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- Strange Stories Of The World's Most Famous Sleuth
- Cactus Music
- Oven/Lounge Chair
- Man Sneezes out Bullet
- 9 Developments That Prove We Really Are Living In The Future
- Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite in Firefly
- Insects Created from Human Hair
- Life-Sized Human Model
- Test Pattern TV Cover
- Celebrity Home Libraries
- Sailor Daleks
- Porcelain Skateboard
- Sand Collection, Up Close
- The Aftermath of Destroying the Death Star
- Sharktopus Plush
- Probo the Robot
- Woman Discovers World's First Orange Alligator
- Piano-Playing, Blues-Singing Dog
- Earliest Winery Yet Found in Armenia
- Bodybuilders Have Tiny Testes
| Strange Stories Of The World's Most Famous Sleuth Posted: 12 Jan 2011 05:02 AM PST I've always enjoyed an occasional Sherlock Holmes story, but it wasn't until I took a class on the subject that I learned just how strange many of the tales are. From crazed Mormons to ape men to vampires, Conan Doyle's heroic detective encounters some seriously strange cases in his time. In celebration of 124 years of inspired mysteries, here are a few of his weirdest tales. There are spoilers here, so if you plan to read any of these stories, you may want to skip past this one. A Study In Scarlet
John adopts Lucy and while the two have happily converted to the Mormon way of life, he has secretly sworn to never let her marry a Mormon, where she will only be one of many wives. Years later, she falls in love with a traveling man named Jefferson Hope. The two are engaged and the wedding is planned to take place in three months, when Jefferson returns from a trip he must take for his job. After Jefferson leaves, John is approached by Brigham Young who tells him Lucy must marry a Mormon. He says she can take a month to make her choice between two eligible men in the town. John sends for Jefferson to return and save Lucy. He arrives on the last day before she must make her choice and Lucy, John and Jefferson sneak away. While on the run, Jefferson leaves one day to hunt for food and returns to the camp to find John dead and Lucy missing. He returns to the town and discovers Lucy was forced to marry one of the two Mormon men. A month later, Lucy dies. Jefferson sneaks into the house the night before the funeral and removes her wedding ring. He then swears revenge, stalking the town and almost killing the two men many times.
The men flee to London, hoping to escape certain death, but Jefferson is able to track them down and kill them, which is where the story had begun. Jefferson is already dying and the night before his trial, he passes away, with a smile on his face. Unsurprisingly, the Mormons of the time (and, I assume, modern Mormons as well) were not happy with their portrayal as murdering kidnappers. Conan Doyle publicly defended the story claiming that his story was completely based on fact, but his daughter claimed that he said many times that the story was filled with a number of errors about the Mormons and one of Brigham Young's descendants claimed that Doyle privately apologized to the church. The Man With The Twisted Lip
The beggar is arrested for Mr. St. Clair's murder, but a few days later, the wife receives a letter from her husband in his handwriting. Sherlock then reconsiders the case and heads to the police station, where he uses a sponge to clean the beggar's face, revealing that he is, indeed, Mr. St. Clair. The man then confesses that he used to work as a newspaper reporter and once had to go undercover as a beggar to get a story. During that time, he made a great amount of money and he realized he could make more money begging than working as a reporter (I think that's still the case today), so he quit his job and started living a double life. If you thought middle class people pretending to be homeless so they can earn an easy living was a modern problem, this story should be a wake up call. Interestingly, this story not only has a weird resolution, it also stands out from the rest of Sherlock Holmes tales in that no crime actually occurred and that Sherlock never explains how he solved the mystery –although the tale does give enough clues to explain itself. The Adventure of the Three GarridebsThink that getting contacted by people in other countries who tell you about your recent inheritance is a modern scam? As it turns out, this scam started long before the internet allowed us to get in touch with random strangers. In fact, the so-called "Nigerian scam" was used by an American man in the 1924 Sherlock Holmes story, "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs." In this tale, a man named Nathan Garrideb approaches Sherlock because he needs to find another man with the same name in order for him to obtain a $5,000,000 inheritance. He says that he has been contacted by an American man named John Garrideb who will inherit a $15,000,000 estate from Alexander Hamilton Garrideb, but in order to receive the fortune, the will stipulates that he must find two other men with the same surname and share the fortune with them equally. Because John couldn't find anyone with that name in America, he has gone to England and has so far only found Nathan. Sherlock soon learns that Nathan does not own anything particularly valuable. While he and Watson are visiting the house, John arrives with a newspaper advertisement that has been placed by Howard Garrideb. Notably, the ad is filled with a number of American spellings and phrases. John then insists that Nathan visit Birmingham to meet this Howard Garrideb. The next day, Sherlock visits Scotland Yard and finds a photograph of John stating that his real name is James Winter and that he was previously charged with shooting a man in Chicago, but he was acquitted due to mitigating circumstances. The man John shot was a past occupant of Nathan Garrideb's house. Sherlock then realizes that John was working to get John out of the house to look for something left by the previous occupant.
