All posts tagged: discover

The Wide-Ranging Creative Genius of David Lynch (RIP): Discover His Films, Music Videos, Cartoons, Commercials, Paintings, Photography & More

The Wide-Ranging Creative Genius of David Lynch (RIP): Discover His Films, Music Videos, Cartoons, Commercials, Paintings, Photography & More

Published by José

Image by Sasha Kar­galt­sev via Wiki­me­dia Com­mons As every cinephile has by now heard, and lament­ed, we’ve just lost a great Amer­i­can film­mak­er. From Eraser­head to Blue Vel­vet to Mul­hol­land Dri­ve to Inland Empire, David Lynch’s fea­tures will sure­ly con­tin­ue to bewil­der and inspire gen­er­a­tion after gen­er­a­tion of aspir­ing young auteurs. (There seems even to be a re-eval­u­a­tion under­way of his adap­ta­tion of Dune, the box-office cat­a­stro­phe that turned him away from the Hol­ly­wood machine.) But Lynch was nev­er exact­ly an aspir­ing young auteur him­self. He actu­al­ly began his career as a painter, just one of the many facets of his artis­tic exis­tence that we’ve fea­tured over the years here at Open Cul­ture. Lynch stud­ied paint­ing at the Penn­syl­va­nia Acad­e­my of Fine Arts in the mid-nine­teen-six­ties, and the urban decay of Philadel­phia at the time did a great deal to inspire the aes­thet­ic of Eraser­head, which made his name on the mid­night-movie cir­cuit a decade lat­er. When the MTV era fired up in just a few years, he found his sig­na­ture blend of grotes­querie and …

Discover sparkling wine: A tasting masterclass

Discover sparkling wine: A tasting masterclass

Published by Sam

Ever wondered why Champagne is more expensive than Prosecco, or what makes English sparkling wine such a rising star? Curious about the buzz around pet-nat or the refreshing tang of Lambrusco? Find out at this sparkling wine masterclass, where the world of bubbles takes centre stage. Join wine expert Anjali Douglas of WSET School London, for an evening of effervescence as she guides you through eight unique sparkling wines. From understanding their origins and production techniques to exploring how they pair with food, you’ll gain the confidence to navigate the sparkling wine aisle and find your perfect fizz. Discover how sparkling wine is made and what makes each style unique Taste and compare eight distinctive sparkling wines, from Prosecco to vintage Champagne Explore the regions and grape varieties behind the bottles Learn how to pair sparkling wines with food for maximum enjoyment Uncover the stories behind the bubbles, including the rise of English sparkling wine Anjali Douglas is an expert wine educator at WSET School London. A recipient of the prestigious Dom Pérignon Golden Vines …

Scientists discover a weird fact about people with no sense of smell

Scientists discover a weird fact about people with no sense of smell

Published by José

A recent study published in Nature Communications has uncovered that individuals with congenital anosmia—a condition where a person is born without the ability to smell—exhibit altered patterns of nasal breathing compared to those with a normal sense of smell. These differences persist during both waking hours and sleep, and the findings suggest that disrupted airflow may play a role in some of the health challenges associated with anosmia. While the human sense of smell is often undervalued, its loss can significantly reduce quality of life. People with anosmia commonly report emotional difficulties, dietary changes, and even a higher risk of mortality. Despite these serious outcomes, the underlying reasons remain unclear. Researchers have long known that the human nose serves two functions: smelling and breathing. Odors influence how we breathe—for example, unpleasant smells often cause us to inhale less deeply. Given this connection, the researchers hypothesized that individuals with anosmia might experience altered patterns of nasal airflow. These changes, they speculated, could contribute to the negative health outcomes associated with anosmia. To test their hypothesis, the …

