Morning Cup of Links: The Journal of the Whills

filed under: Links
Image credit: 
Disney/Lucasfilm

The Legacy of Star Wars’ Journal of the Whills. The early idea was to narrate the saga, and you won’t believe who was going to do it.
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J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis went to the theater together to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs together. They both hated it.
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Minoule is an urban cat who discovers that there’s a canary living in the building across the street. He takes grave risks to get that bird, and along the way, a lot of other things are going on in the city.
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There Is A Venomous Snake In This Picture, But Good Luck Finding It. Even after it’s pointed out, you might easily step on it.
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If a Unicorn Frappuccino doesn’t turn you on, maybe you’d prefer some charcoal-black Goth ice cream! Get them at ice cream shops in Los Angeles and New York.
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The new issue of National Geographic features an in-depth look at What Makes a Genius. We meet examples of genius, from Leonardo da Vinci to jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, with the research into what makes those people different from the rest of us.
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Gen. George Patton’s wife put a Hawaiian curse on his ex-mistress. She was dead within days.
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12 Creepy Lullabies From Around the World That Will Keep You Up at Night. They make “Rock-a-bye Baby” seem sweet and innocent.


April 27, 2017 – 5:00am

Why Do Our Bodies Need Electrolytes?

Image credit: 
iStock

Sports drinks like Gatorade are marketed as a source of body-boosting electrolytes, which begs the question: What exactly is an electrolyte, and why are they so important? The short answer is that they’re dissolved salts, which break down into positively and negatively charged ions that conduct electricity and water. These charges control nerve impulses and the flow of water in our cells.

Electrolytes are lost from the body through sweat—but seeing as how we get plenty from food, should we really guzzle sugary athletic beverages after a tough workout? The American Chemical Society weighs in with their latest Reactions video:

[h/t Reactions]


April 27, 2017 – 3:00am

How a Pelican Survives a 40-Foot Drop Into the Ocean With No Broken Bones

Image credit: 
iStock

Pelicans dive into the ocean all the time. They hunt by spotting fish from high in the air before zeroing in and dropping down into the water dozens of feet below. While they make it look like no big deal, it’s a dangerous maneuver. From 40 feet up, if they hit the surface of the water wrong, it’s like slamming into a brick wall.

PBS’s video series Deep Look recently took a dive into how brown pelicans manage to pull this off without breaking their necks, going blind, or otherwise maiming themselves. Part good form, part physiology, it’s an impressive feat. The muscles around their back tighten to protect their spine, a membrane flashes over their eyes to protect their vision, and their sword-shaped bill slices through the water.

And once they hit, they’ve got a built-in life vest that keeps them floating along the surface of the water instead of plunging down into deeper waters. When the pelican takes a deep breath as it dives, air rushes into special sacks under their skin and in their bones, called pneumatic foramina, that act like a cushion against the water. Their signature gular pouch doesn’t just hold fish, either. It acts like a parachute to slow the bird down, only inflating with liquid instead of air (it catches up to three gallons of water in the process).

Watch the full video to find out more.

If you’re really into pelicans, you can also experience a GoPro view of a pelican learning to fly.


April 27, 2017 – 1:00am

Nike and Converse Team Up to Give Chuck Taylors a Makeover

Image credit: 
Converse / Nike

Converse’s Chuck Taylor All Stars have long been a footwear staple. The classics are made out of canvas and rubber, but the company fiddled with their formula for the Chuck Taylor II and the waterproof Chucks made for the winter months. Now, they’re changing it up again with All Stars made with Nike’s patented Flyknit material.

Flyknit has a yarn-like texture that also makes the shoes extremely lightweight. Despite being a thin material, it promises to be strong and water-protective. According to Nike’s website, the fit is supposed to be snug but light, like a sock. The new Converse sneakers—available in green glow, indigo, white, black, red, and gray—feature this futuristic material along with Nike’s Lunarlon insole for cushioning.

If you want a pair of your own, head to Nike’s website pronto before they sell out.

Mental Floss has affiliate relationships with certain retailers and may receive a small percentage of any sale. But we only get a commission on items you buy and don’t return, so we’re only happy if you’re happy.


April 26, 2017 – 10:00pm

The Shakespeare Fraud That Tricked Late 18th Century London

Image credit: 
William Henry Ireland, via Getty Images

In December 1794, a young man in London named William Henry Ireland brought his father, Samuel, a devoted collector of antiquities and curiosities, a parchment document sealed with wax. After carefully opening up the parchment, Samuel was astonished at what he saw: a mortgage deed dated 1610, signed by William Shakespeare and John Heminges, an actor in Shakespeare’s King’s Men troupe of players.

