Category: Culture & Society
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Oxygen in the house: Barcelona opera house reopens with performance to over 2,000 plants
No, this is not an article from The Onion. To mark Spain’s lifting of lockdown restrictions, Barcelona’s Liceu Opera House reopened for the first time in three months with a performance to 2,292 potted plants. The three classical musicians performed Puccini’s “Crisantemi” to “reaffirm the value of art, music and nature” after Covid-19 lockdowns. Even…
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Natural light prevents myopia
A report issued in Nature reveals that staying inside is the leading cause of myopia. The finding refutes the myth that nearsightedness is the result of intense reading sessions and screen activity. Myopia is prevalent in East Asian countries, where the focus on studying means staying indoors rather than benefiting from the outside environment. According to another…
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Neanderthals were great hunters but poor artists
Neanderthals were great hunters but poor artists. According to a study done by UC Davis psychology professor Richard Coss, Neanderthals used basic spear hunting techniques to capture tame prey. Meanwhile, Homo Sapiens developed the ability to throw spears as a result of chasing more elusive game in the open grasslands of Africa. Homo Sapiens were…
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Time travel back to New York City, 1911
In 1911, Swedish film company Svenska Biografteatern recorded its trip to New York. Fortunately, the footage survived and most recently was speed-corrected (slowed down) and reproduced with the ambient audio of street sounds of car horns, horses, and police whistles to give us a sense of the environment back then. There’s also a color version of the…
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The treadmill was originally a torture device
Treadmills were originally torture devices, meant to break the mind, body, and spirit of English prisoners. Two hundred years ago, the treadmill was invented in England as a prison rehabilitation device. It was meant to cause the incarcerated to suffer and learn from their sweat. Groups of prisoners were forced to walk 6 hours a…
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Christopher Reeves explains what Superman represents
In this video, the late Christopher Reeves who played Superman explains what the fictional superhero represents. In a world of selfishness ushered in by smart devices and social media, Superman as a friend metaphor is a subtle reminder of the power of relationships. It’s nice to know that there’s someone out there who’s willing to…
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The best representations of “social distancing”
Given the paramount importance of social distancing to impede the spread of the coronavirus — everything from sitting nearly 7 feet apart or shopping 7 feet apart — we’ve collected some of the most compelling illustrations across the web. The reality is that the longer people don’t comply with social distancing or space/physical distancing, the…
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Why 02-02-2020 is a special day in numbers
Today may be Super Bowl Sunday and Groundhog Dog, but it’s also a day that celebrates the rare 8-digit palindrome — 02/02/2020 — the only one this century. The eight digit palindrome reads the same forward, and backward in both the American and British formats. The last one occurred 909 years ago on 11-11-1111 and…
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The calendar from 1895 and 2019 share the same dates
This is neat. The calendar from 1895 and 2019 share the same dates. Mind the prescient quote. Everything comes in circles…The old wheel turns and the same spoke comes up. It has all been done before and will be again… Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,The Valley of Fear