Florian Ulrich Jehn is a scholar who examines ways that humanity could mitigate starvation risks in the event of existential crises, such as nuclear war. He and colleagues have published a peer-reviewed report which considers the possibility of the mass cultivation of seaweed in the aftermath of a nuclear war.

Such an event and any ensuing nuclear winter could devastate terrestrial food production due to reduced sunlight. But tropical oceans are likely to remain environmentally sound. The authors conclude that it might be possible to produce sufficient quantities of Gracilaria tikvahiae in quantities equal to 45% of global human food needs.

-via Marginal Revolution | Still shot from Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove

It's 2024. I doubt that I'm the only person to look into this new year with some trepidation for the future. There is a zeitgeist suggesting, to borrow from the words of Yeats a century ago, that some rough beast, its hour come at last, is slouching toward us.

Our greatest minds, seeking to pierce the separation between machine and man, have created artificial intelligences. These AIs are to be our servants for now. And to what purpose do we set these minds? To decode a necronomicon that was lost with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD and the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum in a blood-dimmed tide.

There, a collection of papyrus scolls were seared into unintelligibility. Humanity was preserved from the Cthulic knowledge within until human scientists used artificial intelligences (or possibly the reverse) to reveal them. The Guardian reports that a cabal of researchers led by Youssef Nader, Luke Farritor, and Ulian Schilinger have won a $1 million prize called the Vesuvius Challenge to anyone who could discern the strange writings on the scrolls.

Surely some revelation is at hand.

-via Abraham Ash | Image: Vesuvius Challenge

Assuming that the future history of humanity is not accurately depicted in Idiocracy, it's possible that large numbers of humans will eventually settle the solar system. These human communities will be isolated from each other and the languages that they use will change. What sort of accents might they develop?

Live Science investigated the scientific literature on accents developed in isolation. This includes a study of 11 researchers who spent the winter together in Antarctica and isolated from the rest of humanity. These people began developing a unified phonetic pattern in just a few months.

It is likely that the initial wave of colonists would establish an accent that later colonists would adopt. This is why the dominant Australian accent resembles the Cockney accent of the initial European colonists of that island.

Thus it will be essential that terran leadership ensure that the first colonists speak Valley Girl with a sharp vocal fry.

-via Dave Barry | Image: NASA

Jonathon Keats is an experimental philosopher, conceptual artist, and self-described fabulist at the University of Arizona. He's working on a novel approach to photography.

If you've studied the early history of that field, you might know that early daguerreotypes had very long exposure times, often a minute or more. One of the priorities of early photographic experimentation was to get that shutter speed down. But Keats is moving in the opposite direction. Smithsonian reports that his camera, which is already looking over a scenic landscape, will take a full thousand years to complete the exposure.

Appropriately, Keats selected to photograph Tumamoc Hill, which is the site of petroglyphs that may be 3,000 years old. It is a place with a long memory into human history. Keats hopes that his project, which he calls the Millennium Camera, will be able to complete its work far into our future.

-via Nag on the Lake | Photo: University of Arizona Communications

At the Journal of the American Revolution, Todd W. Braisted tells the story of Carl Tournier, sometimes known as Charles Turner, a soldier who served on a variety of sides during the American War for Independence.

Private Carl Tournier was a subject of the Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel who was recruited by the British to fight against the American rebels. He was among the soldiers that Americans commonly refer to as “Hessians”.

Tournier’s regiment arrived in Canada in 1776 and was captured by American forces in 1777 during Burgoyne’s ill-fated expedition that ended as Saratoga. The captive Tournier was taken to Massachusetts, where he enlisted with the Continental Army (the Americans) in 1778. He was stationed at West Point and, the next year, deserted to nearby British forces, to whom he provided detailed information about the defenses of West Point.

Next, Tournier was volunteered to serve in the British army unit consisting of fellow Germans that answered to American Loyalist forces. After various campaigns in the United States, his unit retreated to Canada and Tournier vanished from the pages of history.

Tournier's story is simlar to that of Yang Kyoungjong, a Korean who served in the armies of the Japanese Empire, the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany and the Stonewall, a ship that served with the navies of six different nations.

Image: Drawing of a Brunswick soldier from the New York Public Library

Fonts hanging out pic.twitter.com/rXUzNNlQp7

— Elle Cordova (@ellerhymes) January 23, 2024

Elle Cordova is a professional musician turned comedian with a flair for intellectual humor. In a recent series of videos, she personifies different fonts. Or are they typefaces? It's hard to tell.Anyway, she perfectly embodies the personality nuances of these fonts.

Men sort themselves within status hierarchies. Some people might assume that men at the top of these hierarchies are more likely to have more sexual partners. Although this assumption might be true for other fields, heavy metal guitar playing is not one of them.

A psychological study published in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences found that male metal guitarists who spent more time practicing generally had a greater desire for casual sex than those who spent less time practicing. But, PsyPost reports they were not more successful than lower-skilled players at achieving those sexual goals. The researchers hope to expand the study in the future to include professional heavy metal guitarists.

-via Marginal Revolution | Photo: Rob Faulkner

Several Hop Shop brand gas stations in northern Kentucky have restrooms with mysterious buttons inside. A sign warns visitors not to push the button. But if the visitor gives into temptation and pushes the button, the restroom turns into a disco, complete with a mirror ball and music.

