The Internet may be full of American sports and Taylor Swift today, but luckily there's enough space left on there for other stuff too; like this:
Happy invoicing!
- His Best Friend Was a 250-Pound Warthog. One Day, It Decided to Kill Him. - Nature, red in tooth and claw: ”By the age of thirty, a time when most people are just beginning to think about their mortality, Austin Riley had already conquered his fear of death. He’d come exceedingly close to dying on multiple occasions, including a few months before his first birthday, when doctors discovered a golf ball–size tumor growing inside his infant skull… So as he sat in a pool of his own blood on a beautiful October evening in 2022, he couldn’t help but acknowledge the morbid absurdity of his current predicament.”
- In Nome, Where the Muskoxen Roam … Controversially - More trouble with wildlife: ”During his decade as a musher, Worland, 36, had seen Nome’s muskoxen problems increase. He shared the dog lot with his wife and their friends, and about once a week, when muskoxen got too close, he took on the task of keeping the animals away… No one else witnessed what happened, but one of the animals charged him. Worland received a fatal laceration to his femoral artery, and by the time emergency responders arrived, he had bled out.”
- These fierce, tiny marsupials drop dead after lengthy sex fests – and sometimes become cannibals - ”Antechinuses are perhaps best known for exhibiting semelparity, or ‘suicidal reproduction’… Each year, all antechinus males drop dead at the end of a one to three week breeding season, poisoned by their own raging hormones.” At least they keep it in the family rather than getting us involved
- Scientists Find Optimal Balance of Data Storage and Time - ”Seventy years after the invention of a data structure called a hash table, theoreticians have found the most efficient possible configuration for it.” Somebody once asserted that the preponderance of hierarchical trees in Microsoft’s systems as compared to the extensive use of hash tables in Apple’s was a manifestation of Conway’s Law, reflecting the different management styles of the two companies
- The psychological tricks TfL uses to make London's tube feel faster - HT to ladymuck for this interesting look at how TfL deals with those annoying humans who insist on using its services: ”In 2016, in an effort to battle station congestion, staff at Holborn station in central London ran an experiment. Rather than follow the long-entrenched rule that tells Underground passengers to stand on the right side of the escalator, leaving the left for those in a rush to walk up or down, they asked commuters to stand on both sides… But there was a problem: nobody wanted to break tube etiquette.”
- The ‘Into the Wild’ Bus Was a Pilgrimage Site in the Wilderness. Can It Hold Up in a Museum? - ”The rusty coach where Chris McCandless spent his final days captured the imagination of people all over the world and inspired hundreds of seekers to make dangerous treks to reach it. Now a dedicated team of curators in Alaska have given it new life as a fascinating exhibit—one that tells the story not just of McCandless, but of modern Alaska.” I haven’t seen the film based on his story, but it sounds interesting
- SR-71 Engine Unstart at 83,000 Feet - ”Osterheld monitored his equipment as they neared their closest point to Murmansk. Just as he was recording that a different Soviet radar had begun following them, all hell broke loose. ‘The airplane yawed to the right so far and so fast, it felt like it was going sideways!’ said Osterheld. The SR-71’s right engine had just experienced an ‘intake unstart.’” There are a few interesting SR-71 Blackbird stories on this site, including this one about an engine causing havoc near Novaya Zemlya
- Cracking the Code of Linear B - The story of how Michael Ventris, his interest sparked by a chance encounter, decoded the ancient clay tablets of Knossos: ”When Michael Ventris was still a pupil at Stowe School he saw a display of Greek and Minoan art at Burlington House; and by the sort of accident that changes the path of one’s life, was given an impromptu tour by Sir Arthur Evans, who happened also to be visiting. After viewing some tablets, Ventris had to confirm something that he had heard: ‘Did you say the tablets haven’t been deciphered, Sir?’ The challenge was seductive.”
- Days Of The Year - HT to Halo Jones for this handy site which tells you what you should be celebrating each day: ”Get into the spirit of the day by celebrating, observing, learning and enjoying… The next 24 hours contain a myriad of delightful possibilities to explore!” Today is, among other things, National Clean Out Your Computer Day
- Here’s What Famous Historical Figures Would Look Like Today - Amazing what you can do with a phone and a few filters: ”Magdalena Vissagio decided she would try to see how famous historical figures would look if they lived in modern times. She uses mobile apps to create these edits, specifically FaceApp and AirBrush, and the results are quite impressive.” Pretty sure I’ve seen Alexander the Great hanging out in some of the many student bars round here
Happy invoicing!
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