A Brief History On May 15, 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich’s Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War recounted one of the most frightening displays of masculine toughness perhaps ever practiced in human history! Digging Deeper Imagine having cuts and bruises all over your chin, arms and chest, a result of being continuously whipped. If that is not bad enough, an open basketwork frame of stinging ants is pressed against your body, and you are itching like crazy! The worst part about all of this torture is that it is not a form of punishment! So, why would an…
Author: Kevin Vizcarra
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A Brief History On March 31, 1923, the first U.S. dance marathon ended in New York City but began a strange fad with sometimes fatal consequences! Digging Deeper Less than a decade later, in 1932, a young woman dropped dead after dancing non-stop for 48 hours in a dance marathon! And when the police raided a ballroom during a Marathon World Championship, the promoters simply transferred the contestants, who were still dancing, into a van. From there they were taken onto a sloop, a small sailing ship, which sailed out of territorial waters and so beyond the area of police…
A Brief History On August 22, 1880, The London Telegraph published an allegedly true story claiming that, believe it or not, people can be buried alive and still survive! Digging Deeper To support the article’s claims, they provided an example concerning the fakir Haridas. A fakir is a holy man, usually a Muslim. In 1835, at the maharaja’s palace in Lahore, India, Haridas spent 40 days locked in a sealed chest. It is said that Haridas fasted for seven days before the big moment. He also swallowed and then reproduced a 27 meter long strip of linen to clean out his stomach.…
A Brief History On January 28, 1986, the U.S. space shuttle Challenger took off right on schedule, only to explode 74 seconds later, killing all seven crew members on board in front of a horrified live television audience. Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find Challenger, having made 9 previous successful flights and having traveled over 25 million miles in its career prior to the tragedy. The crew, who had planned to study Halley’s Comet as part of their mission, also included a civilian, Mrs. Sharon Christa McAuliffe. Mrs. McAuliffe, who was from New Hampshire, had won a contest to become…
