Digging through the web this week, I uncovered all this geeky goodness. You can find the thousands of links from previous weeks here.
I have marked my favorite links with a ∞. Enjoy.
Science to Read, Watch
∞ Thinking rationally about prejudice
You can get any chatbot to fail the Turing Test because the test has a fundamental flaw
Creationist websites fail to mention important transitional fossils in the human record, surprising no one
∞ A new species of bone-house wasp that protects its young with a cork made of corpses
Electric shock or being left alone with your own thoughts? New study: Electric shock please
Why do red objects feel cooler to the touch than blue ones?
Vampire finch is the Borg of the Galapagos
The most amazing eyes in the world are even weirder than we thought
We are just now figuring out what magic mushrooms really do to the brain
The gene that helps Tibetans cope with altitude was given to them by extinct humans
Plants might be able to hear caterpillars and prepare themselves for the munching
Information is a physical thing, explains Derek Muller in another great video
∞ “I think I know why these owls are dancing to Kesha,” he said totally serious
Peer-reviewed analysis of supposed Bigfoot hair samples finds…dog and horse hair
ANOTHER review of the literature finds no link between vaccines and autism
You can show students how the pitch viscosity experiment works if you cheat a bit
∞ A massive great white ate that missing tagged white…or an orca…or another shark…probably
Purple siphonophore looks like a fancy wig mixed with corn on the cob
This is the actual hack that saved the astronauts of the Apollo XIII
Why Do We Smother Cute Things?
Sneezes carry droplets 200 times farther than previously thought
This essay on visualizing algorithms is fantastic if coding and mathematics is your jam
Huh. Why seagulls seem to love parking lots
An incredibly informative post on the success of the Many-Worlds formulation that actually blew my mind
The smells of the city are messing with moth flower seeking
Milking the world’s most venomous animal
∞ A comprehensive overview of chemical-free consumer products. Groundbreaking.
Extreme Nerdery
You can simulate what happens when lightning strikes sand with a crap load of electricity
Neil Tyson wasn’t wrong about NASCAR physics
∞ What would happen if all the bodies of water on Earth magically disappeared? This
What do sharks do in a hurricane?
Light has limits, even for elves. How far could Legolas actually see?
All blowing into game cartridges will do is teach you about human psychology
The fastest way to board a plane is simply opening another damn door
Tech company uses Ghostbusters’ Stay Puft Marshmallow Man to show how to map risk in cities
Sciencey GIFs and Images
∞ Hubble images with a tilt-shift applied makes for some of the best space images I’ve ever seen
Lovebird augments its plumage with beautiful…strips of paper?
It might be easier to accept that our primate brethren share an ancestor if they all had alopecia
∞ Outbreak: Hand Cut Paper Microbes and Pathogens by Rogan Brown
Chemistry turns egg yolk into gold dust (not really)
Herbig-Haro object HH 47: A jet expelled from a newborn star imaged over 5 years
A supercomputer simulation of jet fuel spray
Space without the space
∞ Incredibly beautiful GIFs explain how test tubes are made from fused quartz
Muscle fibers working together to make a mouse heart beat
All known exoplanets across 4 dimensions
Edward Beach Llewellen with a (world record) 425 lb. black sea bass, in 1902
Incredibly lucky guy standing too lose to a building demolition. Woah.
Pop Culture Happenings
American Apparel’s social media manager posts a photo of the Challenger disaster instead of fireworks
How horse flies helped get the Declaration of Independence signed
BANKSY: Taking the piss (explicit)
On Facebook: “I’m sure some people got very angry somewhere…Internally, you get a little desensitized to it.”
Heh. Homer wasn’t totally wrong about what cars of the future would look like
Ok. Either Fox News is completely oblivious to video games or they are perfect trolls
GE has a series of adventure-themed medical scanners to allay children’s fears
Actually informative infographic: The Evolution of the Superhero Movie
A Short History Of Typewriter Art
Amazingly, science ignored in US birth control ruling
Parrot Who Was Among Last of Its Kind, Said to Have Inspired ‘Rio,’ Dies
Odd beauty in beating a 200+ hour game in under 30 minutes: Fallout 3 speedrunnning
Three African elephants are killed for their ivory every hour
We caught a successful supersonic decelerator!
How Nazi insults spiked during the USA/GER World Cup match
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TOP IMAGE: NASA/SDO/Goddard Space Flight Center
