Month: October 2016

For most of September, if you walked outside and didn’t know for a fact that Labor Day had passed and schools had started, you would’ve been forgiven for thinking it was August. September was hot and sticky across much of the United States—to the point where the seemingly endless summer heat is pushing into record territory. In particular, this past September shaped up to be one of the hottest Septembers on record for much of the southern United States.

Normally, September is a transition month in the weather world. The sun slowly begins focusing its intensity on the Southern Hemisphere, leaving behind crisper weather for those of us in the northern half of the world. Cooler temperatures and dropping humidity levels ought to make the second half of September downright refreshing, but the weather this year hasn’t followed the rules.

September 2016 wound up in the record books as the hottest September ever recorded in cities like Greensboro, North Carolina; Greenville, South Carolina; and Huntsville, Alabama. It was the second-warmest September on record for urban areas like Washington D.C., and Birmingham, Alabama. Even up in Philadelphia and down in usually sultry Baton Rouge, Louisiana, unusually warm temperatures made September 2016 the third-warmest on record.

This is no small feat. All of these cities (except for Washington) have temperature records at their major airports that stretch back generations. If your parents and grandparents lived in Greensboro or Birmingham when they were growing up, they probably never experienced a lead-up to fall as warm as what we just went through.

Even as a cold front came through to welcome the end of the month, this past September still managed to place high in the record books. The science is clear: Observational data on climate change [PDF] show that heat waves have already increased in duration and intensity. Chilly fall mornings may become less and less frequent. Sweating it out in September may be the new normal.

 
The culprit behind the delayed cooldown was a near-persistent ridge of high pressure that has made itself at home over the region. The jet stream typically shifts to the north and grows less wavy during the summer months, allowing that stale, muggy air to surge north from the Gulf of Mexico and sit over the land like a wet, miserable blanket. The jet stream gets wavier as summer fades to fall because the temperature gradients are more extreme between north and south. The wavy jet stream allows shots of refreshing air to dip southward from Canada, each burst of cool air further eroding the extent of the muggy air until winter sets in.

While daytime high temperatures weren’t as brutal as you would see in July, it was still unusually warm when you take into account the daily average temperature, which is the high temperature and the low temperature averaged together. This measure gives you a good idea of the day as a whole, factoring in both how warm it was during the day and how cool it got during the night. Warm nights make warm days even more intolerable because you get little relief once the Sun goes down, and it also gives you a warmer starting point to begin daytime heating the following day.

If we look at Greensboro, North Carolina, their average daily temperature for most of September should be around 72°F, which would mean they normally see average highs in the 80s and average lows in the 60s. Their average daily temperature this September was 77°F, a full five degrees above normal, indicative of high temperatures around 90°F and low temperatures near 70°F almost every day. It’s a similar story across the rest of the region where records were either broken or came within a whisper of being topped.

 
Even though the most uncomfortable air started to break when the calendar flipped to October, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center says there are better-than-even chances of above-average temperatures across most of the country through the first half of fall. Of course, “above normal” in the late fall and early winter is all relative, so it won’t be as unbearably warm and muggy as it was for much longer than it should have been.

It’s been nearly 2000 years since the destruction of Pompeii, and thanks to new technology, scientists are finally starting to better understand the scope of the catastrophe. In 2015, researchers used 3D imaging to create highly-detailed scans of the victims’ remains. Now, as Gizmodo reports, a new group of scientists has turned to computer modeling once more, this time to restore one of the city’s most opulent homes to its former glory.

The reconstruction, produced by researchers at Lund University in Sweden, depicts Pompeii immediately leading up to the deadly eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. The digital tour was modeled using the scanned remains of a well-preserved city district excavated by Italian archaeologists.

The video above provides a stark contract to most illustrations we see of the doomed city. Instead of ash, embers, and chaos, the scene is full of vibrant colors, bright skylights, and flourishing plant life. The house researchers chose to recreate belonged to a rich resident named Caecilius Lucundus. Pompeii was plagued with devastating economic inequality in its day, so such luxurious digs wouldn’t have been the norm across the city.

You can learn more about the researchers’ process in the video below.

