Neatorama

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• Toys for Families with Paralysis
• The Scrambled Boxtops Puzzle
• Giant Hammock Can Hold 5 People
• The Bizarre 1909 Scheme to Make Hawaii More White
• A Statistical Analysis of the Ratings of the First and Last Episodes of TV Shows
• Meet Dr. Color: How Bob Buckter Repainted San Francisco
• Family Issues - Homer Definitely Has A Dark Side
• Intricately Carved Spoons Are Sculptures You Can Eat With
• Honest Dog Breed Slogans
• Sky Magic at Mt.Fuji
• Surreal Aquariums Seem to Defy Gravity
• The Toughest Pirates in Existence
• Speed Dating Service Lets You Sniff Armpits While Wearing a Bag on Your Head
• Ravshaniya Azulye's Photographic Flights Of Fantasy
• Bite Size Candies
• Highly Successful Professor Publishes a Résumé of His Failures
• Thor Pranks Spider-Man
• Eat The Rude - Can You Taste The Freshness?
• Physics Students Calculate How Long Vampires Would Need To Suck Our Blood
• <i>CSI</i> Fan Helps Solve Crime
• The Time Keith Moon Passed Out on Stage and Was Replaced by a Member of the Audience
• Onomatopoeia Rebus
• Watch This Amazingly Strong Bee Pull a Nail out of a Wall
• The Ten Longest Wars in History

Toys for Families with Paralysis Posted: 03 May 2016 04:00 AM PDT (Video Link) One of the great joys of life is playing with a young child. They're full of pure energy and bliss. But if you're paralyzed, then actively participating in play is very hard. As Donna Lowich, a grandmother in this video from the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, says, "I'm basically relegated to spectator." That's why the Foundation is developing toys that people with paralysis can use with children. These include remote control cars that can be operated with blow tubes and neck movements, as well as voice-activated pitching machines. They're called Adaptoys. With the Adaptoys, users can participate in the simple joy of play. Eric LeGrand described his experience with the remote-controlled cars to Fox News: “The idea of playing with my nephews with the Adaptoys, I thought it was honestly incredible,” LeGrand said. “It was awesome. I had a lot of fun with them competing and showing them that Uncle E does have some competitive drive. It was great.” “It opens doors for me because all of a sudden I could play with them. I could pitch with a baseball or whiffle ball with them,” he said. “It was funny to see how my little nephew got so mad telling me I cheated when I won. That’s the priceless stuff you can’t replicate.” -via Huffington Post

The Scrambled Boxtops Puzzle Posted: 03 May 2016 02:00 AM PDT Boing Boing reprinted this puzzle from the book My Best Mathematical and Logic Puzzles by Martin Gardner. Imagine that you have three boxes, one containing two black marbles, one containing two white marbles, and the third, one black marble and one white marble. The boxes were labeled for their contents – BB, BW, WW – but someone switched the labels so that every box is now incorrectly labeled. You are allowed to take one marble at a time out of any box, without looking inside, and by this process of sampling you are to determine the contents of all three boxes. What is the smallest number of drawings needed to do this? It’s not difficult to figure out if you can visualize the boxes in front of you (or just look at the picture). It wouldn’t be hard to make this a real world puzzle, either. Give us your answer in the comments!

Giant Hammock Can Hold 5 People Posted: 03 May 2016 12:00 AM PDT Hammacher Schlemmer calls it the Bunyanesque Hammock after the mythical lumberjack Paul Bunyan. The $500 hammock holds 5 200-pound adults and measures 8 by 15 feet. The straps appear to be rigid, thus preventing it from being used as a slingshot, which is a shame. Perhaps those could be added as an aftermarket feature. -via Incredible Things

