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Independence Day: 14 Cool Behind-The-Scenes Facts You May Not Know

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"On this day, in an alternate 1996, an alien force invaded Earth, leveled its major cities, and put humanity’s back against the wall. At least that’s what happened in director Roland Emmerich’s summer blockbuster landmark Independence Day, a movie that to this day still defines the pop culture impact the ‘90s had on filmmaking. Some may say that this happening was an inexplicable accident, but if you dig deep enough into the behind-the-scenes facts surrounding the film’s production, you can see just why its appeal has endured through over 20 years. Today, we celebrate this sci-fi classic that would not go quietly into history, as we present to you some cool facts you may or may not have known about the day we fought back." READ MORE
 

The French Navy Ship Insere and the Statue of Liberty

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The copper statue, “Liberty Enlightening the World,” designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, was loaded into the French navy transport ship Insere as 350 individual pieces, packaged in more than 200 crates. The Insere is often referred to as a frigate, but arrived in New York serving as a cargo vessel, without guns aboard. The ship was a propeller driven steam ship with three masts, around 215 feet long with 30 feet of beam. Here is how the New York Times reported her arrival in an article dated June 18, 1885.

“A pilot boat sailing around in search of one of the big transatlantic steamers, about 10 miles off Sandy Hook Lightship, on Tuesday night, ran close under the bows of an odd-looking, bark rigger propeller, with her hull painted white, and a high funnel between the main and the mizzen masts. The man on lookout shouted down the companionway to the pilots that he thought it was a tramp. The vessel was hailed and a voice answered, “What ship?”

“Isere, from Rouen” came back though the darkness, in broken English.

“It’s all right,” said Pilot Henderson, getting into a small boat and heading for the vessel; “she’s got that big Liberty aboard.”

The ship, which appears to have arrived on June 16th, could not cross the harbor bar because a gale blew up, so she anchored offshore. The voyage had been rough at times. Again, from the NY Times:

Capt. De Saune … said that the Insere had been tossed about in rough weather between Rouen and Fayal. To make bad matters worse, the coal gave out and she had to make sail. After leaving Fayal the weather was lovely and the steamer made rapid time.

The colossal statue weighs 220 tons, and is packed away below decks in 212 boxes, some of them 20 feet long. It took 17 days to stow them away so as to prevent shifting when the vessel rolled and tossed in the tremendous billows. The work was well done, for Lieut. Amet said that not a box moved from its place, though in the early part of the voyage there was ample provocation. READ MORE
 
"Insere" primarily refers to a conjugated form of the French verb insérer, meaning "to insert". It can also be the imperative form of "insere" in Old English or early Modern English, derived from the Latin insere, meaning "to graft on" or "to plant". The ship named Insere was a French propeller-driven steam ship.
 
Sixty years ago this month ...

July 30, 1965

Lyndon Johnson signs Medicare bill into law at the Truman presidential library. Harry Truman (age 81) becomes the first person to receive a Medicare card. Truman was the first president to publicly advocate for a national health insurance program.

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Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States largely because he was a rail-splitter.

"At the time he was elected, he had not split a rail for nearly thirty years. His rail-splitting had been done when he was a young man; at a time when there was no way for him to know it would one day help make him President."

"There is abundant proof that Lincoln had a dream he might one day become president, but there is no way he could have known that splitting logs would have any bearing upon his election."

"Lincoln’s splitting of rails, and his subsequent election to the presidency, may be used to illustrate any number of themes, but the lesson which comes through most clearly is that the faithful doing of trivial duties in childhood or adulthood may have an important bearing upon later events of greater significance." READ MORE
 

How Tycoons Created the Dinosaur​

The story of dinosaurs is also the story of capitalism.
By Lukas Rieppel - October 20, 2021


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WHEN DINOSAURS RULED: Fearing a backlash to their corporate might, America’s industrial tycoons became avid philanthropists to uplift and educate working people, establishing universities, art galleries, and natural history museums, with their prized possessions, dinosaurs.Everett Historical / Shutterstock


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"The dinosaur is a chimera. Some parts of this complex assemblage are the result of biological evolution. But others are products of human ingenuity, constructed by artists, scientists, and technicians in a laborious process that stretches from the dig site to the naturalist’s study and the museum’s preparation lab."

"The mounted skeletons that have become such a staple of natural history museums most closely resemble mixed media sculptures, having been cobbled together from a large number of disparate elements that include plaster, steel, and paint, in addition to fossilized bone. When standing before one of these towering creatures, such as the T. rex skeleton named Sue in Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, it is surprisingly difficult to distinguish which features are ancient and which ones are modern, where prehistory ends and imagination begins." READ MORE
 
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