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2011/10/03

Neatorama

Neatorama

Mysterious Rappings

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 05:18 AM PDT

The following is an article from Uncle John’s Supremely Satisfying Bathroom Reader.

Have you ever participated in a séance or tried to contact the “spirits” using a Ouija board? You probably don’t realize it, but the modern conception of communicating with the dead only dates back to the late 1840s. Here’s the story of the hoax that started spirit-mania.

BUMP IN THE NIGHT

In 1848 a devout Methodist farmer named John Fox and his family began to hear strange noises in their Hydesville, New York, farmhouse. The noises continued for weeks on end, until finally on one particularly noisy evening, Mrs. Fox ordered the two children, 13-year-old Margaret and 12-year-old Kate, to stay perfectly quiet in bed while Mr. Fox searched the house from top to bottom. His search shed no light on the mystery, but afterward, Margaret sat up in bed and snapped her fingers, exclaiming, “Here, Mr. Split-foot, do as I do!”

“The reply was immediate,” Earl Fornell writes in The Unhappy Medium: Spiritualism and the Life of Margaret Fox. “The invisible rapper responded by imitating the number of the girl’s staccato responses.”

Mrs. Fox began to make sense of what she was hearing. “Count ten,” she told the spirit. It responded with ten raps. So she asked several questions; each time the spirit answered correctly. Next, Mrs. Fox asked the spirit if it would rap if a neighbor was present; the spirit said yes. So Mr. Fox ran and got a neighbor, the first of more than 500 neighbors and townspeople who visited over the next few weeks to watch Margaret and Kate interact with the spirit. As long as either Margaret or Kate was present, the spirit was willing to communicate.

MURDER MYSTERY

Using an alphabetic code that Margaret and Kate devised, “Mr. Split-foot” explained that in his Earthly life he’d been a peddler, murdered by the person who lived in the farmhouse. The spirit identified the killer as “C. R.” Some citizens tracked down a man named Charles Rosana, who’d lived in the house years earlier, but with no body and no evidence other than the testimony of a ghost, he was never charged.

At that point, Mrs. Fox decided to send Margaret and Kate to live with their older sister, Leah Fish, in Rochester. As soon as the girls left Hydesville, the strange noises and spirit visitations stopped.

KID STUFF

When they arrived in Rochester, Margaret and Kate let their older sister, Leah, in on the secret: the whole thing -the rappings, the spirits, “Mr. Split-foot,” the “murder,” and everything else- was a hoax. “We wanted to terrify our dear mother,” Margaret told the New York Herald in 1888.

The girls started out by tying a string to an apple and bouncing it repeatedly on the floor, but soon discovered they could make loud popping noises by cracking the joints in their big toes. They also figured out how to project the sounds around the room, in much the same way that ventriloquists throw their voices, which helped make the rapping sounds convincing.

THE SOUND OF MONEY

By now the prank had gone on too long; Mrs. Fox was so upset by the idea of her two young girls talking to dead people that Margaret started feeling guilty and decided to put an end to it. She and Kate staged one last “farewell” rap session, then had the “spirits” announce that their Earthly work was done and that they would no longer try to make contact with the living.

The only problem was that their sister Leah made her living running a music studio, and when Margaret and Kate had come to live with her, their notoriety scared away all her pupils. So Leah convinced them to help her by forming a spiritualist society and staging a series of public demonstrations of spirit rapping in Corinthian Hall, the town’s largest auditorium. Price of admission: $1 per person.

The audiences of these shows were fooled by the mysterious rappings, and within weeks a number of “spirit circles” formed in Rochester and began hiring the Fox sisters to perform séances in private homes. When people began to tire of listening to Mr. Split-foot, the sisters discovered they could communicate with the spirits of such luminaries as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and William Shakespeare.

It was from this modest beginning -two young girls figuring out how to make mysterious noises by popping their big toes, and an intimidating third sister figuring out how to exploit it- that “Split-foot” spiritualism went on to become what may have been the fastest-growing spiritual movement in the history of the United States.

IN THE RIGHT PLACE, AT THE RIGHT TIME

The Fox sisters didn’t know it, but they were perfectly poised to fill the spiritual void created by advances in 19th-century science and the Industrial Revolution. According to Earl Fornell:

The appearance of these emissaries from another world was particularly welcome, for the rise of science in the early decades of the 19th century had, to some extent, brought into question the validity of older religious dogmas. Such reform movements as Utopian socialism, temperance, abolitionism, and feminism arose from a demand for a better life on earth, since science seemed to promise no afterlife… Still another endeavor was a frenzied search for positive and immediate proof of the immortality that science seemed then to set aside.