This story is strikingly similar to another weird Sherlock Holmes tale, "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League," where a pawn broker is hired for a job for the "Red-Headed League" based solely on how bright his hair color is. Sherlock quickly realizes the job is just a scam to get the man out of his regular office so cons can use his basement to break into the bank vault next door. The Adventure of the Yellow FaceWhile Conan O'Doyle might have shown his religious bigotry in "A Study In Scarlet," he shows a surprisingly progressive attitude towards racism in this tale. Sherlock is approached by a client named Grant Munro, who is suspicious of his wife. She was previously married in America, but the rest of her family died from yellow fever. She then moved to England and married Mr. Munro. The couple was extremely happy together until his wife asked him for a hundred pounds and begged him not to ask why. Shortly afterwards, she started sneaking away to a cottage near their home. Mr. Munro swore he saw someone with a yellow face in the window of the cottage, but after breaking in, he found the place empty. Strangely, the cottage was well-furnished and featured a portrait of his wife on the mantle. At first, Holmes thinks it must be the woman's first husband who has returned to England to blackmail her, but when they eventually break into the cabin together, they discover the yellow-faced person is wearing a yellow mask and underneath is a little black girl. As it turns out, the woman's husband did die in America, but her half-black daughter did not. Because the wife was terrified that her new husband would not love her if he knew she was once married to a black man, she tried to keep the child a secret. When the husband discovers the truth though, he picks up the little girl, gives her a kiss and then holds his wife's hand as they leave the cottage. This story is unique for Sherlock Holmes stories in that there is no actual crime, no villain and Sherlock is absolutely wrong in his assumptions. Of course, it also is notable for having such a surprisingly anti-racist message for readers of 1893. The Adventure of The Creeping ManWhile modern crime investigation methods have progressed quite a bit since the Sherlock Holmes series took place, most of the stories are still good enough to hold up in today's society. The Adventure of The Creeping Man may be one of the only Sherlock Holmes stories of that leaves us giggling about antiquated medical ideas. In this tale, Holmes has been approached by the secretary and the daughter of a respected sixty-one year old professor who has recently become engaged to a much younger woman. Shortly after the engagement was announced, the professor left for two weeks without telling anyone where he went. His secretary, who opens all of the professor's mail for him, was able to discover that the professor went to Prague. Since his return, the professor started acting rather strange. He insisted the secretary not open any letters that arrive with a certain marking on the envelope. His faithful wolfhound suddenly turned on him and had to be tied up outside. His secretary also says that he once entered the professor's room at night and saw him crawling on his hands and feet. The professor's daughter says that she once saw him staring through her second-story bedroom window one night although they do not own any ladders at home. Despite this all, he is still quite lucid and has been able to maintain his teaching career without any issues. Sherlock realizes the dog attacks occurred exactly nine days apart every time. He starts to reach a conclusion when the secretary says that he once angered the professor greatly when he picked up a box that the professor had brought back from Prague. Given all the info, Holmes realizes that the professor has been taking some kind of a drug every nine days. He then makes the connection that the professor has been behaving like a monkey. He and Watson then come to the house on the night of the next drug dose and