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Woman Hosts Miniature Parties For Squirrels

It’s time for something completely different…and completely nice.

 

 

From The Dodo,

Woman Throws Little Parties For The Squirrels Who Come To Visit Her
She builds them dining rooms and even food trucks.

by Caitlin Jill Anders

 

“After a woman discovered some injured baby squirrels in her yard, she felt a bond towards them, and decided to start doing something special.

 

Ashly Deskins woke up one morning to find that four baby squirrels had fallen from two different nests in her backyard. She watched in awe as one of the mother squirrels came down to save her babies — but unfortunately, the other two were left behind.

 

My husband and I attempted to save the other two abandoned squirrels by rushing them to a wildlife center,” Deskins told The Dodo. “Sadly, the injured babies did not survive, but the encounter sparked a special interest in the squirrels, which caused me to appreciate and enjoy them during my daily routine.”

 

From that moment on, Deskins couldn’t help but notice how many squirrels there were living near her apartment complex, and started to feel connected to them. Many of the squirrels would hang out on her back patio, and so she began leaving almonds for them occasionally. Then, she had a brilliant idea…”

 

For the rest, and more pictures, click here.

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The ‘lunatic box’ and other bizarre artifacts from mental asylum history

This isn’t the most cheerful post we’ve ever done, we know. But imagine having lived in one of these places your whole life. If walls could talk…The Glore Psychiatric Museum is the closest thing to a voice those walls will ever have….

 

A mannequin peering out of a ‘Lunatic Box’ on display at the Glore Psychiatric Museum in Saint Joseph, Missouri.

 

From Dangerous Minds,

 

Take a chilling look inside the Glore Psychiatric Museum

 

“In 1874 the state of Missouri opened the “State Hospital for the Insane #2” more commonly referred to as the “Lunatic Asylum #2.” The asylum prided itself as the kind of institution that took on the “noble work” of “reviving hope in the human heart and dispelling the portentous clouds that penetrate the intellects of minds diseased.” While this claim does sound noble, the methods that were used to “penetrate” the minds of the patients who found themselves in one of the institution’s 25 beds were often medieval at best. At their worst the treatments administered by the staff were variations of what would be considered torture and were often experimental in nature—usually causing more harm than good.

 

The asylum would fill all of its available beds. In 1899 the institution changed its name to the far more friendly sounding St. Joseph State Hospital. Five decades later over 3,000 patients had passed through the hospital including dangerous criminals who had long taken leave of their mental faculties. These criminally insane people walked the halls alongside of residents who were struggling with depression. The hospital would continue to operate for 127 years. In 1967 a long-time employee of the Missouri Department of Mental Health, George Glore opened a museum in one of St. Joseph’s many wards. Glore’s on-site museum housed various mental health related artifacts that had been used over the centuries to treat patients with mental health problems, such as the horrific sounding “Lunatic Box” which was routinely used to treat patients that could not be easily controlled and were prone to act out, perhaps violently. The box, which strongly resembled a fucking coffin of all things, would house the patient in complete darkness in a standing position for hours. Patients were not even allowed to leave the box to go to the bathroom, leaving them to do their business in the box until a member of the staff felt that they had reached the appropriate level of zen.

 

In 1997 what is now known as the Glore Psychiatric Museum moved to a large, three-story building in order to provide enough room for its vast array of oddities…”

 

Click here to see many images from exhibits on display at the Glore including some haunting artwork done by patients who resided at St. Joseph’s during its century-plus existence.

 

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Time Crystals. They Actually Exist.

Time crystals? This sounds more like a Star Trek technology than something incredibly real that scientists just discovered…

 

 

From Science Alert,

 

Scientists have confirmed a brand new phase of matter: time crystals
Constant motion without energy.
by Fiona McDonald

 

“For months now, there’s been speculation that researchers might have finally created time crystals – strange crystals that have an atomic structure that repeats not just in space, but in time, putting them in constant oscillation without energy.

 

Now it’s official – researchers have just reported in detail how to make and measure these bizarre crystals. And two independent teams of scientists claim they’ve actually created time crystals in the lab based off this blueprint, confirming the existence of an entirely new phase of matter.

 

The discovery might sound pretty abstract, but it heralds in a whole new era in physics – for decades we’ve been studying matter that’s defined as being ‘in equilibrium’, such as metals and insulators.

 

But it’s been predicted that there are many more strange types of matter out there in the Universe that aren’t in equilibrium that we haven’t even begun to look into, including time crystals. And now we know they’re real.

 

The fact that we now have the first example of non-equilibrium matter could lead to breakthroughs in our understanding of the world around us, as well as new technology such as quantum computing.

 

“This is a new phase of matter, period, but it is also really cool because it is one of the first examples of non-equilibrium matter,” said lead researcher Norman Yao from the University of California, Berkeley.

 

“For the last half-century, we have been exploring equilibrium matter, like metals and insulators. We are just now starting to explore a whole new landscape of non-equilibrium matter.”

 

Let’s take a step back for a second, because the concept of time crystals has been floating around for a few years now…

 

For the rest, click here.

 

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