TRUE BELIEVERS

The possibility of talking to the departed took the public imagination by storm. Here are a few examples of how deeply “spiritualism” pervaded the culture:

* A judge in upstate New York developed a reputation for consulting the spirits before handing down rulings.

* Some enthusiasts became so convinced that life was better “on the other side” that they committed suicide rather than waste a lifetime waiting for paradise.

* In 1853 some New Yorkers formed a group called the Free Spirit Love Society, which forbade extramarital affairs in all instances …except those in which the adulterer “entered into a new relation under the guidance of spiritual affinities or attractions.” At its peak the society boasted of more than 600 members.

* In 1856 a Bordentown, New Jersey, man died just days before he was supposed to marry his fiancé. Rather than cancel the wedding, the man’s family and his bride-to-be turned it into a wedding-funeral, hiring a medium to marry the bride to her fiancé’s corpse before it was laid to rest.

SHE KEEPS GOING… AND GOING… AND GOING…

The public’s desire to believe was so great that the Fox sisters were able to keep their hoax going for more than 40 years. The spiritualism craze faded somewhat in the late 1850s but came roaring back following the outbreak of the Civil War, as thousands of bereaved families tried desperately to get in contact with loved ones killed in battle.

Even First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln brought spiritualists to the White House so that she could speak to her dead sons Tad and Willie. In 1872, seven years after President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Mrs. Lincoln visited Fox several times and each time came away convinced that, through Margaret, she’d made contact with “the real presence of the spirit of her husband.”

UNHAPPY MEDIUMS

One of the curses of founding this fraudulent movement was that Margaret and Kate had to spend most of their time in the presence of true believers. Both women grew to hate their lives; both became alcoholics. And though Leah Fish had grown rich off years of public performances, Margaret and Kate had not.

By the late 1870s, Margaret was still giving public performances, but she was suffering from depression and worked only a few hours each week -just long enough to make the money she needed to “drown my remorse in wine,” as she put it. Somehow, she managed to keep going for another ten years.

Then in September 1888, a reporter for the New York Herald asked Fox to comment on the case of another spiritualist, who’d recently been exposed as a fraud. Margaret told the reporter that spiritualism was bogus and promised one day to give “an interesting exposure of the fraud.”

BAD RAP

Rather than wait, the Herald sent a reporter the next day. As promised, Fox delivered -and over the next few hours laid out her bizarre life story in lurid detail. There was no truth to spiritualism, she told the reporter, and she said she more than anyone else should know it.

“I have explored the unknown as far as a human can,” she told the reporter. “I have gone to the dead so that I might get from them some little token… I have tried to obtain some sign. Not a thing! No, the dead shall never return.”

And in case anyone didn’t believe her -in fact, many spiritualists blamed booze for the “false confession”- Fox gave a public confession and demonstration of her methods at New York’s Academy of Music. The New York Herald described the scene:

Everybody in the hall knew they were looking at the woman principally responsible for spiritualism. She stood upon a pine table, with nothing on her feet but stockings. As she remained motionless, loud distinct rappings were heard, now behind the scenes, now in the gallery. She had a devil’s gift in a rapping ventriloquism, from which spiritualism had sprung to life, and here was the same toe rapping it out of existence.

DIDN’T SEE THIS COMING

The cash Margaret Fox made selling her story didn’t last long. Neither did the money she made on tours exposing the fraud of spiritualism. When the public’s interest in her exposé dried up, she became so desperate for money that she recanted her confession and went back out on the séance circuit. She toured the country for the next five years, until finally in 1893, like her sister Kate, she died drunk, broke, and alone.

The funeral arrangements were handled by a friend of Margaret’s, Titus Merritt, “the mortician,” Fornell writes, “at whose establishment she often spent long nights, sitting amongst the corpses watching for some signs of spirit life.”

The signs never came.

_________________________

The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Supremely Satisfying Bathroom Reader.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!

5 Animal Friendships That Belong In A Disney Movie

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 12:00 AM PDT

Did you know snakes and hamsters can be friends? Or cats and crows? Or pigs and tigers? Ok, these friendships might not be common, but the do happen. Cracked has a great list of animal friendships that could make writers of Disney movies feel ashamed of their lack of ingenuity.

Link

The Most Amazing Geological Wonders On Earth

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 11:53 PM PDT

Just try to navigate this massive stone forest in Madagascar.The Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park in Madagascar is home to a number of critically endangered lorises, which might actually be a good thing -who is going to brave traveling though this terrifying area just to poach a loris?

