Interesting Picture: Albert Einstein Posing

I had to start a new segment when I saw this picture.

Albert Einstein Getting his Portrait PaintedFrom Sciencegeek100 at Imgur.com

Check out 

Einstein: His Life and Universe

by Walter Isaacson

A Portrait Lives: Mary, Queen of Scots

I really haven't been consistent with my Portrait Lives, but I'll just do them whenever for now because I have been occupied, but I haven't forgotten!

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots had a tragic life. She was imprisoned. One time by her own people and she fled to England where she was imprisoned, found to have plotted against Queen Elizabeth I and executed. These are just a few of the facts that make her such a tragic figure.

aged about 6

aged  about 13

aged about 15

aged about 17

aged about 17-18

in her early twenties

aged about 36

aged about 33

Her execution at aged 45

Sources: 

Cathlolic Encloypedia, Mary Queen of Scots: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09764a.htm

Van Gogh's Ear and it's Resurrection

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh is very famous especially for his painting Starry Night. The story of van Gogh's madness is of a dire nature to understanding him, more importantly (to this post) is the story of how he cut off his own ear.
It is said that van Gogh cut off his ear in one of his common fits of possibly bipolar madness, which came and went in storms of depression:
On December 23 1888, van Gogh was savagely angry at his friend Gauguin, regarding a Madame and he stood in front of a mirror. He cut part of his ear, taking off a part, he put it in an envelope and personally delivered to the said Madame who was at the local "house of ill repute." He told her to "Take it, it will be useful."  The prostitute fainted. She called the police the next day who found van Gogh at his home. He was admitted to the hospital, and soon recovered.

His Bandaged Ear and a Hat.

The Resurrection: 

A German museum grew living cells of van Gogh with a 3D printer and DNA from his descendants. It says on the website:

You can talk to the ear. The input sound is processed by a computer using software that converts it to simulate nerve impulses in real time. 

Quote from
May 30-July 4 2014: Diemut Strebe: Sugababe: http://on1.zkm.de/zkm/stories/storyReader%248887

Sources:
German artist 'regrows' severed Van Gogh ear: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/06/german-artist-regrows-severed-van-gogh-ear-20146316242869877.html
Van Gogh's own words after cutting his ear recorded in Paris newspaper: http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Van-Goghs-own-words-after-cutting-his-ear-recorded-in-Paris-newspaper/30392
A tale of two ears by Ben Cohen from the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC539517/?report=classic

Check out

The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh 

by Vincent van Gogh and Arnold Pomerans

Click the link and see the madness of van Gogh.

You Should Know These Facts About P.T. Barnum

If you don't know who P.T. Barnum is, I'll tell you. He was an moderate hoaxer and showman, meaning that he didn't always display hoaxes but frequently he would.  Like his first fascinating object of exhibition to curious viewers was the 'nurse of George Washington.' She was an African American woman named Joyce

Phineas Taylor Barnum. 

Heth, whom he said was actually over 160 years old.  He would make money displaying Joyce in tours (that way he would make more money; classic businessman's move) from 1835-6. In 1836 Joyce died at her true age...70 years old.

Today hoaxes are frequently defrauded because contemporary people know that they shouldn't always trust everything they hear, which is a hard subject to write about without sounding paranoid, some doubt is just healthy. Anyways, people were more gullible in the 1800's, and Barnum knew how to use that to his advantage.

After a brief failure after Joyce died, he purchased a museum in New York and became the Father of Sideshow, commonly called the 'freaks' of the day.

Now that you know who he is, let me tell you all the interesting things about him.

1.  He is widely thought to have coined 'There's a Sucker Born Every Minute," even though it is likely he never said it.
2. He is the maker of the Feejee Mermaid Hoax, which at the time was advertised as a beautiful mermaid when actually it was a dead monkey and fish sown together (that's gross and unhealthy)

How you might imagine mermaids

What this mermaid looked like

3. He also exhibited a dwarf as General Tom Thumb.

The General Insurance Guy in Real Life
actually no it's Tom Thumb

Sources:
Phineas Taylor Barnum on the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannia: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Barnum,_Phineas_Taylor
The Hoaxes of P.T. Barnum: http://hoaxes.org/archive/display/category/p.t._barnum

Bobby Leach and his Death.

Here's a meme:

Totally True.

For those who use Google Translate,
it reads Bobby Leach went across Niagara Falls in a Barrel, he died after he slipped on an orange peel.

Made free from Imgur.
Sources;
Find a Grave Memorial.