Late again; sorry, it's been a busy day. But on the bright side, I got an extension! 
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- Against the Clock - ”Tarik Khan rushed to his car, carrying 10 syringes full of the coronavirus vaccine. He had only six hours to get them into the arms of some of Philadelphia’s most vulnerable residents… He spends hours most nights rushing around the city, delivering leftovers to people in need of a first dose or bringing scheduled second shots to those he has visited before. For others, a wrong turn or a traffic jam might lead to a late dinner or a missed meeting. For Khan, it could render his vaccine worthless.” An evening with a nurse practitioner making sure no precious vaccine goes to waste.
- How Maxwell’s Demon Continues to Startle Scientists - ”A thought experiment devised by the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1867 stumped scientists for 115 years. And even after a solution was found, physicists have continued to use ‘Maxwell’s demon’ to push the laws of the universe to their limits.” More weirdness from the physicists
- Farmer Spends Decades Growing Guitar-Shaped Forest in Memory of His Late Wife - ”Flying over the rich patchwork of the Argentinian Pampas, one might be surprised to glance down and see a giant green guitar etched into the fields… The guitar forest and garden is a modern project—it was planted over several decades by a local farmer named Pedro Martin Ureta in memory of his beloved wife Graciela Yraizoz.”
- Movie of the Night - Online streaming services may have lots of films, but usually their search system is rubbish. This site’s is better, covering Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ in the UK
- Old Book Illustrations - Just that: ”Old Book Illustrations was born of the desire to share illustrations from a modest collection of books, which we set out to scan and publish. With the wealth of resources available online, it became increasingly difficult to resist the temptation to explore other collections and include these images along with our own.” This is from A book of cheerful cats by Joseph Greene Francis, published in 1892.
- Mystery at the Shelter Stone - Tony Marr recounts a spooky experience in the Cairngorms: ”Despite this mysterious incident occurring more than four decades ago, the story, until now, has only been shared with family and close friends. However, over the last few years I have been encouraged to record and share my story with a larger audience, some of whom may hopefully find it as mystifying and intriguing as I still do.”
- Six things humans can learn from plants this spring - James Wong: ”After months and months of monochrome, it’s so exciting to see the world around me bursting back into colour and life. But how do plants know how to ‘wake up’ again after months of winter dormancy? It’s a simple question with a surprisingly complex answer which helps us understand our own health and wellbeing…”
- Octopus ‘Teachers’ Demonstrate They Feel Emotional Pain - ”Until recently, there was no rigorous research showing that invertebrates experience the emotional component of pain. A study published in iScience in March provides the strongest evidence yet that octopuses feel pain like mammals do, bolstering the case for establishing welfare regulations for these animals.”
- The Real Book - ”Since the mid-1970s, almost every jazz musician has owned a copy of the same book. It has a peach-colored cover, a chunky, 1970s-style logo, and a black plastic binding. It’s delightfully homemade-looking—like it was printed by a bunch of teenagers at a Kinkos. And inside is the sheet music for hundreds of common jazz tunes—also known as jazz “standards”—all meticulously notated by hand.” The story of how “the bootleg bible of jazz” came about.
- Eye-catching abstract photos reveal mining’s scars on our planet - ”Tom Hegen makes portraits of the Anthropocene, this current age in which the dominant influence on Earth is human activity. His work often requires observing from above: leaning out of helicopters, operating drones. Taken from these heights, Hegen’s series of images show the broad effects of receding glaciers, exploited farmland, polluted quarries—and coal mines in Germany, Hegen’s homeland.”
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