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Businessman Gifts Two Graduating Classes With Life-Changing Opportunity

October 9, 2018 by viralzergnet.com

The idea of ‘free college’ is a subject of debate as of late. Some argue that education is a right and others say they simply don’t want to pay the tax increases needed to implement such a policy. As the debate continues though, remember: charity is always an option.

As it happens, one wealthy Wisconsin businessman understands that idea very well. He’ll be using his money to give two entire graduating classes the gift of a lifetime. This is his story.

An Assembly

Luck Public Schools Superintendent Cory Hinkel had just received some very good news and he was anxious to speak to his seniors about it. Hinkel decided to call an assembly to announce it because the news was so monumental that it needed to be disseminated to the community in a big way.

Two Years

As Superintendent Hinkel stood before the 2019 graduating class of the Luck Public school system, he revealed the news they had all come to hear. A local businessman and philanthropist had offered to pay for two years of technical college for all 34 graduating students. They couldn’t believe what they were hearing.

Priceless Reaction

Hinkel, speaking to KARE11, explained how jubilant the students looked when he delivered the wonderful news. “The look on the kids’ faces was priceless,” he recalled. He added that he believes the donation will make a huge impact in many of the children’s lives. Especially some of those children who hadn’t thought college was even possible before them.

The Specifics

The scholarships that the businessman is offering are all for Pine City Technical College in Pine City, Minnesota. The two-year degree programs offered by the scholarship are in things like nursing, education, automotive repair, gunsmithing, computer science, and other vocational trades. In addition to that, students will also receive a $1,000 stipend for books and tools.

So Important

Superintendent Hinkel added that the gesture and two years’ tuition is in fact far more important to these students than the billionaire benefactor might understand at first glance. Luck is a small community and many families of students there do not have the available resources to easily pursue higher education.

Opening Doors

The cost of college these days is among the most expensive things that budding academics can invest in. With the constantly shifting economy and job market, it is also more uncertain a prospect than it had been in past years. Nevertheless, as Hinkel explains, “This just opens up doors for those whose doors may have been closed a little harder…”

Few Would Question

Giving money for an entire class to attend college is no small feat and not a cheap enterprise to become involved in. Clearly, a man of such generosity bears further investigation; if only to learn more about what sort of a man would be willing to give such a magnanimous gift. Then again, this isn’t the first time Dennis Frandsen has extended this offer to the students of Luck.

Self-Made Man

Dennis Frandsen was not always a billionaire. Nor was he born into money. His father was a dairy farmer who made his living through hard work and self-sacrifice. It was by this stellar example that Frandsen would model his own ascent to wealth and power, and it began just as he finished high school.

Never Attended

Ironically, Frandsen never attended college himself but entered the workforce almost immediately following high school. After graduating, Frandsen took a job logging trees near Luck, Wisconsin, the place he was born. It was thankless work, but necessary for him to make a living.

Successful

Frandsen’s hard work in the logging industry eventually paid off. A lifetime later and the now elderly billionaire owns 35 branches of his own Frandsen Bank and Trust in similar communities all across Minnesota and Wisconsin. He also oversees a collection of manufacturing companies and other banks in four states.

Born and Bred

Though Frandsen had been born in Luck, he moved to nearby Frederic, Wisconsin a year into high school because of better bus routes. After that, no matter how far his businesses took him, Frandsen always maintained roots with his lucky hometown. He even bought his father’s old dairy farm after he got older.

Respected Employer

Frandsen’s myriad businesses employ more than 1,000 people across four separate states. The Frandsen Corp., a private company, holds assets somewhere in the realm of about $1.5 billion. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that a man like Frandsen, a hometown boy, wants to give back to his community.

Grandchildren

At first, Frandsen only paid for his grandchildren’s college educations. He had seen firsthand how difficult it had been for them to transition back to the workforce as they were laden with student debt. He compared it to “a terrible anchor around their neck,” and posited that it would be better if everyone to come out of college with no debt.

Spread the Wealth

As a pillar of his community and a great lover of education, Frandsen attends high school graduations quite regularly. Recently, he noticed that nearly all scholarships end up going to the very top students in the class. This was all well and good, but it left the average students, talented in their own right, out of luck.

Average Kids

“What about the average students?” he asked hypothetically, during a recent interview. “Are we just going to forget about them?” He added that he himself was always an average student as well, and a hard worker. Frandsen saw it as his mission to spread the wealth and opportunity around a bit to those who weren’t necessarily academically adept.

A Year Before

He began implementing this new scholarship in his hometown of Luck but also made the same offer to the 59-member graduating class at Rush City High School as well. All of whom were just as thrilled as the seniors at the Luck high school. “I thought it was the right thing to do,” said Frandsen.

Why Not?

In fact, Frandsen decided he would make the same two-year scholarship offer to Rush City’s class of 2019 as well. “I was able to do it and why shouldn’t I,” he said during the interview. The reason that he had chosen Pine City Technical was quite simple; he wanted to bring more skilled workers into the workforce.