The Bizarre 1909 Scheme to Make Hawaii More White Posted: 02 May 2016 11:00 PM PDT Hawaii became a US territory in 1898. The federal government considered the islands’ demographic makeup as a problem -it was “too Asian.” At the time, the big five sugarcane plantations were importing workers from Japan, China, and the Philippines. But the horrid conditions caused the workers to organize, spelling trouble for their overlords. When Hawaii officially annexed the islands in 1900, the contract system was abolished and the sugarcane workers rebelled, whipping the underlying racism of the white ruling class into a kind of paranoiac madness. Newpaper editorials warned of a dystopian future under Asian rule. Ministers raved about the threat of Buddhist missionaries. In 1905, President Roosevelt himself issued a strongly worded pronouncement that Hawaiian immigration must proceed under “traditional American lines.” Importing Siberian labor was part of a desperate, last-ditch effort to turn the demographic tide in Hawaii, orchestrated by the sugarcane planters, the island elite, and a U.S. congress that feared Hawaii would do the unthinkable and send an Asian senator to Congress. But the weirdest immigration scheme ever proposed by a U.S. territory, also turned out to be the most disastrous. The Russians never provided anticipated relief from Asian workers, because they refused to work at all. The Siberian immigrants weren’t lazy, not at all. But the desires of the plantation owners, the federal government, and the immigrants didn’t mesh. Read about the failed scheme to transplant Siberians into Hawaii at Atlas Obscura. (Image source: Russian Collection, Hamilton Library, University of Hawaii at Manoa)

A Statistical Analysis of the Ratings of the First and Last Episodes of TV Shows Posted: 02 May 2016 10:00 PM PDT How well did Glee end? Fans were clearly delighted. I didn't see it, but I did watch the finale of Newhart, which was ingenious. Dexter rightfully deserves to be dead last in this list. Just hacking off the last 3 minutes alone would helped a lot. Redditor ChallengeResponse compared IMDb ratings of the first and last episodes of famous television shows to see whether they were relatively good or bad, as well as compared finales with average ratings for the respective durations of each show. You can see all of the charts here. Do any of these rating shifts surprise you? -via Twisted Sifter

Meet Dr. Color: How Bob Buckter Repainted San Francisco Posted: 02 May 2016 09:00 PM PDT The Victorian-era homes of San Francisco are a colorful delight, and that’s due to the influence of one man known as Dr. Color. Bob Buckter is an an architectural colorist who specializes in historic homes. It’s a career he invented for himself when his eye for color gained him a reputation. He’s selected colors for around 15,000 exteriors in San Francisco alone, both residential and commercial -and that doesn’t count the buildings that copied his ideas. Bob Buckter is a native San Franciscan. He started out as a house painter in 1970, but quickly realized that he had an unusual knack for color design, so he began consulting on the side. “That was a difficult uphill task because, why should people pay two, three hundred dollars for somebody to pick colors? But I was able to convince people—some people—to do that." He thought, "I like this. I want to try to be the best at it, if I can. Or at least very good." Read about Buckter’s career, how he determines what colors to use, and how he uses those colors, at Hoodline. -via Metafilter (Image credit: Ben Zotto/Hoodline)

Family Issues - Homer Definitely Has A Dark Side Posted: 02 May 2016 08:00 PM PDT Family Issues by Ddjvigo Luke thought he had family problems until he connected to a satellite from some corporation called Fox one day and found out the truth. He watched some yellow people from another war torn planet called Springfield bicker amongst themselves, the father/star Homer often physically choking his son Bart with his bare hands like a barbarian. This scene changed young master Skywalker's life, and he swore to try and make things better between him and Daddy Darth, if only he could get him to take off his helmet and talk about his feelings... People will get all choked up when they see this Family Issues t-shirt by Ddjvigo because it will either remind them of their own family or of how much they like Simpsons mashups! Visit Ddjvigo's NeatoShop for more geek-tastic designs: Violence Z-Men Drunk Rhapsody Starry Wars View more designs by Ddjvigo | More Cartoon T-shirts | New T-Shirts Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Intricately Carved Spoons Are Sculptures You Can Eat With Posted: 02 May 2016 08:00 PM PDT That's because Giles Newman's first design principle is a spoon is always a spoon: Each piece must be a functional spoon, suitable for daily use and comfortable in the hand. This constraint ensures that I don't let the complexity of my designs compromise the functional premise of the carving. Creatively this gives me a firm foundation on which to design. Knowing that there must be a bowl and a handle of some sort helps me avoid the 'blank canvas' feeling. My designs always start with the bowl and work out from there. That's from an interview that the artist gave with the Wood Workers Institute. He describes his work in detail, including his use of hand tools. Newman's techniques focus on the axe and the knife, for which he completes almost all of his work. You can see a time-lapse video of his use of the axe on a spoon here and view more photos of spoons on his Instagram feed. -via My Modern Met Selects

