The most dangerous movie in history, why your dog follows you to the bathroom, what the Internet is doing to our minds, and virtual butlers since the 60s, among many other things, including the gateway to the underworld, antinatalism, and the group of humans who survived the apocalypse. Don't miss a single word!
How Roar, the most dangerous movie in history, was filmed and almost killed the entire cast: "There are hundreds of films whose productions ended up becoming a danger to the crew. In many cases, even with the death of a cast member. However, no film has reached the levels of Roar. Among the actors there were tigers, lions, cougars, or panthers... without training."
Why your dog always follows you to the bathroom: "Dogs don't understand privacy, but they do understand protection. The concept of the pack is so deeply rooted that what your dog wants is for the pack not to scatter, hence it follows you wherever you go, and to the bathroom much more, because a certain protective instinct also awakens in moments when you are, say, more vulnerable to certain dangers. It's in its instinct, hence when your dog does its business, it also feels vulnerable and usually does it while looking at you."
What is the Internet doing to our minds?: "The author talks about the Internet and the networks that belong to intellectual technologies. Likewise, he stresses that the more we use these technologies, the less we use paper and the precursor technologies of the Internet. He introduces us to hypertext, a concept that is totally opposed to linear thinking. Hyperlinks influence the way we read texts: we no longer read everything from beginning to end to understand something (linear thinking), but we jump around the web, discriminating what is useful and what is not."
The fall of Theranos: how the blood test scam was crafted: "These are cycles, and from time to time, cases arise that resonate around the world. Most of them share a common profile: entrepreneurs who come from nothing, self-made, and have a revolutionary technology—they'll probably be called "the new Steve Jobs" at some point in their career—, from there they go on to raise large amounts of millions from some of the most notable investors on the international scene, accompanied by a natural gift for convincing the masses. Over the years, and given the absence of results from the supposed flagship projects, the inevitable explodes: the great scam. From there, the success curve that rose to the top ends up diluting until finally disappearing."
Virtual butlers since the 60s: this is what the ancestors of Alexa and Siri were like: "Cortana, Siri, Alexa... 'Chatbots' are all the rage, and those marketed by giants like Microsoft, Apple, or Amazon are not the only ones. A stroll through Facebook Messenger or Telegram reveals a wide range of possibilities from these artificial intelligences prepared to answer our questions or even act as virtual butlers when making purchases. However, although it is now that they are landing en masse on our screens, chats, phones, and even smart speakers, virtual assistants have decades of history: as incredible as it seems today, their most distant predecessor was created in the mid-60s."
Siberia's 'Gateway to the Underworld' keeps growing: "The Batagaika crater, the largest of its kind in the world, is known by the local people of Yakutia, in Siberia, as the "Gateway to the Underworld". Interestingly, the region's inhabitants prefer to avoid it and not pass by there. However, scientists assure that it is a unique window into the past, since here is a detailed record of 200,000 years of Earth's history. In recent years, the crater has been exposed by the melting of the permafrost. This term refers to the layer of soil that remains permanently frozen. In Siberia, this layer has been famous for its ability to preserve different biological samples in perfect condition over thousands of years."
'If it is not good, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it': "Begin each day by telling yourself: today I will surely meet an indiscreet, an ungrateful, an insolent, a traitor, an envious, and a selfish person. They are like that because they do not know what is good or evil. But I know that beauty is good and shame is evil, and that he who errs is intelligent and shares in the divine like me. Therefore no one can bring shame upon me, and thus cannot harm me either. It is impossible for me, then, to get angry or hate my fellow man, because we are all born to cooperate, like the two feet, the two hands, the two eyelids, and the upper and lower teeth. It is against nature to oppose one another, and opposing also means getting angry and turning away."
Antinatalism, the philosophy that advocates for non-existence and avoiding birth: "Philosophers of all eras have also addressed the thorny issue of existence: wouldn't it have been better not to be born to avoid living a burdensome existence with an expiration date? In a world where climate change is starting to afflict us and a difficult future looms, and where the gods no longer give us the answers we seek, antinatalism is becoming a thriving philosophy: since we could not choose to be born, let us not bring other new lives to drag the heavy burden of existing."
How to achieve happiness through mathematics: "The first thing Lieber proposes in his text is that life is not only existing. Happiness is a feeling, a quest that goes beyond material matters like money, and can be closer to everyday actions like contemplating the landscape. In this way, the way of perceiving the world would depend on each person, and mathematics, as a human creation, would also reflect the way of conceiving the world of those who developed them."
74,000 years ago, this group of humans survived the apocalypse: "One morning 74,000 years ago, a group of humans on the coast of South Africa observed a black cloud that advanced across the sky until it covered everything, leaving their world in semi-darkness for the next seven years. From that moment on, there was no summer, plants and animals were dying en masse, and getting food under that ash-filled sky became a challenge. And yet, that group survived and continued with their daily lives."
Modern humans interbred at least twice with an extinct humanoid species, the Denisovans: "There are so few remains of the mysterious Denisovans that their status as a human subspecies is not even permanent yet. They are known as Denisovans, Denisova hominins, Homo altai, or Homo sapiens ssp. The only remains that prove their existence are a finger phalanx and two teeth discovered in Denisova Cave in the remote Altai Mountains region of southern Siberia. In a way, they are cousins of Neanderthals and modern Homo sapiens."
One hundred and eleven surprising facts about World War II: "Did you know that there was a battle in Europe right after the war, that Churchill allowed a terrible famine in India, or that there were Jews in the Gestapo? Or that many of the things you have in your kitchen originated in that conflict? Do you know the sophisticated tricks the Soviets devised to deceive the Germans, or the epic American efforts to obtain something as prosaic as supplying books to their soldiers?"
Videos
Kitten chasing fish in a frozen pond, kitten putting paws into holes, Aztec temple on a cake, Necronomicon made into a "pop-up" book, Star Wars on German TV from 1980, the skill of the Baranton sisters, Toto - Africa (in an empty shopping mall), man dressed as Elsa from Frozen rescuing a truck in the middle of the snow, life is painful, life hacks to apply in real life, record for snapping fingers, Tommy Wiseau auditions for the role of the Joker and someone puts it in the movie, restoring a knife, fried noodles, Mick Jagger at age 15, rubber band rifle, destroying a photo, the laughing seagull, "A-Ha - Take On" on guitar, and the shorts My Name is Koji, One Day Love, My Family Is a Theme Park, and Farkels.
Galleries
Pets after the vet, girls on skateboards in 1960, girls underwater, combined GIFs, portraits of girls on the street by Ivan Olivares, animal reviews in the style of Amazon, the Soviet propaganda that intimidated German troops, erotism accepted by social networks, ceramics for architects, more portraits of women by Ivana Besevic, the sun is a diabolical tattoo artist, Stephen Hawking in 1963, and the Visual Dump of the Week.
This Week on NeoTeo
If you leave without reading the best of NeoTeo, I'll be offended. We have very nice things, things like fake Wikipedia articles, the best appearances of Stephen Hawking in series and movies, the playmates who went to the moon in 1969, Stories of Mystery and Terror, close encounter with a UFO, a backup of your brain, the cryptocurrency that pays you to watch porn, riddles that will melt your brain, rain of frogs and spiders, and why Doom is adapted to anything with a screen.
Wow, so many nice things! Thanks for reading!
