In grade school, we learn that St. Augustine, founded in 1565, is the US's oldest permanent city settled by Europeans. Outside of Florida, we learned nothing about what happened after that. Florida remained a Spanish colony for centuries, constantly at odds with the British colonies to the north. In 1738, a Spanish royal decree offered freedom and citizenship to enslaved people who escaped British rule and came to St. Augustine, if they converted to Catholicism and served in the militia. Plenty of people who escaped the plantations made their way through alligator-filled swamps to do just that. The new Spanish citizens built Fort Mose just north of St. Augustine and used it to defend the city from British incursions. 

Fort Mose (and Florida) were eventually lost to the British and then the Americans. The destroyed fort was forgotten for more than 200 years, but has been restored and made into a state park. You can now see volunteers staging re-enactments of the history of Fort Mose. Read the story of the formerly-enslaved people who sought freedom in Florida at Smithsonian. 

There are 54 countries in Africa (plus three disputed territories), more than any other continent. You can try memorizing them by studying a map and then picturing the map while you recite them, but that hasn't worked for me because I always miss a few. I'd probably do much better by listening to a pleasant song that recites them in rhyme. I was too old to benefit much from "Yakko's World" (which is now outdated), but now such a song for Africa is finally here. 

Dustin Ballard of There I Ruined It (previously at Neatorama) constructed a song to the tune of the 1982 hit "Africa" by Toto with lyrics that name every country on that continent. Yes, they rhyme wherever they can, and the visuals help with a bit of context. Far from ruining it, this song actually improves on the infinitely catchy original by having something to do with Africa. 

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Phantasms," Data explores the world of dreams. As a result, he behaves strangely while awake.

In one dream, he sees his colleagues in the Ten Forward lounge. Deanna Troi has turned into a cake with a human head. It is, specifically, a cellular peptide cake with mint frosting. Worf thoroughly enjoys eating her. Holographic Sigmund Freud interprets the dream as Data struggling with sexual dysfunction (contra Yar).

So there's a lot to unpack in the episode. But it makes for a straightforward and amusing cosplay. The host of the Trek Profiles Podcast snapped this photo of two cosplayers on the Star Trek cruise currently underway.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is so common that almost all children are infected before the age of two. There are vaccines and therapies have been developed from the antibodies produced by people who have had RSV, but they aren't effective against all the many strains of RSV. New research in China is looking at a population of people who may have a better range of antibodies- pediatricians. 

It is known among medical professionals that pediatricians catch colds and other respiratory diseases from their patients quite often early in their careers, but not so much as time goes on. A team at the Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University took blood from ten pediatricians who had been on the job for more than ten years, and found 56 kinds of antibodies that may be of use in the fight against RSV and other respiratory illnesses, such as the common cold. These antibodies were up to 25 times better at preventing illness than existing therapies. Read more about this research at NewScientist. -via kottke 

(Image credit: Oequihua) 

A strange formation of lights made their way across the sky over Texas in 1951. There were multiple reports, photographs, and even radar sightings. Once the sightings hit the newspapers, other accounts rolled in until the formation was dubbed "the Lubbock Lights." Those reports came not only from drunks and cranks, but also scientists, professors, and government employees. The Air Force took those reports seriously, but no explanation was ever offered. 

Remember, this was in 1951, the era of experimental weapons and aircraft, Cold War espionage, and general distrust of ...everything. Reports of "flying saucers" had been a thing for a few years already, but aliens from outer space were not always the first thing that came to observers' minds. However, aliens or birds or hoaxes were always a possibility. Still, no explanation of the lights was confirmed, and the US Air Force began Project Blue Book to investigate what's going on up there. Dr. Emily Zarka gives us the rundown on the Lubbock Lights  

In English, L'Oeuf Electrique means electric egg. Why it was dubbed an egg is obvious, and the electric part is how it's powered. But don't expect to find one of these cars at your local dealer, because there was only one ever built, and that was in 1942.

Industrial designer Paul Arzens had already given the world La Baleine (the Whale), a huge art deco luxury gas guzzler. But then the Germans invaded France and suddenly gas was very difficult to get. Arzens experimented with converting existing vehicles to electric power, and learned some lessons. A large car would not do, so he had to start over from scratch. His electric car would have to be lightweight and easy to maneuver through city streets. Arzens hand-built the L'Oeuf Electrique out of aluminum and plexiglass, kept it small, and set it on three wheels. Most of the car's finished weight came from its battery, and the driver had surprisingly good visibility. Alas, there was no demand for new cars during the war, and afterward drivers went back to stylish gas guzzlers. Read about L'Oeuf Electrique at Utterly Interesting. 

The term hypnosis grew out of the work of Franz Mesmer in the 18th century. He promoted the theory of animal magnetism and would cure illness with magnetic fluids. His successes were later attributed to the power of suggestion, which eventually gave us both the placebo effect and the concept of hypnosis. Hypnosis is based on the power of suggestion in humans, but was depicted in movies as a "power" to force people to do things they normally wouldn't, often for nerfarious purposes. As such, it was relegated to the realm of myth, entertainment, or just plain bunk.

The truth is that hypnosis is a technique that works on some people more than others, but is not as dramatic as the movies would have us believe. It's more of an exercise in opening one's mind to new ways of thinking and behaving, and can be therapeutic for certain purposes. -via Damn Interesting 

They say that, like opinions, everyone has one of these. But anuses are rare in the fossil record. Anuses generally do not survive the ravages of time. But, the New York Post reports, paleontologists found a fossilized anus dating back 300 million years.

