When you look at the sky during the night, how do you tell the exact location of the different celestial objects that you see? Similarly, how do scientists determine where the planets are located? A concept called spacetime was implemented by experts.
Spacetime is a way to describe an object’s location at a specific point in time. Combine the three-dimensional space with time and you have a total of four coordinates. Physicist Mike Evans further explains (and lowkey complains about it) here!
The Liberal was a British journal which published between 2004 and 2012. For one of its earliest issues, the editors invited a contribution by Michael Finnissey, a British musical composer and pianist. The music blog 5:4 reports that the subject of that issue was space exploration. So Finnissey’s response was an ensemble piece that, in written notation form, resembles arms of the rings of Saturn.
Finnissey titled his work Back on Earth, inspired by childhood memories of his father saying, “Michael, please come back to Earth.” Perhaps, in this composition, we can hear the sounds of a celestial journey from Saturn to Earth. Listen and judge for yourself:
In 1954, schoolchildren in the Gorbals section of Glasgow, Scotland, heard that a vampire had killed two local boys. Angered and hoping to be heroes, several hundred children made their way to the Southern Necropolis, the neighborhood's largest cemetery, because where else would a vampire hide? They climbed the cemetery walls carrying homemade weapons and making plenty of noise. Glasgow police were astonished to find who was making the ruckus. There were so many children that the event went down in history, although it wasn't the only time that Glasgow children went hunting for monsters.
What spurred the children into such a stunt? It couldn't possibly be a distraction from the misery of the poverty-stricken Gorbals area. It couldn't possibly be the long tradition of Scottish ghosts and monsters the children heard about all their lives. It must have been the comic books. Read how the Gorbals Vampire Hunt led to a Scottish ban on horror comics that is still on the books (yet rarely enforced) at Mental Floss.
Yes, the Philly Taco is exactly what it looks like. It is a quintessentially Philadelphia experience, where the city of brotherly love lovingly combines two perfect food items. Despite the seemingly simple recipe and the cheap paper plates, though, the creation of a Philly Taco is an art that has been carefully refined since its invention over ten years ago.
The first step, the Philadelphia Inquirer explains, is to visit Jim's Steaks, which is famous for its cheesesteak sandwiches. Some creativity in the toppings is permissible with the Philly Taco while remaining canonically correct. What is essential is to immediately proceed 436 feet away to Lorenzo and Sons' Pizza. There, buy a huge slice of cheese pizza and wrap it around the sandwich. Fans disagree about whether the taco should be eaten from one end or cut down the middle, but they agree that the combination is awesome.
Sada Yacco introduced kabuki theater to the West and became a sensation as the only female member of her troupe. Her life story reads like that of Forrest Gump. Born under unfortunate circumstances, Yacco was sold to a geisha house when she was only four years old. Yet she was singled out to be trained in not only the arts, but martial arts and other manly pursuits as well. She was also taught to read and write, a rarity for Japanese women of the time. In 1893 she married experimental showman Otojiro Kawakami and continued her lifelong series of alternating bad luck and celebrity interactions that made her a star when Kawakami took his kabuki theater to the United States and then Europe.
A Western fascination with Japan at the time helped launch Yacco into stardom, but it was tinged with pressure to perform stereotypical Japanese tropes to satisfy the audiences' notions of Japanese theater. Eventually, Yacco and Kawakami returned to Japan, where they introduced Western theater, particularly Shakespeare, to their homeland -with an experimental twist, of course. Read about Sada Yacco and her multicultural adventures at Messy Nessy Chic.
The city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, calls this special bus pass a 'health ticket". You can pay a regular fare or do twenty squats in front of a camera. If you do so, you get to ride for free for the next seven days.
The news website Romania Insider reports that this service, which is so far available at only one station in the city, has been very popular. When it was installed last year, users completed about one million squats total over a three month period. The system has been reinstalled and is again available for residents who would like an incentive to exercise.
Would you use this service if it was available in your area?
It's an event we look forward to every year. The voting has started in the 2021 Fat Bear Week competition! Every year since 2014, Katmai National Park in Alaska shows off their many brown bears in an online tournament. The bears have spent their summer putting on pounds to help them get through winter hibernation, so for them, fat is a good thing. It's a bit dangerous to put bears on a scale, so weight gain must be estimated by pictures. The fattest bears, plus one fat bear cub that won a play-in poll, are competing for nothing but internet fame, yet the tournament draws human attention to Alaska's wildlife and the challenges they face. Some bears have also gained lifelong fans by packing on the pounds. We're glad to see Otis back, and Holly, a previous winner who took last year off to raise a cub. The daily elimination polls can be found here. The daily matchups will continue through October 5, and the winner will be announced a few days later.
