TAG RESULTS FOR: history

It’s sumptuous and elegant. But what is it—a puzzle or game? A clockwork cribbage player? A static electricity generator? Answer after the jump. Continue reading

The cat organ, also known by its German name Katzenklavier, was a piano-like instrument that replaced the hammering of the traditional percussion piano with a line of cats fixed in place, their tails attached under a keyboard. Every time a key was pressed, a corresponding cat’s tail was yanked, making the unprepared feline shriek out in pain. The cats would be arranged according to the natural tone of their voices. We’ve posted about some odd forms of animal cruelty in... Continue reading

It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. I’d say a hefty chunk of you thought that mobile phones didn’t hit the scene until the 80s, or at the very earliest, the very late 70s, but mobile phones actually existed long before that. In fact, there were well over a million mobile phone users as early as 1964, despite the phone’s weight, size and even more important, the quite substantial price. The phones ran off of AT&T’s “Improved Mobile Telephone Service”... Continue reading

Sin City, 300, Batman: The Dark Knight and The Spirit. What do these titles all have in common? They are all the product of the mind of Frank Miller, the trailblazing comic artist and writer who took comics to the next level. Elevating comics from the newsstand to the bookstore and, later, the world of film – serious film. Frank Miller created comics that were taken seriously. If Frank Miller had employed his film-noir style of storytelling and his over-the-top... Continue reading

Pretty much everybody knows at least the first few words of the Bible. While the opening phrase “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” might not lend much credence to the Bible’s historical accuracy, I think it’s pretty clear that most of it is accurate. If I had a penny for everytime God asked me to build an ark. If God had communicated with his prophets and disciples through Facebook instead of a booming voice from the... Continue reading

Yeah, that’s right. History is still here guys. Preserved through time on stone tablets and cave paintings. Archaeologists recently uncovered an ancient hard drive from the sands of Egypt. And held on that hard drive was an archive of the Facebook statuses that changed history. In part II of Facebook history, Cool Material explores The Crusades, Pearl Harbor, the parting of the Red Sea and much more. Hit the jump to see part II in its entirety.

The BBC’s new Dimensions website uses the size of important places and events in modern and ancient history as well as science, and superimposes the dimensions over any location on planet Earth. Doing so provides some perspective on events and places that most of us (or all of us in some cases) will never get to see first-hand, much like the “If It Was My Home” project did with the BP oil spill. Head over to BBC Dimensions to put... Continue reading