Month: October 2016

Take a stroll through a trendy neighborhood or flip through a fashion magazine and you may notice that hirsute faces are all the rage. Despite their trendy status at this point in time, beards are so much more than a passing fad. History has shown us that facial hair has been present in crucial moments of war, politics, and evolution. Whether you rock a mustache, sideburns, or a pair of on-fleek eyebrows, these historical highlights just might deepen your appreciate for facial hair. 

1. OUR EARLY ANCESTORS LEARN TO SHAVE (OR PLUCK, RATHER).

Today shaving is viewed as an aesthetic choice, but for our early ancestors during the last ice age it was a survival tactic—a frozen beard could potentially lead to frostbite. To avoid this outcome, some historians estimate that early humans were clearing their faces roughly 100,000 years ago. The tools they used were considerably cruder than the quadruple-bladed razors available to modern man. Evidence suggests that humans first learned to deal with pesky facial hairs by plucking them with clamshells, like tweezers. 

2. THE FEMALE PHARAOH WHO SPORTED A BEARD

Facial hair was a confusing territory to navigate in ancient Egypt. Rulers of the time kept their faces free of any fuzz, but on top of their clean-shaven chins they sometimes wore long, metallic beard substitutes. The reason behind this puzzling fashion choice was religion—the god Osiris was often depicted with a false goatee protruding from the bottom of his face and, as the story goes, pharaohs wanted to model their looks after him. The trend wasn’t limited to Egypt’s male leaders—many female pharaohs also adopted beards along with traditionally masculine clothing after rising to power. One such pharaoh was Queen Hatshepsut, the historical figure regarded by many as Egypt’s first great female ruler.

3. VIKINGS PROVE PERSONAL GROOMING CAN BE MANLY.

Thanks to the Vikings, full, flowing beards are permanently associated with barbarism. But archaeological discoveries suggest that Viking beards may have been better kept than the ones you’ll find in any given Williamsburg coffee shop. Rather than allowing their beards to devolve into grizzly rats’ nests, Vikings made an effort to keep their faces well-groomed. Their facial hair was combed, curled, trimmed, and occasionally even bleached blonde to appeal to the Viking ladies.

4. ALEXANDER THE GREAT’S CLEAN-SHAVEN BATTLES

To Alexander the Great, facial hair was a serious subject. The Macedonian leader required all of his men to be shaved before heading into a key battle, but his reasoning was more practical than aesthetic. According to Plutarch, the fear was that enemy soldiers would grab their beards in close combat and pull them from their horses (although some modern scholars suggest that it was to make them look like the clean-shaven Alexander).

5. PETER THE GREAT’S CRUSADE AGAINST BEARDS

Alexander wasn’t the only Great who held a grudge against beards. Russia under Peter the Great was a hostile environment for beard bearers for a brief stint in history. During his tour of western Europe in the late 17th century, Peter was struck by one particular fashion trend he noticed abroad: Facial hair of any kind was out of style. The Czar chose to bring this look back to Russia with him in the least subtle way possible. During a reception held in honor of his return, Peter the Great whipped out a straight razor—and proceeded to shave his guests’ faces. 

Soon after, a facial hair ban was placed on all citizens excluding peasants and clergyman. Peter eventually loosened up the law and everyone was allowed to grow a beard once more, given they were willing to pay a small fee. The “beard tax” remained in effect for nearly 50 years after Peter the Great’s death. 

6. 18th CENTURY BOOK DECRIES “THE REVOLUTION AGAINST BEARDS”

Centuries before facial hair was embraced by hippies and hipsters as a symbol of nonconformity, Pogonologia extolled the virtues of the beard to a decidedly anti-beard society. The book was published in 1786 when whiskers were still woefully out of fashion. In it, the author listed some of history’s most respected adopters of facial hair and predicted that “the revolution [against beards] is just at an end.” It would be another several decades before the trend reemerged. 

7. THE ADVENT OF THE SAFETY RAZOR

Prior to the 18th century, shaving was a risky endeavor. Even after man moved up from clamshell-tweezers to more sophisticated tools, wielding the crude slabs of metal that passed for razors was a job best left to professionals. Shaving at home finally became a possibility for more men when the safety razor launched in Sheffield, England, in 1828. Nineteen years later, William Henson invented the hoe-shaped razor design that would eventually be combined with the disposable, double-edged blade.

