Links: Late June 2013

This is a LONG list of links for two reasons. First, it’s been a month since I posted the last batch, and second, I haven’t had time to prune the list down to just the very best. But I think everything here is worth a click.

Interesting:

• On the literacy of women in the Middle Ages.
• A discussion of Irish culture disguised as a book review.
• Neanderthals and mammoths alike have their teeth/tusks analysed for science.
• Essay on survivorship bias. Mostly things I already knew, but nicely junxtaposed.
• On multiple universes as the physicists resort if this one turns out not to make sense.
• I linked to a short article on FOP years ago, so of course I was interested in Carl Zimmer’s article on the subject.
• On navigating spacecraft by means of pulsars.
• Video showing how tornadoes form.
• On the complex truth behind Christopher Robin.
• We should make this Australia’s national animal instead of the kangaroo. Easier to draw.
• Updates to our understanding of our own galaxy.
• Articles on the ways in which physicists have manipulated atoms.
• Explanation for strange gullies on Mars doubles as new sandhill amusement activity.
• Article on life in the Devonian period (probably one of the least-discussed geological periods).
• This article on Chinese medicine is interesting, but the rather jumbled flow of ideas shows that not enough time was spent in editing. Still.
• Five of history’s great mistakes.
• A good article on the Cottingley Fairies.
• On the study of organisms adapted to extreme cold.
• Hypothetical boating on various liquid elements. Several worthwhile videos in links.

Delightful:

• I had a go at this relativity-simulating game. For me the pleasure was spoilt by the awkward controls (specifically that you have to use the mouse in order to turn rather than strafe). But I like the concept, and if you want to try it knowing my reservations, it will do you no harm.
• This optical illusion works nicely. Particularly interesting that I can get it to change colour gradually by moving my eyes gradually away.

Awareness:

• Conclusion to that story of the wrongfully expelled and arrested American science student.
• Q&A session from American hero Edward Snowden.
• Article on how errant intuition leads to rape victims not being believed, and the importance of training police in light of this. None of this is new, and it reminds me of a similar article I linked to years ago which focussed on juries rather than police. But the point can’t be made too often, and should be taught to every sixteen-year-old in school.

Personal:

• I wrote this short story about nothing (literally) in response to this challenge, with encouragement from Elsha. The challenge entries will be judged in July.

A couple of brief follow-ups to my last post:

The new modem installed fine, and I can now connect to the Internet from my laptop when I’m at home, on the odd occasions that this is useful. Also, my Internet connection now runs at a reasonable speed (I consider anything above 2.5 Mbps to be reasonable).

I was sent home with an un-iced sponge cake, and experimented by making a sambuca-flavoured icing for it (2 tablespoons icing sugar to 1.5 teaspoons sambuca). This worked fine. I didn’t mention it in the previous post because it seemed trivial next to all the other exciting things I described.