Venice is a lovely city in Italy that uses canals instead of roads, which draws tourists from all over the world. At one time it was a trading powerhouse and the center of international finance. But how did this unique city come about? The first inhabitants were refugees fleeing from barbarian attacks on the mainland, who ended up on a group of clay islands out in a lagoon. Why they stayed out there tells us something about the safety of the dark ages.
The residents of Venice figured out how to make those 126 muddy islands stable enough to build a city upon, how to connect the islands with each other, and how to furnish it with fresh water as the population grew. Then there's the sewage system. The engineering marvel that is Venice has stood for more than a thousand years. This video has a one-minute skippable ad at 3:50. -Thanks, Brother Bill!
The latest clicker game from Steam to take the gaming world by surprise is Banana. The name is simple, and so is the game. You click on a picture of a banana. That's it. But you click over and over and over until you start unlocking rewards and advancing to higher levels. You can win a new skin for your banana, trade skins with other players, and buy skins and other enhancements. That's typical of "clicker games" that arose more than ten years ago. Clicker games are very easy to play. You just keep clicking. You don't expect to have fun doing the game itself; that comes with the microtransactions when you unlock the rewards. Yes, some people find the transactions and trading to be fun. You can even automate the clicking, so the game advances while you are doing other stuff. It's estimated that most of the players are bots anyway.
The success of "Banana" is another example of how much our digital lives have been devoured by automation. It’s also the logical end point of video-game microtransactions. Is engagement with the game authentic or inauthentic? Who cares, so long as people are spending money.
The whole idea of clicker games started out as a joke, but now they are a bona fide thing, and companies are making money off them. Read about Banana and the rise of clicker games at Sherwood. -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Titus Tscharntke)
In the days before MRIs, antibiotics, or even germ theory, things regularly happened to human bodies that no one could explain. Even when they could be explained, there are cases that defy imagination and sent shivers down the spines of anyone who heard about them. Some cases worked themselves out, and at least one was a hoax, while others led to death or lifelong disability. As you hear about these very strange medical cases, you should think of how grateful you are that we live in the age of medical science that we do.
You know the cases of Phineas Gage and Mary Toft, which were so weird they had to be included. Dedicated Neatorama readers will also remember the exploding teeth. But that leaves us nine other bizarre tales from the history of medicine that might make you a bit nervous to think about in the latest video from Weird History.
When a "fact" gets repeated often enough, it becomes lore, and sometimes even an idiom. You've heard "blind as a bat" and "the wise owl" so many times it seems natural, but neither is true. Bats aren't blind. Sure, they use echolocation, but that's because they fly in the dark. It's hard to see in the dark no matter how good your eyesight is. Owls may look wise, and they are in many storybooks, but studies show they have more trouble learning a new task than other birds do.
Sometimes even the refutation of an old wive's tale can be inaccurate. The custom of bullfighters waving a red cape was once explained as their way of enraging the bull for a fight. That was later "debunked" by the "fact" that cattle are colorblind. The real story is that bulls can indeed see red, but they have trouble distinguishing blue from green. Whether red actually enrages them is another story. Okay, how many other often-repeated commonsense "facts" about animals can you think of? They may likely be pure myth. Mental Floss has a list of 64 misconceptions about 63* different animals they will happily debunk for you.
* The list says 64 different animals, but both cows and bulls are in there, and they are the same species.
New Zealand filmmaker Éowyn Aldridge filmed a simple, wordless scene of herself entering a room and drinking some water, but did it over and over again to illustrate the various filmmaking styles of ten different accomplished directors. I haven't seen enough Christopher Nolan movies to recognize his style, but as soon as we got the Kubrick stare, I was hooked. In the above video you'll see an interpretation of the work of Christopher Nolan, Stanley Kubrick, Edgar Wright, Quentin Tarantino, Denis Villeneuve, Wes Anderson, Terrence Malick, David Lynch, Taika Waititi, and Éowyn Aldridge. Then she did the same with ten more directors! The second video features the styles of Ari Aster, Alfred Hitchcock, Tim Burton, Paul Thomas Anderson, Greta Gerwig, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Jane Campion, Gullimero del Toro, Ridley Scott, and Martin Scorsese. You don't have to guess which is which, as they are all labeled.