At the time, only a handful of signatures were known to have survived from Shakespeare’s handwritten records, so to have a personal document like this was an extraordinary coup. William Henry explained that the document was one of dozens like it he had found while rummaging in an old chest belonging to a rich gentleman whom William Henry described only as “Mr. H.” The gentleman wished to remain anonymous to avoid being bothered, William Henry explained, but had assured the young man that he had little interest in the documents and could take whatever he liked.

Eager to figure out whether the documents were real, Samuel Ireland contacted the College of Heralds (an organization devoted to coats of arms and genealogical research), who determined that the documents were genuine, although they were unable to identify the image on the Shakespearean wax seal. Fortunately, Samuel’s young assistant Frederick Eden was an authority on seals, and he decided that the impression on the seal looked like a quintain—a revolving target used by knights in jousting practice. A tenuous association with actual “shaking spears” was all Samuel needed: These documents must indeed be Shakespeare’s own, he decided, and he promptly put them on display in his curio-filled home on London’s Norfolk Street. Before long, A-list literary types were queuing up to take a look—and still young William Henry continued to unearth ever more impressive examples.

An example of William Henry Ireland’s forgeries. Image credit: Wikimedia // Public Domain

 
At a time when interest in Shakespeare’s work was at the highest it had been since his death almost two centuries earlier, the Irelands had seemingly unearthed a gold mine of Shakespearean memorabilia. Handwritten IOUs, love letters to his future wife “Anna Hatherrewaye,” signed actors’ contracts, theatrical receipts, and even a bizarrely cartoonish self-portrait all found their way out of William Henry’s seemingly boundless document chest and into his father’s display. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Books from Shakespeare’s library with his own annotations in the margins also soon emerged, as did a first draft of King Lear hand-prepared by Shakespeare, and perhaps most significant of all of the Irelands’ discoveries, an entirely new play, Vortigern and Rowena.

The literary world was suitably shaken up. Although never a fan of Shakespeare (and despite saying he thought its script was “crude and undigested”) Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan was impressed enough to acquire the performance rights to Vortigern and Rowena, which he planned to stage at his newly expanded Drury Lane, then the largest theater in London. Even more impressed was James Boswell, biographer of lexicographer and noted Shakespeare fanatic Samuel Johnson. Aging and in poor health, Boswell arrived at the Irelands’ Norfolk Street home and was ushered into Samuel Ireland’s study. A glass of warmed brandy in one hand and the documents in another, he went through the pages one by one, holding them up to a light to examine their penmanship in more detail. After several hours’ analysis, he lowered himself onto one knee and kissed the collection of pages before him. “I shall now died contented,” he reportedly said, “since I have lived to see the present day.” Three months later, he was dead [PDF].

On Christmas Eve 1795, about a year after the first documents came to light, Samuel Ireland published Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments Under the Hand and Seal of William Shakespeare—a lavish anthology of all the papers in his collection, featuring facsimiles and reprints of the pages. The book was a success, but its popularity brought the Irelands’ discoveries under more widespread scrutiny.

While some experts of the day had been keen to authenticate the documents, over time the inconsistent handwriting and poor-quality prose began to raise suspicion. In March 1796, the foremost Shakespeare authority of the era, Edmond Malone, published An Inquiry Into the Authenticity of Certain Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments—a detailed analysis arguing that the documents were nothing but a “clumsy and daring fraud.” Even still, opinion was divided; Malone’s book was long and scholarly, and not everyone had the patience to sort through its arguments, damning as they were.

The supposed Shakespeare self-portrait. Image credit: Internet Archive // Public Domain

 
In April 1796, Sheridan staged the performance of Vortigern and Rowena at Drury Lane theater. But trouble was brewing: although the first few acts were received enthusiastically, the writing went drastically downhill, and several skeptical actors overplayed their lines for effect. One, John Philip Kemble, the era’s leading theater performer, stole the show in the final act by pronouncing the line “and when this solemn mockery is ended” in a rumbling, drawn-out, overly dramatic voice, prompting minutes of laughter and whistling from the audience. When the curtain came down, the audience erupted into both applause and booing, and a fight erupted in the pit between those who believed the work was genuine, and those who did not.

London was divided. On the one hand, Malone and his supporters saw the Irelands’ collection as an elaborate and heartless deception. On the other, there were those who steadfastly wanted to believe that they were authentic, and that a true goldmine of Shakespeare’s lost works had been uncovered. Boswell and other diehard believers, including Poet Laureate Henry Pye, had even drawn up a “Certificate of Belief” stating that they “entertained no doubt whatsoever as to the validity of the Shakespearean production.” The latter camp, however, was about to be bitterly disappointed. Late in 1796 William Henry Ireland published An Authentic Account of the Shaksperian Manuscripts—in which he confessed that the entire collection were forged.

