Just Plain WEIRD #2
By Jesse Childs – The outlandish ideas of one era can eventually become predictions that come true at a later date. Something that was seen as unfathomable, implausible, or even ludicrous at one point can end up as a part of everyday life over the years. Inventors, scientists, and …
By Leah Asmelash, CNN – Updated 2020 May 19 – King Penguins on the island of South Georgia in St Andrews Bay. – Laughing gas isn’t just something they give you at the dentist. It also comes out of penguin poop. How do …
By Geoffrey Brooks 2020 May 10 – Here is presented the widely dismissed account that probably sometime in the mid-11th century, Danish Vikings from Schleswig and the Danelaw (as ascertained from runic rock inscriptions) arrived at Santos in Brazil and proceeded inland to …
By Nick Lavars 2020 May 07 – The Cape honey bee has an ability to reproduce daughters asexually, and scientists have now pinpointed the gene that makes this possible. Binty/Depositphotos. – Scientists investigating the genetics underlying a peculiar behavior in South Africa’s Cape honey …
Antibodies from Winter, a 4-year-old llama with great eyelashes, have neutralized coronavirus and other infections in lab experiments. Winter, center, a llama on a farm run by Ghent University in Belgium. Credit: Tim Coppens – By Jillian Kramer 2020 May 06 – Leer …
Map-makers insert fake towns or trap-streets to catch out plagiarists, but Agloe, in New York state, took on a strange life of its own. By David Bramwell 2020 May 03 – The non-existent town of Agloe, NY, came into existence when an entrepreneur …
By Rich Haridy 2020 Apr 23 – Boston Dynamics suggests this technology could be applied to a number of other more common wheeled robots. Boston Dynamics. – For years we have witnessed Boston Dynamics develop increasingly sophisticated robots, and while they are undoubtedly impressive …
It originated in India, and came to dominate Western interiors and fashion. Joobin Bekhrad traces the fascinating – and turbulent – history of all things ‘chintzy’. By Joobin Bekhrad 2020 Apr 21 – In a letter to her sister penned in 1851, the …
By Nathan Gibson Updated 2019 Jun 14 – Typos (generally, errors in spelling of a printed word) have been a part of human history ever since people began to read and write. While they mostly effect publishing companies rather than individuals, anyone who …
Fears around the pandemic are causing sleep patterns to change and strange dreams to linger in people’s memories. An ongoing study by the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center has found a 35 percent increase in dream recall and a 15 percent increase in negative …
