Don Pettit is an American astronaut who has previously spent over a year living on the International Space Station. He's scheduled to return in September for six months.
On X, Pettit educates the public about life and science in space. Recently, he posted this image of the emergency eyewash station used in low Earth orbit. A 2014 article on Phys.org describes how it works.
To ensure that the water goes where it is supposed to go and, equally important, not where it is not supposed to go, the water flows into goggles. The machine pumps the water in and then out of the sealed goggles.
For hundreds of years, British law said that a woman who was sentenced to death was not to be executed while pregnant. It naturally followed that many women in such circumstances claimed to be pregnant, whether they actually were or not. That's where the "jury of matrons" came in. These were panels of older women, sometimes including midwives, who were deemed as experts in detecting pregnancy. They were also used to determine signs of witchcraft or whether a woman had given birth. In other words, they investigated claims that wouldn't be proper for men to pursue, even if the men knew what they were doing. The jury of matrons were considered medical experts before gynecology was a thing. Of course, they had no say in the guilt or innocence of men.
These juries were used in the British colonies, like America and Australia, as well as in Britain. The practice only died out as men became qualified medical experts with modern instruments like a stethoscope. An article at Smithsonian tells us about the erstwhile juries of matrons and some notable stories from their history in the penal colony of Australia.
It's only human to desire an easy path to money, excitement, and a better life. And there will always be con artists who take advantage of that desire, no matter if the plan is legal or not. The common sense rule for these schemes is that if it seems too good to be true, it probably isn't true at all. At least it warrants further research on your part before parting with any money.
The title of this video is "The Most Insane Ponzi Schemes In History," but that in itself is deceptive, because the 12 stories include only two people who ran Ponzi schemes, Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff. Six or seven were imposters, who profited by being someone they weren't, and the rest were just plain con artists. We can learn something from all of them, even if the lesson is that too many people are just too gullible.
Despite the fact that there are no giant flying reptiles that breath fire, dragons show up in folklore from all over the world. Could there be any more frightening combination of features in a dangerous animal? Even contemporary stories, like Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings present dragons as the ultimate fantasy monster.
But would it ever be possible for a creature of earth to spout flames like a fire-breathing dragon? To produce flames from the mouth, an animal would have to possess three things: fuel, oxygen, and a spark. Strangely, all three of those things are produced by living creatures already, although none produce all of them. If we were to rig up an animal that combines the biological processes of a cow, Devil’s Hole pupfish, or the the fulmar gull with the talents of the bombardier beetle and the electric eel, we might have a fire-breathing dragon (if it were also a flying reptile). Read about the biological possibility of a fire-breathing dragon at the Conversation. -via Kottke
When was the last time you were really impressed with a skateboard video? Pro skater Andy Anderson built a reputation for his wide repertoire of technical tricks (and for the fact that he always wears a helmet; common sense over coolness), but he doesn't rest on his laurels. Anderson is always developing new routines that are ever more surprising and appear to break the laws of physics. His moves are a combination of balance, fancy footwork, and imagination, as you can see in his newest video titled Crazy Wisdom.
Lest you be fooled by the way Anderson makes it look easy, there are some scary falls in the video just to prove that working out and then perfecting these stunts is honestly hard work. Still, some of it looks like it's just everyday movement for Anderson after all these years, while other tricks are a triumph of effort. -via Metafilter
Parents are told that they need to talk to their babies to help them learn to communicate. Studies show that this helps children tremendously with language acquisition. But is it truly necessary? Those studies were done in modern times in developed countries. In more traditional societies, people don't talk directly to babies, and they learn language just fine by overhearing adult conversations. In other words, when people talk to each other, babies are listening and drinking it in.
However, in these traditional cultures, babies are carried around and are witness to all their mothers' social interactions. In places like the US, babies are often home all day with their mothers or some other lone caregiver, and don't socialize as much. They just don't have the opportunity to overhear conversations, so the directive to talk to your child may be compensation for that. Read what we have learned about the process of developing language by hearing it at Big Think.
