In 1859, Pennsylvania witnessed the birth of the first successful commercial oil well, marking a turning point in energy sources. This development promptly threatened the dominance of whale oil, especially in the realm of illumination. A political cartoon published in Vanity Fair just a week after the Civil War began in 1861 humorously portrays whales […]
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In this article, the author explores the history and perception of canned food. They mention that the French government issued a challenge in the late 18th century to inventors to find a way to preserve food, which led to the development of heat-sealed containers by Nicolas Appert in 1809. The author questions why it’s called […]
Experiments conducted by Leif Ristroph, a physicist and applied mathematician at New York University, have provided fresh evidence to support a controversial hypothesis about the formation of the Great Sphinx of Giza. Ristroph noticed that tiny shapes resembling lions, similar to the Great Sphinx, emerged during experiments on clay erosion in response to flowing water. […]
The author provides two rules of thumb in this short note. The first rule suggests that if there is an “if” condition inside a function, it should be considered whether it can be moved to the caller instead. The author explains that by pushing the “if” condition up to the caller, it can result in […]
In this web content, the author discusses the nature of science and knowledge. They argue that for most people, believing in scientific truths requires faith because they do not witness the experiments nor understand them. The author emphasizes the role of social class in determining what knowledge people have access to. They also explore the […]
Google has agreed to pay $8 billion to Samsung over four years in order to make its apps the default on Samsung phones, according to court testimony from James Kolotouros, Google’s vice president for partnerships. The information was presented in the ongoing trial between Google and Epic Games, the maker of “Fortnite,” which alleges that […]
Mux is a company that focuses on providing video solutions for developers. Our goal is to make video more accessible by tackling the difficult challenges developers face when creating video content. We offer services such as video encoding and streaming (Mux Video) and video monitoring (Mux Data), among other things. We are dedicated to building […]
In this story from the Radio Diaries’ series “The Unmarked Graveyard: Stories from Hart Island,” we learn about a woman named Hisako Hasegawa, who lived in room 208 of The Belvedere Hotel in Manhattan for over 40 years. Hasegawa was born in Japan and came to New York in the 1970s. She was well-liked among […]
Artist Rhim Lee’s TED talk on her “mushroom suit” has gained almost 1.5 million views due to her talent as a speaker and her innovative idea. The suit is designed to help nature extract nutrients from our bodies after we die. Although Lee’s idea has drawn attention to the process of nutrient recycling and detoxification, […]
Los Angeles County boasts the highest number of public electric-vehicle fast chargers in the United States. However, WSJ’s Joanna Stern embarked on a remarkable journey to test their functionality in her Rivian R1T. What she discovered was shocking – almost 40% of the charging locations she visited presented problems such as out-of-order signs, payment complications, […]