The Dynamic History of the Toy Chemistry Set
Watch: The Mathematics of Winning Monopoly
Watch: The Mathematics of Winning Monopoly
This Colorful Pigeon Is the Dodo’s Closest Living Relative
This Colorful Pigeon Is the Dodo’s Closest Living Relative
Silvain de Munck via Flickr // CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Baby Sea Stars Are Real-Life Water Benders
Scientists have discovered that sea star larvae swirl the water around their bodies to suck in pieces of food and propel themselves through the water. The researchers published their findings in the journal Nature Physics.
Baby sea stars bear almost no resemblance to their slow-moving, stelliform parents. Each lumpy little larva is smaller than a grain of rice and spends its days paddling across the open ocean, trying to gobble up enough energy to morph into its next form. It’s a tightrope act: The larvae have to paddle far and fast enough to find food, but not so far and fast that they use up all the energy they currently have.
Researchers at Stanford University’s Prakash Lab were fascinated by the young sea stars’ predicament. They wondered how the larva got its shape and why it moved the way it did. To find out, they brought lots of larvae into the lab and let them loose under microscopes hooked up to video cameras. The researchers tracked the movement of three distinct elements: the sea stars themselves, the water around them, and particles of algae suspended in the water.
They soon realized that they were looking at very accomplished water-benders. The movements of cilia (tiny hairs) on the sea stars’ bodies were creating swirling vortices in the water. All that wiggling seemed like a lot of work. So why were they doing it?
Upon closer inspection, the researchers realized that wiggling allowed the larvae to do less work in the long run. Some of the vortices caught particles of algae and spun it closer to the sea stars’ waiting mouths. Others helped push them forward through the water. The larvae, in other words, had created a life hack, making the water do the work for them.
“Evolution seeks to satisfy basic constraints,” first author William Gilpin said in a statement. “The first solution that works very often wins.”
December 19, 2016 – 11:01am
Newsletter Item for (90005): Can You Taste Garlic With Your Feet?
Can You Taste Garlic With Your Feet?
Today’s Big Question: Can you taste garlic with your feet?
When Christmas Was the Only Day You Could Legally Go Bowling
Bowling may seem like a wholesome pastime today, but the game once had an unsavory reputation, prompting laws that not only regulated bets on the game but who could play and when. During one especially dark period for the game’s fans, the only day common people could legally go bowling was Christmas.
The origins of bowling go way back: Artifacts found in an ancient Egyptian tomb suggest the game, or something like it, may have been played as early as 3200 B.C.E. However, the first laws apparently known to have regulated bowling were passed in 14th century Germany amid concerns over gambling. At the time, peasants were placing such large bets they would go into debt over the game, and so in 1325 the German cities of Berlin and Cologne legislated how much a person could bet on a bowling match—limiting the stakes to the equivalent of about a dollar today.
A few decades later, in 1361, bowling was banned altogether in England—King Edward III considered the game a distraction from archery practice, which male citizens needed to keep their skills sharp for war. Henry VI reversed the ban in 1455, and 15th century London briefly became home to several all-weather bowling alleys, but Henry VIII felt compelled to legislate against the sport again in the 16th century. In 1541, he declared that only the wealthy could bowl—convenient for him, since London’s Whitehall Palace had recently been rebuilt with outdoor bowling lanes.
However, the law did allow workers to play on one day each year. According to the statute, “Artificers, labourers, apprentices, servants and the like” were prohibited “from playing bowls except in their masters’ house and presence at Christmas.” The sport would have been played as part of the 12 Days of Christmas enjoyed during Tudor England, which provided the working class with opportunities for rare pleasures such as visiting the zoo, watching plays, and jousting matches.
Henry VIII’s 1541 law, although rarely enforced, was not officially repealed until 1845. (Unfortunately, in 1555 Queen Mary even outlawed the Christmas games, saying they provided cover for “unlawful assemblies, conventiclers, seditions, and conspiracies.”) But English subjects continued to play, and sometimes did so instead of attending church. In 1618 King James issued the Declaration of Sports, which banned bowling on Sundays but did allow dancing and archery as long as one first attended a church service.
Bowling was subject to less legislation in other countries. Dutch settlers and explorers brought a version of bowling known as ninepins to New Amsterdam, later known as New York City. The early settlers played at a lower Manhattan site now known as Bowling Green. When large numbers of German settlers emigrated to the U.S. in the late 19th century, they also brought their love of bowling, and it soon became a popular sport.
These days, bowling’s not quite as popular as it once was. After reaching a height in the mid-20th century, during which 2.3 million Americans joined bowling leagues and a bowling alley was installed in the White House, participation plummeted—between 1998 and 2012, the number of bowling centers in the U.S. dropped by almost 25 percent. But while there might be fewer enjoying the game today, there is a bright side: It has been a long time since anyone was arrested for bowling.
