Smoking is never a healthy hobby. I wouldn’t recommend it, and doctors definitely don’t, either. But in the days of World War II, Army aviator Lieutenant James Alter recalls, in his 2011 book titled From Campus to Combat, that “nearly everyone smoked.”

… considering the kind of work we were doing, no one would have been too worried about lung cancer even if we had known about it. What we did know was that Chesterfields satisfied; we’d walk a mile for a Camel; and just like us, Lucky Strike Green had gone to war.”

America supplied cigarettes to military men in stunning numbers during World War II. Philip Morris and other U.S. tobacco suppliers reported rolling and selling 290 billion smokes in 1943. In order to relieve boredom and improve the morale of fighting men, cigarettes came standard inside K-ration boxes along with candy and gum. If young soldiers and sailors wanted more, cigarettes were just 50 cents a carton or a nickel a pack. As a result, tobacco consumption skyrocketed during the war.

In those days, smoking was a popular activity among people, and they smoked even in places that they’re not supposed to, such as inside fighter planes.

It was a clear fire hazard. After all, a warplane was a flimsy aluminum shell wrapped around a conglomeration of stuff that naturally wanted to burn or explode—fuel, hydraulic fluid, oil, oxygen, weaponry. Adding a lit cigarette to that mix was perilous.

But at a time where the odds of getting killed instantly in a dogfight were much higher, smoking, which took decades to take effect, was an insignificant risk.

More about this story over at Air and Space Magazine.

(Image Credit: LOC via Air and Space Magazine)

In 1712, a man built the first successful steam engine, and his invention took the mining world by storm. Unlike other inventors, he was the first one to build a working steam engine that built upon (and improved) the principles and designs of those before him. For 60 years, his invention would prove to be the best technology out there, until another man came and built another steam engine in 1772. This other man, much like his predecessor, would improve upon the invention of the first man, and create a more superior steam engine.

The two men in the story were Thomas Newcomen and James Watt, and the two engines were the Newcomen engine, and the Watt engine, respectively. The two of them did not meet, nor are they biologically related. But one, in a way, begat the other.

Learn more about the story of the Newcomen and the Watt engine over at Cosmos Magazine.

(Image Credit: Newton Henry Black, Harvey Nathaniel Davis/ Wikimedia Commons)

Humans and primates share a lot in common when it comes to genome organization. It is said that humans and chimps share 98.8 percent of their DNA. But aside from primates, which animal comes closest to humans in terms of genome organization? You might be surprised that one of the closest would be cats. Not dogs. Not mice. Cats.

Dogs and mice, by contrast, have chromosomes that have been reshuffled over their respective evolutionary histories, making them more complicated to use as genetic analogues for our species.

Cats’ genomic similarity makes them more straightforward models for studying human diseases. It could also [help] scientists understand the genetic dark matter of our genomes—that is, non-coding DNA that doesn’t provide instructions for making proteins yet still comprises some 95 percent of the human genome.

Despite this similarity in genome organization, cat genetics specialist Leslie Lyons remarks that “cats are often underappreciated by the scientific community.”

"As we discover that perhaps animals have more similar spacing between genes and the genes are in the same order, maybe that will help us to decipher what's going on with humans," Lyons says in a statement. "Working with a primate is on the expensive side, but a cat's affordability and docile nature make them one of the most feasible animals to work with to understand the human genome."

In light of this,...

Lyons and her collaborators have… published the most detailed cat genome ever sequenced, reports James Gorman for the New York Times. This new genome is even more detailed than the most exhaustively sequenced dog genome.

Surprising.

(Image Credit: cocoparisienne/ Pixabay)

Did you know that nearly 95 percent of animal species are smaller than a person’s thumb? It is pretty surprising that despite this fact, the usual animals that we see displayed in museums are those of vertebrates like monkeys, lions, and birds. Fortunately for us, there is the Micrarium inside The Grant Museum of Zoology at University College London.

There are over two thousand slides on display in the Micrarium, lining the walls from floor to ceiling and lit from behind, allowing visitors to see details like the leg muscles of fleas and cross section of a fly.

Of course, showcasing only the invertebrates would not represent the diversity of the animal kingdom, and so the Micrarium also displays the large animals such as mammoths and squids. But, similar to the tiny animals, the place presents these vertebrates in microscope slides.

Though two thousand is a lot of slides, thanks to their size, the entire collection fits snugly inside a walkable closet-like thing that previously functioned as a storeroom. The ceiling is mirrored which gives the impression that the collection continues to infinity.

In his 2013 tweet announcing the opening of the Micrarium, Jack Ashby, Manager of the Grant Museum of Zoology, states that the Micrarium wasn’t built “for visitors to get specific insights into individual specimens or species.” Rather, it was built “to appreciate the sheer vastness of invertebrate diversity.”

Now that’s a place worth visiting at least once in your lifetime.