Wikipedia is very different from the encyclopedias we once used, in that it is added to daily and edited constantly. If you were to print out the entirety of Wikipedia on paper, it would fill a lot of bookshelves. How many would vary, because I would require the large print version. And no one has calculated how much paper it would take to print out more than one language version -they vary in more than just language. But the real functionality of Wikipedia is the constant edits. Randall Munroe's What If project (previously at Neatorama) was asked how many printers you would need to keep up with the real-time edits to Wikipedia. There are approximately 100 edits made every minute, so you'd need a lot of paper, but only six laser printers. The "Wikiprintia" project would require about 300 cubic meters of paper every month, although that would depend on page size and font, too. And manpower, which would also cost money. Commenters recommended moving to the newer ink tank printers, but altogether, trying to keep up on edits using paper is a fool's errand. At the least, we finally get a What If? video where everyone doesn't die. -via Laughing Squid
Kowloon Walled City was an enclave in the outskirts of Hong Kong. It was originally erected as a Chinese military fort. Under British rule, people lived and worked there without government administration or law enforcement. After World War II, the population soared with refugees, and buildings were built between buildings, up to 14 stories tall. At its height, the city had 35,000 residents, or 1.3 per square meter, making it the most densely populated spot in the world! Kowloon Walled City was demolished in 1993-94, and is now a park.
A Japanese research team documented the construction of Kowloon Walled City shortly before demolition, after residents were evicted. They constructed an architectural cross-section of the buildings, illustrated as if people were still living there. It was published in a 1997 book. Belarius has a copy of the book, and scanned and digitized the cross-section for posterity. Click on the image here to enlarge, and see the many apartments with people living their everyday lives.
You'll also see factories, shops, classrooms, entertainment venues, laundries, offices, tea rooms, brothels, medical clinics, shipping centers, gambling dens, and martial arts studios. On the roofs you'll find gardens, playgrounds, clotheslines, and an array of antennas. There are plenty of cats and dogs, and if you look closely, you'll find one guy about to be shot. Details highlight constant construction and renovation, and waste disposal problems. This could be a serious time sink. -via Metafilter
The opening ceremonies for the Paris Olympics will not be held in a stadium, but outside on the banks of the river Seine. Many of the water sports will also be held in the river. The problem is that the river is often little more than a sewer, and has been as long as anyone knows. You can't hold international sporting events in polluted water, so Paris has worked for years to upgrade their sewage system for better water quality, but current samples still have unsafe levels of bacteria. So what are they going to do about it? Paris is taking the short-term tactic of making the water safe sometimes, specifically during the games, while also planning for long-range mitigation. Vox takes a look at the polluted Seine problem ahead of the Olympics and what the city is doing about it. This video has a skippable ad from 3:04 to 3:40.
NASA will decommission the ISS in 2030, after 32 years of service. The space station is the largest object in orbit, longer than a football field, so bringing it down is a project that scientists and engineers have spent years planning. Taking the station apart and bringing back the pieces one by one is not a part of those plans, since we don't have the spacecraft to even send our own astronauts up there. Instead, after all astronauts have left and taken the usable equipment, the station will be allowed to drift from its orbit at 250 miles up. Over a few months, the ISS should be down to around 150 miles above the earth. Then, an unmanned SpaceX vehicle operated by NASA will drag the station further down.
Most of the ISS will burn up as it reaches the atmosphere on re-entry, but 10-20% is expected to remain intact, and that's 180,000 pounds. The crucial part is determining where that debris will land. The de-orbit will have to be controlled so that the ISS lands in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean, the least populated area of the world. Read more details on the plans to bring down the ISS at Gizmodo.
Allan Kassenoff and Catherine Youssef, both lawyers, had a volatile marriage beginning in 2006. Their split led to years of custody battles over their three daughters, with each accusing the other of abuse. The court dates stopped only in 2023, when Catherine, after a cancer diagnosis, went to Switzerland for a medically assisted suicide. Beforehand, she emailed a suicide note and uploaded files of her evidence against Allan. The files were obtained by a TikTok member who went viral sharing videos from the Kassenoffs' marriage, leading to a barrage of threats against Allan and the loss of his job.