Knowing that his father was an obsessive collector of Shakespearean memorabilia, William Henry had staged the very first document—the mortgage deed—by copying Shakespeare’s signature from a facsimile printed in an edition of his plays. Doctoring the ink made the writing look aged. Blank pages were torn from old books as a cheap supply of old paper, and scorching the papers with a candle gave them a convincing brown tinge.

As time went by and Samuel’s collection began to gain prominence, William Henry grew bolder in his forgeries. Extracts from Shakespeare’s plays were rewritten with spellings tweaked and lines reworked, sometimes with entirely new sections added. The love letter to Anne Hathaway was made up entirely—as was the entire script of Vortigern and Rowena. No wonder Sheridan had found the text so badly written; it appeared to have been written by a 19-year-old.

Even after his son declared the whole thing a hoax, Samuel Ireland refused to believe the works were forgeries. He went to his death in 1800 believing his son incapable of such an elaborate fraud, and committed to the idea that the works were genuine. William Henry, meanwhile, found it hard to get work once his deceit was uncovered: After a time in debtor’s prison, he moved to France, where he wrote books about French history and culture. He also published his own edition of Vortigern in 1832 and a series of gothic novels, but still struggled to make ends meet, and died in poverty in 1835.

Nowadays, William Henry is viewed more sympathetically: his father, it has emerged, was cold and distant in his childhood, caring more for his precious collection than for his young family. Although naïve in producing his forgeries, William Henry was seemingly only trying to foster some common ground with his father—and the more he brought him, the better the two got on. Alienating themselves from the literary community, it appeared, was just an unwelcome consequence. No matter how he and his work are viewed, however, William Henry Ireland’s great Shakespeare hoax remains an extraordinarily audacious—and, for a time, extraordinarily successful—literary deception.


April 26, 2017 – 9:00pm

JFK’s Wartime Diary Sells for $718,750

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Getty

Presidential possessions have always commanded attention and high prices at auction, but few former leaders have held the interest of collectors more than John F. Kennedy. In 2013, his leather bomber jacket sold for $570,000 and an 18 karat ring fetched $90,000. The latest in Kennedy artifacts expected to command a premium didn’t disappoint.

On April 26, a 61-page diary kept when Kennedy was a journalist stationed in Europe for the Hearst newspaper company in 1945 sold for $718,750, far exceeding Boston-based RR Auction’s $200,000 estimate. The writings—mostly typed, with 12 pages of handwritten materials—contain Kennedy’s thoughts on the Soviet Union, musings on the aftermath of Adolf Hitler’s reign of destruction, and passages on the United Nations.

In a glimpse of the contents provided by ABC News, Kennedy, who was 28 years old at the time, took an intriguing position on the German dictator, writing that “he had in him the stuff of which legends are made” and that “within a few years Hitler will emerge from the hatred that surrounds him now as one of the most significant figures who ever lived.”

The diary was later given by Kennedy to one of his campaign workers in 1959. The assistant, Deirdre Henderson, told NPR that she had largely ignored the document due to the time constraints of supporting Kennedy’s presidential bid. The writings were eventually published under the title Prelude to Leadership in 1995.

[h/t Associated Press]


April 26, 2017 – 8:30pm

Your Shakespeare-Inspired Script Could Win You $25,000

Image credit: 
Oli Scarff // Getty Images

The American Shakespeare Center wants to see your fan fiction. As Vox reports, the theater company in Staunton, Virginia is in search of “companion pieces” that tell stories that are about, inspired by, or otherwise involve the Bard and his work. And they’re paying.

Jim Warren, the center’s artistic director, is looking for plays that “vibe off Shakespeare,” as he explains in a press release. This is how he describes what they’re looking for:

We’re not looking for a retelling of Shakespeare plays. We’re looking for partner plays that are inspired by Shakespeare, plays that might be sequels or prequels to Shakespeare’s stories, plays that might tell the stories of minor characters in Shakespeare’s stories, plays that might dramatize Shakespeare’s company creating the first production of a title, plays that might include modern characters interacting with Shakespeare’s characters, plays that will be even more remarkable when staged in rotating repertory with their Shakespeare counterpart and actors playing the same characters who might appear in both plays, plays that not only will appeal to other Shakespeare theater, but also to all types of theater and audiences around the world.

For the next two decades, the American Shakespeare Center plans to select two such plays every year, rewarding the chosen playwrights with $25,000 each, as well as travel and housing expenses to come to Staunton for rehearsals. Each year, there will be a call for plays inspired by a few specific works in Shakespeare’s oeuvre—this year, The Merry Wives of Windsor; Henry IV, Part 1; The Comedy of Errors; and The Winter’s Tale are on the docket.

