Monday Links from the Boxing Day Sofa vol. DCXXVI

Traditionally, if Christmas Day fell on a Saturday, the following day was Christmas Sunday and Boxing Day was on the Monday. HT to the random person on Twitter who revealed this fact earlier today, as it made it easier to think up a custom title for this lot

The Big, Bonkers, British, Christmas Pantomime - ”Oh, yes I did! An attempt to explain the bizarre tradition of the British Christmas pantomime.” I have never been to a pantomime, not even as a child. In this piece, Carolyn Wells inadvertently explains why
New study challenges popular explanation for London’s infamous “Wobbly Bridge” - A new analysis of the Millennium Bridge: ”The accepted explanation has been that the swaying was due to a weird synchronicity between the bridge's lateral (sideways) sway and pedestrians' gaits—an example of emergent collective phenomena. But that explanation turns out to be a bit more complicated, according to a recent paper published in the journal Nature Communications.” You'll be wanting to read the paper if you like wobbly bridges: Emergence of the London Millennium Bridge instability without synchronisation
Detailed Footage Finally Reveals What Triggers Lightning - ”Scientists have never been able to adequately explain where lightning comes from. Now the first detailed observations of its emergence inside a cloud have exposed how electric fields grow strong enough to let bolts fly.” It appears to be more complicated than clouds bumping together
Can you tell self-care affirmations from seasonal cheer? - Seasonal quiz by Dr. Petra Boynton: ”The aim of this quiz is to see if you can distinguish which of the following 21 phrases is a self-care message or from a seasonal blessing or song – that might be for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, or Christmas.”
I made a big list of paranormal and mystery threads from all over Reddit to help pass the time while we're in lock down - Whether we end up in lockdown again or not, this is (for some reason) the perfect time of year for a spooky story, so here's lots of them
DeepMind’s AI helps untangle the mathematics of knots - ”For the first time, machine learning has spotted mathematical connections that humans had missed. Researchers at artificial-intelligence powerhouse DeepMind, based in London, teamed up with mathematicians to tackle two separate problems — one in the theory of knots and the other in the study of symmetries. In both cases, AI techniques helped the researchers discover new patterns that could then be investigated using conventional methods.” One for you maths geeks
Here's Why Movie Dialogue Has Gotten More Difficult To Understand (And Three Ways To Fix It) - ”I used to be able to understand 99% of the dialogue in Hollywood films. But over the past 10 years or so, I've noticed that percentage has dropped significantly — and it's not due to hearing loss on my end. It's gotten to the point where I find myself occasionally not being able to parse entire lines of dialogue when I see a movie in a theater, and when I watch things at home, I've defaulted to turning the subtitles on to make sure I don't miss anything crucial to the plot.” Ben Pearson explains why you can't hear what people are saying in that fancy new blockbuster while on the same equipment, every syllable of Singin' in the Rain is crystal clear. Unfortunately, the "three ways to fix it" seem to involve turning Hollywood studio executives into caring people who think of others, so don't hold your breath
How ‘Big Buck Bunny’ — a movie you've probably never heard of — became an internet legacy - ”In 2007, tasked with making an animated movie that encompassed both descriptions, a small team of creatives began working on a short film that ended up becoming one of the most popular open-source film projects of all time… It’s been used for everything from video codec development to testing Netflix’s streaming service. Along the way, the film has also become a blueprint on how to create open movies, and how open-source development and art can benefit from each other.” The 4K version on YouTube looks pretty good on my telly. Also, no speech, so the sound isn't a problem
The 12 most intriguing animal discoveries of 202 - ”Here are our editors’ picks for the most compelling wildlife findings of the year, from ants that can regrow their brains to the world’s tiniest reptile.” Maybe we could effect some kind of gene transfer from those ants to Her Majesty's Government
Angel Oloshove: Sculpture - ”[Angel's] work often experiments with painterly glazes to express feelings of transcendental experiences through form and color. She has balance a fine art practice of sculptural ceramics as well has her own line of functional design pottery stocked in design boutiques throughout the United States.” Nice gradients