• • • google suggested • • •
WORD SALAD: Gravity Shaped is the fourth LP in One Arc Degree’s expansive discography. Once again, the duo shifts away from their past attempts in music styles & subgenres, this time looking for inspiration in the cosmic dimensions of downtempo and trip hop sounds. The beats are grounded deep in the earth while the ethereal melodies point deep into space. After all, each and every structure in this universe, from the biggest black hole to the tiny human on little planet Earth, is gravity-shaped.
• • • some of the things I read in antisocial isolation • • •
Found: A 1200-Year-Old Olive Oil Soap Factory in the Negev Desert
Excavations in Rahat also turned up ancient board games.
The predominantly Bedouin city of Rahat, in southern Israel. Embiggenable. Explore at home.
IN THE REMNANTS OF AN ancient house in Rahat, a predominantly Bedouin city in what is now southern Israel, government archaeologists believe they have found the oldest known soap factory in the country. According to the Israel Antiquities Authority, the ruins are approximately 1,200 years old, dating to the early Islamic period when the region was ruled by the Abbasid Caliphate.
Archaeologists were excavating a site designated for construction of a new neighborhood when they came across a pillared structure resembling a workshop and some old olive pits, which suggest that olive oil was a key ingredient in the cleansing product. “The soap workshop here was identified due to a similarity in plan to workshops discovered in Israel [that date to] the Ottoman period,” says Dr. Elena Kogen Zehavi, the IAA excavation director, in an email. “The soap production process was made from a combination of poor-quality olive oil, potash, lime, and water.”
West Asia has a long and rich history of soap production: The earliest-known records of the lucrative industry date to the 10th century. Writings from this period by the historian Al Mukadasi and the physician Al-Tamimi specifically mention the production of olive-oil soap for bathing. Several soap factories, dating to the later Mamluk and Ottoman periods, have also been found in Jerusalem, Lod, and Jaffa, where a 19th-century example was recently found beneath a museum.
Early soaps were produced here out of olive oil, potash, lime, and water.
In studying these sites, researchers have been able to piece together the general process of traditional soap-making. Specific recipes were often passed down from generation to generation. At the time, “soapmaking was an exclusive technique, used by a small group of families,” Zehavi says. …
Scientists build army of 1 million microrobots that can fit inside a hypodermic needle
Honey, I shrunk the robots.
An artist’s illustration of the tiny robot.
A four-inch wafer of silicon has been turned into an army of one million microscopic, walking robots, thanks to some clever engineering employed by researchers at Cornell University in New York.
In a paper, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, a team of roboticists detail the creation of their invisible army of robots, which are less than 0.1mm in size (about the width of a human hair) and cannot be seen with the naked eye. The robots are rudimentary and are reminiscent of Frogger, the famous 1980s arcade game. But they take advantage of an innovative, new class of actuators, which are the legs of the microrobots, designed by the team.
Controlling movement in these tiny machines requires the researchers to shine a laser on minuscule light-sensitive circuits on their backs, which propels their four legs forward. They’ve been designed to operate in all manner of environments such as extreme acidity and temperatures. One of their chief purposes, the researchers say, could be to investigate the human body from the inside.
“Controlling a tiny robot is maybe as close as you can come to shrinking yourself down,” Marc Miskin, now an engineer at the University of Pennsylvania and the study’s lead author, said in a statement.
“I think machines like these are going to take us into all kinds of amazing worlds that are too small to see.” …
I Am Playing Directly Into the Brokini Lobby’s Hands by Writing About the Brokini
The brokini is a supposed bikini for men that exists because 2020 has yet to tire of depleting your soul.
Free will is an illusion. Right? I mean, shit. Think about it. Are you reading these words because you truly choose to read them, or are you reading them because some irresistible outside force—an algorithm, a push notification, a multi-tentacled malevolent deity—has pre-ordained that you arrive at this very moment, under these specific circumstances, to learn that two dudes named Taylor Field and Chad Sasko have just debuted a product they call the “brokini.”
