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One man survived both the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and then later Nagasaki.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi was a 29-year-old Naval Engineer on a three-month business trip to Hiroshima. On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay dropped its atomic payload on the city.
Yamaguchi was less than 2 miles from ground zero and was thrown into a potato patch.
He survived the blast and was able to make a perilous journey through the devastated city to the railway station.
Here, on August 7th, he boarded a train on an overnight ride to his hometown of Nagasaki.
On the morning of August 9th, he was with some colleagues in an office building when another boom split the sound barrier. A flash of white light filled the sky.
Yamaguchi emerged from the wreckage with only minor injuries on top of his current injuries.
He had survived two nuclear blasts in two days.
Remember that famous picture of a bunch of construction workers sitting on a girder way up in the sky and having lunch? Well, here’s the photographer who took that picture: Charles C. Ebbets. My guess is that the C stand for cojones. :open_mouth: Cool shoes, too!
“When pregnant, the cells of the baby migrate into the mothers bloodstream and then circle back into the baby, it’s called “fetal-maternal microchimerism”.
For 41 weeks, the cells circulate and merge backwards and forwards, and after the baby is born, many of these cells stay in the mother’s body, leaving a permanent imprint in the mothers tissues, bones, brain, and skin, and often stay there for decades. Every single child a mother has afterwards will leave a similar imprint on her body, too.Even if a pregnancy doesn’t go to full term or if you have an abortion, these cells still migrate into your bloodstream.
Research has shown that if a mother’s heart is injured, fetal cells will rush to the site of the injury and change into different types of cells that specialize in mending the heart.The baby helps repair the mother, while the mother builds the baby.
How cool is that?This is often why certain illnesses vanish while pregnant.
It’s incredible how mothers bodies protect the baby at all costs, and the baby protects & rebuilds the mother back – so that the baby can develop safely and survive.
Think about crazy cravings for a moment. What was the mother deficient in that the baby made them crave?Studies have also shown cells from a fetus in a mothers brain 18 years after she gave birth. How amazing is that?”
If you’re a mom you know how you can intuitively feel your child even when they are not there….Well, now there is scientific proof that moms carry them for years and years even after they have given birth to them.
Did you know trees can communicate?
Trees talk. Their roots are connected through an underground network of fungi, nicknamed the “Wood Wide Web,” that allows them to share resources with each other. They “talk” by transmitting nutrients to one another through the fungi. For instance, a mother tree, or oldest and strongest tree in the forest, will share some of her sugars with smaller, nearby trees.
Did you know you can use willow bark for pain relief instead of aspirin?
The secret to pain relief may be in your backyard. For centuries, willow bark has been used as an alternative to aspirin. The active ingredient in the bark, salicyl, turns to salicylic acid and is more gentle on the stomach than over-the-counter aspirin.
Guy Fawkes
The story of how Guy Fawkes was hanged, drawn and quartered after attempting to kill the King and blow up Parliament in 1605 is well-known.
The famous conspirator is said to have smuggled 36 barrels of gunpowder into the cellar of the House of Lords before being caught red-handed – but many of the facts we were taught in school are actually common misconceptions, and the truth behind the nation’s favourite villain is not as clear.
Here, we take a look at some of the most common myths and lesser known facts about Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot in preparation for the celebrations on 5 November.
1. Guy Fawkes was not hanged, drawn and quartered
The traditional death for traitors in 17th-century England was to be hanged from the gallows, then drawn and quartered in public. But despite his role in the Gunpowder Plot – which the perpetrators hoped would kill King James and as many members of parliament as possible – it was not to be Fawkes’ fate.As he awaited his grisly punishment on the gallows, Fawkes leapt to his death – to avoid the horrors of having his testicles cut off, his stomach opened and his guts spilled out before his eyes. He died from a broken neck.
His body was subsequently quartered, and his remains were sent to “the four corners of the kingdom” as a warning to others.
2. Guy Fawkes was not the Gunpowder Plot’s ringleader
There were a total of 13 conspirators in the plot, which was masterminded by Robert Catesby. Catesby was a charismatic Catholic figure who had a reputation for speaking out against the English crown.The others involved alongside Fawkes were Thomas Bates, Robert and Thomas Wintour, Thomas Percy, Christopher and John Wright, Francis Tresham, Everard Digby, Ambrose Rookwood, Robert Keyes, Hugh Owen and John Grant.