(Image Credit: Kate McNab)

The picture above shows a Japanese delegation who visited America in 1860 to confirm a treaty with the United States. Sadly, we do not have a photograph of the delegation who visited Danville, Pennsylvania, on July 4 of that year. That group consisted of completely different people.

On Independence Day of 1860, one of the most notable events in the history of Montour County took place-- a visit from Japanese royalty! Why Japanese royalty should want to pay a visit to the sleepy seat of Pennsylvania's smallest county never exactly crossed the minds of the excited local residents, and perhaps that is how one of the greatest and most elaborate hoaxes in Pennsylvania history came to fruition.

The story of the great Japanese Embassy hoax might have remained forgotten in the dustbin of history had it not been for a New Yorker-- and former Danville resident named W.A.M. Grier-- who came across letters and documents pertaining to the "royal visit" while cleaning out his Brooklyn home decades later. In 1910, the Danville Morning News published Grier's account of the outrageous hoax for the benefit of those who had never heard about it. Apparently, most of the older residents had either forgotten about it, or were simply too embarrassed to admit that it had ever happened.

Apparently, a group of the town's movers and shakers thought it would be fun to impersonate the Japanese delegation. The arrival of the "ambassadors" and their entourage meant a huge crowd at the train station, a parade, and an address to the townspeople through an interpreter at the courthouse square. Read how they did it and how well they pulled it off at Pennsylvania Oddities. -via Strange Company

How can we solve our current environmental problems? Aside from considering the practices of big time companies, the best chance we have at starting change is from our own homes. To reverse the existential threat, a recent report by the intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services (IPBES) recommended that we listen to Indigenous people and learn from the local community. Also, we could learn their relationship with the natural world, and get some ideas on how to solve or prevent major environmental disasters.

In relation to these recommendations raised by the IPBES, the Conversation’s Siobhan Maderson shared the lessons she learned from beekeepers, who are very in tune with their environment and would do their part in making sure the bees thrive in their environment. Check the full piece here!

Image credit: wikimedia commons 

The map in the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is massive. Because it is designed as an open world game, it has to hold vast landscapes for the player to explore. But how would Hyrule look outside the game’s engine? Well, one Minecraft player has decided to test whether they could rebuild the entire map from Nintendo’s modern classic as a playable Minecraft survival map: 

Creator Dinaeh has been posting progress shots on Reddit, and the overall topography of the map is looking very close to the original. The project is being built with the WorldPainter tool at 1:2 scale, and Dineah intends to work with other creators to build shrines and ruins to populate the map. And yes, a playable version is intended to be released – eventually.

Dineah has posted some detailed shots of both the Gerudo Highlands and Hebra Mountains, and the latter in particular is instantly recognisable. That little grassy clearing ahead of the monstrous, snowy climb toward the encounter with Naydra created a big impression in Breath of the Wild, and it looks just as cool here, as you can see in the image above.

Image via PCGamesN 

In a surprising and touching turn of events, a woman has managed to convince a bankrupt zoo to give her a bear cub! Veronika Dichka lives in Novosibirsk, Siberia, with her pet bear named Archie. Dichka adopted Archie when he was just a cub after she learned that the bear would have no place to stay after the local zoo in North Siberia closed down: 

Veronika said of her incredible relationship with the bear Archie in an Instagram post: "Archie sees me as a member of his family. We share food, he sleeps in my arms and when he's afraid and hides behind me. We rescued him from the bankrupt zoo but we cannot release him into the wild because he has lived in captivity all his life. Archie spends every day with us and is madly in love with the water. He really likes it when I take him to new places, so this session where we went fishing together was a real pleasure for him! "

image: fishing_veronika/Instagram

They almost blend into the paintings! Photographer Stefan Draschan’s ongoing project, titled People Matching Artworks, features museum visitors who accidentally match with the paintings displayed. It could be someone’s hair, jacket, hat, or dress-- once they step and admire a certain artwork that sort of coordinates with their outfit, it’s a snap! My Modern Met has more details: 

People Matching Artworks is the epitome of patience. Though some of these pictures look staged, they are rather the result of Draschan staking a spot in a museum and waiting for the right person to stroll by. It’s a secretive take on museum doppelgängers—a lighthearted activity in which people are actively posing with an artwork that resembles them. Draschan’s project, in contrast, depicts the quiet beauty of looking, and it emphasizes how the act of getting dressed is an opportunity to be your own work of art.

Draschan chronicles his series on Tumblr and Instagram, where he also reveals where the museums that he visits. So, if you’re local to institutions in Paris, Vienna, or Berlin, be on the lookout for Draschan and his camera!