I'm familiar with just enough of these directors to enjoy her interpretations. -via Laughing Squid
The Cold War was cold because the US and the Soviet Union both had nuclear weapons, and neither side wanted to use them. But competition was fierce in other arenas besides the battlefield, the most obvious being the Space Race and the Olympic games. Both were opportunities to to prove which political system was better, but the Olympics were where people from each nation actually got together. There have been quite a few defections from the USSR and communist Eastern Bloc countries during the Olympics, and the US covertly encouraged those as another point for the West in the one-upmanship battle.
The CIA sometimes involved US athletes in engaging Soviet athletes to discuss defecting during the Olympics. We might never know the extent of their efforts, but in 1960, javelin star Al Cantello was approached by a mysterious government agent about arranging the possible defection of Soviet long jumper Igor Ter-Ovanesyan. US sprinter Dave Sime had already been recruited by the CIA to help facilitate such a defection. Cantello, who died earlier this year, told his story decades after the fact, and you can read it at Smithsonian. -via Damn Interesting
The stereotype that other countries have of Americans is that we are all rich, fat, and armed. There are other things the rest of the world finds strange abut Americans, like how loud we speak, how we smile too much, and how we bare our teeth when we smile. British immigrant Laurence Brown looks at another American stereotype- our use of ice cubes. We feel the need to put them in our drinks at all times, even in winter. One reason is because it is much hotter in the US than it ever is in Britain, where it rains a lot and they don't even put screens in their windows because it's too cool for mosquitos. But that isn't the whole story.
The American obsession with ice has to do with our history, from back when ice was one of our biggest exports. It's one of the peculiarities of having a nation that is so big that it covers several climates, and since there was a lot of money to be made, we got used to having ice all the time. But we also need refrigerators and freezers because it's a long way to the supermarket, and we don't want to go there every day. Yes, Laurence gives us a concise history of ice in America in his latest video. There's a 50-second skippable ad at two minutes in.
I'm not a killer pinball player, but I am a fan, which is why I always stop by the Stern pinball room at SDCC. This year, I was actually treated to a special press presentation of the John Wick machine and I am so glad I got to play this game. As you can see above, John Wick himself had the chance to play the game at the con, but sadly I missed that opportunity.
There's so much to love on these machines if you're a fan of John Wick. His dogs serve as slingshots, enemies are on the ramps, the New York Continental Hotel is right there in the center, his weapons crate pops open during play —and his gorgeous car even moves! The gameplay is fast and entertaining —you'd hardly expect anything with John Wick to drag on, would you?
Perhaps one of the coolest features of this and other modern Stern games though is that you can actually play levels, save your progress, and update worldwide leader boards when you register an account and scan your QR code. Yes, getting one of these pinball machines for your home is a little pricey, being as how they start at $6,900 (about average for a machine of this quality), but the Stern Pinball account means you don't have to fork out the money to bring the game home just to be able to master it.
My verdict: if you like John Wick and you like pinball, find an arcade with this game ASAP.
Heritage Auctions held a two-day auction of Hollywood memorabilia last week and sold that bikini from Return of the Jedi for $175,000. And it wasn't even the costume that was in the final film! This one is authentic from the production, but it was only used for screen tests.
Why did it Princess Leia's bikini fetch such a high price? Because that costume was such a memorable part of the movie series. After two Star Wars films, audiences were shocked at seeing the beloved princess showing so much skin while she was being held in slavery by Jabba the Hut. It was titillating, but also illustrated her humiliation. Viewers were either excited or else scandalized by the costume in a story that was so appealing to children. Actress Carrie Fisher was among those. She didn't feel good about being nearly naked, and counseled Daisy Ridley not to give in if the producers wanted her to wear something she wasn't comfortable with in the sequel series. The upshot is that Star Wars fans have been talking about the bikini for 41 years now. Read more about the impact this costume made at Smithsonian. -via Mental Floss
(Image credit: Michael Barera)
A filmmaker's vision for a movie, the script, the resulting footage, and the finished product are often four very different stories. At any stage of the process, the team may decide that they need to go in a completely different direction.
John Hughes wrote the screenplay for the 1986 movie Ferris Beuller's Day Off in less than a week, and shot the film to follow that first draft. Once the scenes were assembled, the first cut was two hours and 45 minutes long! Even worse, test audiences didn't like it. Enter legendary editor Paul Hirsch to save the movie by re-editing the footage that had been shot. Not only did he shorten it, but most importantly, he rearranged all the sequences. When you see what order they were in originally, you'll see how this made a vast improvement in the pacing and the audience's emotional involvement. CinemaStix fills us in on how that happened to Ferris Beuller's Day Off forty years ago. -via The Awesomer
Let's see how ArtButMakeItSports (previously at Neatorama) is finding the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. We've already seen some wonderful photos, magic moments captured from the athletic competitions, but is it art? It sure is! Let's see US gymnast Frederick Richard on the parallel bars.
