Neatorama

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• Alaska’s Getting Wetter, Now What?
• The Social Life of Dolphins
• Study Suggests That Vikings May Have Been Plagued By Smallpox
• Sales Of Instruments Surge On UK Amidst Lockdown
• 12 Words With Very Different Meanings in the US and the UK
• Jetliner Engine Turned into Camper
• The Erfurt Latrine Disaster
• The Railway of the Dead
• Zoo Penguins Are Entertained By Bubble Machine
• What the Toilet Paper Industry is Doing
• Practical Pigtails by @TouchEconomy
• Is This The Best Batman Comic Ever?
• So What Happened After The Great Twitter Hack Of 2020?
• This Guy Juggled And Solved 3 Rubik's Cubes Simultaneously!
• The First Ever Video Game

Alaska’s Getting Wetter, Now What? Posted: 25 Jul 2020 11:20 PM PDT As global temperatures rise up as our planet gets warmer and warmer, it is no surprise that our icebergs, and even places under permafrost, are starting to melt. Places such as Alaska have suffered much over the years because of this phenomenon, as documented by this study published recently in Nature Publishing Group journal Climate and Atmospheric Science. The study compared how rainfall affects permafrost thaw "across time, space, and a variety of ecosystems". As Siberia remains in the headlines for record-setting heat waves and wildfires, Alaska is experiencing the rainiest five years in its century-long meteorological record. Extreme weather on both ends of the spectrum—hot and dry versus cool and wet—are driven by an aspect of climate change called Arctic amplification. As the earth warms, temperatures in the Arctic rise faster than the global average. While the physical basis of Arctic amplification is well understood, it is less known how it will affect the permafrost that underlies about a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere, including most of Alaska. Permafrost locks about twice the carbon that is currently in the atmosphere into long-term storage and supports Northern infrastructure like roads and buildings; so understanding how a changing climate will affect it is crucial for both people living in the Arctic and those in lower latitudes. More details about this saddening news over at PHYS.org. (Image Credit: National Park Service/ Wikimedia Commons)

The Social Life of Dolphins Posted: 25 Jul 2020 11:19 PM PDT Connections play an essential role when it comes to being successful in career and, pretty much, life in general. This is why we humans devote a significant portion of our time building relationships and connections with other people. It's not only humans who practice this, however, as animals, such as dolphins, also do this. Researchers at Georgetown University and Duke University report that dolphins under age 10 seek out peers and activities that could help them forge bonds and build skills they'll need in adulthood. The results were published July 14 in the journal Behavioral Ecology. The team analyzed nearly 30 years' worth of records for more than 1700 wild bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay in Western Australia. Since the 1980s, researchers have been taking boats out into this remote bay and noting things like the sex, age and behavior of any dolphins they encountered. [...] The study revealed that, even though young dolphins flit from group to group as often as every ten minutes throughout the day, they tend to spend more time with a few close friends. More details about the study over at EurekAlert. (Image Credit: Madison Miketa, PhD, Shark Bay Dolphin Project/ EurekAlert)

Study Suggests That Vikings May Have Been Plagued By Smallpox Posted: 25 Jul 2020 11:17 PM PDT In the year 1980, the World Health Organization declared that they had finally eradicated smallpox. Ever since then, no naturally occurring smallpox has been reported. But before this triumphant year, smallpox was a dreaded disease. Said to be responsible for the death of around 500 million people across the globe, I could only imagine how people were fearful of this disease. This recent study has uncovered ancient traces of the variola virus (the virus that causes smallpox) in the remains of some Northern Europeans that lived during the Viking Age. It is thought of that some of these were Vikings themselves. The new finding pushes back the proven record of smallpox infecting people by almost 1,000 years, to the year 603. Researchers had previously discovered ancient traces of variola virus DNA in a mummy from the mid-1600s, which put the common origin of modern strains in the 16th or 17th century... The team reconstructed nearly complete genetic blueprints of four of the 11 ancient viruses, which reveal that the Viking-era strains belong to a now-extinct group of variola viruses. During that period, smallpox may have been widespread throughout Europe and could have caused serious disease... It's also possible that if Vikings were infected, they may have spread the disease as they traveled.  More details about this over at ScienceNews. (Image Credit: Thames Valley Archaeological Services/ ScienceNews)