Honest Dog Breed Slogans Posted: 02 May 2016 07:00 PM PDT There are all sorts of myths and misconceptions associated with popular dog breeds, and even though these stereotypes are largely untrue they just can't seem to beat the bad rap. Dog lovers have been working to change the negative perceptions by spreading knowledge so people will stop seeing the bad in these breeds and accept them as they truly are. These fun minimalist illustrations by Laura Palumbo poke fun at dog breed myths with a lighthearted sense of humor that's suitable for all but appreciated most by fans of the featured breeds. See 12 Honest Dog Breed Slogans That Make Fun Of Stereotypes here

Sky Magic at Mt.Fuji Posted: 02 May 2016 06:00 PM PDT This would have been a wonderful video even without its drone dancers. The Oyamakai ensemble of Shamisen players perform a rocking tune at sundown at the base of bautiful Mt. Fuji. The featured dancers are 20 synchronized drones, each in their little cages outfitted with a total of 16,500 LEDs. They fly in choreographed formations, swinging their lights in synchrony. You’ll want to see this in full-screen mode. (vimeo link) Sky Magic is the work of creative director Tsuyoshi Takashiro for the tech company MicroAd, Inc. Read more about it at Spoon & Tamago.

Surreal Aquariums Seem to Defy Gravity Posted: 02 May 2016 05:00 PM PDT Inside this aquarium is another aquarium, inside of which ferns grow. Resident fish can swim up to the top of the ferns, but no further, as there's a bubble of air inside this little balloon. Haruka Misawa, a Japanese designer, calls her series of surreal aquariums "Waterscape." They all upend your sense of direction and normality. The fish tank isn't just a place to live, but a trip into a wonderland. You can see more photos at Spoon & Tamago.

The Toughest Pirates in Existence Posted: 02 May 2016 04:00 PM PDT The annual rugby match between the British Army and the Royal Navy took place at Twickenham Saturday. You know that kind of competition will draw some tough characters, but these are probably the toughest. On the left is Army veteran Cayle Royce with Royal Marine veteran Lee Spencer, who were both part of an all-amputee team who rowed a boat 3,000 miles across the Atlantic earlier this year, representing the organization Row2Recovery. The four veterans on the team have three legs between them. They set a speed record for the trip, too. Oh, the rugby match was a draw, 29-29. -via reddit (Image credit: Row2Recovery at Facebook)

Speed Dating Service Lets You Sniff Armpits While Wearing a Bag on Your Head Posted: 02 May 2016 03:00 PM PDT (Photo: Ruptly) Alcoholic Architecture, a bar in London, wants to appeal to your sense of smell. That's why it once created a cocktail cloud that you could drink simply by breathing. Continuing that theme, the bar recently offered a novel speed dating event called Romancing the Armpit. Participants placed paper bags on their heads, then smelled each other's armpits. They rated each other by smell and were matched up accordingly. The premise is that people are naturally attracted to good partners by smell: We know that pheromones – the airborne compounds secreted in our sweat – play a role in sexual attraction. Our body odour is largely influenced by Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) molecules, which are genetically determined and linked to the immune system. Experiments have shown that opposites attract; we tend to judge potential sexual partners as more attractive if their MHC composition is different from our own. Further, MHC is also linked to sexual preference, so differences in body odour are detected and responded to on the basis of an individual’s gender and sexual orientation. Perhaps, one day, all online dating profile pictures will be scratch-n-sniff. In the meantime, you can see more photos of this speed dating event at the Daily Mail. -via Debby Witt

Ravshaniya Azulye's Photographic Flights Of Fantasy Posted: 02 May 2016 02:00 PM PDT Everyone thinks of themselves as a photographer thesde days, and yet most of the pics these amateur shutterbugs post online lack style and imagination, just another head shot in a sea of selfies. But the bland pics that inundate the internet make it easy to spot a true artist like Ravshaniya Azulye, because their images capture the imagination and leave the viewer wanting to see more. The subjects seem to be effortlessly playing games with gravity while Ravshaniya expertly blends elements of photographic genres such as wedding and avant garde to create cool new worlds within each image. See more Flight Of Fantasy: Incredible Art Photography By Ravshaniya Azulye here