If you’re not familiar with the Bethesda classic, Skyrim is an action role-playing video game popular for its opening cutscene and the infamous bugs that leave people laughing and finding more ways to break the game. When Skyrim was released in 2011, it managed to sell ten million copies. Within five years the game sold 30 million copies! A decade after its release, Skyrim still lives on in every major modern console, from PC to Nintendo Switch and even VR.
The impact and relevance of the game leave us to ask the question: how did Skyrim manage to last this long? Wired’s Andrew Kersley lists different reasons that made the Bethesda game relevant, and so popular that it's getting a seventh re-release. From accessibility to giving players a lot of choices during playtime and to a world that enchants players to play and explore, Kersley details them all. Check the full piece here.
Doctors and experts initially thought that the man had contracted Guinea worm disease, a sickness that health workers have worked hard to eradicate for decades. The doctors behind the mysterious case published their report in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases. After confirming with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they have concluded that the man did not get Guinea worm disease. The doctors concluded that the man’s worms bore a closer physical resemblance to reptile-loving worms. The identity of the worms that got into the man’s system remains a mystery.
The tallest mural in Ireland has been completed in Dundalk! Created by Sam Bates, the artwork is 41 meters tall and depicts the warrior god Lú. Bates spent ten days completing the stunning art piece on the side of the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The artist used 247 cans of spray paint and 180 liters of emulsion paint to depict Lú holding an electric blue-colored sphere in one hand and a sword in the other.
When is a species considered extinct—when it no longer exists in the wild or when it no longer exists at all?
The cactus species Mammillaria tezontle evolved to grow on a mineral produced from lava called tezontle. An exposed piece of tezontle is the only place you will ever find this cactus in the wild. In Mexico, tezontle is extremely useful as a building material because it is strong and lightweight, so it is dug up and used when discovered. In fact, the cactus M. tezontle was discovered and identified as a species at a quarry. With supplies of the rock tezontle dwindling, the cactus is thought to be near-extinct in the wild.
But there are plenty of M. tezontle plants growing all over the world- in clay pots in people's homes. It turns out that the cactus will grow in garden center potting soil formulated for cacti. It has traveled all over by both legal and illegal means. It is not a particularly large, pretty, or useful cactus, but its very rarity drives people to own and propagate it.
That brings up a question of species conservation: Should we keep a species going when its natural environment is completely gone? The cactus Mammillaria tezontle may live forever as a houseplant, but it is only an example that brings up the larger question of polar bears and other familiar creatures. Read the story of M. tezontle at The Walrus. -via Damn Interesting
San Francisco-based artist Mona Caron created a massive floral mural on the Jersey City Skyline. Caron was commissioned by the Jersey City Mural Arts Program to create the stunning piece. The artwork is a 20-story mural that depicts a Eutrochium, a wildflower native to the area.
The artwork, titled Shauquethqueat’s Eutrochium, features the wildflower behind a stark black background. The painting is reminiscent of vintagebotanical illustrations. Check more photos of the mural and other works by Caron on her Instagram.
Photographer Marcella Giulia Pace compiled her Full Moon shots taken over the past ten years. Surprisingly, Pace was able to capture the Moon in 48 different hues! According to the photographer, the reason behind the different shades is the atmosphere. The color change is dependent on different things. “The atmosphere gives different colors to our satellite (scattering) based on its height with respect to the horizon, based on the presence of humidity or suspended dust,” Pace adds.
Every year, schools in China must administer jump-rope tests for kids. If students want to be eligible for scholarships, they have to score well. Failing to get a top score can mean a future of academic and, consequently, career mediocrity. Because the stakes are so high, some parents hire special tutors to coach their kids jump-rope skills.
The Wall Street Journal (paywall link) describes the testing standards. First graders must skip 17 times a minute. That goes up with age. At the fourth grade, boys must skip 99 times a minute and girls 103 times. Moving slowly or tripping a single time can result in a very low grade. This is why parents are willing to pay professional coaches as much as $50 an hour to train their children to be top competitors. These coaches have studied the body mechanics of jump-rope carefully and can spot minor errors that throw kids off of their full athletic potential.
Quick: what's your favorite burger topping? If you answer Marshmallow fluff, then chances are you've eaten at Tony's Lunch in Girardville, Pennsylvania. On the menu is the Fluff Screamer, a hamburger topped with marshmallow fluff.