Does it even matter? I mean, really. If we are set on a course—if every decision we think we’re making is just pushing us further and further along on a path not of our own choosing—would you even want to know? Could you even comprehend it, if someone told you? If I ran up to you right now shouting, “Dave! Dave! You’ve got to stop reading about brokinis or your grandmother is going to poison your dog!” would that do anything other than inspire the same emotions (revulsion, fear) you would feel if I did all that wearing a brokini? Would you stop? Would your dog be OK?! It’s impossible to say!
Here’s another way to look at it: If you, Dave (and, Dave, I want you to know this isn’t a coincidence; free will really is an illusion and I always had to write this just for you, Dave) were to walk up to me and tell me, “Jonathan, you obnoxious asshole, stop writing about brokinis with this stupid fucking reflexive, sneering meta-commentary stance because you are playing directly into the brokini lobby’s hands by giving these guys free publicity,” would I even be able to hear you? Could I possibly save your dog? …
Brokini – A Haiku
A bikini for bros
Show off your package in style
Disappoint parents
The Search For Yamashita’s Gold A.K.A. The Craziest Treasure Hunt In History
Everyone loves a lost treasure, hidden away, just waiting to be found. In Puerto Rico, a crooked lawyer recently convinced people he alone held the secret to the lost riches of Jacinto Rosario. At the same time, South Korea sporadically goes crazy for stories about a sunken Russian warship full of gold (said warship has actually already been found and, like most warships heading into a dangerous battle, wasn’t packed to the brims with precious metals). In the last decade, at least five people died while combing the American West for the treasure of Forrest Fenn, while treasure hunters have been digging up a small Canadian island for well over a century now, entirely based on a vague rumor about something buried there. They’ll probably keep digging until they hit the Earth’s core. Honestly, we won’t even be that mad when it happens. It’s buried treasure, who could resist?
But no country loves a good treasure story more than the Philippines. As early as the 16th century, folktales claimed that the Chinese pirate Limahong had buried his loot somewhere in the islands. Meanwhile, later treasure-hunters focused on troves from the Philippine-American War or the rebellion of Francisco Dagohoy. But things didn’t really kick into overdrive until 1946 when Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita was hanged for war crimes. Yamashita had been governor of the occupied Philippines at the end of the war, and rumors soon spread that the Japanese government had entrusted him with hiding a vast trove of gold and treasure, looted from across South-East Asia. Supposedly hidden somewhere in the Philippines, the secret treasure was lost when Yamashita and his colleagues were executed.
That story is quite likely bullshit, but the story of the search for it involves *deep breath* golden Buddhas, vampire attacks, psychic astronaut experiments, a stolen piggy bank, shoe termites, Northern Ireland’s weirdest unsolved murders, elaborate booby traps, $2.5 trillion in typo-riddled government bonds, and just a whole bunch of lawsuits.
Before we get to the good stuff, we have to note that many nerd historians claim that Yamashita’s Gold probably doesn’t exist (boo!). Relying entirely on dubious concepts like “research” and “logic,” these slime-encrusted loser freaks insist on writhing out of the nearest sewer and spoiling everyone’s fun by pointing out that there’s literally no evidence Japan was stockpiling treasure on the Philippines at all. They also argue that even if Japan did reach the end of the war with an unspent pile of South-East Asian loot, they would never have transported it all to the Philippines, a country very clearly about to be overrun by the Americans. By comparison, every treasure hunter has ironclad proof it exists (heard about it from a drunk uncle) and dies at the age of 24, after tunneling straight into a high-pressure sewer line. Whose side are you on here? …
RELATED: Why Stop At Only Bags Of Lucky Charms Marshmallows?
It’s an undisputed fact that the best part of Lucky Charms is the marshmallow bits. Sure, there might be a weird edgelord among us who may claim to prefer the sugary oat pieces that accompany these marshmallow morsels of greatness, but that person is too busy sniffing their own farts to be taken seriously anymore. The majority of people love the marshmallows, and, as of yesterday, after 56 years of diluting those marshmallows with other non-marshmallow pieces, General Mills has finally decided to start selling the marshmallows on their own in a pouch.
