Recommended Links of the Week (No. 649)

Two qubits and a tardigrade, Nintendo's engineer, the death of interactive fiction, Aleister Crowley, and a Christmas demon. All that and much more in this Christmas edition of the Recommended Links of the Week.

Entangling two qubits, one with a tardigrade on top: "The article may be of interest to astrobiologists, since the tardigrade (named Neil Wormstrong(?)) was slowly cooled (over two days) to below 10 millikelvin (between 8.9 and 9.3 mK) and then over half an hour the pressure was lowered to about 6 microbars (between 5.35 and 5.75 µbar); after performing the experiment with the tardigrade in a state of cryptobiosis, it was slowly warmed (over three days) to room temperature and the pressure was raised (over an hour) to ambient pressure."

Is there any game left where we can beat the machine?: "Are there any intelligent games left where we can defeat machines? The Italian mathematician based in Spain, Carlo Frabetti, an expert in riddles and logic problems, considers that computers have definitively beaten humans in any challenge that can be reduced to algorithms, that is, to a set of defined, unambiguous, and finite rules, such as checkers, chess, or Go. There is some consensus on this conclusion, but in recent years computers have gone further"

Why didn't the Parker probe melt when it 'touched' the Sun? This is how its thermal shield works: "On December 15, the Parker probe became the first spacecraft to 'touch' the Sun, but instead of ending up melted by the high temperatures of the greatest source of electromagnetic radiation in our solar system, it took particle samples, analyzed magnetic fields, and continued its journey. But how is it possible that a device sent from Earth is capable of functioning in such extreme conditions?"

Masayuki Uemura, Nintendo's playful engineer: "In the late 1970s, Nintendo's then-president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, bought about ten Space Invaders arcade tables and installed them in different parts of the company's headquarters. His intention was for employees to try the game for research purposes. In no time, like a highly contagious fever, the machines attracted lines of workers, impatient for a turn to kill pixelated aliens."

10 curious videos of arcades from the 80s and early 90s: "Its great success also notably influenced the type of games released in those years. It was not only the golden age of arcade video games in a general sense, but it also influenced several genres in a specific way, developing a type of game designed to be played directly on arcade machines and, if successful enough, later published in home versions for consoles and computers."

Debunking the myth… Who killed the interactive fiction?: "Apparently, to advance in the second load of the adventure, you had to get a patch to fix a punctured inflatable raft with which you could sail to other areas of the game. The texts suggest that the twins' father, who is laboriously chopping wood in a forest, has that patch but does not want to give it to the player. To date, no one has publicly been known to have gotten past that point."

Denialists: "From the Panopticon, one perceives that one of the common traits of all denialist movements is the contempt for science, and that this contempt is generated by a complex network of links – what I have called the 'hidden system' – which is surprising and makes strange bedfellows. A particularly clear case is flat Earthism, which claims that the round-Earth theory is a conspiracy, even a demonic conspiracy. A recent poll indicates that 9 out of 10 young Americans claim they firmly believed the Earth was round, but are beginning to doubt it."

The definitive biography of Aleister Crowley: "It is supposed that on the magician's path ascending through the Tree of Life he must cross a vast abyss that may drive him mad. The metaphor of a colossal abyss seems perfect for handling some of the tasks and conclusions deduced from reading the Spanish-language appearance of Perdurabo (Aurora Dorada, 2021), the definitive biography of Aleister Crowley that once and for all sentences the phenomenon of Crowleyploitation."

Higuchi Kiichirō, the Japanese military officer who saved 20,000 Jews: "Many know today that the diplomat Sugihara Chiune, from the Japanese consulate in Kaunas (Lithuania), saved the lives of about 6,000 Jews persecuted by the Nazis by granting them visas. Sugihara is known as the 'Schindler of the East'. However, very few will have heard of Lieutenant General of the Imperial Army Higuchi Kiichirō, thanks to whom another 20,000 Jews were able to survive."

Krampus, the terrifying demon of Christmas: "The figure of the Krampus derives from pagan mythology, in which he was the son of an underworld deity. Originally he was shown as a kind of goat with a serpent's tongue, but with the introduction of Christianity he acquired anthropomorphic characteristics such as arms and legs, perhaps by assimilation with the Devil. The degree of transformation varies: in some representations he is shown as a demon with hair and goat horns."

The Roman Christmas: "Today December is marked by an explosion of lights and colors in windows, doors, and roofs of all houses, at least in the northern hemisphere; it is inevitable to relate it to a certain psychological reaction against the cold and dull winter. One could always see these mid-winter festivities as something that was also done just because, that is, simply to have fun, but there were also omnipresent complications in early societies living on the edge between survival and extinction; winter was a time of famine and hardship."

When Hitler stole Christmas: "Silent night, holy night/ All is calm, all is bright/ Only the Führer remains alert to watch over and protect Germany's future/ Guiding our nation correctly. In December 1941, Adolf Hitler organized a Christmas party to honor the Nazi leaders. Gathered around a huge tree, they celebrated with triumphant toasts and exchanged gifts under the watchful eye of hundreds of SS officers dressed in their gala uniforms."

Videos: Wrapping gifts with LEGO, how the Enigma machine works, giant hammer vs glass cube, smart doggy, very long drone shot (FPV), the holiday soundtrack, live video from Namibia, Squid Game at Christmas, all the games from The Game Awards 2021, Gregorian monks sing the Halo theme, CARBON (the MOST IMPORTANT element for LIFE), car with flame headlights, Eight Songs for a Mad King, arcade machine in super slow motion, super t-shirt cannon, ferrofluids dancing in water, buffalo helping turtle, Rémi Gaillard's Christmas, Christmas penguins, UNCHARTED - Official Trailer 2, 12 Days of Christmas in 12 difficulties, double domino effect, magnetic field on a candle, Jack Black as a kid in a Pitfall commercial, catch the thief, Cats and shuffle game, the mountains of the future, and the shorts Fear Of The Deer and THE EYE: CALANTHEK (filmed in real time in UE5).

Galleries: Hippies in 1960, film noir furniture, oil extraction on California beaches, the cenotes of Yucatán, resin flowers, identify the correct logo, Lazaro's cyberpunk, disturbing surrealism, a black panther playing in the snows of Siberia, fox photos, Thomas Ascott's adorable drawings, art in spilled coffee, Russia's new neighborhoods, depression illustrations, zen garden, the Animated Dump and the Visual Dump of the Week.

Yes, the Recommended Links came out a little early! I want to dedicate these days to my family, but without neglecting the friends who read this ancient NeoTeo section. For you and all yours... Merry Christmas and thanks for reading!