Campus Tour

The idea had actually come to Frandsen during a recent tour of the Rush City campus. He saw that the kids there needed help, they needed a head-start in life. He was impressed with the campus, and the students, but he could tell that these young people were just as deserving as their more intelligent peers. He wanted to make a true difference in his community.

Applications

Because he plans on doing it for the next few years, many of the 68 seniors slated to graduate in 2019 have already begun applying for scholarships from Frandsen’s corporation. Thus far, all of those students have been invited to meet with Frandsen prior to the graduation in order to plead their case.

Giving Back

The magnanimous billionaire has even extended the scholarship to the school’s four home-schooled students as well. Dennis Frandsen is an example of what those with wealth can accomplish if they choose to give back to the community.

Woman With Special Needs Makes Her Own Path After Being Denied Opportunity

October 9, 2018 by viralzergnet.com

If there’s one thing that most everyone agrees on, it’s that life isn’t easy. No matter what your origins or where you are in life at the moment, you’ve almost certainly faced your share of challenges.

While things can be tough on everyone, there are some who have a little bit harder time of things than most people. But one of the most inspiring things about people is their ability to stand up against adversity and find a way to thrive…

Typical Woman

In many ways, Jessica was a typical Midwestern woman. Living in St. Peters, Missouri, she was a self-described “huge sports fan” that especially loved the St. Louis Cardinals and the St. Louis Blues. Even more important to her were animals.

Animal Lover

Jessica was the proud “mom” of two dogs, Annie and Yadi (named after Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina), and two cats, Joey and Mickey. When she wasn’t attending a sporting event or spending time with her family and friends, she loved to go horseback riding too.

Rare Syndrome

But for all the things that made her similar to other people, there was one thing about Jessica that was fairly unique. She had a rare genetic syndrome called Rubinstein Taybi Syndrome, a condition characterized by distinctive facial features and moderate to severe learning difficulties.

Different Challenges

That meant that growing up, Jessica had to face difficult challenges that most of us never have to deal with. Because of her syndrome, she was treated differently by students and teachers alike, and not always in the best of ways.

Treated Differently

Jessica sometimes had to deal with the kind of harsh treatment from other students that you might expect given the fact that she was differently abled. But even after she was finished with her education, she was facing unfair circumstances as a result of her syndrome.

Trying To Find Work

Because of her learning difficulties, Jessica was having a hard time finding a job that was a good fit for her abilities with an employer who was willing to “take a chance” on someone who wasn’t the same as everyone else.

Starting A Business

Unable to find someone willing to hire her, Jessica Eisenbeis decided to take matters into her own hands. If no one was going to hire her, she was going to take one of her passions in life and turn it into her own business.

Baking Up A Storm

For the past few years, Jessica had been making high quality homemade treats for cats and dogs and she wasn’t just making them for her own pets. She began selling her treats at local fairs and markets. Business was going so well that she even set up a website so people could get her treats online.

The Next Step

The business was doing so well that the it seemed possible for Jessica to open a brick and mortar store. That could be a huge deal for her, allowing people to pass by her business as they went about their everyday lives and giving the curious a chance to walk in off the street and check out the treats.

New Market

The idea would also allow Jessica to expand her business. In addition to baking treats for pets, she could start baking things for their owners too. Handmade baked goods for people wouldn’t be all that different from what she was already doing and why should the pets have all the fun?

Doing Good

It would also give her an opportunity to do some good and help out a cause that was important to her. With the help of her mother, Cindy Eisenbeis, Jessica set up Annie’s fund, named after her second dog. The fund would help shelter dogs in need of medical help.

Expensive Treatments

“We named this fund after Annie, our Newfie, since she herself experienced several expensive but life saving surgeries and is a happy and healthy dog because of them,” read her website. “We realize dogs that have been abused and abandoned might not have access to necessary medical treatment due to cost so we set up Annie’s fund as a way to help.”

Capital Needed

But opening up an actual storefront isn’t cheap. She would need to get together the money to actually pay for the location, signage, insurance, and all the little costs that can add up to a heavy sum of money in the end.

Gathering Funds

To raise the funds through treat sales alone would take a very long time and Jessica didn’t want to put off her goal any longer. So with the help of her family Jessica organized a fundraiser through GoFundMe to raise the capital to open up her store.

We Made It

Donations came in slowly, but steadily. Over the course of a year and with the help of 99 donors — including one who anonymously donated a whopping $10,000 — she was able to meet her $20,000 goal.

Strip Mall Shop

Combined with the money brought in from the sale of treats, Jessica had enough to get a store in a small shopping center on the east side of St. Peters. Then, she and her family got down to the task of making the storefront ready for business.

Paying Homage

After getting all the infrastructure and decorations in place, the only remaining step was to get the storefront ready and pick a name. Jessica decided to call her shop, Yadi’s Yummies, after her dog and the Cardinals’ Catcher.

Pumped!

“I’m super excited,” Jessica said to a local FOX news affiliate on the day of the grand opening. Given that it was the opening day of her business, she should have been, especially considering it was the first full time job she’d ever had.

