Sumo has its origins in Japanese Shinto rites dating all the way back to the first century AD. The Dallas Sumo Club, on the other hand, was created in January 2021. Its modern approach, taking the rules of Sumo wrestling (two wrestlers squaring off, and the first person to step out of the ring or hit the ground loses) and adding their own twist by hosting Halloween and Christmas themed matches, seemed to spur rapid online traction. Read full article here
Oddities
The Curious Case of the Ancient Brain
In 2008, archaeologists examining the University of York discovered something strange: the decapitated head of an Iron Age man and his very shrivelled but very much intact brain. How a centuries-old brain was preserved is still unknown, but research suggests that it could have been because of brain diseases like dementia. The Yorkshire man’s brain’s proteins were bunched up together, much like how dementia causes brain proteins to bunch up into plaques. This bunching up, or aggregation, could continue even after death, turning regions of the brain into hard masses. Read full article here
Merv
September 30, 2022