December 19, 2016 – 8:30am
Christmas “Card”
Questions: | 5 |
Available: | Always |
Pass rate: | 75 % |
Backwards navigation: | Forbidden |
Christmas “Card”
Sunday, December 18, 2016 – 10:28
All Your Makeup Can Now Be Pokémon-Themed
With the arrival of the popular app Pokémon Go and the debut of the Nintendo 3DS games Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, fans of the fighting monsters have been busy this year. The fun doesn’t stop with new video games: Korean beauty company TONYMOLY is capitalizing on the renewed love for the franchise with Pokémon-themed makeup.
The new line debuted in September with plenty of colorful goodies featuring some of the most prominent characters from the series, like Meowth and, of course, Pikachu. The first wave contained foam cleansers, hand lotions, face creams, eye shadow, nail polish, nail stickers, face masks, and more. The face masks unfortunately don’t have Pokémon faces printed on them, but that might be a good thing when you remember how scary Pooh looks. You can store all the new branded loot in a pouch featuring Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Squirtle, or Snorlax (the Pikachu bag comes with a little lightning bolt tail on the zipper).
You can nab most of the items on Amazon and check out the rest on TONYMOLY’s website.
Primary image courtesy of TONYMOLY’s Instagram.
December 19, 2016 – 6:30am
50 Vintage Christmas Cards From the New York Public Library Archives
The very first Christmas cards were designed by Englishman John Callcott Horsley in 1843 at the behest of his friend, Sir Henry Cole. The seasonal mailers depicted a family sitting together at a table, with two images of them doing good deeds on either side. Of the 1000 that were printed, only a dozen have survived to this day. We’ve come a long way since then, and while cards with bells, whistles, tinsel, audio, and lights certainly have their place, it’s also nice to look back at what came before.
In that spirit, here are 50 delightfully retro cards from the New York Public Library’s digital archives. Believe it or not, they have many, many more, which you should check out here. We promise it will make your season bright.
1. “WISHING YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS”
2. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
3. “A MERRY XMAS, WHERE IGNORANCE IS BLISS”
4. “JUST A LITTLE OUTWARD SIGN”
5. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS.”
6. “MERRY CHRISTMAS.”
7. “I DON’T FORGET YOUR CHRISTMAS…”
8. “WISHING YOU A MERRY XMAS”
9. “A MERRY XMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR”
10. “A MERRY X’MAS”
11. “TO WISH YOU A RIGHT MERRY CHRISTMAS.”
12. “A HEARTY WISH FOR A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR”
13. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR”
14. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
15. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS; THINE OWN WISH WISH I THEE”
16. “MAY JOY ABIDE WITH YOU THIS CHRISTMAS TIDE”
17. “MAY CHRISTMAS BE HAPPY”
18. “I AM THINKING OF YOU TODAY BECAUSE IT IS CHRISTMAS.”
19. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
20. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
21. “MAY ALL THE HOURS OF CHRISTMAS, AND OF THE NEW YEAR TOO …”
22. “WISHING YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
23. “MAY YOU HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
24. “MERRY CHRISTMAS”
25. “MAY SANTA MAKE YOUR STOCKING HEAVY AND YOUR HEART LIGHT”
26. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
27. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
28. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
29. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
30. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
31. “MERRY CHRISTMAS”
32. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS [TO YOU ALL]”
33. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
34. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
35. “BEST WISHES FOR A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
36. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
37. “MAY YE BE JUST AS HAPPY YOURSEL’ AS YE LIKE TO SEE ANY BODY ELSE”
38. “YOU’LL GET A LOT OF CARDS I KNOW …”
39. “MERRY CHRISTMAS”
40. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
41. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
42. “AT THE CANDLE LIGHT, AS I LIGHT MY PIPE. ALL IS BRIGHT, ON THIS CHRISTMAS NIGHT.”
43. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU”
44. “MERRY CHRISTMAS”
45. “MERRY CHRISTMAS”
46. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
47. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
48. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
49. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
50. “A MERRY CHRISTMAS”
December 19, 2016 – 6:00am
Morning Cup of Links: Bad Bosses
There Are Basically Only Two Types of Bad Bosses, According to Years of Research. Believe me, you’d rather have the incompetent one.
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24 Of The Worst Things Hipsters Did To Food In 2016. I’ll have mine on a plate, please.
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The Best Movie Posters of 2016. Beautiful, intriguing, and possibly better than the film.
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11 Movies & TV Shows That Tried to Be Star Wars. A couple of them were pretty good, but you can’t make lightning strike on command.
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Herding Reindeer Isn’t Just Child’s Play For One Little Girl. It’s a way of life for the nomadic Tsaatan of Mongolia.
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Who Are the Real Caesar, Melba and General Tso? These and other foods were named for real people.
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The dangerous health consequences of pessimism. Grumpy old men, beware.
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Bizarre But Clever Christmas Decorations. Imagination counts more than wattage anytime.
December 19, 2016 – 5:00am