History

Grizzly Night

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On the night of August 13, 1967 , two grizzly bear attacks that killed humans occurred simultaneously in Glacier National Park , USA. After receiving the news , the rangers went to the campsite fully armed and killed any grizzly bears that approached the campsite. In the end , four bears were shot dead. This incident was written by the writer Jack Olsen as “Night of the Grizzlies“. After that , the book title was often used to refer to the incident.

In the 57 years from the establishment of Glacier National Park in 1910 to the occurrence of the incident , there were no fatal grizzly bear attacks in the park , so the grizzly bears there were considered safe. However , the two consecutive fatal attacks on Grizzly Night caused fear among humans , to the point where some people called for the extinction of grizzly bears in the United States.

Although this was not done in the end , in the 6 years after the incident , park rangers killed more than 229 grizzly bears , including 189 killed in Yellowstone National Park , which can be regarded as human revenge against grizzly bears. However , doing so may not necessarily solve the problem. The final solution is strict management.

In the past , humans were too close to the animals in the national park. Feeding food and leaving various food scraps and garbage would attract animals to the vicinity of the campsite and make the animals unafraid of humans. After studying the body of one of the grizzly bears that killed humans , it was found that glass shards were stuck in its mouth , which made it difficult to eat and became irritable.

The garbage brought by humans contained food , but also dangerous and sharp glass , metal and other garbage , and then accidentally attacked the humans who brought the garbage , which is really regrettable. Afterwards , the national park began to strictly manage garbage , such as installing bear-proof trash cans and strictly prohibiting the feeding of wild animals , which made the park safe again.

The Eunuch’s Voice

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In historical dramas and dramas pretending to be historical, the eunuch’s pronunciation is always high-pitched, but lacks the resonance of the oral and chest cavities, as well as unnatural breathiness, so their voices sound strange. Although the voice of a real eunuch is not like this, this is how it is portrayed in dramas, after all, there are indeed differences in the physical functions of eunuchs.

The eunuch’s castration surgery is now called orchiectomy. The testicles produce testosterone, which brings about the development of male secondary sexual characteristics. Therefore, if it is removed before puberty, changes in male secondary sexual characteristics, such as thickening of the vocal cords, will stop, and the voice will remain at the pitch of children, early adolescents, or adult women. The following are specific cases:

Castrato appeared in Italy in the mid-16th century. The specific details of their birth are unknown, but some people did perform orchiectomy on boys around 8-10 years old, and then trained them to become opera musicians who could produce high-pitched female-like sounds.

The last castrato singer was approximately Alessandro Moreschi, a little over 100 years ago. Fortunately, recording technology was already available, so now you can hear his voice, which sounds like a mezzo-soprano.

However, recording equipment at that time was expensive, and only singers with high commercial value and some people with noble status could use it, so the lowly eunuchs did not leave any recordings. However, the eunuch Sun Yaoting lived until 1996 and was interviewed before that, so you can hear his voice.

Sun Yaoting’s voice in his old age was like that of an ordinary old woman, so his voice when he was young was probably as ordinary as a woman’s.

P.S.: After the testicles are removed, the body usually still produces a small amount of testosterone, which results in castratos and eunuchs having a lower probability of having soprano voices. Now that we know the principle, we can rely on anti-androgens and use chemical castration to more safely achieve voice adjustment. Even if testosterone adjustment is not performed before puberty, surgery can be performed on the vocal cords later, but that is another story.

The Cruelty to Animals Act

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In 《The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 4》EP. 7, it was mentioned that there was an ancient Japanese “Laws of Compassion on Living Things” which caused trouble for people. Specifically, in the 1680s, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the fifth shogun of the Edo shogunate, enacted various laws based on the principle of compassion for all living beings, which were called the “Laws of Compassion on Living Things”.

The violation records are incomplete, but at least 13 people were executed for violating the order. Among them, some were executed for killing dogs; some were executed for shooting birds; some were executed for selling two chickens; and some were even accused of catching carp in the moat before the order was issued and were retroactively executed.

In addition to the above orders, there were also prohibitions on fishing and shellfish (lifted during the Girls’ Festival), and prohibitions on cattle and horses carrying heavy objects or large items. However, Tsunayoshi had a preference for dogs, and even self-defense against vicious dogs could result in being ordered to commit seppuku if the vicious dog was killed. Perhaps because of this, Tsunayoshi was also called the Dog Shogun.

However, Tsunayoshi also considered the issue of stray dogs, so he established dog houses (犬小屋) to shelter and protect a large number of dogs. However, the cost was very expensive, with large dog houses requiring 20,000 workers to build and officials and veterinarians to care for them. In the past, when productivity was low, dog food was also a huge expense, so people also had to pay a “dog tax”.

Fortunately, such orders that affected people’s lives were gradually abolished after Tsunayoshi’s death. However, some of Tsunayoshi’s orders were continued, namely the prohibition of abandoning cattle and horses, abandoned babies, and abandoned elderly people. However, in an era when the literacy rate among the common people was extremely low, there are few written records of the common people, and it is not clear the prevalence of abandoning the elderly before, or whether the law alleviated the problem of abandoning babies and the elderly.

Although the complete behavioral logic of Tsunayoshi is unknown, such an extremely idealistic idea cannot protect anything. Now, poaching protected animals usually carries a sentence of within three years (except in special areas). Even poisoning 442 migratory birds only resulted in a 5-year suspended sentence and $11,912 in damages. Of course, there are also laws to protect animals from abuse, and the penalties for abusing and killing animals are usually higher than for poaching protected animals, and such laws are sufficient to protect animals.

