The Geography and Map Division collections include vibrant nineteenth century maps showcasing brand new American communities and promises of the “good life” to prospective lot or home buyers. This post explores the common themes and fascinating details of these highly artistic maps designed to lure investment.
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A recent study by researchers at the University of Calgary and the National Research Council of Canada looked at an unusual phenomenon called a “biophoton.” An experiment involving mice and leaves from various plants provided physical evidence that living organisms can emit light that disappears after they die. The study was published in the journal Physical Chemistry Letters. At first glance, the results of the experiment may seem strange. It is not easy to connect scientific studies of electromagnetic radiation with paranormal phenomena such as auras. However, Dan Oblak, the senior author of the study, claim that they have managed…
The post Every Living Human Body Radiates an Invisible Glow appeared first on Anomalien.com.
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Everything we do here on Earth will be deleted from the cosmic record in a billion years, when the Sun will brighten and boil off all liquid water from the surface of our planet through a runaway greenhouse effect. The sturdiest structures we construct on the surface of Earth will constitute the tombstones of our civilization. This state of affairs should remind us of our personal life, where the notion of death affects what we choose to do in the limited time allotted to us. However, a cosmic time horizon of a billion years sounds so far away that we…
The post Cosmic Sandcastles: Humanity’s Fleeting Mark on the Universe appeared first on Anomalien.com.
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In our current era, we tend to glorify the author and hold the original text in high esteem. We regard Shakespeare with particular reverence, and his text is held aloft as the sacrosanct work of genius. But this was not always the case. In fact, an altered edition of Romeo and Juliet was widely printed and preferred over Shakespeare’s authoritative text for over a century.
Read MoreThere’s nothing like a scented candle to lighten the mood, literally and figuratively. I have a lemon-vanilla-scented candle on my desk right now, and it’s quite literally the only thing that keeps me going when I’ve lost the will to live at work. It makes even the most mundane experience better. Even though I have five reserve candles in my cabinet just waiting to be used, I’ll still be buying the next candle that catches my eye. My reserves are out of season anyway… who wants a spruce tree candle in the summer?
Or maybe it’s just been programmed into me because I’m part of the generation that used to frequent the mall’s Bath and Body Works in middle school just to get the latest scent. I could easily pick out A Thousand Wishes candle if my life depended on it. And they always had the deals — three for whatever. (But when they have those deals all year round, is it really a deal?)
Our everyday experience of the world feels solid and real, but what if it’s only a sliver of what’s truly out there? Neuroscientists Marjorie Woollacott and Marina Weiler, in their study “Neural Filters to Conscious Awareness and the Phenomena That Reduce Their Impact,” suggest that our brains act like radios, tuned to a specific frequency of reality. Built-in neural filters limit what we perceive, keeping us focused on a narrow slice of existence. Yet, under certain extraordinary conditions—like near-death experiences, deep meditation, or psychedelic journeys—these filters can weaken, potentially revealing a broader, more wondrous reality. What Are Neural Filters? Imagine…
The post How Our Brain Filters Reality and What Happens When We Lift the Filters appeared first on Anomalien.com.
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A closer look at the Library’s copy of the Eliot Algonquian Bible (1663) reveals a connection to the local history of the greater Washington area. Family birth and death inscriptions within the Bible show that it was once owned by the famous Gaither family of Gaithersburg in Montgomery County, Maryland. How and when did it arrive at the Library? Read this post to learn more.
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Popularly known as the saint who protects from ailments of the throat, Saint Blaise was a bishop and martyr of the fourth century. We know little else about him, except that he suffered persecution even after the Edict of Toleration was to have freed the Roman world for worship.
Read More![Mom grounds 15-year-old daughter for 4 months and bans her from her cheerleading competition after she mocked 16-year-old classmate for having reading problems: ‘You’ll also apologize to Zoey in front of the [youth] group’ #Fun](http://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/mom-grounds-15-year-old-daughter-for-4-months-and-bans-her-from-her-cheerleading-competition-after-she-mocked-16-year-old-classmate-for-having-reading-problems-youll-also-apologize-to-zoey.jpg "Mom grounds 15-year-old daughter for 4 months and bans her from her cheerleading competition after she mocked 16-year-old classmate for having reading problems: ‘You’ll also apologize to Zoey in front of the [youth] group’ #Fun")
Grounding is such a subjective part of parenting. My parents were never the type to ground me or my sister for months on end; it usually took not letting us go to a singular function to learn our lesson. But then again, I don’t think we ever did anything worth months and months of penance. I accidentally broke my sideview mirror by hitting a tree, but that wasn’t an act done out of malice or cruelty. Kids should be able to make mistakes without being punished as if they’re repeat offenders in the criminal justice system.