Image credit: Stefan Draschan 

Red. It’s the color red. Stanley Kubrick utilizes specific color palettes in all of his color films. From 2001: A Space Odyssey to Eyes Wide Shut, he uses different colors to show various states of being. For his horror film The Shining, Kubrick seems to have picked the color red-- as it was more than prominent throughout the film. The color becomes the harbinger of doom, as Looper details: 

[...]As utilized by Kubrick in "The Shining," red becomes a harbinger of impending doom permeating every almost corner of the cursed Overlook as if blood itself were seeping through the haunted structure's every crevice.

The culmination of that dramatic color palette is depicted in one of the film's most iconic scenes, when blood literally spills through the bright red doors of an elevator. As unforgettable as that scene is, the color is far more integral from a narrative standpoint in "The Shining" in the men's room of the hotel bar, where the walls are painted a vibrant red. That is, after all, where many believe Jack fully gives over to the blood-lusting spirits within the hotel and possibly those already within himself.

The next time you're sitting down to endure another blood-curdling screening of "The Shining," see how much red you can spot before, ya know, the red stuff really starts to flow.

image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

How does juggling work in space? The main thing you have to remember is that a ball thrown in the absence of gravity will not fall- it just goes in a straight line until something stops it. Physicist Adam Dipert is the Space Juggler. He explains how the idea came about.



See more space juggling in this YouTube playlist. -via Metafilter

In 2015, a floating bridge made from cardboard suddenly appeared above the houses in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, France. The said bridge was held by giant helium balloons, and was created with the help of local residents. The residents then helped in demolishing the floating bridge afterwards.

In 2017, another cardboard structure appeared, this time in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland. This time, the structure was not a bridge, but rather a leaning tower. Hundreds of people came to take a photo of the spectacular view.

These installations, called “monumental constructions”, were planned and directed by French artist Olivier Grossetête. Grossetête is able to build these “unusual, ephemeral and useless” structures in various places across the world with the help of local communities, who aid in both construction and demolition of the works.

Check out photos of Grossetête's wonderful installations over at DesignBoom.

(Image Credit: Olivier Grossetête/ DesignBoom)

(Image Credit: Yverdon/ DesignBoom)

Zooming in on beach sand is a colorful adventure. Thanks to coral debris and shells, beach sand is given vibrant colors, unlike dull industrial sand, which is mainly composed of quartz. But coral debris and shells are not the only things you can find in beach sand; you may also find microplastic embedded in it, when you view it under a microscope. This is what photographer Ole Bielfeldt, who goes by the name Macrofying in social media, found out.

The image above shows us the objects that give beach sand its many colors.

(Images Credit: Macrofying/ Colossal)

It was finally time for Nick Elliot and his wife to bring home their newborn daughter, Macie. This meant that Tommy the Doberman would finally meet his little sister. But how would he react upon seeing the baby girl? Nick and his wife hoped that Tommy would be very loving to the new member of the family, just as he was to them.

“We have had him around family and friends, toddlers and children in the past, and his whole character changes. He gets down to their level and just lies with them, letting them stroke him,” Elliott told The Dodo. “He is so gentle and careful — it must be a natural instinct.”

And when that moment came, Elliot was delighted as things went exactly as he hoped. Tommy loved Macie.

“[We] both greeted Tommy and got him settled before bringing Macie in," Elliott said. "We let him smell her worn clothes and told him ‘gentle’ ... we brought Macie in, and he was naturally really inquisitive and gentle.”

“It was like he instantly accepted her, as he always wanted to be close, but never touched her,” he added.

But Tommy did not just want to be close with Macie. He also wanted to take care of him, and he had that opportunity one day when Macie cried for a bottle of milk.

Find out what happened over at The Dodo.

(Image Credit: Nick Elliot/ The Dodo)

Tom McKay was not pleased when he found out that his $36-dollar camera, which he bought from Amazon, did not have the capability to balance the exposure level properly. As his desk faces the window, his face gets lit up like that of Edward Cullen’s (from Twilight). McKay then tried to fix this using the features present in Windows, but it still wasn’t enough. His face still looks rather unsettling.

That left me to find workarounds to manually adjust the camera feed. Most webcam software costs money, but I happened to have a free and open-source counterpart called Open Broadcaster Software Studio (OBS Studio) installed. I have to open up OBS Studio every time I want to use the webcam, but from there, it’s a few clicks to fix the exposure settings and come up with a significantly less creepy Zoom Meeting Tom than the above. OBS Studio takes the feed directly from the camera and outputs it to a virtual webcam, which can then be chosen as the video source in any videoconferencing software. Exasperating, but this is what I get for going cheap on a webcam.

But something strange started happening when he used the virtual webcam feature of OBS. His laptop would suddenly record him at random times.

… in early June I was very alarmed to discover 442 gigabytes of footage of me sitting at my computer, as well as other clips of my cats and partner wandering around, had piled up in F:/Recordings.

What was the reason behind this mystery? It turns out it was the default keyboard shortcuts in OBS.

More about this story over at Gizmodo.

(Image Credit: Tom McKay/ Gizmodo)