8. NAPOLEON’S NEPHEW ESCAPES PRISON WITH A SHAVE.

Napoleon Bonaparte preferred the barefaced look, but his nephew and heir Louis-Napoleon was known to rock some seriously stylish facial hair. His whiskers were so distinctive that they helped him escape imprisonment. Before eventually becoming the President of the French Second Republic and the Emperor of the Second French Empire, Louis-Napoleon lived in exile. He was locked in a French fortress in 1840, but managed to walk free after six years thanks to a dramatic makeover: After shaving off his signature pointy mustache and goatee, he became unrecognizable to anyone guarding the gates. 

9. THE LETTER THAT INSPIRED LINCOLN’S BEARD

Abraham Lincoln’s trend-setting chin curtain was inspired by an unlikely source—an 11-year-old girl. In a letter dated October 15, 1860, Grace Bedell addressed the soon-to-be-president after seeing a campaign photograph her father brought home. She wrote:  

“I have got 4 brothers and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President.” 

Lincoln neither confirmed nor denied his willingness to go along with her plan (he wrote in his response: “having never worn any [whiskers], do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affectation if I were to begin it now?”), but soon after his now-iconic beard sprouted from his jawline. He won the election a few weeks later.

10. AMBROSE BURNSIDE ENTERS THE FACIAL HAIR LEXICON.

Union Civil War General Ambrose Burnside wasn’t the first man to grow hair from the sides of his face, but he did help popularize the style in the late 19th century. His characteristic whiskers—which included a clean-shaven jawline beneath a trail of fuzz linking his temples—were initially dubbed burnsides. The nickname quickly got inverted, and today we refer to patches of hair creeping down from the hairline as sideburns. 

11. CHARLES DARWIN MAKES A CASE FOR FACIAL HAIR’S SEX APPEAL.

Research has found that beards can help men attract potential mates, and one of the first people to float the scientific basis behind this theory was Charles Darwin. In his 1871 book The Descent of Man, the naturalist compared beards to the antlers, tusks, plumage, and other ornamentations used by animals to advertise themselves to members of the opposite sex. He suggested that prehistoric men in some parts of the world evolved similar signals on their faces to appeal to women.

Darwin himself wore a beard that would have ensured he had no trouble propagating his genes back in the day, but he didn’t decide to grow it for beauty purposes. He only allowed his glorious beard to flourish unchecked once shaving proved too harsh on his eczema. 

12. TAFT’S ‘STACHE: THE END OF AN ERA

After the long line of facial-haired presidents that came before him (only two since Lincoln had gone completely clean-shaven), William Howard Taft’s swooping mustache seemed par for the course. But it was historically significant for one major reason: No sitting U.S. president has sported a beard or mustache since. When Taft left office in 1913, Woodrow Wilson ushered in a new era of naked-faced American leaders. 

13. THE MUSTACHIOED BRITISH OFFICERS OF WORLD WAR I

While Alexander the Great required his men to shave before battle, the British military would adopt a rather different approach centuries later. At the start of World War I all British officers had to be mustachioed according to uniform regulations. The mustache requirement was scrapped in 1916 in light of the many young recruits who were unable to conjure enough upper lip hair to meet the standard.

14. THE ELECTRIC RAZOR ENTERS THE SCENE.

It took less than a century before the home safety razor was upstaged by a tool that was even more high-tech. Attempts to patent and sell electric razors began with the turn of the 20th century, but it took until the late 1920s/early 30s for a successful model to finally take off. The innovation wasn’t just good for men—it was also good for the badgers whose hair had been used to make shaving brushes up until that point.

15. BEARD TAXES ARE STILL OCCASIONALLY SUGGESTED

Earlier this year, a British barber suggested an interesting source of revenue for the government—a beard tax. After hearing that a beard tax had been instituted during the Tudor era (likely a myth), and noting the modern popularity of beards, the barber proposed that extra income could be generated by a fee based on beard length. Longer beards, he reasoned, would cost twice as much as shorter beards. The barber may have undermined his own cause by acknowledging that the tax proposal was largely a way to protest other forms of hairdressing taxation—as well as his own inability to grow a beard.

