eventhird:

Afganistan, 1950’s/60’s

usagov:

Image description: A life vest used by a survivor of the RMS Titanic. Five days into its maiden voyage in 1912, the White Star ocean liner Titanic struck an iceberg at full speed in the North Atlantic, en route from England to the United States. At 2:20 a.m. on April 15, the gigantic ship sank in 12,500 feet of water 350 miles off the coast of Canada. Within about two hours, the ocean liner Carpathia arrived and rescued the Titanic’s 705 surviving crew and passengers. Around 1,500 people aboard were lost.

Chicago physician Dr. Frank Blackmarr, a Carpathia passenger, helped with the survivors suffering from hypothermia, exposure, and shock. He collected this Titanic life vest during the voyage as a souvenir, and later donated it to the Chicago Historical Society. In 1982, the CHS donated it to the Smithsonian’s National Watercraft Collection.

Image courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

demons:

The Warsaw Ghetto, photographed after being destroyed by the Germans in 1945.

The church remained only because it was being used for ammunitions storage.

historicaustralia:

A hazard for high heels - Women stepping off the footpath in Gertrude St. have a rough path ahead, 1964

guilbertjj:

                         Rennes à découvrir en flânant dans les ruelles du centre ville

ireczech92:

The Coolidge effect is “the revival of sexual arousal caused by presence of a novel [new] partner.”

According to legend, President and Mrs. Coolidge were once touring a farm. Soon after their arrival they were take off on separate tours. When Mrs. Coolidge passed the chicken pens, she paused to…

theossuary:

Love this article over at TIME—Top 10 Famous Stolen Body Parts—featuring Anne Boleyn’s heart, Geronimo’s skull, Napoleon’s penis, and more, including this tidbit:

the 16th century, St. Francis Xavier spent a lot of time on his feet, spreading the gospel throughout Spain, France, Italy, Malaysia, Japan, Sri Lanka and India, dying at sea en route to China. When a group of Christians disinterred his body a few months later, they were surprised to see it in a perfect state of preservation. But just as in life, his “incorrupt body” didn’t stay at rest for long. In its first public exhibition of corpse in Goa, India, in fit of reverence, a Portuguese woman bit off his big toe. Allegedly, the toe gushed blood, and she was caught when people followed the grisly trail to her home.

Kind of surprised that Juan Perón’s hands didn’t make the list.

Image: Painting of St. Francis Xavier in the Kobe City Museum, via Wikipedia.

theatlantic:

The Strange (and Formerly Sexist) Economics of Engagement Rings

Once upon a time, diamond rings weren’t just gifts. They were, frankly, virginity insurance.

A now-obsolete law called the “Breach of Promise to Marry” once allowed women to sue men for breaking off an engagement. Back then, there was a high premium on women being virgins when they married — or at least when they got engaged. Surveys from the 1940s show that roughly half of engaged couples reported being intimate before the big day. If the groom-to-be walked out after he and the bride-to-be had sex, that left her in a precarious position. From a social angle, she had been permanently “damaged.” From an economic angle, she had lost her market value. So Breach of Promise to Marry was born.

But in the 1930s, states began striking down the “Breach of Promise to Marry” law. By 1945, 16 states representing nearly half of the nation’s population had made Breach of Promise a historical relic. At the same time, the diamond engagement ring began its transformation from decorative to de rigueur. Legal scholar Margaret Brinig doesn’t think that’s a coincidence, and she has the math to prove it. Regressing the percent of people living in states without Breach of Promise against a handful of other variables — including advertising, per capita income and the price of diamonds — Brinig found that this legal change was actually the most significant factor in the rise of the diamond engagement ring. It’s historically plausible. The initial mini-surge in diamond imports came in 1935, four years before DeBeers launched its celebrated advertising campaign. So, what’s going on here?

Read more.

1 in sixteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen are you kidding me

if we got 1 in 16 motherfuckers admitting to raping women on college campuses and are “very forthcoming. In fact, they are eager to talk about their experience”, you better fucking believe tossing out your short skirt and staying in at night isn’t going to keep you safe.

(via grrl-meat)

Even worse:

In a survey of 11-14 year-old boys…

• 51% believed that “forced sex” is acceptable if a boy spends a lot of money on a girl
• 31% believed that it would be okay to rape someone with past sexual experience
• 65% believed that sexual assault is okay if dating for more than 6 months
• 87% believed that sexual assault is okay if the perpetrator and victim are married

…aaand in a survey of college males…

• 1 in 12 admitted to committing rape (under the legal definition)
• 35% admitted that they would commit rape under circumstances if they could get away with it

…and in another…

• 43% of college-aged men admitted to using “coercive behavior” such as ignoring a woman’s nonconsent and using physical aggression

(via wretchedoftheearth)

really? how does this not make me even more scared? fuck

(via strugglingtobeheard)

reblogging for commentary

(via ethiopienne)

(via karnythia)