[h/t Gizmodo]

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Hats have been used throughout history to convey meaning—whether as a status symbol, a political statement, or simply for sartorial style. Such is the power of a good hat that certain styles have become intrinsically linked with just one famous individual, and inevitably become the first item you reach for when trying to portray that character at a costume party. Below are 8 world famous historical hats and the people who wore them.

1. WINSTON CHURCHILL’S HOMBURG

British wartime prime minister Winston Churchill was renowned for his hats. Churchill himself once wrote a humorous essay on the subject, remarking that as he did not have a distinctive hairstyle, spectacles, or facial hair like other famous statesmen, cartoonists and photographers of the day focused instead on his love of headgear.

Churchill wore a number of styles of hat, from top hats to bowler hats, but he is probably most famous for his homburg. The homburg is a felt hat with a curved brim, a dent that runs from front to back, and a grosgrain ribbon that forms a band. It was popularized in Britain by Prince Edward VII, who first discovered it on a visit to Bad Homburg in Germany in the 1880s. Churchill sported a number of homburgs, from a classic black to a more stylish pale gray with black ribbon, and in 1991 one of his favorites (containing his initials embossed within in gold) sold at auction for $11,750.

2. NAPOLEON’S BICORNE

French emperor Napoleon understood the importance of branding, and throughout his life used imagery and clothing to convey power and status. His most famous hat was his black-felted beaver fur bicorne.

Traditionally, the bicorne, with its distinctive deep gutter and two pointed corners, was worn with the corners facing to the front and back, but so as to be distinct on the battlefield, Napoleon wore the hat sideways so that anyone scanning the crowds would instantly know him by his jauntily angled hat. Napoleon always had his hats made by Poupart & Cie and ordered four new hats each year; he reportedly did not like the look of a brand new hat so got his valets to wear them in for him.

In 2014, a hugely popular auction of Napoleon memorabilia occurred in France, and the starring item was the bicorne hat Napoleon was said to have worn at the Battle of Marengo in Italy in 1800. Although Napoleon owned at least 120 hats, today historians think only 19 examples have survived and most of these are housed in museums or private collections. This ensured the auction of one of Napoleon’s hats was sure to be a great success, and experts were unsurprised when the famous bicorne fetched $2.4 million.

3. ST. THOMAS MORE’S BONNET

Thomas More was Lord High Chancellor of England under Henry VIII and was revered as a Catholic intellectual. However, after refusing to recognize Henry VIII as the head of the Church of England, he sealed his fall from grace and was beheaded for treason in 1535. More was subsequently venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church, and his belongings, including his iconic hat, have since become saintly relics. His hat has become particularly intertwined with our image of the saint due to the famous Hans Holbein painting of him sporting the black velvet Tudor bonnet. At President Obama’s 2013 inauguration, all eyes were on Justice Antonin Scalia sporting a copy of Thomas More’s hat given to him by the Thomas More Society—proving once again the power of a good hat. In September 2016, St. Thomas More’s actual hat went on display at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C. alongside a number of other relics of the saint, including a piece of jawbone and tooth.

4. ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S STOVEPIPE

Sixteenth president of the United States Abraham Lincoln was exceedingly tall at 6 foot 4”, and the addition of his famous top hat accentuated his height even further. Lincoln used to keep papers and speeches tucked inside his hat and he would fish them out when needed, making his hat not just a natty bit of headgear but also a useful repository.

The most famous of Lincoln’s stovepipe hats was the very one he wore on the night of his assassination at Ford’s Theater on April 14, 1865. The silk hat was purchased from Washington hatmaker J. Y. Davis, and was trimmed with two ribbons—one a thin black ribbon with a tiny buckle and the other a 3” black grosgrain mourning ribbon that Lincoln likely affixed himself in a sign of mourning for his son Willie. The hat lay on the floor by his seat during the performance and there it stayed after the president was shot. Both the chair Lincoln sat on and the hat were soon retrieved by the War Department as evidence in the trial of John Wilkes Booth, and later given to the Smithsonian Institution, where they were carefully stored until 1893, when the hat was put on display for an exhibition by the Lincoln Memorial Association. Today the hat is one of the Smithsonian’s most treasured exhibits, providing a tangible link to one of America’s greatest leaders.

