A level 16 typhoon is capable of dumping up to 7” of rain per hour. Because of this, all skyscrapers on the Chinese coastline (e.g. Shanghai, China, Hong Kong, China, Macau, China etc.) must have specially trained workers dangle off of the side of the building from support lines, with high pressure water hoses. These workers spray random windows for 5 minutes as inspectors scrutinize the windows for leaks
Piers Gaveston, a minor noble who engaged in a homosexual relationship with Edward II, may have been overlooked during the 13th century if it were not for the lavish gifts Edward II showered upon Gaveston. Gaveston was exiled from the realm by Edward I for referring to Edward II as his brother. When Edward I died, his son Edward II brought Gaveston back into his kingdom and provided him with money, gold, title, and land. This caused the whole of England to murmur behind closed doors, against the king. It was not so much the act of homosexuality which infuriated the barons, it was the man of whom Edward II fell in love with. The nobles drafted a list of grievances against Edward II referred to as “The Ordinances”. Gaveston eventually fled and was captured by the Scots. Gaveston was sentenced as an enemy of the state and was executed despite Edward II’s attempted intervention
Between 1790 and 1880, all United States patents required a working model of the idea proposed prior to being patented. This requirement was phased out by the U.S. Congress in 1870, but the U.S. Patent Office continued to stipulate it as a requirement until 1880. The reason for the abolishment of this stipulation was that creating working prototypes was an expensive process and it was often difficult to find a tradesperson who could create the parts needed. This inconvenience slowed down the ability of inventors to acquire patents so that their product could be sold upon the open market. It was eventually agreed by the U.S. Congress as well as the U.S. Patent Office that this laborious process held up the release of inventions which could potentially make life easier for everybody and was therefore repealed
The Black Sea off of the coast of the Ukraine is unique in that it has a dense layer of stagnant, oxygen deprived water which blankets its lower depths referred to as the “anoxic layer”. This layer has preserved shipwrecks perfectly, and is thought to preserve human remains as well, although none have been found. Anything organic which should rot away like wood, leather, cotton etc. stays completely intact for thousands of years under these conditions. It is theorized that 7500 years ago, the Black Sea was a landlocked, freshwater lake which crossed over a thin strip of land referred to as the “Bosphorus”, as the world’s oceans began to swell due to melting glaciers. This caused seawater to flood into the Black Sea and because it was more dense than the freshwater already there, it sank it to bottom and settled. The saltwater was cut off from the oxygen supply which it would normally receive from ocean currents. The anoxic layer is approximately 183 meters deep and produces hydrogen sulfide as a byproduct which is poisonous to most living creatures including those which consume and break down ships
The Turin Shroud which is believed by Christians to have been wrapped around Jesus Christ after his death and to have been left behind by Christ post-resurrection, is approximately 14’6” long by 3’6” wide and bears the mysterious image of the full front and back of a man, a person who appears to have met a violent death. The Turin Shroud negative image was stumbled upon by amateur photographer Secondo Pia in 1898 whilst taking the first archeological photographs of the shroud. Today, the Turin Shroud is kept within the royal chapel of the Turin Cathedral in Italy, under lock and key in a climate controlled, bulletproof encasing. The Catholic Church allowed scientific examination of the Turin Shroud in 1978 and in 1988, but the piece is rarely placed on display for the public, with the last showing drawing over 2,000,000 (2 million) people in 2015. Blood samples found upon the Turin Shroud found that whoever supplied it had blood type AB, a rare blood type found only in 3% of the population, however more common in the Middle East. Much of the skepticism related to the Turin Shroud stems from the fact that it was not historically documented and recorded until nearly 1400 years after the death of Christ, during the Medieval period in 1349. It is suspected that the Turin Shroud could have belonged to the last grandmaster of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay. After being arrested by Philip IV, the then king of France, de Molay was tortured, had a crown of thorns placed upon his head, and was then crucified in 1314. Scientists have theorized that because de Molay was wrapped in a long piece of cloth, the lactic acid built up during torture as well as de Molay’s own blood mixed with the frankincense which was used to keep the cloth white, provided an imprint after his death. The last known historical description and image of de Molay actually matches quite well with the image on the Turin Shroud, both images depicting a male with a large nose, shoulder length hair parted in the center, a crown of thorns, and a full beard
In 1896 French scientist Henri Becquerel was working with radioactive substances and found that under ultraviolet light, these elements began to glow. Becquerel left radioactive uranium salts overnight on a photographic plate which had never been exposed to light. The next day a dark shadow emerged which Becquerel realized was the markings of energy, radioactive energy and therefore discovered radioactivity
Robert Goddard devised the idea of liquid kerosene and liquid oxygen being mixed together to create a fierce, but most importantly, a controllable flame for propulsion. When kerosine reacts with oxygen, the result is an incredibly hot, rapidly expanding gas which when channeled through a nozzle, creates enormous thrust. On March 16, 1926, Goddard launched the world’s first liquid fuel rocket bearing this concept. This rocket did not travel fast nor far but it did demonstrate a proof of concept making space flight theoretically possible for the first time in human history
Rockets are traditionally not re-used unlike aviation aircraft because making a landing from space means that a craft must come back to Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 8 kilometers per second, a much more difficult task than that of landing a commercial aircraft at a cruising speed of just over 800’ per second
Artists in the America’s who continually pushed further west, pioneered the technique of “luminism” which used light effects and concealed brush strokes to create paintings which were considered so overwhelming detailed that opera glasses were needed to fully appreciate their true beauty. The American landscape was psychologically bore out of feelings of inferiority and competition with the European continent, as the Americas at this time were not the industrialized indomitable power they are today, but rather a fairly poor country still developing itself and not yet having reached the same milestones which Europe had already accomplished. During the 18th and 19th century, those living in the Americas rejected the notion that Rome, Italy was the center of art and that the best landscapes with the highest and most spectacular mountains were only found in places like France and Switzerland, as the west had its own mountains and its own unique monoliths and animals which could be depicted and celebrated to create American pride within the American landscape
The city of Jingdezhen, China had for centuries been the ceramic capital of China, but it was the manufacturing of porcelain which gave China it’s first world recognized brand, built off of the back of the Ming vase. If the emperor requested a piece of pottery from Jingdezhen, 10 identical pieces would be manufactured, with only 2 being sent to the emperor. The remaining 8 pieces could not be touched by human hands and subsequently were destroyed in the imperial kiln