Sometimes, an intense grounding is given after an incredibly minor transgression. Who else remembers the YouTuber family 8 Passengers? The mom took away their teenage son’s bed for months because he pranked his younger brother into thinking the family was taking a trip to Disneyland. Imagine sleeping on a bean bag for months because you dared to tell a joke.
In creating Consider the Consequences! authors Doris Webster (1885-1967) and Mary Alden Hopkins (1876-1960) were toying with a new idea: write a book that provided readers with narrative options. The result was the first choice-based novel ever printed as well as the precursor to the Choose Your Own Adventure book series that would become popular later in the 20th century.
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Here is a new version of the “Christmas tree cluster.” NGC 2264 is a cluster of young stars between one and five million years old. (For comparison, the Sun is a middle-aged star about 5 billion years old – about 1,000 times older.)
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Merry Christmas Eve! The most hyped holiday of the year is about to arrive, and I hope you all are spending it doing precisely what you want to do. I’m sure many of us are at our homes or our parents’ homes, sitting around the tree and looking at the old funny ornaments like there’s no tomorrow. Whether you’re preparing the broiled cornish game hen or arranging stocking stuffers, I’m sure you need something to take a load off of your busy Christmas Eve. Are you in desperate need of a breather before the man with the sack comes to town? I’m so glad you asked because I’m blessing you with the gift of random memes. That’s right, these memes are that secret extra present you never knew you wanted, but now that you’ve got them, you can’t believe you once lived without them. Savor them, and have a Merry Christmas.
What do the following things have in common:
a cone, the fur of a fox, and a Christmas tree?
Answer: they all occur in the constellation of the Unicorn
(Monoceros)
Put on your red dress and get ready to be kissed, because Hallmark movies are back on the air for the Christmas season!
I don’t personally watch Hallmark movies for reasons I’ll divulge later, but I learned recently that whenever the female protagonist puts on a red dress, there’s a 100% chance that romance is on the way. How do I know? My hyper-masculine, tough-as-nails, biker dad told me. In a shocking plot twist, it turns out he’s something of a Hallmark movie expert…
I started this deep dive into the Hallmark genre as a quest to understand the reasoning behind the raving success of these inherently “cringey” movies. I wondered why my father, a man who’s spent his whole life as a construction contractor–covered in sawdust, motor oil, plumbing fluid, mystery sap, and at least 100 splinters–would even glance at a film that looked more like a snowglobe from Disneyland rather than the Sons of Anarchy aesthetic he usually embraces. I wondered why anyone would bring such soulless garbage onto their screens when there are so many highly rated, critically acclaimed, and artistically stimulating content to view. But that’s exactly it, nobody wants thought-provoking, Oscar-worthy artistry after a really long day at work, they want to just feel good and relax… They want Hallmark.
This post features maps of the World’s Columbian Exposition that took place in 1893. Images of a guide map, souvenir maps, floor plans, and bird’s eye views are included in the post.
Read MoreWhat’s on your Christmas list this year? World peace? A Cybertruck? A couple of new pairs of socks to replace the ones that have a hole in the toe? No matter what gifts you may be hoping for or even if you aren’t expecting to get any at all, the internet is here to give you a present every single day of the year. I’m talking about memes, of course, and the gift of humor that they share with us all any time and any place. What’s even better is when they are wrapped up in a convenient, if somewhat messy package such as a list like this. It is only right that you treat yourself in the festive season, and easily accessible light entertainment is a great example of that. You may not be able to put memes under the tree, but you can certainly scroll through them for as long as you want.
Christmas may be a stressful time of the year, but it’s also the most wonderful!
The weather is chilling, the windows are frosting, and the twinkling lights fill the dark afternoons with magic. Despite Mariah Carrey playing on every speaker from here to Nantucket, Christmas cheer spreads far and wide as kiddos dream of the Elf on the Shelf, and cookie decoration dates remind us all why we dropped out of art school.
Perhaps it’s the smaller moments of the holidays that make it so merry.