5. DAVY CROCKETT’S COONSKIN CAP

Coonskin caps are fur hats made from the skin of a raccoon, with the animal’s tail hanging down the back. The caps were originally worn by Native Americans, but were appropriated by 18th century frontiersmen as hunting caps. Davy Crockett, who is frequently depicted wearing a coonskin cap, seems to have had an authentic connection to them. When Crockett gave up being a politician and returned to Texas, ending up at the Alamo, witnesses described him wearing his coonskin cap. Indeed one such witness, Susanna Dickinson, a survivor of the Alamo massacre, many years later described seeing Crockett’s body: “I recognized Col. Crockett lying dead and mutilated between the church and the two story barrack building, and even remember seeing his peculiar cap lying by his side.” Historians debate whether or not this is an accurate recollection, but it confirms the strong association between Crockett and his iconic coonskin hat.

6. JACKIE KENNEDY’S PILLBOX

Jackie Kennedy was one of America’s greatest style icons, and one of her most memorable looks was the pillbox hat perched on the back of her head. Kennedy had many versions of the pillbox, but the most famous is the watermelon pink one she wore with matching pink Chanel-style suit on November 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Jackie, who had been at his side in her pink suit, was covered in her husband’s blood. When aides repeatedly suggested she change her clothes, according to biographer William Manchester Jackie refused, saying “No, let them see what they’ve done.” When Jackie finally cast off the pink suit it was scooped up and preserved at the National Archives in Maryland, where it will remain until at least 2103, the display of the blood-stained garment considered too upsetting. But what of the hat? It’s known that at some time during her visit to Parkland Hospital, where JFK’s body had been taken, Jackie removed the hat and handed it to her private secretary Mary Gallagher—but what happened to it after that is unclear.

7. GUY FAWKES’S SUGARLOAF

Thanks to a contemporary engraving by Crispijn van de Passe (the Elder), we have an enduring image of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators in their sugarloaf hats. The most famous of the conspirators in the plot to blow up England’s Houses of Parliament was Guido, or Guy, Fawkes, who has become something of a folk villain in Britain. Every November 5, effigies of him are burned on bonfires and fireworks light up the sky in recognition of the foiled plot.

The sugarloaf hat was a popular style during the Stuart Period (1603–1714) of British history, its round pointed crown resembling the loaves of sugar that were at that time imported from the New World. It was associated with the Parliamentarian anti-monarchists during the English Civil War (1642–51), and was seen as an antidote to the flashy cavalier-style hats worn by the aristocracy. In fact, historians suggest that during the 1600s the sugarloaf hat may have been a way of demonstrating dissidence: At that time it was usual to wear a hat at all times, even indoors, but if a social superior entered the room the hat was supposed to be removed. However, sugarloaf-wearing rebels would subvert this rule by leaving their hat on in the presence of the aristocracy.

After the Gunpowder Plot was foiled, the conspirators were put to death, but the image of Guy Fawkes in his sugarloaf persisted. To this day the same style of hat can be seen adorning the head of effigies across Britain perched atop burning bonfires on November 5.

8. THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S PANAMA HAT

On November 16, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt was photographed while on an inspection visit to the Panama Canal excavation. Roosevelt was pictured at the controls of a massive steam-shovel, sporting a natty light straw hat with a black band. The newspapers dubbed it Roosevelt’s “Panama” hat.

The style that we now know as the Panama hat is actually traditionally made in Ecuador, where the toquilla palm plant used to weave it is endemic. Hats of this sort have been woven in Ecuador since the time of the Incas, but during the 1850s, as more people travelled through Panama up to the United States for the gold rush, savvy Ecuadorian hat-sellers exported their wares to sell in Panama. The hats’ popularity soared during the building of the Panama Canal as the lightweight hats were perfect for the workers to wear to shield their faces from the hot sun. Once the photograph of Roosevelt wearing his Panama hat appeared in newspapers across the United States, including The New York Times, the hat became very fashionable—and the Ecuadorian sombreros de paja toquilla forever became the Panama hat.