Scientists discover the origins of Saturn’s rings and moons

Scientists discover the origins of Saturn’s rings and moons

Published by skeptic

Saturn’s rings are a celestial marvel that have long fascinated astronomers and casual stargazers alike. Visible from Earth through modest telescopes, these shimmering halos are not only captivating but also steeped in mystery. Scientists have recently revealed a compelling theory about their origins, using advanced supercomputer simulations to peer into a time when dinosaurs roamed our planet. This research offers a glimpse into the dramatic events that might have shaped Saturn’s rings and moons, and raises tantalizing questions about the potential for life within this enigmatic planetary system. New findings suggest that Saturn’s rings formed a few hundred million years ago—relatively recent in cosmic terms—from the debris of two icy moons colliding and shattering. Such a cataclysmic event could have also contributed to the formation of some of the planet’s current moons. Still image from a computer simulation of an impact between two icy moons in orbit around Saturn. The collision ejects debris that could evolve into the planet’s iconic and remarkably young rings. The simulation used over 30 million particles, colored by their ice …

Middle school students discover cancer-fighting compound in goose droppings

Middle school students discover cancer-fighting compound in goose droppings

Published by skeptic

A Chicago-based science initiative recently turned middle school students into bona fide biomedical scientists, blending hands-on learning with groundbreaking research. These students uncovered a novel compound with the potential to slow melanoma and ovarian cancer growth, demonstrating the transformative power of STEM education when paired with real-world research. The discovery emerged from a 14-week program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), designed to address educational inequities in STEM fields. Led by researcher Brian Murphy and his team, the program partnered with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago to immerse students in antibiotic discovery research. Through this collaboration, young learners collected and analyzed environmental samples from their neighborhoods, exploring science as active contributors rather than passive learners. Canada Goose droppings. (CREDIT: CC BY-SA 4.0) Hands-On Science with Local Roots The program’s unique structure placed students at the center of high-level research. Participants conducted fieldwork, applied science experiments, and environmental studies, guided by graduate and postdoctoral mentors. Using UIC’s cutting-edge robotic tools, the students safely grew bacterial cultures and tested for bioactive compounds. One …

Scientists Discover that Ancient Egyptians Drank Hallucinogenic Cocktails from 2,300 Year-Old Mug

Scientists Discover that Ancient Egyptians Drank Hallucinogenic Cocktails from 2,300 Year-Old Mug

Published by José

If ZZ Top have a favorite ancient Egypt­ian deity, that deity is sure­ly Bes, whom the New York Times’ Alexan­der Nazaryan quotes cura­tor and schol­ar Branko van Oppen de Ruiter as call­ing “a beer drinker and a hell-rais­er.” In a paper pub­lished last month in Sci­en­tif­ic Reports, Van Oppen and fif­teen col­lab­o­ra­tors call the row­dy but appar­ent­ly benev­o­lent Bes “one of the most fas­ci­nat­ing and wild­ly pop­u­lar fig­ures of ancient Egypt­ian reli­gion,” and he’s come to mod­ern pub­lic atten­tion thanks to the sub­ject of that paper: a 2,000-year-old cup mold­ed in the shape of his head that has test­ed pos­i­tive for traces of psy­che­del­ic sub­stances — as well as alco­hol and bod­i­ly flu­ids. Their analy­sis of the mug, a 3D mod­el of which you can exam­ine above, “yield­ed evi­dence of two plants known to have hal­lu­cino­genic prop­er­ties: Syr­i­an rue and the blue water lily,” writes Nazaryan, and it also bore traces of “a fer­ment­ed alco­holic liq­uid derived from fruit,” then sweet­ened with pine nuts, hon­ey, and licorice. Those were the sorts of ingre­di­ents ancient Egyp­tians …

Discover Hannah Arendt’s Syllabus for Her 1974 Course on “Thinking”

Discover Hannah Arendt’s Syllabus for Her 1974 Course on “Thinking”

Published by José

If you’ve read one work of Han­nah Arendt’s, it’s prob­a­bly Eich­mann in Jerusalem, her account of the tri­al of the epony­mous Nazi offi­cial — and the source of her much-quot­ed phrase “the banal­i­ty of evil.” That book came out in 1963, at which time Arendt still had a dozen pro­duc­tive years left. In fact, at the time of her sud­den death in 1975, she had in her type­writer the first page of what would have been the third vol­ume of her final work, The Life of the Mind. In its two com­plet­ed vol­umes, she inves­ti­gates the nature of thought and action, a pre­oc­cu­pa­tion with the rela­tion­ship between think­ing and moral­i­ty hav­ing been fired up with­in her at the Eich­mann tri­al. “The Life of the Mind” also appears atop the syl­labus, recent­ly post­ed by Arendt biog­ra­ph­er Saman­tha Rose Hill, for “206: Think­ing,” a class Arendt taught in 1974 at the New School for Social Research. Encom­pass­ing a range of philoso­phers from Aris­to­tle, Cicero, and Pla­to to Niet­zsche, Wittgen­stein, and Hei­deg­ger (a fig­ure with whom she could …

