Recommended Links of the Week (No. 725)

Playing in the 80s, the best week in history for WinRAR, Atmósfera Cero and a day of 19 hours. If you want more, keep reading, because that’s why we do the Recommended Links of the Week. Enjoy!

So we played in the 80s with 8-bit computers, doing things you wouldn’t believe: "I had a great time with that device for a long, long time. I always found a moment to connect it to a small CRT television I had in my room and play some games. Back then, we experienced video games differently. We did things that might sound strange now, especially from the perspective of someone born in the nineties or later, who hasn’t been interested in the 80s scene until now, for example…"

"The best week in history" – Four people pay for WinRAR license and employees can’t hide their joy: "Just a few weeks ago, WinRAR was fearing the worst after Microsoft confirmed that Windows 11 would natively support .rar files. So, through their social media, the company’s members shared several posts addressing the issue and taking it with humor. And, to the surprise of many, this announcement has translated into a series of unexpected positive gestures that, as WinRAR itself acknowledges, have led them to live the best week in their history."

The long and busy road of acid: "We are in the middle of the Cold War. The supposed brainwashing by Soviets and Chinese obsesses the United States government. It turns to its so-called Intelligence Services in search of chemical methods that, during interrogations, would allow them to detect sympathizers of the communists, double agents, and potential renegades of 'American values'. After confirming the failure of peyote, marijuana, mescaline, cocaine, and all kinds of existing drugs – detailing the use of their own agents – at the beginning of the 1950s, they begin to experiment with LSD-25."

They create a social network only for artificial intelligences: "In recent years, the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence has transformed several industries, including social media. If you think the Internet is becoming an increasingly strange place, we are seeing a glimpse of the future, and proof of this is Chirper.AI, which is made exclusively for artificial intelligence and, therefore, humans are not allowed. If you want to participate in this social network, you will have to create your own AI account and unleash it on Chirper to interact with other AIs."

Atmósfera Cero, by Peter Hyams: "The thing is, the original idea was that it would be a western, but Hyams made a genre change clearly influenced by 'Alien', by Ridley Scott. As many of you know, 'Outland' is a remake, or a space adaptation, of the film 'High Noon' (Fred Zinnemann, 1952) starring Gary Cooper. In both films, the protagonist, a lawman with strong morals, is threatened with death on a specific date. He has to leave his family aside to do the right thing and will receive no help from anyone else. Facing the threat alone."

The Anubis Gates, Tim Powers: "Let’s dive into The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers, a novel that masterfully combines several genres. We’re talking about a book from the early eighties that time has turned into a cult read. If there is something that characterizes Tim Powers, it’s his overflowing imagination, the mix of contexts and historical characters, and the fast-paced rhythm of his novels. The Anubis Gates is no exception to this rule."

The unexpected environmental danger that solar panels can generate: "The lifespan of solar panels currently being promoted worldwide as a crucial tool to help reduce carbon emissions is up to 25 years. Experts warn that this means eventually billions of panels will have to be disposed of and replaced. (...) According to the British government, there are tens of millions of solar panels in the UK, but the specialized infrastructure to dispose of and recycle them is insufficient."

Ants process communication in a unique way among insects: "Ants have a specialized communication processing center that has not been found in other social insects, according to researchers publishing in the journal 'Cell'. Their study explored how certain danger-signaling pheromones -- the olfactory markers that ants emit to communicate with each other -- activate a specific part of the ants' brain and can change the behavior of an entire colony."

Study: A day on Earth used to last only 19 hours: "As we all know, on Earth, a solar day, the time it takes for the Sun to return to the same place in the sky as the previous day, lasts 24 hours. And this has been so since time immemorial, during which we have tracked the Sun, the Moon, and their sidereal and synodic periods. In this sense, it is understandable that many of us believe, and have come to take for granted, that the orbital mechanics governing the Earth-Moon system has always been the same. However, it turns out that Earth's days are slowly getting longer."

Scientists discover the 'lost world' of our first ancestors, predators that devoured bacteria: "According to the researchers, these organisms could have been the first predators on Earth. These ancient creatures abounded in marine ecosystems around the world and probably shaped ecosystems for a large part of Earth's history. The researchers claim that the Protosterol Biota lived at least a billion years before any animal or plant emerged."

These flies die earlier if they see dead flies, why?: "Fruit flies that see the corpses of other flies reduce their lifespan, and a group of researchers has discovered that the cause is the activation of a group of neurons. The study, led by the University of Michigan (USA) and published in PLOS Biology, shows that a specific group of neurons in the fly, called R2 and R4, are activated when the insect encounters dead others, and this increase in activity leads to faster aging."

165 years later, Darwin's 'wind hypothesis' is confirmed: "And despite the fact that approximately 95% of the world's insect population falls into this description, the reality is that 5% of them have lost the ability to develop wings to fly. Sometimes nature works hand in hand with evolution to transform its beings, and after 165 years, Darwin's 'wind hypothesis' was confirmed, which explains why some species of insects lost the ability to fly."

VIDEOS: Rubik's cube record, the horror, house buried 7m, falcon stuns duck, the most ambitious crossover, The Shining LEGO (Trailer), digging ant nest, the chemistry of life, the creator of Clippy, like Homer Simpson, Xbox on a 1977 TV, angry bear, roller coaster with different views, rescuing a dog at sea, drugged swans, playing on oscilloscope, the dangers of skiing, testing Jurassic Park animatronics, the crashes of the 2023 Le Mans 24H, deer eating snake, rescuing kitten from pipes, orange dumbo octopus, Pixar characters by size, floats, for the belly, treadmill for puppies and an animated horror short about periods.

GALLERIES: Few, but pretty. Miniature computers, the million-volt X-ray machine, the small dioramas of Peter Csakvari, decisive moments of the animal world, old UFO photos, the Animated Dump of the Week and the Visual Dump.

There are no more links to click. Will there be more next week? There’s only one way to find out!