Illuminating photography: From camera obscura to camera phone – Eva Timothy – YouTube.
In which John Green teaches you about the American Revolution. And the Revolutionary War. I know we’ve labored the point here, but they weren’t the same thing. In any case, John will teach you about the major battles of the war, and discuss the strategies on both sides. Everyone is familiar with how this war played out for the Founding Fathers; they got to become the Founding Fathers. But what did the revolution mean to the common people in the United States? For white, property-owning males, it was pretty sweet. They gained rights that were a definite step up from being British Colonial citizens. For everyone else, the short-term gains were not clear. Women’s rights were unaffected, and slaves remained in slavery. As for poor white folks, they remained poor and disenfranchised. The reality is it took a long time for this whole democracy thing to get underway, and the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness weren’t immediately available to all these newly minted Americans.
Who Won the American Revolution?: Crash Course US History #7 – YouTube.
Photograph via brad153 on Reddit
Proof that traffic sucks no matter what era you’re in. At least in today’s traffic we have smartphones and the Internet! Comments suggest this is the intersection of Dearborn and Randolph in downtown Chicago.
Photograph by MR HYDE
Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas which is central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle. Insulin stops the use of fat as an energy source by inhibiting the release of glucagon. It is provided within the body in a constant proportion to remove excess glucose from the blood, which otherwise would be toxic.
Insulin is used medically to treat some forms of diabetes mellitus. Patients with Type 1 diabetes mellitus depend on external insulin (most commonly injected subcutaneously) for their survival because the hormone is no longer produced internally.
Leonard Thompson was the first patient to receive injections of pancreatic extract on January 11, 1922. He was 14. The young Toronto resident had been diabetic since 1919. He weighed only 65 pounds and was about to slip into a coma and die. At first he received Dr, F. Banting’s and Dr. Charles Best’s extract. Two weeks later he used the purified extract of Dr. J.B. Collip and Thompson’s symptoms began to disappear; his blood sugar returned to normal and he was brighter and stronger. Thompson lived another 13 years with the insulin. He died at the age of 27 due to diabetes complications.
And taxes stayed pretty much just that way for the next 15 years, until the early 1960s. Importantly, this was one of the most successful eras in US economic history. The middle class boomed, the economy boomed, and the stock market boomed. And all with the top marginal income tax rate over 90%. This suggests that the Republican mantra about high marginal tax rates killing the economy is, well, a bunch of crap.
via THE HISTORY OF TAXES: Here’s How High Today’s Rates Really Are.
The Millau Viaduct is a cable-stayed road-bridge that spans the valley of the river Tarn near Millau in southern France. Designed by the British architect Norman Foster and French structural engineer Michel Virlogeux, it is the tallest bridge in the world, with one mast’s summit at 343.0 metres (1,125 ft). It is the 12th highest bridge in the world, at 270 metres (890 ft) high below the road deck. The viaduct is part of the A75-A71 autoroute axis from Paris to Montpellier. Construction cost was approximately 400 million Euros. It was formally dedicated on 14 December 2004, inaugurated the day after and opened to traffic two days later.
Michael Jackson Releases Thriller, The Best-Selling Album Of All Time – November 30, 1982
Thriller is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released on November 30, 1982, by Epic Records as the follow-up to Jackson’s critically and commercially successful 1979 album Off the Wall. Thriller explores similar genres to those of Off the Wall, including pop, R&B, rock and post-disco music.
Recording sessions took place between April and November 1982 at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California, with a production budget of $750,000, assisted by producer Quincy Jones. Of the nine tracks on the album, 4 of them were written by Jackson himself. Seven singles were released from the album, all of which reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Baby Be Mine” and “The Lady in My Life” were the only tracks that were not released as singles. In just over a year, Thriller became—and currently remains—the best-selling album of all time, with 110 million copies sold worldwide, and is also tied for the best-selling album in the United States. The album won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards at the 1984 Grammys.
Thriller enabled Jackson to break down racial barriers via his appearances on MTV and meeting with President Ronald Reagan at the White House. The album was one of the first to use music videos as successful promotional tools—the videos for “Thriller”, “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” all received regular rotation on MTV.
Thriller ranked number 20 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list in 2003, and was listed by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers at number three in its Definitive 200 Albums of All Time. The Thriller video was preserved by the Library of Congress to the National Recording Registry, as it was deemed “culturally significant”. [Source]
via via This Day In History – November 30th.