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Most experiments are designed to be done quickly. Get data, analyze data, publish data, move on. But the universe doesn’t work on nice brief timescales. For some things you need time. Lots of time.

1. THE BROADBALK EXPERIMENT // 173 YEARS

In 1842, John Bennet Lawes patented his method for making superphosphate (a common, synthetic plant nutrient) and opened up what is believed to be the first artificial fertilizer factory in the world. The following year, Lawes and chemist Joseph Henry Gilbert began a series of experiments comparing the effects of organic and inorganic fertilizers, which are now the oldest agricultural studies on Earth. For over 150 years parts of a field of winter wheat have received either manure, artificial fertilizer, or no fertilizer. The results are about what you’d expect: artificial and natural fertilized plots produce around six to seven tons of grain per hectare, while the unfertilized plot produces around one ton of grain per hectare. But there’s more. They can use these studies to test everything from herbicides to soil microbes and even figure out oxygen ratios for better reconstruction of paleoclimates.

2. THE PARK GRASS EXPERIMENT // 160 YEARS

Lawes and Gilbert started several more experiments at around the same time. In one of these experiments with hay, Lawes observed that each plot was so distinct that it looked like he was experimenting with different seed mixes as opposed to different fertilizers. The nitrogen fertilizers being applied benefited the grasses over any other plant species, but if phosphorus and potassium were the main components of the fertilizer, the peas took over the plot. Since then, this field has been one of the most important biodiversity experiments on Earth.

3. THE BROADBALK AND GEESCROFT WILDERNESSES // 134 YEARS

Yet another one of Lawes’ experiments: In 1882 he abandoned part of the Broadbalk experiment to see what would happen. What happened was that within a few years, the wheat plants were completely outcompeted by weeds—and then trees moved in [PDF]. In 1900, half of the area was allowed to continue as normal and the other half has had the trees removed every year in one of the longest studies of how plants recolonize farmland.

4. DR. BEAL’S SEED VIABILITY EXPERIMENT // 137 YEARS

In 1879, William Beal of Michigan State University buried 20 bottles of seeds on campus. The purpose of this experiment was to see how long the seeds would remain viable buried underground. Originally, one bottle was dug up every five years, but that soon changed to once every 10 years, and is now once every 20 years. In the last recovery in 2000, 26 plants were germinated, meaning slightly more than half survived over 100 years in the ground. The next will be dug up in 2020, and (assuming no more extensions) the experiment will end in 2100.

Even if it is extended for a while, there will probably still be viable seeds. In 2008, scientists were able to successfully germinate a circa-2000 year old date palm seed, and four years later, Russian scientists were able grow a plant from a 32,000 year old seed that had been buried by an ancient squirrel.

5. THE PITCH DROP EXPERIMENT // 86 YEARS

If you hit a mass of pitch (the leftovers from distilling crude oil) with a hammer, it shatters like a solid. In 1927, Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland in Australia decided to demonstrate to his students that it was actually liquid. They just needed to watch it for a while. Some pitch was heated up and poured into a sealed stem glass funnel. Three years later, the stem of the funnel was cut and the pitch began to flow. Very slowly. Eight years later, the first drop fell. Soon the experiment was relegated to a cupboard to collect dust, until 1961 when John Mainstone learned of its existence and restored the test to its rightful glory. Sadly, he never saw a pitch drop. In 1979 it dropped on a weekend, in 1988 he was away getting a drink, in 2000 the webcam failed, and he died before the most recent drop in April 2014.

As it turns out, the Parnell-initiated pitch drop experiment isn’t even the oldest. After it gathered international headlines, reports of other pitch drop experiments became news. Aberystwyth University in Wales found a pitch drop experiment that was started 13 years before the Australian one, and has yet to produce a single drop (and indeed is not expected to for another 1300 years), while the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh found a pitch drop experiment from 1902. All of them prove one thing though: With enough time, a substance that can be shattered with a hammer still might be a liquid.