With a honey-baked ham in the freezer and our favorite holiday records on loop, our merriest moments are the ones we create with our chosen family. Right here in this kitchen, we bake away the woes of the work day (“let’s circle back in 2025”) and our moms call us a little more often with news from our childhood neighborhood. Nostalgia and memories stoke the flames of the coziest evenings and even though we’re not totally finished with our gift list, we know that an Amazon box is on its way with some presents that’ll make our loved ones smile–if just for a day.
A recent experiment has confirmed an interesting aspect of quantum physics: the dual nature of light particles, known as photons, cannot be fully observed as both a wave and a particle at the same time. This limitation arises from a principle called entropic uncertainty. In the early 20th century, physicist Niels Bohr introduced the idea of wave-particle duality, which suggests that photons can behave as waves (like ripples on a pond) or particles (like tiny billiard balls), depending on how they are observed. However, Bohr also proposed the complementarity principle: it’s impossible to observe both behaviors simultaneously. It’s like trying…
The post Photons Can’t Be Fully Seen as Both Waves and Particles appeared first on Anomalien.com.
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Banana tree dwelling frog (Boana platanera) in the lower Venezuelan Andes
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An Indian coral tree (Erythrina variegata) blossoming in the south-west monsoon at Mallalli falls on the Kumaradhara River, Karnataka, India
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There are so many holiday traditions that we accept to make other members of our family happy. It’s a form of giving to see The Nutcracker with your mom every year, even though you really don’t care about the Sugar Plum Fairy and her journey. A dad might not particularly enjoy risking his hide to put colorful lights on the roof every year, but he does it to make his kids smile. Like them or not, there’s a good chance that annual Christmas traditions make someone in your family happy, and that’s reason enough to continue doing them.
What if you find yourself stuck doing a family tradition that you, your partner, and your siblings all really dislike? Would it be cruel to abandon the tradition in favor of a more convenient, cozy tradition that has the same bare bones as the old one? That’s what this eldest child took to Reddit to ask, and the responses are conflicted as they come.
Historic newspapers have a wealth of fun puzzles. Try your hand at these number puzzles and riddles and let us know if you’ve solved them!
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Are you tired of hearing Mariah Carrey’s voice yet?
Every year, she crawls back from some hole where only dolphin squeals can be heard in the distance and bestows upon the good-natured townsfolk a single song that is so catchy, so upbeat, and so belligerently overplayed that it becomes the bane of every retail worker’s existence. All WE want for Christmas is a little variety in our Christmas tunes, okay?
Hating MC doesn’t mean that you don’t still love the holiday season, it just means you’re more tasteful than the mainstream. Curated decor, scented candles, and an ideal TV fireplace are all a testament to your holiday spirit.
There are yule-tide cookie tips and the Schnapp-chocolate recipes magnetized to your fridge as well as the rampage of gift ideas swirling through your head like fresh falling snow. The holiday season is upon us and there’s nowhere else for this cheerful energy to go! Embrace your love for the holiday season because it’ll be here before you know it. In only 3 weeks’ time, Santa and his reindeer come clopping down your rooftop spreading merriment, magic, and you guessed it, a sack full of gifts! (and maybe a lump of coal for your least favorite nephew)
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A solitary mangrove tree on the emerald tropical beach. Havelock Island (Swaraj Dweep), Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andaman Sea, Indian Ocean.
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Everyone has their preferred form of exercise. Mine is a good, long walk. There’s nothing quite like lacing up your walking shoes, putting on a good playlist, and hitting the pavement. You don’t even need to have a destination in mind, you just need a willingness to keep going. You may end up exploring parts of your world you’ve never seen before, identifying a new restaurant you’d like to try, and a particularly beautiful tree that you stop to take a photo of. And then boom, you’ve walked 5 miles without even realizing it.
Sometimes that’s the key to getting a workout in— you need to trick yourself into doing it so your mind isn’t occupied with your body hurting, and instead, it happens to you as a by-product. That’s why sports are excellent exercise, you’re so focused on the score that you forget you’re burning calories. Then, you can look at these memes to cool down.
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Southwest portal with Tree of Jesse of St Lamberti Church in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
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Kelly Lambert: We crafted our first rodent car from a plastic cereal container. After trial and error, my colleagues and I found that rats could learn to drive forward by grasping a small wire that acted like a gas pedal. Before long, they were steering with surprising precision to reach a Froot Loop treat. As expected, rats housed in enriched environments – complete with toys, space and companions – learned to drive faster than those in standard cages. This finding supported the idea that complex environments enhance neuroplasticity: the brain’s ability to change across the lifespan in response to environmental…
The post Neuroscientist Teaches Lab Rats to Drive appeared first on Anomalien.com.
