Recommended Links #587: Cooking with Quixote, Tintin in Tibet, Atomic Bombs and More

Cooking with Quixote, Tintin in Tibet, the beauty of atomic bombs, the rubber war and turkeys as parachutes are just a few appetizers for a deluxe edition of Recommended Links. Lots to read, watch, and play. Don't miss it!

Don Quixote's Kitchen: "Don Miguel de Cervantes in Don Quixote gives a realistic description of the time he lived in; reading between the lines, you can learn how society was at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries in almost every aspect, but we will focus only on the gastronomic ones."

The dangers of love: why "Tintin in Tibet" is a masterpiece: "Tintin, the reporter created by Belgian Hergé, on whom suspicions of anti-Semitism, racism, misogyny, and even anti-environmentalism weigh, whatever that means. In fact, in the current climate of moralistic barbarism and ideological persecution, it is plausible that Tintin will be canceled very soon; all the more reason to celebrate, while it is still possible, the masterpiece that is Tintin in Tibet."

The fascinating story of the longest prehistoric walk ever documented: "Anyone with young children who has ever walked in a hurry knows the feeling perfectly: after carrying them for a while, your arms get tired and you have to put them down to walk a few meters on their own to regain strength. Now imagine the same scene, but walking through mud about 12,000 years ago and surrounded by hungry predators."

DuckTales (metal cover by Leo Moracchioli)

The Atlas Maior by Blaeu-Van der Hem: "Willem and his son Joan Blaeu worked to publish their own atlas, which they completed in 1635 and appeared in two volumes and four versions in different languages; the most complete consisted of 208 maps. When Willem Blaeu died in 1638, Joan continued to reform and expand the atlas. He published a three-volume edition in 1640."

Atomic bombs are beautiful: "In 1947 he designed a camera capable of photographing nuclear explosions from seven miles away. To achieve this, he used a rapitronic camera. Edgerton positioned himself more than seven miles from the bomb launch site and was able to photograph the initial stages of the bomb at about ten millionths of a second. The following images show the development of a nuclear explosion immediately after it was detonated."

Groucho Marx, the hidden face of the comedy genius: "He sought the laughter of others and became so addicted to laughter that his sharp and not always kind comments often awakened, and the impertinences became an important part of his way of being. And they brought him problems in his life: his family and friends got tired of his heavy jokes and his mordant 'zings'. Groucho talks about it in his memoirs."

Chased by a puma for six intense minutes

Death in the Devil's Paradise: "What is now known as the rubber fever had its beginnings in the mid-19th century, with Charles Goodyear's discovery that cooking and treating latex harvested from rubber trees transformed it into a product with a huge range of possible uses. With the mass production of motor cars initiated by Henry Ford a few decades later and the invention of tires by John Dunlop in 1888, suddenly the need for rubber became very urgent." VERY INTENSE!

How the Romans built their walls: "The birth of cities is intimately linked to surplus agriculture, property rights, and trade, among other factors, which created social structures conducive to high-density settlements. The construction of perimeter defense walls in populations is consubstantial with an old human conflict: the technological struggle between attack and defense instruments: the spear, the bow, or the sword against the shield and armor."

Why do we (enthusiastically) obey tyrants?: "In certain circumstances, it is understandable that humans resign ourselves to having cruel tyrants and lords who impose themselves by force or threaten our lives. But why on so many occasions do people seem enthusiastic about those who exploit them? Why are we sometimes servile, not because we have no choice but because apparently we like to be?"

Art with fire ants

Milestones of Armored Warfare: The First Tank Battle in History: "This attack was also the first time allied infantry had to defend against an armored attack. Obviously, stopping an attack of 4 divisions supported by tanks and even after suffering a prior artillery bombardment was a lot to ask of a single division, and the front broke and the Germans advanced and captured the town and then continued the attack toward Amiens."

When turkeys were used instead of parachutes during the Civil War: "The spectacle must have been surreal: in one of the multiple passes it made periodically, Haya's plane would dive and open the doors, through which it began to drop dozens of live turkeys with boxes tied to their feet. The sky covered with such unusual paratroopers must have produced astonishment among the besiegers, giving a comic patina to that tragedy that is always a civil war."

The Man from Earth: Can We Become Immortal?: "What would happen if a person born 14,000 years ago had survived to this day? This is precisely the question that \"The Man from Earth\", a unique film, explores. Eight actors, one room, a truck, and $56,000, that's all Richard Schenkman needed to earn his feature film a place in film history. The key? A brilliant script by Jerome Bixby and the power of the Internet, where good content triumphs regardless of its distribution in the real world." Here's the full movie, if you want to see it.