6. THE CLARENDON DRY PILE // 176-191 YEARS

Around 1840, Oxford physics professor Robert Walker bought a curious little contraption from a pair of London instrument makers that was made up of two dry piles (a type of battery) connected to bells with a metal sphere hanging in between them. When the ball hit one of the bells, it became negatively charged and shot towards the other positively charged bell where the process repeats itself. Because it uses only a minuscule amount of energy, the operation has occurred ten billion times and counting. It’s entirely possible that the ball or bells will wear out before the batteries fully discharge.

Although we don’t know the composition of the battery itself (and likely won’t until it winds down in a few hundred years), it has led to scientific advancements. During WWII, the British Admiralty developed an infrared telescope that needed a battery capable of producing high voltage, low current, and that could last forever. One of the scientists remembered seeing the Clarendon Dry Pile—also referred to as the Oxford Electric Bell—and was able to find out how to make his own dry pile for the telescope.

7. THE BEVERLY (ATMOSPHERIC) CLOCK // 152 YEARS

Sitting in the foyer of the University of Otago in New Zealand is the Beverly Clock. Developed in 1864 by Arthur Beverly, it is a phenomenal example of a self-winding clock. Beverly realized that, while most clocks used a weight falling to get the energy to run the clock mechanism, he could get the same energy with one cubic foot of air expanding and contracting over a six-degree Celsius temperature range. It hasn’t always worked; there have been times it needed cleanings, it stopped when the Physics department moved, and if the temperature is too stable it can stop. But it’s still going over 150 years later.

8. THE AUDUBON CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT // 116 YEARS

Since 1900, folks from across the continent have spent time counting birds. What began as an activity to keep people from hunting our feathered friends on Christmas Day, has turned into one of the world’s most massive and long-lasting citizen science projects. Although the 2015 results aren’t ready yet, we know that in 2014, 72,653 observers counted 68,753,007 birds of 2106 species.

9. THE HARVARD STUDY OF ADULT DEVELOPMENT // 78 YEARS

One of the longest running development studies, in 1938 Harvard began studying a group of 268 sophomores (including one John F. Kennedy), and soon an additional study added 456 inner-city Bostonians. They’ve been followed ever since, from World War II through the Cold War and into the present day, with surveys every two years and physical examinations every five. Because of the sheer wealth of data, they’ve been able to learn all kinds of interesting and unexpected things. One such example: The quality of vacations one has in their youth often indicates increased happiness later in life.

10. THE TERMAN LIFE CYCLE STUDY // 95 YEARS

In 1921, 1470 California children who scored over 135 on an IQ test began a relationship that would turn into one of the world’s most famous longitudinal studies—the Terman Life Cycle Study of Children with High Ability.  Over the years, in order to show that early promise didn’t lead to later disappointment, participants filled out questionnaires about everything from early development, interests, and health to relationships and personality.  One of the most interesting findings is that, even among these smart folk, character traits like perseverance made the most difference in career success.

11. THE NATIONAL FOOD SURVEY // 76 YEARS

Starting in 1940, the UK’s National Food Survey tracked household food consumption and expenditure, and was the longest lasting program of its kind in the world. In 2000 it was replaced with the Expenditure and Food Survey, and in 2008 the Living Costs and Food Survey. And it’s provided interesting results. For instance, earlier this year it was revealed that tea consumption has fallen from around 23 cups per person per week to only eight cups, and no one in the UK ate pizza in 1974, but now the average Brit eats 75 grams (2.5 ounces) a week.

12. THE FRAMINGHAM HEART STUDY // 68 YEARS

In 1948, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute teamed up with Boston University to get 5209 people from the town of Framingham to do a long-term study of how cardiovascular disease developed. Twenty-three years later they also recruited the adult children of the original experiment and in 2002 a third generation. Over the decades, the Framingham Heart Study researchers claim to have discovered that cigarette smoking increased risk, in addition to identifying potential risk factors for Alzheimer’s, and the dangers of high blood pressure.

