I could dither about coining some pithy witticism to put here, or I could just post this lot so you can plan how to waste your time this afternoon reading it all 
Happy invoicing!
- Fight The Ship: Death and valor on a warship doomed by its own Navy. - ”A little after 1:30 a.m. on June 17, 2017, Alexander Vaughan tumbled from his bunk onto the floor of his sleeping quarters on board the Navy destroyer USS Fitzgerald. The shock of cold, salty water snapped him awake. He struggled to his feet and felt a torrent rushing past his thighs.” How did a state-of-the-art warship come to collide with a cargo vessel? This article gives an account of the tragedy; Years of Warnings, Then Death and Disaster: How the Navy failed its sailors goes into the deep-seated organisational failures that lay behind it.
- LRO sees Chinese lander on the Moon's far side and Our precious Earth and the lunar far side: Far side of the Moon photographed by amateurs - A busy time for photography over on the far side of the Moon, as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter gets a photo of Chang'e-4 and Yutu-2, and the Chinese DSLWP-B / Longjiang-2 satellite gets a photo of the Moon and the Earth: ”This image represents the culmination of several observing sessions spread over the past few months where we used the Dwingeloo telescope in collaboration with the Chinese team from Harbin University of Technology, who build the radio transceiver on board Longjiang-2, and radio amateurs spread across the globe.”
- The 18th-century potter who became the world’s first tycoon - ”Josiah Wedgwood was the father of modern marketing and the creator of the first luxury brand. Yet he's been largely forgotten by time.” Not on my Mum's sideboard, he hasn't
- Awaiting the Enemy That Never Came: The Bunkers of Albania - ”But after Albania left the Warsaw Pact… [Enver] Hoxha’s logic was that the USSR would attack Albania, so he decided to do the only rational thing he thought possible: build bunkers. And he made a lot of them, an estimated 750,000 bunkers, or 500,000. No one quite knows.” And the bunkers still litter Albania, with ”…an average of 5.7 bunkers for every square kilometre (14.7 per square mile)” according to Wikipedia
- Ancient-human species mingled in Siberia’s hottest property for 300,000 years - More evidence that early humans mingled more than was once thought: ”The long-awaited studies are based on the analysis of bones, artefacts and sediments from Denisova Cave in southern Siberia, which is dotted with ancient-human remains. They provide the first detailed history of the site’s 300,000-year occupation by different groups of ancient humans.”
- "Vampire of Venice" Unmasked: Plague Victim & Witch? - ”A ‘vampire’ unearthed in a mass grave near Venice was unusually old for the Middle Ages, suggesting she may also have been accused of being a witch, according to new research that includes a reconstruction of the medieval woman.”
- In Case of Emergency, Print Money - ”When Germans started printing their own cash during World War I, they were trying to overcome wild inflation, outsmart currency hoarding—and shift the blame for their economy’s collapse.” The wide variety of local currencies created during the period are now collectors’ items. This note bears the slogan “Strong beer creates unity”
- The Route of a Text Message - Scott B. Weingart explains how a text message gets from here to there, from the typing on the phone to the arrival at its destination phone: ”This installment is about a single text message: how it was typed, stored, sent, received, and displayed. I sprinkle in some history and context to break up the alphabet soup of protocols, but though the piece gets technical, it should all be easily understood.”
- Model Metropolis - ”Behind one of the most iconic computer games of all time is a theory of how cities die—one that has proven dangerously influential.” Kevin T. Baker on the theories of Jay Forrester, which inspired Will Wright to create Sim City.
- Ceramicist Uses Science to Craft Clay Bowls Covered in Electroformed Crystals - ”Ceramicist Sabri Ben-Achour believes that “humans are primed to find beauty in the orderly disorder of nature.” This primal understanding has informed his entire practice, culminating in a growing collection of striking organic bowls. Crafted using controlled processes and intended to resemble natural formations, these vessels speak to Ben-Achour’s interest in blurring the line between art and science.”
Happy invoicing!
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