News
GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being Human (one man's journey to leave humanity behind and become like a goat)
This dude won a 2015 Ig Nobel Peace Prize (have you heard of those?) in biology for "creating prosthetic extensions of his limbs that allowed him to move in the manner of, and spend time roaming hills in the company of, goats." Honestly there is so much that could be said about this, but really you should just go read the description of this book he wrote about his quest to live as a goat. (The Toaster Project mentioned in the description is also chronicled in another book, but in summary, he decided to try to build a toaster completely from scratch which led to detours involving researching how to smelt metal in a fifteenth-century treatise, among other things. His final attempt took nine months and it cost 250 times more than the toaster he bought at the store.)
Did Mary Shelley actually lose her virginity to Percy on top of her mother’s grave?
Mary Shelley swooning over the literary bad boy whose poetry was rejected for being too edgy tracks 100%. I also appreciate them describing most of her emotional activity as just being “reading, writing, or love-making” lol.
The Aborted Launch and Meteoric Rise of Astronaut Ice Cream
I've gone on an ice-cream deep dive, but am trying to space out all of the fascinating ice cream things I've learned so we'll start with this one since you were kind enough to gift me with astronaut ice cream :) The whole thing is interesting, but the line where one of the companies that makes it for backpackers, etc. says ,“Our data shows hunters, fishermen and women like these as quick treats, as well," made me crack up because I know he probably meant fishermen and fisherwomen, but the way it's stated just sounds like he's saying it is possible for women as a general category to also like freeze-dried ice cream for a quick treat. Although honestly who knows, maybe that was actually what he meant. I am also now curious about what other food possibilities have been nixed from space on account of problematic textures...
How many configurations does a Rubik's cube have?
This had the unintended side-effect of introducing me to words describing really, really big numbers. Quintillion I was familiar with, but quattuordecillion? Trevigintillion? I wanted to learn more and struggled for longer than I care to admit just trying to figure out the best search string to use lol. In case you were wondering, a trevigintillion is also sometimes called a tetreicosillion if you're going based off of the less-common Greek naming system that Russ Rowlett came up with for zillions. Also there is such a thing as a cenmillinovenonagintanongentillion (10303,000, using the short scale naming conventions; for Rowlett it would be a hectadekakilillion, and using Hyper-E notation it's just the much more pronouncable ecetongong). Did you ever mess with Rubik's cubes?
Alfred Hitchcock's Favorite Breakfast Featured One Of His Worst Fears
Somehow the fact that Hitchcock ate the thing that terrified him most for breakfast every day doesn't surprise me at all. But also, if it no longer resembles the actual thing he was scared of, then does that really count? I'm sure he would join you in your distaste for boiled eggs for breakfast.
"It's called hydration"
I don't know if you'll be able to open this, because tiktok, but Crystal told me to share it with you so I'm including it in the newsletter lol. If you can't view it on your phone tiktok apparently hasn't updated their desktop platform to prevent viewing videos without an account yet, so I can show you when you're over 😂
The clever folds that kept letters secret
A little niche history for your day! I'm having flashbacks to Kue guiding us all through making origami boats and not being able to fold fast enough while reading lol, but I'm sure at some point in life I'll be exceptionally bored and go "you know what skill I should practice? Letterlocking." and then I'll fold paper for 10 hours straight.
The Eden Chronicles: Tracking 'Y Chromosome Adam'
I don't think it ever occurred to me that if you went back far enough, all living humans would eventually have a common ancestor????? Assuming 25 years per generation, that would be several thousands of generations back, which is just kind of trippy to try to wrap my brain around in general. And then you add in Mitochondrial Eve being almost three times that old!
17 fictional characters have stars on the Hollywood walk of fame
Including your fav Shrek! (But not Fiona, sadly). I'm actually quite curious about how this gets decided because it's kind of an eclectic mix (and majority animated characters). But is it like a campaign that a studio undertakes for a certain character they deem worthy? And if so, why aren't there way more characters with stars? Are the criteria different for fictional characters than real people? This may require a separate deep-dive about the process for getting a Hollywood star in general.