Giving Back

In the long run, Jessica also hopes to do even more good through the company. She doesn’t want other people to find themselves in a situation similar to the one she was in, unable to find work. “Her goal is to someday, if we’re successful, to be able to hire people with disabilities,” Cindy said.

Lessons Learned

Jessica Eisenbeis’ story should act as a lesson to us. It tells us that just because someone may have different abilities, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have something worth contributing to society. It also teaches us that when you follow your dreams, amazing things can happen.

NFL Coach’s Search For Biological Parents Leads Him to The Man He Least Expected

October 9, 2018 by viralzergnet.com

You can’t know who you are without knowing where you came from. So for those who have been adopted and know nothing about their past, there’s often a feeling that a piece of themselves is missing.

Despite being raised by a loving mother and getting opportunities that many only dream about, a former NFL player and coach couldn’t help but feel like something was missing in his life. After years of wondering, the coach finally decided to get some answers about his biological family. What he discovered, however, left him blindsided.

A Fast Delivery

At about 2 a.m. on December 1, 1972, Carol Briggs woke up in her room at the Zoar Home for Mothers, Babies and Convalescents. The 16-year-old, who had spent the previous day sledding and playing in the snow with some friends, was in labor. Despite it being her first pregnancy, the baby was coming fast.

Taking in the Moment

Just 32 minutes later, Briggs was holding her baby boy, who she named Jon Kenneth Briggs. What struck her right away was how much the baby looked like his father, who had no idea she had even gotten pregnant. Sometime after the delivery, Briggs laid her newborn son down on a bed and took a mental note of the moment.

Saying Goodbye

“In my mind,” Briggs told ESPN years later, “that was probably going to be the last time I ever saw him.” While pregnant, Briggs had decided to give her son up for adoption. While it wasn’t an easy decision, she knew it was the right one as she looked into her son’s eyes.

Not Fit to Raise a Baby

“My mother was still cleaning up my room for me once a week,” Briggs told ESPN. “I wasn’t in a position to be anybody’s mother. I thought this was best for him, that I allow him to be placed with some family that would be able to give him all the great things that I had coming up because I had a mother and a father. I just didn’t want him to get cheated out of anything.”

A Secret Pregnancy

The day after giving birth, Briggs and her family planned to pack up her things and return to her hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, where no one knew she had even been pregnant. According to Briggs, no one aside from her immediate family and a single cousin knew about the baby. But before she could return to her life as a 16-year-old honor student, she had to officially give baby Jon away.

A Difficult Decision

Just before signing the adoption papers, however, Briggs became conflicted. She knew she was doing the right thing for her baby, but she felt that his father had a right to know he had a son. Yet, the baby’s father was already away at college. Ultimately, Briggs decided not to tell the baby’s father since she didn’t want to derail his life. “He was a kid too,” Briggs explained. “He was off at college on a scholarship. I think I may have felt that I kind of got myself in this, I’m gonna do what I need to do to work my way through it.”

The Adoption

Briggs felt that a couple who was ready to raise a baby could give Jon all the things she couldn’t. So when she heard back from the adoption agency sometime after, she was relieved when they told her Jon had been adopted. According to Briggs, she was told Jon had been placed with a doctor and his wife in Columbus, Ohio. Yet that wasn’t exactly what happened. Instead of getting adopted by a doctor and his wife, Jon ended up being adopted by A.C. McCullough, a popular host on a local radio station, and his wife, Adelle Comer. The pair had a young son of their own but became foster parents after their second son died as an infant.

Love at First Sight

Comer agreed to go in and see Jon after a social worker reached out to see if she had any interest in meeting the 6-week-old infant. “He was asleep in a bassinet,” Comer told ESPN. “And she put him in my arms, and when he woke up, his eyes were looking straight at me. It was instant connection. Love. Mother-son.” Within a few months, the couple adopted Jon, brought him home, and renamed him Deland Scott McCullough.

A Loving Home

In the beginning, Deland was raised in a happy, loving home. “We were still in love, a good couple,” Comer told ESPN. “We went to church, partied, went to cookouts. We were working together and doing this together and wanting to make a home for our children. We knew that God’s hand was in it. Deland came so fast to us. We knew that it was meant to be. Both of us.”

Happy Times Are Over

However, that happiness and stability didn’t last. When Deland was just two years old, McCullough left Comer to raise their two young sons on her own. After the divorce, Comer struggled to provide for the family on her own. She also had a few relationships with other men, and some of those men were violent and abusive.

Escaping The Pain

On top of all the instability at home, Deland struggled with the knowledge that he had been adopted, a fact that the bullies at school used to tease him about. “The void was there,” Deland told ESPN. “I wish that it wasn’t, but I think I did a good job of hiding it.” During that time, Deland found solace on the football field. “It was an escape,” Deland explained. “When I was out there practicing, you didn’t think about the electric is off, you know? You didn’t even think about anything like that. You were just out there balling, doing your thing and competing and bonding with your friends.”

