Recommended Links of the Week #518: Judge Dredd, Olivetti, and More

The dystopia of Judge Dredd, Olivetti's computers, the world's most expensive fluids, no aliens in sight, and the reason your dog gives you puppy eyes. A bucket of curiosities, knowledge, and laughs, all packed into a section we call: Recommended Links of the Week.

Recommended Links of the Week (No. 518) — Twiggy

Judge Dredd, notes for a social history of dystopia: "Judge Dredd has no private mission to accomplish. He does not fight crime because of a specific grievance, as Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne, or Frank Castle do. And we can go even further: Judge Dredd does not even aspire to change the world he lives in. Mega City is a physical frontier, but not a conceptual one; it is, for all purposes, a concept born of its time and its homeland. A child of the British worldview of the Thatcher era."

Olivetti, in search of the perfect computer: "One of the elements that most defines Italy is its passion for design. It is so in fashion, with brands like Armani or Prada, but also in engineering, with works of art on wheels like Maserati, Lamborghini, or Ferrari. Another Italian brand that stood out especially for its designs was Olivetti, popular for its typewriters but which also manufactured electronic calculators and computers."

The magic of Hollywood accounting, or why Sony says Men in Black still doesn't make a profit: "As has been denounced since articles in 1989, it is a very prevalent practice in studio cinema, and some claim that more than 80% of all Hollywood films do not produce profit, which has happened with films like Revenge of the Sith, the Marvel films, or The Lord of the Rings. Although the details of the practice have been changing, the essence of the scheme remains intact: costs are inflated to harm those who negotiated to receive part of their salary as a percentage of profits."

Juggling with synchronized screens

Five accidents that would not have happened if everyone used the metric system: "Almost all countries in the world use metric units. Specifically, all countries in the world except the United States. In general, it is not a problem. But, throughout history, there have been several accidents caused because someone used metric units instead of imperial ones or vice versa with disastrous results."

The environmental cost of growing vegetables in the desert: "Deserts are complex ecosystems resulting from extreme aridity conditions. They are fragile environments where basic resources are scarce and where the relationships between the environment and the organisms that inhabit it maintain a finely tuned balance. Inappropriate use of these arid environments produces an environmental degradation known as desertification."

The most expensive fluids in the world: "Neither oil nor olive oil. When thinking of liquid gold, clichés come to mind, but reality is quite different. Human fluids reach astronomical figures, the most exotic poisons are on the rise, drugs, medicines, and everyday fluids that we can easily find at home also slip among the most expensive liquids on the market. So you know, if you want to get rich, grab a canteen and go collecting."

The potato song

Not a single proof of extraterrestrial civilizations in the 1,327 closest stars: "These data are a tremendous milestone for the Breakthrough Listen project team," said Danny Price, astrophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley (USA), in a statement. "We have completed thousands of hours of observations of nearby stars, over billions of frequency channels. And we have not found any trace of artificial signals coming from beyond Earth."

How an amateur astronomer discovered Uranus: "On March 13, 1781, William Herschel was looking through his telescope and saw something fantastic: Uranus. It was a monumental discovery for the world of science, but that was not the only reason it was impressive. First, telescopes of the time were extremely limited, and Herschel's device was more or less a magnifying glass shaped like a tube, especially when compared with today's high-power sky scanning technology..."

The first cities were already stressful: "Another interesting fact obtained from the analyses is that the inhabitants of Catal Hüyük began to suffer more infections, due to lack of hygiene and overcrowding. Up to a third of the bones show signs of infection. During the times of greatest population density, houses were like apartments stuck together with no space between them, and occupants entered and left them through stairs that went up to the roof. Interior walls and floors were often covered with clay, and analyses often show remains of fecal matter, which speaks of quite unsanitary conditions."

A GoPro on a turtle

We are growing more slowly demographically, but we will continue doing so until 2050: "The new population projections indicate that nine countries will be responsible for more than half of the projected population growth between now and 2050. In descending order of expected increase, they are: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Indonesia, Egypt, and the United States. In sub-Saharan Africa, the population is projected to double by 2050."

Why your dog gives you puppy eyes - this is how it communicates better with you: "When you are eating, your pet raises its eyebrows and adopts an air of sadness, so you know it is asking you to share. That expressiveness was not present in the first domesticated dogs. The movement of their eyebrows evolved over time and has allowed both species to understand each other better."

"Who is the author of this image?": "Lately I have read this phrase hundreds of times, in many different languages. Many times it is not even raised, but the doubt is there when faced with an image, meme, dubious screenshot, accusing tweet, blatant forgery, repeating hoax... It may also be that you are the artist and want to know if your image, photograph, or text (associated with an image) have been used without permission by other people on the Internet. And the solution is always usually..."

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Fk4_jhnWF3k

The transport of the future