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Ali Baba and the Forty Fleas : Hoppin' around ol' Pa-ree

"Filmed in Paris in 1949, this genuine flea circus sees some very big fleas pulling various miniature vehicles across a table. They are harnessed by a thin wire. Until about 1930, performing fleas were in fact a main carnival attraction."
via youtube.com

"Notwithstanding being related to the word "four" (4), 40 is spelled "forty", and not "fourty". The reason is that etymologically (also in accents without the horse–hoarse merger), the words have different vowels, "forty" containing a contraction in the same way that "fifty" contains a contraction of "five". The letters of the word "forty" are in alphabetical order; this is the only number that has this linguistic property in English."

Wikipedia

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Melosira moniliformis, living specimen (320X)

by Frank Fox
via nikonsmallworld.com

 

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The World's Tallest Tree Is Hiding Somewhere In Humboldt Redwoods State Park

"It's 369 feet high. That's about twice the size of the Statue of Liberty (minus the foundation). ...The people who discovered it have never revealed its true location, which is somewhere in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. And though it has a nickname, "Stratosphere Giant," it is no longer the giant. It's been trumped.  

The tallest of the tall is 379 feet 4 inches, 10 feet taller than the Giant. It's now called "Hyperion.""

via npr.org

 

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Trick or Treat !

Sent by John...Thanks !

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The Elephantine Colossus

"Between 1884 and 1896, visitors to Coney Island could stay in an elephant. Each leg of the tin-skinned wooden behemoth was 60 feet long; its ears were 40 feet wide; and the enormous trunk measured 72 feet. The forelegs housed a diorama and a cigar store, and the hind legs contained staircases leading to 31 hotel rooms above — advertised entertainingly as “a main hall head room, 2 side body rooms, 2 thigh rooms, 2 shoulder rooms, 2 cheek rooms, 1 throat room, 1 stomach room, 4 hoof rooms, 6 leg rooms, 2 side rooms, 2 hip rooms, 1 through room from which the Elephant is feeding.”"
more via futilitycloset.com

 

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Göbekli Tepe

"Göbekli Tepe  is a hilltop sanctuary erected on the highest point of an elongated mountain ridge some 15 km northeast of the town of Şanlıurfa, in southeastern Turkey and 500 miles away from Istanbul, Turkey. It is the most astonishing archaeological discovery in modern times and also thought to be the oldest advanced civilization on Earth."
via youtube.com

Uncovered by Lynn...Thanks !

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Fluorite - May Stone and Sand Quarry

"A superb glassy gem quality transparent fluorite crystal measuring 1.7 x 1.6 x 1.6 cm is attractively studded on the side of a 4.6 x 3.5 x 2.5 cm matrix. A tiny chip is present on one crystal edge, seen only by my eyes with magnification. For one of these, this is in excellent condition. The quality is exceptionally high for a Fort Wayne fluorite miniature. Collected in the early 1970's."
via danweinrich.com

 

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