Yelp Reviews For Places You Can't (Or Shouldn't) Go

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 11:30 PM PDT

If you’re a big fan of American Psycho then you might remember Dorsia, one of Patrick Bateman’s favorite spots to hang out. Of course, just because it’s an imaginary place doesn’t mean it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its own Yelp page.

Judging by the reviews, it's almost impossible to get a reservation and even if you do, it's still a pricey meal (four dollar signs). That said, the sea urchin ceviche is great and New York Matinee hailed the peanut butter soup with smoked duck and mashed squash as a "playful, but mysterious little dish."

For more Yelp pages for imaginary places and places you shouldn’t visit, like prison, be sure to enjoy this great Mental Floss article.

This Might Be The Saddest Web Comic Ever

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 11:20 PM PDT

This wouldn’t be nearly as sad if everyone who ever used YouTube couldn’t attest to the fact that it’s totally true.

Link Via Laughing Squid

The AT-AT Meadow

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 11:16 PM PDT

Now here’s a meadow I’d love to get a chance to visit. Where is this magical land of the AT-AT? I want to go there.

Link Via The Mary Sue

When Foreclosure Isn't the End of the Nightmare

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 06:53 PM PDT

An underwater homeowner decides to walk away from his house, which then goes into foreclosure. The bank takes the house and then sells it. End of story, right?

Maybe not. Some banks are suing "strategic defaulters" for the amount of money they lost:

Joseph Reilly lost his vacation home here last year when he was out of work and stopped paying his mortgage. The bank took the house and sold it. Mr. Reilly thought that was the end of it.

In June, he learned otherwise. A phone call informed him of a court judgment against him for $192,576.71.

It turned out that at a foreclosure sale, his former house fetched less than a quarter of what Mr. Reilly owed on it. His bank sued him for the rest.

The result was a foreclosure hangover that homeowners rarely anticipate but increasingly face: a "deficiency judgment."

So what, you think - they can't squeeze blood out of a turnip. Ah, but there's money to be made. Lots of money:

Because most targets have scant savings, the judgments sell for only about two cents on the dollar, versus seven cents for credit-card debt, according to debt-industry brokers.

Silverleaf Advisors LLC, a Miami private-equity firm, is one investor in battered mortgage debt. Instead of buying ready-made deficiency judgments, it buys banks' soured mortgages and goes to court itself to get judgments for debt that remains after foreclosure sales.

Silverleaf says its collection efforts are limited. "We are waiting for the economy to somewhat heal so that it's a better time to go after people," says Douglas Hannah, managing director of Silverleaf.

Investors know that most states allow up to 20 years to try to collect the debts, ample time for the borrowers to get back on their feet. Meanwhile, the debts grow at about an 8% interest rate, depending on the state.

Link

Your Desk Job is Killing You

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 06:53 PM PDT

You know what's worse than NOT having a job? Having a desk job.

A new study in Australia has found that sitting down for long periods of time will hasten your death:

The study of more than 200,000 men and women in NSW has found that the longer people sit each day the greater their chances of going to an early grave.

Even when exercise was taken into account, it was often not enough to offset the effects of sitting for several hours.

Those who sat for more than 10 hours a day had a 48 per cent increased risk of death compared to more active people who sat for less than four hours a day.

That's why you should seriously look into standing desks: Link

Taking the Show on the Road

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 04:55 PM PDT


(YouTube link)

According to a rough Babelfish translation from the Russian description, Alexander Ishutin bought a motorcycle and installed a drum set on it so he and his friends could do this. In Soviet Russia, concert drives to you! -via reddit

When Crazy, Hairy Ants Attack

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 04:52 PM PDT

Hate fire ants? Well, the good news is that fire ants have practically been wiped out in parts of America.

The bad news? They were wiped out by something even worse: the Caribbean crazy ants.

The flea-sized critters are called crazy because each forager scrambles randomly at a speed that your average picnic ant, marching one by one, reaches only in video fast-forward. They're called hairy because of fuzz that, to the naked eye, makes their abdomens look less glossy than those of their slower, bigger cousins.

And they're on the move in Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. In Texas, they've invaded homes and industrial complexes, urban areas and rural areas. They travel in cargo containers, hay bales, potted plants, motorcycles and moving vans. They overwhelm beehives — one Texas beekeeper was losing 100 a year in 2009. They short out industrial equipment.

If one gets electrocuted, its death releases a chemical cue to attack a threat to the colony, said Roger Gold, an entomology professor at Texas A&M.

Think that's bad? It gets worse:

"I did a test site with a product early on and applied the product to a half-acre ... In 30 days I had two inches of dead ants covering the entire half-acre," Rasberry said. "It looked like the top of the dead ants was just total movement from all the live ants on top of the dead ants."

