Interesting Links for 18-05-2017

[andrewducker]

What is the Antikythera Mechanism? Five things you didn't know about 'the world's first computer'

(tags: computers history space time greece Technology )

Life is getting ever more volatile – or is it?

(tags: economics jobs history life change )

Good Lord. An article that actually understands why so many Scots want Independence

(tags: scotland independence Conservatives uk politics )

Scrapping university fees is a terrible idea, and there are far better places to put the money

(tags: fees university economics Education )

Lib Dem Manifesto Analysis

(tags: politics libdem )

Boris Johnson berated in Sikh temple after promoting alcohol

(tags: politics alcohol religion OhForFucksSake )

British man arrested for not giving up passwords at Heathrow to police

(tags: uk surveillance OhForFucksSake )

How the wrong cat litter took down a nuclear waste repository

(tags: cats nuclear OhForFucksSake )

Reality Check: Could legalising cannabis raise £1bn?

(tags: drugs money uk )

The Economist: Labour is right—Karl Marx has a lot to teach today’s politicians

(tags: economics history )

Summary of LGBT+ Content in the Lib Dem Manifesto

(tags: lgbt libdem politics uk )

"May You Live In Interesting Times" - not actually a Chinese curse!

(tags: china fraud quotes )

Oculus Research on Focal Surface Display (projecting onto a varied surface to give different focal lengths)

(tags: VirtualReality research )

Last week, PWR BTTM was the Next Big Thing in punk. Now the band is in ruins, and fans are reeling.

(tags: music assault )

Dutch king reveals double life as an airline pilot for KLM

(tags: royalty netherlands flying viaSwampers )

If you watched Syria from space, you'd have seen the lights go out

(tags: syria war electricity )

The Cyrillic glyph so rare it's only used in one word

(tags: language russia )

Why the obituary for Eudocia Tomas Pulido didn’t tell the story of her life in slavery

(tags: slavery death )

Comments

[calimac]

What I'd like to know about the Antikythera mechanism is 1) has anybody built a working replica of it? (I know there are replicas: do they work?) 2) how to spell it (yes, I can and did look it up, but that's not what I want: I want to know how to spell it)

Delighted to learn that the person apparently solely responsible for spreading the legend of the "ancient Chinese curse" was Austen Chamberlain. Would never have guessed.