Zilfer's Blogs

The picture below is a world war two Soviet propaganda leaflet. It shows a partisan being forced to take his hat off to a German officer, and then coming back with a sword and grenades and chopping his head off. So what's so mind-blowing about some old Soviet propaganda? Well, unlike most Soviet propaganda over-glorifying the common soldier with bravery like above,  this actually happened:  a German officer got his head chopped off by a Soviet, except instead of a sword there was an axe, and the Soviet partisan wasn't holding his grenades, he was  throwing  them towards 53 German soldiers and officers who surrounding him. This man below is Dmitry Ovcharenko Dmitry Ovcharenko was a peasant from the village of Ovcharovo in the Lugansk Region who was horrible at school, in fact, he was so bad at school he was kicked out in year 5. But to make up for his terrible reputation for not being able to cope with school life he was extremely strong, being able to carry pretty mu...

Advertisement One thing that never ceases to blow my mind is how long Ancient Egypt actually existed in relation to the rest of the world. Ancient Egyptian history took place over a  LONG  time. Scholars will debate on specifics but generally Ancient Egyptian society lasted from around 3,150BC until at least 332BC with the Macedonian invasion. That is almost 3,000 years of history for those of you doing the math. The Egyptian pyramids, for example, were constructed over a period of almost 2,000 years. That means when the last major pyramid was being constructed, in the 7th century BCE, some of the oldest pyramids were already ancient, at over 2,000 years old. 2,000 years is a long time. It’s over 100 generations of ancestors, it’s the amount of time between the death of Julius Caesar and today. When ancient Egyptians living in the 7th century BCE went outside and looked upon the pyramids, it was akin to you or I going to Rome today and looking at the Coliseum. The Coliseum is ...

Delhi teen who stabbed parents 26 times was addicted to online game PUBG: Police!! Here’s the full story : The 19-year-old boy from Delhi who stabbed his father and mother 26 times, and sister seven times, may have been "addicted" to an online game called PUBG. According to the police, Suraj alias Sarnam Verma, had rented a room in Delhi where he would spend hours with his friends watching TV and playing online games, including PUBG. PUBG is an online game that involves explicit violence and killing on the virtual space. The Delhi Police arrested Suraj on Wednesday evening. He is accused of killing his family members because they would scold him for his poor academic performance. Police said that they have come across a WhatsApp group that Suraj had created. The group, which had 10 of Suraj's friends as members, featured conversations about bunking classes and spending time at Suraj's rented room in Mehrauli. "His friends idolised him and considered him an icon. ...

The Boy Who ate 150 gummy vitamins for breakfast  A  14-year-old  boy ate  150 gummy vitamins for breakfast , thinking they were gummy candies. He and his mother were immigrants, and he didn’t know the difference between gummy vitamins and actual candy. Up until this point, he ate  30  to  40  gummy vitamins every day, thinking they were candy. As time went on, his belly swelled up. His mother just assumed that he was eating too much. Then one day, he ate  150 gummy vitamins . One hour later, he can't stop urinating and complains to his mother that he has terrible stomach pain. He trips and falls, and breaks his arm. Then his mother calls 911 and an ambulance takes them to the hospital. As he’s sitting in the waiting room, he begins to lose consciousness. He then slips into a coma. A physical examination showed that there was fluid building up in his stomach, causing hypercalcemia, a high calcium presence in the blood. Which is strange becaus...

Advertisement Thankfully, the virus exclusively affects members of the order  Lagomorpha,  which is to say namely rabbits and hares.   The most notable characteristic of the shope papilloma virus (or SPV for short) is the formation of keratinous growths across the face, head, and neck of the host. These thick, horn-like growths are entirely rigid and stiff, and grow in such a way that they push through the skin of the animal, forcefully parting it away as they continue to develop. To make matters worse, additional symptoms may include an unnatural tilt of the head or staggering gait — namely from the tumors that tend to develop under the skin in the neck, ears, or brain. Fortunately, the virus isn’t an absolute death sentence. Only 25% of cases turn malignant, and growths may go into remission altogether within six months. Out of all the animals that recover, partial or complete immunity is an expected outcome. Perhaps the most threatening aspect of the condi...

The Lycurgus Cup Lycurgus Cup Made during the 4th Century Roman Empire, the Lycurgus cup is another example that shows how far our ancestors were ahead in their time. This magnificent cup is the only surviving complete example made of dichroic cup that changes colour depending on which side you shine the light through. It ranges from translucent red to opaque green. The cup’s glass contains tiny proportions of nano particles of gold and silver The glass contains tiny amounts of colloidal gold and silver, which give it these unusual optical properties. They were so advanced that maybe they were the first inventors of nanotechnology. Although the technology was long lost, we were able to recreate it using 3D printing technology with small traces of gold and silver which gave a “dichroic” effect but not quite dichroic glass.

Murderous Mary Mary was a five-ton Asian elephant, also known as  Murderous Mary , who performed in the Sparks World Famous Shows circus. After killing a trainer in Kingsport, Tennessee, she was hanged in 1916. Her death is sometimes interpreted as a cautionary tale of circus animal abuse during the early 20th century. On September 12, 1916,  a hobo named Walter Eldridge , nicknamed  Red  because of his rusty-colored hair, was hired as an assistant elephant trainer by the Sparks World Famous Shows circus. A drifter who had been with the circus only a day, he had no experience of handling elephants, but the only qualification required was the ability to wield an ‘elephant stick’ — a rod with a sharp spear at one end. Eldridge led the elephant parade riding on the top of Mary’s back; Mary was the star of the show, riding at the front. There have been several accounts of his death. One, recounted by  W.H. Coleman  who claimed to be a witness,  is that he ...