Recommended Links of the Week (No. 634)

Browsing through the Recommended Links you'll find articles like tree ferns older than dinosaurs, the best martial arts actor, the world's smallest tree and the mathematical truth of Pi being 3.2. There are also many videos, many image galleries, and a few surprises. Enjoy!

The incredible case of the boy who can dilate his pupils at will: "When a 23-year-old Psychology student from the University of Ulm, whose name goes by the initials D.W., contacted researcher Christoph Strauch to announce that he had the ability to dilate his pupils at will, the specialist reacted with natural skepticism. The movements that allow this part of the eye to open and close to receive more or less light occur involuntarily, outside of conscious mechanisms (to the point that it is a common test to confirm a person's death)."

Legislating a mathematical truth: "The new mathematical truth mentioned in the title of Indiana State Law No. 246 was none other than the surprising claim that the number pi had the value of 3.2. This new mathematical truth, and its proof, were due to the physician and mathematics enthusiast Edward Johnston Goodwin (approx. 1825-1902), whose discoveries were precisely the subject of the third section of Indiana State Law No. 246."

Why George Orwell detested being a bookseller: "There are different ways to come into contact with books and, sometimes, those paths cross. It is not unusual for someone who has decided to devote their life to literature as a writer to pay their bills with more prosaic jobs like bookseller. That was the case of Eric Arthur Blair, better known as George Orwell, and a plaque on the corner of Pond Street and South End Green, in London, reminds us: 'George Orwell, writer 1903-1950, lived and worked in a bookshop on this site, 1934-1935'. But contrary to what one might think, the author of 1984 not only did not enjoy the trade of selling books but came to detest it."

Oil companies knew about climate change as far back as 1959: "Although the fossil fuel lobby continues to cast doubt on human involvement in global warming, the data and predictions were already perfectly clear as early as the distant year of 1959. And this grim prediction was made by none other than Edward Teller, a physicist hardly suspected of environmentalism."

We are eating fish contaminated by the electronic waste we send to Africa: "When our electronic devices become obsolete and their battery no longer lasts long enough, the journey of heavy metals that began in African mines ends with the shipment of our electronic waste back to the African continent. Rich countries will pay poor countries to take care of their trash, making it an important part of their economy. But it causes a huge environmental problem, since recycling in these areas is not sufficiently developed."

Tree ferns are older than dinosaurs. And that is not even the most interesting part: "Tree ferns usually grow slowly, at a rate of only 25-50 millimeters of height per year. This means that the tall individuals seen in a mature forest can be several centuries old. However, in the right environment they can grow faster, so guessing their real age can be difficult, especially if they grow outside their usual forest environment."

The Wire - A journalist, an ex-cop and the cult series that portrayed a doomed city: "From the creation of a special unit to dismantle a drug trafficking gang through court-authorized wiretaps - to which the title alludes - the plot advances alongside the investigations of the Baltimore police. But as the stories of criminals intertwine with those of detectives, the dividing lines between heroes and villains blur. Both sides star in this HBO production that portrays a city trapped in the inertia of an institutional machinery that perpetuates its decay."

The oniric logic of Lewis Carroll: "Son of a Protestant pastor, professor of Mathematics and 'Don' at Oxford University; considered the best portraitist of children of the 19th century, author of books with unpronounceable titles (Formulas of plane trigonometry, Euclid's Book V treated algebraically, insofar as it relates to commensurable magnitudes, etc.), bourgeois deacon of the Church of England, the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dogson, or rather, Lewis Carroll, was the rebellious writer of imagination and fantasy in times of formality and good writing."

Sonny Chiba, the best martial arts actor according to Quentin Tarantino: "On August 19, 2021, the Japanese super legends left us: Shinichi Chiba (千葉 真一 Chiba Shin’ichi), Sonny Chiba, Sadaho Maeda and Rindo Wachinaga, or what is the same: Sadaho Maheda, which is what his parents called him when he was born in Fukuoka in 1939. Having several names throughout his career already gives us a measure of the character, a real beast, both in fiction and in real life. Black belt in up to 7 martial arts disciplines, of which he is the founder of one – we'll tell you more later – prolific actor and director, and a stage animal of enormous magnetism and charisma."

How do a blind person and a deaf person communicate?: "People who are only blind, that is, not also deaf, have no difficulty communicating face to face. A deaf person who speaks and reads lips will also have no difficulty talking to a blind person. If, on the other hand, they only communicate in sign language, an interpreter will be needed. In writing, a blind person can communicate using the Braille system and with the help of technology, with software and applications that read the screen or transcribe what is dictated to them. These are the different methods:"

The world's smallest tree: "The willows that cover... don't stay proud in the field. According to the botanist's index, the mountaineer can hardly believe he is walking through a willow forest... in the middle of an alpine slope. The same happens to the traveler of arctic and subarctic regions, who cannot imagine rubbing shoulders in the tundras with the last trees still present in such latitudes, in a cold and extreme climate. Ground willows, some species in the world, measure at most about thirty centimeters."

Asclepius: "Asclepius was the god of healing worshiped by both Greeks and Romans. Homer's Iliad first identifies Asclepius, not as a god, but as a human being, a contemporary of Heracles, Theseus, and Jason. Chiron the Centaur, the teacher of Achilles the warrior and Jason the sailor and adventurer, imparted his knowledge of medicine and surgery to Asclepius. Asclepius in turn taught his sons Machaon and Podalirius the art of healing, and they, in turn, taught their sons, so that over time the Greeks believed that the progeny of Asclepius lived among them, teaching medicine and healing the sick."

Videos

Sunflower growing over 10 days, toaster that turns toast back into untoasted bread, Paralympic athlete Manami Ito playing the violin, Jim Henson's first puppets, wave with mechanical Teletubbies, a small plane through tunnels, Losing Time on Social Media, Earth in 8K from space, artificial intelligence learning to box, ladybug flying in slow motion, a giant toothpaste volcano, why the drawer challenge is so difficult (by an engineer), how TV works in super slow motion, a B-17 plane at one third scale, "Twin Peaks" cover by Sarah Lipstate, House of the Rising Sun, cat goes in and doesn't care at all, PlayStation Showcase 2021, money around the world, and the world's deepest pool.

Galleries

Galleries: The craziest TVs in history, nightmares of Alexander Gromov, ocean photography finalists, homeless people and their dogs, the best nature photographers, fantastic dolls, Disney characters as classic paintings, abandoned places, what celebrities looked like as children via AI, album covers with LEGO, best drone photos, the horror of Alexander Solomin, the cockroach meme on the wall, old and sensual movie posters, if Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were Russian, the Alien cookbook, and the best photos taken from space. We close with the Animated Dump and the Visual Dump of the Week, for those who missed them.

I went to sleep because it got late. I hope these links gave you a good time. See you next time!