discover the man to be scampering on all fours, climbing up the side of the house and tormenting the dog. Eventually the dog gets loose and Holmes has to intervene to save the professor. While the professor is unconscious from the attack, Sherlock enters his study and discovers the drug along with a letter from a quack physician who has advised the professor to get his hands on a substance made from a lemur extract in order to help him be younger and more virile, since he is planning to marry a much younger woman. If only he had access to quality Viagra. The Adventure of the Sussex VampireThis tale begins when Sherlock is contacted by a man who says his wife has been sucking the blood from their baby's neck. She was discovered with blood on her lips and the child had a wound on its neck. The wife has made no attempt to explain herself. According to her handmaiden, it has occurred more than once now and the child has been put under the custody of a nurse. The client also has a fifteen year-old son from his first wife. While the second wife is ordinarily a kind woman, she beats her stepson. Sherlock immediately realizes what is going on, but insists on visiting the home before he makes any announcements. When they arrive, Sherlock notices the South American weapons on display and he takes a look at the wounds on the baby's neck. He then announces what happened, knowing that it is going to be a terrible blow to his client. He reveals that the oldest son is very jealous of his new brother –to the point where he has taken to shooting poisoned darts at the baby. The mother was sucking the blood from the baby's neck to remove the poison and save the child, but she could not bear to tell the truth to her husband and break his heart. Holmes then suggests the older boy be sent off to sea for a year as punishment, although doesn't really seem like a suitable solution for such a sociopathic person. Sources: The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Wikipedia #1, #2 Do you have any favorite, slightly offbeat Sherlock Holmes tales, or stories from other sleuths? If so, share them in the comments.  |
| Posted: 12 Jan 2011 04:57 AM PST (Video Link) Yes, a cactus is a playable instrument. This video shows a person playing a jazzy tune on one while accompanied by a piano. Google Translate is having trouble with the website, but apparently the cactus died in 2009 or 2010, so the project is on hiatus. Link (Google Translate) via The Presurfer |
| Posted: 12 Jan 2011 04:46 AM PST Etsy seller WayOutHere turned an old oven into a functional lounge chair. The bottom drawer is opened to support the seat and the stove top turns into an ottoman. It’s for sale to people who can pick it up from the Cincinnati area. Link via Dude Craft |
| Posted: 11 Jan 2011 06:41 PM PST
Link via Gizmodo | Photo: Daily Telegraph |
| 9 Developments That Prove We Really Are Living In The Future Posted: 11 Jan 2011 05:46 PM PST
See a video of this game in action, and read about the other 8 developments at Geeks Are Sexy. Link |
| Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite in Firefly Posted: 11 Jan 2011 04:24 PM PST There’s a rumor going around that a little model of Han Solo frozen in carbonite appears in every episode of the space western Firefly. Supposedly, actor Nathan Fillion (Capt. Malcolm Reynolds) is a big Star Wars fan, so the set technicians sneaked the model into the background whenever possible. Amy Ratcliffe has already found several examples and has posted screenshots. In the above image, it’s in the upper-right corner near Kaylee’s bunk. |
| Insects Created from Human Hair Posted: 11 Jan 2011 04:02 PM PST When I was five, I asked my mother what hair was made of. She attempted to explain it to me in a way that I could understand, but eventually said “protein”. “What’s that?” She tried to explain protein, and used peanut butter as an example. So, as I misunderstood it, hair was made out peanut butter. I then made a hair-and-jelly sandwich. It tasted terrible. Where was I? Oh, yeah: Adrienne Antonson makes stunningly realistic models of insects using human hair as her crafting material. They do not go well with jelly. Link via The Presurfer | Artist’s Website |
