fact
After Chairman Mao gifted mangoes to workers during China’s Cultural Revolution, a mango cult developed, with workers preserving mangoes in formaldehyde and making wax mango replicas. Workers worshipped mangoes, holding processions that celebrated them and equating them with Mao’s image.
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At a 1976 Amsterdam chess tournament, Soviet grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi politely asked an English competitor how to spell the words “political asylum.” He then went straight to a police station and announced that he wished to defect.
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During the Cold War, the USA tried to intimidate the Soviet Bloc by convincing them that then president Richard Nixon was an unstable lunatic who was likely to lash out for no rational reason, based on the dubious “madman theory” of foreign policy.
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Founded by the Great Peacemaker in 1142, the Iroquois Confederacy is the oldest living participatory democracy on earth. The US constitution was influenced by the political system developed by the Iroquois Confederacy.
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Sometimes it can be hard to imagine what people from the past looked like before cameras were invented.
Yes, we have paintings and sculptures we can admire, but it sure would be nice to know what ancient leaders and famous artists of centuries past REALLY looked like.
Well, thanks to a photographer and artist named Bas Uterwijk who specializes in computer graphics and 3D animation, we have an idea of what some famous figures from history might have looked like.
Uterwijk started tampering with the likenesses of historical figures in 2019 and his work is really something. Here are some faces that the Dutch artist made come to life.
Let’s take a look.
Why yes, it is!
A German painter, FYI.
This one is pretty interesting.
If she was a real person…
A giant historical figure.
A lot of crazy stories about this fella.
What they must have seen…
Taken from a sculpture. I like this one.
An emperor and a philosopher.
We all know what happened to him…
A master Dutch painter.
Those are awesome! I love all the detail. His creations seem to jump right off the screen.
Who else would you like to see given this treatment?
Share some fascinating historical figures with us in the comments. Thanks!
The post This Artist Uses Tech to Show What Historical Figures Really Looked Like appeared first on UberFacts.
In 1986, Alfonse D’Amato, a New York Senator, resorted to reading aloud from the District of Columbia phone book during a 23 ½ hour filіbuster. 6 years later, the same Senator started singing a song satirising the outsourcing of American jobs during a 15 ¼ hour fіlibuster.
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The mayor of a Russian town persuaded the cleaner of the local administration building to run as his rival, in order to fulfil the minimum requirement of two cаndіdates. The residents of the town were fed up with the mаyor, and the cleaner was elеcted, receiving almost 62% of the vоtes.
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A large number of Graffiti found in Pompeii are political ads. Specificaly, one Gnaeus Helvius Sabinus appears in no less than 140 political signs throughout the town, endorsed by all manner of individuals, trade unions, religious and social groups.
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I’ve read quite a bit about the year 1968 and I’ve always said to myself, “wow, that must have been so exciting and interesting to live through such a tumultuous year.”
Now that we’re living through an awful year, my mind has definitely been changed. This is not fun, it’s not exciting, and it’s honestly pretty terrifying. But I guess that we should all appreciate that we’re living through some very interesting times that will be studied and written about forever.
What are some other years that felt worse than 2020?
Let’s get some history lessons from folks on AskReddit.
“My parents still think the economic crash of the 1990s that happened in Finland was worse, and in Finland it killed more people in the form of suicides than Corona has thus far.
I was just born around that time. And lots of people just lost everything. Companies folded left and right. Loan intrests were crushing people.
Then right after that we got dot com bubble.”
“Personally speaking:
2002 the dot-com bubble burst and I lost a cushy job, that was pretty bad.
2008 great recession happened, again was laid off, that was pretty bad too.2019 was awful. I found out my recently deceased father had an entire other family. I guess technically, we were his other family.
Met the ones he abandoned (my new older half siblings) last summer and it was incredibly awkward and for some reason left me hollow and extremely full of guilt.”
“I’m 42. I’ve had years that were personally pretty bad, but this is super weird times.
Like, late 1997, the day before my 20th birthday, my mom was diagnosed with cancer and the first 6 months of 1998 were especially very, very stressful and scary, but at least I could go out with friends, I threw myself in to school, I worked, I tried to be useful or out of the way at home. I didn’t have to think about it 24/7.
I deactivated my FB, Insta, and Twitter October 1 and I’m planning to keep them like that at least through the election, maybe longer. Can’t change what’s going on, but I can’t have all of this crap living rent-free in my head all the time.”
“1963 because President Kennedy was shot.
My teacher cried and my father left home.”
“The last quarter of 2001 was more intensely miserable.
2020 misery is more spread out and not quite as terrifying.”
“Bombing of Serbia in 1999.
NATO was only supposed to bomb military objects, but they bombed hospitals, markets, random populated areas. I was in the hospital with my dad when the sirens came on the whole hospital went to the basement, lucky the hospital wasn’t hit, after the danger my dad drove us back he told me not to look out the window, being a kid I did look only to see innocent people dead along the whole street as the flea market was hit on a weekend…
I am 25 y/o now I still have nightmares about it occasionally. Also NATO used prohibited weapons with uranium which also caused a lot of people to get cancer from the radiation years after…”
“The year 1970.
People dying or being maimed for life (both mentally and physically) in a stupid, nonsensical war. Richard Nixon was President. The government refusing to listen to hundreds of thousands of people protesting the war, and people of all sorts not just college kids and hippies.
I participated in a HUGE protest in DC and walked down Pennsylvania Avenue with a lot of other people, holding the hands of my two kids. “We are speaking to our government. Never forget.””
“2008 was a really bad year.
Big financial crash, lots of people lost a lot of money, especially from their savings and retirements. Lots of layoffs, including me, and really high unemployment and few jobs to move to.”
“1983 was probably the year we came closest to global nuclear war. Even worse than the Cuban Missile Crisis.
