Thursday Things: First Birthday Edition

6 August 2020. Vol 2 No 32 By Dan McGirt. #52

Welcome to Thursday Things! This is the 52d consecutive weekly issue of Thursday Things, which means it is Thursday Thing’s first birthday! Thank you to all the Happy Subscribers who have read my little newsletter for the past year! I hope Thursday Things has brought you some laughter, amusement, and interesting things to ponder.

Happy Birthday to Thursday Things! Photo by S O C I A L . C U T on Unsplash

• I love 80s music. But I have to admit, some of those lyrics are a little creepy if you think about them. Brazilian illustrator Butcher Billy (probably not his real name…) created fake book covers for 80s Stephen King-like horror novels based on 80s pop songs. Funny. Yet also disturbing:

  Brazilian Illustrator Reimagines Famous Love Songs As Creepy Book Covers By Stephen King

  (Click through to have a look. I’m not lifting his images.)

• Fly free or die. New Hampshire legalizes 'flying cars' for the road

  New Hampshire has passed a new law that allows so-called “flying cars” on its public roads, but they won’t be using them as runways, except in emergencies.

  The “Jetson Law” makes provisions in the state's motor vehicle rules for roadable aircraft, which are designed with retractable wings and rotors so they can be driven like a car.

• Fahrenheit, Celsius and Richter: The Units of Measurement Named After Real Scientists offers a reminder of some of the famous units of measurement we use every day that are named after scientists.

  One of the biggest honors a scientist can receive is to become the namesake of a unit of measurement — a fitting reward if they’re the ones who discovered what’s being measured in the first place. (All four of our “Rushmore” scientists have units named after them, though only Newton’s made it into the official International System of Units.) Sometimes, though, the label is all we know of the scientist. Let’s revisit the people behind the units.

  Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit 

  (1686–1736) The Dutch physicist invented alcohol and mercury thermometers, as well as the temperature scale that now bears his name (and perplexes the world outside the U.S. and a handful of other countries), with 0 degrees marking the temperature of a 1-1 mix of ice and salt.

  And more at the link. If your name were a unit of measurement, what would it measure?

• I know what these scientists’ names will measure if this goes horribly wrong. Bacteria live despite burial in seafloor mud for 100 million years

  In a way, Yuki Morono and his team of researchers at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology flipped that experience around by giving modern food to some old organisms. But their case involved bringing up ancient mud from the seafloor and adding some food to see if anything was alive in there.

  There were, in fact, bacteria in the mud, which likely doesn’t sound surprising. But given the environment and the age of this stuff—100 million years—it’s actually pretty remarkable.

  100 million-year-old bacteria from the bottom of the sea? I know! Let’s feed it and see what happens. What were you thinking, scientists?!? We’ve all seen that movie. We may in fact be living in that movie right now.

• Who doesn’t love a good mystery? Here are 10 Classic Whodunits Every Mystery Fan Needs to Read

• Thank you again for reading Thursday Things! See you next Thursday.