| Posted: 11 Jan 2011 03:40 PM PST Some assembly is required, so go get the glue. Artist Wayne Chisnall made a 12-piece kit model of himself entitled “And When I’m a Man.” It’ll be on display at the “States of Reverie” exhibit at the Scream Gallery in London starting on January 14. Link via Super Punch | Museum Website |
| Posted: 11 Jan 2011 03:23 PM PST |
| Posted: 11 Jan 2011 03:16 PM PST Judy Berman of Flavorwire rounded up photographs of luxurious libraries in the homes of celebrities, such as Diane Keaton’s, which is pictured above. Karl Lagerfeld’s is astoundingly packed from floor to ceiling (and then some) with books. Link | Photo: Calfinder |
| Posted: 11 Jan 2011 03:09 PM PST deviantART user Dezychan writes “This is exactly what it looks like, and no, I have no shame in making this.” Nor should he. This image could only be improved upon by including Tom Baker (the Fourth Doctor) as Tuxedo Mask. Link via Comics Alliance |
| Posted: 11 Jan 2011 03:04 PM PST Seattle-based artist Charles Wing Krafft made this skateboard out of porcelain. It’s full-sized, so you could presumably ride it. Krafft has made other unusual subjects out of porcelain, such as guns and grenades. Link and Gallery via Dude Craft | Photo: Viacomet |
| Posted: 11 Jan 2011 11:17 AM PST Mouser Williams collects sand from different parts of the world. He photographs his samples using a macro lens to get up close and personal, labeling their composition. This lovely sample is called Star Sand.
Link -via Jason Kottke (Image credit: Flickr user Mouser Williams) |
| The Aftermath of Destroying the Death Star Posted: 11 Jan 2011 11:15 AM PST Talk about unintended consequences! This video shows what would more likely happen to Endor at the end of Return of the Jedi if the normal laws of physics applied to the Star Wars universe. -via Boing Boing |
| Posted: 11 Jan 2011 10:42 AM PST The monster from the Sy-Fy movie has been enshrined in plush! This is a one-of-a-kind Sharktopus was hand-made by Suzannah Ashley. See more pictures at her website. Link -via Laughing Squid |
| Posted: 11 Jan 2011 10:39 AM PST Scientists at Vrije University in Brussels, Belgium have developed a robot that looks like a cartoon elephant. Probo has fully articulate features and a flexible trunk that can display a variety of responses and emotions. It was designed as a therapy aid for autistic children. Probo is being tested now at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj, Romania, where the team has reportedly achieved some remarkable results so far in interactions with autistic children. Link to story. Link to robot website. -via Arbroath |
| Woman Discovers World's First Orange Alligator Posted: 11 Jan 2011 08:59 AM PST A woman in Venice, Fl, has discovered what appears to be the world’s first orange alligator. Sylvia Mythen was returning home from work when she snapped this picture to send to her grandkids.  While some biologists believe the gator may be half albino, experts with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission believe the animal's odd color is the result of paint or stain that spilled into its habitat. Link | Photo by Sylvia Mythen |
| Piano-Playing, Blues-Singing Dog Posted: 11 Jan 2011 08:24 AM PST Tucker, a one and a half year old Schnoodle, plays the piano and sings along at least three or four times every day. In spite of all of his practicing, his owner says, he really isn’t getting any better at it. Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – via Daily Picks and Flicks |
| Earliest Winery Yet Found in Armenia Posted: 11 Jan 2011 08:18 AM PST Archaeologists have announced the discovery of the world’s oldest winemaking facility. The winery was found in an Armenian cave near the village of Areni -the same cave where the oldest shoe ever was found last year. Carbon dating shows that the winery dates back 6,100 years!