Bite Size Candies Posted: 02 May 2016 01:00 PM PDT M&M candies are 75 years old! In honor of the occasion, Pogo (Nick Bertke) made a remix of M&M ads spanning decades.   (YouTube link) While this remix has Pogo’s hypnotic signature sound, it also has coherent lines from the advertising jingles and dialogue, strung together to make an entirely new song. You might come out of this craving chocolate that melts in your mouth, not in your hands. -via Viral Viral Videos

Highly Successful Professor Publishes a Résumé of His Failures Posted: 02 May 2016 12:00 PM PDT Johannes Haushofer is a full-time professor at Princeton University. So by academic standards, he's tremendously successful.  But he wants his students to understand that the journey to success is filled with failure after failure. He wants them to encounter defeat, overcome it, and keep moving forward. So he made a curriculum vitae (a type of résumé that academics use) listing all of the failures in his career that he can think of. Haushofer explained his perspective to the Washington Post: “Most of what I try fails, but these failures are often invisible, while the successes are visible,” Haushofer writes. “I have noticed that this sometimes gives others the impression that most things work out for me. As a result, they are more likely to attribute their own failures to themselves, rather than the fact that the world is stochastic, applications are crapshoots, and selection committees and referees have bad days.” Do you have a long list of failures? Good. That means that you're trying: Haushofer adds that if his CV of failures seems short, it’s probably because he’s forgetting some things. And a longer CV of failures could very well be a good thing – it might mean the person is good at trying new things. -via Nag on the Lake

Thor Pranks Spider-Man Posted: 02 May 2016 11:00 AM PDT The Marvel superhero Thor has a hammer called Mjölnir that cannot be picked up by anyone besides Thor, or someone worthy of Thor’s status. That does not include Spider-Man, who is a mortal with spider powers. So what grief could Thor cause a fellow superhero with Mjölnir? (YouTube link) He could make life miserable. You don’t want to get on any superhero’s bad side, but even in good-natured pranking, an enchanted hammer is truly a secret weapon. -via Tastefully Offensive

Eat The Rude - Can You Taste The Freshness? Posted: 02 May 2016 10:00 AM PDT Eat The Rude by Kgullholmen Hannibal Lecter may be gone, but his legacy of fine dining using only the freshest, locally sourced ingredients lives on in the form of the Lecter Supper Club. The LSC, as they jokingly call it after a few too many glasses of chianti, has taken the lessons taught by Lecter and turned it into a social circle full of very satisfied customers. Hannibal was kind enough to teach founding members how to butcher and prepare long pork, how to identify an organ worthy of inclusion in a haute cuisine course, and how to identify when the herd needs to be thinned out a bit because they have a bad attitude... Show the world you have impeccable taste with this Eat The Rude t-shirt by Kgullholmen, it's a delicious way to make your fellow fans grin like maniacs, and may even get you invited to more dinner parties! Visit Kgullholmen's Facebook fan page, official website, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more tasty designs: Kraftnerd Better Call Mike Flux Power Knowledge Is Power View more designs by Kgullholmen | More Funny T-shirts | New T-Shirts Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Physics Students Calculate How Long Vampires Would Need To Suck Our Blood Posted: 02 May 2016 10:00 AM PDT Watch enough vampire themed shows and movies and you'll see a fanged character encounter one of the inherent problems of vampire life- the need to feed. But these shows never reveal how long it would actually take a vampire to bite a victim's neck and satisfy their sanguine thirst. (Image Link) That's where the physics students from the University Of Leicester come in, because they've figured out how long it would take a vampire to feed before the process became futile. According to their calculations a vampire could suck 15 percent of a person's blood out through two tiny holes in their neck in about 6.4 minutes, at which point the victim's heart rate would slow thereby making it harder to feed. Read Physics Students Calculate How Long A Vampire Needs To Drink Your Blood here

