Recommended Links of the Week (No. 684)

This week's recommended links: kung fu vs. vampires, solar storms, the vices of streaming, Little Red Riding Hood, and the god of farts. Very eclectic, very nice. Enjoy!

Kung Fu vs. the 7 Golden Vampires (1974): "Due to the enormous wear and tear this series suffered sequel after sequel, and after having tried strange ideas in the two previous films (where the action moved to the 1970s), this time Hammer Productions decides to make an even bolder experiment and mixes the characters of this franchise (Van Helsing and Dracula) with the martial arts films that were so successful at that time."

What would happen if the largest solar storm in history happened today?: "Solar storms, in NASA's words, are capable of disrupting power grids, communications, and GPS, and causing dazzling auroras. If we had a storm similar to the one that occurred in 1859 today, life would come to a standstill. The storm was named the Carrington Storm, after astronomer Richard Carrington, who witnessed the event and was the first person to understand the relationship between solar activity and geomagnetic disturbances on Earth."

No one lives here, or when 23 cars crash into your living room: "A resident of San José, California (USA) has been living a nightmare for more than 50 years: cars have crashed into his house up to 23 times, sometimes literally reaching the kitchen or living room. It turns out his home is facing the highway exit: cars and vehicles that don't brake enough end up smashed against his house."

George Lucas helped create 'The Crazy Story of the Galaxies', but the 'Star Wars' parody had to meet an unavoidable requirement: "Finally, Lucas gave in, but with a single condition that Mel Brooks recalls: 'You can't do merchandising. You can't have, you know, a Dark Helmet doll, because it would look too much like ours.' Something completely logical if we consider that his empire has been built on action figures and collectible items."

'Greenwashing': what it is and how to identify the environmental and fraudulent posturing of some companies: "In addition to being human beings, we are consumers. And that makes us very appetizing for companies and businesses, which put all their efforts into attracting us and turning us into their customers and users. We have the power, with our purchasing decisions, to make them rise or fail, and they know it. Hence they are always studying our tastes, our preferences, our opinions, and behaviors... to cast their nets and lure us in."

The worst vices of traditional television arrive at streaming platforms: "A highly succulent market where, as has happened globally, competition among platforms for the same slice of cake first led to a boom in fiction productions (some even of quality!), but now it has entered a phase of madness following other types of strategies. Specifically, quite a few very recognizable ones for viewers of old traditional television that, they said, were coming to improve and replace."

Hellblazer - Damn you, John Constantine: "If weird symbols written in blood start appearing on your wall, if your whole building mysteriously falls ill all of a sudden — I repeat: mysteriously, not because you have a phone antenna on the roof — if your father is possessed by a demon of the nasty kind, if a strange package arrives from Africa and everyone who touches it seems to suffer a fateful destiny, get ready because you'll probably receive a visit from John Constantine."

The original Little Red Riding Hood neither wore a hood nor dressed in red: "While in the rest of fairy tales there is a consensus in their narrative, from a young age, I noticed that this was not the case with Little Red Riding Hood. The differences were usually present around its ending: did the wolf eat the grandmother or did she hide in the clock? Did he do the same with Little Red, or did she escape with her wit? Was she saved by a man outside the family? Was he a hunter or a woodcutter? Did the wolf end up with a belly full of stones, or was he scared away? And let's not talk about the variants where the color of the hood altered the development of the story."

These are the 10 characteristics that indicate you might not be as intelligent as you think: "A person with low intelligence is generally not willing to learn or be receptive to other people's ideas. However, they cannot use their own intelligence to think correctly or long for a solution to a problem. People who cannot think or express critical thinking tend to 'go backwards' in terms of intelligence."

What was the first science fiction novel in history?: "Science fiction is one of the literary and cinematic genres that has achieved the most success in recent decades, so it is somewhat surprising that it is a relatively young genre in the history of literature. When did it arise and consolidate as one of the exponents of the literary world? What were the works that elevated it to a genre? And what was the first science fiction novel in history?"

Crepitus, the supposed Roman god of flatulence: "About Crepitus, we can say at the same time that he is a Roman god and that he is not. He is not a Roman god because he is not a direct product of Roman culture. The oldest sources that refer to this deity are Christian and have a satirical intention. The only reason for his obscure origin was to ridicule pagan beliefs. In fact, the first mention of a god of flatulence as a deity referred to the Egyptian gods, not the Roman ones."

Geometric theorems without words - Snover: "We come to this post, as in the case of the previous ones, to a geometric result about triangles, but in this case it is a simple result that has no name (although we could call it 'Snover's theorem', as we will explain later), but that seems curious, interesting, and with a simple and elegant proof without words."

Videos: Homelander vs Superman, the benefit of having no purpose, Breaking Bad Pixar Trailer, Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game, a new short, druids and hippies at Stonehenge in 1969, Fear Factory (Donkey Kong Country) Cover in jazz key, the missing Western Sailor Moon, a galloping crocodile, Enter Sandman - Metallica (illustrated by AI), "Sweet Child O' Mine" (Guns N' Roses) Bluegrass Cover, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time--Gerudo Valley (expert level), McDonalds in 1992, puppy eating carrot, cat responding to translator, why you should NOT approach a wasp nest, and the short 'Repeater'.

Galleries: Sculptures in books, cut paper art, panoramic dogs, the reincarnation of the angry cat, calendar of drugged cats, the (false) unicorn of Magdeburg, the art of Shigeru Mizuki (1922-2015), photos of Comedy of Wildlife 2022, intermingled habitats, symbiotic architecture, 50 old and pretty photos, treasures of the past, the Vertedero Animado and the Tiradero Visual.

There we are. Not much, not little. Enough. I hope you liked something. Until next time!