10Phonographs Changed Our Idea Of Ideal Song Length Most modern songs are approximately four minutes long. In fact, most people tune out or quickly get bored if subjected to a song that is much longer. It’s easy to blame the short attention spans of the Internet age for this phenomenon, but it actually goes back to the 19th century, when Thomas Edison invented his first phonograph. Early recording devices could only hold about four minutes’ worth of music, so all songs had to fit within that constraint....

But there is a little truth hidden in the myth. There was a real person who, it’s believed, sparked the legend of Arthur. Long before all the magic and myth was draped onto the simple truth of his life, there was a real man who inspired it all. He lived in Britain shortly after the fall of Rome—and he was absolutely nothing like the stories you’ve heard. 10 Arthur Wasn’t A King (According To Gildas) The real Arthur wasn’t the king of Britain....

To some outsiders, the Brits may seem prim, proper, and a bit too serious at times. But a closer look will dispel that notion. From ancient pagan rites to modern-day oddities, this small island has the power to charm, amaze, and occasionally disgust. But it’s always entertaining. 10 Summer Solstice At Stonehenge Each year, thousands gather at the ancient stone monument in Wiltshire to mark the summer solstice. As the Sun rises, it aligns perfectly with the Heel Stone, the ancient stone entrance to the monument, and casts rays of light across the revelers gathered there....

10 AuguryDivination By Birds The ancient Romans loved their bird fortunes. People at all levels of society would divine their fortunes by studying the species, calls, and flight patterns of birds in the sky. In particular, chickens were used to predict the outcomes of battles. Priests scattered grain in front of specially raised chickens, and the enthusiasm with which the birds ate was said to correspond to the degree of success that the Roman forces would enjoy that day....

10Releasing One Copy Of An AlbumThe Wu-Tang Clan Hip-hop collective the Wu-Tang Clan entered 2014 in the strangest way they thought possible with the announcement of their album Once Upon A Time in Shaolin. The band, although active, hadn’t quite received the level of buzz Shaolin received since the release their classic Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). What propelled them to return to the media consciousness wasn’t so much what they had created, but rather how they chose to distribute it....

10 Panda Boot Camp Some captive panda breeding programs have ended in heartbreak, like when Xiang Xiang the captive-bred panda was killed just one year after being released into the wild. That’s where the idea of panda boot camp comes in. Tao Tao was a giant panda raised in Wolong Nature Preserve with the goal of preparing him to live in the wild. In addition to his mother’s training in basic skills like climbing, scientists put Tao Tao through drills to prepare him for hazards like storms, mudslides, and predators....

10 Aglet The piece of plastic covering the ends of your shoelace, so you don’t have to moisten them with spit to thread them through your shoelace holes. 9 Bollard The posts in the parking lot let that lets wheelchairs and shopping carts go through, but not your car. 8 Dingbat Non-alphanumeric, non-punctuation characters, usually used when you want to write something that you don’t want your children to read....

Why does this happen? What could motivate a mother to deliberately end the lives of her own children? As we will discover in this list, grief, anger, and an inability to give her children the life she thinks they deserve are just a few reasons a mother could do the unthinkable. 10 Aubrianne Moore She would keep her kids home from school because the television said there would be a school bus accident that day....

Let’s explore the ten worst mistakes you can make in survival situations. 10 Don’t Underestimate the Risk We tend to judge situations at face value, which can lead to judging situations incorrectly. We may give a potential issue less attention and expend less energy, but we should shift all our resources to tackle the problem. Underestimating the risk can be one of the worse mistakes you can make. For example, you might find yourself hiking....

Apparent Yeti prints have been seen many times before, and there have been many explanations put forward to explain them away. If there actually are Yetis in the Himalayas, wouldn’t someone have seen them by now? Well, about that . . . 10 Where’s A Camera When You Need One? In 1925, a photographer, N.A. Tombazi, was touring the Himalayas taking scenic photographs. One day, his porters called him to come from his tent, and they pointed to a dark object 183 to 274 meters (600–900 ft) away....

All schoolbooks were made from hemp or flax paper until the 1880s. (Jack Frazier. Hemp Paper Reconsidered. 1974.) It was legal to pay taxes with hemp in America from 1631 until the early 1800s. (LA Times. Aug. 12, 1981.) Refusing to grow hemp in America during the 17th and 18th centuries was against the law! You could be jailed in Virginia for refusing to grow hemp from 1763 to 1769 (G....

Seeing Rodney Dangerfield, not as a comedian or a slapstick goof, but as a child molesting, wife beating drunkard makes this a once in a life time, memorable role for Dangerfield. He may not have been father of the year, but he is permanently branded on my brain. Atticus Finch stands up for what is right and is not afraid to let his children see it. No matter how socially unacceptable it was at the time....

Over the course of the 20th century, this art form has been changing drastically as new artists bring on new influence and new sound. Dixieland became big-band, which became be-bop, which became fusion, Latin, and free jazz, which, in turn, established their own separate styles like funk, acid-jazz, hard-bop, smooth jazz, cool jazz, etc. The musicians behind this ever-growing phenomenon are recognized as some of the best musicians of all time....

They don’t make animals like this anymore. Estemmenosuchus is one of the most bizarre-looking prehistoric monsters; it belonged to the group of the dinocephalians, and despite their dinosaur-like appearance, they were actually more closely related to mammals… including us! Estemmenosuchus was the size of a rhinoceros, and it too had a horn on its nose, but it also had antler-like horns on the top of its head, and strange, bony protrusions coming out of its cheeks; no one knows what they were used for....

SEE ALSO: 10 Facts That Everyone Gets Wrong About Vaping 7The First Patient Looking back, the earliest cases occurred sometime in April. However, it was not until June 11 when doctors first became aware that they were dealing with an unknown condition. On that day, a teenager was admitted to the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. He experienced breathing difficulties, ran a fever and had lost a lot of weight. The staff initially thought he had picked up a lung infection....

See Also: Top 10 Incredible Recordings 8 A Pile Of Extinct Birds Te Papa, the national museum of New Zealand, opened the Te Taiao exhibition in May 2019. Included in the feature are a number of extinct native birds, such as the fearsome Haast’s eagle and its equally formidable prey, the moa. The vocalizations of these long-gone avians have been re-created as well, through the efforts of Te Papa staff and Wellington sound designers....

Takashi Itoh is a Japanese food sculptor who specializes in carving amazing designs on watermelons. The idea came to him after he saw a watermelon sculpture at a Thai culture festival. Duly inspired, he started teaching himself how to carve the fruit, and three weeks later, he mastered the craft. His carvings, which can take up to ninety minutes to complete, include dragons, slogans, cranes, tortoises and a series of athletic designs inspired by the 2008 Beijing Olympics....

The Ainu people (an indigenous tribe from parts of Japan and Russia) are a once-suppressed ethnic minority whose religious roots are animist. Because of their worship of nature, they developed a tradition in which bears were killed in order to send their soul to heaven to bless mankind. This ritual (Iyomante) involves the slaughter of a hibernating mother bear in her cave. Her cubs are raised in captivity for two years and then fatally choked or speared in a sacramental act meant to show religious devotion....

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