<i>CSI</i> Fan Helps Solve Crime Posted: 02 May 2016 09:00 AM PDT Young woman was found dead in a park in Seville, Spain. Police thought she died of a drug overdose and released the crime scene. That’s when Carmen Moreno stepped in. She had worked cleaning up the park for many years, and was charged with disposing of a pile of bloody tissues left behind. But Moreno thought there was too much blood to be explained by a drug overdose. And she was a fan of the TV show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Following what she saw on TV, she demonstrated how she used plastic bags to carefully collect the evidence without contaminating it and stored it -- just in case police ever needed it. When an autopsy later proved the woman likely died from being violently raped, police couldn't believe they tossed vital evidence and were more stunned to learn Moreno held on to it.    Thanks to Moreno’s evidence, a local suspect has been arrested. The Seville police are presumably chastened. Read more about the case at CBS This Morning (contains autoplay video).  -via Uproxx

The Time Keith Moon Passed Out on Stage and Was Replaced by a Member of the Audience Posted: 02 May 2016 08:00 AM PDT Keith Moon was the drummer for The Who, a British rock band formed in 1964. He had serious drug addiction problems that ultimately killed him 1978. By 1973, Moon's drug use was greatly impairing the effectiveness of The Who. At one concert in San Francisco, Moon overdosed and passed out. After punching him and giving him cold showers for half an hour while the audience waited for the concert to resume, the other band members managed to get him conscious. Then he slipped out again. Moon was out for the night. This was a huge problem. The band had to have a drummer. Lead singer Pete Townshend stepped up to the mic and addressed the audience: “Can anybody play the drums? I mean someone good!” 20-year old Scot Halpin was in the audience. He could play the drums, though he hadn't in a year. But he would have to do. (Video Link) For an evening, Halpin became a member of The Who. He had a brief moment of fame as news about his feat swept around the world. You can read about Halpin's experience at Dangeorus Minds and view his performance in the above video. -via Jonah Goldberg

Onomatopoeia Rebus Posted: 02 May 2016 07:00 AM PDT CharlieWaffle5 searched the term "onomatopoeia" and found this image. It’s a mini-language lesson all on its own. "Onomatopoeia" means a word that sounds like what it’s describing, which is usually a sound, like "buzz" or "shush." A "rebus" is a phrase or sentence rendered in pictures. But what makes this really remarkable is the astonishing number of redditors who did not know that church benches are called pews.

Watch This Amazingly Strong Bee Pull a Nail out of a Wall Posted: 02 May 2016 06:00 AM PDT (Video Link) You and I might reach for a claw hammer, but all this mason bee needs are his own legs--his very strong legs. Watch him pull the long nail completely out of the hole. What's happening here? The bee is probably returning home. The Daily Mail quotes zoologist Lynn Dicks: Dr Lynn Dicks a research fellow from Cambridge University's Department of Zoology explained the bee's behaviour: 'Mason bees like this usually choose existing holes rather than excavating their own. 'I have never seen anything like this and suspect that the nail was places in a nest hole this bee had already started using. This would explain its urgency to remove the nail - it may have laid eggs or have larvae inside.' -via Nothing to Do with Aborath

