In this edition you'll be able to read interesting things like articles about houses for one euro, the invention of zero, the tradition of quarantine, the road to the end of the world, and a lost continent. And if you don't want to read, there are also plenty of viral videos and spectacular galleries for you.
Recommended Reading
22 cities and towns selling houses for €1 in Italy, here's how to buy them: "Cities and towns in Italy suffering from depopulation have joined forces to combat the abandonment of their historic centers by promoting the sale of houses for just one euro. Since the beginning of 2018, different municipalities from all over the transalpine country have gradually joined the 'case a un euro' initiative, thanks to which empty houses come onto the market at a ridiculous price and are available to both local citizens and foreigners."
Earnie Shavers, the boxer who almost killed Stallone: "Since his initial intention was to hire a professional boxer to play the new rival of his famous character Rocky Balboa, Stallone devised a peculiar casting process: contacting an elite heavyweight to exchange a few blows with him on the ring of his gym. That would be the first step of the audition. Emboldened by what we can describe as an unrealism bordering on foolishness, Stallone called Earnie Shavers. And that was a bad idea."
Three decades of the pale blue dot: "There are iconic photos, and then there is the one taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 probe of Earth from more than six billion kilometers away. The photo itself is nothing impressive, but that's precisely where its beauty lies. Our planet, along with the billions of human beings and other living things that live on it, appears as a small blue speck in the blackness of space. A tiny, humble, and insignificant pale blue dot, as it was christened by Carl Sagan."
Numbers in the air; the mystery of numbers stations: "But what exactly is a numbers station and what is it for? And why are they so unsettling? Numbers stations operate on certain shortwave frequencies, almost always the same ones. Some have a clearly recognizable interval signal, others don't. In some cases the broadcasts are regular, in others completely unpredictable. Almost all of them emit very long lists of numbers with no apparent meaning, usually grouped in groups of five. And what are those numbers?"
The demonic invention of zero: "Who do we owe the zero as we use it today to? To the Indian mathematicians, who called it in Sanskrit shunya (the void). The Indian mathematician and astronomer Brahmagupta theorized, in the 6th century, about zero as results of positive and negative quantities. An inscription was found at Angkor Wat (Cambodia) dated to the year 683 where the number 605 appears. In the Chaturbhuj temple in Gwalior (India), zero also appears, now positional and as a small circle."
Where the ancient tradition of 'quarantine' comes from, which we still adopt in the face of incurable evils: "Echoing ancient practices, in the face of the new and still little-known coronavirus, China adopted classic measures, although on a scale never seen before: separating the sick from the healthy, a long-standing custom. Leprosy is the first documented disease for which quarantine was imposed. Already in the Old Testament, for example, rules of that type existed."
The Thompson Submachine Gun, a legend of our time: "The Thompson submachine gun is undoubtedly one of the most well-known and famous weapons of the 20th century. Designed by the American officer John Taliaferro Thompson, it equipped the US Army until the 1960s and many other armies since its first version in 1921. A weapon also used by organized crime and guerrillas throughout the world for their fights and their businesses. Without a doubt, the Thompson marked an era and has become an icon of popular culture."
Can you live only on smuggling? This country has been doing it for decades... until today: "For generations, Benin, a small country in West Africa (just over 114,000 square kilometers and 11 million inhabitants), has had practically no official economic policy. It didn't need it: 70% of its economy depends on smuggling to and from its neighbor Nigeria. Last October, the Nigerian government took drastic measures and closed its land border with Benin to all traffic of goods."
Trans Taiga, the road to the end of the world: "There is a road that starts from nowhere and ends in the middle of nowhere. It is 666 kilometers long, and the only way to get out of there once you've entered is to go back on your own footsteps. If you dare to travel it, it's very likely you won't meet anyone along the way. In fact, if by chance you cross paths with someone, you'll probably wish you hadn't. And if you have a problem while traveling it, your chances of survival, I'm sorry to say, are lower than you'd like to hear."
No, words cannot be violence, violence lies in intent: "That is, that words cause stress, for example, and that stress causes harm, does not mean that words are violent in themselves. It only establishes that words can cause harm. Just replace words with any other act in Barrett's syllogism to see how wrong it is: (...) All those words cause stress, pain, even physical pain, but that doesn't necessarily mean those statements are violent, nor even violent acts."
IKARIE XB-1: "The project of the Czech Communist Party went big: it was decided to adapt for the big screen The Magellanic Cloud, a story by a master of Soviet science fiction like Stanislam Lem; moreover, there was a monumental budget and a series of artistic values (in the set design, costumes, scientific atmosphere, music…) led by Jindřich Polák as director and Pavel Juráček on the screenplay."
This is how Zealandia, the seventh continent, arose and disappeared beneath the seas: "Laia Alegret, the paleontologist from the University of Zaragoza who recently demonstrated that an asteroid impact had wiped out the dinosaurs, has now provided new data on the origin and formation of the seventh continent: Zealandia. This continent is submerged beneath the waters of the Pacific, with only its highest mountains emerging, New Zealand and New Caledonia."
Videos
Are you ready to cry?, microtonal guitar made from LEGO, ÆDAN-EVOLUTION, will it fly?, the special effects in the Oscar nominees, R2-D2 in Italy, cheetah versus greyhound, the 1996 dancing baby in 4K, calico street kittens, the largest firework in the world, the puppy didn't want to, how tranquilizer darts work, gives mouth-to-mouth to a gecko, drone destroyer, a cake of 'The Tell-Tale Heart' that beats, oops, Adam Savage with robot dog, blast wave in a tunnel, 'Wave of Materials', an interview from 1929 with a 103-year-old man, and a bunch of shorts: Time and Again, Knitcromancer, Bang Bang!, Tulip, After the Rain, and Mute Series, a series of great silent shorts.
Galleries
Colorized photos of 'famous' Russians from antiquity, retrofuturistic architecture, a Westerner photographing China in 1982, the mysterious Belgian woman, computer design in 1993, cats with human faces, beautiful landscapes, Italo Disco, the winners of 'Wildlife Photographer of the year', locomotive explosions, the art of Bryn Jones, baby bears playing in the forest, realistic masks of different animals, the It clown made of snow, how pretty Rebecca Black is, Inhumans of Late Capitalism, more photos of Debbie Harry, realistic landscapes, photorealistic knitting, Animated Dump, and the Visual Dump of the Week.
