YouTube - You Scream I Scream - Dog

When I saw this video about a month ago, I thought it was hilarious. I should have posted it back then. At first it seems like it's gonna be one of those 'cute' videos, but as I kept watching I saw it was not. It was a parody that kept me chuckling. In a way it was so true. I enjoyed watching it again and again. It's one of the best videos that I have seen in a long time.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6C6YCTNqVo

YouTube - M&M's - Which Hand (1950's)

According to "MandMsCommercial", 1950's M&M's commercial might be the brand's first ad. Unfortunately, the quality is bad and there is enough contrast. but if you darken your screen a little bit you might see better.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gtM_mmvDww

The Early Evolution Of The Treadmill In Prison

After I was done writing this post, I realized that I strayed from my original purpose. I intended to write about the history of the treadmill. Instead, I found myself focusing more on the use of treadwheel at the prison system centuries ago. It was new to me. The Hubpage site states that the history of the treadmill started during the Roman and Greek eras. It was more focused on the treadmill from a health perspective and as a cardio invention. This was the type of information that I looked for. But as soon as I read that it started in prison, I became curious.

Origins & History of the Treadmill
http://hubpages.com/hub/Origins--History-of-the-Treadmill

Did you know that a few centuries ago the treadmill, which was referred to as the treadwheel those days, was very popular? However, it wasn't for personal achievements at all. It was rather a form of punishment in prisons early in the 1800's. This is where the treadwheel spewed out. As you may have figured out already, these early treadmills, or treadwheels as I should call them, looked nothing like the modern treadmills which are still evolving. The prisoners were forced to use it and had to walk for miles on it. It was clearly a form cruelty and torture and served no purpose and without any benefits.

If you are interested to learn about prisons and the punishments during the early 1800's. There are many other good sites about punishment in prisons in the early 1800's in Europe and the US. Most of them are about prison's punishment and the atrocious system, but of them have a brief mention about the treadwheels.

I have seen only very few images of the treadwheels that were used in prisons. It was hard to find them. I've seen the photograph in several sites though. You can also learned more from some of the sites where I got the images from, except the science site which is a picture library site. The category on this site is about the punishment and very depressing. So just be aware that if you go there, you might be disturbed by other images (which are not related to the treadwheel). You can find lighter subjects from the main page (click the icon on the top left).

As for the National Archive site, you may want to check out this page as well:

National Archive -Why were Victorian Prisons so tough?
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/lessons/lesson24.htm

The images from bottom to top are from:

Gravel Roots
http://www.gravelroots.net/petworth/prison.html

** I lost the information for the original site for this illustration. But there is another site with the same image, just a smaller one from the Lancaster Castle movie site. There is also a trailer for the movie. By The Way, it is an interesting site.

Lancaster Castle - Crime and punishment
http://www.lancastercastle.com/html/history/crime_and_punishment.php

The National Archives Learning Curve - Prisoners on a treadwheel at Pentonville Prison 1895
http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/snapshots/snapshot24/B95E1338181E4E6C89A0DA004675F763.htm

*Problem with the link above? Use the link below:
*Learning Curve - Prisoners on a treadwheel at Pentonville Prison 1895
http://tinyurl.com/ykgcszl

Science & Society - Image Preview
http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10315808

It's A Bigfoot!!

Learn about the history of the Monster Truck and Bigfoot. It was in 1974, when Bob Chandler drove the his monster truck in a field over cars to crash them and test the truck. This truck was the early Bigfoot version (the second version came in 1982). The reason he did it was for his four wheel drive performance shop's promotion. Chandler's video was seen by an event promoter who then asked Chandler to do it in front of a crowd. Chandler initially hesitated but eventually agreed to do so. The rest is history. An interesting one too, as you'll also learn the origin behind the phrase "Monster Truck" in Wikipedia (at the end of the second paragraph).

Wikipedia - Monster Trucks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_truck

Below is the original Bigfoot in action It's a 5:35 minutes clip. By the way, when I typed "bigfoot monster truck" in the search box, I got 2,240 results. But after watching some, I saw that lots of them are about the monster trucks in general. I really liked the early trucks clips. Those are classics.



YouTube Bigfoot the Monster Truck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY8VFWfxdZA

Catch A Lesson About The 19th Century Baseball

This is a really nice looking site about baseball in the 19th century. Baseball fans and experts will probably notice the differences.

19th Century Baseball
http://www.19cbaseball.com/