The Ten Longest Wars in History Posted: 02 May 2016 05:00 AM PDT The following article is from Uncle John’s Factastic Bathroom Reader. Historians often disagree on whether certain wars should be considered one continuing conflict or a series of separate wars. But that doesn’t stop them from compiling lists of the longest wars ever fought. Here is the most popular version. 10. THE VIETNAM WAR Length: 19 years (1955–1975) Details: Although there was no official declaration of war, the Vietnam War began on November 1, 1955, when the United States began providing military support to the newly created nation of South Vietnam in their war against communist-controlled —and Soviet- and Chinese-supported— North Vietnam. Major fighting didn’t really begin until 1963 (total number of U.S. troops killed in Vietnam prior to 1962: fewer than 100), when the war was escalated, first by President John F. Kennedy and then by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The war officially ended on April 30, 1975, when the last American forces left Saigon and North Vietnam took control of the entire country, reunifying the North and South into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Estimated deaths: 2.4 million 9. THE GREAT NORTHERN WAR Length: 21 years (1700–1721) Details: This war’s two main adversaries were Russia, under Peter the Great, and the Swedish Empire, under Charles XII, with various allies fighting on either side at different points— including Denmark-Norway, Poland-Lithuania, the Ottoman Empire, and Great Britain (which actually fought on both sides at different times over the course of the war). Winner: Russia. The outcome drastically reshaped the power structure of Europe, reducing what was then a very powerful Swedish Empire to a minor player in European affairs. Russia, in turn, was officially renamed the Russian Empire, with Peter the Great as its first emperor. The victory marked Russia’s emergence as a major world power. Estimated deaths: Historians believe the number of battle deaths, along with deaths due to disease and famine brought on by the war, was more than 300,000. 8. FIRST PUNIC WAR Length: 23 years (264–241 BC) Details: This was the first of three wars between the powerful North African city-state of Carthage (now Tunisia), and the Roman Republic over control of the lucrative trade routes in and around the Mediterranean Sea. The First Punic War was the longest of the three and was fought primarily over control of the island of Sicily, where much of the fighting took place. In one notable battle near the city of Panormus (now Palermo), the Romans not only killed an estimated 20,000 Carthaginian soldiers in one day but also captured 100 elephants, which the Carthaginians famously used in battle. The elephants were sent back to Rome, where they are believed to have been killed in the games in the Coliseum. The First Punic War ended in 241 BC, with the Romans emerging as victors, gaining control of most of Sicily. (Rome won the Second Punic War as well, when Roman general Scipio defeated Carthaginian general Hannibal in 201 BC. By the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BC, the Romans had demolished the Carthaginian army; destroyed the city of Carthage; enslaved, sold, or killed all its inhabitants; and annexed every last inch of Carthaginian territory.) Estimated deaths: Around 250,000 7. THE ACHINESE WAR Length: 31 years (1873–1904) Details: This war was the result of an effort by the Dutch to consolidate their rule in the Dutch East Indies, the former colony that is the nation of Indonesia today. In 1873 the Dutch attacked the Sultanate of Aceh (pronounced ah-che), an independent kingdom on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, in order to take control of the region’s lucrative black pepper industry. The Dutch captured the capital of Kutaraja in 1874 and declared victory. But they badly underestimated the Acehnese, who took to using guerrilla tactics, and the war dragged on for a total of 31 years, with territory changing hands several times over that period. In the late 1890s, the frustrated Dutch began a scorched-earth campaign that led to the destruction of Aceh villages and the slaughter of thousands of civilians, including women and children. By 1903 the war was basically won (by the Dutch), but fighting continued in some pockets of the region until 1914. Today Aceh is a province of Indonesia, which gained its independence from the Netherlands in 1949. Estimated deaths: 90,000 6. THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR Length: 27 years (431–404 BC) Details: Remember the Greek city-states that banded together and beat the mighty Persians in the Greco-Persian War? Well, once that was settled, the Greeks got back to what they did best— fighting each other. In this war, Athens, which had grown into a powerful empire, fought the Peloponnesian League, a coalition of allied city-states led by Athens’ archrivals, the Spartans. (Sparta is located on the Peloponnese Peninsula, a large landmass that makes up much of southern Greece.) Fighting raged throughout southern Greece and as far away as western Turkey and southern Italy. This included massive sea battles, the last of which, the Battle of Aegospotami, off Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, saw the Spartans decimate the mighty Athenian fleet, sinking approximately 150 ships and executing more than 3,000 sailors. Athens surrendered some months later, and by 404 BC, the war— and Athens’s superiority over the region— was history. Estimated deaths: Unknown 5. THE WARS OF THE ROSES Length: 30 years (1455–1485) Details: This war for the right to the English throne was fought by supporters of two royal houses: the House of Lancaster, whose heraldic symbol was a red rose, and the House of York, whose