A Bright Future

During his senior year of high school, however, Deland started to see football not just as an escape but as a future. After switching to the running back position, Deland started attracting the attention of college recruiters. One of those recruiters was Sherman Smith, the running backs coach at Miami University in Ohio. During Smith’s visit to meet Deland, the teenager was instantly drawn to the coach, who was the reason why Deland chose to attend and play football at Miami University.

A Father Figure

“It was just something about his personality,” Deland told ESPN. “The way he presented himself. He had things that I hadn’t seen out of a man or mentor. He was on top of his details. He was successful. He had played in the NFL. He got his degree. I wasn’t around that type of person.” The following school year, Deland showed up at the university and started training as a running back under Smith. “I would tell the players, ‘You may not be looking for a father, but I’m going to treat you like you’re my sons,’” Smith told ESPN. “And so I just looked at every guy like my son. I just wanted to be a positive role model for Deland and exemplify what I thought my father exemplified for me.”

Always in Touch

But before long, Smith and Deland went their separate ways. Smith moved on to coaching at the University of Illinois the following year, and Deland ended up joining the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals after a Hall of Fame career in college. But no matter where the pair went, they always stayed in touch.

Settling Down

During his time in the NFL, Deland suffered a knee injury, which he never fully recovered from. In 2001, Deland retired from the NFL and settled down with his wife and their first son in Cincinnati, where he worked as a teacher and a football coach. During that time, Deland fell in love with coaching and later got a job on the coaching staff at Miami University. A few years later, Smith and Deland reunited when Smith invited his former player as a coaching intern in Seattle for the Seahawks.

Searching For Answers

By 2017, Deland was a running backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs. Around that time, he and his wife gave birth to their fourth son and Deland signed on to coach at the University of Southern California. Despite all the successes, Deland still couldn’t shake the feeling that a part of his life was missing. So he decided to finally get some answers about his past that had been haunting him his entire life. In November 2017, Deland finally tracked down his original birth certificate, which featured his original name and the name of his mother, Carol Denise Briggs.

A Shocking Discovery

Deland tracked Briggs down on Facebook and the two agreed to talk on the phone. Briggs always hoped her son would reach out to her so she was thrilled to finally speak with him and get to know him. Within a few minutes, Deland couldn’t help but ask who his father was. “Your father’s name is Sherman Smith,” Briggs told him that day. Deland was blindsided. The man that had mentored him since he was 16 years old was actually his father.

A Dream Come True

In that moment, Deland couldn’t help but think about the countless times over the past 28 years that people joked about how similar he and Smith were. “A sense of pride that went through me, like, ‘Wow, that explains these things.’ And then I also start thinking about all the similarities of our path. That just blew me away,” Deland explained. “If you would have told me to pick who my father was, there’s no way I would have picked him because I might have thought I wasn’t worthy for him to be my father. I felt like my blessings came full circle because I’d always wanted to be somebody like him.”

Breaking The News

The next day, Deland told Smith he needed to talk to him about something important. After sitting down together, Deland explained how he had been searching for his biological parents and that he had found Briggs. He also told Smith that Briggs said he was his father. At first, Smith was shocked to learn he had a 42-year-old son and asked to have a paternity test taken, which came back positive. Smith felt overwhelmed and guilty that Briggs had to deal with everything on her own. He also felt guilty that Deland grew up without a father.

A True Blessing

After taking some time to process the news, however, Smith was amazed and filled with pride that Deland was his son. “I look at it, and I just say it’s a God thing. It’s grace. It’s undeserved. And that’s what’s made it great for Deland and for all of us, how everyone has embraced this and is excited about our new family,” Smith told ESPN. “Now I know who I am and where I’m from,” Deland said. “I got all of the pieces to the story. I got them all now.”

Atmospheric Expert Weighs In On Whether or Not Hurricanes Are Linked to Climate Change

October 9, 2018 by viralzergnet.com

Hurricanes are devastating weather anomalies and the winds and flooding that come in their wake can cause untold amounts of damage to coastal cities and towns. Thanks to the availability of 24-hour news networks and the Internet, we’ve all seen the brutal evidence of such storms.

Recently, hurricanes like Florence and Katrina, and superstorms like Sandy, have had many people wondering if there is some correlation with the incidence of these destructive storms and the rise in global warming. But, is this potential link between the two phenomena scientifically sound, or is it simply posturing by environmentalists?

Florence

Hurricane Florence recently blew its way through the Caribbean and hit the southeast coast of the U.S. Between August 31 and September 19, 2018, the eventual Category 1 storm poured trillions of gallons of rain onto the Carolinas, resulting in massive amounts of flooding. The storm reached a peak of 140 mph and ended up causing the deaths of 45 people.

Sandy and Katrina

Compared to Superstorm Sandy in 2012, a category 3 storm and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, a category 5, Florence was a light drizzle. Nevertheless, even a smallish hurricane can cause a significant amount of damage and loss of life. But why have storms like these been so destructive in recent years? Could it be due to climate change?

Formation

To understand the impact of global warming on hurricanes, we first need to understand hurricanes themselves. If one looks at a basic definition, they see that hurricanes form when areas of disturbed weather, mostly rain, and thunderstorms, organize over the ocean in a swirling pattern. As winds increase, they end up extracting more and more energy from the ocean water below.