13. THE E. COLI LONG TERM EVOLUTION EXPERIMENT // 26 YEARS

While this one might not seem that impressive in terms of length, it has to be the record for number of generations that have come and gone over the course of the study: well over 50,000. Richard Lenski was curious whether flasks of identical bacteria would change in the same way over time, or if the groups would diverge from each other. Eventually, he got bored with the experiment, but his colleagues convinced him to keep going, and it’s a good thing they did. In 2003, Lenski noticed that one of flasks had gone cloudy, and some research led him to discover that the E. coli in one of the flasks had gained the ability to metabolize citrate. Because he had been freezing previous generations of his experiment, he was able to precisely track how this evolution occurred.

14. THE BSE EXPERIMENT // 11 YEARS

Sadly, sometimes things can go terribly wrong during long-term experiments. Between 1990 and 1992, British scientists collected thousands of sheep brains. Then, for over four years, those prepared sheep brains were injected into hundreds of mice to learn if the sheep brains were infected with BSE (mad-cow disease). Preliminary findings suggested that they were, and plans were drawn up to slaughter every sheep in England. Except those sheep brains? They were actually cow brains that had been mislabeled. And thus ended the longest running experiment on sheep and BSE.

15. THE JUNEAU ICEFIELD RESEARCH PROGRAM // 68 YEARS

Attention to glacier retreat and the effects of global warming on the world’s ice fields has rapidly increased over the course of the last few decades, but the Juneau Icefield Research Program has been monitoring the situation up north since 1948. In its nearly 70 years of existence, the project become the longest-running study of its kind, as well as an educational and exploratory experience. The monitoring of the many glaciers of the Juneau Icefield in Alaska and British Columbia has a rapidly approaching end date though—at least in geological terms. A recent study published in the Journal of Glaciology predicts that the field will be gone by 2200.

Despite the name, pencils have never been made with lead. They’re made with graphite, a form of carbon. Just where does graphite come from, and why did we decided to write with it? NPR took a look into the history of pencil lead, and its enemy, the eraser, shooting an eye-candy video inside a factory owned by the General Pencil Company.

Henry David Thoreau, that master of American literature, had perhaps an even more profound effect on writing instruments than he did on writing. Thoreau, whose father ran a pencil factory, decided to start mixing graphite with clay, discovering that different amounts of clay produced lighter or darker shades, and that the mixture resulted in stronger, less smudgy marks. That variation in clay gave us the numbering system that you’ll recognize from being repeatedly warned not to use anything but a No. 2 pencil on your standardized tests.

And what is a pencil without an eraser? The humble eraser has played a bigger role in the modern world than you might think. Before commercial erasers, people used crumbs of stale bread to rub their writing mistakes away. In 1770, Joseph Priestley—who, among other accomplishments, invented soda water after he discovered oxygen—was the first person to realize that a certain South American tree produced a gum that could erase pencil marks more effectively than balls of bread. Because the process involved some rubbing, he named it “rubber,” although the material would later be used in plenty of applications that don’t involve rubbing at all.

Watch the video below for an inside look at a pencil factory and the machinery that churns out the writing instruments we use every day—or did, before computers took over the world.

[h/t NPR]

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Thinking about bringing home a furry friend? While pet stores and breeders do brisk business homing dogs, there are plenty of reasons to opt for an animal that’s been rescued instead. Such as:

1. YOU’LL SAVE A LIFE.

Dogs currently housed in shelters are often faced with an unfortunate future. If they don’t find a home, they might get shuttled to another, less humane shelter—or worse. By adopting a dog, you’re ensuring he or she stands a chance at enjoying their life to the fullest.

2. THEY’VE GOT SOME TRAINING.

An animal that was once part of a family or has spent time around shelter volunteers has probably been taught some basic facts about life with people, including sitting, staying put, and where to deposit their business. By adopting a slightly older dog, you’ll be saving yourself plenty of puppy-promoted trouble.

3. THEY’RE HEALTHY.

Dogs who have been through the shelter system need to be up to date on their shots and have likely already been spayed or neutered. It doesn’t mean your dog will never have issues, but you’re more likely to be starting with a clean slate.

4. YOU CAN STILL BE PICKY.

While pet shops and breeders seem to have a wide variety of animals to choose from, so do shelters—many of which can let you search their population by age or size. 

