A rare three-digit Roman numeral today 
Happy invoicing!
- The Stargazers - ”The historic Maya oriented their lives by the heavens. Today, their descendants and Western scholars team up to understand their sophisticated astronomy.” Interesting look at the things being learned about Mayan culture by talking to, umm, the Maya
- Scientists Have Developed 'Living' Skin For Robots, And It's Quite Something - ”We're closer than ever to making a robot look remarkably like a human, with the development of living robot skin. This icky-looking substance is water repellent, self healing, and has a texture just like our own skin. Because it's actually made of human skin cells.” Pretty sure I've seen this film… The full paper is available if you're curious about the rise of our flesh-covered overlords: Living skin on a robot.
- Mitochondria and the origin of eukaryotes - Are current ideas about the origins of mitochondria too simple? Probably: ”Researchers sequencing the genomes of modern-day relatives of the first eukaryotes have found many unexpected genes that don’t seem to come from either the host or the endosymbiont. And that, some scientists suggest, might mean that the evolution of the first eukaryotes involved more than two partners and happened more gradually than suspected.”
- CatMeows: A Publicly-Available Dataset of Cat Vocalizations - The dataset you never knew you needed: ”This dataset, composed of 440 sounds, contains meows emitted by cats in different contexts. Specifically, 21 cats belonging to 2 breeds (Maine Coon and European Shorthair) have been repeatedly exposed to three different stimuli that were expected to induce the emission of meows.”
- Lay's Around the World - ”This site is dedicated to cataloging all of the different varieties of Lay's potato chips from around the world. It is a fan site, and is not affiliated in any way with Lay's or its parent company.” If you didn't know, Lay's is the brand name used for PepsiCo's crisp manufacturing activities in many countries around the world, although here they stick with Walker's. This site explores the multiplicity of different flavours designed to appeal to local tastes. The people of Romania like mushrooms and sour cream, it seems
- The Surreal Case of a C.I.A. Hacker’s Revenge - ”A hot-headed coder is accused of exposing the agency’s hacking arsenal. Did he betray his country because he was pissed off at his colleagues?” The intelligence agency learns the hard way that a talented dickhead is still a dickhead.
- meetways - This handy tool lets you meet people halfway: ”Whether you are meeting a far away friend, organizing a Craigslist transaction, or connecting with a client for lunch, MeetWays helps you find the halfway point. No more extra driving, lost time, or wasted gas. Simply enter the addresses and a point of interest. We’ll give you a list of ideal meeting points, driving directions, and local reviews so you can choose the perfect place.”
- Every Language Everywhere All at Once - Exploring the complicated process of making TV shows available in a multiplicity of languages: ”As audiences embrace subtitles, translated series have become more common, particularly on streaming services… Improving the quality of translated content has become a priority for streamers increasingly tapping into their international resources for the next big hit. It’s a process that generally unfolds over the course of five steps.”
- How a Design Battle Between Chip Engineers Led to Polaroid’s Revolutionary SX-70 Camera - ”In one corner stood the defending champion, Texas Instruments. In the other stood the challenger, Fairchild Semiconductor. The referee, judge, promoter, and only spectator was Polaroid. In contention was the contract for the electronics of Polaroid’s secret project—a pioneering product introduced in 1972 as the SX-70, a camera eventually purchased by millions of people.” A strange tale of electronics design; due to Polaroid's need for secrecy about its new product, designers often didn't know basic stuff like what the power supply would be or what else would be connected to their components. An interesting one to read in conjunction with Ken Shirriff's teardown of the chips that I posted here a few months ago
- Vivid Compositions in Thread Enliven Hollow Spaces in Diana Yevtukh’s Striking Embroideries - ”Ukrainian artist Diana Yevtukh draws inspiration from her surroundings by carefully situating cornucopian floral arrangements made of thread in the hollows of trees. Based in Lviv, her work has assumed more urgency since the invasion of her home country by Russian forces earlier this year, and pieces like “Why did they do that to us” draw on her background in photography and design to spread the crucial message that Ukraine remains under threat.”
Happy invoicing!
