Kelimutu One of the best aspects of Google’s Chromecast is the outstanding array of images in its ambient mode, which serves as a wallpaper slideshow. The photographs primarily feature outdoor locations or wildlife, allowing the wanderlusting individual stuck indoors to sample virtually the planet’s riches. Google has no monopoly on this sort of collection. Microsoft has […]
The Bone Wars Many progenitors of scientific fields garner reverent reputations as time passes, perhaps titans of inquiry, research, and genius who placed pure scholarship above all else. We tend to view Newton and Einstein as ascetic paragons, infallibly probing the fabric of the universe for nothing more than the good of humanity. Of course,
Apatosaurus vs. Brontosaurus Scientists have definitively identified more than 300 genera and more than 700 species of dinosaurs. These numbers seem surprisingly low; the real total is likely much higher, as we have to dig through hundreds of millions of years of rock for a shot at finding fossilized dino bones. Ask many toddlers, however,
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Paleontologizing We’ve mused multiple times over the years about the duality of technology, in general, and the internet, in specific. The net can capture us in its doom-scrolling, trivial addiction-abyss, keeping us from touching grass for longer stretches than we’d like to admit. Millions of hours of entertainment sit behind a few keystrokes at
Loser Mountain The greatest joy of researching topics for this project invariably comes from unexpected confluences. Sometimes a string of articles will arrive thanks to one investigation hole; other times a new connection to a previous subject springs forward. These overlaps provide mind-sparks that remind us everything is linked on our rocky haven of life
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Loser Mountain Nearly ubiquitous with mountaineering in Europe are the Alps. This massive range dips into eight countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Slovenia, and Switzerland. More than a quarter of the Alps rests inside Austria, which is quite the statistic since that nation is slightly smaller than Maine! According to PeakVisor, Austria contains more
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Manhattanhenge The clock that stands still is right twice per day. Over the years, in our studies of the seasons and equinoxes, we’ve encountered various human-made edifices with connections to the Sun. The ancient Irish sepulcher Newgrange features an aperture that aligns with the rising star on the winter solstice, dripping light into the funerary passageway. Famously,
Parade of Planets Gazing into the night sky can impart a viewer with a sobering sense of perspective. The billions of stars out there. The millions of years the light took to travel from distant galaxies. It’s easy to be overwhelmed with a feeling of unimportance, as if we’re a speck of sand on a
Dumbo Octopuses Walt Disney Productions began an American institution in 1937 with the creation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Their initial animated feature still ranks tenth all-time in inflation-adjusted box-office gross, selling over 109 million tickets. Disney’s next two films, though now considered classic animations – Pinocchio and Fantasia – failed to provide the company with significant profits,
Jerrie, Queen of the Clouds All right, I will. — Jerrie Mock We’ve noted many times the power of role models during our examinations of exemplary humans, most recently during the biography of Mae Jemison. Trailblazers open the minds of young people and expand their palette for what is possible. In the World War interregnum, Amelia Earhart was
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