Closed by Sorcery, by Luis Felipe Noe, 1963, 📸 by @Dan_Mullan pic.twitter.com/aPudLCtpQA
— ArtButMakeItSports (@ArtButSports) July 31, 2024
The guy who runs the artbutmakeitsports social media accounts does not use AI to find the artworks that match the photographs. It's all from memory, which fuels speculation that he must be an art history professor or possibly a museum curator. Continue reading to see more of his Olympic/art comparisons.
We have already often heard that living sedentary lives have caused us so many health problems that if we continue to sit for extended periods of time every day, we might just find ourselves slowly killing ourselves.
Dr. James Levine, co-director of the Mayo Clinic and the Arizona State University Obesity Initiative, even stated how sitting has become more sinister than smoking, HIV, or even parachuting. He exaggerates but the point he was trying to make is that we need to spend more time expending energy on non-exercise activities, which are those light, physical activities that can help our bodies get moving while at work.
Standing up, walking around, and doing house chores are some of the activities in which we can engage so that we don't spend most of our days just sitting on a chair.
A few suggestions for workstations include the treadmill desk, allowing employees to exercise and work at the same time. Granted, it's an expensive investment at $4,000 for burning a few calories daily, so it may not be the most practical solution. A cheaper alternative would be the standing desks which is slightly better than sitting.
In a research conducted by researchers from the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at Texas A&M university, they looked at different workstations — height-adjustable workstations, sit-stand workstations, fixed stand-based workstations, and traditional desks — and how they affect work performance, physical activity, and discomfort.
From the study, they found no significant different in productivity, no differences in energy expenditure, step count, or step time per day, and 65% of all participants reporting neck discomfort with 80% of those using traditional desks reporting lower back pain.
Despite the results showing no significant differences, researchers continue to believe the further studies on standing desks can lead to potential benefits.
At the end of the day, one thing is certain. We need to keep our bodies physically active to stay healthy. It's more than just simply changing the type of furniture that we use at work. It's a lifestyle and a paradigm shift that we need to consciously put in effort to get benefits and see future results. - via Real Clear Science
(Image credit: Studio Republic/Unsplash)
We can only push the human body to a certain extent until it can no longer surpass the physical limits of what human bodies can do. Olympics athletes have trained all their lives to surpass those limits and that's why we see many records being broken by Olympics athletes. But there maybe certain fields which not even the most dedicated and hardest-training athletes can surpass.
For example, the record for the hammer throw has not been beaten since 1986. And the reason for this may lie in muscles and the limitations thereof. Just as it becomes more difficult to further reduce body fat once you have reached a certain percentage, unless you continue grinding and squeezing every last inch, there comes a point as well when muscles will hit a ceiling.
Although there is much benefit to growing one's muscles, especially when training for a sport, bigger muscles generally will provide extra force, that needed 'oomph', that would boost an individual's performance. However, if the muscles grow a bit too big, they can also become an anchor that hinders performance after reaching a certain point. It's the law of diminishing returns, and after the peak has been reached, one's performance will either plateau or start to regress.
Apart from muscle size, there's also the factor of muscle fiber. Two types of muscle fibers do two different things. The first is the fast-twitch muscle fiber which allows for explosive bursts of movement due to its ample stashes of energy, and the second is the slow-twitch muscle fiber which allows for high-endurance activities like marathons.
Training which muscle fiber depends on at which sport one wants to excel. The problem is we cannot have the best of both worlds, unless we bioengineer or genetically alter a person's physical or physiological composition. But it doesn't seem like anyone has developed the Captain America serum just yet. In any case, these are some of the physical limitations that impede athletes from breaking certain records.
That being said, experts say that there are other ways that athletes can continue breaking records. The first is through the advancement of equipment, gear, and attire. As materials science continues to progress, we are able to produce footwear, swimwear, and other attire and gear that augment a person's physical performance.
