The Way Sperm Whales Sleep

Swiss wildlife photographer Franco Banfi and a team of scuba divers were following a pod of sperm whales off the coast of Dominica Island in the Caribbean Sea, when suddenly the large creatures became motionless and fell into vertical slumber. This phenomenon was first discovered only in 2008, when a team of biologists from the UK and Japan inadvertently drifted into a group of sperm whales floating just below the surface, completely oblivious to their surrounding. It was only when one of boats accidentally bumped into one of the whales, did the animal woke up and the entire pod scurried off.

-Amusing Planet

Victor Noir’s Mysterious Erection

The Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris is home to many famous dead people, including Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison. The grave of Oscar Wilde, in particular, is very popular. His female fans have smothered the tomb with kisses leaving red lipstick marks all over. Many female visitors, after assaulting the grave of the famous Irish writer, move over to the adjacent plot for their next target—the effigy of Victor Noir.

It’s perfectly reasonable to ask who Victor Noir is, just like it was a century and a half ago when the man was alive. He was an ordinary young man, an impressive fellow, who just found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nobody knew him until he died. His recent cult following, however, has nothing to do with the manner of his death nor its political fallout, but rather on the mysterious bulge in his pants.

-Amusing Planet

The Empresses’ Secret Cabinet of Erotic Curiosities

Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia was so infamous for her sexual freedom that when she died from a stroke at the age of 67, there was even a rumour claiming she actually died while copulating with a horse. I learnt about Catherine the Great at school, about how she modernised Russia, pioneered women’s education, enlisted Voltaire to her cause and presided over the age of the Russian Enlightenment. Her kinky side, however, was rudely omitted from my education.

-Messy Nessy Chic

Le plaisir de tricher

Prendre une journée de maladie pour aller à la plage, oublier la crème solaire et s'en foutre, fumer en cachette, dépasser la limite de vitesse : il y a un plaisir certain à tricher, désobéir, bref, transgresser. Pourquoi les fruits sont-ils plus sucrés quand ils sont défendus ?

-La Presse

This magical drug mansion in Upstate New York is where the psychedelic ’60s took off

William Mellon Hitchcock was not your typical acid head.
Billy, as he was called, was a tall, charming blonde stockbroker in his twenties who worked at Lehman Brothers, for one. He was heir to one of the largest fortunes in the country, for another. And he had a trust fund that lined his pockets with $15,000 a week to do what he pleased. Sometimes he played the stocks. Sometimes he dropped acid. In January of 1963, Billy thought it’d be a smart investment to spend half a million dollars on 2,500 acres of land two hours north of New York City on the outskirts of the sleepy village of Millbrook.

-Timeline

The ‘Real’ New York: Gritty Scenes Of NYC Street Life In The 1970s

The photographer and documentarian Camilo José Vergara uses photographs as “a means of discovery, as a tool with which to clarify visions and construct knowledge about a particular city or place.” Pictures, for Vergara, are the starting point in asking questions or linking to other images or investigating new territories and ideas.

In 1970, Vergara began documenting New York street life capturing the children, families and communities living among the city’s urban decay. Vergara’s photographs showed parts of New York that looked like bombed-out war zones, deprived areas suffering the worst of both city and state indifference.

-Design you Trust

The Strangest Stories From New York's Airport Hotels

There’s something mysterious about an airport hotel, where tourists, business people, dreamers, criminals, and lost souls spend the night on their way in or out of a city. Around New York’s airports, where 125 million passengers travel every year, those mysteries are uncountable.

-Inverse

The Laws of Attraction

Who we desire is driven by powerful evolutionary forces, but while most of us are drawn to looks first (whether or not we admit it), human attraction is far more complex than it appears at first sight.

-Psychology Today

Une entrevue avec un proxénète qui fournit les milliardaires de Dubaï en femmes

Dubaï serait le Las Vegas du Moyen-Orient, si Las Vegas portait un hijab. Dans cette grande ville de fête des Émirats arabes unis, les dévots peuvent assouvir leurs désirs les plus charnels dans les clubs, les fausses îles, les étranges gratte-ciel et les hôtels sept étoiles. Quelque part dans cette juxtaposition de paradoxes réside l'esprit arabe, si tant est que celui-ci existe : une mentalité unie sous la bannière de l'oumma, mais qui se contredit en interne, prise au piège de la violence sectaire.

