Weird World

Back in 1930–1931, while the Empire State Building was going up in New York City, photographer Lewis W. Hine took pictures of the workers building it. These men worked hundreds of feet in the air with no safety harnesses at all. They became symbols of bravery and tough spirit during the hard times of the Great Depression.

In 1969, engineers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a huge temporary dam and turned off the American Falls at Niagara for about five months (June to November). They diverted all the water to the Canadian side so they could study the rock face, check erosion, and figure out how to keep the falls from wearing away or collapsing over time. For the first time in thousands of years, people could walk on the dry riverbed and see the boulders up close. It was an incredible engineering project that helped scientists learn how to protect this natural wonder. 

A kid's reaction to meeting Andre the Giant (1970's)

I love this

Before the coffin was closed, she was covered with a blanket and an ox hide. Flowering yarrow (indicating a summer burial) and a bucket of beer made of wheat, honey, bog myrtle, and cowberries were placed atop. Her distinctive outfit, which caused a sensation when it was unearthed in the 1920s, is the best-preserved example of a style now known to be common in northern Europe during the Bronze Age. The good preservation of the Egtved Girl’s outfit is due to the acidic bog conditions of the soil, which is a common condition of this locale.

A 1,000-year-old statue of Buddha revealed a mummified monk inside when it was sent to the Drents Museum in the Netherlands for some restoration work.

A road in Pompeii, built prior to AD79. The small white stones were designed to reflect moonlight making the road easier to see at night.

In the 1800s, Greek prostitutes would advertise via their shoes. They often read "follow me" which would be imprinted into the sand.

Trees knocked over during a storm

In antiquity, women who had anxiety, mood swings and depression were sent by their husbands to the doctor, who diagnosed them with a disease called ′′ hysteria ". Their treatment was based on a ′′ pelvic massage ′′ with the purpose of achieving hysterical paroxysm, now known as orgasm. There were so many women who began to attend consultations to have their ′′ treatment for hysteria ′′ that doctors at the end of the workday were exhausted and their hands were shaky;  that's why they decided to invent a useful device that produced rhythmic vibrations and that hysterical paroxysm was achieved easier and faster in the patient without the need for the common manual massage: this is the origin of the vibrator.  At that time it was seen as a healing artifact, even the wealthiest women had them in their homes for when they felt ′′ bouts of hysteria ".

Mark Twain in the laboratory of Nikola Tesla, early 1894