- Into the Mystical and Inexplicable World of Dowsing - ”For centuries, dowsers have claimed the ability to find groundwater, precious metals, and other quarry using divining rods and an uncanny intuition. Is it the real deal or woo-woo? ” Dowsing is one of those things I know quite a lot about, because it's the sort of thing that teenagers took an interest in in the 1970s and the local library had a number of good books on the subject
- First nuclear detonation created ‘impossible’ quasicrystals - ”Scientists searching for quasicrystals — so-called ‘impossible’ materials with unusual, non-repeating structures — have identified one in remnants of the world’s first nuclear bomb test. The previously unknown structure, made of iron, silicon, copper and calcium, probably formed from the fusion of vaporized desert sand and copper cables.” Finally, a use for nuclear weapons
- Sleep Evolved Before Brains. Hydras Are Living Proof. - ”Studies of sleep are usually neurological. But some of nature’s simplest animals suggest that sleep evolved for metabolic reasons, long before brains even existed.”
- The Scrappy-Doo Wikipedia mystery - ”The Wikipedia entry for fictional Great Dane puppy Scrappy-Doo is 25,623 words long. With six sections, 15 subsections, and 19 sub-subsections, the page has a greater wordcount than Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, is double the length of the average undergrad dissertation, and is nearly 2,000 words longer than the Wikipedia entry for the entire history of Poland.” Amelia Tait finds the story behind this incredibly detailed page, contributed by one anonymous editor.
- Medieval Memes - ”Create memes and discover the Middle Ages.” This meme generator is actually a sneaky intro to the large collection of medieval images in the National Library of the Netherlands' collection
- Music, Makers & Machines - ”A brief history of electronic music.” An interesting exploration of the history of bleeping noises from Google Arts & Culture
- More accurate clocks may add more disorder to the universe, scientists say - ”Entropy — or disorder — is created every time a clock ticks. Now scientists working with a tiny clock have proven a simple relationship: The more accurate a clock runs, the more entropy it generates.” Those people who boast about always being punctual turn out to be making things worse for everybody
- 1988: P.R.E.S.T.A.V.B.A. - An odd piece of East European game history: ”On August 21, 1968, the Soviet Union sent half a million Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia, bringing an end to a reform movement known as the Prague Spring… The story of what the invasion has to do with the history of computer games is a surprisingly complex one of ripples spreading across decades and continents, of generational shifts and cultural blind spots. One small piece of that story begins on August 21, 1968 and ends exactly twenty years later with a protest commemorating the invasion, and an invitation to attend it in a form no regime leader had yet considered as an avenue of dissent—a text adventure.”
- Could this famous con man be lying about his story? A new book suggests he is - Did the famous con man Frank W. Abaganale Jr. actually con people into thinking he was a con man? ”Though the movie claims to be based on a true story, creating the myth of Frank W. Abagnale Jr. might be the best con that Abagnale actually pulled. A new book contends that the story of the charming teen running from the FBI and pulling off all those impersonations without getting caught is mostly made up.”
- Earth Restored - A project by Toby Ord: ”Only 24 people have journeyed far enough to see the whole Earth against the black of space. The images they brought back changed our world. Here is a selection of the most beautiful photographs of Earth — iconic images and unknown gems — digitally restored to their full glory.” This one was taken by the crew of Apollo 17, and the full-size download available on Toby's site is 5500×5500 pixels.
Happy invoicing!