Determined to win first prize at your local Halloween costume contest? You’ll probably really have to get into character, complete with special effects makeup. But before you get started on your head-to-toe transformation, take a few cues from these pros who have already proven they know how to put on an impressive front.

1. SHARK GIRL

Kat Sketch set out to mimic what she calls a “creepy” shark face that she spotted in a painting. In the video above, she uses face moisturizer, face makeup primer, makeup setting spray, Halloween makeup, and more to create a detailed look.

And if you’d rather not dive into an ocean-themed transformation, Sketch’s other special effects makeup tutorials teach viewers how to turn themselves into Disney characters, horror movie villains, celebrities, and dismembered ghouls.

2. STRANGER THINGS‘S DEMOGORGON

Swedish duo ellimacs sfx—makeup artist Ellinor Rosander and photographer Macs Moser—created this recreation of the Demorgorgon monster from the Netflix series Stranger Things. Beware: This project isn’t for beginners. It takes over 2 hours to prepare and another 30 to 40 minutes to apply. See more of elliemacs sfx special effects tutorials on their website.

3. SKULL

In the video above, Chicago makeup artist Alex Faction transforms himself into a fearsome skull with only the power of makeup. You’ll see many variations of the skull at Faction’s Instagram page, and more of his Halloween makeup tutorials on YouTube.

4. SALLY

Promise Tamang can make herself into a number of characters, whether they are captured in CGI, live action, or stop-motion. One of her top tutorials: Sally from the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas (seen above), which pulled in over 14 million views! Tamang is also known for taking on other Tim Burton characters, including Edward Scissorhands and The Corpse Bride as well as tutorials for all the Disney Princesses.

5. COMIC BOOK ART

British artist Emma Pickles is best-known for this look, inspired by Roy Lichtenstein’s comic book pop art. Check out Pickles’ portfolio of other special effects makeup art.

6. VENOM

Sarah Coy of Coy Makeup took on the challenge of recreating Venom, a villain from the Spider-Man comics with a huge mouth, enormous sharp teeth, and a long tongue. The trick, according to Coy, is to use the entire chin and neck for Venom’s mouth. The eyes must also be enormous for balance.

7. VALAK

Los Angeles-based special effects artist Angie Davis started working her recreation of Valak, a demon nun from the 2016 movie The Conjuring 2, almost immediately after seeing the film. If you would rather create your own original character, Starling also has a number of tutorials that explain how to create bloody body wounds.

8. ALIEN

DeviantART member Katie Alves works her Halloween magic with the help of UV blacklight paints. One example: this alien recreation, which also features glitter and a glow-in-the-dark wig. See more of Alves’ makeup masterpieces in her gallery.

9. WALKING DEAD ZOMBIE

Greg Nicotero and Andy Schoneberg create the zombies on the TV show The Walking Dead. At their day job, they have 30 sculptors, mold-makers, painters, and makeup artists producing prosthetics for thousands of stunt actors and extras. Some zombies and death scenes require special rigs to spew blood or even complete latex doubles to endure dismemberment. But in this makeup tutorial, they only use materials you can find at a Halloween shop or grocery store to help you become one of the undead for Halloween.

10. THE WALKING DEAD‘S NIGHT KING

Body paint artist Bethany Geek (YouTube user Geekup) treats skin as a canvas in order to turn herself into Night King, the leader of the White Walkers, the army of the undead in the Game of Thrones. She also takes on a number of comic book, video game, and movie characters in other tutorials.

McDonald’s Happy Meals are a staple of happy childhood memories for anyone who remembers the disproportionate joy that came with finding a cheap plastic trinket tucked in with your cheeseburger and fries. In more recent years, they’ve also acted as a sort of mini-billboard for whatever movie, toy, or other product the marketing brains at Mickey D’s have teamed up with on any given week. But just in time for Halloween, Los Angeles-based graphic designer Newt Cloninger-Clements has come up with a much darker take on the kiddie banquet-in-a-box by imagining what a horror movie-themed Happy Meal might look like.

