OK. Seriously. How are there not a MILLION books published about this company:

Mystery and Company of Merchant Adventurers for the Discovery of Regions, Dominions, Islands, and Places unknown', (also known as 'Muscovy Company' or 'Russian Company')

Founded in London in 1551 by three gentlemen of fortune, Richard Chancellor, Sebastian Cabot and Sir Hugh Willoughby, with the intent of establishing a new trade route with the far east. With the assumption that sailing at higher latitudes would mean a shorter rout to China, these gentlemen decided to look for a north eastern sea passage beyond the northernmost tip of Scandinavia and above the coast of Siberia.

The first expedition set sail on 10 May 1553, under the joint command of Sir Willoughby and Mr. Chancellor. Unfortunately, the expedition ran into a storm near Lofoten islands in Norway, and Chancellor's ships got separated from the rest of the convoy. Determined to reach his goal Sir Willoughby pushed forward and managed to sail as far as Novaya Zemlya, only to get his ship stuck in ice. He and his men met their end in polar winter of 1554.

Richard Chancellor had much more luck. He managed to find his way to the White Sea and the port of Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery, settlement of orthodox monks in the far north. The news of exotic guests soon reached Moscow and the court of Czar Ivan the Terrible. Czar Ivan was delighted at the news of foreign merchants reaching the shores of his domain. At the time Russia was cut off from the rest of Europe by its Polish and Swedish enemies, while the trade on the Baltic sea was firmly in the hands of Hanzeatic Merchants who extorted hefty fees for their efforts, and the Black sea was a Turkish domain. The Englishmen who had found another way in, were immediately summoned to the capital.

The meeting with the Czar was a start of a lucrative business, which would last until 1917 and the October revolution. For almost 450 year the Muscovy Company would serve as an important trade and diplomatic link between two empires and the Old English Yard functioned as Company's Moscow headquarter until its end.

(from Atlas Obscura)

First Unanticipated Concert for the Neighbors
Time: Sunday Night (of a 3-Day Weekend), 8:00-8:30 PM

Das Wohltemperierte Klavier (Bach)
My Heart Will Go On (Celine Dion)
Music of the Night and Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again (Phantom of the Opera)
I Dreamed a Dream (Les Miserables)
and (a rather choppy) I Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues (Elton John)

took it easy on them for the first time...

Complaints so Far: 0

Poll #1469597 Piano Etiquette
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 12

I live in an apartment with VERY THIN WALLS. It is acceptable for me to play the piano:

So... this blog has turned from a personal journal into..well... a feed of interesting news stories - and that wasn't really my original purpose. I've also become a bit more private about my life in general - so I think it may be time to retire this blog... I've had it since 2002! I used ljbook to make all the entries/comments into a huuuuuge PDF - so I'll always have a record of the past decade.

TTFN,

==Athanata==

US border station scraps sign that says "United States" because terrorists might attack it

This makes me sad. Whenever I travel to a foreign country, and come back to the US - there's always a sign when you enter the terminal that says "Welcome to the United States" that always.ALWAYS. makes me tear up - even shed a tear or two. And this was a sign on the Canadian border! Fearmongering at its worst.

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>Chimps Born To Appreciate Music

Infant chimpanzees prefer to listen to consonant music over dissonant music.

Have I mentioned the AWESOME book I am reading right now? It's called 'Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Human Language'. It is so good. Every paragraph i'm like "huh! i didn't know that!" Granted, I don't agree with everything he says, but the research done on monkeys and apes is so interesting! I even had a *dream* about it. Who dreams about nonfiction?! I dreamt I got to meet the author, Robin Dunbar, and tell him how awesome he was.

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And finally - the awesomest video i've seen in a long time: Classic 80s Hits - Ragtime Style! This guy is AMAZING.

Wisconsin Highway Sign Misspells Every Word but 'Exit'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/27/wisconsin-highway-sign-mi_n_245596.html



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Crows recognize human faces - and can hold a grudge for years.
The part about crows flipping upside-down to get a better look at a face was really neat.

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Food Dye in Blue M&M's mends Spinal Injuries
"The compound Brilliant Blue G blocks a chemical that kills healthy spinal cord cells around the damaged area - an event that often causes more irreversible damage than the original injury."

DuckDate: Some of you may remember the lost duckling I found a few months back. I gave him to my friend Blake who is really good with rescuing animals. Ducky grew into a giant Mallard. Here's the latest:

"Oh and we let the duck go out at Lake Eola down town to swim and frolic with the other ducks and numerous people who go to feed them. He's been there for about a week now and seems really well adjusted. He'll be well there. They even have a vet that goes out to the lake to take care of the swans and ducks in the area. It's totally cool."

Sad, but also moving - an article about Music Thanatalogy - playing soothing music to the dying. In this case, harpists play for free in hospices and hospitals.

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With the Western World growing increasingly "smoke-free", Big Tobacco sets its sights on Africa.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1911796-1,00.html

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Yesterday was the bleeding glacier - today, also from Antarctica, we have Lake Vostok - the largest sub-glacial lake ever discovered.

"The lake is composed of fresh water and has been isolated beneath the glacier for somewhere between half a million and a million years...Researchers tested the core samples taken close to the water and indeed found microbes that have never been found elsewhere."

1. Crazy Tree Root Bridges of Cherrapungee, India (they are grown ACROSS cliffs/rivers)
http://atlasobscura.com/places/root-bridges-cherrapungee



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2. Creating Hydrogen from Urine. Is pee-power the car fuel of the future?
http://energyboom.com/emerging/natural-emissions-new-technology-produces-hydrogen-urine

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3. The Glacier BLEEEEEEDS - a 5-story blood-red waterfall of microbes which evolved under ice for 2 million years in Taylor Glacier, Antarctica.

http://atlasobscura.com/places/blood-falls




"Roughly 2 million years ago, the Taylor Glacier sealed beneath it a small body of water which contained an ancient community of microbes. Trapped below a thick layer of ice, they have remained there ever since, isolated inside a natural time capsule. Evolving independently of the rest of the living world, these microbes exist without heat, light, or oxygen, and are essentially the definition of "primordial ooze."

"The existence of the Blood Falls ecosystem shows that life is indeed possible in the most extreme of conditions. Life could perhaps exist on other planets with similar environments and similar bodies of frozen water - notably Mars and Jupiter's moon Europa."

1. From The Onion: Most Children Strongly Opposed To Children's Healthcare


Study: Most Children Strongly Opposed To Children’s Healthcare

2. The most lightning struck place on earth! Relampago del Catatumbo in Venezuela.

"For 140 to 160 nights out of the year, for 10 hours at a time, the sky above the river is pierced by almost constant lightning, producing as many as 280 strikes per hour. Known as the "Relampago del Catatumbo," this lightning storm has been raging, on and off, for as long a people can remember...It was first written about in the 1597 poem "The Dragontea" by Lope de Vega."

3. Classic video games reimagined as backyard "off your butt" games

I got a book of Games from the library once and tried to play all of them. I think I managed 4 or 5. I would totally try these too :-P I like 'Metal Gear Hide and Sneak' :)