For a limited time you can say #JustMagicalMarshmallows are mine. The magic will peak in the coming weeks!
pic.twitter.com/MX9SvwM6s4
— Lucky Charms (@LuckyCharms) August 24, 2020
Frankly, it’s about damn time. Lucky Charms was already a game of fishing out enough marshmallows for the perfect, sugary, artery choking bite, but who among us hasn’t gotten sick of our breakfast candy playing hard to get? Better yet, toss in a needle of insulin as the prize inside and cut out the middleman altogether. We’re Americans dammit, and we shouldn’t have to suffer through another ounce of calcified oat to get to the spoonfuls of crystallized sugar, water, and gelatin of which we crave.
In fact, there are plenty of other foods which could take a lesson from Lucky Charms. Oreo, for example, should quit putzing around with double-stuffed and triple-stuffed and just sell us the creme by the jar-full as we deserve. Screw the cookie. Just slather that shit onto your hands and be glad God is far too distracted with season 2 of The Umbrella Academy to judge you. …
A Teen Threw Scots Wiki Into Chaos and It Highlights a Massive Problem With Wikipedia
Back in 2013, a 12-year-old American with an enthusiasm for the Scots language decided to contribute to the Scots Wikipedia. For seven years, they edited tens of thousands of articles with little oversight. Then, a Reddit post blew everything up.
The problem here was the teen in question is not a native Scots speaker and was a prolific contributor for a small wiki. Several Wikipedia admins and editors familiar with the situation have reached out to Gizmodo, and by all accounts, the teen was acting in good faith and meant no harm. It’s the sort of earnest and naive attempt to help that sometimes ends up doing more harm than intended.
That hasn’t stopped the backlash. Sure, you might write off this teen as lacking common sense, but the question remains: How did a single person, a teenager at that, have this much free reign for such a long period of time over what is largely considered to be a reference platform?
This instance highlights just how little the average person knows about the inner workings of Wikipedia, a platform nearly everyone uses in the digital era. A Wikimedia Foundation spokesperson told Gizmodo that it “does not edit, contribute or determine the content on Wikipedia. Rather, Wikipedia’s volunteer community determines what goes on the site.” And, while there is a system in place for community-based oversight which includes a wide range of volunteers operating within a large and ostensibly orderly hierarchy, it’s apparent that it breaks down in smaller wikis. …
Penguins Are Nature’s Best Snugglers
How they huddle is so mathematically perfect that mathematicians can’t design a better way themselves.
Animals have evolved in myriad ways to protect against the cold. Whales insulate with blubber. Bison congregate near geothermal springs. Black bears shelter in caves. And emperor penguins, facing Antarctica’s subzero temperatures and gale-force winds, huddle.
“A penguin huddle looks like organized chaos,” says François Blanchette, a mathematician at the University of California, Merced. “Every penguin acts individually, but the end result is an equitable heat distribution for the whole community.”
It turns out that penguins execute their huddles with a high degree of mathematical efficiency, as Blanchette and his team discovered. More recently, Daniel Zitterbart, a physicist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, helped develop and install high-resolution cameras to observe undisturbed huddling behavior. Zitterbart’s team recently determined which conditions cause penguins to huddle, and they’re investigating the possibility that the penguins’ mathematical behavior may, over time, reveal secrets about colony health.
At the bottom of the world, hundreds of thousands of emperor penguins emerge from the sea each April to trek more than 50 miles to their inland colonies. After breeding, the females return to the sea for food while the males stay behind, each incubating a solitary egg in a pouch above their feet. Without nests or food, they brave the elements by huddling together on stable pack ice to maximize ambient heat and minimize exposure. …
Video Goodnesses
and not-so-goodnesses
and not-so-goodnesses
This is how Pablo Escobar’s narco zoo inspired drug lords across Latin America.
