Recommended Links of the Week (No. 711)

The history of Telemach, the private gardens of the Internet, Ulises 31, deep-sea parasites, and the first map of all neural connections. If you want to know what else you'll find in these Recommended Links of the Week, just keep reading. Enjoy!

TELEMACH – History of a classic and its models: "With the proliferation of gaming systems in the 80s, the complementary market for accessories (joysticks) also proliferated to enjoy video games to the fullest. On one hand, there are consoles (NES, Master System, Mega Drive, etc.) which already had their own controllers, and on the other hand were computer systems, MSX, Commodore, Spectrum, Amstrad, etc., more versatile and capable of adapting a greater number of controllers to play. Among the numerous joysticks that appeared, there was a series that today is still considered one of the best for 8-bit/16-bit systems. We are talking about the Telemach Joysticks."

The covers of Hipgnosis: "Gone are those years of massive vinyl consumption, now reduced to a nearly marginal environment of nostalgic musicians who, as a stubborn (and necessary) reclamation, continue to release their work in this format, and also a residual minority of nerds who gather at record fairs where they can acquire all kinds of rarities to add to their beloved collections. (...) But most of today's music consumers, incredibly, have never held a long play in their hands, missing out on a certain fetishistic pleasure that complements listening visually."

The Internet was full of public spaces. Today it has become a complex of private gardens: "Now, among platforms that require registration to see certain information (TikTok, Instagram for stories or posts beyond a certain threshold...), paywalled media and other websites that require at least an email address to feed their database before letting you see anything, searches are no longer just about finding what we're looking for, but also about knowing where to enter and where not to, because we'll waste much more time on their bureaucracy. It's another symptom of something we've been talking about for a while: the discordization of the Internet."

1981 - ULISES 31: "The earthquake caused by the release of \"Star Wars\" in 1977 was felt throughout the entertainment industry. We have already talked here about many films and comics inspired by that recovery of the most playful and spatial side of a genre that had been immersed for a decade in pessimism and dystopian scenarios. Television, both adult and children's, did not escape this new trend. In this last section, \"Capitán Futuro\" (1978-79), \"Capitán Harlock\" (1977-79), \"Cobra\" (1982-83) and \"Érase Una Vez…El Espacio\" (1982) appeared or gained greater relevance, all of them space adventures. \"Ulises 31\" belongs to that crop of products, but it was not just another one."

"People hire me every day to do nothing," the business of a man in Japan who receives thousands of requests: "If you've often wondered what you're good for in this life and still haven't found the answer, don't torment yourself. It's likely that what you do best is absolutely nothing. That was the conclusion reached by the Japanese man Shoji Morimoto when he started a business that has received thousands of requests since June 2018. His services are reduced: \"eating, drinking (responsibly, of course) and giving simple answers\". Nothing more. The Japanese dolce far niente."

The anglerfish, the astonishing sexual parasites of the deep: "Now known as Krøyer's deep-sea anglerfish or northern sea devils, these are fish with giant, toothed mouths that live in the depths of the sea, at a depth of more than 1,000 feet (300 meters). As you may have seen in the movie Finding Nemo, sunlight does not reach those depths, so these sea monsters use a glowing lure to attract their prey. That bioluminescence is the product of a symbiotic relationship: the bacteria that live in the \"bulb\" provide light in exchange for nutrients and protection."

The superpower of intelligence: "Does that mean all those people were stupid and we suddenly became intelligent? Obviously not! A person can be ignorant, even illiterate, for many reasons... and perfectly intelligent. Sure, they won't do well on intelligence tests... but because they don't know how to take them; and even if they were super-brilliant and caught on quickly, they'd probably still not do well because they're not used to handling the concepts on which most tests are based. You could be facing a genius and the test would say they are severely mentally deficient."

This is the first map of all neural connections, this is how a complex brain works: "The journal Science has just published the most advanced map of the brain we have so far, the only one that shows each neuron and how they are connected to each other. The advance is a historic achievement for neuroscience, even though it is the brain of a fruit fly larva (Drosophila), an organism used as a model to study basic questions in biology. After more than a decade of work, this research shows the 3,016 neurons of this organ and a spectacular number of interactions between them: 548,000 synapses."

The difference between reality and science fiction about UFOs: "Magical thinking postulates that everything imaginable is possible. It is an addictive recreational drug consumed not only by enthusiasts, but also by some mainstream scientists who believe in the multiverse and maintain that \"everything that can happen will happen an infinite number of times\". In a recent interview with Stephen Colbert, Steven Spielberg suggested that Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) could be of extraterrestrial origin. His threshold for suggesting this is acceptable for Hollywood sci-fi scripts, but not for science. What separates science from fiction? In one word: evidence."

11 absurd micronations where you can apply for citizenship or even have a noble title: "Do you want to be president, king or even emperor? Well, you should know it's possible. How? There's nothing easier than declaring your own nation. To do that you need to think of a name, design a flag, an anthem and an official currency. Although the first thing is to find land and people to govern. Regarding the land, you can simply declare your house an independent state. You won't be the first or the second to do it. For the second, the best is to start (as always) with family and friends. You can try to seduce them by granting them noble titles."

The fire that caused a flood of whiskey in the streets of Dublin: "On June 18, 1875, a misfortune occurred in the city of Dublin. A misfortune that could have been just an anecdote, but ended up being a tragedy. It all started mid-afternoon, when pigs from nearby farms began to alert with their squeals that there was a fire in the Liberties area. Specifically in Laurence Malone's beverage warehouse, which was engulfed by flames. The warehouse, mind you, not poor Malone. That place held no less than about 1.2 million liters of liquor. Whiskey mainly."

They find the oldest inscription in the world that mentions the god Odin: "Scholars have discovered the world's oldest inscription with the name of the Norse mythology god Odin, on a gold bracteate (a kind of medal). It is part of the phrase \"It is the man of Odin\" and refers to the portrait of an unknown king or great man, who may have been named \"Jaga\" or \"Jagaz\". This means that the gods as we know them in Norse mythology were already known at the beginning of the 4th century, 150 years earlier than previously thought. The discovery was made by Lisbeth Imer, a runologist at the National Museum of Denmark, along with linguist Krister Vasshus."

VÍDEOS: An AI among Humans, forging the first item in a survival game, Jolene by Olivia Newton-John and Dolly Parton, TechnoViking from another camera perspective, how intelligent crows are, Titanic with marbles (super cool), how to ignite a rocket engine, walking inside the Titanic in 4K, why SUVs kill so many people, how a LEGO is made, you can't die of old age, Bertrand Russell: The Earth is only 5 minutes old, a wildlife pond, the largest family tree, farmer pulls cart out of his field like a beast, metal riffs on banjo, record for most dogs in a conga line, horse making snow angels, the road has disappeared!, skunk that knows tricks and comparison of animal sizes.

GALERÍAS: Ospreys hunting, things that look like faces, driftwood art, the terrifying art of the Merrylin Museum, corrupted coloring books, Travel Photographer of the Year, puppies in uniforms, World Nature Photography awards, retro crazy Japanese glasses, Polaroid museum, Philco Predilecta, the Vertedero Animado and the Tiradero Visual.

Done! The end. Another edition of the Recommended Links comes to a close, and that's no small thing. Thanks for stopping by and see you next time!