Things that are utterly bloody fascinating

[ElizabethBest]

Let's hear it please - I love a good wikipedia rabbit hole. I'll start - The Willard Suitcases. Over 400 suitcases of possessions were found in an attic at the Willard Insane Asylum belong to patients who had died whilst inpatients so never left. The New York State Museum started a project to document the cases and their contents, and you can learn all about it and see the cases on their website.

@ElizabethBest I haven't seen the film you mentioned about castrati, will track it down, thanks.

Nowadays it's easy to self publish stuff, I've published a couple of things through Lulu and was impressed with the quality. Then you can pay to get a thingy number and also sell them on Amazon if you like (I didn't do that but have a friend who did.) There's no initial outlay for Lulu.

If we're talking grizzly stuff, it haunts me about Captain Oates. I mean, his last line was haunting. And his fellow climbers must've known he wasn't coming back, I suppose. I decided on that. Before that I used to imagine what it'd been like for them to eventually decide to leave without him. 😧I could've just looked that up apparently, that they knew, but it was so gory I didn't want to know any more about it.

Of course, a lot of people are fascinated by anything WW2 , holocaust, nazis, hitler etc. It is fascinating as it's so relatively near us in time but so different and gruesome. My dad will read or watch anything about that.

The last US civil war widow, only died in 2020 and was still getting the civil war pension.

@MissHavishamsMouldyOldCake

What I find so mysterious is that in 2023 they still don't know how the shroud was made, how it has that facial imprint, Even people who are certain it's a forgery dating from the middle ages can't explain how it was made.

That is a logical fallacy called an argument from ignorance.I In fact, t's a three-to-one twill, striped in the herringbone pattern, nothing mysterious or odd about that!

@Ellie474747
There is a good Netflix documentary on this called ancient apocalypse, the presenter an archaeologist dismisses we originate from caveman based on these sites, thinks there was an advanced civilisation, slams academics for not being open to this fact.
I have same view. Oddly when I was a child I knew about Atlantis having never been taught anything about it. I am fascinated now.

Graham Hancock is not an Archaeologist, he is a lying, dishonest conman.

"thinks there was an advanced civilisation, slams academics for not being open to this fact"
Apart from the problem that it isn't a 'fact', but gibberish made up by a hack journalist with a track record of lying and distorting information to sell crap books

The Dish Washing Machine was first invented in 1886 by a woman, Josephine Cochran, who got fed up with her bone china getting chipped.

I watched Spencer Matthew’s Finding Michael documentary.

It has ignited a huge interest in knowing more about climbing Everest and the amazing Sherpas.

It’s total madness to climb it, which fascinates me.

Changedmymindtoday Watch Aftershock on Netflix! It’s about the earthquake that hit Kathmandu in 2014 and the documentary focuses on the Everest climbers during/after the event (among others but the climbers are the main story).
Have tissues on the ready!
It’s one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a while.
Where did you watch the Spencer Matthews documentary? I’m trying to find it.

Where in Hamilton is it? I used to live in Hamilton but can't for the life of me remember it lol.

It's on Burnbank Road, not far from Equi's ice cream shop at Peacock Cross - there's still a plaque on the wall outside, I believe.

Agree, this was an absolutely brilliant documentary

@TheVanguardSix its on Disney+ I didn’t enjoy it tbh and I’m fascinated by Everest, I think it was quite uncomfortable to watch the way he and his team treated certain people he came
into contact with.

I have enjoyed two documentaries lately.
The first is THE POISON SQUAD. It is truly eye opening.... a heartbreaking account of the life of Dr. Harvey Wiley, a US governmental chemist in the late 1800s and early 1900's. I was actually shocked and embarrassed to find out how the US government and Congress allowed chemicals to be added to food way back in the late 1800's. I thought it was just a recent practice. Dr. Wiley dedicated his entire life to exposing the damages food additives caused to Americans. No one would listen...that is until he decided to get the Suffragettes involved in the early 1900's because milk supplies were being contaminated with chemicals so babies were suffering. Women to the rescue once again! You can watch it on YouTube.
THE MUSIC OF 007 is fascinating, especially if you enjoy music and/or all things JAMES BOND. You are in for a real treat! We watched it last night on Amazon Prime.

@TheVanguardSix thanks so much. I’ll watch it this week. There are so many documentaries about it. I’ll just have to watch them all.

Ah yes I remember now thanks.

ah I didn't realise he wasn't. I've just read He's a sociologist no wonder the archeologist are annoyed. However I do agree with what he says where academics do need to be more open to other possibilities, it's interesting as a lot of what we used to call pseudoscience is now being took seriously especially around consciousness and the mind. After all we will never truly know everything. So I think open mind is what's needed. For reference I have two science degree's so do get both perspectives.

Still it's an interesting watch.

There is a documentary called The Family, that was made by the BBC in 1974.

It focuses on one family, and includes teen parenthood, a child who is the product of an affair, an unmarried couple living together, and also a young white teen, in a relationship with her boyfriend, who is mixed race.

The documentary series The Family (1974), is all on YouTube, and I found It interesting to watch. There is also a one off episode from 1984, on YouTube, which shows The Family 10 years later.

I just enjoyed watching it from a social history point of view.

I love reading about this too and wish I'd taken my education in this area further so I could better understand. I'm especially interested in some of the research around gut microbiome and autism.

I'm currently into the life of Lonnie Frisbee. There's a film The Jesus Revolution out but from what I've heard it leaves a lot of relevant and interesting content out.

He was a leading evangelical Christian hippy but also was gay/bi and died of AIDS in his early 40s.

I'm not a fan of his for various reasons but it's an interesting story.

@BabyTa I haven’t read the full thread yet so apologies if this has already been suggested but if you can’t get to do the actual tour this live streamed version on you tube was great!!

Excellent thanks @Hotmess1 !

@Brahumbug that is amazing! I've just now looked the lady up on the back of your post. What a fascinating story!

This is the kind of thread I love. No nasty remarks, or trolls, just fascinating interesting stories full of new things to discover. Thank you everyone for sharing.

I find this absolutely fascinating www.prizepapers.de/the-project/the-prize-papers-collection

It's a joint project between the UK National Archives and a German university to digitise and analyse this treasure trove - the ship's records for every ship captured by UK naval forces between 1652 and 1817 - around 35,000 of them.

Oh wow - that's a massive rabbit hole you've just thrown me down, Squeaky. If nobody's heard from me by next month, send a search party. Or snacks.

It has the Pomone! (This will mean nothing to most of you, but it's very exciting for me.)