symbol was a white rose— hence this war’s name. Over the course of the war, the throne changed hands three times. One king was killed in battle; another king was executed after being captured; two more kings died of natural causes; and scores of lords, dukes, earls, and other royal figures lost their lives— after which many had their heads put on pikes for public display. When it was all over, the House of Lancaster had won: Henry Tudor, the Lancastrian claimant to the throne, defeated the Yorkist claimant, Richard III, at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 and became King Henry VII. The following year, he strengthened his position by marrying Elizabeth of York and started a new house, the House of Tudor, which ruled England for the next century. Estimated deaths: Around 100,000 4. THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR Length: 30 years (1618–1648) Details: On May 23, 1618, a crowd of angry Protestants stormed the royal castle in the city of Prague, in the Kingdom of Bohemia, and threw three members of the newly appointed Catholic government out of a castle window. (All three somehow survived the 70-foot plunge.) That event, known as the Defenestration of Prague, ignited Protestant rebellions all across the region. That eventually escalated into an all-out— and incredibly destructive— war between the great powers of Europe. The main belligerents: the powerful Holy Roman Empire, comprising all of the German states and several neighboring regions, allied with the Spanish Empire against France, Sweden, and Denmark. The losers: the Holy Roman Empire and Spain, both of which lost huge amounts of territory and influence. The big winners: France and Sweden, which emerged as major powers, although Sweden was unable to sustain that position for very long. (See entry number 9.)  Estimated deaths: 8 million 3. THE GUATEMALAN CIVIL WAR (Image credit: Trocaire/CAFCA archive) Length: 36 years (1960–1996) Details: In 1954 a right-wing army colonel, Carlos Castillo Armas, led a successful coup d’état against the democratically elected leftist government of Guatemala. The coup was engineered by the U.S. State Department and the CIA. In 1960 a group of left-wing army officers led a coup of their own— but failed to take power. What followed was 36 years of war between the Guatemalan military, which eventually took control of the country, and various leftist guerrilla groups. Fighting didn’t stop until 1996, with the signing of a peace treaty between the rebel groups and the government; concessions were made on both sides, but it was largely deemed a win for the rebel groups. The conflict is one of the first in which a terror tactic known as forced disappearance was used: the Guatemalan army and National Police forces kidnapped, tortured, and murdered between 40,000 and 50,000 people, primarily civilian activists. Most were native people, especially Mayans, and their bodies were dumped into mass graves or dropped into the sea from helicopters. (The fate of most of those victims remains unknown today.) Estimated deaths: 200,000 2. THE GRECO-PERSIAN WARS Length: 38 years (between 499–449 BC) Details: This was actually three conflicts, fought over a period of 50 years, that historians bundle into one major war. The fighting was between a coalition of several ancient Greek city-states led primarily by Athens and Sparta, and the Persian Empire— at the time the largest and most powerful empire on Earth. (Think that’s an exaggeration? At its peak— including the period during which this war was fought— the Persian Empire encompassed approximately 50 million people, or about 44 percent of the world’s population.) The war began with a series of revolts by Greeks in territories that the Persians had conquered decades earlier, followed by full-scale invasion attempts by the Persians, and counterattacks by the Greeks— all with varying degrees of success and failure. Finally, after 50 years, the winner: the Greeks, who successfully repelled the Persians and won back their territories. Estimated deaths: Unknown   1. THE HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR Length: 116 years (1337– 1453) Details: Fought primarily between England and France, the Hundred Years’ War is usually divided into three main component wars— one of which raged for 38 years: the Lancastrian War (1415– 1453). The fight was over English-controlled territory in France and control of the French throne. (The rulers of England and France had been related for centuries, so the English claim to the French throne actually had some merit.) The war ended with the surrender of the English in 1453, after more than a century of bloodshed. The winners: the French, who took back almost all of England’s holdings in France, beginning a long era during which England was left mostly isolated from European affairs. And within two years, the English were engulfed in yet another long conflagration. (See #5.) Estimated deaths: Possibly as high as 3.5 million Bonus: Several of William Shakespeare’s best-known plays center on events that occurred during the Hundred Years’ War, including Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V, all of which detail the lives of English kings who ruled during the war. Another famous character from the Hundred Years’ War: Joan of Arc, who, at the age of 18, led the French to several victories before being captured by the English and burned at the stake in 1431. _______________________________ The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Factastic Bathroom Reader. The 28th volume of the series is chock-full of fascinating stories and facts, and comes in both the Kindle version and paper with a classy cloth cover. 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!

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