Sales Of Instruments Surge On UK Amidst Lockdown Posted: 25 Jul 2020 11:05 PM PDT It seems that many people in the UK have decided to learn a new hobby while on lockdown, as sales of musical instruments and equipment in the country have increased by 80 percent between April and June. According to Gear4Music's chief exec Andrew Wass, electric and acoustic guitar starter packs were a go-to for many people looking to pick up a new instrument. And electric pianos and keyboards were also right up there in terms of instruments people chose… Speaking to BBC, Wass pointed out that people over lockdown seemed keen to have a hobby "they can get into". "Maybe they played music at school and have found themselves indoors and decided to come back to it," he said. Knowing that music has great benefits to one's mental health, I can see why people started to learn or get back to music in these challenging times. What are your thoughts about this one? (Image Credit: FirmBee/ Pixabay)

12 Words With Very Different Meanings in the US and the UK Posted: 25 Jul 2020 11:04 PM PDT People in both the United States and the United Kingdom generally speak English, but there are plenty of words whose definitions have changed on one side of the pond or the other. If you are going to communicate with someone who speaks a different dialect than what you are used to, it would help to know which words may be confusing. Here are a few examples.   3. Pants It's fine for a man to wander outside in America wearing nothing but pants. In Britain? Not so much. In the U.S., pants go on top of underpants or underwear, which are called pants in the UK. Brits wear trousers over pants. 4. Jumper If you're an American who read the British version of the Harry Potter series, you probably wondered why all the boys so often wore jumpers. In the UK, a jumper is a sweater, not a sleeveless dress that goes over a blouse (that's a pinafore). The list at Mental Floss covers more than just clothing, but it doesn't explain why a man named Randy should go by Randall when visiting Britain, nor exactly which body part a fanny is. But it will tell you something you probably don't already know.

Jetliner Engine Turned into Camper Posted: 25 Jul 2020 11:04 PM PDT James Defty salvaged an engine nacelle from a Vickers VC10 operated by the Royal Air Force. He converted it into a camping trailer. It's functional for camping by providing a gas stove and a bed, while also retaining much of the original appearance. One of the engine access panels is now a door into the interior. -via Hack A Day

The Erfurt Latrine Disaster Posted: 25 Jul 2020 10:10 PM PDT A strange 12th-century incident occurred in what is now Germany that I had never heard before, and might pique your interest. The Erfurt latrine disaster was an event that occurred in Erfurt, Duchy of Thuringia in 1184. A number of nobles from across the Holy Roman Empire were meeting in a room at the Church of St. Peter, when their combined weight caused the floor to collapse into the latrine beneath the cellar and led to dozens of nobles drowning in liquid excrement. At least 60 people died in the accident.[1] Now, we can assume that many of those 60 people died from injuries incurred in the fall, but drowning in a latrine has to be one of the worst ways to go. Read more about this tragedy at Wikipedia. And then be thankful for modern building codes and sanitary plumbing.  -via reddit (Image credit: GFreihalter)

The Railway of the Dead Posted: 25 Jul 2020 10:09 PM PDT Neatorama readers are familiar with Colma, the town built as a graveyard to store San Francisco's dead when the city ran out of room around 1900. The same thing happened even earlier in London. Even though Europe's burial practices included exhuming the dead so that graves could be used again, there was a limit to how many could be interred at once. London decided to solve the problem by opening a huge graveyard outside the city.     As a result a proposal was drawn up to use the emerging technology of mechanised transport to resolve the crisis. The scheme entailed buying a single very large tract of land around 23 miles from London to be called  the London Necropolis (now Brookwood Cemetery). At this distance, the land would be far beyond the maximum projected size of the city's growth. If the practice of only burying a single family in each grave were abandoned and the traditional practice for pauper burials of ten burials per grave were adopted, the site was capable of accommodating 28,500,000 bodies. Even with the prohibition of mass graves it would take over 350 years to fill a single layer of this monstrous cemetery! Using parts of the existing London and South Western Railway, trains could ship bodies and mourners from London to the site easily and cheaply. Its founders envisaged dedicated coffin trains, each carrying 50–60 bodies, travelling from London to the new Necropolis in the early morning or late at night, and the coffins being stored on the cemetery site until the time of the funeral. Mourners would then be carried to the appropriate part of the cemetery by a dedicated passenger train during the day. The scheme found widespread support, although the Bishop of London considered it inappropriate that the families of people from very different backgrounds would potentially have to share a train, and felt that it demeaned the dignity of the deceased for the bodies of respectable members of the community to be carried on a train also carrying the bodies and relatives of those who had led immoral lives. The new cemetery opened in 1854. Funerals and transport varied in price depending on one's station in life. Read about the rise and fall of London's Necropolis Railway at  HistoryASM. -via Strange Company

