Based on 2012’s top names as released by the Social Security Administration, West Coast choose Sophia most frequently for their baby girls, while Emma is more popular in the Midwest and much of the East Coast.
Love this as a numbers and map person
May 23rd 1934: Bonnie and Clyde killed
On this day in 1934 the infamous American bank robbing duo Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ambushed by police and killed in Louisiana. Bonnie and Clyde and their gang were outlaws who robbed banks and killed several police officers and civilians from 1931 to 1934. The couple became legendary for their exploits and their love story, especially after Arthur Penn’s 1967 film ‘Bonnie and Clyde’.
“Some day they’ll go down together;
They’ll bury them side by side;
To few it’ll be grief-
To the law a relief-
But it’s death for Bonnie and Clyde.”
- from Bonnie’s poem about the duo
(via pbsthisdayinhistory)
via thekidshouldseethis:
From medicalschool, watch this time lapse clip of how bacteria reproduce by dividing into two every 20 minutes.
Bacteria are microscopic single-cell organisms that are found in the air, inside and on our bodies, in the dirt, and everywhere in nature. There are both harmful and beneficial kinds. Some cause diseases, while others help our bodies function. For example, there are more than 400 types of bacteria live in the human digestive system. There are also kinds that are used to make medicines, and others that make foods like cheese and yogurt. (Might anyone know what kind of bacteria this is?)
More mentions of bacteria are in these videos.
And thanks to those little bugs’ ability to grow so unbelievably fast, scientists like Richard Lenski have ben able to recreate eons of evolution in just a couple decades. Check out one of the longest-running experiments ever: The E. coli evolution experiment.
This is how I flew, raced and drove a Mars rover 2 hours after I landed back in Houston. I’m less of a hazard now…

The spread of the black death.
Poland
Poland, tell us your secret.
Poland is the
oldnew Madagascar.If I remember correctly, Poland’s secret is that the jews where being blamed all over europe (as usual) as scapegoats for the black plague. Poland was the only place that accepted Jewish refugees, so pretty much all of them moved there.
Now, one of the major causes of getting the plague was poor hygiene. This proved very effective for the plague because everyone threw their poop into the streets because there were no sewers, and literally no one bathed because it was against their religion. Unless they were jewish, who actually bathed relatively often. When all the jews moved to Poland, they brought bathing with them, and so the plague had little effect there.
Milan survived by quarantining its city and burning down the house of anyone showing early symptoms, with the entire family inside it.
I reblogged this tons of times, but the Milan info is new.
Damn Italy, you scary.
Poland:“Hey, feeling a bit down? Have a quick wash! There, you see? All better”
Milan: “Aw, feeling a bit sick are we? BURN MOTHERFUCKER, BURN!!!!!”
Also, this might have something to do with it: from what I understand, O blood type is uncommonly… common in Poland. Something to do with large families in small villages and a LOT of intermarriage. The black plague was caused by a bacterium that produced, in its waste in the human body, wastes that very closely mimic the “B” marker sugars on red blood cells that keep the body from attacking its own immune system. Anyone who has a B blood type had an immune system that was naturally desensitized to the presence of the bacterium, and therefore was more prone to developing the disease. Anyone who had an O type was doubly lucky because the O blood type means the total absence of ANY markers, A or B, meaning that their bodys’ immune system would react quickly and violently against the invaders, while someone with an A may show symptoms and recover more slowly, while someone with B would have just died. Because O is a recessive blood type, it shows in higher numbers when more people who carry the recessive genes marry other people who also carry the recessive gene. Poland, which has a nearly 700 year history of being conquered by or partnering with every other nation in the surrounding area, was primarily an agricultural country, focused around smaller, farming communities where people were legally tied to, and required to work, “their” land, and so historically never “spread” their genes across a large area. The economy was, and had been, unstable for a very long period of time leading up to the plague, the government had been ineffective and had very little reach in comparison to the armies of the other countries around for a very very long time, and so its people largely remained in small communities where multiple generations of cross-familial inbreeding could have allowed for this more recessive gene to show up more frequently. Thus, there could be a higher percentage of O blood types in any region of the country, guaranteeing less spread of the illness and moving slower when it did manage to travel. Combine this with the fact that there were very few large, urban centers where the disease would thrive, and with the above facts, and you’ve got a lovely recipe for avoiding the plague.
Interestingly enough, as a result from the plague, the entirety of Europe now has a higher percentage of people with O blood type than any other region of the world.
WHY IS THIS ALL SO COOL
When Tumblr teaches you more about the plague than 12 years of school ever did.
When Tumblr teaches you more about the plague than 12 years of school ever did.
They’re finding that descendants of plague survivors (who, you’d think would be everyone alive now, but really, just people who contracted it and lived through the disease) have blood compounds that fight off other diseases, not just bacteria, but also viruses, and are looking at synthesizing these compounds as an HIV vaccine.
Yep. Delta 32!!!
Click above to read our new cover story, a revealing interview with the secretive duo Daft Punk and how they’re reinventing dance music, again.
Today Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, announced a multi-year partnership with Teaching Strategies, the educational company that publishes The Creative Curriculum and Teaching Strategies GOLD.
Learn more at http://sesameworkshop.org/school
Sesame Street definitely was the 5th most important thing in my development as a child. After my parents, books, grandparents, and legos.
(…)
Life comes with many challenges. The ones that should not scare us are the ones we can take on and take control of. —
—Angelina Jolie, My Medical Choice, NYT (via erinnn)
Jolie always wins me back over
Idea of the Week: The Drone Economy. Click through for an interactive infographic showing A.U.V.S.I’s state-by-state economic projection for 2015, assuming F.A.A. drone regulations are in place: http://nyr.kr/19lLTqI
(via criticalmapping)






