1. An abandoned Playboy mansion in Tennessee
Found on Deserted Places.
2. A very sexy 1964 Ford Aurora Carpool Concept Car
“everyone was impressed by the darkening glass roof of the “electrochromatic” type, which somehow surprisingly changed its light conductivity. With a simple click of the button, the roof became opaque and protected the seated in the car from the scorching sun”
“intercom between the driver’s ‘command post’ and the children’s ‘romper room’ at the rear…The front passenger seat swivels to the a curved sofa in the lounge area. In place of a steering wheel, the Aurora has a steering bar.”
“In addition, it has … a navigator …. allowing in manual mode to determine the location of the car and the route.”
Found here.
3. Inventor Allyn Hazard testing his proposed moon suit in a lava crater in the Mojave Desert, 1962
The suit carried oxygen and food.
Found on Reddit.
4. This Home in Joshua Tree
Made with splayed shipping containers, conceived by James Whitaker. Found on Dezeen.
5. A 3D Tour inside of the Studio and Living space of this portrait artist
I’ve fallen in love with David Bromley’s wonderland, based in a Victorian shopping arcade in Melbourne, Australia.
Trust me, this 3D tour is so much fun.
6. Cats in the Sea Services
Blackie the cat meets Churchill aboard her homestead, the HMS Prince of Wales.
Sailors and cats have a special relationship that dates back thousands of years. It is likely that the ancient Egyptians were the first seafarers to realize the true value of having cats as shipmates. In addition to offering sailors much needed companionship on long voyages, cats provided protection by ridding ships of vermin. Without the presence of cats, a crew might find their ship overrun with rats and mice that would eat into the provisions, chew through ropes and spread disease. The more superstitious sailors believed that cats protected them by bringing good luck.
First set sail as a newborn kitten aboard the attack transport ship USS Fremont. Pictured displaying three service ribbons and four battle stars.
Thanks to a tip found here by one of MessyNessy’s amabassadors, Amie!
7. Hemingway’s First Short Story Found in Key West
The untitled, previously unknown work was written by the famous author when he was 10 years old. Tucked inside a Ziploc freezer bag, it survived Hurricane Irma, thanks to the descendants of Telly Otto “Toby” Bruce, who retrieved a pile of boxes in the 1960s, left in a storeroom behind Sloppy Joe’s Bar– Hemingway’s favorite saloon in Key West. The collection also includes little-seen Hemingway photos, letters, a lock of the author’s hair, 46 prints, and a water-specked notebook, containing Hemingway’s 14-page first attempt at fiction. The travelogue story was written as letters to his parents and what seem to be diary entries.
Full article on the New York Times.
8. Lost Languages Discovered In One Of The World’s Oldest Libraries
Researchers discovered ancient texts hidden beneath years of writing in the manuscripts at St. Catherine’s Monastery, one of the world’s oldest continuously running libraries at the foot of Mount Sinai.
The only catch — the languages can’t be seen with the naked eye… the parchment they were written on at the time was valuable, and often subject to reuse.
Now, using new technology, a team of researchers has developed a way to uncover the ancient writings in the palimpsests at St. Catherine’s and have discovered languages thought to be long lost. One such language, Caucasian Albanian, hasn’t been used since the 8th century. Other langauges include Christian Palestinian Aramaic, which is a mix of Syriac and Greek.
Besides the discovery of the Caucasian Albanian language texts, the researchers also uncovered what is thought to be the first-known copy of the Bible written in Arabic, as well as the earliest examples of writings from the Greek philosopher Hippocrates.
Full article found on All that is Interesting.
9. So True:
Found on this most excellent instagram account, Classical Art Memes.
10. World’s tallest chimney with a spiral staircase
In Terrassa, Spain.
Found on Pinterest.
11. Keeper of the Secrets
I was told that the most interesting man in the world works in the archives division of the New York Public Library, and so I went there, one morning this summer, to meet him…
He flipped to page 19, which assessed the value of a plot of land … a so-called ‘negro burial ground.’ This entry, he explained, was the last surviving reference to the burial ground, which was on land at New York City’s 1750s border near Duane and Reade streets. Shut down in the 1790s, the burial ground disappeared from popular memory, remaining known to history only through documents like this… He had a story like this for every box he showed me. In one, among administrative debris, there was an investigation by the New York Academy of Medicine into marijuana, signed in ink by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. It was the first American study to declare that the drug wasn’t addictive or dangerous. In another, there were records from the sign-making company that built what it called ‘spectaculars’ around the city, like a Camel Cigarettes billboard in Times Square that actually blew smoke, and the New Year’s Eve ball.
Full article on The Village Voice
12. Trackside Fried Chicken
As long distance travel got much easier after the Civil War, working in what today is called the “hospitality industry” was one of the fastest way for freed slaves and their descendants to earn a respectable living. George Pullman, of the Pullman car, exclusively hired ex-slaves as sleeping car attendants, porters, men who earned middle class wages by focusing on superior customer service. At rail stations throughout the South, many African American women also earned a decent living by selling prepared food to train passengers… women who walked great distances with platters of food balanced on their heads.
The small town of Gordonsville, Virginia, located at an intersection that connected Richmond with the Shenandoah Valley, gained fame for the quality of its fried chicken, sold trackside to passengers by an army of waiter-carriers.
From Part 2 of “Chicken and Waffles: The Most Complete Expression of Southern Culinary Skills”, found via The World’s Best Ever.
