Too many meetings today, so I've got to get these posted then wait an hour until I can have lunch 
Happy invoicing!

- "There Will Be No Mercy": On the Frontlines of War in Ethiopia - ”When Ethiopia’s government launched a brutal two-year war in Tigray, the region’s largest hospital was overrun with victims. The medical staff risked everything to treat the wounded—and believe the world ignored a genocide.” With all the bad things we hear about, it seems there's always more we don't hear about
- Chernobyl’s feral dogs are genetically unique, but not mutated - ”Feral dogs living near Chernobyl differ genetically from their ancestors who survived the 1986 nuclear plant disaster—but these variations do not appear to stem from radioactivity-induced mutations.” The dogs shall inherit the earth
- Discover the Astounding Secrets of Scotland’s Stone Age Settlements - ”In the Orkney Islands, archaeologists close the chapter on a legendary excavation, capping two decades of remarkable Neolithic discoveries.” No stone kilts, because they're largely a Victorian invention
- Newly discovered fungal species makes zombies of cave spiders on island of Ireland - Not now, zombie Irish cave spiders: ”These normally reclusive spiders left their lairs or webs and migrated to die in exposed situations, essentially, mirroring the behavior of ants infected by fungi of the genus Ophiocordyceps previously reported from the Atlantic rainforest of Brazil.” The full paper is open access: The araneopathogenic genus Gibellula (Cordycipitaceae: Hypocreales) in the British Isles, including a new zombie species on orb-weaving cave spiders (Metainae: Tetragnathidae).
- The 1962 Animation That Inspired an Iconic “Simpsons” Moment - The inspiration for "Worker and Parasite": ”Despite being part of only one episode of “The Simpsons,” a 19-second show-within-a-show became legendary. Few people know that the inspiration for it came from an Oscar-winning animated short from Zagreb.”
- Aberystwyth: a town, its railway staff & their accidents - A look at some of the incidents in the Railway Work, Life & Death project database: ”We thought that looking at where Aberystwyth railway workers feature in the Railway Work, Life & Death project database of railway employee accidents was an excellent means of showing what the project can offer… The database is a rich resource, full of detail about life on the railway – and beyond – in the past.”
- The Strange Tale of the Missing Father of Khong Guan - Ladybird Books expert Helen Day explains how a biscuit tin lid based on an illustration from a 1959 "Learning to Read" book has become a cultural icon in Indonesia: ”It was at this point that I discovered just what a big thing the image on the tin has become in Indonesia. A link to the website showed that the company even has its own museum which heavily features the biscuit tin. In fact, one of the highlights of a visit to the Khong Guan museum in Semarang, Java, is that you can have your photo taken in a recreation of the iconic scene.”
- Kneesnap/onstream-data-recovery/Introduction.md - HT to DoctorStrangelove for this link to a GitHub repo containing an interesting account of a "Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge" data recovery saga: ”This should serve as a warning, because learning from my mistakes will prevent you from making your recovery process harder. This took place over the span of months, and many details and side-tangents have been omitted for clarity.”
- The origin and unexpected evolution of the word "mainframe" - Ken Shirriff ventures into etymology with his usual thoroughness: ”Based on my research, the earliest computer to use the term "main frame" was the IBM 701 computer (1952), which consisted of boxes called "frames." The 701 system consisted of two power frames, a power distribution frame, an electrostatic storage frame, a drum frame, tape frames, and most importantly a main frame.”
- Masters of the Knight: The Art of Chess Carving in India - The remarkable industry of chess piece carving, the skills for making specific pieces being handed down the generations: ”The knight carvers are only knight carvers… The person who is making the queen, we don’t give him the pawn. Otherwise, he’s going to ruin it.” This is Surinder Pal, who has spent over 35 years carving knights like his father before him
Happy invoicing!

Comment