The idea is that the new plays will complement the traditional pieces the theater plans to put on during the year. Playwrights will need to take into account that their work will be performed at the American Shakespeare Center in Virginia, which is a recreation of the type of theater that housed Shakespeare’s original performances—no fancy sets or lighting, using a small set of actors who play multiple parts and might need to cross-dress at some point. Basically, they’re looking for your rendition of Shakespeare in Love.

You have until February 2018 to submit.

[h/t Vox]


April 26, 2017 – 5:30pm

Climate Change Has Forced Mussels to Toughen Up

Image credit: 

Andreas Trepte via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.5

Researchers writing in the journal Science Advances say blue mussels are rapidly evolving stronger shells to protect themselves against rising acid levels in sea water.

Bivalves like mussels, clams, and oysters aren’t good swimmers, and they don’t have teeth. Their hard shells are often the only things standing between themselves and a sea of dangers.

But even those shells have been threatened lately, as pollution and climate change push the ocean’s carbon dioxide to dangerous levels. Too much carbon dioxide interferes with a bivalve’s ability to calcify (or harden) its shell, leaving it completely vulnerable.

A team of German scientists wondered what, if anything, the bivalves were doing to cope. They studied two populations of blue mussels (Mytilus edulis): one in the Baltic Sea, and another in the brackish waters of the North Sea.

The researchers collected water samples and monitored the mussel colonies for three years. They analyzed the chemical content of the water and the mussels’ life cycles—tracking their growth, survival, and death.

The red line across this mussel larva shows the limits of its shell growth. Image credit: Thomsen et al. Sci. Adv. 2017

Analysis of all that data showed that the two groups were living very different lives. The Baltic was rapidly acidifying—but rather than rolling over and dying, Baltic mussels were armoring up. Over several generations, their shells grew harder.

Their cousins living in the relatively stable waters of the North Sea enjoyed a cushier existence. Their shells stayed pretty much the same. That may be the case for now, the researchers say, but it definitely leaves them vulnerable to higher carbon dioxide levels in the future.

Inspiring as the Baltic mussels’ defiance might be, the researchers note that it’s not a short-term solution. Tougher shells didn’t increase the mussels’ survival rate in acidified waters—at least, not yet.

“Future experiments need to be performed over multiple generations,” the authors write, “to obtain a detailed understanding of the rate of adaptation and the underlying mechanisms to predict whether adaptation will enable marine organisms to overcome the constraints of ocean acidification.”


April 26, 2017 – 5:00pm

NASA Is Developing an Inflatable Greenhouse to Use on Mars

Image credit: 
University of Arizona

When astronauts finally make it to Mars, they’ll need something to eat. And while NASA is working on shelf-stable rations for those eventual missions, astronauts will ideally be able to grow their own plants while exploring other worlds. That’s where the University of Arizona’s inflatable greenhouse comes in, designboom reports.

The University of Arizona’s Controlled Environment Agriculture Center is helping the space agency develop a closed-loop system that can provide astronauts with food, clean the air, and recycle waste and water in alien environments. This “bioregenerative life support system” uses plants and LEDs to recreate what’s essentially a miniature Earth environment, according to designboom.

The Lunar Greenhouse prototype is an 18-foot-long, 7-foot-wide cylinder that is designed to take the carbon dioxide that astronauts breathe out and turn it into oxygen through plant photosynthesis. Astronauts would introduce water into the system either from supplies they bring with them or that they find after they arrive, if possible. That water is then run through the cylinder, flowing along the plants’ roots and back into the greenhouse storage system.

The scientists and engineers at the University of Arizona and NASA’s Kennedy Advanced Life Support Research project are currently trying to figure out what seeds, plants, and equipment will be necessary to make the system work on the moon or Mars. It may need to be buried underground to prevent radiation damage, hence the LEDs, but in certain environments, it may be able to work with just sunlight.

Scientists have already been working on growing plants beyond Earth’s atmosphere without a dedicated greenhouse. Several kinds of plants, including vegetables and flowers, have been grown on the International Space Station. But for longer-term exploration of other worlds, we’ll need something more permanent than a space station.

“The greenhouses provide a more autonomous approach to long-term exploration on the moon, Mars and beyond,” the Kennedy Space Center’s Ray Wheeler said in a press release. It would, of course, be a lot easier to travel to Mars with a bunch of seeds than to bring along years’ worth of food and air purification equipment.

[h/t designboom]


April 26, 2017 – 4:30pm