It's a nice day out. Anyway, that's quite enough of that; let's get back to the Internet 
Happy invoicing!
- The Himalayan Tragedy That Forever Changed Mountaineering - ”In 1976, Nanda Devi Unsoeld, the daughter of legendary alpinist Willi Unsoeld, died while climbing the massive Indian peak for which she was named. Decades later, friends, family, and surviving expedition members offer new insights into what went wrong during this controversial adventure, shedding light on an enigmatic young woman who lived without limits.”
- Astronomers Say They Have Spotted the Universe’s First Stars - New (well, old, but new then) stars on the block: ”Theorists started imagining these first fireballs in the 1970s, hypothesizing that, after short lifetimes, they exploded as supernovas, forging heavier elements and spewing them into the cosmos. That star stuff later gave rise to Population II stars more abundant in heavy elements, then even richer Population I stars like our sun, as well as planets, asteroids, comets and eventually life itself.”
- Teasing out the secret recipes for mummification in ancient Egypt - ”Most of what we know about ancient Egyptian mummification techniques comes from a few ancient texts… But there are very few details about the specific spices, oils, resins, and other ingredients used. Fortunately, science is helping fill in the gaps. A team of researchers used molecular analysis to identify several basic ingredients used in mummification, according to a new paper published in the journal Nature.” The full paper is open access: Biomolecular analyses enable new insights into ancient Egyptian embalming.
- The great European house cat migration - ”Ancient bones reveal that domesticated felines were at home in Pre-Neolithic Poland around 8,000 years ago.” They had to wait a few thousand more years for the Beaker People to invent something they could push off the sideboard.
- The Cement Mixer Space Capsule of Winganon - ”Along a lonely stretch of road between the small villages of Talala and Winganon in the US state of Oklahoma, lies what appears to be an abandoned space capsule. The letterings ‘NASA’ and ‘United States of America’ along with the flag is clearly visible on its side. However, it doesn’t take long to realize that the fallen spacecraft is actually a cement mixer.” It crashed there in 1959 and the cement set, making it too heavy to move
- It was the biggest painting in the world — how could it just disappear? - ”In 1959, millions of Americans saw Symeon Shimin’s mural of Yul Brynner and Gina Lollobrigida as Solomon and Sheba. Then it was gone.” Turns out a collector bought it at auction when either drunk or stoned or both, then kind of forgot about it for years
- Hawker Typhoon versus Eurofighter Typhoon - ”Aircraft take on their historical namesakes in air-to-air combat.” An interesting idea: ask the experts how modern and older aircraft with the same name would fare against one another in combat. As well as the Typhoons, there are considerations of the Lightnings (Lockheed F-35 v. English Electric) and others
- Big space - ”Our planet is a tiny porthole, looking over a cosmic sea. Can we learn what lies beyond our own horizons of perception?” Physicist Katie Mack on what's beyond the cosmic horizon: the stuff that's so far away that light from it hasn't had time get here yet.
- The Twisted Tale of the Real Mickey Mouse - Did Walt nick the idea for Mickey? ”He named the prototype Mortimer, but his wife hated the name and recommended he change the name. Mickey became iconic and synonymous with Disney and his empire. But what if we told you that Mickey Mouse might have ‘lived’ a secret life before Disney?”
- Communication Breakdown: Grant Wallace, His Heirs & the Legacy of a Forgotten Genius - The story of a forgotten visionary artist: ”He was acquainted with numerous writers, including Arthur Conan Doyle (who, in addition to being the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, was an early psychic investigator who verified the legitimacy of Grant’s work), Mark Twain, Zane Grey (Grant actually makes a cameo appearance in his 1908 novel The Last of the Plainsmen), John Steinbeck, Jack London, Mary Austin, Sinclair Lewis, and William Burroughs… Ever since he was a young boy, he professed to have had an ability to communicate with the spirit world.” This is Unveil the Face of the Unfeatured Vast, ca. 1919 – 1925.
Happy invoicing!
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