“I’ve been a huge fan of horror films ever since childhood, so it’s no surprise that Halloween is my favorite holiday,” Cloninger-Clements said in a statement. “My work is a tribute to all of the creative individuals that have influenced me over the years, and brought so much enjoyment to my life.”

While Cloninger-Clements hasn’t shied away from embracing current small-screen scary things like American Horror Story, The Walking Dead, Ash vs. Evil Dead, and Stranger Things, serious horror movie devotees will love his throwback pieces to cult classics and genre staples like The Exorcist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, The Thing, Sleepaway Camp, Fright Night, and Critters—each of which comes with its own clever toy (like an axe-wielding Jack Nicholson action figure with The Shining Happy Meal).

Take a look at some of the artist’s creations below; to see more, visit him on Twitter or Instagram (where you’ll be able to see some non-horror creations, too, including a Showgirls Happy Meal that we only wish were real).

All images courtesy of Newt Cloninger-Clements via Twitter.

[h/t Nerdist]

This week is a big week for scientists as the announcements for the 2016 Nobel Prizes in medicine, chemistry, and physics roll in. On Monday, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced its choice for the Nobel Prize in medicine; on Tuesday, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced its choice for the Nobel Prize in physics; and today, October 5, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winners of the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Here’s a rundown of the winners across all the science categories:

CHEMISTRY

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year went to three chemists who have developed controllable molecular machines: Jean-Pierre Sauvage of the University of Strasbourg in France; Sir J. Fraser Stoddart of Northwestern University; and Bernard Feringa of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

In 1983, Sauvage interlocked two ring-shaped molecules with a mechanical bond, taking the first step toward making molecular machines. Then, in 1991, Stoddart created a molecular ring that could move along a molecular axle, later using this technique to create a molecular elevator, a molecular muscle that can bend and stretch molecular beams, and a molecular computer chip. In 1999, Feringa became the first scientist to make a molecular motor, and he has since created a nanocar and a molecular motor that can rotate a glass cylinder 10,000 times its size. 

The chair of the chemistry committee explained the winners’ research in an interview after the announcement:

Sara Snogerup Linse describes the importance of the #NobelPrize awarded discoveries in chemistry https://t.co/l05Ctzliic

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 5, 2016

MEDICINE

Yoshinori Ohsumi, a Japanese biologist, received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work understanding autophagy, the mechanism that allows cells to recycle unnecessary or dysfunctional parts.

In the 1990s, Ohsumi used baker’s yeast to pinpoint the genes involved in autophagy. He starved mutated yeast cells in order to prompt them to produce autophagosomes, or organelles that envelop damaged cell components and deliver them to another organelle to be recycled. He studied thousands of yeast mutants to identify 15 genes that need to be activated for autophagy to work, and identified the corresponding mechanisms in humans. His research led to a greater understanding of the role autophagy plays in the body’s stress response and disease.

Juleen Zierath, who is on the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, tells a freelance journalist about Ohsumi’s work in the video below:

PHYSICS

The Nobel Prize in Physics this year went to three UK-born scientists who have advanced the scientific knowledge of unusual states of matter. One-half of the $930,000 (8 million Swedish kronor) award went to David Thouless of the University of Washington, and the other half was split between F. Duncan M. Haldane of Princeton University and J. Michael Kosterlitz of Brown University. 

To study states of matter, they used topology, an advanced type of math that describes the properties of matter that stay consistent when an object is stretched or deformed without tearing it apart. In topology, a sphere and a bowl are the same, because the sphere can be flattened into a bowl; a bagel and a coffee cup with a hole in the handle are the same, because they both have one hole. But a bagel and a pretzel are different, because one has one hole, and the other has two. There’s no such thing as a half-hole, so topological objects have to change by an integer—one hole, two holes, etc. Topology allowed these three researchers to rewrite what scientists knew about superconductors, superfluids, and thin magnetic films. The type of research spawned by the Laureates’ discoveries could one day lead to new superconductors or quantum computers. 