THANKS to SHOWTIME and VICE News for making this program available on YouTube.
Another look at systemic police violence and racial injustice: Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man, was shot in the back seven times by police and may never walk again. In protests after the shooting, a white gunman killed two demonstrators while trying to “protect a business” and wasn’t arrested until the next day.
THANKS to Comedy Central and The Daily Social Distancing Show with Trevor Noah for making this program available on YouTube.
The Federal Elections Commission is a crucial organization for regulating campaign finance and safeguarding our democracy, so why does it have about as much power as mall cops in actually prosecuting foul play on the campaign trail? Jordan Klepper investigates.
What if a penguin hatched every time Melania said something not true during her RNC speech? Watch the full segment on CBS All Access.
At a time when the NBA is showing more leadership than the RNC, our host found it pointless to watch Republicans spend Night 3 of their convention talking about everything but what’s really going on in America, where 180,000 people have been lost to a pandemic and heavily-armed Rambo wannabes murder people in the streets.
THANKS to CBS and A Late Show with Stephen Colbert for making this program available on YouTube.
Full Frontal presents: “The Amazing Disgrace”, a rundown of the especially egregious public monuments erected to commemorate our country’s racist history. If you thought the past was behind us, think again! It’s actually right in front of us. This is part 1 of 2.
This is part 2 of 2.
THANKS to TBS and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee for making this program available on YouTube.
CAUTION: Some language may not be appropriate for work or children.
Here’s me commentary on aggressive weather. Cheers!
箱とまる様のお戯れ。Box Maru!
FINALLY . . .
The Strange Afterlife of a Mysterious Tomb Inscription
“I lay with another but I love you, the one most dear to me.”
Apollophanes Cave, a burial site in Israel’s Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park. Embiggenable. Explore at home.
THE DRAMA IN BEIT GUVRIN-MARESHA National Park in Israel is not apparent on the surface. It is down below. The park, approximately 120 acres, holds the excavated remains of two ancient cities—Beit Guvrin and Maresha—where much of life and death took place underground.
This fertile area in the Judean foothills, known as “The Land of a Thousand Caves,” consists of a thin crust of hard rock on top of a layer of soft chalk, which allows for easy excavation that attracted ancient settlers, who founded Maresha in the third century B.C. and Beit Guvrin in the third century A.D. Archaeological excavations of the site, which began around 1900 and expanded during the 1980s and 1990s, uncovered dozens of tunnel systems carved into the rock, spanning thousands of rooms and hundreds of features: quarries, cisterns, olive presses, columbaria, and burial caves. Both cities, shaped by the region’s ethnic mosaic and trade routes, were multicultural metropolises of their times. In 2014, the complex was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
All this is by way of introduction to a single cave, used for burials, and a single, mysterious inscription that has puzzled experts for more than a century.
Tourists visit the bell caves in Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park.
One summer day in 1902, American theologian John Peters and German classical scholar Hermann Thiersch arrived at Tel Maresha (the mound that indicates the site of the ancient city). Aside from a short scientific excavation conducted there in 1900, the rocky hills had not given up very many of their secrets.
“It was early in June, 1902, when we heard in Jerusalem that there was much illicit excavating for antiquities in the neighborhood of (the Palestinian village) Beit Jibrin, and especially that in a tomb at that place some notable finds had recently been made, for which dealers had paid £50 on the spot,” the scholars wrote in their 1905 book, Painted Tombs in the Necropolis of Marissa. “We had been so often deceived, and induced to descend with exalted expectations into holes that proved to contain nothing of interest, that it was with some hesitation, the hour being then quite late, and only on our guide’s reiterated assurances of the real importance of this hole, that one of us descended into it. It proved to be the most remarkable tomb ever discovered in Palestine.” …
Ed. More tomorrow? Possibly. Probably. Maybe. Likely, if I find nothing more barely uninteresting at all to do.