Read MoreTeenagers are rarely excellent drivers. Some kids have been driving with their parents out in the country since they were ten and have years of behind-the-wheel experience before they turn 16, but that’s the exception to the rule. There’s a reason why insurance premiums are much more expensive for 16-year-old boys compared to 25-year-old men. It’s no wonder my parents didn’t want to buy me a car when I was a teenager…could you think of a more high-risk financial investment?
Teen drivers are known to get into little accidents often. I tried to use industrial glue to glue my right door mirror back on my vehicle after I hit it with a tree on a particularly narrow road. Most kids will hit a mailbox or two during their driving years, but most probably won’t total a stationary vehicle in a parking lot and drive away. Unfortunately, the teens in this story are not “most kids.”
Scientists are investigating what kind of greenhouse effect would be necessary on Mars to raise its frigid climate enough to support tree growth, reports Space.com. A new study outlines how much carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to accumulate on the Red Planet to create an environment where trees and other plants could thrive. The research, led by Professor Robert Olszewski of the Warsaw University of Technology in Poland, examines the balance of surface energy on Mars. This includes processes such as CO2 condensation and evaporation, heat exchange with the planet’s interior, and atmospheric circulation. “Interestingly, the first areas to reach…
The post Scientists Figure Out How to Grow Trees on the Red Planet appeared first on Anomalien.com.
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[allAfrica] Nairobi, Kenya — For more than 17 years, Alice Muchugi has led the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) program on tree genetic resources. The organization is concerned with ensuring tree genetic resources are used sustainably and conserved, and even reaching out to those who aren’t yet aware of how they should be utilized, or ensuring that we know their diversity before it is lost.
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Archaeologists found a seed believed to be about 1,000 years old in a cave and decided to plant it—and now 14 years later they have a 10-foot-tall tree growing.
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Cuban tree frog (Osteopilus septentrionalis) on Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands
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I.
Come, virgins chaste; pure brides, draw near:
Let Earth exult and Heaven hear
The Hymn that grateful accents raise,
Our song of joy in Rita’s praise.
II.
By fast her sinless frame is weak;
Her livid flesh the scourges streak.
In pity for her Savior’s woes,
Her days and even nights are closed.
III.
The thorn-wound on her brow is shown,
The crimson rose in winter blown,
And full-ripe figs on frozen tree
At Rita’s wish the wonders see.
IV.
The widowed spouse …
First reading from the First Book of Kings 1 Kgs 19:4-8
Elijah went a day’s journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and…
Reimagining Jerry N. Uelsmann’s “Untitled” (1967) through the lens of Leonid Afremov’s style creates a vibrant tapestry of surrealism. Imagine Uelsmann’s intricate blend of multiple exposures bathed in neon green, electric blue, and vibrant magenta hues, all set against a dark, atmospheric backdrop. Afremov’s signature brushstrokes, reminiscent of oil palette knives, infuse the composition with dynamic movement and emotion. This interpretation pays homage to Uelsmann’s original concept of blending reality and imagination while incorporating Afremov’s distinctive artistic vigor, resulting in a visually captivating piece that enchants with its neon brilliance and dreamlike ambiance.
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Reimagining Jerry N. Uelsmann’s “Untitled” (1967) in the style of Leonid Afremov transforms the photomontage into a vibrant tapestry of surrealism. Picture Uelsmann’s intricate blend of multiple exposures now saturated with neon green, electric blue, and vibrant magenta, set against a dark, atmospheric backdrop. Afremov’s trademark brushstrokes, akin to oil palette knives, infuse the composition with dynamic movement and emotion. This approach honors Uelsmann’s original concept of blending reality and imagination while incorporating Afremov’s distinctive artistic vigor, resulting in a visually arresting piece that dazzles with its neon brilliance and dreamlike ambiance.
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A white-edged tree frog (Boana albomarginata). Researchers discovered that frogs have maintained a surprising diversity of nonvisual, light-sensing proteins over evolutionary time which play a role in a variety of biological functions.
[Research supported by U.S. National Science …
This is an NSF Multimedia Gallery item.
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