Interesting Shares

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/32328728

Today in addition to Canada Day is also Inundation Day, where a controlled explosion destroyed the homes of 12 communities along the St Lawrence Seaway in 1958. The villages disappeared into St Lawrence Lake. This project captures stories of survivors and has aerial photos of what remains.

How do you relocate an entire 8,270-ton, 43,380-sq-ft (4,030 sq m), 100-year-old Shikumen brick building complex so you can build a multi-level subterranean shopping center, parking lot and subway connections under it? With robots, of course.

Just like fingerprints, your breathing patterns may be a unique identifying feature. Scientists have found they can identify people with 96.8% accuracy using only their breathing patterns. And it's not just simple identification, researchers say they can even predict Body Mass Index (BMI), state (sleeping or awake), and cognitive traits (anxiety or depression) from the way you breathe.

An experiment involving artificial organs is just one way researchers are trying to capitalize on the weird ways low-gravity environments affect the human body.

Planet Earth is currently home to around 8.2 billion living human bodies.

A platinum fiddle that's just 35 microns in length and 13 microns in width is believed to be the world's smallest violin, measuring just a fraction of a tardigrade or the diameter of an average human hair. But before you get too excited, or ponder the logistics of operating such a tiny instrument, we must unfortunately break the news that it can't be played.

Cosmologists are fighting over everything.

Archived version: https://archive.is/2SSwm

A group of young environmentalists in Honduras are turning used cooking oil into soap and dog food.

ASKAP J1832-0911, which is periodically throwing out pulses of radio waves and X-rays, could be a brand-new cosmic object.

Horrific, genocidal atrocities are being carried out against Palestinians in Gaza right now. But Israeli historian Ilan Pappé explains that Palestinian Israelis also find themselves in an “apartheid state” inside Israel.

Episode Summary

Thanks to the open web, it’s more viable than ever for creators to take back ownership and control of their work, their audience, and their livelihood. No one knows this better than Molly White, a researcher, writer and software engineer. This episode was recorded live at SXSW 2025.

Episode Notes

Thanks to the rise of the open social web, it’s more viable than ever for creators to take back ownership and control of the distribution of their work, their connection to their audiences, and their livelihoods overall. Real alternatives to walled-garden platforms aren’t just theoretical ideas — they’re here, and getting stronger every day.

No one knows this better than Molly White, the researcher, writer and software engineer behind the Citation Needed newsletter and the project Web3 Is Going Just Great. Molly’s not only an outspoken advocate for an open, ethical web, she’s also cracked the code on being a successful, autonomous creator herself. During this conversation with Flipboard CEO Mike McCue, recorded live at SXSW 2025 on March 9, 2025, White explains her setup, philosophy, and learnings, and takes smart questions from the audience at the end.

Highlights include discussions of:

• Importance of owning your online identity
• Strategies for digital ownership
• Moving content freely without platform constraints
• Monetization and sustainable models
• Video content, e-commerce, surveillance capitalism

Is the overconsumption of "trivial or unchallenging" content online or on social media platforms causing our brains to deteriorate?

Stumbled across this, thought others might find the trip bacxk in time interesting.

The advent of the personal computer brought computers closer to us -- from distant computer rooms of the mainframe era right to our desks. However, computing still remains accessible only when we're sitting at our desks, and is thus not really part of our personal day-to-day living.

And this image:

"The safety net: a network of individuals, three with WearCams"

(using a better color version I found elsewhere)

The existence of orange cats dates back to at least the 12th century, but scientists have only had theories that a sex-linked genetic mutation is behind it. Now, new research has pinpointed the exact variant, and it involves a gene that has previously been unknown to impact pigmentation in animals. So while there are other orange-colored mammals, the ginger cat is one of a kind.

In the 1970s, the USSR used nuclear devices to try to send water from Siberia's rivers flowing south, instead of its natural route north.

A state-run social media network could become an alternative to Twitter or Facebook, but it could also pose a risk to our privacy and freedom

oop: https://mastodon.social/@publicdomainrev/114563827006405018

ooop: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/music-of-the-squares-david-ramsay-hay-and-the-reinvention-of-pythagorean-aesthetics

Scientists have uncovered a seismic signature beneath Mars’ surface that hints at something astonishing—liquid water may still exist in the planet’s upper crust.

The sight of a large, carnivorous New Zealand snail laying an egg from its neck has been captured on camera for the first time.