For example, the 2008 Olympics saw 25 world records broken with the help of polyurethane-coated swimsuits. Such groundbreaking feats pushed the committee to ban the use of those swimsuits. Later on, special shoes fitted with carbon-plated insoles were designed to help runners run faster. Although these shoes have not been banned by the track-and-field regulatory body, they require that the foam base not be higher than 1.6 inches.
Another means of further breaking records is through the development of new techniques. One such example is the Fosbury flop which helped Dwight Stones break the high-jump record at the time. So, we may continue to see further records be broken as, although humans have physical limitations, there are ways in which those can be circumvented. This can even be further improved with the help of science and data, so that athletes can tailor their training regimen, diet, and other habits to the achievement of those goals. - via Real Clear Science
(Image credit: Jacob Rice/Unsplash)
As a fresh college graduate, the main goal is to find a stable job to earn money so that you can move out of your parents' house and live independently. Although it would be nice to continue living under one's parents' roof, it comes with certain responsibilities which some people may prefer to live without.
For young adults, there is a tendency to want to forge their own path and detach themselves from their parents, which would allow them enough leeway to make their own decisions in life and pursue whichever career they want or whatever interests they may have. Such a thing is quite uncommon in Asian households.
Generally, Asian children tend to tread the path their parents have suggested, or sometimes, expected of them. However, times are changing. Children and teenagers are now seeing opportunities outside the conventional path that older generations see as the road to success in life.
Nowadays, we have young creators making their own content and monetizing it. We have artists who post their art online, build a community around it, and later, sell merchandise plastered with their art on them. There are now many avenues toward the kind of success for which those of the older generation strived.
However, the most difficult part in all of this is starting on that path. Since there are still many parents who would not approve of that kind of life and career trajectory, they might kick their children out of the house to teach them a lesson. That leaves the young people on their own to fend for themselves, and although that can provide invaluable life experience, it's quite a risky venture and subject to factors outside of one's control.
That's where places like content houses give burgeoning creators the space they need to grow and pursue their dreams. In Japan, something similar is giving new manga artists the chance to focus on their work without having to worry about paying rent and utilities.
Free-rent apartment models have existed in Japan for quite some time with the first ones being the Tokiwa-so Apartments, which were established in the 1950s and continued well into the 80s, and produced manga legends like Osamu Tezuka of Astro Boy fame and Doraemon creator Fujiko Fujio. These apartments were subsidized to support artists pursuing a career creating manga but have yet to establish themselves in the scene.
In that same vein, especially with increasing interest in Japanese culture, particularly anime and manga, not just within Japan but also throughout the world, companies are taking advantage of this surge to push for more content.
So, through the collaboration of Japanese tech firm Cyber Agent and publisher Shueisha, the Manga Apartment VUY was given birth. These apartments will be able to house 20 to 30 manga artists starting next year, providing free rent and utilities as well as amenities conducive to bringing out the ideas and talents of fledgling manga artists.
Those who will be accepted into the apartments will stay at least one year, depending on whether their works get serialized, in which case they may extend their stay at the apartment. Furthermore, the apartments include a community lounge and library, as well as access to Shihei Rin, editor of Chainsaw Man and Spy x Family, who instigated the initiative, and will provide crucial advice and mentorship to the new artists.
Other partners for this initiative include No.9 Inc., who will help with editing and art direction. VUY is not the only apartment launched for this purpose. Last year, Manga-so also built eight apartments for artists who will create webtoons, an online version of manga, in a long strip format, designed to be swiped vertically on one's phone.
Hopefully, with these initiatives, we can expect more amazing stories and artwork coming out from creators in Japan.
(Image credit: Manga Apartment VUY/X)
Sometimes science just happens when you're not prepared for it. Researchers Delphine Farmer and Mj Riches were in the woods of Colorado studying the leaf-level photosynthesis of Ponderosa pines in 2020. Or as we non-scientists would call it, pine needle-level photosynthesis. The pores in a tree's leaves (or needles) take in carbon dioxide and emit oxygen and other materials. But there was smoke from wildfires in the area, and they found that the trees' pores had essentially shut down and were not doing their usual life-sustaining actions. The trees had detected the smoke.
This defense mechanism led the two scientists to look into the effects of wildfire smoke and other pollutants on a tree's health. There's not much a tree can do to defend itself from fire, but they can reject poor quality air -at least for a short time. Read about how trees breathe, until they refuse to, at the Conversation.
(Image credit: Matt Lavin)
