Mad Quickies: Hidden Figures Way, Early Plasmonics, Medieval London Murder Map and More!
Howdy, friends, and happy Friday! I’m here to offer some bright spots in our world. First up: our feature photo today is a super-cool moment that happened in D.C. No, I’m not nipping at the cooking sherry. Yes THAT D.C. Here’s the full photo caption:
A D.C. Department of Transportation employee removes a paper cover from the “Hidden Figures Way” street sign at the corner of 3rd and E Street SW for the dedication ceremony, Wednesday, June 12, 2019, at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The 300 block of E Street SW in front of the NASA Headquarters building was designated as “Hidden Figures Way” to honor Katherine Johnson, Dorthy Vaughan Mary Jackson and all women who contributed to the space program of the United States. (Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
And it’s about damn time.
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Speaking of NASA, they’ve designated 140,000 visuals of outer space in their image library as free to the public. These visuals are high definition files filled with photos, videos, and sound clips, all free and available for download. Please be sure to also check out NASA’s media usage guidelines.
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Scientists found these old photographs contain metallic nanoparticles. “Daguerreotypes can be considered the first realization of plasmonic color printing”—nanoplasmonics being the study of “how nanoparticles interact with light.”
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“What is CBD? Will CBD get me high? Is using CBD a sin?
These are a just a few questions Christians around the country are asking themselves.”
Actually that’s an excerpt from “A poem composed entirely of excerpts from press releases for CBD products” — Designed with today’s fast-paced world in mind by Emma Marris. ”
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So you might ask yourself—”How dangerous was medieval London?” and here’s what I’ve got for you. “That’s a question that has recently been studied by the University of Cambridge’s Violence Research Center, and they have provided a handy interactive map for our perusal. Just in case we go back in time in a TARDIS or some such machine, we’ll know what parts of the city to avoid. And those parts are…well, most of it, actually.”
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I saved your rabbit hole of the day until last: The Amazing Winners of the 2019 National Geographic Travel Photo Contest. I really recommend you view this on a desktop screen for maximum wow-ness. The grand prize winner was Weimin Chu for Winter in Greenland depicting the fishing village of Upernavik. “All of the winning photos, along with the honorable mentions, can be viewed at natgeo.com/travelphotocontest.”
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Bonus Friday happiness:
Since it was Gene Wilder’s birthday this week, I thought this especially poignant. Hilarious, yes, but he’s a gent who is missed, to be sure. Please enjoy this roundup of outtakes from the 1974 film Young Frankenstein with Gene Wilder, Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn, and Marty Feldman
Found at Laughing Squid.