A marketing manager with the company that owns the chain came up with the idea and scrounged up the resources necessary to turn his vision into a reality. Now people drive to these Hop Shop locations for the sole purpose of visiting the restroom. The usually buy something on the way out.

-via Dave Barry

Last January, I noticed something peculiar in my 2yo’s bedroom that - after a year of obsessive reporting - led me to a profound cosmic revelation about what’s even possible in our universe. A 🧵. pic.twitter.com/pHFStIdawh

— Latif Nasser (@latifnasser) January 26, 2024

Latif Nasser is a writer, radio show host, and dad. His child has a poster illustrating the solar system. Nasser noticed something odd about it: the illustration suggested that Venus has a moon named Zoozve.

This was news to Nasser, who didn't know that Venus has moons. NASA asserts that Venus has no moons and a web search for Zoozve returned no results in English. One of his friends, who works for NASA, insists that Venus has no moons. So Nasser contacted the illustrator, who says that he saw the moon on a list.

Nasser kept investigating. It turns out that a small asteroid (approximately the size of 160 Chester A. Arthurs) is in the vicinity of Venus. It's called 2002-VE, which the illustrator misread as Zoozve.

But Zoozve (let's keep using this name) is not, strictly speaking, a moon. It is a extremely rare object called a quasi-moon. Zoozve orbits both Venus and the Sun at the same time.

-via Virginia Postrel

The 'Dune 2' popcorn bucket is being seen very differently than how WB probably intended it to be interpreted.

See more ⬇️ https://t.co/R3aK5QHM4U

— TMZ (@TMZ) January 27, 2024

We live in the Age of Dune. The magnificent (yes, I'll stand by that description) David Lynch film from 1984 is returning to theaters. You can buy the beautifully presented miniseries from 2000 on DVD. Denis Villeneuve's second film in his treatment of the timeless story is coming to theaters in March.

Warner Bros. is, of course, heavily promoting the new film and offering promotional items. They include, TMZ reports, this popcorn bucket. I immediately recognized it as Shai-Hulud, known to offworlders as sandworms. But other people see a particular part of the human anatomy serving in place of the Maker's mouth.

-via Super Punch

Gustav Klimt portrait found after almost 100 yearshttps://t.co/SBjlxqPovF

— Debby Witt (@debbywitt) January 26, 2024

Gustav Klimt died in 1918, but his works still captivate the popular imagination. This Symbolist painter from the Vienna retains an iconic status among art lovers today due to his vibrant use of bright colors, even the use of gold leaf, as well as his subtle eroticism.

Klimt was in high demand as a portrait painter, and his Portrait of Fraulein Lieser, painted in the final year of his life during World War I, belonged to a Jewish family in Vienna when it was exhibited in 1925. In the ensuing decades its location became a mystery.

BBC News reports that its current owners have possessed it since the 1960s. Now that they are putting it up for auction, people in Germany, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and Britain will be able to view it before it is sold.

Until a few days ago, the streets of Provo, Utah, were safe at night due to the work of the mysterious hero known as the Fish Bandit. This modern-day Robin Hood filled a desperate need in the city by taping fish to ATMs across the town, then publishing photos of his deeds on social media. No greedy bank was safe from his vigilantism.

Alas, the gallantry of the Fish Bandit has come to an end. ABC News 4 reports that Provo police have identified the teenage boy (of course) responsible for the fish tapings and pressed property damage charges against him.

-via Dave Barry

Michelle Frankl, an American and a chemistry professor at Bryn Mawr, instigated a furor in Britain with the publication of her book Steeped: The Chemistry of Tea. In it, she cast aside centuries of wisdom from the foggy isle and, The Hill reports, argues that people should drink their tea with salt.

The British took offense at this heretical attack upon their national drink. It was up to the United States Embassy in London to smooth over the tensions with this prudent concession to British sensibilities:

An important statement on the latest tea controversy. 🇺🇸🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/HZFfSCl9sD

— U.S. Embassy London (@USAinUK) January 24, 2024

-via Aelfred the Great | Image: bryan

John Baylies is a sousaphone player. The sousaphone has been around since 1893, but Baylies is famous for playing a far more advanced version called the SousaFX. This electronic accessory lets him control audio effects that give his instrument abilities that you'd never expect to hear in a classical orchestra, such as stutter and tremolo. What you see him manipulating with his left hand is actually a PlayStation 4 controller.

Baylies performs with Sousastep, an improvisational group based in Boston. You can listen to their work on SoundCloud.

The pulsating LED lights are a nice accent and Baylies has helpfully provided instructions on how to install them.

-via Massimo

Some are born great, some acheive greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. But Macie Davis-Southerland has greatness growing upon her.

Specifically, it's growing on her left arm.

In 2012, while in high school, Davis-Southerland discovered that one particular hair on her arm was longer than the others. She developed a plan: she would grow this hair until it secured for her a Guinness World Record.

Over the years, the hair sometimes fell out or was pulled out. But Davis-Southerland strove for victory and regrew it. Now she has secured the Guinness World Record for the longest arm hair on a woman. The hair measures 7.24 inches long.