This week's recommended links feature the best deaths from "Mil maneras de morir", a history of masturbation, the story of the espresso machine, and the first book of short stories written by an artificial intelligence. All that, and more, more, and more in our weekly links. The best things you can visit on the web today, after Pornhub.
The 13 best deaths from Mil maneras de morir: "This show can keep us hooked on TV for hours on end. And we're going to keep you hooked for a while with this article. (...) A clown trying to liven up a bachelorette party. A clown trying to blow up a balloon after swallowing it. We can all imagine how that ends, can't we? (...) Those guys had problems with the pipes, but they could have pulled off the best robbery in the world." And much more. :D
The real situation of the 'hikikomori': "Many Japanese people despise hikikomori, seeing them as just 'spoiled kids' or 'lazy' people who live off their parents without working. I'd like to emphasize that there is not a single hikikomori who is so by choice. If this condition were really the product of laziness, it would make no sense that those affected or their families would suffer from it. There are two key words to understand the hikikomori phenomenon: 'shame' and 'conflict'. Hikikomori feel deep shame for not being able to work like everyone else. They feel that, for not being able to work like many others, they are human scum, and that they don't deserve to be happy. Almost all of them believe they have betrayed their parents' hopes."
Masturbation throughout history: "The most ancient myths of Mesopotamia and Egypt speak of the god Apsu, who was born from the primordial ocean, creating himself through masturbation, saliva, and tears, and in that way gave life to the Milky Way. So it's no wonder that Egyptian queens were buried more than four thousand years ago with all the objects they would need in the afterlife, mainly clothes, combs, and their dildos (also called consolers)."
Coffee, work, and the origin of the espresso machine: "The thing is that Bezzera racked his brain and came up with a design that could keep water hot permanently and, when the time came, make coffee in less time. His device was nothing more than a metal tank where water was constantly boiling, and when it was time to make the brew, he passed the water through one of the four copper arms that the tank had, and there the coffee was made on the spot. No waiting. Plus, it was good. It was an invention inspired by the steam engine."
The sound chips that shaped video games: "One of the first dedicated audio chips we saw in a bunch of consoles were those of the SN family from Texas Instruments. Born in the early 80s, these chips had modest features: three square wave generators and one white noise generator, but this time it was easier to modulate pitch and volume."
'Mexica', the first book of short stories in Spanish written by an Artificial Intelligence: "The author of MEXICA, 20 years, 20 stories, the new book that the American publisher Counterpath Press has published in Spanish and English, doesn't sign autographs or (for now) frequent literary gatherings: it's an artificial intelligence (AI) program. However, the work it has written seems perfectly human: it consists of 20 short stories that narrate the relationships of love, hate, spite, devotion, and revenge of pre-Hispanic characters like an eagle warrior, a princess, a maiden, and a tlatoani. Everything happens in the setting of the central valley of Mexico, at the foot of the volcanoes and on Lake Texcoco."
Human monogamy has an explanation and it's neurochemistry: "The first article on ancestral monogamy was tested in a first article that notes that Homo Sapiens presented neurochemical changes in the striatum of the brain, which is responsible for the production of dopamine and serotonin. A second article suggests that monogamy would also have contributed to the greater survival of young females and their reproductive success."
The new way of cooling that will change everything: "When deforming an elastocaloric solid, for example by stretching it, its components align in the direction of the applied force, thus increasing the degree of internal ordering (what we know as entropy), so that the solid heats up. Once the solid recovers its initial temperature, if we stop stretching it, it will cool considerably. At that point we can use it to cool another object. We can observe this heating-cooling phenomenon of a solid with a rubber band (see video)."
"Today I finally die. I am 29 years old and they have accepted my request for euthanasia": "Aurelia Brouwers received a call on December 31, 2017. On the other line was a worker from the Dutch federation of doctors KNMG. 'It was a Sunday, but they didn't care. They told me that they had definitively approved my request for assisted suicide and asked me if I wanted to schedule it. I said yes and they set it for January 26. It was the best news I've heard in years. Finally I'm going to die,' she tells El Confidencial with a big smile."
Scientists say the 'zombie deer disease' could affect humans: "As we have already published on previous occasions, the symptoms shown by affected animals are drooping head, teeth grinding, loss of appetite, drooping ears, and instability. The loss of appetite leads to a great weight loss that eventually causes death. However, the scientific community has made a new and chilling discovery. Since the disease was discovered in 1967, there was no evidence of transmission to humans, but now a team of Canadian researchers has shown that transmission can occur to primates."
They discover the origin of the chupacabras through DNA tests: "Now, according to a BBC publication, an American scientist took on the task of reviewing the different stories, videos, and even the DNA of this enigmatic creature to try to explain its origin through science. The writer and member of the skeptical movement in the United States, Benjamin Radford, was in charge of carrying out the investigation and became completely interested in this myth when supposed chupacabras bodies began to appear in the state of Texas at the beginning of the 2000s."
Emma Goldman, the permanent revolution of the most dangerous woman in America: "Coming out of nowhere, a woman in an overwhelmingly male environment, admired by as many as hated her, capable of challenging privileged people accustomed to impunity and even the most powerful governments, acclaimed to the point of idolatry, persecuted and punished. No wonder Emma Goldman was often compared to Joan of Arc."
Videos
Octopus swimming, Mission Impossible for kids, programmable dresses with electronic ink, cat on a claw machine, how to clean discs with eraser, how to make a hut in the woods, the history of miniature people in movies, buries himself in snow, Inception with pencils, a giant claw machine with a human "crane", running through glass in super slow motion, a seal escapes from a pod of orcas, 857 hours to watch the longest movie in the world, and the terrifying short film Polaroid.
Galleries
The truth behind professional portraits, The truth behind professional portraits, clown makeup on eggs, Shadow of the Colossus art by Omer Tunc, photos of the last Chinese dynasty from 1870 and 1880, the most controversial vintage ads, a bench in a Kyiv square, dog and owl best friends, PEZ art, video game covers by Bob Wakelin, and the amazing Visual Dump of the Week.
This Week on NeoTeo
The thing wouldn't be complete without a review of the best of our site. See if you missed anything: Olga the headless woman, how a TV works in slow motion, cloned monkeys, how roosters don't go deaf, the extraterrestrial Antarctic sky, the app being used to make fake porn videos of celebrities, a poisonous book, worthy of Black Mirror, hack yourself first, humanity as postmodern lemmings, terror in the age of social media, and a depression test, in case you're feeling down.
Okay, that's it. Bye. See you. Thanks for reading!
