Manohar Aich

In 1952 at the age of 39 Manohar Aich won the Mr. Universe bodybuilding competition. Manohar Aich, who usually goes by "Great" as in "Great" Manohar Aich, was born on St. Pat's day in 1913. "Great" was born in a remote village and began his fitness career while recovering from an illness when he was 12. "Great" grew to have a 53 inch chest and an only 23 inch waist, V shaped to the extreme. "Great" is also only 4 feet 11 inches tall. "Great" won the Mr. Universe title in 1952 after having come in second the year before and continued to finish in the top 5 for years to come bringing him well into his 40s. After retiring from competition himself "Great" went on to open gyms and become a fitness personality in India. "Great" credits his longevity with living a stress free life, and never smoking cigarettes or drinking booze.  "Great" has never met Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"Great" recently

"Great" back in the day

 -jv
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Rockstars die at 27

When Amy Winehouse was found dead today, after gasping aloud, our first thought was "Was she 27?" because rockstars die when they are 27.

My favorite Jimi Hendrix song is "The wind cries Mary."

No one sings Summertime better than "Janis Joplin," with a little help from Jimi.

 I can't think of a Doors song I don't like; everyone loves "Alabama Song," obviously.

I always knew I liked Nirvana, as far back as I can remember. I could only get to them through the radio for the longest time. Until I finally got a hold of their greatest hits album freshman year of high school. My favorite song is "Lithium."

 
And ever a rockstar, Amy has joined the infamous 27 club. It's songs like "Me and Mr Jones" that make me really sad about this.

- V
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WPA Artwork

The Federal Arts program lasted from August 29, 1935 til June 30, 1943. As a part of the Works Project Administration the Federal Arts Program employed artists to provide art for non federal buildings.

I learned about this in maybe Mr. Haren's 11th grade history class and more recently Wikipedia then had not really thought about it. I occasionally would come accross a mural and then I noticed my boss's calendar which has different national parks as drawn by WPA artists. My favorites are the Sequoia National Park

  and Yellowstone.

Also everyone should go see HP7.2 it is amazing. Horrible Bosses was also very funny.
-jv
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The America Flag - Past and Future

As today is one of 7 particular days of display for the American flag, let's look at the different designs of previous flags, and take a glimpse at the possible future flags. 

Another flag in use from 1777-95

War Time Flag

New Englanders are pretty familiar with the flag that Betsey Ross probably didn't sew, but not only was there a different flag in use during most of the American Revolution, but thereafter at least four other flags were in use for the next 18 years, until two more state were added to the Union.

 The thirteen stripes have only been altered once, with the addition of the first two states after the colonies, the flag featured 15 stars and 15 stripes. After this it reverted the 13 stripes and the number of states for the number of stars.

Over the years there have been no less than 24 flags as states were added. Most maintained the stars in lines, but some had the stars in a circular of star shape.

Initiated with Colorado's statehood

In use 1837-45

At present there are designs in place for up to 56 states. So should DC or Puerto Rico ever be granted statehood, Congress is ready to update the flag. 

Last, ever wondered how to fold the flag? Here you go:

 -av
Girl Scout Troop 1021

ps. Nobody does the Star Spangled Banner better than Marvin

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The Pergamon Museum

I've been living in Vienna for almost 10 months now and I feel like I've spent more time in museums than I ever thought possible. This is a museum that I had never heard of before just a few weeks ago, but is one of the coolest museums I've ever been in and would emphatically encourage anyone to go to if they are visiting Berlin.

The Pergamon Museum is a collection of enormous ancient structures that the Germans literally took apart, brought to Berlin, and assembled in this museum piece by piece. They not only took (I think of it more as...well... stealing, really) the Pergamon Altar, after which the museum is named, but also the door from a fortress entrance gate, and an entire marketplace front. It's unbelievable. I'm also always amazed to see the beautiful structures that were created long before our plethora of fine building tools and techniques.

The Market Door from Milatus from 120 A.D

The Babalonian Ishtar Gate

What's also a perk: since the ancient structures are so huge, there's not many things to have to check out in this museum. This is great, because museums are exhausting.

peace.

-lab

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Shiz My Students Write

Just came across a pretty hilarious tumblr called Shit My Students Write. Teachers submit unintentionally funny lines their students write anonymously, and though some are just typos, I couldn't help but laugh out loud at how idiotic some of this kids seem.

I bet FP & AV could add some good entries. Here are some of my favorites:

Indians, the other dark meat, were saved from extinction by the humanitarian, Andrew Jackson.

Before the days of colonization, America was like a young, untouched child.

I’ve lived my whole life on the west coast and to me, the civil war seems like a really really long time ago.

Like a woman seduces a horny man, Hitler captivated the people of Germany.

Macbeth couldn’t have loved Lady Macbeth because he was crazy and too busy hallucinating witches and stuff. Also, crazy people can’t do it without going crazy midway through.

-id

Titanic: 99 years of morbid fascination.

In the wee hours of the morning on April 15th, 1912, 99 years old today, the Titanic sank into the Atlantic, taking with it 1,517 people, due to insufficient lifeboats and a whole bunch of other incompentencies. And people can't stop talking about it.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with loving the movie, or going to a museum expo of stuff brought up from the wreck, getting lost on wikipedia looking up survivors and victims for several hours, or occasionally getting sucked into a History Channel marathon of Titanic-themed programming.

However, Titanic interest can be taken too far. Like the 100th Anniversary Titanic Cruise. The cruise, which sold out last October, will take place next year, reaching the place where the Titanic Sank on April 14th before continuing on to Halifax, where there's an excursion planned to the cemetary where the recovered bodies were buried. According to a press release:

"The Balmoral will trace the same route the Titanic took from Southampton to New York in 1912 and the ship will sail with 1,309 paying passengers, exactly the same number that sailed on the Titanic. The restaurants will offer the same menu, and the passengers will hear music of the time of the Titanic. The passengers will have an opportunity to listen to lectures about the Titanic era and those who shared its fate. "

This super morbid, totally sold out, with a very long waiting list cruise is doing some good, they've joined with a charity that is benefiting from the profits as well.

In other, related, vaugely depressing news, while researching this I saw an article claiming that the Titanic wreck still on the ocean floor will be destroyed by bacteria by 2017.

My heart will go on long after the Titanic has turned into the underwater version of dust,

-av

p.s. also, while Lincoln was shot the night before, he didn't actually die until the next morning, so Abraham Lincoln has the same death day as the Titanic, April 15th.