Size of a Storm

The strengthening storms are then carried along by even larger weather patterns and travel along those pathways; sometimes out to sea and sometimes to shore. Nevertheless, hurricanes can be as large as 300 miles across, which means they can encompass quite a lot of land mass within them.

Much Research

There has, of course, been tons of research done on whether or not tropical hurricanes will increase in strength and numbers in the coming years thanks to global warming. Unfortunately, much of the information is inconclusive or contradictory. Nevertheless, one only need to look at the facts to see how a warmer climate might result in bigger, better hurricanes.

Weather Expert

Storm Expert David S. Nolan has been studying weather at the University of Miami and is acting chair of the department of atmospheric sciences. He also happens to be a noted expert on hurricanes and tropical weather in general. He recently weighed in on the notion of hurricanes and climate change in an interview with NBC News.

Five Categories

Nolan begins by explaining how hurricanes are categorized from 1 to 5 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA. Category five hurricanes have the most severe wind speeds and are generally the most instructive. Category ones are still forces to be reckoned with, but by no means the most dangerous.

A Sixth Category?

Category fives are exceptionally rare and can reach speeds of up to 170 and 180 mph. Nolan posits that even if the weather continues to warm on a global scale, category fives will still be an extremely rare occurrence; maybe once every five years instead of once every ten. He adds that sixth category, meaning winds exceeding 180 mph is just as unlikely.

Favorable Conditions

Nolan explains that there are some favorable conditions necessary for hurricanes to form. The first of which is warm ocean temperatures above 85 degrees Fahrenheit. This explains why so many hurricanes form in tropical waters. Category fives only form in these very favorable conditions, and again, rarely.

Hard to Predict

Predicting hurricanes, or rather predicting where a hurricane’s path will take it, is still a difficult enterprise for scientists like Nolan. It is a science, though not an exact one. Nevertheless, hurricane prediction and tracking have improved greatly thanks to the availability of satellite imaging. There are even drones that can fly out into storms and measure metrics.

Determination

Some hurricanes, like Florence, can make landfall quickly and dissipate soon after, causing little damage. Hurricane Harvey in 2017, however, hit land and gave way to heavy rainfall and coastal flooding. But predicting what course a storm takes relies on two important factors, which Nolan was happy to lay out in his recent interview.

Steering Patterns

The first factor to determine the course a hurricane takes is to see whether or not the storm is moving steadily inland, or lingering off the coast. Scientists like Nolan determine this by looking at the steering patterns of the atmosphere around the hurricane. This essentially means watching the larger weather patterns around the large storm.

Terrain

The second factor depends on the kind of terrain the storm is heading towards or sitting over. If the ground is rough, the hurricane becomes disrupted. Nolan uses Hurricane Harvey as an example. It sat over Houston, which is a relatively flat and smooth surface near the Gulf of Mexico. As such, Harvey didn’t dissipate quickly but lingered for a number of days.

Climate Change

As to the subject of climate change, Nolan offered an educated take on the swirl of theories. There is evidence that the changing global weather patterns are making for more extreme rainfall. This can be explained by the warmer weather in general. Warm air can hold more water vapor, which rises and forms clouds and subsequently rain.

Evidence

Regardless of the warmer weather and increased rainfall, Nolan suggests that, based on the current trends and our current understanding of hurricanes, there is no evidence as of yet to indicate that hurricanes may become more frequent or severe in the next few years. Of course, modern hurricane records, the good quality ones anyway, only go back about 60 years.

Significance

Thus, as hurricane activity varies so much from year to year, it hasn’t really been long enough in the grand scheme of things to see an increasing trend that is backed by scientific evidence. Weather changes can happen over centuries before upward trends are shown to be any sort of significant.

Computer Modeling

Nolan has said that he and his fellow atmospheric scientists have been using computer models for years in an attempt to simulate the motions of the atmosphere. It is through this method that they can more accurately assemble digital images of current weather and extrapolate how it might change in time; using the laws of physics and mathematics.

Studying Formation

Indeed, most of Nolan’s research has been about hurricane formation and fostering a better understanding of the physical processes by which this phenomenon occurs. He added that of the many “disturbances” in the oceans every summer, very few become hurricanes. Nolan just wants to understand why some do.

What’s Next

The term “rapid intensification” has been thrown around a lot in scientific circles when it comes to the way hurricane wind speeds increase. This is essentially studying how hurricanes can increase by two or more categories in a single day. If Nolan and his peers learn how this happens on a small scale, they may be able to predict it happening on a larger scale as well.

No Proof, Yet

Ultimately, the main understanding of the scientific community is that global warming and climate change have little to no effect on the frequency of formation or intensity of hurricanes at present. That’s not to say that we may not see some changes in the future, but as Nolan explained, it will be a long while before scientists can truly measure the correlation with certainty.

Italian Construction Project Uncovers Rare and Ancient Archeological Find Worth Millions

October 9, 2018 by viralzergnet.com

Archeology is the study of human activity through history and pre-history through the recovery and study of “material culture,” meaning objects that have been left behind. It’s how we’ve come to know nearly everything that we do about our past, considering 99 percent of human history occurred before the advent of written language.

