Bach's first regular job was as organist for the town of Arnstadt, Germany. Although he was only about 20 years old, he was the most talented musician of the congregation, and eventually he was obliged to lead the church musicians in performing. He was not a patient director.

Bach was used to the musical proficiency of his extended family, or to that of the prestigious Weimar court orchestra (where he had briefly temped as a violinist before coming to Arnstadt, and where he would later return as organist and then concertmaster). Arnstadt’s town musicians were of a much lower skill level, and Bach did not have the experience yet to customize parts to players’ abilities (a skill that is highly evident two decades later, in the educational works he would write for his children and keyboard students).

So the bassoonist — a man named Geyersbach, a few years older than Bach yet still in high school[*] — struggled with the part until an exaggerated Bach threw up his hands and called him a Zippelfagottist. (More about this spicy insult below.)

An offended Geyersbach got together with his busking and drinking buddies, and lay in wait for Bach as he returned from a concert at the castle, accompanied by his cousin Barbara Catherina Bach. Geyersbach demanded an apology, and when that wasn’t forthcoming, cried out “you dirty dog!” and attacked him with his walking stick. Bach defended himself with his rapier until students separated the two, Geyersbach’s jacket having acquired a few ventilation holes.

The fallout from the incident led to Bach leaving Arnstadt, although for a better job. Read more on the incident, including a look at what "Zippelfagottist" might mean at Spin, Strangeness, and Charm. -via Strange Company

(Image credit: Mazbln)

Zoë Weiner bought a couch at a high-end furniture store last fall, which has not been delivered yet, due to supply line problems caused by the pandemic. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one waiting for a couch. The CEO of the furniture company sent an apologetic email explaining the delay. And he cc’d all 204 waiting customers on the message. It wasn’t long before they started to “reply all” with grumbles about their nonexistent couches.

Weiner seized the moment. “I’d personally like to make the most out of this bonkers thread and throw it out there that I’m a 29-year-old single woman in NYC looking for a Jewish man.” The floodgates opened. “You go Zoe shoot your shot!!” a woman named Tanesha Smith-Wattley responded. “This is legitimately funny and I am grateful for all of you, my new family of complete strangers,” Matt Freeman chimed in. Gus Goldsack: “Looking forward to meeting you all at Zoe’s wedding!” Moe Phillips: “I’d invite you all over but I don’t have a couch.”

Many of the 204 customers kept sending messages until they were their own social media group. They made friends, raised money for charity, and commiserated about their couches -the one thing they all had in common. Read the story of the social group that grew out of an email mistake at The New Yorker. -via Metafilter

Dozens of bald eagles were found paralyzed, convulsing, or dead in Arkansas 25 years ago. The brains of these eagles were marked with lesions and soon enough, other birds turned up pocked with the lesions found in these eagles. Years after the incident, researchers finally identified a novel neurotoxin produced by cyanobacteria and shows that it harms birds, fish, and invertebrates, as Science Magazine details: 

“This research is a very, very impressive piece of scientific detective work,” says microbiologist Susanna Wood of the Cawthron Institute. An unusual feature of the toxic molecule is the presence of bromine, which is scarce in lakes and rarely found in cyanobacteria. One possible explanation: the cyanobacteria produce the toxin from a bromide-containing herbicide that lake managers use to control the weed.

The discovery highlights the threat of toxic cyanobacteria that grow in sediment and on plants, Wood says, where routine water quality monitoring might miss them. The finding also equips researchers to survey lakes, wildlife, and other cyanobacteria for the new toxin. “It will be very useful,” says Judy Westrick, a chemist who studies cyanobacterial toxins at Wayne State University and was not involved in the new research. “I started jumping because I got so excited.”

Image via Science Magazine 

Rumors about a massive LEGO Harry Potter wizard chess set are flying around the Internet. Remember the rather violent version of regular chess depicted in the Harry Potter movies? According to Instagram user lego_fulcrum, set number 76391 will be based on the scene in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone where Harry, Ron, and Hermione play a dangerous game of wizard chess in order to get to the stone in time: 

If buying the recently released sets left you pretty broke, you should start saving up, because the same Instagram user reported that this new set will cost $249.99. If that’s really what the price tag’s going to be, it’s fair to assume that the set will include pretty much everything from that scene, so we can probably expect to get the entire chess set with its surroundings. New minifigures are not likely to be included here since the only characters present in this scene were the golden trio.

