via the Big Think blog by Paul Ratner
This exoplanet is 10 times hotter than any world we measured and shaped like a football.
- Astronomers study the exoplanet planet WASP-121b that's known as a "hot Jupiter."
- The planet is so hot, metals like iron and magnesium stream off its surface.
- The find is the latest accomplishment using the Hubble Space Telescope.
Artist’s concept of WASP-121b, which orbits so close to its star and is so hot that heavy metal gases in its atmosphere are escaping into space. Image via Engine House VFX/At-Bristol Science Centre/University of Exeter/JPL. [via EarthSky: updates on your cosmos and world]
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via Ancient Origins by Ed Whelan
Emma Receiving The Encomium, In 'The Encomium Of Queen Emma' MS 33241 ( Public Domain )
Archaeologists have potentially made a very important discovery after tests on human remains from early medieval mortuary caskets in England. They examined a large number of human bones and believe that they have identified some as belonging to a powerful medieval queen from the Viking Age in England. It is believed that they have found the remains of Queen Emma, who played a very important role in the history of medieval Europe.
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via Killer Web Directory by Administrator
Here is an entertaining infographic produced by the website called Ship a Car Direct that provides information about some of the most memorable cars from the movies. Learn about the Ford Explorer XLT from Jurassic Park, the Ford LTD Country Squire station wagon from National Lampoon's Vacation and lots more by checking out this piece.
See the full size version @ A1 Show Plates
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via the Guardian by Alex Hern
‘Seeing a happy face affects us on an emotional level, and it doesn’t seem to matter much whether that face is on a person or on a screen.’ Photograph: Apple
You might not want to admit it, but emojis are 💯. That is, they are very good. Far from being, as their detractors claim, representations of an infantile – or senile – lack of written language skills, the iconography born of Japanese text messages in the 1990s is increasingly crucial to clear communication online, as well as adding yet another rich vein to the inventive history of English prose.
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via Boing Boing by Jason Weisberger
Kirk looks like he enjoys this far too much.
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via Interesting Literature
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle explores the origins of the story of the Trojan Horse
If you had to name the famous work from classical antiquity which told the story of the Trojan Horse, which work would you name? The work of literature which offers the most in-depth account of the Trojan War, and the defeat of the Trojans by the Greek forces, is Homer’s Iliad, the epic poem about the last stages of the war. And yet the Iliad makes no mention of this crucial part of the Greeks’ victory over their enemies. Readers will look in vain within Homer’s poem for mention of the Trojan Horse. Instead, it’s a later, Roman poem, Virgil’s Aeneid, which gives us the most sustained and dramatic account of wily Odysseus’ plan to deceive the Trojans by turning up at the sturdy gates of the city of Troy with a gift of a large wooden horse, in which – unbeknownst to the Trojans who welcome the equine gift into their city – an elite force of Greek warriors has been secreted, ready to burst out once the horse is within the walls of Troy. It’s actually in the ‘sequel’ to the Iliad, Homer’s Odyssey, that we get the one Homeric reference to the Trojan Horse – which is fitting given the whole thing was Odysseus’ idea in the first place.
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Spiders, fish, birds, and bats all break with their daily routines.
via the Big Think blog by Steve Portugal
For most animals, the structure of their day – and indeed their year – depends on the light-dark cycle.
These regular and rhythmic cycles in the length of days tell animals when they should be foraging, when they should be asleep, when it's time to migrate and when it's time to breed. Animals can tell all this from how many hours of daylight they experience, but the moon's cycles also strongly influence their behaviour.
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via Ancient Origins by Sarah P Young
Outer circle of the Mzora Stone Circle. (El mundo con ella / YouTube)
When people think of megalithic structures , there is a clear behemoth which undeniably dominates the history books – Stonehenge. The iconic stone circle has fascinated historians, archaeologists, and the general public alike for hundreds of years and speculation as to its original intended use is rife – new theories emerge on a regular basis and as archaeological techniques advance the site is constantly reassessed.
But the building of stone circles like this is far from an isolated event. There are plenty of examples, from Avesbury Stone Circle which is not too far away from Stonehenge in the UK, to Stoplesteinan in Norway, and a number of stone circles at the site of Carnac in France.
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There is also a video to watch. Fascinating story.
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via Boing Boing by Rob Beschizza
Adam Bradley and Chris Blackburn noticed an unusual, mislabelled eBay listing for a rare beauty: an IBM System/360 in Nuremberg for peanuts. So they set out to do what any self-respecting IBM System/360 fan would do: buy it and fix it up. Thousands of Euros later, they've ... well, they've gotten it out of the building.
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via Interesting Literature
On one of Woolf’s earliest short stories
Written in 1917 around the same time she wrote ‘The Mark on the Wall’, ‘Kew Gardens’ is one of Virginia Woolf’s best-known short stories. Yet what the story means is far less well-known – if there is one ‘meaning’ that is ultimately knowable. A short summary and closer analysis of ‘Kew Gardens’ should help to provide a little clarity on what is a rather elusive and delicately symbolic story.
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