But even in the time since we’ve been able to write things down, there are so many things about the people and cultures of the past they have been lost or were never written down in the first place. To learn more about those people and times, archeologists rely on finding clues that are often buried beneath our feet…

Many Empires

Roman Coins found in Italian Theater Story

In the history of mankind, there have been many civilizations that have taken control of some corner of the earth. They inevitably grow in power and size until some combination of factors causes them to shrink and die out.

Few Giants

But for those few civilizations that grow large and powerful enough, they leave behind a legacy that still influences the world long after the civilization falls. There are very few civilizations that even begin to approach ancient Rome in terms of its legacy.

Massive Influence

Latin, the language of the Romans, is the foundation for all of the Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, etc.). Christianity spread to the world largely after the Christian conversion of Emperor Constantine I, and modern democratic republics, like the United States, are heavily influenced by Roman law and republican politics.

Valued Artifacts

Needless to say, artifacts from ancient Rome are highly valued by archeologists. Every now and then, such artifacts will pop up in the most unlikely of places. One such place was the basement of the historic Cressoni Theater.

Later History

The Cressoni Theater was opened in 1807, long after the fall of the Roman Empire. It was built in Como, Italy, in an area that once was the Roman-era town Novum Comum, established there around the 1st century BC. For nearly two centuries the theater was a part of Italy’s rich theatrical history before becoming a cinema then closing in 1997.

Checking Below

During the time that the theater was in operation, many other Roman artifacts were found in the nearby area. So when the Cressoni Theater was to be turned into luxury housing in September of 2018, archeologists began digging through its basement to make sure there were no artifacts beneath the old theater that might be damaged.

An Amphora

During that digging, they made a remarkable discovery. Buried in the dirt beneath the theater, archeologists found an amphora, which is a two-handled soapstone jar usually used to carry liquids that had been used in Greece and Rome since the bronze age. While that was a fine discovery, it was what was inside the amphora that blew the archeologists away.

Hidden Stash

The amphora contained hundreds of gold coins that must have been ancient in origin, considering the container they were found in. What’s more, it seemed like the buried coins had been stashed away there on purpose.

Like a Bank

According to Maria Grazia Facchinetti, an expert on rare coins, the amphora was “buried in such a way that in case of danger, they could go and retrieve it. They were stacked in rolls similar to those seen in the bank today.”

Past Emperors

Speaking at a press conference about the find, Facchinetti said the coins had engravings of the emperors Honorius, Valentinian III, Leon I, Antonio and Libio Severo. The minting of the coins, she said, did “not go beyond 474 AD.”

Rise and Fall

That means that the coins were minted during the long decline of the Roman Empire. After the republic was founded in the sixth century BC, it didn’t expand beyond the Italian peninsula until around the third century BC.

Massive Reach

It reached its height in 117 AD when it covered essentially all of the lands around the Mediterranean and a significant amount of other lands beyond, covering nearly two million square miles and ruling over an estimated 70 million people, which was about 21 percent of the world’s population at the time.

Within and Without

Over the next few hundred years, the territory and might of the Roman Empire gradually declined as it was plagued by internal religious strife, power struggles and external threats from “barbarians” such as the Visigoths, Vandals, and Huns.

Divide and Fall

The Empire eventually split into the Western and Eastern Roman Empires with the last Roman Emperor in the West being deposed in 476 AD while the Eastern Empire became the Byzantine Empire, with its capital at modern day Istanbul.

Inestimable

“All of this makes us think that the owner is not a private subject, rather it could be a public bank or deposit,” Facchinetti said. Luca Rinaldi, the local archeology superintendent said that the coins had an “inestimable value,” adding “We are talking about an exceptional discovery.”

A Real Treasure

“We do not yet know in detail the historical and cultural significance of the find, but that area is proving to be a real treasure for our archeology,” said Culture Minister Alberto Bonisoli in a statement. He described the find as “a discovery that fills me with pride.”

Exceptional Find

In addition to being an unusual find due to the exceptionally large number of coins found, it was also unusual because the coins had been remarkably well preserved. “It’s practically an entire collection, unlike anything else ever found in northern Italy,” said Bonisoli.

Like a Wallet

“Sometimes coins that are found are stuck together but these were all separate,” he continued. “It was like opening a wallet.” And it was a valuable wallet to open at that. Some local media sources suggested that the roughly three hundred gold coins could be worth millions.

Restoration Time

But no one will be bringing the coins to a bank for a deposit any time soon. Instead, the coins were transferred to Milan’s Mibac restoration laboratory. There, archeologists and restorers will examine them further.

Know Thyself

The study of these coins can give us a more detailed understanding of what life was like in the Roman empire during the time of their minting and use. And the more we know about one of the most influential civilizations in history, the more we know about ourselves.

Foster Dad Shares Touching Story About 1st Time Child Asks For Kiss Goodnight.

