Recommended Links of the Week (No. 701)

The good parts of boredom, talking to ourselves, time and philosophy, the universe on the back of a turtle, and the discovery of penicillin are just a few of the things you'll find in these final Recommended Links of the year. Enjoy!

Why getting bored is good for your brain: "According to neuroscientists, boredom has a bad reputation, but it can actually increase creativity, engagement with tasks, and work productivity. Some people even prefer to give themselves a mild electric shock rather than be alone with their thoughts, as shown by a famous experiment published in the journal Science. In the experiment, a group of people were asked to sit in silence for 15 minutes in a room with nothing else to do. Their only alternative was to press a button and give themselves an electric shock."

What happens in our brain when we start talking to ourselves?: "It's one of those questions everyone asks, but no one shares with others because it points to our very sense of shame. What am I doing talking alone? We might wonder when a conversation starts in our head, sometimes seeming to involve more than two people, and yet it's just you with yourself. And it's not only normal, or common, but it also characterizes us as a species. So come on, away with senseless prejudices and say it loud: I can't stop talking to myself."

Letter from a slave to his former master (after asking for help): "In 1864, after 32 long years in the service of his master, Jourdon Anderson and his wife Amanda (Mandy) escaped from a life of slavery. (...) Shortly after the end of the Civil War, Jourdon received a desperate letter from Colonel Patrick Henry Anderson, his former master, asking him to return to work on the plantation to help him keep his business afloat. The response, dictated by Jourdon on August 7, 1865 from his home in Ohio, is brilliant and biting, a masterpiece of sarcasm."

Time in philosophy: "If no one asks me, I know; if I am asked and want to explain it, I no longer know." This phrase from St. Augustine perfectly expresses the confusion that the question of the existence of time has always raised among philosophers and their difficulty in defining what it consists of. It's an endless debate that begins with the ancient Greek thinkers, led by Plato and Aristotle; continues in the early Middle Ages, when Augustinian ideas stand out; reaches its climax in the eighteenth century with the disagreement between the positions of Newton and Kant, and continues to this day.

Five machines that changed the world of printing: "Since the 19th century, very ingenious machines have been invented that have tried to facilitate tasks related to printing, such as page composition, character creation, and printing itself. The linotype, the rotary press, the offset printer, and the lumitype are some of the inventions that, for various reasons, were most successful and helped define what we call 'printing' today. These machines made it possible to print more, faster, and more efficiently, accompanying printing from the industrial revolution to the digital."

The 'hackers' who solve your life in blog comments: "So, as I said, I currently have more than 5,000 comments that I have marked as Spam. Comments that were not written by a person, but by a robot, and that only seek to either insert a link, or offer a product or service. Note that I even occasionally let SEO comments through, simply removing the link they have inserted. (...) This, since this website is about new technologies and information security, means that many supposed 'hackers' offer their services here. I'll leave you some examples here." Thanks José for the link!

Road proves the Earth is round: "How would you feel if I told you that the left curve you see on this road proves that the Earth is round? And that, if it were flat, that curve wouldn't exist. Don't believe it? Well, get ready to see the world in a different way, an amazing one. And no, it's no joke. It's a peculiar curve because it doesn't seem to turn anywhere specific; it just turns... without more. It's in the state of Minnesota, USA. And the story behind this turn of the wheel tells us the origin and foundations of a superpower."

When the universe fit inside a turtle's shell: "The ancient Vedas saw the world as a disk supported by pillars resting on the backs of four elephants, which in turn rested on the shell of a turtle swimming in a cosmic sea. For Democritus, the stars were only a small portion of an infinity of worlds. Perhaps space had a limit, but then where was the universe contained? Aristotle settled the matter by assuring that 'it was contained in itself', which didn't clarify much. His theories, however, would persist for many centuries in university teachings in medieval Europe."

Do you know how many coincidences had to occur for the discovery of penicillin?: "In the 20s, the Scot Alexander Fleming was an expert on bacteria called staphylococci. Because of this, he was asked to write a chapter about them in a bacteriology compendium that the British Medical Research Council was going to publish. In late 1927, while writing his chapter, he read an article that led him to take an interest in a very particular class of these bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus."

The truth about Conan, an unknown hero who conquered the world: "Just as many millennials discovered The Lord of the Rings through Peter Jackson's films, many of their older Generation X siblings found a certain Conan embodied by Arnold Schwarzenegger. And quite a few of both didn't go beyond that - unfortunately for them. Little needs to be said to defend the excellence of the literary work of J.R.R. Tolkien, a true bible of the fantasy genre. But perhaps less popular is the original background of the hero born in Cimmeria and in the imagination of Robert E. Howard."

Philip K. Dick, master of alternative worlds: "characters who question their own reality and believe that their minds are trapped in a simulation where only a very subtle layer separates the real from the fictional. Such is the work of Philip K. Dick, born on December 16, 1928 in Chicago, one of the most acclaimed science fiction authors who, with his stories, tries to confuse the reader about what is true and what is not. Plagued by mental problems and the unrestrained consumption of drugs, K. Dick himself declared at a science fiction convention that he believed his life was a simulation and that he could see himself in different realities."

1974 - Planet of the Apes in Marvel – Doug Moench and others: "'Planet of the Apes' (PS henceforth) appeals to a deep fear, that our evolutionary cousins, whom we keep in cages, subject to experiments and destroy their habitat, might one day rise against us, replace us as the dominant species, and place us in their former position. But PS was also a perfect example of building a multimedia franchise, from its literary beginnings to a film whose success surprised everyone and gave rise to a series of films, a live-action series, another animated one, and an avalanche of merchandising. And, of course, the inevitable comic version."

VIDEOS: Kermit the Frog in Half-Life 2, Elf in Skyrim, The Mask in Witcher 3, how to beat Dark Souls 3 without walking, moose loses its antlers and guy finds them, rescuing the drone, floppy disk in space and another view, twin tornadoes, robotic surgery on himself, giant axe versus giant elastic ball, how car safety is tested, hilarious medieval beliefs, CarJitsu (I hope it's fake!), the dogs of Chernobyl, the behind the scenes of 12 movies from 2022, the largest Scalextric track in the world, House of the Dragon Soundtrack - Fate of the Kingdoms by Ramin Djawadi on violin, and the shorts The Kite (animated), Beyond The Hill (animated), Rudolph kills Santa (animated), and Horns (animated).

GALLERIES: Broken plates as art, psychedelic prints, the best images taken by the James Webb telescope in 2022, abiogenesis, portraits of standing cats, collectible card games from the 90s, fronts of very old butcher shops, everyone points to the cursor, art or artificial intelligence?, the Animated Dump of the Week and the Visual Dump of the Week.

Done. That's it. I hope you have (or had) an excellent end of the year and that this 2023 finds you in good shape and doesn't punish you too much. Thank you so much for all your visits!