Busy morning for me today. Shouldn't be allowed on a Monday 
Happy invoicing!
- The Gutsy Undercover Cop Who Took Down Chicago P.D.’s Most Crooked Crew - ”A Black sergeant was the only one willing to take on a risky FBI mission targeting drug-dealer-extorting cops. He reveals how he did it—and why it was shut down before he got to the white guys.”
- A New Map of the Universe, Painted With Cosmic Neutrinos - ”Physicists finally know where at least some of these high-energy particles come from, which helps make the neutrinos useful for exploring fundamental physics.” All we need now is an arrow-shaped fundamental particle labelled "You are here"
- Migrant orangutans learn which foods are good to eat by watching the locals - ”how do orangutans that have left their mothers and now live far from their natal ranges, where the available foods may be very different, decide what to eat and figure out how to eat it? Now, an international team of authors has shown that in such cases, migrants follow the rule ‘observe, and do as the locals do’.” That's why you see so many Dutch orangutans in Febo.
- Man Travels Across Japan With a GPS Tracker To Create a 4,000-Mile Marriage Proposal - ”One man in Japan did something truly epic to ask his girlfriend to marry him—he traveled across his native country to pop the question with the help of Google Earth. The result was the message “Marry Me” and a heart with an arrow through it drawn on a map of Japan with the use of a GPS tracker.” This was back in 2008, and now he travels the world drawing pictures by wandering around
- Look Up: The Illustrated Story of Astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, Who Laid the Groundwork for Measuring the Universe - ”Long before they could vote, the women known as the Harvard Computers shaped our understanding of the universe with their prolific and precise astronomical calculations. Among them was Henrietta Swan Leavitt (July 4, 1868–December 12, 1921), who singlehandedly measured and catalogued more than 2,000 variable stars.”
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: Detailed BBFC cuts - There's a new Indian Jones film out, which seems like a good excuse to post this piece about the cuts demanded to one of the earlier ones by British censors: ”What we asked to have removed was the grossest of the process shots; there was a rather loving shot of this heart pulsating in [the priest's] hand. It's certainly not gruelling for a grown up or an older child, but for a small child that was too much, really.”
- Capturing Our Star - An expert's guide to photographing the sun without blinding yourself or destroying your camera: ”This guide will help you understand the mechanics of solar astronomy, but DO NOT attempt to observe the sun without first reading through your telescope's owners manual, and subsequent solar filters instructions. Solar astronomy is dangerous, and a mistake could leave you blind.”
- The man who built his own WH Smith - ”Deep in Gloucestershire lies The Cave, a remarkable retro-computing museum featuring a loving reproduction of a 1980s WH Smith. We chat to its creator, Neil Thomas.” And why not
- Reverse-engineering the 8086 processor's address and data pin circuits - Yet more 8086 fun with Ken Shirriff: ”In many processors, this circuitry is straightforward, but it is complicated in the 8086 for two reasons. First, Intel decided to package the 8086 as a 40-pin DIP, which didn't provide enough pins for all the functionality. Instead, the 8086 multiplexes address, data, and status… The second complication is that the 8086 has a 20-bit address space (due to its infamous segment registers), while the data bus is 16 bits wide.”
- Big Picture Competition 2023 Winners - ”Every year, BigPicture poses the question “What on Earth have you photographed?” as part of our annual Natural World Photography Competition with winning images displayed at the California Academy of Sciences for all visitors to enjoy. Featuring the work of award-winning nature, wildlife, and conservation photographers from around the world, the exhibit uses photography as a means to celebrate and illustrate the rich diversity of life on Earth and inspire action to protect and conserve it.” This is Backyard Friend, photographed in Asheville, North Carolina by Corey Arnold.
Happy invoicing!
