Early today, as I need to head into town on matters concerning my increasing decrepitude 
Happy invoicing!
- How a Transplanted Face Transformed Katie Stubblefield’s Life - "This story is difficult to look at. Yet we are asking you to go on the remarkable journey of how a young woman received a face transplant because it reveals something profound about our humanity. Our face conveys who we are, telegraphing a kaleidoscope of emotions. It’s our doorway to the sensory world, allowing us to see, smell, taste, hear, and feel the breeze. Are we our faces? Katie Stubblefield lost hers when she was 18. When she was 21, doctors gave Katie a new face. This is a story of trauma, identity, resilience, devotion, and amazing medical miracles. "
- What Did Ada Lovelace's Program Actually Do? - "Lovelace’s program is often called the world’s first computer program. Not everyone agrees that it should be called that. Lovelace’s legacy, it turns out, is one of computing history’s most hotly debated subjects… As a programmer myself, I’m startled to see how much of what Lovelace was doing resembles the experience of writing software today. So let’s take a closer look at Lovelace’s program." Sinclair Target takes us through the famous bit of software from Lovelace's Translator’s Notes to M. Menabrea’s Memoir.
- Are Cities Making Animals Smarter? - It's not just about foxes going through bins any more: "The pond rested at the end of a narrow driveway surrounded by tall concrete walls, so whoever was swiping the carp had either a key or the superhuman ability to bound up nearby roofs and drop in undetected… The thief was a cat. A big cat. Not a lithe house cat on the prowl, nor a bony feral cat scavenging for scraps. It looked like a miniature leopard—or a domestic cat that had gotten serious about boxing. The creature had black spots, compact ears, and burly shoulders. Under the cover of night, it had slunk along the ledges of the office complex, slipped under an awning, and descended on the pond."
- This Ultrahot Exoplanet Has Metallic Skies - "For the first time ever, astronomers have found iron and titanium in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system. The exoplanet, named KELT-9b, is the hottest alien world ever discovered. The planet is so scorching, it's even hotter than most stars.", So, a bit like it was here during July
- Huge ‘hairy sea monster’ washes up on Pacific coast: what can it be? - More weird stuff on the beaches of Siberia: "A giant furry octopus? Remains of a woolly mammoth? An unknown primeval creature from the deep?"
- Stacking concrete blocks is a surprisingly efficient way to store energy - A clever idea for storing energy generated during times of lower demand: "A startup called Energy Vault thinks it has a viable alternative to pumped-hydro: Instead of using water and dams, the startup uses concrete blocks and cranes." Handy if you don't have a Welsh mountain in which to store enough energy to make everyone a cup of tea when Coronation Street ends
- See No Evil - Miriam Posner considers the complex systems that form modern supply chains: "How does information travel through the supply chain in such a peculiar way, so that I know to wait impatiently at my door at the exact moment my new iPhone will arrive—but no one really seems to know how it has gotten to me?"
- How to remove stains from red wine, blood, coffee, grease, ink, and more - Finally, a use for science! "From a scientific perspective, oil on the garage floor, red wine on a white rug, and chewing gum on your pants seat all present different cleaning challenges… Let’s look at how stains work, and how we can use chemistry to remove them."
- Inside the die of Intel's 8087 coprocessor chip, root of modern floating point - Ken Shirriff is back, and he's taking the lid off the once-coveted floating point coprocessor: "One puzzle appeared—an extra pad and wire located between pads 40 and 1, not associated with any of the chip's pins… I did some reverse-engineering and determined that this is part of the 8087's substrate bias circuit, which uses this connection to put a negative voltage on the substrate."
- Fabulous Snapshots Of 1960s Ireland - "The National Library of Ireland is home to a terrific collection of snapshot depictions of 1960s Ireland. Thanks to readers writing in we know the names of many of the faces in these photographs. Dates and locations transport us to a vibrant Dublin city and the lush Irish countryside." Here, Seamus Johnson maintains the Gallarus Oratory in Kerry.
Happy invoicing!
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