The Ig Nobel Prize winners were announced this week (and the regular Nobel Prizes are being announced now-ish, too) and they’re fantastic. Do tortoises have contagious yawning? Can airborne wasabi be used as an emergency alarm? Can world peace be achieved by running over luxury cars with a tank? People did experiments on these things!!!
A great video on the history of lyrics that aren’t lyrics (via Katie’s dad).
The Taino, the indigenous peoples Columbus meet in the Caribbean, were believed to have been exterminated centuries ago. But the story is far more layered than that.
The single bride who married herself. Right on!
This is so old and so pointless, but yet here we are.
Millie thinks “Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)” is one of Arcade Fire’s prettier songs, and this cover by Quinn Deveaux and Meklit Hadero takes it to a whole new (gorgeous!) level. [Katie edit: How beautiful!]
More music! One of Katie’s all-time favorite artists is Kathleen Edwards, and she has two new songs out. “Change the Sheets” and “Wapusk,” both produced by Bon Iver.
“Wapusk” is Kathleen Edward’s contribution to Parks Canada’s The National Parks Project, celebrating the organization’s centennial. Watch the trailer for the upcoming film. [Watching the sun rise over Gros Morne is on Katie's life list. She just has to figure out how to wake up that early...]
This audiovisual illusion called the McGurk Effect is MIND BLOWING. Turns out what you hear is at least partially dependent on what you see.
What Twitter would’ve been in the 1800′s, and other vintage startups.
Should we return to nose to tail eating? Cookbook author Jennifer McLagan says yes, in an interview on Q.
The death of the creative class.
Are any of you Jeopardy! watchers? Two people have told Katie that one of last week’s champions, Chris Fleitas, is her boy-twin in looks and mannerisms. She wonders if fake-related status earns her a slice of the winnings…
Thanks, once again, for a great list of links. I’ve bookmarked all the songs and will be adding them to key playlists this weekend!
The non-lyrics song was much more fun than I expected— maybe they can be bribed into writing an art music prequel? Off the top of my head, I can think of Ravel and Debussy pieces that are heavy on “la la las,” and a Purcell ditty with the chorus all singing “ha ha ha ha.” But maybe “ha” counts as a word.
I only made it 5 seconds into the “old and pointless” clip. Call me a quitter.
The bride marrying herself was far cooler than I expected—- I was thinking of a woman from years ago who married herself SEVERAL times, supposedly out of love for herself, but I figured she just looooooved weddings.
I was familiar with the McGurk Effect, but didn’t realize its importance until friends started posting “Bad Lip Reading” videos. No WAY those would work without some McGurk goin’ on.
Chris Fleitas is cute as a button, but I’d say he looks more like Katie’s brother or cousin than outright twin. But then, we’ve never met.