M.J. Rose

We think these artifacts rather beautiful actually!

Edison’s Talking Dolls Can Now Provide The Soundtrack To Your Nightmares (NPR – All Things Considered)

“Back in 1890, Thomas Edison gave us some of the world’s first talking dolls. Today, the glassy-eyed cherubs that are still around stand about 2 feet tall; they have wooden limbs and a metal body; and they sound supercreepy. (If you’re looking for a soundtrack to your nightmares, listen to the audio story above.) Edison built and sold about 500 of them back in 1890. Now, new technology has made hearing them possible for the first time in decades.

Jerry Fabris, who curates sound recordings at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, says part of what makes the recordings so unsettling is that they were most likely read by a female factory worker imitating a little girl. (For example: Here’s a shrieking recitation of “A Child’s Prayer” that you will never unhear.)…”

For the rest of the story click here.

Listen to the story —

This is actually a lovely sort of burial place…

Medieval Skeleton Found Dangling From the Roots of a Fallen Tree

by George Dvorsky (io9)

“After a violent storm ripped through the Irish town of Collooney, locals were shocked to discover the remains of a 1,000-year-old skeleton hanging from the roots of a fallen tree.

The body, which belonged to a young man who appears to have died a violent death, was found beneath a 200-year-old beech tree. In a scene that must have been quite macabre, the upper part of the skeleton was found raised in the air within the tree’s root system, while the legs remained in the ground….”

Irish Archaeology reports:

“Preliminary analysis has indicated that the remains consist of young man who was between 17 and 25 years old when he died. His bones contained several injuries which had been inflicted by a sharp blade, possibly a sword or knife. He had obviously suffered a violent death, but whether these wounds were related to an ancient battle or a personal dispute remains unknown. The body was subsequently buried in a shallow east-west oriented grave and radiocarbon analysis indicates that this occurred sometime between 1030 and 1200 AD.”

For the rest, click here.

Scientists “reanimate” an extinct 30,000-year-old “giant” virus that was discovered  in the permafrost of Siberia…

The World’s Largest Virus Was Just Resurrected From 34,000-Year-Old Permafrost

By Joseph Stromberg (smithsonian.com)

It’s not a threat to humans, but does show that ancient viruses can persist for millennia and remain a potential health threat

“Deep within the Siberian permafrost, nearly 100 feet underneath the frozen ground, it sat dormant, for centuries and centuries. Above ground, the glaciers receded, ancient humans arrived, and eventually, civilization developed.

Now, it’s been thawed and revived, thanks to a team of French scientists. It’s a virus, and its zombie-like resurrection goes to show that the microbes can persist for far longer than scientists have previously imagined.

For tens of thousands of years, the virus remained entirely frozen. The microbe, however, wasn’t quite dead—partly because any virus, by the standards of biology, can’t be truly be described as alive. All viruses require host cells to reproduce, and in between reproductive cycles, they persist as an inert particle called a virion, roughly analogous to a plant’s seed…”

Read more here.