PS: In Wudang Mountain, the ruins of “寄死窑” (makeshift caves for death), where elderly and even young people were abandoned, were discovered and were still in use until the early 20th century. These are man-made cave dwellings, and after the abandoned person enters, the entrance is sealed with a door panel or brick wall. Some reusable 寄死窑 will then be opened again to bury the remains. In this light, the prevalence of the Japanese Ubasute story may not be so high, after all, there were no such facilities built for abandoning the elderly.

Failed Black Operation of 2019

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In February 2019, then United States President Donald Trump approved a covert operation without notifying members of the Congressional intelligence special committee, effectively turning it into a black operation. The goal was to install equipment to monitor North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, to gain leverage in US-North Korea negotiations.

Eight members of SEAL Team Six traveled by nuclear submarine to international waters near North Korea, and then by mini-submarine for about two hours to the west coast of North Korea. As the mini-submarine was about to land, it was spotted by a North Korean vessel. Due to the radio silence requirement of the operation, there was no drone support, and the team could not obtain more intelligence to determine whether the vessel was a civilian fishing boat or a military patrol boat.

At this point, the mission had failed, and the response to the vessel and the evacuation plan had to be considered. The captain ultimately ordered fire, murdering all the crew members. To ensure everyone on board was dead, the team boarded the vessel, only to find no uniforms or weapons. It was later deduced that they were civilians diving for shellfish. The team then sent out a distress signal, and the nuclear submarine entered North Korean territorial waters to pick up all the members of the team.

After the failed operation, spy satellites continued to monitor the area, and found a surge of military activity in the area. It is unclear whether North Korea deduced the cause of the incident and who was responsible for it (though it is now known).

This operation was disclosed by the New York Times on September 5, 2025, with details provided by 24 related individuals. However, the White House had no comment on the operation, and Trump denied the operation, so it is impossible to release the report of this operation through the Sunshine Law. If no one disclosed it, it might have become a real black operation.

America ‘s Collective Memory: Orphanages

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《The Queen’s Gambit》《Annabelle》, these American TV and film works in recent years all feature a large amount of orphanage content. But why is that? It seems that only American works set in the 20th century often feature orphanages?

In the 19th century, the United States experienced accelerated industrialization and urbanization, but medical advancements did not keep pace, leading to many deaths from epidemics. Immigrant families, being less resilient and lacking relatives to care for them, accounted for many orphans. It’s unclear exactly how many orphans were housed in orphanages at the time, but New York City had about 10,000 to 30,000 homeless children, while the entire population of New York City was only 500,000.

These children formed gangs to defend themselves against others, which may have affected urban治安. Reverend Charles Loring Brace felt he could help these children, so he founded the Children’s Aid Society to foster children in suitable homes. However, the city’s resources were still too scarce, so Brace came up with the idea of sending children to rural areas in the Midwest for “re-education by the poor and lower-middle peasants.”

This plan was called the Orphan Train. The orphans traveled by train to rural areas in the Midwest, entering foster homes lacking labor. During the Orphan Train’s operation from 1854 to 1929, about 200,000 children were placed. However, records of orphanages are scarce, likely because after World War II, most people believed that orphanages were detrimental to children’s physical and mental health, and foster care replaced orphanages.

A well-documented example is the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York, which housed about 13,500 people over 84 years, including two writers, as well as statisticians, musicians, and political activists. This suggests that some orphanages did emphasize education to some extent, and these children may have exerted influence in various fields after growing up.

Perhaps influenced by this, cartoonist Harold Gray created 《Little Orphan Annie》. The story tells of Annie being abused by a mean-spirited director in an orphanage, then being adopted by a kind, wealthy family, but sometimes becoming an orphan again. At the time, the comic strip was published in hundreds of newspapers and adapted into radio dramas, movies, and Broadway musicals, which further deepened the collective memory of America.

Actor’s License

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Due to the threat of civil war, Taiwan implemented 38 years of martial law, which was not lifted until the eve of the end of the First Cold War. During the martial law period, society was bound by various restrictions, and individual freedoms and basic human rights, including the rights of assembly, association, speech, publication, and travel, were restricted, along with rules on party bans, press bans, and strict censorship of cultural products.

At that time, if you wanted to sing on stage, you needed a Singing Actor’s License (commonly known as a singer’s license). To obtain a singer’s license, you needed to study for three months and pass an examination by the Taipei City Education Bureau. The exam content was to draw lots for 20 “blue classic” songs, such as 《I Want to Go to the Battlefield》, 《Plum Blossom March》, and 《Triumphal Song》. Some famous singers were unlucky and drew songs that they couldn’t sing or were not suitable for their range, and failed to obtain a singer’s license…

Actors need an actor’s license. However, it was unexpectedly lenient at the time. You could still act in movies without an actor’s license, but you couldn’t appear in the STAFF list. An outrageous situation was in the movie 《The Kid Who Refused the Joint College Entrance Exam》, in which the name of the female lead, Peng Xuefen, did not appear. And Lin Weisheng, the actor who played Sun Wen in 《The Story of Dr. Sun Yat-sen》, did not have an actor’s license, so he did not appear either…

In July 1990, the singer’s license system was abolished. Although the actor’s license was still being issued, it no longer had any binding force, and was finally abolished after the law was amended in 2015. Therefore, when actor Li Yi posted his actor’s license, which was issued in 2014, many netizens said it was the first time they had seen it.

P.S. Currently, the region with a strict actor’s license filing system seems to be only one left in the world. There is also a special case, which is foreign actors. Due to immigration and labor law requirements, to prevent foreigners from taking employment opportunities from the country, foreigners need to obtain a work permit visa before they can perform.