Resurrectionists(depicted in action) were commonly employed by anatomists in the United Kingdom during the 18th and 19th centuries to disinter the bodies of the recently deceased for anatomical research. Between 1506 and 1752 only a very few cadavers were available each year. The supply was increased when, in an attempt to intensify the deterrent effect of the death penalty, the Murder Act 1752 allowed executed criminals to be dissected—a fate generally viewed with horror—in place of gibbeting. The change was insufficient to meet the needs of hospitals and teaching centres. Corpses and their component parts became a commodity, but although the practice of disinterment was hated by the general public, bodies were not legally anyone's property. Resurrectionists caught plying their trade ran the risk of attack. Measures taken to stop them included increased security at graveyards, secure coffins, and physical barriers. Matters came to a head following the Burke and Hare murders of 1828. Although it did not make body snatching illegal, the Anatomy Act 1832 effectively put an end to the work of the resurrectionists by allowing anatomists access to the workhouse dead. (Full article...)
... that Romeyn Beck Hough's American Woods is a set of over 1,000 paper-thin wood slices collected from 354 different tree species?
... that the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo, was founded in 1625 by King Andrianjaka on the site of a village occupied by Vazimba, the island's earliest inhabitants?
The tallest dams in China are some of the tallest dams in the world. Nearly 22,000 dams over 15 metres (49 ft) in height – about half the world's total – have been constructed in China since the 1950s. Many of the tallest are located in the southwestern part of the country on rivers such as the Yangtze(Three Gorges Dam pictured). While beneficial, many throughout the country have been criticized for their effects on the environment, displacement of locals and effect on transboundary river flows. Currently, the country's and world's tallest, Jinping-I Dam, an arch dam 305 m (1,001 ft) high, is located in Sichuan. The tallest embankment dam in China is the 261 m (856 ft) Nuozhadu Dam in Yunnan. The country's highest gravity dam is Longtan Dam at 216.2 m (709 ft), which can be found in Guangxi. At 233 m (764 ft), Shuibuya Dam in Hubei is the world's tallest concrete-face rock-fill dam. In Sichuan, the government is constructing the 312 m (1,024 ft) tall Shuangjiangkou Dam which, when complete, will become the world's tallest dam. (Full list...)
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