Posts by "jweeks"
Returning the eastern quoll
In autumn 2018, we will be embarking on an ambitious program to return the eastern quoll to the wild on mainland Australia.
The story of the loss of the eastern quoll is a tragedy. In the early 1900’s a mysterious epidemic carried off vast numbers of eastern quolls, and as foxes spread across south eastern Australia, their populations were further drastically impacted, with the last mainland eastern quolls being regularly seen in the 1960s in the Sydney and Illawarra region of NSW.
Link: https://www.pozible.com/project/operation-eastern-quoll
“Grand Visions” for Post-Capitalist HCI – A CHI2018 Workshop
This one day workshop will take place at the Palais des Congrès de Montréal, Montréal, Canada as part of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2018 (CHI 2018) on 21st April 2018. To attend the workshop, participants were required to submit a short piece of work detailing their motivations and ideas.
Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests – Wallace & Gromit’s World of Invention Episode 1 Preview – BBC One
17 Beautiful Indigenous Comic Books And Video Games For Kids
If you know where to look, there has been a noticeable reclamation for Indigenous storytellers. Notably, it’s visible through technology and modern forms of online gaming, comic books, animation and transmedia. And while content for “mature audiences” is definitely on the rise, I was still able to find plenty of action for kids!
The Calling Cards of the 1970s and ’80s British CB Radio Subculture
In the late 1970s to early 1980s, there was a frenzy for Citizens Band (CB) radio in the UK. However, while it was legal to own such a device, it was not legal to operate on the airwaves. So an elaborate system of codes and pseudonyms were used by the “breakers” who communicated across miles to neighbor hobbyists and strangers.
Link: https://hyperallergic.com/417878/eyeball-cards-cb-radio-culture/
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the Women Cryptographers Who Fought WWII at the Intersection of Language and Mathematics
During WWII, when Richard Feynman was recruited as one of the country’s most promising physicists to work on the Manhattan Project in a secret laboratory in Los Alamos, his young wife Arline was writing him love letters in code from her deathbed.
Alien Meteorite Found in the Sahara Is Older Than Our Solar System
2017 was a year of excitement among the asteroid-watching community, as ‘Oumuamua, the first recorded visitor from an another solar system, took a spin around our sun before launching itself off into the inky blackness of space.
According to a team at the University of Johannesburg, though, ‘Oumuamua is far from the first visitor from another solar system that we have available to study. One such alien rock is right here on Earth, making it far easier to study.
Link: https://www.outerplaces.com/science/item/17478-alien-meteorite-found-sahara-older-than-solar-system
Reclaiming Public Services
Reclaiming Public Services is vital reading for anyone interested in the future of local, democratic services like energy, water and health care. This is an in-depth world tour of new initiatives in public ownership and the variety of approaches to deprivatisation.
Link: https://www.tni.org/en/publication/reclaiming-public-services
The Favorite Literary Work of Every Country Visualized on a World Map
Begun by user “BackForward24” and crowdsourced through Reddit, this map of the world illustrates the most beloved/popular book of each country by pasting a scan of the book cover over its space on the world map. For book lovers who want to read themselves around the world, it will prove invaluable.
DON’T WAKE the WOMBAT?!
Alaskan infant’s DNA tells story of ‘first Americans’
The 11,500-year-old remains of an infant girl from Alaska have shed new light on the peopling of the Americas.
Genetic analysis of the child, allied to other data, indicates she belonged to a previously unknown, ancient group.
Scientists say what they have learnt from her DNA strongly supports the idea that a single wave of migrants moved into the continent from Siberia just over 20,000 years ago.