It would be pretty exciting if this rumor turns out to be true, but the LEGO Group hasn’t said anything about it yet, so for now, we’ll wait, but we’ll be the first to let you know if it gets confirmed.

Image via Brick Fanatics

We’ve seen lists of weird or badly-designed stairs, so you may have seen some of these before. However, the real fun in seeing illogical staircases is trying to figure out how they got that way. Often, it’s a matter of a renovation that didn’t quite fit, or adding a handrail after the fact. But what was going on in the minds of the folks who built the extra stairs above? And the list has more than one example of Soviet staircases that look as if they were designed by MC Escher.

They go up, they go down, and then they go up again. Not exactly the model of efficiency. See 45 examples of stairs that turned out bad, no matter what the original intent was, at Bored Panda.

A new LEGO Master Builders Series set recreates the cantina from the original Star Wars movie! The wretched hive of scum and villainy comes in a 3,187 piece kit that includes 21 minifigs you’ll recall from the classic Star Wars scene -including the band. The finished building opens up to expose the interior, and the roof is removable.

There are two downsides: you have to build it yourself from more than 3,000 pieces (which is the point, I guess), and the least expensive one is $475. However, if you are willing to spend that much on a Star Wars fan you love, at least you’ll know that they don’t already have this one. -via Boing Boing

For five days, the Suez Canal and the world's sea traffic that flows through it has been disabled because a container ship is stuck inside of it. The sailors waiting at either end to make the transit may be getting bored and lonely, so Danielle Baskin made a dating app for them.

Forever Given, named after the now-famous ship Ever Given, offers to connect lonely hearts among these beleaguered seamen. As ships have, in the past, been trapped in the Suez Canal as long as 8 years, this may be a good time to start long-term thinking.

Artist Maxtropolitan made this stylish and tasteful bed that is ideal for the home of a dentist. It holds a California king size mattress and comes with a tongue comforter. Although the bed requires a high ceiling, the height is actually adjustable from 11 to 14 feet.

-via Rusty Blazenhoff

CGP Grey begins by talking about A4 metric paper (which is pretty neat) and then quickly spirals out of control into la-la land. This video becomes a bit like an infinite zoom until we meet “quantum madness at the very floor of the universe.” Then it goes in the opposite direction. Grey is talking about the magic of halving and doubling. It makes sense, but it’s existentially (and exponentially) weird. -via Metafilter

It’s possible to manipulate ourselves to be happy. You could get your favorite food or watch your favorite movie to get that dose of temporary serotonin, but experts claim that an appreciation for theoretical science and philosophy is the formula for maintaining that constant source of serotonin. In a new paper published in  Frontiers in Psychology, researchers were able to manipulate a series of neurological patterns that define happiness: 

Participants involved in the preceding analysis who demonstrated self-awareness, a base knowledge of the peaks and limitations of the human mind, and adopted an empathetic worldview, dually evidenced increased life satisfaction and emotional self-regulation.

This group additionally expressed significantly lower levels of anxiety, stress, negative thoughts, and anger.

“In recent decades, psychological research on the effects of mindfulness-based interventions has greatly developed and demonstrated a range of beneficial outcomes in a variety of populations and contexts,” the authors wrote in the new paper.

“Yet, the question of how to foster subjective well-being and happiness remains open. Here, we assessed the effectiveness of an integrated mental training program, The Art of Happiness on psychological well-being in a general population.

Reducing an emotional state to a consequence of cognitive and behavioral conditions–as opposed to a spiritual privilege, may make it easier to draft solutions during times of duress.

The authors acknowledge the enormous role mental illness plays in one’s overall stability while encouraging introspection alongside clinical resources.

