This week's collection of fascinating links includes the disenchantment with current software, a pandemic without the Internet, the neurons of the heart, the brutal birth of Berlin, and why cockroaches terrify you, among many other things, with videos and galleries included.
Disenchanted with Software: "I have been programming for 15 years. Lately our lack of care for efficiency, simplicity, and excellence has started to affect me, to the point of making me depressed about my career and the industry in general." The best and most accurate article you will read all week. Highly recommended.
Krylo-SV, the new Russian rocket with wings: "What about wings? The reason is that in Soviet times, ways to recover launch vehicles using parachutes —the "normal" thing— but also wings were thoroughly investigated. A winged rocket may seem strange, but this technology allowed the application of technologies developed for the Buran shuttle program."
How would this pandemic have been without the Internet?: "With real life on pause, we've been living inside a computer for weeks. The network cables are our umbilical cord with the world we left behind. What has allowed the digital world to hold up while the physical one has broken to pieces? How would this pandemic have been without the internet? What will the future be like after this? We put these questions into the search engine and these are the results it offers"
“Most people don't realize that the Milky Way exists, it's a pity”: "We spoke with Mihail Minkov, a Bulgarian astrophotographer, considered by many, including us, one of the best of the moment. His taste for astronomical photography framed with the landscape and natural environment gives his creations a unique touch. Without a doubt we can already speak of the 'Minkov seal' to refer to this type of captures that he takes such good care of and composes."
What if superheroes faced the laws of Physics?: "In the 50s, EC Comics editors couldn't find a place for Harvey Kurtzman's satirical and humorous material, but they knew it was good. The solution was to present his comics as educational comics, which was the antecedent of the author's immense science fiction and horror work published in titles such as Weird Science or Tales from the Crypt, before he specialized in war comics, in Combat, and his great humor work, Mad magazine."
This detailed 3D map is the first to show all the neurons of a heart: "The heart is controlled mainly by the brain and the nervous system. However, it also has its own "brain" that allows it to automatically pump blood from the heart to the rest of the body. Known as the intracardiac nervous system (ICN), scientists have for the first time managed to show its complete structure in an impressive 3D map."
The fascinating story of Hollywood's Spanish Department in the 1930s: "The arrival of sound cinema was a challenge for silent film actors and actresses, many of them saw their careers cut short overnight, while others knew how to adapt to the new times. But less known is the problem that the big studios faced with the international marketing of their new sound productions."
The Louds, the family destroyed by the first reality TV show: "Funded by the Ford Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the program was conceived as a true sociological experiment that would document the lives of four American families from the north, south, and east and west coasts of the country. Each of those four households would receive television crews that would film their daily lives from when they woke up until they went to sleep."
The Massive Medieval Cemetery Sheds Light on Berlin's Brutal Birth: "In Berlin, a historic medieval cemetery has been excavated that reveals that the lives of medieval people were ruined by hunger, disease, and extreme violence. Many of the human remains show signs of violent deaths and may indicate that Berlin in the Middle Ages was plagued by conflicts."
Baby swordfish, this little one can weigh more than 500 kg: "Marine biologist Juan C. Levesque took a striking photo of a small swordfish, in which you can see that it is smaller than a human finger. This marine creature measures a few millimeters in size when it is a baby, but reaches up to three meters in length as it grows. This photo has been widely shared and makes the size difference between a baby swordfish and an adult surprisingly clear."
Benefits of reading for the brain: "Reading is a habit that entertains while enriching vocabulary and culture. However, its positive effects are not limited to the realm of knowledge; it has been shown that reading has important benefits for the brain and is good exercise for it, as it involves several parts of the same organ."
The scientific explanation of why cockroaches terrify you: "Cockroaches are practically harmless, it's true they like dark and dirty environments, therefore they can transmit diseases, but, unlike other insects such as spiders or scorpions, cockroaches do not sting and are not poisonous, and yet they cause fear and disgust among the population, to the point that some people suffer from anxiety just thinking about them and can have panic attacks if one is near."
https://www.youtube.com/embed/CuJ1xMVqY0IVideos
The Iron Man's glove IRL, how to boil water in prison, system to flip a car, so the cat doesn't escape, testing egg 'hacks', rescues dog at sea, which is the strongest bridge design, Earth's rotation, the most-watched US series from 1951 to 2019, cat and treadmill, entertaining kids in quarantine, what happens if you buy a $29 mini laptop, the best songs from all of Disney's musicals, modification allows you to look into each other's eyes in conferences, D&D love song, two hours and a bit comparing Kimba with The Lion King, the kitten elevator, cutting a coconut with silk string, an electromagnetic accelerator, What Is Love (medieval style), a year of nail clipping as a time-lapse video, Batmobile documentary, and the shorts Vessel, Hashtag and Speedy the Turtle.
Galleries
Realistic recreations and horrifying ones of The Simpsons, more photos of Anna Nicole Smith, locations of Hollywood films, curious things, warship graveyard, a tent to work at home, scientific illustrations of movie bugs, beautiful posters of cult films, photos of hummingbirds, gives people back their smile, how restaurants are opening around the world, before and after Photoshop, comparisons of World War II and today, planets in high resolution, amazing sculptures in the sand, funny photos of pets, the first tornado photos, science fiction convention in 1966, the Animated Dump and the Visual Dump of the Week.
And that's it. It's over. If you haven't already, don't leave without reading the first shared note. It's a luxury for anyone interested in computing. And let's not even talk about the interfaces! If they knew how broken the WordPress I write this on is. Standards, "well, thanks". See you next time!
