February 23, 2017
Iceland has a pizza problem. / The New York Times
Artist Sonja Hincrichsen makes massive “snow drawings” by enlisting dozens of people to walk on prescribed or random paths in snowshoes. / Sonja Hincrichsen
Japanese director Seijun Suzuku just died at 93. / The Hollywood Reporter
Only a quarter of California remains under “moderate drought” conditions, but places like Catalina Island can’t tap the Sierra snowpack and still struggle to stay hydrated. Alex Krowiak published a photo essay about life on the island, where people are washing dishes in the shower. As for the bison: / droughtmonitor.unl.edu, newsdeeply.com
Witness the Glory Hole Spillway at Lake Berryessa. Aka, “this is what happens when engineers build stuff to try to prevent dams from flooding.” / The New York Times
The building blocks of life are more common in our galaxy than previously thought. / extremetech.com
If habitable exoplanets do turn out to be as common as this discovery suggests, where are the aliens? That’s the Fermi paradox. / YouTube
“A giant high-tech Faraday cage made with pixel-like optical elements could control precisely what electromagnetic radiation gets through—an informational version of the air-filtration and containment of a biohazard lab.” We want to find out if there are aliens out there, but do we really want to let them in? A sort of bonkers set of ideas for making a two-way mirror for Earth. / Nautilus
“The thing that makes the Fermi Paradox interesting for SF is that like the speed of light, you have to have an answer for it. It can be any answer you like, but it has to answer it.” Tor compiles a list of possible solutions to the Fermi paradox, including: / tor.com
This year’s nominations includes a novel about people who can control earthquakes in a postapocalyptic Evil Earth, an allegory about neurodiversity told through a job shuttling fairies between parallel universes, and the revenge of a murdered angel. / NPR, uncannymagazine.com
Last May, astronomers announced that they’d found three planets orbiting a small, cool star situated near Aquarius, 40 light-years away from Earth. / The Guardian
“Rear your children to be atheists or agnostics—fine. But turning them loose on the world with no concept of right and wrong is unacceptable.” A fascinating, controversial, occasionally brilliant, occasionally naive, and very long conversation with polymath/computer scientist/conservative/humanist David Gelernter. / The Atlantic
The small Japanese town of Oji appears to have a new mascot, partially in a bid to develop tourism: a quadcopter doggy drone named Yukimaru. / town.oji.nara.jp, Creators