But it was Fawkes who gained notoriety after the plot was foiled, as he had the perilous duty of sneaking into the cellar beneath the House of Lords and igniting the explosives. It was he who was caught red-handed with 36 barrels of gunpowder, and for two days Fawkes was the only conspirator who the King’s men had captured.
3. Guy Fawkes won the unlikely admiration of King James I
When asked why he had so much gunpowder, he replied that his intention was “to blow you Scotch beggars back to your native mountains”.Fawkes admitted that he had planned to blow up the House of Lords, and expressed his regret at having failed to do so.
Unusually, his steadfast manner earned him the praise of King James, who described Fawkes as possessing “a Roman resolution”.
4. Guy Fawkes was actually Protestant by birth
Despite becoming the greatest enemy of the Protestant establishment, Fawkes was, in fact, born into the faith. However, his maternal grandparents were recusant Catholics, who refused to attend Protestant services.In 1578, when Fawkes was eight, his father died and his widowed mother married a Catholic, Dionis Baynbrigge. Fawkes converted to Catholicism when he was a teenager.
5. Guy Fawkes has an island named after him
He is one of Britain’s most infamous villains, whose effigy has been burned and whose demise has been publicly celebrated for more than four centuries. It may come as a surprise, then, that there is an island named after him.To the north-west of Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos Islands, a collection of two uninhabited, crescent-shaped islands is named Isla Guy Fawkes, or Guy Fawkes Island.
6. Guy Fawkes liked to be called by an Italian nickname
Aged 21 and a committed Catholic, Fawkes sold the estate his father had left him and went to Europe to fight for Catholic Spain against the Protestant Dutch republic in the Eighty Years War.While he was abroad, he adopted the Italian variant of his name, becoming known as ‘Guido’. This was thought to be an attempt to sound more continental and therefore more serious about his Catholic faith.
When he was caught by the King’s men, at first he claimed his name was John Johnson. However after being tortured, he was forced to sign a confession to his role in the Gunpowder Plot, and this he signed as ‘Guido Fawkes’.
7. The Houses of Parliament are still searched once a year for conspirators
Before the State Opening of Parliament, the Yeomen of the Guard search the Houses of Parliament with lanterns to make sure there are no would-be conspirators hiding in the cellars.This has become more of a tradition than a serious anti-terrorist precaution.
8. The cellar that Fawkes tried to blow up no longer exists
It was destroyed in a fire in 1834 that devastated the medieval Houses of Parliament.9. The gunpowder would have done little damage to Parliament
The 36 barrels of gunpowder that Fawkes planted in a cellar below the Houses of Parliament would have been sufficient to raze it to the ground, while causing severe damage to neighbouring buildings.However, some experts have claimed that the gunpowder had “decayed”, and would not have properly exploded even if it had been ignited.
10. Not everyone celebrates Guy Fawkes’ demise
Dummies have been burned on bonfires since as long ago as the 13th century, initially to drive away evil spirits. But, following the Gunpowder Plot, the focus of the sacrifices switched to Guy Fawkes’ treason.Traditionally, these effigies called ‘guys’, are carried through the streets in the days leading up to Guy Fawkes Day and children ask passers-by for “a penny for the guy” with fireworks representing the explosives that were never used by the plotters.
But his former school, St. Peter’s in York, does not celebrate Guy Fawkes Night, as they refuse to burn a guy out of respect for one of their own.
Extreme ironing is an actual sport!!!
There are plenty of extreme sports out there if you happen to be an adrenaline junkie. From the classics like skydiving and surfing to newcomers like parkour and blobbing (A.K.A. human catapulting), there’s truly something for everyone. But if you want to combine your love of cleaning with your love of getting wild, then perhaps you’d like to try extreme ironing, which was founded in 1997 and has been challenging competitors to press shirts in unexpected locations—like high up in trees, hanging over cliffs, or paddling white-water rapids—for more than two decades.
Look at the differences between a typical preschool child’s hand (left) and a typical 7 year old hand (right). Want to know why a preschool aged child isn’t able to write yet? This is why! Their hands are still developing and are not fully formed. So what should they be doing to support this? PLAY!! Playdough, colouring, cutting, gluing, playing outside, digging in dirt, sensory play, dress up play, science experiments, beading, puzzles, throwing balls, etc.
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