Saturday 3 August 2013

10 useless but probably interesting items I happened across

Style Show: 1922
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave
Style Show: 1922
June 17, 1922. Washington, D.C.
“Group winners at Tidal Basin bathing beach”
On the right we have eternal Shorpy sweetheart Iola Swinnerton; the others are interchangeable nonentities who serve only to emphasize her many charms. In the background is the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Fraud, failure to replicate, a field in crisis: Social psychology is having a bad year. Deep breaths. The culture of science is actually changing for the better… more

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Where does “new car smell” come from?
via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
The answer lies in another question. How can PVC — polyvinyl chloride, a commonly used type of plastic — be the stuff that makes tough, rigid sewer pipes and, simultaneously, be the stuff that makes floppy vinyl signs and cheap Goth pants?
“PVC is hard stuff. But if you put in a lot of plasticiser, you can get it to be soft,” explains John Pojman, a chemistry professor at Louisiana State University. At a molecular level, PVC is a dense thing. Imagine a slinky in its stiff, compressed state. The plasticisers are chemical compounds derived from coal tar. Mix them with PVC and the small molecules of plasticiser shove their way in between the densely packed PVC molecules. Imagine stretching the slinky out so that its coils are now wobbly. Same thing happens here. The more plasticiser you add, the less rigid the PVC.
And it’s the plasticisers that produce that smell — the one we associate with the vinyl interior of a new car.

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The secret history of a hidden mural at a Los Angeles hotel
via BoingBoing by Mark Frauenfelder

The website Mosaic Art Now has a fun story about a tile mosaic of an oil refinery that was discovered behind some wood paneling at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in Los Angeles.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Are criminals made or born? Consider Donta Page and his history of robbery, rape, and murder. Can neuroscience explain his penchant for violence?… more

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How to Fake a Moon Landing: Exposing the Myths of Science Denial
via Stephen’s Lighthouse
Useful for information fluency training activities …
From Boing Boing
Here’s a look at Darryl Cunningham’s new 176-page comic book, How to Fake a Moon Landing: Exposing the Myths of Science Denial. I enjoyed his levelheaded explanations and charming illustrations that expose anti-science charlatans, flim flam men, and deluded fools.

Continue reading from Boing Boing

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Secrets of the world’s most successful tumbleweed farm
via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
Tumbleweeds aren’t a type of plant. It’s more of a description – the thing that happens when the bushy above-ground parts of lots of different types of plants dry, die, and disconnect from the healthy root system below. It is then free to blow wherever the wind takes it. That’s your basic free-range tumbleweed. At Prairie Tumbleweed Farms, the weeds are a bit more constrained and they’re shipped, rather than blown, to customers all around the world.
This podcast by Rose Eveleth is a cute, quirky piece, but you MUST listen to the whole thing. Because the backstory of Prairie Tumbleweed Farms is what makes this truly worthy of BoingBoing.

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The Vonnegut letters. He was feckless, drunk, witty, humane, and full of advice for himself: “Do not bubble. Do not spin. Choose words I know”… more

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Shedding light on the Black Death
via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
Seven hundred years ago, millions of Europeans were wiped out by a disease we still don't entirely understand. The Black Death might seem like a pretty open-and-shut case at this point: It was caused by plague-bearing fleas that hitched rides on the rats that infested a grim and grimy medieval world. The End.
But that simplified version only makes sense if you overlook some important facts about how the plague (which still exists) operates today. “The Black Death killed between 30 and 50 percent of the affected population”, says Sharon DeWitte, assistant professor of anthropology and biology at The University of South Carolina. “Modern plague, at most, kills between 2 and 3 percent, and that’s even in areas without access to modern medicine.”
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DIY cardboard rifle can fire paper pellets up to 25 yards
When spitwads just won’t get the job done
by Ian Steadman, wired.co.uk

Paper pellets make great projectiles, just ask any school-kid. Paper Shooters, rifles made primarily out of cardboard, can fire those paper pellets up to a distance of 25 yards, lending a degree of professionalism to a pursuit that is usually more of a hobby.
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