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Monday Links from the Bench vol. DIII

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    Monday Links from the Bench vol. DIII

    Showers out this afternoon. Good job none of you ever go outside
    • Frozen Alive - ”When your Jeep spins lazily off the mountain road and slams backward into a snowbank, you don’t worry immediately about the cold. Your first thought is that you’ve just dented your bumper.” Peter Stark almost died of hypothermia after crashing his car; this is his account of what it was like.

    • Earth’s Magnetic Field Reversal Took Three Times Longer Than Thought - ”A new study suggests the last field reversal 773,000 years ago took 22,000 years to occur, which could explain some of the inner workings of our planet’s core.” And on the subject of magnetic field reversal: Ancient Northland kauri tree reveals secrets of Earth's polar reversal: ”The ancient kauri was alive 41,000 to 42,500 years ago, making it one of the oldest trees ever found… During its 1500-year lifespan, the tree experienced one of the earth's geomagnetic excursions.”

    • I Found an Abandoned ‘Palace’ in the Desert, It’s Actually a Gameshow Set - ”While exploring the southern, lesser-known part of the Jordanian desert Wadi Rum, I notice a remarkable, palace-like structure sitting on a high, rocky cliff.” Arkadiusz Podniesiński had stumbled upon the long-abandoned set for 1999 French game show Forges du Desert.


    • Tentacled microbe could be missing link between simple cells and complex life - ”After 12 years of trying, a team in Japan has grown an organism from mud on the seabed that they say could explain how simple microbes evolved into more sophisticated eukaryotes… The microbe can produce branched appendages, which may have helped it corral and envelop bacteria that helped it—and, eventually, all eukaryotes—thrive in a world full of oxygen.”

    • Why Does Jupiter Get Hit By So Many Objects In Space? - ”You might wonder just why Jovian strikes are so common. Is Jupiter hit the most frequently because it's such a strong source of gravity?… Or, perhaps more prosaically, is Jupiter simply struck the most frequently because it's the largest target in the Solar System?” It turns out it's a bit more complicated than that, related to the relative speeds of planets and other stuff as they whizz around the solar system.

    • Experts in Pompeii Have Discovered a Female Sorcerer’s Mysterious Arsenal of Charms—See Them Here - ”Archaeologists have discovered an incredible array of amulets, gems, and lucky charms in Pompeii. Researchers think that the mysterious trove belonged to a female sorcerer who could have been a victim of the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius more than 2,000 years ago.” Not such lucky charms after all, then?


    • The traveling corpses of the medieval prince-bishops of Würzburg - Spreading the joy: ”The medieval funerary custom among the prince-bishops of Würzburg involved propping the corpse up in a sitting position so that he could be transported around the city of Würzburg then his heart, intestines, and corpse were buried in three different locations.” I went to Würzburg many years ago, but looking at the map I think I probably just changed trains there so I didn't spot any bishop pieces being trundled around.

    • Climate of doubt - In time of drought, California farmers turn to water diviners for help: ”However popular dowsing may be, the US Geological Survey takes pains to point out that it is not a science. Hope says: ‘If you call a geologist, it’ll cost you $2,000 a day.’ By comparison, she charges a one-time fee of $250 for a well-siting. Despite the differences in her methods, she works regularly with real estate agents and drillers, and the drought has multiplied her business.”

    • Cartographers of North Korea - OpenStreetMap, the crowdsourced alternative to commercial offerings like Google Maps, includes quite detailed coverage of North Korea. Who are the people providing this data in a country that only allows Internet access to a tiny elite? ”The quality of OSM data in North Korea is extraordinary: 324,415 data points drawn by 889 contributors since 2007… although the contributors' motivation is mostly for fun and pure curiosity… they wanted North Koreans to use the map in the near future, such as for escaping their territory.”

    • A Photo Visit to Mount Fanjing - ”Mount Fanjing, or Fanjingshan, is part of the Wuling mountain range in southwestern China’s Guizhou province. Named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site last year, the mountain is home to a conservation area, a nature reserve, and a number of Buddhist temples—it has been considered a sacred site for centuries. Two of these temples sit atop a lonely spire called the New Golden Summit, or Red Clouds Golden Summit, which rises more than 330 feet (100 meters) above the surrounding mountaintop. The Temple of the Buddha and Maitreya Temple are separated by a narrow gorge that visitors can cross via a short bridge.”



    Happy invoicing!

    #2
    Originally posted by NickFitz View Post
    Frozen Alive - ”When your Jeep spins lazily off the mountain road and slams backward into a snowbank, you don’t worry immediately about the cold. Your first thought is that you’ve just dented your bumper.” Peter Stark almost died of hypothermia after crashing his car; this is his account of what it was like.
    Sometimes(not often) I am pleased I live in a city.

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by BrilloPad View Post
      Sometimes(not often) I am pleased I live in a city.
      they have cities in wales??

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by BR14 View Post
        they have cities in wales??
        Most of the time I am in the smoke.

        A city in Wales is anywhere big enough for a leisure centre. Which is usually a sheep tied to a post....

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