5. THEY’RE OFTEN MORE MATURE.

Older dogs who have already expended their puppy energy are much less likely to tear into furniture or put wear on carpets. By adopting a mature animal, you’re helping preserve your living space.  

6. THERE ARE NO SURPRISES.

A new puppy—especially one from a pet store where the owners don’t know the dog’s parents—can get bigger, more (or less) personable, and might develop a personality that’s not compatible with your household. On the other hand, by rescuing an adolescent or adult animal from a shelter, its attitude will be on display from the moment you meet.

7. THEY MIGHT COME MICRO-CHIPPED.

Dogs in shelters have often been fitted for a microchip in the event they wander or become lost, which can save you both money—and grief—in the long run. One study showed that just 22 percent of lost animals without microchips were returned to their owners, while more than 52 percent of microchipped animals were.

8. YOU CAN RELAX WITH ONE.

A slightly more mature dog that isn’t bursting with energy is one that’s more likely to enjoy lazy days outside or in front of the television—which is a huge plus if you’re someone who doesn’t always have the time, or the energy, to keep up with a puppy’s activity level.

9. YOU CAN GET A PUREBRED.

It’s a common misconception that rescue shelters are the exclusive home of mixed-breed dogs. If you have your heart set on a particular type, you can find breed-specific adoption centers or take a look at a general population center: roughly 30 percent of all dogs up for adoption are purebreds.

10. YOU CAN TRY ONE OUT.

Once you accept ownership of a pet at a pet shop or breeder, it’s generally yours for life. Many shelters, however, go the extra mile to find the best fit for their animals and prospective owners and will allow you to take a dog home for a weekend to see how he or she integrates into your lifestyle. If you’d like to try something longer-term, but aren’t quite ready to adopt, consider fostering an animal from a local shelter.

11. THEY CAN HELP YOU RELAX.

Numerous studies have shown that having a canine companion can lead to increased happiness. If you’re suffering from any kind of condition requiring therapy, you might want to inquire about whether a dog could be a beneficial addition. Researchers believe that bonding with a dog can increase levels of oxytocin, a “feel good” hormone. 

12. YOU CAN ALWAYS TEACH THEM NEW TRICKS.

You don’t need a puppy in order to reinforce good habits or teach some cool party tricks. Older dogs actually have a better attention span than younger ones, making it simple to teach them behaviors that will help them better relax in your household.

13. THEY’RE GREAT WITH KIDS.

The youthful exuberance of puppies can be stimulated even further by hyperactive kids, resulting in a small tornado of energy tearing through your home. Opting for an older dog, however, means they’ve probably already gotten used to having little people around and won’t be influenced—or annoyed—by enthusiastic human playmates.

14. THEY CAN BE GRATEFUL.

Okay, so we have no hard science to back this up. But after spending weeks, months, or even years in a cramped cage, a dog that’s brought home to an open living space and a yard is probably going to experience some post-shelter euphoria.

15. YOU’LL BE A SOCIAL MEDIA HERO.

Selfies with your rescue dog: priceless.

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Blue Man Group is one of those rare acts that lives up to the hype. The first time I saw them in Las Vegas, I was surprised that the act included plenty of humor, impressive messiness, feats of dexterity, and actually good music. That last one was the biggest news for me, since I had never actually thought of Blue Man Group as a band…but of course they are. They’ve released a bunch of albums. They also happen to be into performance art.

Blue Man Group dropped by NPR recently for a Tiny Desk Concert. Using a variety of instruments, both custom-made and off-the-shelf, the concert is a delight. NPR’s Bob Boilen writes:

Every band that plays the Tiny Desk must work within the restrictions of the space. So instead of installing their entire signature PVC instrument, what ended up behind the desk was about a third of it. On the right side of the desk, their Shred Mill makes its internet debut: It’s a drum machine triggered by magnets that changes rhythm depending where they are placed on the home-made variable-speed conveyor belt. They also invented something called a Spinulum, whose rhythmic tempo is controlled by rotating a wheel that plucks steel guitar strings. …

Read the rest for more details on the instruments involved, including a nice writeup of the Chapman Stick. The Stick is usually the weirdest instrument onstage when it appears, but for Blue Man Group it’s probably the most conventional. Enjoy: