Apathetic Voter

The paper coffee filter was invented in 1908 by a housewife who was frustrated by bitter sediment in her coffee Melitta Bentz punched holes in a brass pot and used her son's school blotter paper She founded a company with 73 marks in savings She sold 1,200 filters at her first trade fair Her company still exists

the more i watch her, the more i believe she might have had both the most perfect and expressive face ever filmed

The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day is deliciously arcane and random and I can't believe I just now am just now finding out about it: There was for about 50 years a famous Tex-Mex place in Houston named Leo's. It was on Shepherd Drive. I'm sure that many of y'all remember it. It was an institution and is on my personal Mt. Rushmore of Tex-Mex places. The arcane Texas fact is that Leo, the owner, fought in the Mexican revolution with Pancho Villa. Not only that, but there's a photo of Pancho Villa (center left), Emiliano Zapata (center right) and Leo himself (smiling, over Zapata's left shoulder). In a 1988 article, journalist Jan Reid wrote: "The Mexican Revolution’s most famous photograph was taken in Mexico City on December 6, 1914. Wearing polished riding boots and a formal uniform, Pancho Villa sits crookedly in the ornate presidential chair. To his left is the thin, cold-eyed Morelian horse trainer, Emiliano Zapata. Two dozen revolutionaries crowd into the photograph. Over Zapata’s left shoulder is a boy with prominent ears and an avid grin. Leo Reynosa was a fifteen-year-old in Villa’s army. He had joined the federal army, hoping to fight the American forces that occupied Veracruz, but instead was sent against Villa’s guerrillas, who captured him, won his allegiance, and made him a captain at sixteen because he could read. Like other survivors of the revolution, Reynosa eventually came to Texas in search of work. For the past 47 years, he has owned Leo’s Mexican Restaurant in Houston. A framed copy of the photograph greets his clientele." The story is that Leo moved to the U.S. in 1918 and opened his restaurant in 1941. I'm not sure exactly when Leo's closed, but I know it was still open in the late 1980s, early 1990s, when I lived in Houston. Leo himself died at the age of 96 in 1995. How many times did I eat at Leo's and maybe even saw the photo without understanding what it was? Had I known who Leo was and what I'd eventually be doing here on Traces I'd have asked to sit down and talk with him. Sheesh! Talk about a missed opportunity!

Publicity photograph of the Finnish actress Terhi Panula on the set of the television series Takiaispallo, 1972.

Oh man, Chris Sanders posted this tribute from him and Dean DeBlois to Daveigh Chase and it's so freaking heartbreaking.

Pier in Sombrero (1953) and The Vintage (1957)

Happy 63rd birthday to the talented ‘Detective Conan’ creator Gosho Aoyama.

During the filming of The Octopus (1937), filmmakers used practical effects instead of CGI, relying on color filters that made red makeup appear invisible until revealed, creating a sudden transformation that likely shocked audiences in 1930s theaters.

Bicentennial parade in Neptune Beach, Florida, 1976

At the very least you should watch GODZILLA

Matthew Lillard reuniting with the Mystery Machine

Nicolas Cage and his father, August Coppola, 1988

the movie is a masterpiece obvi but the book is on a while other level. like how do you make a fucking excel sheet a horror beat?? elite shit

I keep saying we should have a book accurate Jurassic Park prestige television miniseries, but that’s never going to happen because the dumb sequels continue to make a bajillion dollars. Blame the masses. They’re getting exactly what they want.

Did you get to the part where they find Dennis Nedry's mangled corpse?

donkey and dragon being the only ones that weren’t nightmare fuel and subsequently were able to stay the same is so funny for some reason

@Publius_____ @ChristianHeiens @FireTestsGold I do remember reading somewhere that Afghanistan should've just been split to numerous other countries instead of trying to unite a whole slew of people that despised each other.

@ChristianHeiens @FireTestsGold Parts of the Middle East are very much capable of illiberal democracy. That is Iraq to a T right now. It is not the liberal democracy the neocons attempted to force. Afghanistan post 911 should have been a confederal state run by pro-US warlords not a centralized democracy.

I think the average American is simply exhausted at this point when the Middle East is brought up. They just want to never have to think about this part of the world ever again. It has completely dominated the headlines their entire lives, as well as the entire adult lives of their parents. Online personalities will make being pro-Palestinian or pro-Israel their entire identity, but the average American just wants to forget about this corner of the world entirely. They’re pro-Israel insofar as they are influenced by a century of Christian dispensationalism, or they view Israel as being more similar to Western-style nations than anyone else in the region, but those pro-Israeli feelings have been eroded by a combination of Leftist/Islamist agitprop over the last three years (which is not a good thing and none of us should ever delude ourselves into thinking that allying with Leftists or Muslims is a viable option), and a feeling that certain elements within the Israeli government are working as hard as possible to keep the US engaged in a conflict that few Americans want anything to do with (which the events of the last 48 hours have practically confirmed to everyone). Americans just aren’t interested in the prospect of having to babysit the Middle East. The overwhelming majority of them just want us to focus on our own country and our own hemisphere. And these feelings are only going to grow over time, not diminish.

The Middle East is not compatible with Democracy. Never in the 5,000+ year history of civilization has this part of the world seen a thriving multi-party parliamentary system outside of modern Israel itself. These people need a monarchy. The moment the post 9/11 goal went from “kill the terrorists who attacked us” to “building western style democracy in the Middle East” we were doomed to fail.

@ChristianHeiens I think there would be more willingness to deal with Iran had Bush not pursued futile nation building among cultures that aren't fit for democracy. And yes, the agitprop from the left is not helping.

In 1995, Mr. T was diagnosed with T-Cell Lymphoma. His response when he found out the name of his cancer was typically Mr. T: "Can you imagine that? Cancer with my name on it, personalised cancer." The cancer initially responded well, five radiation treatments over four weeks and it dissolved. Eleven months later it came back, and he underwent six weeks of high-dose chemotherapy. He described the experience as the great leveller of his life: "My fame couldn't save me. My gold, my money couldn't stop cancer from appearing on my body. If they can't save me, then I don't need them." He was declared in remission in 2001. T-Cell Lymphoma is incurable but treatable, remission is the realistic best outcome rather than a cure, which makes his sustained recovery genuinely remarkable. His advice on the experience became one of his most quoted lines outside of The A-Team: "I pity the fool who just gives up. We're all gonna die eventually from something or other, but don't be a wimp. Put up a good fight."