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The Ansel Bourne Identity

In January 1887, a mild-mannered itinerant preacher named Ansel Bourne left his home in Greene, Rhode Island, to travel to nearby Providence. He carried a small sum of money and, by all appearances, the clear intention of returning in a few days. He did not come back.

For nearly two months, Bourne’s family had no idea about his whereabouts. They posted a missing person newspaper advertisements but nobody reported any sightings. Then, in late March a telegram arrived addressed to Bourne’s nephew Andrew Harris in Providence. His uncle had been found in Norristown, Pennsylvania, where he had been living the previous two months under the name “Alfred Brown”.

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Chandu Numerology Pada January 27, 2026 Komentar

Caroline Hampton's Rubber Gloves

Travel

In the late nineteenth century, modern surgery was still emerging from an era in which hygiene was, by today’s standards, startlingly poor. Operations were often performed with bare hands, instruments were reused with minimal cleaning, and postoperative infections were common and frequently fatal. Although ideas about germs were gaining ground, everyday medical practice lagged behind theory. It was in this transitional moment that Caroline Hampton, a surgical nurse, played an unexpected role in reshaping operative hygiene.

William Halsted operating in the New Surgical Ampitheatre in 1904. Credit: Wellcome Library, London

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Chandu Numerology Pada January 22, 2026 Komentar

The Disappearance of The Waratah

Travel

On the evening of 26 July 1909, the SS Waratah sailed from Durban, South Africa, bound for Cape Town. A luxury passenger liner, she was coal-fired and boasted eight watertight compartments. She was said to be “practically immune from any danger of sinking”.

Yet, she never arrived. No wreckage was conclusively identified and no survivors were found. With 211 people aboard, the Waratah disappeared into the Indian Ocean, becoming one of the greatest maritime mysteries of the twentieth century.

The Waratah. Credit: Wikipedia Commons

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Chandu Numerology Pada January 20, 2026 Komentar

Rupes Nigra: The Fabled Magnetic Mountain at The North Pole

Travel

In 1577, the Flemish cartographer Gerhard Mercator wrote a letter to his friend, the English scientist, occultist and royal advisor John Dee. In that letter, Mercator described the geography of the North Pole as first reported in the 14^th century by a Franciscan friar from Oxford, who travelled the North Atlantic region on behalf of the King of England. An account of his travels were published in a travelogue titled Inventio Fortunata (or “Fortunate Discoveries”), a book that has been lost for more than 500 years. However, a summary of this book was published in another travelogue called the Itinerarium by a Brabantian traveller from the city of 's-Hertogenbosch named Jacobus Cnoyen. It was in Itinerarium where Mercator read about the astonishing claims made by the unknown author of the Inventio Fortunata.

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Chandu Numerology Pada January 17, 2026 Komentar

Barbara Thompson: Prisoner of the Aboriginal

Travel

When Captain Joseph Frazer rescued Narcisse Pelletier from Aboriginal people in 1875, it was not the first time a white captive had been recovered from Australia’s bushmen. A quarter of a century earlier, sailors from a British naval vessel had carried out a similar rescue, this time of a white woman shipwrecked in the Torres Strait, who had been compelled to live among Aboriginal people as the wife of one of their men. Through Barbara Thompson’s story, we glimpse not only an extraordinary personal ordeal, but also the everyday realities of Aboriginal life as observed by someone who lived within it.

HMS Rattlesnake, the ship that rescued Barbara Thompson. Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

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Chandu Numerology Pada January 15, 2026 Komentar

The Green Stone of Hattusa

Travel

The Green Stone of Hattusa is one of the most intriguing and enigmatic objects from the Hittite capital, largely because of how little we can say about it with certainty. This unusual polished block of green rock stands apart from the city’s monumental architecture, inscribed tablets, and sculptural reliefs. Yet, despite more than a century of archaeological study, its original purpose remains unresolved.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons