Five hundred editions of Recommended Links! What adventures! How many videos and galleries shared among friends! I never thought, and I say it with the utmost sincerity, that we would reach such a number. But here we are, with another weekend full of interesting articles, fun videos, and amazing galleries. I can only thank all the readers who stop by and allow me to keep bringing you, week after week, the best of the web. To all of you, thank you very much!
The cats of Pierrefonds castle: "In March 1617, during the reign of Louis XIII and his fight against feudalism instigated by Cardinal Richelieu, it was taken by the Prince of Condé and his eminence ordered its destruction as it was one of the strongholds of the “Party of the Discontented”. This was not fully carried out due to the enormity of the task, but they razed the walls, destroyed the roofs, and perforated the walls of the huge building."
Is there a planet where you can get into orbit with a jump?: "Now, although the escape velocity from the Earth's surface is 11.2 km/s, that doesn't mean that all vehicles sent into space are launched upward at that high speed during their launch. In real life, rockets have to traverse our atmosphere much slower to prevent air friction from disintegrating them, and in fact, they don't really start accelerating until they have gained several tens of kilometers of altitude, where air density is lower."
The 1363 rule that forced wearing a single color: "Not only jewels, extravagant banquets, and castles and mansions have been things for the rich; even color has been a matter of social classes throughout history. The humblest people could not afford great luxuries, obviously, since a peasant could not buy garments made with silk that came along the Silk Road, nor lapis lazuli to add a little blue spark to their daily life."
Ted Bundy, the serial killer who still intrigues the United States and whose story became a successful Netflix series: "We want to believe that we can identify dangerous people, but the most terrifying thing is that we can't. People don't realize they live with potential killers." These are not warning words from a police officer or some other authority, but from one of the most lethal serial killers in United States history: Ted Bundy.
What would happen if the Earth were flat?: "There are still people who believe the Earth is flat. In fact, many more people believe it today than in Columbus's time, when everyone knew it was more or less spherical. It's just that it's now fashionable to contradict science – and besides, science offers us better tools to do so. And that's fine. You have to make your own path toward knowledge and not just accept what we are told. Or at least that's what they say…"
"I didn't choose to be born" – the man who wants to sue his parents for bringing him into the world: "Raphael Samuel is 27 years old, every single one of them against his will. The man, a native of India, has had a seemingly revolutionary idea: to take his parents to court for bringing him into this world. Samuel is an antinatalist, to the full extent of the term, and has managed to turn his extravagant struggle into a viral milestone."
The true story of Edward Mordake: "It's easy to get caught up in the moving story of Edward Mordake. The son of an English nobleman born in the 19th century with an extra face on the back of his head. And even more so when his second face, which had the features of a beautiful woman, showed signs of having a perverse mind."
Lovecraft and Robert Bloch, a literal inheritance: "This group, which would expand over the years, would give rise to a kind of literary forum, practically a movement of writers interested in fantasy and the supernatural that would call itself the “Lovecraft Circle”. From its intense scholarly and creative exchange would emerge what has come to be known as the “Cthulhu Mythos”, a name coined later by August Derleth, one of its original members, and which would serve as a label for the collective work of stories and novels based on the colossal thematic arc originally outlined by Lovecraft."
Why we have much less sex than before, the five reasons that explain it: "People are having less sex. Both the youngest and the oldest. In the case of millennials, according to two studies by 'Mumsnet' and 'Archives Of Sexual Behavior', they have less sex than their parents did at the same age, even those with partners. This 'sexual recession' is not exclusive to young people, as older adults also experience it. Let's see why people are having less fun horizontally, regardless of their age."
Afghanistan, 1986. The Soviet Army, hunting for American Stingers: "When the war in Afghanistan was coming to an end, the US took a step that made the conflict bloodier for the Soviet Union: it equipped the mujahideen with Stingers, anti-aircraft missiles. The Soviets lost air superiority and realized they urgently needed to get their hands on these new missiles to understand how to counter the new threat."
Optical fiber, how your emails can travel at 200,000 km/s: "We know that the speed of light reaches 300,000 kilometers per second in a vacuum. That is the maximum limit determined by physical laws. Nothing in the universe can travel faster. That's why the challenge of telecommunications technologies is to reach that limit: to make information – the millions of data we exchange every day in emails, calls, online purchases, and transactions of all kinds – 'travel' at the speed of light."
Goodbye forever, Opportunity: "It has been the chronicle of a death foretold, but that doesn't make the farewell any less painful. On February 13, 2019, NASA declared the end of the mission of the beloved rover Opportunity after fifteen years exploring Mars. Opportunity landed on Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004, for a mission of 90 sols (Martian days), or equivalently 92.5 Earth days. After the successful landing of its twin brother Spirit, NASA achieved the impossible: having two rovers operating on the surface of the red planet at the same time."
Videos
Videos: 1984 touchscreen watch, Secret Agent Cat, behind the mask of Jason Voorhees, Brain Wave, learning experiment, eating pizza with a parachute, motor oil comparison, bulldog crushes agility course, M.C. Escher library, his hair catches fire but he keeps singing, Street Fighter Stop Motion - Ryu VS Chunli, Lucas the Spider - I'M HUNGRY, dog on pony, destroys stress balls, a shadow on a Russian road, interactive map of vocalizations of 24 sounds, 20 instruments in 1, sand curtain, surfing 20-meter waves, Street Fighter: Piñata Edition 2, Mocatriz, Thriller cover, "Story from North America", learning sculpture, Weezer - Take On Me (Official Video), the first gunshot in westerns and the short films: LEGO: The Great Escape and Smash and Grab.
Galleries
Galleries: strange house designs from around the world, the Black Panthers, Hollywood stars then and now, Botticelli's Venus as a Japanese doll, Greece in the 19th century, love between animals, the worst tattoo in the world, Ericofon (retro advertising), beautiful cats, New York in 1939, cars from the 1900s, absolute madness, the fabulous night trains of Japan, great and super realistic marble sculpture, paintings by Bruno Pontiroli, little animals made with food, Sony World Photo Awards, the Animated Dump of the Week and the sensational Dump.
