Archive for September, 2016

A Fake Epidemic Saved a Polish City From the Nazis

A case of truth being greater than fiction…

 

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How a Fake Typhus Epidemic Saved a Polish City From the Nazis
by Matt Soniak

 

“During World War II, a man went to the doctor in Rozwadów, Poland with a unique complaint. He was one of thousands of Poles forced by the Nazi occupiers to work in German labor camps. The man had been granted a 14-day leave to visit his family, and his time was almost up.

 

He was desperate to escape the camp, but knew that if he did not return, he would be hunted down and he and his family would be arrested and sent to a concentration camp–a death sentence in many cases. He had considered suicide, but also knew that a serious disease, verified by a physician, would spare him from returning to the camp.

 

The two doctors who saw the man decided to help him in his quest for a diagnosis, and offered to give him an injection. He accepted. The doctors then drew a blood sample and sent it to a German lab. Soon, they received a telegram that read: “Weil-Felix positive.” Their patient had tested positive for typhus. The telegram was given to the local German authorities as proof that the patient had an infectious disease, and the man was subsequently released from his duties at the camp. He was also excluded from future detention, as were any family members he had come in contact with…”

 

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The Disappearing Celtic Tree Alphabet

If there is an ancient faerie language, this must be it…

 

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From Ancient Origins,

 

The Celtic Ogham: An Ancient Tree Alphabet that May Disappear Before Showing its Roots
by Kerry Sullivan

 

“In secluded fields, on the walls of churches, and beneath construction sites, stones have been found with intricate markings that rise from the lower left up to the center and then down to the lower right. This is the ancient Celtic Tree Alphabet known as Ogham (pronounced owam). Archaeological linguists have managed to translate the symbols, yet no one knows for certain how or why this language came into existence. Efforts are being made to preserve the relics, however, the stones are weathering and crumbling at an alarming rate.

 

There are roughly 400 stones known to contain Ogham markings, 360 of which are in Ireland. The rest have been discovered scattered across Wales, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. The oldest relic is believed to date back to the 4th century AD, but one must assume that earlier examples existed on perishable mediums, such as wood, possibly as far back as the 1st century AD…”

 

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Total (dream) Recall

Scientists postulate that humans dream every night, and likely are dreaming all night long….

 

That’s a lot of information to remember and store. Is there a way to control what we remember?

 

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The Tricky Science of Remembering Dreams

By Chelsea Harvey

 

“You wake in the early hours of the morning with your heart beating fast and the unsettling sense that you’ve just emerged from a strange dream —  but what was it? Vague images swim through your mind, faces you only half-recognize, and for a second you think it’s all coming back to you. Then you blink, and the memory is gone.

 

The subject of dream recall — that is, how and when and to what extent we remember our dreams — is a tricky topic, and one that’s fascinated researchers for decades. Why do we remember our dreams some nights, but not others? Why do some people seem to remember their dreams more often than others? We don’t have all the answers, but we know that our ability to remember our dreams in the morning most likely involves a complex set of factors including how we wake up, what our personalities are like and what happens inside our brains while we sleep.

 

The Critical Waking Period
The first thing to keep in mind is that you most certainly dream, even if you don’t remember doing it. Scientists generally believe that humans dream every night — and, probably, all night long.

 

“In every sleep stage, there’s some kind of subjective experience,” said Michael Schredl, a researcher in the sleep laboratory at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany, and an expert on dream recall. Researchers widely agree that the reveries experienced during REM sleep are generally more intense, he said, but some type of dreaming is likely present in all stages…”

 

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