-Vice

Dark web: le Québécois Alexandre Cazes était le créateur du plus gros site illégal

Les autorités américaines ont révélé jeudi que le Québécois Alexandre Cazes, mort après son arrestation en Thaïlande au début du mois, était le créateur et administrateur du site AlphaBay, le plus gros site jamais créé sur le dark web pour échanger drogue, armes et documents de fraude bancaire.

-La Presse

The Rise & Fall of Silk Road

Part 1 : How a 29-year-old idealist built a global drug bazaar and became a murderous kingpin.

Part 2

-Wired

Where Did Time Come From, and Why Does It Seem to Flow?

Is the flow of time real or an illusion?
The flow of time is an illusion, and I don’t know very many scientists and philosophers who would disagree with that, to be perfectly honest. The reason that it is an illusion is when you stop to think, what does it even mean that time is flowing? When we say something flows like a river, what you mean is an element of the river at one moment is in a different place of an earlier moment. In other words, it moves with respect to time. But time can’t move with respect to time—time is time. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that the claim that time does not flow means that there is no time, that time does not exist. That’s nonsense. Time of course exists. We measure it with clocks. Clocks don’t measure the flow of time, they measure intervals of time. Of course there are intervals of time between different events; that’s what clocks measure.

-Nautilus

The Longform Guide to Road Trips

Our favorite stories about hitting the road.

-Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.”
Hunter S. Thompson Rolling Stone Nov 1971 1h35min

-Mr. Mike's America
A cross-country drive with the first head writer of Saturday Night Live.
Paul Slansky Playboy Mar 1983

-Longform

10 Gruesome Murder Sites That Attract Tourists Like Flies

Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the 1892 murder of her father and stepmother in their Fall River, Massachusetts, home. Folklore, however, has judged her guilty. Who can forget the nasty schoolyard jingle the case inspired? Lizzie Borden took an ax
Gave her mother forty whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one

These days folks are no longer hesitant to cash in on things morbid and macabre, and Lizzie Borden has become Fall River’s chief tourist attraction. There are tours that visit Lizzie’s grave and the courthouse where she stood trial. Gift shops sell Lizzie Borden bobblehead dolls. As for the Borden house, it is now a homey bed and breakfast, where you can spend the night in the room where Lizzie’s stepmother got the Big Chop, or sit on a sofa similar to the one on which her father’s body was found. Fall River is not the only locality cashing in on bloodshed. So-called “dark tourism” is booming. Across the country, and around the world, folks are lining up to visit the sites of executions, ax murders, gun fights, and mob wackings. If you would like to see some homicide scenes yourself, here is a list of ten gore-splattered destinations.

-Listverse

Woody Harrelson Gets Insanely Candid on Sex, Drugs, 'Apes' and Those Han Solo Firings

In his own words, the 'War for the Planet of the Apes' villain reveals a painful path from "anonymous and poor" to 'Cheers,' two Oscar noms, a stint in jail, a drunken foursome and lessons learned along the way: "I'm not George Clooney, but it's still a pretty amazing life."

-Hollywood Reporter

Artist Builds Forest Giants from Salvaged Materials and Hides Them in the Woods for People to Find

“Forgotten Giants” is an awesome project by Thomas Dambo that consists of 6 large sculptures made in the outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark. The six larger than life sculptures were made solely from local scrap wood and recycled materials and assembled with the help of volunteers. Dambo says the sculptures were built mostly from 600 old pallets, an old wooden shed, and a fence. Each of the sculptures was named after one of the volunteers that helped build it.

-Twisted Sifter

Is an Open Marriage a Happier Marriage?

What the experiences of nonmonogamous couples can tell us about jealousy, love, desire and trust.

When Daniel and Elizabeth married in 1993, they found it was easy enough to choose a ring for her, but there were far fewer choices for him. Daniel, then a 27-year-old who worked in information technology, decided to design one himself, requesting that tiny stones be placed in a gold band, like planets orbiting in a solar system. He was happy with the ring, and what it represented, until it became obvious after the wedding that he was allergic to the nickel that was mixed in with the gold in the band. As if in revolt, his finger grew red and raw, beneath the circle of metal. He started to think of the ring as if it were radioactive, an object burning holes in his flesh. A month into the marriage, he took it off and never got around to replacing it.

