Recommended Links of the Week (No. 668)

Brain-eating amoebas, ejaculations in space, the VHS virus and the first role-playing video game. All that and much more in a late edition of the Recommended Links of the Week. Because you know what they say, better late than never. Enjoy!

Cartridges: "I bet all my rupees that the first Mega Drive cartridge they put in their console had to be Altered Beast (Sega, 1989) or Sonic (Sega, 1991). If not, they arrived too late to the 16-bit generation or, worse, they waited to buy a Super Nintendo. Altered Beast was the game that came free with the console at launch, which was replaced by the hedgehog's years later, in a smart decision by Sega, one of the few remembered towards the blue hedgehog. They had the original Mega Drive logo."

VCR Virus, the anti-copy system of the VHS era that seemed straight out of a B-movie horror film: "The image label says "Warning: DO NOT COPY!. A virus programmed in this video tape causes serious damage when recording a tape. NHV is not responsible for fires or other damages if duplication is attempted." Tremendous threat of infernal flames that also comes from a third-rate tape: 'Nobody’s Perfect: How To Cope With Relapse' ('Nobody is perfect: how to face a relapse), a production about the behavioral conflicts that diets lead to, and that National Health Video edited in 1991."

Games of yore - "Heroquest" (1989) and "Cruzada Estelar" (1990): "On the one hand they represent the bridge from simple or family games to a type of board game that is especially successful today (although there are other more casual branches also well accepted) with strong links to role-playing (current representative titles in this sense could be, for example, Descent or Mansions of Madness) and oriented towards players more familiar with the technical aspects of this type of entertainment; but on the other hand they are symbols of archetypal narratives, such as those reflected in the "sword and sorcery" genre, and which have had different manifestations throughout humanity."

Can you ejaculate in space?: "Currently, having an ejaculation in space seems unnecessary. After all, astronauts go there to work and nobody uses their workplace to have sex... Well, yes, they do. But we agree that it is not a priority. However, one of humanity's great ambitions is to colonize other planets. If so, we would be talking about long stays beyond Earth. Stays in which, in fact, sex could be a necessity to preserve the human species. But is it possible to have an erection and ejaculate in places like the International Space Station?"

The math that can save our lives: "The so-called Monty Hall problem —named after the host of the TV show Let's Make a Deal, origin of the three-door problem— is an example of how mathematics can help us make reasoned decisions, something that becomes vital in emergency situations like a nuclear accident or a pandemic. But if Savant's solution seems contrary to intuition, to everything we think we know, it is because it is. So much so that when the columnist —holder of the Guinness record for the highest IQ in the world— published her explanation, she received about 10,000 letters of disapproval, a thousand of them signed by mathematicians or PhD scientists who even insulted her."

'Alien': the brutal ending that Ridley Scott wanted and almost caused his summary dismissal: "'Alien' was about to have a different ending. The most shocking part is that Ripley would die at the hands of the xenomorph, as the director of 'The Last Duel' clarified in an interview given to EW: 'Before she hits the buttons to open the door, I think Ripley touches them and the Alien holds the door. Ripley harpoons it and as if nothing happened, so it goes through his mask and tears off his head.' Moreover, the thing didn't stop there..."

The first role-playing video game: "In the mid-70s, dabbling with home computing was practically nonexistent, relegated to the academic sphere with huge computers that one could connect to through remote terminals, practically limited to the educational, scientific and military sectors. In parallel, thousands of American teenagers were jerking off after discovering Dungeons & Dragons. Released by TSR at the beginning of 1974, selling 4,000 copies in just under two years. What happens then when a group of geeky and testosterone-filled role-players have access to the university's supercomputer?"

It's not just cinema, all culture has become an oligopoly controlled by a few: "Whose fault is it? Some argue that Netflix and greedy studios are responsible for this trend. Others say we've simply become dumber and we're running out of ideas. And another group claims there's nothing new about this. Well, although these reasons are wrong, they may also contain some truth. And the truth is that this phenomenon is not only happening in cinema, but in all areas of culture."

Buried alive - The terrifying history of death by walling up: "Immurement is a practice by which a person is locked inside a confined space with no exits. Normally, an immured person stays in that space until death, either from dehydration or starvation. In cases where a person is buried alive, suffocation can be the cause of death. Although inhumation is often carried out as a form of execution, there are also several other reasons why it is done, for example, as human sacrifice or for ascetic purposes. Examples of immurement can be found in various cultures around the world and throughout time. Furthermore, there are many legends about immured people."

The strange way age is counted in South Korea (and the plan for everyone to be 1 year younger): "'How old are you?' It's a simple question with a clear answer. But for those living in South Korea, answering it is anything but simple. When a baby is born, in this country it is considered to be 1 year old. Upon New Year's arrival, they gain another year. This means that a baby born in December turns two in a few weeks. But this method of 'Korean age' may soon change, as the country's president-elect, Yoon Suk-yeol, is proposing to eliminate this centuries-old way of counting years."

Einstein and the photoelectric effect: "Einstein's theory not only provided explanations for the problems posed by the photoelectric effect; it also gave ways to be experimentally verified. His theory implied that there was a correlation between the frequency of light and the energy given to electrons. This correlation was something that could be measured. Despite the fact that the correlation was verifiable and that Einstein's hypothesis satisfactorily explained the photoelectric effect, it took quite a while for the scientific community to accept that it was not just a mathematical trick."

Charles V's Mühlberg armor: "This is the armor called Mühlberg, supposedly used by Charles V in the battle of the same name against the League of Esmalcalda on April 24, 1547, hence it was given that name. In reality, there is no documentary evidence that he used it that day – not even that it has a direct relationship with the event – but it is known that the emperor returned with it on from Brussels. Although it bears no engraved inscription, it is known to be a creation of Desiderius Kolman Helmschmid, master of a family of artisan armorers from Augsburg, specialized in armor, who rivaled in quality with two other prominent European clans: the Seusenhofer of Innsbruck and the Missaglia of Milan."

VIDEOS: Solar system objects to scale, a little stool in stop motion, mecha comparison, towards infinity and beyond, Star Wars sound effects, sumo wrestler vs baby, animations in 3D prints, an egg bursting at a million frames per second, the snow leopard, the 40-year Dungeons and Dragons game, "Another Brick in the Wall" cyberpunk style, police dog steals ball, the short film "Fresh Cut Grass", the documentary "Century of humiliation" that China suffered and an hour or so of the Rocket Lab launch.

GALERÍA: Rare car "improvements", Yakuza women, furries in their natural habitat, a maze, old photos of an old world, Disney characters as zodiac signs, a Japanese chef who has been drawing his dishes for over 30 years, winning photos from One Eye Land, the best photos from the Italian Street Photography Festival, cakes inspired by nature, delicious food photos from around the world, India in 1955, Animated Dump and Visual Dump.