doctorwho:

Boy puts a Doctor Who postcard in a bottle, throws it out to sea, it travels 9,000-miles to Perth, Australia

Cade Scott, nine, from West Boldon, was inspired to fill an empty wine bottle with a Doctor Who postcard and let it loose at Roker Harbour on August 26, 2011, after hearing of a miracle missive that had made its way to Norway.

Cade’s bottle went from home turf to Perth, where it provided an extra Christmas gift to an unsuspecting Aussie.

The Doctor Who postcard was swiftly despatched back to the borough on January 7, with a note from its recipient, Matthew Elam, reaching Cade on Saturday, January 12.

npr:

explore-blog:

The 113th Congress, by the numbers

(ᔥ The Atlantic)

The more you know. -heidi

todaysdocument:

How many engineers does it take?
An ocean of engineers are present in this July 16, 1969, photograph of the mission control center in Houston, Texas, which was preparing for the launch of the Apollo 11 space mission. Four days later, U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon.

Photograph of Engineers Working in the Launch Control Center Preparing for the Launch of Apollo 11, 07/16/1969

via DocsTeach

todayinhistory:

July 11th 1804: Burr-Hamilton duel

On this day in 1804, Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr and former Secretary of the Treasury and Founding Father Alexander Hamilton had a duel. The duel took place at Weehawken in New Jersey, and saw Burr fatally shoot Hamilton. Hamilton died the next day. Burr was acquitted of murder but the incident ended his political career and President Jefferson dropped him from the 1804 election ticket. The duel was a culmination of years of political and personal disputes between the two men.

npr:

theatlantic:

Meet the Girl Who Inspired ‘Alice in Wonderland’

‘One hundred and fifty years ago yesterday, on July 4, 1862, a young mathematician by the name of Charles Dodgson, better-known as Lewis Carroll, boarded a boat with a small group, setting out from Oxford to the nearby town of Godstow, where the group was to have tea on the river bank. The party consisted of Carroll, his friend Reverend Robinson Duckworth, and the three little sisters of Carroll’s good friend Harry Liddell—Edith (age 8), Alice (age 10), and Lorina (age 13). Entrusted with entertaining the young ladies, Dodgson fancied a story about a whimsical world full of fantastical characters, and named his protagonist Alice. So taken was Alice Liddell with the story that she asked Dodgson to write it down for her, which he did when he soon sent her a manuscript under the title of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground.

Read more. [via Brain Pickings]

— poor unliked tanya b.

Piratey goodness!