Recommended Links of the Week (No. 626)

Useless websites, the mysteries of 'Spirited Away', gifted criminals, genetically modified babies, and the horror of goldfish. Yes, all that and much more, only for the brave who dare to dive into the depths of this week's Recommended Links. Enjoy!

These websites are so useless and absurd that they're perfect for entertaining you for a while: "Because in that vast ocean that is the Internet, there is everything, including some websites that are a little absurd and somewhat useless that, to be fair, are also very apt for killing boredom. Today we've compiled a few because summer is long and there are moments when you no longer know what to do. Let's get to it."

The mysteries of 'Spirited Away' twenty years after its release: "Kamikakushi is an ancient idea according to which sometimes a person, for no reason, would suddenly disappear without a trace. Since no one knew why they had disappeared, people transferred the responsibility of the event to the gods (kami): they were the ones who had hidden (kakushi) that person; perhaps that made the pain more bearable: no one could do anything about it. The disappeared ones, in many cases, were children; hence the parents felt dread at the idea."

Leopold and Loeb, the gifted individuals who wanted to commit the perfect crime and fell because of a pair of glasses: "Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold were two brilliant young men. But that's not just a saying: they were gifted. Their families, owners of great fortunes, belonged to the most affluent and prestigious of that Chicago society of the 1920s. These were times when Prohibition reigned—though highly transgressed in secret—gangsterism and the wild postwar life, but the two boys seemed to be examples of prudence and seriousness. In 1924, at only 18 and 19 years old, both were advanced university students and their future was anticipated as promising."

Oyster mushrooms growing

Doppelgänger, the horrifying trance of meeting yourself: "The word doppelgänger—which to Spanish ears sounds roughly like 'dópelguena'—has entered the common vocabulary of various languages to denote the identical double of a person, but without further connotations. Anyone can say: 'I've seen my doppelgänger at the supermarket' and feel calm, though a bit astonished. But before that, it was one of many terms that 19th-century Gothic literature used to redefine fears as old as humanity itself."

What you didn't know about the Rubik's Cube: its inventor is still alive and it's the best-selling toy in the world: "The examples devised by Rubik rotated on their axis and rubbed against their own pieces far from Budapest; largely thanks to the impact it had in New York. Sales soared until today, the Rubik's Cube is considered the best-selling toy in the world, with more than 450 million units sold in its history."

Buckminster Fuller, the man who invented the future: "Just as other famous figures are physicists, writers, or doctors, defining Buckminster Fuller with a professional label seems an impossible mission. Furthermore, since he was expelled from Harvard before obtaining a degree, he did not practice a specific profession. He invented and patented, but none of his contributions achieved widespread use. And although he is often presented as an architect due to his most known legacy, the geodesic dome, in reality someone else created it before him."

Trololo with Heavy Metal

Genetically modified babies are still a bad idea: "A committee of experts says that heritable human genome editing is still too risky and that the World Health Organization should assume a leadership role when it comes to regulating this emerging biotechnology. The new guidelines, announced on Monday, took two years to be developed by the expert advisory committee, and include a position paper on human gene editing and a proposed framework for global governance."

Stop throwing your goldfish into lakes: "Goldfish can be small when you take them home from pet stores, but these creatures, which are members of the carp family, can grow to about 45.8 centimeters long. Native to East Asia, they become invasive species when introduced into waterways where they don't belong."

Tianlian 1-05 launched, or how China communicates with its space station: "It was China's third orbital launch in three days, but at this point, that's not what matters. The notable thing is the function of the Tianlian 1-05. Although it might seem like just another geostationary satellite, in reality it is a very important element for the present and future plans of the Chinese crewed space program. The importance of the Tianlian constellation is easy to understand if we ask ourselves the following question: how do the astronauts of the International Space Station communicate with Earth?"

From zygote to tadpole

OKB-1 140, the jet bomber Hitler dreamed of and that was created in the USSR: "As specialist Yefim Gordon explains in his book Early Soviet Jet Bombers: The 1940s and Early 1950s, the initial basic design of this futuristic-looking aircraft consisted of a continuation of the German bomber prototype Junkers Ju 287, but while it used the same basic design and engineering concepts, it was a completely new design by Brunolf Baade."

The Norns, the proclaimers of destiny: "The conflict between the Æsir and the Jötnar makes up a large part of Norse mythology, but behind the scenes, other characters moved the threads of destiny. They are the Norns, enigmatic women associated with fortune, tragedy, death, honor, integrity, and even justice. They discreetly directed human lives, from their decisions to their judgments and deaths."

How a witchcraft trial was conducted: "How was a witchcraft trial conducted? Faced with this question, the most common idea is that the accused person—usually a woman—was indiscriminately thrown onto the pyre, still alive. This impression is largely due to art, which has immortalized some of the most famous executions such as Joan of Arc's; but precisely for that reason, it is the most spectacular—and cruel—part of a highly regulated procedure."