“Although there is a consistent interest in scientific research on the general topic of happiness, such studies present several limitations. Firstly, most of the research has focused on clinical studies to assess the effectiveness of happiness-based interventions—in line with more traditional psychological research, which is primarily concerned with the study of mental disorders,” the authors continued.

image via The Ladders 

Experts and archaeologists have been stumped over finding the real meaning behind the Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal, which are sculpted slabs of ancient alabaster that once adorned the walls of a royal palace in Upper Mesopotamia. The 7th-century BC gypsum panels that seem to display a narrative of the majestic might of Assyrian King Ashurbanipal as he slaughtered lions, is more than its surface narrative. A single piece of jewelry reveals the true meaning of these sculptures. Kelly Grovier explains the mystery behind the artwork for BBC. Check the full piece here. 

Image via BBC 

Can this turn back time? What in the world is a time crystal anyway? A space-time crystal, also known as an STC or ‘time crystal’, is a phase of matter made of repeating patterns in time. These special crystals exhibit temporal periodicity, a state wherein the crystals oscillate between one configuration and another. Scientists in Berlin were able to capture the first ever footage of an STC: 

The video above shows a time crystal created from magnon, which are quasiparticles associated with the spin-wave of electrons within a magnetic material. The time crystal was built from magnons in a magnetic strip with a microscopic antenna attached to it. The antenna was used to generate an oscillating magnetic field using radio frequency, and the lines fading in and out in the video show the absorption of the X-ray beams by that magnetic wavelength structure. The darker regions show where more X-rays were absorbed which allowed the visualization of periodic oscillation of both time and space.

“It is a little bit confusing, but we induce the magnons in the strip electrically with an antenna on top of the structure,” Nick Träger, a doctoral student who co-led the research, said to Vice. “Thus, everything you can see in this video is a periodic magnetization pattern (consisting of magnons), which follows a space-time periodic motion.”

Image via Vice

Where a highway goes down a mountain, you'll see emergency ramps for trucks with brake failure -which happens more often than you think. There are plenty of these in my neck of the woods, but they aren't nearly as fancy and well-maintained as this one in Brazil. Check out that crane! -via reddit

Easter is right around the corner, so PepsiCo is offering a new way to safely place Peeps inside your body. The substance is appropriately called Peepsi. Although it is not currently listed with OSHA's hazardous materials Safety Data Sheets, we know that PepsiCo plans to offer it in 7.5-ounce cans dyed yellow, blue, and pink. The company's press release quotes its vice president of marketing:

"The PEEPS® Brand always finds great joy in teaming up with partners to bring our beloved Marshmallow flavor to fans in new and exciting ways, which is why we're thrilled to collaborate with PEPSI on this limited-edition PEPSI x PEEPS® beverage leading up to the Easter holiday," said PEEPS® Brand Manager Caitlin Servian. "We look forward to seeing how fans express their PEEPSONALITY® as part of the #HangingWithMyPEEPS sweepstakes and hope they enjoy this sweet new cola offering."

-via Nag on the Lake | Image: PepsiCo

Two ex-Navy Seal officers, named Joe Wolfel and Judson Kauffman, have decided to find a way to map the entire ocean, using the powers of modern technology and submarines. With 80% of the ocean remaining unmapped, Kauffman and Wolfel established Terradepth, an Austin-based data service company that has developed a new type of robotic submarine to autonomously map the ocean and its varied environments: 

“The Navy really doesn’t have charts or maps of very much of the seafloor at all,” Kauffman says. Even now, 80% of the ocean remains unmapped, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “That was the first time that either one of us understood the level of ignorance that exists around this subsea world, so that kind of planted a seed.”

Still, their scheme for hurdling that challenge wouldn’t germinate for another dozen years, after the pair parlayed their military experience into a business consultancy and began noting the burgeoning array of space exploration robotics.

“One day we looked at each other and said, ‘Why isn’t anybody taking this technology—autonomy, AI, and machine learning—and finding a way to map the ocean?’ ” Kauffman says. “There’s a whole lot of room for modern technology to come in and disrupt the world of ocean exploration and the industry of ocean surveys.”

Image via Fast Company