There was a large confluence of circumstances and events (some related, some not) that could have spelled doom.”
“1994-95.
I spent a good bit of time homeless or living in a tent. I was in the US illegally and couldn’t get any form of assistance without being deported, and I was too small for most places to even consider employing me under the table.
Also, honorable mentions to 2016-17 for my divorce year and pretty much the entire period of 1992-1997 for me. 2020 doesn’t crack my top ten worst years, aside from the collapse of western civilization it really hasn’t been too bad on me.”
“It’s has to be 1947 when India got independence from britishers and then divided into Pakistan(Islamic country), India (republic nation).
People were forced to leave according to their religion. They were burnt alive and r*ped. Around 2 million people died, 14 million misplaced.
And my father told me that my grandfather who used to work as a ticket checker in railway had seen trains full of dead bodies.”
“Late 1960s and early 70s, we had the Vietnam war body count nightly on the news, for years. Everyone was worried about being drafted. I was too young.
There was plenty of angst to go around then. But I feel this year has probably been as bad or worse.”
“1968-1969.
Started with the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. It was a military disaster for the North Vietnamese, but a big surprise to the American public – they had been told the war was effectively won. And from there it just got worse.
Student riots. City riots. MLK was assassinated in early April and the ghettos exploded. Then in early June, I was on a South Vietnamese hilltop firebase. One of our less English-proficient officers came up to the American advisers in the afternoon. “You know Kennedy, ya? They shoot him!” The three of us looked at him. I said, “Yeah Đại Úy (Captain), back in 1963. So?”
“NO!” he said, “They shoot him now!” Then he got frustrated with us and stomped off. Weird. What’s up with the Đại Úy? We couldn’t get American radio (AFVN) in the daytime, but later that night we found out what he was talking about. Another Kennedy? WTF is going on back home?
I got back on leave in December. America was nuts. I couldn’t walk through the airport without starting a fight. I wasn’t fighting. Someone would want to yell at me, and someone else would start yelling at him, and eventually they’d forget I was there – because I wasn’t. My instructions were to keep walking. The war had come home. Racial justice had graduated to racial war.
It was almost a relief to get back to Vietnam. Seemed saner.
Bad year for the USA. 1969 was only better because some of the things people were expecting to happen, didn’t. But it wasn’t much better.”
Now we want to hear from even more older folks.
In the comments, please tell us what years you think were worse than 2020.
We’d love to hear from you!
The post Older People Talk About Which Year Felt Worse Than 2020 and They Explain Why appeared first on UberFacts.
I know I’m probably preaching to the choir, but I’m ready to get this awful year over with already.
The scary thing is that we still have to live through the 2020 election and its aftermath, so who really knows what’s lurking right around the corner? Let’s hope things go relatively smoothly and we can go into 2021 in a somewhat calm manner.
But one thing’s for sure: this year has taught all of us a whole lot.
Let’s get real about 2020 with AskReddit users.
“There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.
I thought that with all the extra time I had I would get so much more done.
Turns out I just need to get a lot better at time management.”
“Your day can feel bad but it can get worse.
Bart: This is the worst day of my life
Homer: This is the worst day of your life…so far.”
“How important saving money is.
We had a 6 month emergency fund saved up, and the peace of mind was priceless.
We’ve made sure we stay out of debt as well.”
“That I love isolation.
It’s so good for reducing my anxiety.
I would like it if everything was virtual for the rest of my life.”
“People will decide their position on major political issues based simply on which cult they follow rather than any reasoning or logic even in the face of clear evidence.”
“I think 2020 shows us the great divide of the haves and have nots.
Some people are really hurting right now. Others are totally fine or are thriving.
You’ll see more of one group than the other depending on your socioeconomic class.”
“Life kinda sucks.
We go to work, half of us hate our jobs, we go home, we do normal, mundane things, to go bed, and repeat. Covid has definitely made me realize there’s a lot more to life than just being a work drone.
And it also taught me that I don’t have many close friends. Quarantine has been very lonely, but it’s forcing me to make more connections with people, which I have needed to do for a while.”
“The person who will take the best care of me, is me.
People will come to you and you will have a social life without bending over backwards to try to make friends.
And also that some people will only live their own version of the truth even if reality it’s biting them in the *ss.”
“That no matter how dangerous something is and how obvious the evidence is, there will be some people who just won’t listen.
Honestly we expect adults to listen to an end of the world scenario when they can’t even do the simple fact of putting on a mask and staying home?
“Future is unpredictable so build the skillsets, build hobbies that you can keep for longterm, and work on mental health.
Create a good schedule so you can always create time for things you want to do.”
“Life is always subject to change.
Get out there and do the things you want to do because one day you may not be able to.”
“That I really don’t understand things as well as I thought.
I really thought I knew what to expect from pretty much everything around me but I was wrong so many times over this year. I thought my marriage was solid- it wasn’t.
I thought that people would come together in times of crisis- they don’t. I thought my family would stick by me- they didn’t.
I’ve realized I don’t know a thing.”
“That spending 24/7 with a romantic partner isn’t a good idea.
So many quarantine break ups and I just honestly wonder if my ex was the right woman at the wrong time.”
“Life doesn’t care about your plans.
In short, this year would be huge for me, last year i dropped out of college because i hated it, decided to study home for the last 6 months left of 2019, then applied to the course i wanted in university, failed…
2020 starts i am going to a course to prepare for new university exams, basically high school but better in my case, and most important i had to physically take the bus and go there, which was so much better than staying at home and be extra depressed and bored… and then COVID came along.”
Now we’d like to hear from you.
In the comments, tell us what you think you’ve learned from 2020.
Please and thank you!
The post People Discuss What They’ve Learned From Living Through 2020 appeared first on UberFacts.