‘Deep inside, something told me I had found the earliest human ancestor; I went numb’ – Yohannes Haile-Selassie on his lifetime quest to discover ancient humanity

‘Deep inside, something told me I had found the earliest human ancestor; I went numb’ – Yohannes Haile-Selassie on his lifetime quest to discover ancient humanity

Published by skeptic

Fifty years ago, the discovery of a partial skeleton amid the barren desert landscape of northern Ethiopia transformed our understanding of where humans came from, and how we developed into Homo sapiens. “Lucy” was first spotted on November 24 1974 by the American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson and his student assistant Tom Gray. Named after the Beatles’ Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, a popular song in the their team’s camp at the time, it was immediately clear she was a female, because of her small adult size, and that she had walked upright, unlike chimpanzees. Lucy was also very old – at almost 3.2 million years, she was anointed as the then-earliest known (distant) ancestor of modern humans. Over the following decades, rather fittingly given her name, she became a “paleo-rock star”, going on a US tour from 2006 following a deal with the Ethiopian authorities. Lucy’s discovery marked a critical moment in our understanding of the origins of humanity – and of Ethiopia’s place at the heart of this story. Many other important fossils …

Discover the CIA’s Simple Sabotage Field Manual: A Timeless Guide to Subverting Any Organization with “Purposeful Stupidity” (1944)

Discover the CIA’s Simple Sabotage Field Manual: A Timeless Guide to Subverting Any Organization with “Purposeful Stupidity” (1944)

Published by José

I’ve always admired peo­ple who can suc­cess­ful­ly nav­i­gate what I refer to as “Kafka’s Cas­tle,” a term of dread for the many gov­ern­ment and cor­po­rate agen­cies that have an inor­di­nate amount of pow­er over our per­ma­nent records, and that seem as inscrutable and chill­ing­ly absurd as the labyrinth the char­ac­ter K nav­i­gates in Kafka’s last alle­gor­i­cal nov­el. Even if you haven’t read The Cas­tle, if you work for such an entity—or like all of us have reg­u­lar deal­ings with the IRS, the health­care and bank­ing sys­tem, etc.—you’re well aware of the dev­il­ish incom­pe­tence that mas­quer­ades as due dili­gence and ties us all in knots. Why do mul­ti-mil­lion and bil­lion dol­lar agen­cies seem unable, or unwill­ing, to accom­plish the sim­plest of tasks? Why do so many of us spend our lives in the real-life bureau­crat­ic night­mares sat­i­rized in The Office and Office Space? One answer comes via Lau­rence J. Peter’s 1969 satire The Peter Prin­ci­ple—which offers the the­o­ry that man­agers and exec­u­tives get pro­mot­ed to the lev­el of their incompetence—then, David Brent-like, go on to ruin their …

3 Zodiac Signs Discover Their True Purpose On November 7, 2024

3 Zodiac Signs Discover Their True Purpose On November 7, 2024

Published by skeptic

On November 7, 2024, three zodiac signs will get a glimpse into their true purpose during Moon conjunct Pluto, when we can clear our minds just enough to pick up on the day’s revelations. What will be very interesting about Thursday and how the Moon conjunct Pluto works its way into our lives is that we’re not expecting to find anything in particular at this time. We may even be wandering around aimlessly, wondering if we have a purpose but not pursuing an answer. Three zodiac signs will stumble across that answer on this day, and it will hit us with great force and a powerful dose of positivity. The inevitable change begins now. We didn’t think we’d know exactly what we would discover. Three zodiac signs discover their true purpose on November 7, 2024: 1. Virgo Twemoji | Canva The beautiful thing about this day, for you, Virgo, is that you didn’t see it coming; what is coming is knowledge, comfort, and novelty. Something in your life is about to change for the better, …