Ready to read something interesting? Ready to watch some of the selected videos? Eager to explore this week's galleries? Welcome to the Recommended Links of the Week. Up next: the best songs of 1982, 20 strategy games, death by elephant, human trash on Mars, and much more. Enjoy!
This week's notable reads
The 25 best strategy games for PC in history: "Within the entire catalog of video games available, today the strategy titles are the ones that still seem exclusive to PC because they are controlled with keyboard and mouse. This is because, although they have tried to adapt to control with the gamepad, the precision of the keyboard + mouse combination, as well as keyboard shortcuts, is incomparable on gamepads. It is a genre that has helped define the PC as a gaming platform, and there are some tremendously important strategy titles in esports."
The 100 best songs of 1982: "WELCOME TO 1982: the year that invented pop music as we know it today. One of the years of greatest experimentation, innovation, and musical abundance in history. The synth-pop New Wave invades the Top 40. Disco and funk experience a high-tech boom. Indie rock takes off with R.E.M. and the Replacements. Prince claims his throne as the coolest man in the world. Madonna dances outside Detroit. Thriller is released. New stars, new rhythms, new noises explode every week on MTV. And also some of the most tragic haircuts in history."
Chronology of the devastating legacy of United States nuclear tests: "Potassium iodide pills are often distributed during nuclear emergencies, real or imminent. At the end of August, for example, the European Union committed to preventively donate more than five million anti-radiation pills to Ukraine, fearing a Chernobyl-level catastrophe at the Russian-occupied and conflict-ridden Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. But for Claudia Peterson, 67, and her companions who grew up near Cedar City, Utah, the iodide pills were part of their routine."
Execution by elephant was a brutal form of capital punishment for 2000 years: "Elephants are one of the most intelligent and powerful animals in the world. It is no wonder, then, that these magnificent beasts were exploited and trained to be brutal executioners. Death by elephant is a form of capital punishment that has been used for at least 2000 years, particularly in India, but also in other parts of South and Southeast Asia. Execution by elephant was brutal and terrifying. In India, where this form of capital punishment was known as gunga rao, the accused was crushed to death with brute force."
The brutal execution of Anneken Hendriks with gunpowder in her mouth (1571): "Living in Amsterdam, a neighbor reported her for being a Mennonite in October 1571, when she was already fifty-three years old. Consistent with her beliefs, she offered no resistance when arrested and faced accusations of having married at night (which was a custom of that faith), not attending religious services, having gone years without confession, and harboring secret meetings in her home. When she refused to give the names of other members of her community, severe torture was applied, but she did not yield, so she was sentenced to death."
Photolithography, the bottleneck of chip manufacturing: "The photolithography process is the most difficult and the most time-consuming. The chip generally needs 20 to 30 times of photolithography during the production process, which means about 50% of the time needed to manufacture it. The cost is extremely high, approximately 30% of the final price of the chip is due to the photolithography process. (...) Etymologically, 'photolithography' means to engrave with light (photons) on stone, that is, on a piece of semiconductor. This is one of the essential steps in chip manufacturing."
The mutation of a gene drove the evolution of the brain of modern humans: "More than 500,000 years ago, when the ancestors of Neanderthals and modern humans dispersed around the world, a genetic mutation caused the brains of some of them to suddenly improve. This mutation, reported in Science, drastically increased the number of brain cells in hominins prior to modern humans. That may have given them a cognitive advantage over their Neanderthal cousins. (...) For the neuroscientists at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, a specific gene is one of the possible culprits."
Mars is full of 7,119 kilograms of human trash from 50 years of robotic exploration: "People have been exploring the surface of Mars for more than 50 years. According to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, nations have sent 18 human-made objects to Mars in 14 separate missions. Many of these missions are still ongoing, but during decades of Martian exploration, humanity has left a lot of debris on the planet's surface. I am a postdoctoral researcher studying ways to track rovers on Mars and the Moon."
The Moon has enough oxygen to sustain Earth's population for 100,000 years: "One of the goals of NASA's Artemis program is to consolidate human presence on the Moon. Unlike the milestone of 1969, the return of crewed missions to our natural satellite will mark the beginning of a new era of space exploration, this time with the intention of establishing conditions to sustain humans beyond the International Space Station. One of the keys to achieving this is the use of in-situ resources, a method that proposes taking advantage of all available resources on site to live, work, and complete mission tasks."
A single brain molecule decides whether we suffer or enjoy: "Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California have identified a brain molecule responsible for associating good or bad feelings with a memory. The study, published in the journal Nature and led by neuroscientist Hao Li, reveals how the assignment of positive and negative memories (emotional valence) relates to memory. It all depends on a neurotransmitter called neurotensin, which acts in the central nervous system."
4 signs that give away an insecure person: "Have you ever met someone who made you feel inferior, maybe even a total mess, while you saw that person as the most you could aspire to be in life? Surely yes. The curious thing is that behind their attitude of security and greatness there is usually an insecure person. It is quite common for insecure people to hide their fears and worries behind an attitude of feigned security, which involves making others feel inferior. This is not lack of humility, but what Alfred Adler called the inferiority complex."
What is the circumnavigator's paradox?: "The circumnavigator's paradox seems like a contradiction but it is real. It has been known since the Middle Ages and still influences us today. The thing is that now we are not very aware of it because we all see the time and date on our phones and they automatically adjust to local time and date. But before it was not like that and time was measured by suns. The paradox could be stated like this: three friends who have no watch or phone meet in a city on January 1st."
Videos
How to make cement at home, "Sweet Child o' Mine" if it were by The Ramones, how a Viennese soldier prepared in 1350, the radioactive film that killed its actors, the transformation of Bill Murray, the official music video created by an AI, how cars are destroyed in movies, the robot artist with Ai-Da, the perfect crème brûlée, Captain Picard singing to Gene Roddenberry on set, "A Man in a Cave" (story of hour and coins that absorbs you), washing a dirty car after 10 years, why does your cat sleep with you?, harassment of wildlife for a photo, the trombone concert that cuts heads, Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata with guitar and drums, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (North Korean edition), the best 80 piano intros and the shorts: Heartless (dystopian sci-fi) and A Film About a Pudding (animation).
Galleries
Amazing photos of a moving Japan, the "Wildlife Photographer" 2022 awards, little animals chewing things, x-raying nature, movie posters with dangerous women, photo edits for laughs, the best underwater photos, Bolivian architecture photography, the Vertedero Animado and the Tiradero Visual de la Semana.
https://old.neoteo.com/coleccion-de-22-000-gif-animados-de-los-90s/Done, pal. I hope you liked some of this. See you next time and thanks for stopping by.