October 9, 2018 by viralzergnet.com

Being a foster parent means your children hit milestones that are very different than the ones other kids hit growing up. In a post shared to Reddit’s parenting forum, one dad told a sweet, simple story about the 6-year-old girl he’s currently fostering. His story managed to be both heartbreaking and joyful all at the same … Read more

This Woman Shares How Her Mom Taught Her To Set Boundaries In A Now-Viral Twitter Thread

October 5, 2018 by viralzergnet.com

This Woman Shares How Her Mom Taught Her To Set Boundaries In A Now-Viral Twitter Thread The nomination of a Brett Kavanaugh to the highest court in the land, with subsequent credible charges of s*xual assault against him have forced women across the country to share their own experiences with s*xual harassment, but it also … Read more

Son Tells Dad About His Dream So Dad Goes Downstairs And Picks Up A Hammer

October 4, 2018 by viralzergnet.com

When you’re a kid, your bedroom is important. After all, in a world usually controlled by grownups, it’s the one place that you can make entirely your own. That’s why these two dads went all out to make their kid’s beds — and bedrooms — special.

These dads wanted to connect with their sons and build something they would appreciate forever. So, after thinking about what they bonded with their kids over, these parents went to their respective hardware stores and started working on something their children would never forget.

A new father going by the Imgur username GlockTwentyThree (GTT) faced a dilemma in 2016: his little boy Jack had grown too big for his crib. This dad wanted his son’s first bed to be special…

The dad knew Jack loved trains — especially steam locomotives. Of course, getting his son a boxcar to sleep in was out of the question. But maybe, the father thought, he could build something.

So dad went to the hardware store and picked up the supplies he needed to build the perfect first bed: wood boards, plywood sheets, and more. Then, he went to work.

GTT chronicled the build on imgur, detailing the sizes of each plank of wood: “For the frame, I used two 84″ 2x4s and two 37.5″ 2x4s to give a rectangular size of 39″x84″,” he wrote…

Meanwhile, he “used a Minwax Espresso stain for the entire project. I didn’t stain the middle of the plywood since the mattress covers it. I only stained the edges.” That’s cost effective!

In December of 2016, GTT finished the train! Jack loved it, but the perfectionist dad wasn’t satisfied — there were a couple of major elements missing.

How could he live with himself, he thought, if his son slept in a train bed without a locomotive’s iconic cattle catcher? Similarly, the train lacked a personalized touch. So a year later, he grabbed his tools again.

Along the top headboard, GTT stenciled on the locomotive’s name: The Jack Steam Express! After adding a train number to the side, he went to work on the cattle catcher…

“It would have been easier to make [the cattle catcher] 90 degrees,” GTT wrote. “But for the extra 30 minutes…was worth it to make it look better.” Jack, meanwhile, appreciated the name of the train!

Finally, in November 2017, GTT finished the Jack Steam Express — no doubt, that smile was worth all dad’s time and effort! That’s why other dads, like Imgur user Dericrw, tried their hands at bed craftsmanship, too…

Dericrw faced the same dilemma as GTT: his son needed a new bed. Instead of pulling something off the shelves at Bed, Bath, & Beyond, however, he wanted the bed to be special.

Like GTT, Dericrw thought about what he and his son enjoyed together. The answer? Star Wars. The dad had passed his own interest in the iconic franchise onto his son — but could he incorporate that into a bed?

Dericrw envisioned a bed that looked like it had been pulled right out of a galaxy far, far away, and he had the carpentry knowledge to do something truly impressive. He started with a wall-mounted frame…

Dericrw was far more tight-lipped that GTT on his bed making process, but he nevertheless chronicled most of the build with photos. By the looks of it, his lucky son lent a helping hand, too.

After some time, he had the basic shape of the bed built and mounted on the bedroom all, but a lot of work remained. Can any Star Wars lovers out there guess what he was making?

Next, Dericrw performed a little DIY magic (i.e. he didn’t photograph any of the steps between hanging the frame and the finished product). The end result, though, blew everyone away.

Take a look at that! Dericrw built the cockpit of Han Solo’s ship, The Millennium Falcon, using a mural to complete the whole ship. But the most impressive part was probably inside…

Sure, knobs, buttons, and dials didn’t pepper the inside of the ship (and it was probably missing light speed capabilities)! But the lighting delivered the authentic Star Wars feel. And outside the cockpit?

Dericrw fully stocked the room with Star Wars gadgets, from lightsabers to toys guns. By the looks of it, you could call Dericrw’s son a scruffy-looking Nerf gun hoarder! And that TV?

Because of the way Dericrw positioned the cockpit door, his son could watch that TV while laying down in bed. For a kid, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Dericrw and Glock ThirtyThree built their sons special childhood beds the boys would never forget, but most importantly, they used the beds as a way to strengthen their connections with their sons. Very cool!

These young men will never forget the work their dads put into these bedrooms. What would your childhood dream bed look like?

Share these childhood beds with your friends below!

Cold Case Takes A Wild Turn After New Tip Leads Investigators To The Desert

October 4, 2018 by viralzergnet.com

The human spirit craves adventure, and those brave enough to journey beyond the comforts of mainstream society to experience the natural world are often rewarded with memories that last a lifetime. Sometimes, however, these risks may prove to be far too great, and the results can be deadly.

