with her conscious mind."

The insurance company lost the initial case, but appealed, and eventually the dispute ended up before the Supreme Court of Wisconsin (Breunig v. American Family Insurance Co.). There, the court heard the nature of the mental delusion that had gripped Mrs. Veith:


The court ultimately agreed with the insurance company that a sudden mental incapacity might excuse a person from the normal standard of negligence. It noted that a Canadian court had once reached a similar conclusion: "There, the court found no negligence when a truck driver was overcome by a sudden insane delusion that his truck was being operated by remote control of his employer and as a result he was in fact helpless to avert a collision."

But the Wisconsin Supreme Court then ruled that this excuse didn't apply in Veith's case because she had had similar episodes before. Therefore, she should have reasonably concluded that she wasn't fit to drive.

This case has become an important precedent in tort law, establishing the principle that you can't use sudden mental illness as an excuse if you have forewarning of your susceptibility to the condition.

The case is such a classic that in an issue of the Georgia Law Review (Summer 2005) it was even described in verse:

A bright white light on the car ahead, Entranced Erma Veith, so she later said. Pursuing that light, a miracle did unfold: Of Erma's steering wheel, God took control. Under the influence of celestial propulsion, Erma now operated by divine compulsion. She met a truck, and responded in scorn: She hit the gas, so she'd become airborne. Why, Erma, would you seek elevation? "Batman!" she replied, "my inspiration!" Moreover, at trial, other evidence of panic: She had previously invoked the Duo Dynamic. Once to her daughter, she had commented: "Batman is good; your father is demented." The law held sympathy for Erma's plight: After all, mankind has long yearned for flight. Soaring above, slipping gravity's attraction, Many have aspired to that satisfaction. Still, the law cautioned, the limits were great: "Was Erma forewarned of her delusional state?" On this issue, the evidence appeared strong: "She had known of her condition all along." She experienced a vision, at a shrine in a park: When the end came, she would be in the Ark. Indeed, she would assist, in sorting them out: Those to be saved, and those not devout. Knowing all this, said the court in conclusion, She might well expect, she'd suffer delusion. In her condition, a state most bizarre, Erma was negligent, to drive a car. And to Erma, a lesson of universal appeal: "Nothing can emulate the Batmobile!"

Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 15, 2016 - Comments (5)
Category: Law, Lawsuits, 1960s

Alec Templeton

I must confess that until a few days ago, despite loving clever weird music, I had never heard of Alec Templeton. (A DJ at WQXR dispelled my ignorance.) He turns out to be one of those talented composers who could veer between serious and silly with ease.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 15, 2016 - Comments (3)
Category: Humor, Parody, Music, 1940s

Killed by own invention

That's one way to cure rheumatism.

The Decatur Herald - July 14, 1958

Posted By: Alex - Wed Sep 14, 2016 - Comments (7)
Category: Inventions, Experiments, 1950s

Lord Littlebrook, RIP

Obituary here.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 14, 2016 - Comments (1)
Category: Entertainment, Human Marvels, Wrestling, 1980s, 1990s

Reaction of lions to a man in a motorized cage

I'm not quite sure what's going on here. This photo (sourced to AP Wirephoto) ran in various papers (such as here) on June 26, 1963. It had the following caption:


And that's it. I've been unable to find out anything else about this strange experiment. But I'd like to know why exactly the zoo was curious about how lions would react to a guy driving around in a motorized cage?

Posted By: Alex - Tue Sep 13, 2016 - Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Experiments, 1960s

Early Car Bomb and/or Guided Missile

Original article here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Sep 13, 2016 - Comments (9)
Category: Inventions, War, Weapons, 1910s, Cars

Wild Woman Escapes

1916: The chain holding Yebea, the "wild woman from Borneo," snapped during a performance in St. Louis. Yebea instantly became less wild, apologizing to a woman who was accidentally struck by the chain: "I beg your pardon, dearie; I didn't mean to do it. I hope I didn't hurt you."

However, at the sight of the freed wild woman the audience panicked and fled, with people crying out warnings that Yebea had escaped and was running amok. A police officer investigated and found her resting in her boudoir.

Mount Carmel Item - Jan 12, 1916

Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 12, 2016 - Comments (2)
Category: ShowBiz, 1910s

Gold & Fizdale

A gay couple who were also a professional piano duo playing classical music, while at the same time writing a food column for Vogue and publishing a cookbook? Nothing weird here, move along now!

Posted By: Paul - Mon Sep 12, 2016 - Comments (1)
Category: Food, Music, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, 1980s