Physics committee member Thors Hans Hansson explains the concept in a post-announcement interview below: 

As important as superconductors are, not everyone is cheering about this year’s physics prize. With an eye on next year’s Nobel wins, some are making an online push to recognize the achievements of Vera Rubin, one of the researchers who provided the first evidence of dark matter—a revolutionary discovery by any measure. She would be the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in physics since 1963, and only the third in the prize’s history (despite plenty of deserving female candidates). Across the history of all the Nobel Prizes, only 48 women have won.

The Nobel announcements in other fields will be awarded later this week and next, beginning with the Nobel Peace Prize on October 7, the Nobel Prize in economics the following Monday, and the Nobel Prize for literature on a yet-to-be-announced date.

What would the world have been like if Adolf Hitler had never seen a rise to power? We may have come really close to finding out in September 1918, at least according to the dictator.

If you believe Hitler’s story, it was on September 28 that, as a young Lance Corporal (top row, second from the right in the picture above), he found himself in the path of Private Henry Tandey, who would go on to become the most decorated British soldier of the war. Hitler was injured and unable to fight, and it was because of that, he said, that Tandey spared him.

“That man came so near to killing me that I thought I should never see Germany again,” the dictator allegedly said. “Providence saved me from such devilish accurate fire as those English boys were aiming at us.”

Hitler claimed to have discovered the identity of the man who saved him when he spotted Tandey depicted in a famous painting by Italian artist Fortunino Matania. But experts are doubtful that this encounter ever occurred, in part because there are records showing that his military unit was 50 miles south of Tandey’s on September 28. Additionally, Hitler had been on military leave for the two days prior—September 28 would have been his first day back.

Dr. David Johnson, who wrote a biography of Pvt. Henry Tandey, believes the dictator invented the story to further perpetuate his own mythos: “With his god-like self-perception, the story added to his own myth—that he had been spared for something greater, that he was somehow ‘chosen.'”

For his part, Tandey usually chose his words carefully when he discussed the event. Though he acknowledged that he had spared enemy lives on that date, he didn’t remember Hitler at all (though he would have looked much different). But after his hometown of Coventry, England, was bombed in 1940, Tandey was quoted as saying, “If only I had known what he would turn out to be. When I saw all of the women and children he had killed and wounded, I was sorry to God I let him go.”

If he had been killed, though, would it have made a difference? Hans Frank, Hitler’s personal lawyer, thought it would have. Before he was hanged at Nuremburg for his crimes, Frank said, “The Führer was a man who was possible in Germany only at that very moment. Had he come, let us say, 10 years later, when the republic was firmly established, it would have been impossible for him. And if he had come 10 years previously, or at any time when there was still the monarchy, he would have gotten nowhere. He came at exactly this terrible transitory period when the monarchy had gone and the republic was not yet secure.”

Historian Henry Ashby Turner Jr., author of Thirty Days to Power, speculates that without Hitler, Germany would have fallen under a military government. That government would have likely turned its attention to domination of the Polish Corridor. This would have resulted in a conflict between Germany and Poland, but not the entire world—and World War II would have been avoided entirely.

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For years, Nike teased the possibility of mass-producing the self-lacing shoes made famous by Michael J. Fox in 1989’s Back to the Future Part II. A replica shoe that was screen-accurate but didn’t self-lace was released in 2011; October 2015 saw Fox presented with a prototype that actually worked.

Now, fans of the series and sneakerheads are anxiously awaiting the pending release of the real thing. The good news? It’ll only cost you $10 to have a chance at owning a pair of the Nike Mags that were worn by Marty McFly. The bad news? It’s via a lottery system, and only 89 pairs are being made available.

Nike is currently accepting raffle entries through a digital storefront for the Mags, with all proceeds benefiting The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

The Draw, as the company calls it, began on Tuesday, October 4 and runs through October 11. Winners will be announced October 17, with exorbitant price gouging on eBay expected to commence moments later.

While it might seem like a paltry number of shoes, Nike probably realizes an entire line of space boot-looking sneakers aren’t for mass consumption. The adaptive fit technology that automatically sizes the sneaker for a custom fit is being eyed for the lucrative athletics market, with the Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 slated for release next month.

[h/t ABC]