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You should read this for 2/2/2019:
Art and Film
Stunning Trailer for Apollo 11 Brings Us Never-Before-Seen Footage of the Moon Mission
Last year, the filmmakers behind Apollo 11 were discussing making a documentary to mark the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, when an archivist informed them that extensive, unseen 70mm footage of the mission existed at the National Archives. The footage became the basis for the documentary Apollo 11 and now we’re getting our first look at it with a new trailer.
H/T Sylvia: These Australian artists are making waves with work that explores the complex, contested issue of identity
Books, Writing, and Language
Frederick Douglass’s Irish odyssey
In spring 1845, Douglass published his first book– Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. The memoir stirred fresh hostilities. To avoid physical harm or being forcibly returned (by bounty-hungry “slave-catchers”) to his bondage in Maryland, it was decided that, until things cooled down, he would leave the United States for a while, for a hastily and incompletely planned lecture tour of the British Isles.
Education
In a Children’s Theater Program, Drama Over a Peanut Allergy
The conflict over accommodating a child’s allergy turned into a legal battle that highlights the isolation that people with food allergies often face
Food and Drink
Blend This Crazy-Looking Citrus Right Into Your Booze
Buddha’s hand—so called because it looks like a hand with (too many fingers)—is a fragrant fruit that’s pretty much all zest and pith, making it good for infusing (and zesting) and not much else.
But it’s wonderful for enhancing gin or vodka, and making your own infusion.
H/T Jeff: Lifelike ‘Succulent Cakes’ Turn Prickly Plants into Delicious Desserts
History and Archaeology
New Thoughts on Neolithic Artifacts From England
The Folkton Drums, a set of 4,000-year-old decorated chalk cylinders discovered more than 100 years ago in a child’s grave in northern England, and a similar carved chalk cylinder recovered more recently near England’s southern coast, may have been replicas of wooden measuring devices employed by Neolithic monument builders, according to a Live Science report.
European settlers killed 56 million indigenous people over about 100 years in South, Central and North America, causing large swaths of farmland to be abandoned and reforested, researchers at University College London, or UCL, estimate. The increase in trees and vegetation across an area the size of France resulted in a massive decrease in carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, according to the study.
Before this study, some scientists had argued the temperature change in the 1600s, called the Little Ice Age, was caused only by natural forces.
But by combining archaeological evidence, historical data and analysis of carbon found in Antarctic ice, the UCL researchers showed how the reforestation — directly caused by the Europeans’ arrival — was a key component of the global chill, they said.
You can find the study Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492 at Science Direct.
Science and Nature
Here it is, the high resolution photo of MU69 We’ve all been waiting for.
On December 31st, 2018, NASA’s New Horizons mission made history by being the first spacecraft to rendezvous with a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) named Ultima Thule (2014 MU69). This came roughly two and a half years after New Horizons became the first mission in history to conduct a flyby of Pluto. Much like the encounter with Pluto, the probe’s rendezvous with Ultima Thule led to a truly stunning encounter image.
Society
Warren Apologizes To Cherokee Nation For DNA Test
Technology
Reporter Kashmir Hill spent six weeks blocking Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple from getting my money, data, and attention, using a custom-built VPN. Here’s what happened.
This is week 3 of the six weeks of Blocking the Big 5: I Cut Google Out Of My Life. It Screwed Up Everything
Apple Shows Facebook Who Has the Power in an App Dispute
The situation stemmed from a dispute after Facebook violated Apple’s rules by publicly distributing a research app that allowed it to snoop on users’ online activity. When Apple discovered the transgression this week, it revoked Facebook’s special access to apps and updates that run on its iPhone software.
See also:
Apple blocks Google from running its internal iOS apps and from TechCrunch’s Josh Constine: We dismantle Facebook’s memo defending its “Research” See also this solid piece with a timeline by TidBITS’ Josh Centers: Certificate Wars: A Quick Rundown of Apple’s Dustup with Facebook and Google
Women’s Work
H/T Bronwen: Hidden women of history: Kathleen McArthur, the wildflower woman who took on Joh Bjelke-Petersen
The unlikely leader of this campaign was a wildflower painter named Kathleen McArthur, who led the Caloundra branch of an environmental group the Australian newspaper called “the most militant of conservation cells”.
💩🔥💰 Trumpery 💩🔥💰
See this Twitter thread from Incredible reporting by @partlowj @Fahrenthold provides the best look yet at how Trump’s private business has relied on the labor of undocumented workers — even as he railed they were stealing jobs from Americans.@mateagold of the Washington Post: https://twitter.com/mateagold/status/1089283908208902145
Incredible reporting by @partlowj @Fahrenthold provides the best look yet at how Trump’s private business has relied on the labor of undocumented workers — even as he railed they were stealing jobs from Americans.
Pay It Forward and Make It Better
Patton Oswalt brings help to ailing man who trolled him on Twitter
H/T Lisa C: Meet the Chicago woman who rented hotel rooms for the homeless during deep freeze
