Quiddity

Illustrator Grace Chao uses flower petals to design dresses

Using flower petals to design dresses.  Very pretty.

Bullet proof blanket for the low-low price of $1,000

One of my biggest fears is that this will happen at my school.  I've played out countless scenarios in my mind of how I would react and how far I would go to protect the kids.  We usually have about 3 genuine lock-downs a year.  We aren't told what the threat is until after the lock-down has been lifted.  I do my best to keep the kids calm even though I'm secretly terrified.

Sadly, these blankets will do nothing to protect my students after they leave school.  We live in an area where there is a lot of gang activity.  Drive-by shootings occur here almost weekly.  A five-year-old student was shot last year in his home and may never walk again.  You won't hear his story on the news.  It makes me wonder how many other child victims of gun violence there are out there that you will never know about.    

Cemeteries doomed to become parking lots

Seven cemeteries stranded in parking lots.  

Knox was named minister of the main church in Edinburgh — St. Giles — where he was buried upon his death in 1572. Despite his status as a vital part of Scottish history, Knox was not immune to the rising need for space in the growing city, and when the cemetery was paved over Knox’s body remained underneath. Today the gravesite of John Knox, the man who led the theological conversion of Scotland, is marked by a single tile in parking spot #23 at St. Giles Cathedral.

Ecuador's giant cardboard superheroes

I'm probably the only person on the planet who still hasn't seen Thor or Iron Man or the last Batman movie, but these superhero sculptures still made me smile.  Sadly, they were all set on fire.

Abandoned Antarctic whaling stations & other cold oddities

8 Abandoned Antarctic Whaling Stations

Strange Historic Photos From Antarctica

Antarctic Photo Library

Hunting for meterorites in Antarctica via Peter Rejcek

Sharknado Cupcakes!

How to make Sharknado cupcakes!

Link via neatorama.

The Pentagon has a giant blood serum bank

The Department of Defense Serum Repository has 55.5 million samples from 10 million service members.  Almost 900,000 of those samples came from family members who may not even be aware that their blood samples are being kept on file.  

The biological material from military family members often ends up in the repository after beneficiaries receive pregnancy care or visit a sexually transmitted infection clinic. The data accompanying those samples are more sparse and so the serum specimens are not as useful for studies, although they are still kept in the repository. Another 4 percent of the samples come from civilians who applied for military service but did not join.

The Apocalypse Sperm Bank for Livestock

There's an apocalypse sperm bank in Colorado that is ready to go just in case we suddenly lose all of our chickens and pigs (God forbid).  It contains over 700,000 samples from 18 different species. 

So where does it all come from? Universities, companies and private collectors often donate semen to the NAGP. Other samples are tracked down by Blackburn and his colleagues. One woman in Broken Bow, Nebraska, had a rare breed of cattle dating back to the 1940s. “We called this farmer, asking for semen from her bulls,” Blackburn says. “She picked up the phone and said, ‘I thought you’d never call.’”

Link via Berman Institute.

Vintage photographs of ladies proudly showing off their tattoos

Vintage photographs of women and their tattoos.

A Secret History of Women & Tattoo

A History of Old Time Tattooed Circus Ladies

The Story of How I Became the Tattoo Queen -- Jean Furella used to be the bearded lady in the circus, but she had to shave her beard off in order to be with the man she loved.

Adorable crocheted Robocop

Crochet Robocop!  Damn, I wish I knew how to crochet.

Be sure to check out the rest of the site!  I love the little crocheted horror film stars!  So cute!

 

Psychology professor kept his murdering past a secret for 27 years

Here's a fascinating article about an award winning psychology professor who will be allowed to keep his job at Millikin University despite the fact that he kept his murdering past a secret for 27 years.  He murdered his entire family 46 years ago when he was only 15, but was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

When a police officer asked him “why?” St. James said he “hated” his family, court records showed.

In an interview with a doctor, St. James said that five days before the killings he became convinced “that he had to do something about them, that they were contriving to drive him out of his mind,” according to court records.

Other grievances he listed against his family were that his mother “ate loudly,” and his sister had “a bad accent,” court records show.