Debatable

Futile, debatably factual information. Ask

[weloveshortvideos]

The University of Edinburgh has something called a “flowave” which is a wave pool that can make really weird waves

[spectacularuniverse-blog]

I’ve seen this photograph very frequently on tumblr and Facebook, always with the simple caption, “Ghost Heart”. What exactly is a ghost heart?

More than 3,200 people are on the waiting list for a heart transplant in the United States. Some won’t survive the wait. Last year, 340 died before a new heart was found. The solution: Take a pig heart, soak it in an ingredient commonly found in shampoo and wash away the cells until you’re left with a protein scaffold that is to a heart what two-by-four framing is to a house. Then inject that ghost heart, as it’s called, with hundreds of millions of blood or bone-marrow stem cells from a person who needs a heart transplant, place it in a bioreactor - a box with artificial lungs and tubes that pump oxygen and blood into it - and wait as the ghost heart begins to mature into a new, beating human heart. Doris Taylor, director of regenerative medicine research at the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston, has been working on this– first using rat hearts, then pig hearts and human hearts - for years. The process is called decellularization and it is a tissue engineering technique designed to strip out the cells from a donor organ, leaving nothing but connective tissue that used to hold the cells in place.  This scaffold of connective tissue - called a “ghost organ” for its pale and almost translucent appearance - can then be reseeded with a patient’s own cells, with the goal of regenerating an organ that can be transplanted into the patient without fear of tissue rejection. This ghost heart is ready to be injected with a transplant recipient’s stem cells so a new heart - one that won’t be rejected - can be grown. (Source)

[archaicwonder]

The Birthplace of Halloween

The site of Tlachtga (aka Tlachta) on the Hill of Ward, in County Meath, Ireland is believed to have been the first site of the celebration of Samhain, the precursor to our modern Halloween. The ringfort dates from around 200 AD but festivals and rituals at the site may have taken place as far back as 1000 BC. Priests, augurs and druids used to assemble there to light the winter fires of the Great Fire Festival on Samhain eve. Under penalty of law, all fires that were lit within the kingdom that night were to be kindled from the fire at Tlachtga. Samhain was a festival celebrating the dead and it also marked the beginning of the Celtic New Year. It was during this time that the Irish believed that the graves would open and their gods and spirits, who dwelt inside, would walk the earth again. The emerging of creatures from a cave, Oweynagat, (Ireland’s so-called ‘gate to hell’) is part of this belief.

The site takes its name from Tlachtga the daughter of the Druid Mug Ruith who died there giving birth to triplets. It was known in medieval Ireland as a place where Mug Ruith’s flying machine Roth Rámach had been seen, and where the Ard Rí (High King of Ireland) Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair had held a massive assemblage in 1168. He was the last High King of Ireland before the Norman invasion. It’s one of only three similar sites in Ireland; the others being the Hill of Tara and Rathcroghan in nearby County Roscommon.

[thebirdroads]

My favorite story is that one time Tolkien was with some writer friends and he was like “oh I’ve got a new story to show you guys” and one of them was like “as long as it’s not more fucking elves”

and it was

it was more fucking elves

[neenorroar-deactivated20150531]

This story is better when you know that the writer friend who said that was C.S. Lewis.

[debatable]

The University of Chicago announced it will do away with its swimming test requirement for incoming students. For nearly 60 years U of C has enforced the rule that students who cannot prove they can successfully swim 100 yards must enroll in a swimming course.

[debatable]

Sometimes during popular British television shows there are blackouts because so many people are making tea at the same time.

TV pickups are an electrical surge which occur during commercial of popular UK television shows and are caused by the boiling of kettles and the opening of fridge doors by millions of people. 

It may partially be because British people tend to watch the same programs at the same time. The introduction of a wider range of TV channels is mitigating the effect but it remains a large concern for the National Grid operators.

[free-parking-blog]

[facts-i-just-made-up]

Degenerative Cubism afflicts 12% of Spanish cattle. If the disease were ever to become airborne, it’s estimated that all beef cattle in the country would be little more than a few lines leaving the impression of cattle within one month.

