Cooking recipes from 3,770 years ago, prehistoric death, catastrophe and trees, children who created their own language and the hot summers that await us. That and more, in this compilation of web gems we’ve called Recommended Links of the Week. Don’t miss it!
Professor cooks 3,770-year-old Mesopotamian recipes and shares the results: "It is not unusual for people to use old recipes to discover what dishes of yore were like, but Bill Sutherland took this idea to another level with his recent effort to prepare ancient foods. Using a 3,770-year-old Mesopotamian tablet as his recipe book, the University of Cambridge professor cooked a viral feast that the inhabitants of Babylon would have eaten in 1750 BC."
The Big Brother unites Apple, Orwell's 1984 and Mussolini: "Starting from the world that is in the popular imagination about the magnificent work of George Orwell titled 1984, the dystopia in this case was broken thanks to Apple. The Big Brother of 1984 was defeated by the new Mac. That Big Brother in the computing world of the early 80s would be the IBM company. In a few seconds it presents a clearly terrifying and totalitarian world."
Disease and death in Prehistory: "Troglodytes with bones on their heads devoured by a tiger or crushed by an elephant. Cavemen with dinosaurs as garbage cans and with stone cars that run on feet. These are the stereotypes the world has about humans in Prehistory. But, to tell the truth, they have nothing to do with reality. The life, or death in this case, of humanity in this highly stereotyped period was not as exciting as we have been told."
An escape plan hidden in braids: "The women, every time they went out to work, observed the surroundings and at the end of the afternoon, they gathered in the courtyards and there they combed the youngest ones. On their heads they designed maps full of little paths and escape routes, locating trails, large trees, wooded areas, rivers and mountains."
The name of each artistic movement explained: "Historical, political, sociocultural, beautiful... art, in different periods, was dedicated to revealing the common feeling of entire societies. Some artists like the Japanese always sought something classic; others, like the Italians, used art as propaganda, just as Russia did and to a certain extent Mexico also did."
The sexual sense of 'coger' did not emerge in America: "If I say I'm going to grab my sister's shell, surely, depending on where you're from, you'll have interpreted a different situation. It's a curious situation where the same verb, depending on the region, can mean to have sex or to grab. On social media, where there are no borders, knowing this difference can avoid misunderstandings, but it doesn't clear up the doubt of why that difference exists between one side of the Atlantic and the other."
A catastrophe written in trees: "In some cases it is due to drought, other times a plague, and in most cases he can only determine the cause of death without being able to do more. Often the tree tells a story about fires or floods, traumatic events that the plant records inside itself."
Summers will become so hot that it will be impossible for humans to work: "Many find the heat unbearable, it generates stress. What seems like a banal complaint is actually the result of a series of situations that is becoming a public health problem. Global warming could make summers too hot for humans to work."
This glass jar has been closed for 12 years. Inside, a fascinating ecosystem has evolved: "Between 2007 and 2008 a child filled a jar with soil and stones and added a handful of insects, probably as part of his school activities. The jar has remained closed for 12 years. What is inside now is a miniature world with its own species of plants and animals in perfect balance."
The memories of music we like will be the last to be lost [Study]: "There are memories that can be erased, never. Not even the terrible Alzheimer's can with them, we speak of musical memories. It is known as autobiographical music that which has accompanied us during the most important moments of our lives. That melody with which we have fallen in love, laughed, cried or simply danced until the soles of our feet said 'enough'."
Deaf children in Nicaragua created their own language in 1980. And they caused a linguistic revolution: "In the early 80s, in the San Judas neighborhood of Managua, capital of Nicaragua, a school became the epicenter of an extraordinary educational event that would revolutionize linguistic science across the planet for the following decades. More importantly: that event did not happen inside the classrooms, as we might think, but in the children's groups in the playground during recess."
The heroine who with a "No" saved a generation of babies from a tragedy in the US (and how her legacy is more relevant than ever): "The "no" that Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey gave to a company in 1960 has been one of the most powerful in the history of the pharmaceutical industry. With her refusal she helped "save, perhaps, thousands of people from death or a lifetime disability," says the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)."
Videos: Low-budget Naruto, the highest-grossing animated films (1926-2020), a new material: hydrophobic slime, 500 lasers focused on one point, Henry Cavill building his PC, how to cross a street in Paris, Micheal Catson, Japanese calligraphy, how masks work, the success baby and how it became a meme, The Simpsons on piano, seagull steals wallet, giant dancing bear, near death, the evolution of guitar intros (60s to 2020s), a robot that cuts hair, archerfish, Tom Rosenthal - Jim and Dwight, Vibrancy and the great short "Change Return" and the Decameron Row experiment.
Galleries: Real faces of famous paintings and of statues, reactions of people before and after..., the true diversity of our planet, trees growing through cars, hippies, insect love, natural illustrations by Jo Brown, people posing next to their new record players, playing drawing with chalk, if aliens reconstructed animals from their skulls, the hyperrealistic portraits of Patrick Onyekwere, illustrations by Kit Layfield, the mutant creatures of Laira Maganuco, selling things in 90s Russia, the descendants, the first photos from the Solar Orbiter, art on the side of US highways, disturbing Wish ads, horror and pulp, easy but fun riddles, more photos of Audrey Hepburn, the Animated Dump and, of course, the Visual Dump.
