Recommended Links of the Week (No. 743)

The Weird Science girl, JPEG and the simulation theory, ecofascism, ferrovalleytricity, and an 1830 computer. All of it amazing or, at least, interesting. Which is no small feat. Welcome to the Recommended Links of the Week! Enjoy!

Weird Science: remembering "the explosive girl" of our youth: "The movie tells the story of two marginalized teenage nerds, Gary and Wyatt, played by Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith, respectively. One day, these shy and socially awkward young men, influenced by movies and comics, decide to create the perfect woman. They use a computer and a Frankenstein model to create Lisa, played by Kelly LeBrock."

"We live in a simulation": the latest conspiracy theory on TikTok consists of not knowing how a JPEG works: "From time to time, an old conspiracy theory resurfaces adapted to modern times. With a camera always ready in your pocket to verify or debunk these conspiracies, there are theories that languish and others that gain strength. Like the theory of lights in the sky, which caused a small collective hysteria three years ago, the theory that we live in a simulation or 'Matrix' takes advantage of the phone camera as an ally."

What is ecofascism, the ideology that promotes Thanos' snap in real life: "The carbon emissions of the richest 1% of the world's population are twice as high as those of the poorest half. The richest countries are not fulfilling many of their promises to mitigate climate change. And yet, many billionaires and other high-status people continue to claim that the few resources that will remain after we progressively wreck the planet should be for them. This is ecofascism."

Weighs 2,300 tons and has 114,780 HP: it's the Wärtsilä RT-flex96C, the largest and most powerful diesel engine in the world: "This gigantic engine weighs 2,300 tons. And what kind of vehicle needs that much power? Clearly a very large one. Specifically the Emma Mærsk, the then largest merchant ship in the world. Wärtsilä Corporation is a Finnish company responsible for building this engineering marvel. The company has 19,000 employees and is dedicated to the energy and marine sectors."

The enigmatic ringforts of Ireland and Great Britain, where the fairies and giants of legends live: "Scattered across the landscape of Ireland, Great Britain, and parts of Scandinavia and northern Europe are enigmatic fortified constructions called ringforts. These circular or oval enclosures, delimited by earthen walls and ditches, date mostly from between 500 and 900 AD, a time that in those areas still reaches back to the Bronze Age and extends into the Middle Ages."

Restoring plastics with fire? The truth behind those viral videos: "You can restore some of the lost shine to stadium seats using a flame. In fact, if you've delved into the topic, you'll see that some people even use that technique on garden furniture and even car parts (unpainted ones, like some bumpers or black plastic pieces. Don't even think about trying this on a painted piece). Of course, there's a catch, or rather several."

Records recorded on X-rays to escape Soviet censorship: "Dictatorships try to control what people do and ban everything they believe doesn't work in their favor. In favor of the dictatorship, not the people. Of course, that control involves injustice and indiscriminate punishment. An example of such regimes is the communism of the Soviet Union, which took thousands of issues to the extreme of absurdity. And in those situations, people sometimes find a way. That was the case of records recorded on X-rays to escape Soviet censorship."

They manage to generate ferrovalleytricity, a new physical phenomenon: "By placing carbon atoms in peculiar locations within a set of them, scientists have managed to manifest a phenomenon they have named 'ferro-valleytricity' ('ferrovalletricidad'). Graphene is a sheet of carbon one atom thick. In this sheet, carbon atoms are distributed in a hexagonal lattice, reminiscent of a honeycomb."

There was another head in the box - this was the shocking alternate ending of 'Seven' that Brad Pitt refused to film: "What's in the box?!" The iconic ending of 'Seven', one of the most surprising and memorable in film history, we owe to the fight against the studio by David Fincher and Brad Pitt, who bet on making the film only if the final cut respected the original ending of the script. But they had to fight for it. And a lot.

The mathematician who dreamed of computers in 1830: "In 1991, a team of engineers from the London Science Museum built – using only Victorian-era techniques and materials – a computer, called a difference engine, designed 170 years earlier by the English mathematician Charles Babbage (1791-1871). Thus, they proved that its creator's dreams were not delusions, as his contemporaries considered, but that they could have been carried out and might have anticipated the construction of the first computers by more than a century."

An innovative bionic arm that fuses with the user's skeleton and nerves could improve care for amputees: "This transformation in Karin's life is the result of a unique technique that basically fuses the user's body with the bionic arm through osseointegration, that is, when an implant is accepted by the bone as part of it, rather than as a foreign object. The implant acts as a permanent anchor for the prosthesis, which can be easily attached and removed."

The end of Tupperware: why the empire built by housewives has not survived the 21st century: "The company owes its name to its founder, Earl Tupper. Born in 1907, into a family of farmers in Massachusetts, he showed an entrepreneurial spirit from an early age that would accompany him for the rest of his life, selling crop products door-to-door at just 10 years old. He called himself a sort of modern Leonardo Da Vinci and after graduating from high school he tried to sell some of his inventions, such as a dagger-shaped comb that fit on a belt or personalized cigarettes."

VIDEOS: a slimy robot that can save lives, a pocket mechanical calculator, popcorn explosion in super slow motion, DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy) on the set of Star Trek: TNG, Come Little Children (Hocus Pocus) medieval style, The Hobbit if directed by Guy Ritchie, songs that end when they say STOP, Mortal Kombat teaches anatomy, RoboCop C64 for piano, Dolly Parton - What's Up? (feat. Linda Perry), the Adobe dress, L.I.C.H. (D&D parody), the optical illusion of the motionless plane, a dog that thinks it's a cat, the world-record spiciest chili pepper, and the full RORQUAL documentary

GALLERIES: Amazing Halloween pumpkins, how countries laugh, the best photomicrography, Marilyn Monroe disguised as movie stars, recovering old glories, Starling Stories covers, LAN parties, photographs of Europe in 1899, the Animated Dump of the Week and the Visual Dump.

Ready, enough, it's over. It wasn't the best, but clearly we've had worse. Thanks for stopping by and see you next time. Bye!