A realism vaccine was developed in 1994 but has occasional surrealist side effects, turning 2% of cattle injected into two arguing mimes and a waffle.

[debatable]

Before filming, Samuel L. Jackson asked George Lucas what colors there were for lightsabers. Lucas told him blue and green for the good guys and red for bad guys. When Jackson inquired as to whether purple was a possibility, Lucas only answered: "You might get purple".

Jackson's Mace Windu became the first Jedi in a Star Wars movie to have a lightsaber that was not red, blue, or green.

[exitinsistexist-deactivated2014]

Technically, albinism means lacking melanin, so a plant cannot be an albino. They do however have their own version - a plant that lacks chlorophyll. They are unable to photosynthesize, so must live parasitically off of other redwood trees in order to survive. There are only approximately 60 “albino” redwoods known and their locations are kept top secret.

[debatable]

The last time The Cubs won the world series, there was still an Ottoman empire.

[tytodiem]

“It is as beautiful as it is rare.  A frost flower is created on autumn or early winter mornings when ice in extremely thin layers is pushed out from the stems of plants or occasionally wood. This extrusion creates wonderful patterns which curl and fold into gorgeous frozen petioles giving this phenomenon both its name and its appearance.”

[agnesfieldforest-deactivated201]

fun fact: the reason that the plural of goose is geese but the plural of moose is not meese is because goose derives from an ancient germanic word undergoing strong declension, in the pattern of foot/feet and tooth/teeth, wherein oo is mutated to ee. however ‘moose’ is a native american word added to the english lexicon only ~400 years ago, and lacks the etymological reason to be pluralized in that way.

[o-eheu]

Linguas amo

[helenofdestroy]

Underground shelters built in fear of a nuclear attack were usually cramped spaces with just enough amenities to survive a few months. When wealthy recluse Girard “Jerry” B. Henderson built his Cold War bunker in 1978, he decided to ride out the end of the world in style.

The subterranean paradise at 3970 Spencer St. in Las Vegas was built 26 feet underground. At ground level a 2-bedroom caretaker house sits on the property. In the backyard, ventilation and air-conditioning units jut up from the dirt. Rocks conceal stairways and an elevator that lead down to the AstroTurf-covered front yard of the home below.

With its own generator and fuel tank, the home could sustain life for a year with a fully-stocked pantry in the event of a nuclear attack.

Henderson’s underground retreat includes a pool, two jacuzzis, a sauna, an outdoor BBQ grill inside a large fake rock, a dance floor, a putting green in the garden, adjustable light settings to match various times of the day and a hand-painting 360-degree mural of locations familiar to Henderson. A one-bedroom guest cabana is located beside the pool.

A tunnel once connected the house to the office building next door where Henderson worked, but that property was sold separately after Henderson’s death and the tunnel was filled in. (via)

[swanjolras-blog-archive-deactiv]

so today i learned that in the late 1800s-early 1900s, the navy became concerned about possible homosexual activity among their sailors

so they sent in decoys, whose job was to pretend to want to engage in homosexual activity in order to find gay sailors

except then the job of the decoy got popular

like, really popular

like… worryingly popular?

reports said that the decoys were performing their jobs with “much enthusiasm and zeal”

eventually the navy decided. to. just stop.

[disneytrivia]

If Carl’s house in Up was approximately 1600 square feet, and the average house weighs between 60-100 pounds per square foot, it weighs 120,000 pounds. If the average helium balloon can carry .009 pounds (or 4.63 grams), it would take 12,658,392 balloons to lift his house off the ground. (20,622 balloons appear on the house when it first lifts off.)   

[winonaryderscrazyeyes]

I was wondering what the technical term for sucking your own dick is which brought me to the wikipedia page for autofellatio which had a color photograph and I learned that cape ground squirrels engage in autofellatio tonight has been a wild ride from start to finish

[beautifultype]

The history of typography, stop motion by Ben Barrett-Forrest (Forestmedia.org)