Analysis of residue found malvidin, a plant pigment found in red wine. Read more about the discovery at National Geographic News. Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell! (Image credit: Hans Barnard) |
| Posted: 11 Jan 2011 05:19 AM PST
This piece of work presented itself by accident. As a retired clinical scientist, I waste time worrying about problems I've opened and left unclosed. One such is stretch marks,1 and the body bulk that produces them. Would body builders carry some of the answers? These massive men downloaded with sylph-like ease, but then ousted the original problem with a bigger one, albeit of smaller amplitude: it was immediately and inescapably obvious that the bodybuilder's crutch was mostly apparent by its absence – in short, bodybuilders appeared to have small balls. Platitudes are what we learn from experience: there are lies, damned lies and clinical impressions, and a clinical hunch is poor evidence of its reality; I needed hard evidence. I needed to see body builders, but the responses, some of which were polite, made it clear that my study would have to be indirect. Fortunately, research is easier when its limits are defined: the trick was going to be how to measure changes in the male genital trio, the "meat and two veg" of this scientific meal, when it is covered and presented as an image. Materials and Methods  Figure 1. Crutch or genital volume, measured as a cross-sectional area in pixels, and expressed as a function of underlying muscle-free body size, measured as distance in pixels between each iliac crest. The columns give the mean and standard error for each group of 12 bodybuilders and swimsuit models, and shows that the ratio of crutch volume to underlying body size is greatly diminished in bodybuilders. In defining the genital area I was particularly struck by one man: in contrast to a massive frame, his genital triangle was a disaster: something was missing. His genital bulge was mainly a central penile cylinder from which his briefs went steeply downhill, unimpeded by testicles between it and his crutch. As I stared in aimless wonderment, the defining feature of the bodybuilder's crutch suddenly became apparent (in science, you only discover what you first imagine): the normal, obtuse- angled V of the crutch is replaced by a narrow, acute- angled V. And this measure is simply obtained from the observed angle to the horizontal of each limb of the V. This was my Eureka moment — for which the laptop has long replaced the bath. Research is more Tristram Shandy than scientists might want to admit: here I was, all post-Eureka and ready to go, only to reach another diversion. Could what I'd noticed simply be a visual artefact – had the crutch been made to look trivial by the surrounding mass of muscle? Absolute measurements could not be made, but weren't necessary anyway: far better to relate crutch dimension to the underlying skeletal body size, free of muscle mass. The iliac crests are obvious on the images, and because they are not covered by muscle, the distance between them provides a good, measure of underlying body size. Thus, the ratio provided by "correcting" genital area for the inter-iliac crest distance gives an absolute measure of genital size as a fraction of underlying body size, and would show conclusively whether the visually tiny testicles of bodybuilders are an optical or a biological artefact. Measurements: From each group of images, the first 12 were taken that were frontal with little body rotation, and with legs together or only loosely apart. On each of them I made 3 independent measurements of crutch area, crutch V angle and inter-iliac crest distance, all in pixels, using the downloaded Image J program; agreement of replicates was good. Descriptive statistics were done for each group, and t-test comparisons were made between the bodybuilders and the other groups. Results  Figure 2. Crutch V or genital angle, measured in images of male bodybuilders, ballet dancers and swimsuit models. The columns give the mean and SE for each group of 12. The crutch angle is much less in the bodybuilders. The results are shown in Figures 1 and 2. Genital area was remarkably less in bodybuilders than in men wearing swimwear briefs, and this difference was very significant; the same was true for their Genital V, or crutch angle. Discussion Measurements on downloaded images show that bodybuilders have a much small genital area and Genital V angle. Three dimensional measurements of genital mass could not be made, but cross-sectional area gives a reasonable approximation. Although these measurements can only be relative, by correcting them for underlying, intrinsic body size, using inter-iliac crest distance, an absolute measure can be obtained of crutch volume as a function of body size. This measure shows that the reduction in crutch