Animals give each other names!
Can It Be? Parrots Name Their Children, And Those Names, Like Ours, Stick For Life
For the data-loving dendrophiles, NYC Parks has mapped every streetside tree in the city
Brilliant song about a sociopath! Written in 2004 by the Mitguards. Pity the title is Born Without a Conscience because sociopaths are created, not born (unless they're psychopaths, but psychopaths too are almost always created, nature via nurture). Still, an excellent song and appropriate for many.
From Swarthmore University's History 41: The American Colonies, the amazing journal entries by Christopher Columbus about his voyage West, intending to arrive in India.
Christopher Columbus, Journal (1492)
and Bartoleme de Las Casas, Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies. (1542)
The world's oldest known water was found in an ancient pool below Canada in 2016, and is at least 2 billion years old.
Back in 2013 scientists found water dating back about 1.5 billion years at the Kidd Mine in Ontario, but in 2016, deeper investigation revealed an even older source buried underground.
The initial discovery of the ancient liquid in 2013 came at a depth of around 2.4 kilometers (1.5 miles) in an underground tunnel in the mine. But the extreme depth of the mine – which at 3.1 kilometers (1.9 miles) is the deepest base metal mine in the world – gave researchers the opportunity to keep digging.
"[The 2013 find] really pushed back our understanding of how old flowing water could be and so it really drove us to explore further," geochemist Barbara Sherwood Lollar from the University of Toronto told Rebecca Morelle at the BBC back in 2016.
"And we took advantage of the fact that the mine is continuing to explore deeper and deeper into the earth."
Low doses of "laughing gas" could be fast, effective treatment for severe depression
In a phase 2 clinical trial, researchers found a one-hour inhalation session with 25% nitrous oxide gas improved depression symptoms for over two weeks
Oooh, a very cool car design history infographic webpage
Enamelling is a technique which is closely associated with goldsmithing and jewellery art, as well as with precious metalwork of all types. Derived from the Latin word "smaltum", the Old French word "esmail", and the Anglo-Norman French word "enamailler", enamelling emerged during the era of Aegean art as one of the first and most spectacular methods of making metal more colourful, without the need for precious or semi-precious stones. In this technique of decorative art, vitreous enamel (in the form of a powder or paste) is applied to a metal surface and then subjected to intense heat, which melts the enamel turning it into a brilliant glass-like substance which also gives the metal a hard, long-lasting surface. By varying the ingredients, this glass-like coating can be made semi-transparent or opaque, while its colour is regulated by adding various metal oxides such as iron, cobalt, praseodymium and others. Enamelling is related to other types of art - especially mosaics and ceramics, as well as painting; moreover, in its reliance on metallurgy, it has affinities with glass production - see, Stained Glass Art: Materials & Methods - one reason why it flourished during the era of Romanesque architecture when the demand for stained glass soared. Modern enamelling is exemplified above all by the exquisite Fabergé Easter eggs supplied to the Romanovs in St Petersburg. Enamel has been used to embellish a wide range of metal items, including: weapons and equestrian trappings; domestic items like mirrors and vases, ecclesiastical objects, including reliquaries, altar-screens, caskets, chalices and crosiers; drawing room items, such as decorative items, snuffboxes, bottles, candlesticks, etuis and thimbles.
Welcome to the Order. Welcome to Your Mortality.
The Order is about making death a part of your life. Staring down your death fears—whether it be your own death, the death of those you love, the pain of dying, the afterlife (or lack thereof), grief, corpses, bodily decomposition, or all of the above. Accepting that death itself is natural, but the death anxiety of modern culture is not.
