MISCELLANEOUS

Short History of Scotch Whisky

Legend has it that St Patrick introduced distilling to Ireland during his lifetime and that this secret passed to Scotland when Irish travelers settled there more than 1500 years ago. In countries such as Scotland where grapes were not plentiful the distilling technique was applied to grains, with the resulting whisky being produced in monasteries and being used for medicinal purposes. It was prescribed for all manner of ailments and if it did not cure it certainly had an uplifting effect on the patients.

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Cryptozoology - Science of Hidden Animals

Cryptozoology is the science of hidden animals. The term was coined in the 1950s by Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans, who became president of the International Society of Cryptozoology when it was formed in 1982. The notion of hidden animals covers a range of meanings. First, there are animals that are known to science that are extremely elusive and only rarely sighted, such as giant squid. Second, there are many species of microscopic creatures that remain unknown because insufficient effort has been exerted to collect and identify them.

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Dinosaur Extinction: One Giant Mystery

Many different species in the history of life on this planet have simply ceased to be. Gone but not forgotten these strange animals leave evidence of their existence entombed in the sedimentary layers of the earth's crust. As fascinating as these fossilized discoveries are, what's even more fascinating is the mystery of what happened to them.

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The Story Of The Guillotine

The device was perfected - though not invented- by Doctor Joseph Ignace Guillotin (1738 - 1814). The 'e' at the end of the noun is a later, British, addition. Ironically, he belonged to a movement seeking to abolish capital punishment altogether. Guillotine-like implements were used on delinquents from the nobility in Germany, Italy, Scotland and Persia long before the good doctor's era. Guillotin and German engineer and harpsichord maker, Tobias Schmidt, improved and industrialized it.