You should read this for 8/03/2019:
Art, Music, and Film
Star Trek: Picard Timeline Updated and Explained: How Hugh, Data, and Seven of Nine Fit In
Jury: Katy Perry’s Dark Horse’s infringes copyright of earlier song
But Charlie Harding of the Vox podcast Switched on Pop explains that the striking similarities should be free to use by both artists, despite their similarities. Both “Joyful Noise” and “Dark Horse” use derivative descending minor scales in a basic rhythm, Harding said, and both use staccato downbeat rhythms on a high voiced synthesizer which is common in many trap beats.
Books, Writing, and Language
‘Roman Biro’ – complete with joke – found at London building site
The message was inscribed on an iron stylus dating from around AD70, a few decades after Roman London was founded. The implement was discovered by Museum of London Archaeology during excavations for Bloomberg’s European headquarters next to Cannon Street station, on the bank of the river Walbrook, a now-lost tributary of the Thames.
Food and Drink
This invasive bug is terrorizing Pennsylvania growers (and it’s coming for your wine)
Since the bug was first identified in 2014, it has been devastating vineyards and orchards in the Northeast. Lycorma delicatula, named for the lantern-shaped body of the adult that appears to glow under its dull wings, is used in traditional medicine in China, its native land. In the U.S., it was quickly considered one of the most destructive invasive species in 150 years.
Apricot Bread Apricot bread featuring dried apricots, orange juice and pecans.
Via Smitten Kitchen: Ultimate Zucchini Bread
History and Archaeology
Homer Odyssey: Oldest extract discovered on clay tablet
Found near the ruined Temple of Zeus in the ancient city of Olympia, the tablet has been dated to Roman times.
It is engraved with 13 verses from the poem recounting the adventures of the hero Odysseus after the fall of Troy.
Science and Nature
Long Lost Kauri Moth Rediscovered In Queensland After 40 Years In The Wilderness
Got a horrifying foreign superbug? You may have more than one
First spotted in Japan in 2009, this deadly drug-resistant fungus has since appeared around the globe. It has popped up in about 30 countries, including the United States. C. auris tends to stalk healthcare facilities, infecting vulnerable patients who are already sick or immunocompromised. Recent research suggests that it gets around by sloughing off the skin of carriers, shedding millions of infectious cells onto touchable surfaces.
HOW A 6,000-YEAR-OLD DOG CANCER SPREAD AROUND THE WORLD
These ancient cells were once part of a dog that roamed the frozen Siberian steppe, a husky-like creature that lived in the time before humans invented the wheel or the plow. Then they mutated, finding a way to evade the canine immune system, a way to outlive their body by finding another. This cancer-cum-sexually transmitted dog parasite still thrives today, the only remnant of that now-extinct Siberian dog race. For millennia, it has been jumping between bodies, spreading like a virus around the world. Canine transmissible venereal tumor, or CTVT, is now found in modern dogs from Malawi to Melbourne to Minneapolis. It’s the longest-lived cancer known to man. But until now, no one had looked deeply into its DNA to trace its evolutionary origins and discover the secrets of its viral success.
See also the original research paper: Science“Somatic evolution and global expansion of an ancient transmissible cancer lineage.”
Alarm over North Atlantic right whale’s survival after recent deaths “Six right whales were killed in June, and two in July – a potentially devastating blow to a population estimated to be no more than 400.”
Right whales typically feed on the copepod Calanus finmarchicus, a tiny shrimplike creature that is found in abundance in the Gulf of Maine. But according to a paper published this month in the journal Oceanography, warming ocean water has reduced Calanus finmarchicus in the gulf, forcing the whales to hunt further north in the Gulf of St Lawrence, a region with heavy shipping traffic.
Society
Hell is Other Internet People Review of Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch. Riverhead Books, 336 pages.
FBI says “extremists” motivated by Pizzagate, QAnon are threats
The modern era of the Internet has given us a seemingly never-ending bounty of farfetched conspiracy theories. Some of the loudest of those fringe movements have become pervasive enough and serious enough to qualify as domestic terror threats, the FBI says.
Right, Absolutely Not “What would the world be like if women were unable to withdraw consent with regard to sex? You would be living in North Carolina, is what.”
Technology
The FTC is looking into the Amazon and Apple deal that crushed small resellers “Last year, Amazon cut a deal with Apple to bring direct iPhone sales to its platform for the first time.”
Facebook removed hundreds of fake accounts tied to Saudi government
The ring of accounts consisted of 217 Facebook accounts, 144 pages, five groups, and 31 Instagram accounts, which combined reached more than a million people across Facebook and Instagram, according to the company.
Women’s Work
RSVP Stationery PodCast: 42: A Woman On The Internet
Pay It Forward and Make It Better
‘Let’s sign’: resources and apps to teach yourself ASL “With the NIDCD finding 13 percent of Americans ages 12 and up with hearing loss, finding ways to communicate between communities is both useful and necessary. That’s where ASL comes in, and there are many resources to teach yourself.”
The Library of Congress Digitizes Over 16,000 Pages of Letters & Speeches from the Women’s Suffrage Movement, and You Can Help Transcribe Them