For one California adventurer, the call of the wild led him on a perilous journey through the Utah wilderness that he hoped would become the greatest adventure of his life. He was right, but not nearly in the way he expected to be…

Everett Ruess was born in March of 1914 in Oakland, California as the second child to parents Christopher, a probation officer, and Stella, an artist and poet.

From a young age, Christopher challenged his son to read heavily and encouraged him to study the great philosophers. Everett later began to write poetry himself, and he even took up archery.

But it was adventure that became Everett’s true passion, and he began showing an appetite for it as early as 1930 when he was just 16 years old. During that summer, Everett hitchhiked from Oakland to the town of Carmel-By-The-Sea, an impressive 100-mile journey.

The following year, after graduating from Hollywood High School, Everett purchased a burro and set out on his first major expedition. Over the course of ten months, Everett would come to see iconic locations like the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park.

Not only was this trek an ambitious one, but it also set the foundation for the adventures Everett would seek out in the years to come. Unbeknownst to the young explorer, however, his next expedition would change everything…

In November of 1934, 20-year-old Everett Ruess rode into the remote Utah township of Escalante accompanied by two pack burros. A settlement founded by Mormons in 1876, Escalante was a place where the arrival of a stranger was a rarity.

Everett made his camp just north of the town, pitching his tent in a sunbaked area along the Escalante River that was perfect for mid-day naps. The townspeople visited Everett often, making small talk and giving the friendly adventurer the lay of the land.

The children of Escalante took a particular shine to Everett, and during his time there he took them riding and even treated them to a movie. After spending a few nights in town, Everett packed his burros and disappeared into the wilds of Utah. He was never heard from again.

So what happened to the young explorer? Well, in 1999 David Roberts, an adventure writer for National Geographic Magazine, sought to find an answer to the 65-year-old mystery. The first stop on his investigation? Escalante.

After arriving in town, Roberts sat down with 74-year-old Norm Christensen, one of the children charmed by Everett during his stay in Escalante in 1934. Norm, who was only 10 at the time, was one of the last people to see Everett Ruess alive.

According to Norm, Everett set off into the Utah desert after leaving Escalante, traveling southeast along the Hole in the Rock trail. This historic route had been plotted by 19th-century Mormon settlers and was a tried-and-true passageway for navigating the desert. Or so they believed.

Roberts also spoke to a 91-year-old man while in Escalante named Melvin Alvey, who met Everett during his stay in town all those years ago. Melvin wasn’t surprised that Everett had disappeared, as even then he believed that the young man was ill-equipped to survive the harsh winter climate of the Utah desert.

However, historical reports show that Everett was still alive at least a week after leaving Escalante, having traveled 50 miles through the desert. We know that he came across two shepherds and some cattlemen, but after that, he simply vanished.

Despite Everett’s disappearance, red flags weren’t raised until almost three months later. This wasn’t out of the ordinary, though, as Everett had sent a letter to his family weeks earlier saying that his journey would likely prevent him from communicating for a month or two.

But when the letters Christopher and Stella sent to Marble Canyon, Arizona — the place where Everett was expected to re-emerge into civilization — were returned unopened, they quickly grew concerned. After contacting the postmistress, a search party was dispatched from Escalante in March of 1935.

Eventually, the same two shepherds that had crossed paths with Ruess the previous November stumbled upon an old campsite in a steep-sided canyon known as Davis Gulch. Although Everett’s burros were found alive — albeit severely malnourished — there was no sign of the young explorer, his diary, or his camping gear.

While no traces of Ruess were found, it was widely believed that he was murdered while trekking through the desert. More specifically, the group of cattlemen — who were the last to see him alive — were the supposed culprits behind Everett’s disappearance.

In fact, Norm Christensen revealed that one of the cattlemen, a man by the name of Keith Riddle, had confessed to Everett’s murder. However, Riddle died in 1984 and no definitive evidence was ever found that pinned him to the crime.

But in 2008, 74 years after Everett’s disappearance, a tip from a Navajo who claimed to have witnessed Everett’s murder led a man named Denny Bellson to the skeletal remains of a body at Comb Ridge. The bones — found in a crevice 60 miles from Everett’s last camp — were tested against the DNA of Everett’s nieces and nephews. It was a match!

Heartbreakingly, however, it was later discovered that the DNA test had been botched and that the Comb Ridge remains belonged to a Native American. And so, the truth behind Everett Ruess’ disappearance still remains a mystery to this day.

What do you think happened to Everett Ruess?

Share this unsolved mystery with your friends below!

The Story Of Christian The Lion & His Rescuers Proves Friends Are Forever.

October 2, 2018 by viralzergnet.com

Back in the late 1960s, John Rendall and Anthony “Ace” Bourke were two free-wheeling Australians who did what everyone else their age did after graduating from college — move to London. It was a big change from the rural areas they were used to, and they especially loved stopping by the world-famous Harrods to see … Read more