They found the anus in a Thuringian Forest in Germany. It belonged to a reptile and was, properly speaking, a cloaca--a multipurpose orifice that, unlike your anus, can be used for urinating, laying eggs, and mating as well as defecating.

The reptile was about 3.5 inches long and has been named by scientists Cabarzichnus pulchrus. I'm not sure what Cabarzichnus means, but pulchrus means "beautiful." And it is lovely, don't you think?

-via Jarvis Best | Photo: Lorenzo Marchetti/Natural History Museum

The problem with being a Renaissance man is that your favorite skill may not be as in-demand as your least favorite skill. Michelangelo was uniquely talented in all aspects of art: design, drawing, sculpting, and painting. He considered himself a sculptor foremost, but when the pope commissioned him to paint a fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, he couldn't refuse (although he tried).  

Michelangelo never liked to paint, preferring to draw instead. He spent several years on his back painting the chapel ceiling and complaining about it. “I am not in the right place – I am not a painter.” But he enjoyed the preparatory work, the overall design and the study sketches he made of the various characters and elements. One of those studies, of a woman's foot, was recently discovered and sold for more than $27 million, which is orders of magnitude above what Michelangelo was paid to paint the entire ceiling. Read more on Michelangelo's artistic inclinations at the Conversation. 

(Image credit: Jörg Bittner Unna) 

Imagine you are a spy in a medieval fantasy out on a dark night. You have a flashlight, but it only illuminates a small piece of what's in front of you. You move the flashlight around, trying to make sense of what you see. How fast can you figure out what's happening? That's the goal in the game Castlelight. You must discern who's doing what to whom from what little you can see. I aced the easy mode, then went to the medium mode and found out that what makes that level harder is the time limit. You might then consider the easy mode as your practice run. Maybe your flashlight batteries run out faster in the upper levels, which is anachronistic to the max. I can imagine this game would lose its charm after a few tries, since you'll memorize the scenes in time. Mefites report that it works better on some devices than others. -via Metafilter 

In the original Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi returns from the dead to remind Luke to trust the Force. In The Lion King, Mufasa appears in the clouds to advise Simba. Mulan had a whole group of ancient ancestors watching out for her. And if I recall correctly, something similar happened in Field of Dreams. Movies often have inspiring scenes of the lessons we learned from our forefathers coming back to save us when we really need it. But how far back can you go before the wisdom of our beloved relatives is totally useless?

Ryan George brings us just such a scene. His deceased grandfather shows up. Grandpa has no expertise to lend, yet he's supportive and encouraging. But then Great-great-grandpa appears, and he has no clue what's going on. Even if he did, he wouldn't approve. Don't be intimidated by the length of the video, the skit is only 3:50. 

When you are assigned to create an animated character from scratch, the first ideas are rarely what eventually makes it to the screen. Even if you have an idea in your head from a familiar fairy tale, it might not be Disney-worthy, at least at first. When artists began working on the 1991 film Beauty and the Beast, they didn't know what kind of animal the Beast would be. The original French fairy tale doesn't say, although many people pictured a wolf. One of the concept drawings, shown here, depicts him as a mandrill, like Rafiki in The Lion King! Eventually, the Beast looked more like a bison in the finished film. 

Other early drawings show us a Snow White who looked more like Betty Boop, Maleficent with insect antennae, a younger Cruella De Vil, and a jolly green Genie. See ten of these characters as you've never seen them before at Cracked.    

I posted four years ago about a motorcycle produced for the British Army during World War II. The Welbike was sufficiently small that it could be air-dropped with paratroopers, who could then use the motorbikes to travel far faster than they would be able to on foot.

The 98cc-powered minibike continued in production after the war as the Corgi. When exported to the US from the UK, it was named the Papoose under the Indian brand. Various amenities added to it, such as a headlight, added to the weight but also made the bike more useful.

This particular beauty, lovingly preserved for decades, recently sold on Bring a Trailer.

-via Jalopnik

We eat other living things, which are likely to contain parasites. Plant parasites don't worry us much because they are usually only dangerous to plants. But meat, on the other hand, sometimes has parasites that can survive inside us. Commercial meat producing facilities have made great strides in reducing parasites. Wild animals are more likely to contain them, but we don't worry about it because we cook our food.  

But then there's sushi and sashimi, which are more popular than ever. Can you get parasites from eating raw fish? Yes, if you catch your own fish and take it home and slice it into your own fresh sashimi. Fish vendors, food processors, and restaurants have strict procedures to kill parasites before you have a chance to consume them. MinuteFood goes through the process, so you can stop worrying about it. I've never worried about it because I don't like fish and would never eat it raw anyway. This video is seven minutes long; the rest is an ad. -via Geeks Are Sexy 

The English language we use today is different from the language we used 100 years ago. And 200 years ago. But we still read books that are a couple hundred years old, even if the vocabulary and style are a little different. How about 400 years ago? Sure, we can still read a King James Bible. But as you go further back,  English begins to resemble a different language entirely. The Dead Language Society presents a challenge in the form of a fictional blog. Each post uses the language of 100 years earlier than the one before. How far back can you understand what these posts are saying? 

Most people seem to hit a wall at around the year 1400 or 1100. The fictional blog text is followed by an explanation for each of the posts so you can learn a bit about why English changed so much during each century. Read all of it -or as much as you can- at the Dead Language Society. -via Metafilter