Yet another busy Monday morning! I don't really mind as I'm working on something interesting these days, but it does get in the way of posting stuff like this 
Happy invoicing!
- Pizzastroika - ”In 1990, in the last breaths of the Cold War, a delicious act of American subversion unfolded in Moscow. It’s long been forgotten. It shouldn’t be.” The story of Pizza Hut's peaceful invasion of the USSR, including the truth behind the oft-repeated legend about PepsiCo once owning one of the largest navies in the world
- Cosmic Paradox Reveals the Awful Consequence of an Observer-Free Universe - ”Encouraged by successes in understanding black holes, theoretical physicists are applying what they’ve learned to whole universes. What they’re finding has them questioning fundamental assumptions about how physics ought to be done.” The implication seems to be that the Universe would be a lot simpler if we, or any other observers, weren't in it
- Scientists hail breakthrough in decoding whale communication - Whale's may have more sophisticated language than we previously thought: ”According to a new study from Begus and his colleagues with Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative), the whales make sounds that resemble vowels, a key part of human language… Although scientists already knew that sperm whales communicate with codas — sequences of clicks analogous to Morse code — the study indicates a more complex communication system.” Full details, should you want them, in the paper Vowel- and Diphthong-Like Spectral Patterns in Sperm Whale Codas
- Study Confirms Earth’s Largest Impact Crater Formed In The Past 12,000 Years - ”Researchers from Shanghai and Guangzhou, China, confirm the impact origin of the Jinlin crater: a large and remarkably young impact structure preserved on a hillside. Measuring 900 meters across, it is the largest impact event in the past 12,000 years.” I assume the hole left from the impact that took out the dinosaurs was bigger, but has either eroded or is so big that it counts as something other than a crater.
- Vanished 240 Years Ago, the UK’s Largest Bird of Prey Just Returned to English Skies Like It Never Left - White-tailed eagles are back: ”After vanishing from England centuries ago, a fearsome predator is now soaring back into southern skies—and it’s not just passing through.” (I have no idea why this story is in the Indian Defence Review.)
- The Peekskill Meteorite Car - ”The Peekskill Meteorite Car (‘PMC’), a 1980 red Chevy Malibu, is one of the two most famous objects struck by a meteorite (the other, Ms. Ann Hodges, died in 1972).” RIP Ms. Hodges. Meanwhile, I get the impression that this was the only interesting thing ever to happen in Peekskill, and they’re keen to make sure nobody forgets about it
- Pet fish goes on 'shopping spree' using owner's credit card and Nintendo Switch - If you’re planning to use motion sensors to let your fish control your computers, be warned: ”A series of random choices from a pet fish is said to have led to it using its owner's credit card to make online shop purchases by way of Nintendo's popular video game console, the Switch. The ‘crime’ was caught on a live stream and later shared in its own video.”
- going through hell, keeping going - Writer Naomi Alderman reflects on the lessons of seeing 83-year-old Paul McCartney perform: ”on art, grief, and the emotional heroism of just bloody keeping on making your work.”
- Unusual circuits in the Intel 386's standard cell logic - Ken Shirriff is back on the Intel beat: ”The 386, introduced in 1985, was Intel's most complex processor at the time, containing 285,000 transistors. Intel's existing design techniques couldn't handle this complexity and the chip began to fall behind schedule. To meet the schedule, the 386 team started using a technique called standard cell logic… The 386's standard cell circuitry contains a few circuits that I didn't expect. In this blog post, I'll take a quick look at some of these circuits: surprisingly large multiplexers, a transistor that doesn't fit into the standard cell layout, and inverters that turned out not to be inverters.”
- Andrei Tarkovsky’s Sublime Polaroids (And Free Films) - ”Andrei Tarkovsky’s Polaroids (1979 – 1984) show us thoughtful and dreamy visions of his native Russia, featuring his family, his dog, his home, his garden, views from trips to Italy and a ‘selfie’.” We already had the link to the free-to-view films back in MLFTB 310
Happy invoicing!
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