• Visitors can check out the Forum FAQ by clicking this link. You have to register before you can post: click the REGISTER link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. View our Forum Privacy Policy.
  • Want to receive the latest contracting news and advice straight to your inbox? Sign up to the ContractorUK newsletter here. Every sign up will also be entered into a draw to WIN £100 Amazon vouchers!

Monday Links from the Bench vol. CDLXXXII

Collapse
X
  •  
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Monday Links from the Bench vol. CDLXXXII

    ♬ Spring is here! ♪ So here's a bonus video: Tom Lehrer in 1998, with a song about springtime

    • Locating The Netherlands’ Most Wanted Criminal By Scrutinising Instagram - An interesting example of crowdsourcing: ”A fugitive convict from the Netherlands is taunting Dutch police with provocative pictures and videos from Iran, playing a game of “catch me if you can” on Instagram… Bellingcat was able to reveal the last known location of the criminal with the help of over 60 Twitter users. Here’s how we did that.”

    • The lemonade enema - Another disconcerting piece of medical history from Thomas Morris: ”This is the only example I have encountered of a doctor administering lemonade via the rectum. And I’m not mocking the idea: it seems to have done the trick.”

    • Graphene Device Sops Up Sunlight, Heats to 160 Degrees Celsius in Seconds - ”A new class of ultrathin light absorbent material could harvest solar energy, boil water, and work as an infrared detector.”

    • Scientists Gave Alligators Ketamine and Headphones to Understand Dinosaur Hearing - Sooner them than me: ”The team injected 40 American alligators from Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana with ketamine and dexmedetomidine to sedate them. While the animals were anesthetized, Yuin PK2 earbuds, fitted with horns, were placed in their earlids. Electrodes were positioned on the alligators’ heads to record the auditory neural responses to tones and clicks played through the headphones.”

    • Apollo Press Kits - David Meerman Scott has collected loads of original Apollo programme press kits, not only from NASA but also from companies involved in the missions to the Moon: ”Press kits prepared by the public relations staff at the major contractors for the Apollo 11 mission provided valuable additional information not found in NASA issued news releases. Reporters and editors from media outlets including television and newspapers had access to such documents from dozens of manufacturers while working on stories about the first lunar landing. These press kits are beautifully prepared, with stunning artwork and fascinating period photographs.”


    • Old stone walls hold secrets to Earth's wandering magnetic north - John Delano realised that correlating still-extant stone walls with old maps of land boundaries could reveal how magnetic north has shifted: ”I knew that the location of magnetic north drifts over time due to changes in the Earth’s core. Could I determine its drift using stone walls and the old land surveys? My preliminary map of stone walls and a few historical surveys showed that the approach had potential.”

    • The Pentagon’s Bottomless Money Pit - ”When the Defense Department flunked its first-ever fiscal review, one of our government’s greatest mysteries was exposed: Where does the DoD’s $700 billion annual budget go?” Their government, not ours, but it's interesting to see what an absolute mess the US military have made of accounting.

    • A Brainless Slime That Shares Memories by Fusing - The slime moulds are coming, and what's more, they can learn: ”Sometimes, Audrey Dussutour enters her lab in Toulouse to find that one of the creatures within it has escaped. They tend to do so when they’re hungry. One will lift the lid of its container and just crawl out… They are slime molds —yellow, oozing, amoeba-like organisms found on decaying logs and other moist areas. They have no brains. They have no neurons. Each consists of just a single, giant cell. And yet, they’re capable of surprisingly complicated and almost intelligent behaviors.”

    • The Mortician and the Murderer - ”The insane true story of the 1980s mortician who turned his family’s funeral home into a nightmare cremation factory—pulling gold teeth, harvesting organs, and threatening anyone who got in his way.” It's like the Facebook of human remains

    • Diana Scherer: Exercises in Rootsystem Domestication - Remarkable work by an Amsterdam artist, harnessing the root systems of plants: ”In my work I explore the relationship man has with his natural environment and his desire to control nature. For the past few years my fascination has mainly been focused on the dynamics of belowground plant parts. I’ve been captivated by the root system, with its hidden, underground processes; it is considered to be the brain of the plant by plant neurobiologists.”



    Happy invoicing!

    #2
    Loving the links NF. Boy done good today!

    •Scientists Gave Alligators Ketamine and Headphones to Understand Dinosaur Hearing
    If that one got passed project board and got it's funding I'd love to see the list of ones that didn't :|

    •The lemonade enema
    . Instead he had used one intended for a smaller weapon, which – fortunately – had not been of sufficient size to put an end to his life.
    I don't think the sailor would agree it was that fortunate when he was sat there and lemonade was pumped up his bum at pressure. Poor bloke was obviously pretty pissed off at the time he shot himself and I don't think treatment won't have lifted his mood any.
    'CUK forum personality of 2011 - Winner - Yes really!!!!

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by northernladuk View Post
      I don't think the sailor would agree it was that fortunate when he was sat there and lemonade was pumped up his bum at pressure. Poor bloke was obviously pretty pissed off at the time he shot himself and I don't think treatment won't have lifted his mood any.
      Oh, I don't know:

      Originally posted by A sailor who was having lemonade inserted rectally
      …he still requested to have the cold lemonade clysters, as he said we could not form any conception how grateful they felt, and how they always relieved his thirst and cooled his body.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by NickFitz View Post
        Oh, I don't know:



        This must be him enjoying a Haribo Tangfastic.

        'CUK forum personality of 2011 - Winner - Yes really!!!!

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by northernladuk View Post
          If that one got passed project board and got it's funding I'd love to see the list of ones that didn't :|
          If it proves on thing it's this: the next time anyone tells you there's a shortage of funding for science research, you'll know better.

          Comment


            #6
            NASA press packs deserve a special mention. Omega Speedmaster IWOOT.

            Comment

            Working...
            X