Lady Isle

Image: Lady Isle, this photo is available to licence on EyeEm.

#242

Friday, December 18, 2020

In This Edition:
Dichotomies of Lockdown, space spiders, VLF space barrier, 2020 web almanac, RCP podcast & the economics of belonging, and the great LEGO wave!

This week the Irish National Opera launched their 20 Shots Of Opera, a huge project that commissioned 20 composers for 20 short operas. My wife Dr. Jenn Kirby composed one called Dichotomies of Lockdown that tells the story of two people navigating the responsibilities and experience of lockdown. You can watch it here, and watch all the short operas on the INO website.


Space Spiders

Image: BioServe Space Technologies, University of Colorado Boulder

Someone decided that it was a good idea to put spiders on the International Space Station! Experiments with the space spiders (!) have shown that the spiders need a point of reference when building their webs and that light can be used as that reference in the absence of gravity. With no point of reference the spiders spin symmetrical webs in zero-g.

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VLF Space Barrier

Image: NASA

NASA scientists have discovered an energy barrier around the earth that protects us from radiation and that is accidentally man made. The barrier is made of VLF (very low frequency) radio waves, which are generally used to communication with underwater submarines but have been leaking into the atmosphere.

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Web Almanac 2020

Image: HTTP Archive

The HTTP Archive has published the 2020 Web Almanac, which combines the raw stats and trends of the TTP Archive with the expertise of the web community in order to document that latest start of the art on the web, from web development languages, to UX and deployment.

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The Podcast of The Week: Rhodes Center Podcast - The Fraught, Complex, and Important 'Economics of Belonging'

Image: RCP

The Rhodes Center Podcast is an economics podcast hosted by Mark Blyth from Brown University. In the episode The Fraught, Complex, and Important 'Economics of Belonging', Mark interviews Martin Sandbu about his new book The Economics of Belonging. The excellent interview covers the woes of the political and economic world and previews the solutions offered in the new book.

LEGO Great Wave

Image: Hankyu Hanshin Properties Corp.

Japanese LEGO builder Jumpei Mitsui has recreated Hokusai's Great Wave of Kanagawa in LEGO, with added 3D perspective!

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About Found This Week

Found This Week is a curated blog of interesting posts, articles, links and stories in the world of technology, science and life in general.
Each edition is curated by Daryl Feehely every Friday and highlights cool stuff found each week.
The first 104 editions were published on Medium before this site was created, check out the archive here.

Daryl Feehely

I’m a web consultant, contract web developer, technical project manager & photographer originally from Cork, now based in London. I offer my clients strategy, planning & technical delivery services, remotely & in person. I also offer freelance CTO services to companies in need of technical bootstrapping or reinvention. If you think I can help you in your business, check out my details on http://darylfeehely.com

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