But as with any happy marriage, there were frustrations. Daniel liked sex, and not long after they were married, it became clear that Elizabeth’s interest in it had cooled. She thought hers was the normal response: She was raised by strict Catholics, she would tell Daniel, as if that explained it, and she never saw her own parents hold hands, much less kiss. It was not as if she and Daniel never had sex, but when they did, Daniel often felt lonely in his desire for something more — not necessarily exotic sex but sex in which both partners cared about it, and cared about each other, with one of those interests fueling the other.

-NY Times

Having an Affair Is Going Out of Style

The boomers are the sexual libertines. Younger people are more into monogamy.

Senator Ben Sasse recently observed, apropos of Rousseau’s “Emile,” that it “turned out sex was really similar most centuries.” Sex is the cornerstone of human evolution, and evolution is an inherently conservative institution, killing far more innovations than it allows to thrive. So it would hardly be surprising if we humans stayed with the same basic standbys in bed.

-Bloomberg

The Forgotten Sport of Octopus Wrestling

One April morning in 1963, some five thousand spectators gathered on the shores of Puget Sound near the Tacoma Narrows, in Washington, to watch an unusual event—the World Octopus Wrestling Championships.

The rules were simple: teams of three divers would descend into the waters at depths between 30 to 50 feet, and try their best to grab an octopus and drag it to the surface. Whoever pulled the biggest octopus out of the water won the trophy. A total of 25 giant Pacific octopuses were captured that day, the heaviest weighing nearly 30 kg.

-Amusing Planet

Deepest Dive Ever Under Antarctica Reveals a Shockingly Vibrant World

In the morning, when we arrive on foot from Dumont d’Urville, the French scientific base on the Adélie Coast of East Antarctica, we have to break up a thin layer of ice that has formed over the hole we drilled the day before. The hole goes right through the 10-foot-thick ice floe. It’s just wide enough for a man, and below it lies the sea. We’ve never tried to dive through such a small opening. I go first.

Pushing and pulling with hands, knees, heels, and the tips of my swim fins, I shimmy through the hole. As I plunge at last into the icy water, I look back—to a sickening sight. The hole has already begun to close behind me.

-National Geographic

A Day at the Beach

More than just the border between land and sea, our coastal areas and beaches form a special ecosystem teaming with life. They are also a subject of human contemplation and activity as reflected in our collections and archives. 

-Smithsonian

Smells Like the 70s: Vintage Deodorant Advertising

Women’s deodorant and antiperspirant ads came in three varieties: (1) a demonstration of how well the product performs across a busy day (as below), (2) a confident gal giving her testimonial (above), or (3) straight-up shaming (i.e. you will be humiliated by your gross personal stench if you don’t use our product).  The best of the best somehow incorporated all three.  Let’s have a look at some examples from the 1970s and a few more from other decades.

-Flashbak

A Miniature version of Hell, discovered by demolition workers in Paris

A crew of demolition workers in Paris discovered a mysterious wooden box hidden in the ruins of a condemned building. The box, which had been wrapped with old military belts, was found to contain a collection of photographs depicting a hedonistic world filled with drunken devils, sinister skeletons and scantily clad women.

-Messy Nessy Chic

Power can literally go to your head by damaging your brain, according to psychological research

People in high places are often observed as having let the power go to their heads. As it turns out, there could be some scientific truth to this.

-Business Insider

Who’s Steely Dan and What’s a Supertramp? Band Names Demystified

I’m always curious about where band names originated.  Upon research, usually it’s something very boring and mundane (i.e. they saw it on a sign, they saw it in a dream), but sometimes the origins are quite interesting.  Here are a bit of both from bands mainly associated with the 1970s.  Enjoy.

-Flashbak

Grocery Shopping Yesteryear: An Eclectic Look Back Down the Aisles

I love looking at old pictures of grocery stores.  Getting a glimpse of the old packaging is always interesting, and it’s a treat just noting how much times have changed.  So, here is an assorted mix of images of grocery shoppers from “the olden days” of the 1960s through the early 1980s. Enjoy.

-Flashbak

More people than ever before are single – and that’s a good thing

The 21st century is the age of living single. Today, the number of single adults in the U.S. – and many other nations around the world – is unprecedented. And the numbers don’t just say people are staying single longer before settling down. More are staying single for life. A 2014 Pew Report estimates that by the time today’s young adults reach the age of 50, about one in four of them will have never married.

-The Conversation