size in bodybuilders is real, and is not simply a minimisation of the visual image by the surrounding mass of muscle. The reduction was seen by comparison with all groups; it is particularly significant for the swimwear group, because very similar briefs were worn and, unlike with underclothing, models appeared not to have been selected because of an ambitious crutch. And, whilst the tights worn by ballet dancers may have provided a somewhat different external crutch shape but not crutch size, it is more likely that dancers are chosen more for elevation of jump than genitalia. Thus the consistency of the findings throughout all other male groups adds to its significance, and allows the firm conclusion that bodybuilders have a small crutch. Unlike all the other groups, bodybuilders have virtually no subcutaneous fat; this will have artificially increased their crutch area ratio, making the observed reduction in crutch size an underestimate. Discussion of the Discussion To what is this reduction due? The images show that the reduction in genital mass is not due to penis size, but to tiny testes. Tiny testicles are also the immediate cause of the narrowing of the Genital V angle, which is such a striking feature of the bodybuilder's pose. What explains this shrinkage of the bodybuilder's balls? Since it is unlikely that only men with small balls undertake bodybuilding, we have to assume that small balls are causally related to this activity. Could these crypto-orchids be an adverse consequence of the pathological amount of exercise necessary to produce the vast amount of muscle? Is there a functionally inverse relationship between testicle size and muscle mass? Did Delilah find more to Sampson than was made public? It is well known that extreme exercise affects the endocrine system: for example, it explains the small breasts of ice-skaters2 [see "Ice Skaters Have Small Breasts," in this issue of AIR] and ballet dancers. But, of course, ingestion of male hormones, a not entirely unknown practice amongst sportspeople, turns off the secretion of pituitary trophins, leading to testicular shrinkage. Such a practice may be as strenuously denied as it is indulged.3 Of course, simple inspection, questioning and testing of bodybuilders could produce the answers. In the meantime, the reports that, despite their small balls, some bodybuilders have a libido which matches their immense body mass, clearly distinguishes between the two mechanisms, in them at any rate. Regardless of the uncertainties about an endogenous or exogenous mechanism, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that bodybuilders develop small balls, and, as they well know, small is not always beautiful. But if there is to be a government warning, where should it be pinned? Acknowledgements References Note _____________________
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The first Sherlock Holmes story may very well be one of the weirdest. It starts out with the apprehension of a double murder suspect in London. As he explains his motives for the killings, we are told about a man named John Ferrier and a young girl named Lucy, who are the sole survivors of a group of an ill-fated wagon train and are both dying of thirst. Fortunately, a band of Mormons led by Brigham Young comes by and offers to save them, as long as they agree to convert to Mormonism and come with the group to start a new "promised land."
Sherlock Holmes cases are ripe with people living double lives, but in this case, the secret identity is more strange than criminal. Holmes is hired by a woman, Mrs. St. Clair, who claims her husband has disappeared, but she swears that after his disappearance, she saw him in the second story window of an opium den. When police search the building, they cannot find the husband, but they do discover a disfigured beggar in the room beside Mr. St. Clair's clothes. His coat is then found outside, loaded with tons of pennies and halfpennies.
He and Watson return to the house where they find John breaking into a cellar. They arrest the thief, after he shoots at them, barely striking Watson, and discover the cellar housed a counterfeiting printing press. James Winter goes to jail and Nathan is so disappointed that he ends up in a nursing home shortly after the case ends.
Darco Sangermano, 28, was in Naples during that city’s New Year’s Eve festivities. He was shot in the head with a .22 caliber bullet. Later, at the hospital, he sneezed it out:
You hear about new technical developments every day, but until you see them together, it’s hard to imagine how far we’ve come in the last few years. Jetpacks, virtual reality, body scanners, personal submarines… all those things were in the realm of science fiction only a decade ago.
by Emeritus Professor Sam Shuster, MD, PhD, FRCP
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