Neither Allan nor Catherine was a perfect parent, but accounts of the marriage varied widely. Family and friends of the couple have conflicting views of the situation, as would be expected, but the courts, while changing custody orders frequently, most often sided with Allan. So do the three daughters, and three of the four nannies who agreed to be interviewed. But how can one fight back against a one-sided internet campaign and an opponent who is dead? Read the bizarre and tragic story of a permanently damaged family at The Free Press. -via Damn Interesting
What is going on here? A ridiculously small caterpillar vehicle is doing something with a bollard, but we can't figure out exactly what. Redditors have differing opinions, many of them NSFW, but the best is from finger_licking_robot, who confidently explained the workings of the Poller-Kalibrator. Whatever it is, it sure drew a curious crowd.
Other commenters figured this was either a protest, a stunt for internet clicks, or performance art. You should know by now that the answer is always C. This was part of the recent Berlin art festival called 48 Stunden Neukölln. The artists are Anton Steenbock and Peter Behrbohm, who collaborate under the name SONDER, and the little vehicle is part of the project called SONDER HARMONISATION. The description of the work is just as baffling as the performance itself, yet it was a great success in getting people to pay attention.
Montreal Comiccon has been going on all weekend, and the attendees had a great time. Many were there to show off their costumes, lovingly crafted in exacting detail from our favorite comic book, movie, TV, and game franchises. The group above (led by bodybuilder stefany_tribarta), sprung directly from the video game Mortal Kombat. Geeks Are Sexy was there on Saturday to document the stunning variety and talent of cosplayers from across Canada and the world. Comiccon cosplayers not only have talent, but imagination and a sense of humor as well. These guys imagined what it looks like when Mandalorian mercenaries take a beach vacation.
That beats wearing a full set of armor anyday, but especially in July. See a huge gallery of Montreal Comiccon cosplayers at Geeks Are Sexy. You can click on an image to pull up the full-size version. A good time was had by all.
The Darién Gap is the narrow piece of land that connects North America and South America, along the border of Panama and Colombia. It consists of mountains, rainforest, and wetlands, and it has proven impossible to build a road through the terrain. Criminal cartels control the Darién Gap, yet it is a major route for refugees and migrants who do not have the ability to simply fly across national borders.
The terms "documentary filmmaker" and "YouTuber" are not the same, but there is some surprising overlap. If two YouTubers hiked the Darién Gap and recorded their experience, is that a YouTube stunt for clicks, or a serious journalistic endeavor? Timmy Karter and Benjamin Rich (who goes by Bald and Bankrupt) posed as Russians avoiding that country's draft when they joined other migrants to cross the gap. Just to enter the area, they had to be approved by a cartel, and at the end they had to be released after detainment by the Panamanian police. In between, the journey was laden with danger, as no one will evacuate you if you suffer an injury. They ran out of food at the halfway point. The journey was physically exhausting for two young men, and they met people who were doing it while elderly, pregnant, or carrying children. Yet they continued on, crossing Latin America to the southern border of the US to document the motives and the hardships of other migrants. Karter and Rich are the first to document the entire Darién Gap on film. Read an overview of their experiences at Big Think.
You can see Timmy Karter's one-hour video on the Darién Gap at YouTube.
Steven Spielberg has often told us how Schindler’s List was a very personal project for him, but it turned into a very personal project for all who worked on it. Spielberg considered it his magnum opus, but he didn't want to make money from it. That's what Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park was for. The studio folks didn't expect it to do well, so they gave Spielberg a smaller budget than any movie he'd made in decades. How could a black-and-white film about the Holocaust draw audiences to the theater? Too depressing. Yes, it may have been a depressing subject, but the care that went into it resulted in a devastatingly emotional film. If it left us devastated after watching, what did it do to Spielberg himself, who spent ten years bringing to project to life, and then months crafting it? Weird History looks at Spielberg's experience, and other stories behind Schindler’s List.
