If the highly unlikely Silurian hypothesis is true (if the Earth was home to an intelligent civilization prior to ours), “it’s the cephalopods…who are the most likely candidates to have reached at least some level of civilization”.
52 things Kent Hendricks learned in 2024, incl. “walking speed on the...
52 things Kent Hendricks learned in 2024, incl. “walking speed on the streets of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia has increased 15% since 1979” and “after fluoride is introduced into a city’s drinking water, the number of dentist offices drops 9%”.
77 Facts That Blew Our Minds in 2024
From The Atlantic Science Desk, 77 Facts That Blew Our Minds in 2024. Some that caught my eye:
5. Your body carries literal pieces of your mom — and maybe your grandmother, siblings, aunts, and uncles.
15. The weight of giant pumpkins increased 20-fold in half a century.
19. In the Middle Ages, people took their pet squirrels for walks and decked them out in flashy accessories.
31. One breadfruit tree can feed a family of four for at least 50 years.
38. Classical composers used dice to randomly compose songs.
52. Dogs may be entering a new wave of domestication.
71. The 10,000-steps-a-day goal doesn’t originate from clinical science. Instead, it comes from a 1965 marketing campaign by a Japanese company that was selling pedometers.
Tags: best of · best of 2024 · lists
Haalarit are overalls worn by Finnish university students, covered in patches they...
Haalarit are overalls worn by Finnish university students, covered in patches they get from attending events, organization affiliations, and friendships. It’s giving NASCAR merit badge pajamas?
The Walmart Effect. According to new research, “Walmart makes the places it...
The Walmart Effect. According to new research, “Walmart makes the places it operates in poorer than they would be if it had never shown up at all. Sometimes consumer prices are an incomplete, even misleading, signal of economic well-being.”
Eight Clams Control This Polish City’s Water Supply
In the city of Poznań, Poland, a group of eight clams controls the local water supply through a clever bio-monitoring system:
These biological systems are comprised of eight mussels with sensors hot-glued to their shells. They work together with a network of computers and...
Great read: Heather Cox Richardson on Jimmy Carter’s “life characterized by a...
Time Capsule Instructions
Due
My thanks to Junjie for sponsoring last week at DF to promote Due, their excellent reminder app for the Mac, iPhone, and iPad. I first linked to Due back in 2010, writing this short post:
I’ve been trying this $3 app for a few days and digging it — a
convenient, low-fric...
Jimmy Carter Dies at 100
The New York Times:
While his presidency was remembered more for its failures than for its successes, his post-presidency was seen by many as a model for future chief executives. Rather than vanish from view or focus on moneymaking, he established the Carter Center to promote peace, fight disease and combat social inequality. He transformed himself into a freelance diplomat traveling the globe, sometimes irritating his successors but earning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
Link: nytimes.com/2024/12/29/us/politics/jimmy-carter-dead.html
Former President Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100. Easily...
Former President Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100. Easily the most impactful former President in US history and, too rarely for that powerful position, a good man.
★ OpenAI’s Board, Paraphrased: ‘To Succeed, All We Need Is Unimaginable Sums of Money’
From an un-bylined post from OpenAI’s board of directors on Friday:
The hundreds of billions of dollars
that major companies are now investing into AI development show
what it will really take for OpenAI to continue pursuing the
mission. We once again need to raise more ...
🔗 November 2023 – Daniel Pietzsch’s Photo Journal
Nearing the end with my photos from 2023.
Photos from the Alpeninferno plus some random shots.
November 2023
Photos from the Alpeninferno plus some random shots. (32 photos)
“Depending on the printer, trying to photocopy money might result in a...
“Depending on the printer, trying to photocopy money might result in a warning message or the paper being completely ink-filled.”
Crazy Football Commentary, Animated!
I’ve shared animator Nick Murray Willis’ videos before — he takes snippets of sound & dialogue from sports commentary & movies and creates context-shifted animations from them. For instance, in the two videos above with football (soccer) commentary, a commentator’s chant of “Messi, Messi, Messi” becomes a French street performer thanking the crowd (“merci, merci, merci”).
(Ok, I’ve caught myself attempting to explain humor, so I’m gonna wrap this up by urging you to watch the videos if you want.)
Tags: animation · Nick Murray Willis · remix · soccer · sports · video
The 7 Coolest Mathematical Discoveries of 2024, including “the biggest prime number...
The 7 Coolest Mathematical Discoveries of 2024, including “the biggest prime number yet, a new formula for pi, mysterious patterns in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and even a whole new kind of shape”.
“Architecton is an epic, intimate, and poetic meditation on architecture and how...
“Architecton is an epic, intimate, and poetic meditation on architecture and how the design and construction of buildings from the ancient past reveal our destruction — and offer hope for survival and a way forward.”
You can use this game to narrow down 30 monospaced typefaces to...
The most popular Wikipedia articles of 2024 (thru Nov 22), including Deaths...
The most popular Wikipedia articles of 2024 (thru Nov 22), including Deaths in 2024, Project 2025, Griselda Blanco, UEFA Euro 2024, ChatGPT, Taylor Swift, and Kamala Harris.