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Monday Links from Santa's Grotto vol. CDLXIX

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    Monday Links from Santa's Grotto vol. CDLXIX

    Ho ho ho, and all that. Once you've unwrapped your chunky-knit sweater and Brut 33, here's some stuff you can pretend is important so you don't have to talk to your relatives:
    • The Man Who Won the Moon Race - Fifty years and just over two hours ago, Apollo 8 entered lunar orbit. George Low was the man who persuaded NASA to send it there: ”Without Low, President John F. Kennedy may never have committed the nation to a lunar landing and once committed, may never have recovered from the Apollo 1 fire that had brought the program to a standstill less than two years before Apollo 8’s triumph… ‘As usual with any great endeavor, it always boils down to a single human being who makes a difference,’ Apollo 8 commander Frank Borman said during a panel discussion almost 50 years later. ‘In the case of Apollo, the person in my mind who made the difference was George Low.’” The entire Apollo 8 mission transcript is available at Spacelog, should you wish to follow along

    • AI and the Trolley Problem - ”A provocative story about the relationship between the humans on a British airbase and the AI security system that guards that base. When a group of humans are killed, the question is who is responsible and why.” An interesting short story by Pat Cadigan on the ethics of AI; and there are plenty more stories on the site to give you something to read when you can’t stand any more of your family

    • Mark Rober YouTube Channel - You’ve doubtless seen the story about the glitter bomb aimed at parcel thieves (though it now seems that some of the “thieves” may have been stooges) but northernladuk points out that there’s also loads of other interesting projects on Mark Rober’s channel, such as this experiment in charging an electric supercar using lemons


    • Remembering Norwegian heroism 75 years on - A group of Norwegian military veterans set out to follow the route across the Hardangervidda plateau taken by Norwegian commandos in their February 1943 attack on a heavy water plant, Operation Gunnerside: ”The veterans’ journey across the Vidda will honour the commandos’ memories, as well as bringing back those of their own youth—of that which was taken and that which abides… At dawn they will drive half-an-hour between high snow banks out to the Vidda proper. ‘Then we march on skis from the northern edge.’”

    • Why Iceland’s Christmas Witch Is Much Cooler (and Scarier) Than Krampus - ”While Krampus may be king of holiday scares, his fans may be overlooking an equally nasty, much more formidable queen—a Christmas monster who lives further north, in the frigid climes of Iceland who goes by the name Grýla, the Christmas witch. This tough ogress lives in a cave in Iceland’s hinterlands, the matriarch of a family of strange creatures, launching attacks on nearby townships, snatching up misbehaving children, and turning them into delicious stew.” You can use her as a threat to keep the kids quiet tonight

    • Christmas carols: the history behind 5 festive favourites - ”For many, Christmas is not complete without listening to the atmospheric and angelic sound of carols. Here, in extracts taken from her book Carols from Kings, music journalist Alexandra Coghlan investigates the origins of five festive favourites.”


    • How one man's quest to spread Christmas cheer led to a miserable four-year war with his neighborhood - There’s always one who thinks Christmas is an excuse to act like an utter dick, but this guy really pushed the boat out: ”To Morris, a 37-year-old attorney, this isn't just a neighborly dispute. It's spiritual warfare, good versus evil, the Christmas lights versus the darkness. But Chuck Norlin, the current president of the West Hayden Estates Homeowners Association, is a Christian too, and he takes away a different lesson. ‘The Bible says to love your neighbor as yourself,’ Norlin says. ‘Jeremy Morris sued his neighborhood for $250,000 and then called us devil worshipers and anti-Christians. ... How would you judge that as his show being effective at showing Christianity?’”

    • A father and his sons cut wood to fill 80 trucks. Then they brought it to homes that needed heat. - But luckily there are some people who choose to be rather better than Jeremy Morris: ”Shane McDaniel posted photos on Facebook of him and his twin sons surrounded by enough chopped wood to fill 80 standard-size pickup trucks. They’d spent months chopping and stacking the firewood, valued at about $10,000. But they had no intention of selling it — they were giving it away to people in need.”

    • After Bloodbath, The National Zoo’s Naked Mole-Rats Finally Choose Their Queen - Meanwhile, the naked mole rats of the Smithsonian National Zoo have a queen, after what sounds like a process dreamt up by Theresa May’s party colleagues: ”The new colony transported to the National Zoo this summer was made up of 17 adult mole-rats. There are only 13 adults left. ‘Yeah, they’ve been fighting and killing each other… They have mole-rat wars to determine who’s going to be the queen or who’s going to breed with the queen. We’re hoping things will calm down a little bit now.’”

    • Famous faces dressed as Santa Claus - Because Christmas isn’t complete without a bunch of celebrities in Santa hats, usually Sid James and Barbara Windsor



    Happy invoicing!
    Last edited by NickFitz; 24 December 2018, 12:44. Reason: Forgot to change the title…

    #2
    Bonus Christmas physics link: Physics Buzz: Ask a Physicist: Rudolph the Redshifted Reindeer

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by NickFitz View Post
      At first glance I read that differently...

      Brexit is having a wee in the middle of the room at a house party because nobody is talking to you, and then complaining about the smell.

      Comment


        #4
        Ah. I'm gutted about the glitter bomb parcel follow up. I believe that it is people he's asked to help who have staged it. Dunno if they were just trying to help but really takes the edge off it. Still great though.

        Love his dart board project as well. Very clever bloke.
        'CUK forum personality of 2011 - Winner - Yes really!!!!

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