Link

Awesome Creepy LEGO Houses

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 04:11 PM PDT

Have you ever wanted to see what a haunted LEGO house would look like? Well, Mike Doyle’s abandoned LEGO houses are probably just about as close as you can get. He has three great ones on his site, including the one above, aptly titled “Three Story Victorian With Tree.”

Link Via CraftZine

21 Stunning Pictures of Autumn Colors

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 03:59 PM PDT

Living in Southern California, I regrettably miss most of the traditional signs of changing seasons. For that reason, I’m always particularly struck by the beauty of forests of deciduous trees changing colors and shedding their leaves. If you’re also a huge fan of these sights, be sure to head over to BuzzFeed where you can enjoy 21 of these stunning images.

Link

Surfers Rescue Great White

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 03:51 PM PDT

(Video Link)

Most of the time, when you see the words surfer and great white in the headline, it’s bad news for the surfer. This time though, it was great news for the shark and good karma for the surfers involved. That’s because this time the story involves a few brave surfers helping a juvenile great white remove a large fish hook from its jaw.

While the audio on the video is pretty annoying, it’s still work watching (even on mute) to see someone brave enough to stick their hand in a shark’s mouth.

Link

The Best Derp Face You've Seen All Day

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 03:42 PM PDT

Who knew this is the face a pug would make while going down a slide?

This must be animal abuse because no self-respecting animal would willingly make that face when there was a camera present.

Link Via BuzzFeed

The Dog That's Better at Sports Than You

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 02:51 PM PDT

I'm so bad at sports that the only dribbling I can do involves my chin and saliva.

Today, I can even add a dog to a long list of living things that humiliate me in sports. Here's Petey, a dog that is better in basketball and volleyball than you and (definitely) me.

Laughing Squid has the video clips: Link

Water Calligraphy Machine

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 01:21 PM PDT

Nicholas Hanna is an architect by training, but he’s fascinated by Chinese calligraphy. He’s invented an ingenious gadget that writes messages in Chinese with water. It’s attached to a tricycle and as he rides it, the electronically-controlled machine sprays water onto the pavement.

If you had such a device, what would you write with it?

Link -via Bit Rebels | Artist’s Website

Quick Change Artist Switches Masks in the Blink of an Eye

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 12:33 PM PDT


(Video Link)

This clip from Penn & Teller’s Magic and Mystery Tour shows a Chinese performer who can change between ten different masks so quickly that you can’t see him switch. He waves his cape in front of his face, and he’s a different character in the story!

-via reddit

Prehistoric Preschool Artists

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 10:02 AM PDT

Psst, parents! Did your kids draw on the wall? Well, take heart: you're not alone. In fact, prehistoric preschool "artists" decorated their cave walls, too.

Cambridge archaeologist Jess Cooney will explain how meticulous research, using methodology tailor-made for the task, has made it possible to identify both the age and gender of the children who made the simple art form known as finger flutings around 13,000 years ago during the hunter gatherer period.

Her work reveals that some of the flutings studied were made by a three-year-old child with the most prolific young artist being a girl of five.

I can just imagine a cavemom yelling at her kids: "What do you think you are? Neanderthals? Wait whatamIthinking... you guys are Neanderthals!"

Link

Denmark Imposes "Fat Tax"

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 10:00 AM PDT

Fat in Denmark? You may want to think twice about drowning your sorrow in a pint of Chubby Hubby as it's going to get a bit more expensive.

Though less than 10% of Denmark's population is obese, the Danish government ain't takin' the chance that they're becoming like Americans - so they're instituting a "fat tax":

Starting Oct. 1, Danes will see a price increase in products that are high in saturated fats, which researchers at Denmark's Institute of Food and Resource Economics have attributed to the cause of 4% of the country's premature deaths.

Butter, oils, and high-fat dairy products will see the biggest price increases; products with more than 2.3% saturated fat will be taxed 16 kroner per kilogram ($2.90 USD) of saturated fat. Shoppers should be ready to pay up to 30% more for a pack of butter, 8% more for a bag of chips, and a liter of olive oil will cost 7.1% more than usual.

Link

Previously on Neatorama: Hungary's "Fat Tax"

Picture Match Black Cat Socks

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 08:56 AM PDT

Black Cat Socks – $3.45

Do you love picture matching games? Yes! Well, you are going to love these  picture matching Black Cat Women’s Ankle Socks from the NeatoShop. Keeping your feet toasty and warm has never been so fun! Meow!

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Picture Matching Socks and Crazy Footwear!

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