Confederate submarine set upright for first time since 1864

by Sean McLachlan on

The H.L. Hunley made history back in 1864 when it became the first submarine to successfully attack an enemy ship. Launched by the Confederacy as a way to break the Union blockade of Southern ports during the Civil War, it sank the USS Housatonic on 17 February 1864 and itself mysteriously sank shortly thereafter.

Crew members hand cranked the propeller to make the sub move forward and its one weapon was a bomb set at the end of a long pole. The idea was to ram a ship with the bomb, which would then explode and leave a hole below the waterline. That’s what happened when the H.L. Hunley attacked one of the warships blockading Charleston harbor, but the sub never returned from its mission.

The Hunley was later found and brought to the surface. Now after several years of restoration the Confederate submarine has been placed upright for the first time since its sinking. The sub had been found resting at a 45 degree angle in a layer of silt and was kept in the same position until now. Moving it to the upright position has given researchers a look at a side of the ship unseen since 1864.

The researchers have found some holes on that side but are unsure if they are natural erosion or the cause of the Hunley’s sinking. Analysis of the bones of the eight crew members showed they died of a lack of oxygen. Interestingly, they were all at their posts as if nothing was going wrong.

You can visit the lab where this historic sub is being studied. The Warren Lasch Conservation Center is located in North Charleston, SC. You can also see a different Confederate submarine at the Louisiana State Museum in Baton Rouge.

[Photos courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Spend a month at the museum – literally!

by Kraig Becker on

Have you ever walked the halls of a particularly great museum and wished that you could just stay there forever, soaking in the art, historical displays, or scientific demonstrations? Then we have just the thing for you, as the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is hosting its second Month at the Museum contest. The winner gets to live at the museum 24/7 for a full month.

Applications are now being accepted for Month at the Museum 2, with the winner living, breathing, and eating science every day for 30 days straight. While taking up residence at MSI, the person selected will be blogging, tweeting, and posting videos of their experiences at the 14-acre facility. And once the museum closes for the night, they’ll have the run of the place to explore to their heart’s content.

If you’re interested in becoming this year’s temporary tenant, you’ll need to be available to move in from October 19th to November 17th. You’ll also be outfitted with a number of tech gadgets to help you serve as the museum’s ambassador for the month, and you’ll receive $10,000 cash for your trouble as well.

Last year, Kate McGroarty won the job and her experiences are still archived online here. It seems she had a great time and enjoyed her stay at the museum. Perhaps it’s your turn this year?

Italian art in London

by Sean McLachlan on


One of the best collections of Italian art in the world can be found in an unlikely place: a quiet street in the London borough of Islington.

The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art is housed in an elegant Georgian mansion and boasts a comprehensive collection of Italian Futurist paintings. Futurism was a style born out of the havoc of industrialization and the carnage of World War One. It emphasized the speed and technological advance of modern society.

Typical of this style is Umberto Boccio’s The City Rises, shown here courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. This totally blew me away when I saw it at a special Futurist exhibition at the Estorick a few years ago. The people and buildings seem to be swept along by a windstorm of colored motion. It’s currently at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Other paintings show Futurism’s trading ideas with Cubism, like Gino Severini’s Portrait of Eric Estorick, the museum’s founder. It’s more a study of angles and shading than an actual image of a man.

It’s not all Futurism here and the current exhibition, United Artists of Italy, is a collection of photographs of leading Italian artists. You can also get a taste of Italy at the cafe, where they serve up excellent cappuccinos (hard to find in London) and snacks.

Macedonia: what’s in a name? A major controversy!

by Sean McLachlan on


The erection of a giant statue of Alexander the Great in the Macedonian capital of Skopje is the latest round in an ongoing controversy with neighboring Greece.

The statue, erected on Tuesday as part of an ambitious urban development plan called Skopje 2014, drew criticism from some Greek politicians and nervous mutterings from European diplomats. They say it’s deliberate provocation because Greece objects to the name Macedonia. Using this name, some say, implies a claim over the Greek province of Macedonia, where Alexander the Great was actually born. Of course neither country existed at the time, the land being divided up into a patchwork of ancient city-states. When history is used as a propaganda tool, historic accuracy goes out the window.

Macedonia, officially the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, broke off from Yugoslavia in 1991 and has been in a row with Greece about its name ever since. This isn’t some minor squabbling. Greece successfully blocked Macedonia’s entry into NATO and is stonewalling the country’s attempts to join the European Union. With Macedonia being one of the poorest countries in Europe, this argument over a name is costing them a lot.

[Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Uncontacted tribe discovered in the Amazon

by Kraig Becker on

Officials from Brazil‘s National Indian Foundation (Funai) have announced the discovery of another uncontacted tribe living deep inside the Amazon Jungle. The tribe is estimated to have a population of about 200 people who have continued to live in the same natural manner for centuries, untouched by the modern world.

Evidence of the tribe first surfaced when researchers spotted a small clearing while reviewing satellite images of the Amazon. The clearing intrigued them enough to conduct a flyover of the region in April, which produced photographs that showed several small huts clustered together in the rainforest near a copse of banana trees. The images that were taken also provided enough data to allow Funai to estimate the size of the tribe.

The tribe is said to be just one of several living in the Vale do Javari region of the Amazon, which is amongst its most remote places on the planet. Researchers believe that there are as many as 14 uncontacted tribes still living in that area, with roughly 2000 people amongst them.

In recent years, it has been the policy of the Brazilian government to avoid contacting these tribes in remote regions and to work instead to preserve their environments. That will be the case with this most recently discovered community as well, although their lifestyle is ultimately threatened by a number of outside forces. For example, deforestation, mining, hunting, and numerous other environmental concerns are taking their toll on the Amazon, which could eventually have an impact on these tribes as well.

Still, I think it’s amazing that there are people in remote places that have yet to be visited by outsiders. We really do live on an amazing planet.