Posts from August 25, 2026

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19th-century lithograph illustration depicting lunar winged humanoids and landscapes from the Great Moon Hoax

The Man-Bats of Cape Town

Aug 25, 2026•By Andy Barca

On 25 August 1835, The New York Sun published the first instalment of the Great Moon Hoax, claiming astronomers had discovered lunar oceans, biped beavers, and winged man-bats. It was the birth of industrial sensationalism.

Illustration contrasting a 19th-century artisan carving tortoiseshell combs and spectacle frames with modern viral social media campaigns against plastic straws

When Turtles *Were* Plastic

Aug 25, 2026•By Andy Barca

How a viral video of a sea turtle turned plastic straws into public enemy number one, ignoring the historical irony that synthetic plastic was invented, at least in part, to save turtles from human slaughter.