Coral Castle is the amazing labor of love built solely by
Ed Leedskalnin, a man who claimed to have discovered the "secrets of the pyramids". Did he? We may never know, but this frail, tubercular, 100-pound man managed to quarry, transport, shape, and erect
chunks of coral weighing up to 28 tons by himself, using only the simplest of tools. The castle also includes
a nine-ton gate that is so perfectly balanced it can be opened by a child, and
the world's largest valentine, which weighs in at an incredible 5,000 pounds.
posted by mr_crash_davis
on Feb 14, 2002 -
13 comments
Today is the 80th anniversary of the
unsolved murder of William Desmond Taylor, silent movie director.
"What was the motive behind Taylor's murder? One interesting theory that came out at the inquest involved the woman Taylor was seeing at the time of his death, actress Mabel Normand. She was a cocaine user, and Taylor had gone to the federal government for help in stopping the pushers who were selling her drugs. Seeing their business threatened, this scenario goes, the pushers decided to hire a hit man to "silence" Taylor."
posted by mr_crash_davis
on Feb 1, 2002 -
2 comments
Mysterious Skeletons Washing Up in Micronesia
Five skeletons washed up in the FSM on Friday on rafts. Rafts have been inexplicably arriving since September, but this time the chief of police (
1?) has been asked to assist the investigation.
The identity card of one of the raft victims has lead the police to think that the victims were fleeing from either Maluku or Sulawesi, where the Laksar Jihad has been terrorizing Christians and other locals (
1). Not only has the movement been stepping up violence since '98, it's been expanding too. An NGO in West Papua has been complaining that they are setting up shop as a pro-Jakarta paramilitary to fight against Papuan separatist groups (
1). It's interesting to see how close these far-flung places are to one another (
Map (~300k))---Close to the southern Philippines too.
posted by rschram
on Jan 22, 2002 -
7 comments
There was not a cloud in the sky. Scary things afoot near Hartsville, TN. Electric bulbs light in your hand. Birds fried by electric surges midflight. Mysterious police dressed in black. Blown out transformers. And -- a Bigfoot.
posted by jfwlucy
on Jul 18, 2001 -
16 comments
So I was checking out
Andre's
FilePile, and I noticed the new page title: "ROR Alucard". A
search at Google turned up over a hundred results...few of which really explained anything.
This ASCII file was the most promising explanation. So what is it, who started it, and where did it come from?
posted by canoeguide
on Jul 10, 2001 -
18 comments
This house which I heard about from
captain cursor looks normal on the outside, but make sure you check out the
basement! It made me think of the
barn house that I once visited while growing up in Indiana. Though very different, they both are products of magnficent obscessions--as is the famous
Winchester Mystery House. It seems many people like to build and live in strange homes. Of course, there are people who are obscessed with
other things.
posted by grumblebee
on May 16, 2000 -
2 comments