Zoo Penguins Are Entertained By Bubble Machine Posted: 25 Jul 2020 10:09 PM PDT With no humans visiting the zoo to keep them occupied, staff at the Newquay Zoo in Cornwall, England had been looking for ways to keep their resident penguins entertained. Thankfully, a patron donated a bubble machine to the zoo, and the zoo staff used the device wisely. Penguin caretaker Dan Trevelyan said the bubbles help to keep the penguins's predatory reflexes sharp. "In the wild, these guys are marine predators who are very sensitive to objects and movement," said Trevelyan. "The bubble machine is fantastic, as all the movement and new shapes and colors really stimulate these guys. They have a great time chasing them around. And all these donations are really appreciated." The bubbles, which cause no harm to the animals, have in the past also proved popular with the Zoo's squirrel monkeys and Sulawesi crested macaques. Wholesome! (Image Credit: SWNS/ Good News Network)

What the Toilet Paper Industry is Doing Posted: 25 Jul 2020 10:09 PM PDT Back in Match, toilet paper suddenly disappeared from stores. The demand skyrocketed as the US locked down against the pandemic. Business Insider explains why that happened, and how TP companies responded to try to meet the demand. -via Damn Interesting

Practical Pigtails by @TouchEconomy Posted: 25 Jul 2020 10:09 PM PDT   View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tamara (@toucheconomy) on Jun 15, 2020 at 7:42am PDT Photographer and designer Tamara invents new uses for common objects, including her braided pigtails. They're ideal for holding small items, such as earbuds and eating utensils, so that she can keep her hands free.   View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tamara (@toucheconomy) on Jun 9, 2020 at 10:45am PDT -via Design You Trust

Is This The Best Batman Comic Ever? Posted: 25 Jul 2020 03:41 PM PDT Batman vs. Predator is a three-part comic series written by Dave Gibbons and illustrated by Andy and Adam Kubert. Before you judge the comic for being a simple cash grab from two fandoms, this particular comic won an Eisner award (yes, it won a prestigious comic award)! Of course, preference is subjective, so if you want to read for yourself to know if the crossover comic is really good, you can still catch it on digital platforms.  image via Polygon

So What Happened After The Great Twitter Hack Of 2020? Posted: 25 Jul 2020 03:41 PM PDT If you've noticed a few days ago that verified accounts on Twitter were unable to post for a few hours, that's because of a massive hack targeted to verified users. Hackers took control of dozens of accounts and made them post a tweet to send bitcoins to a wallet with an unlikely promise to send back more cryptocurrency. Twitter was able to regain control and return the control back to the original owners of the accounts, as Vice detailed:  In an email sent to victims of the massive hack, Twitter apologizes, informs them of what happened, and suggests a series of actions to keep their accounts safe. Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Mike Bloomberg, Apple, Jeff Bezos, Wiz Khalifa, as well as several cryptocurrency companies are among the victims of the massive hack. On Wednesday, Twitter reached out directly to the victims via email informing them of the hack, apologizing for it, and suggesting a series of actions to make sure the compromised accounts stay safe. As Motherboard reported, hackers used an internal user administration tool to take control of the accounts. Earlier Thursday, Twitter revealed that the hackers accessed the Direct Messages inbox of up to 36 of the 130 targeted accounts, and they downloaded the accounts' "Your Twitter Data"—an archive of information on the account, including tweets, DMs, Moments, media, and more—of eight of all the hacked accounts, according to a series of updates on its Twitter Support account. image via Vice

This Guy Juggled And Solved 3 Rubik's Cubes Simultaneously! Posted: 25 Jul 2020 03:41 PM PDT Can you solve Rubik's cubes while juggling them? I can't juggle nor solve one, and it's impressive to see one person do these actions at the same time! Que Jianyu set the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to solve three Rubik's cubes while juggling at two minutes and forty-three seconds.

The First Ever Video Game Posted: 25 Jul 2020 11:04 AM PDT It isn't a Super Mario game, or any of the retro titles you were familiar with. The first ever video game in history was a 1958 tennis game similar to the 1970s game Pong. Tennis For Two was created in 1985 by physicist William Higinbotham, as Ryan Fan detailed:  He wanted to capture visitors' interests by creating an interactive demonstration, later telling reporters that: "It might liven up the place to have a game that people could play, and which would convey the message that our scientific endeavors have relevance for society." The game simply involved players adjusting a knob to alter the angle of the ball, and then pushing a button to hit it to another player. They couldn't miss the ball as long as they pressed the button when it was on their side of the net, but if they angled it poorly, it could hit the net or be out of bounds. There was nothing fancy about the game, and the graphics simply had a cathode ray tube display that had two lines, one representing the ground, and another representing the net. The ball was just a dot. Players couldn't even keep score. They had to do that themselves. The circuitry of the game involved resistors, capacitors, and relays, and it used some transistors for fast switching, especially when the ball was in play. image via Medium

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