LAST UPDATE March 17, 2023

News and information culled from the internet

COSMOLOGY

The New (and Old) Astronautical suits – Business Insider

There's new suits designed for the moon-return project at NASA

The Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit suits, or AxEMUs, will be delivered to NASA by the summer. The dark gray and orange version unveiled in March 2023 is a prototype, and the final version will be white.

LANGUAGES

It is estimated there are 7,000 languages spoken around the globe, though it is considered by experts that there are many languages that are undocumented and some on the brink of extinction.

The Ethnologue database of world languages lists 7,117 living languages in the world. How many people actually speak each language varies from millions of users to just a hundred, or even less: Ainu, an indigenous language spoken primarily by the Ainu people on the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido with an estimate of only a handful of speakers. (Efforts are being made to preserve and revitalize the Ainu language).

In counting the number of languages spoken one must also consider languages that are spoken in multiple dialects. Linguists estimate that between 50 and 90 percent of the world's languages are expected to become extinct in the coming century due to the phenomenon of globalization, with dominant languages (such as English, Spanish, Mandarin, etc) spreading by being necessary for commercial enterprise, but lesser used languages falling into disuse from those same conditions.

Writing Language

The majority of languages in the world are written from left to right, with the characters or letters appearing in sequence from left to right. This is the case for many of the world's most widely spoken languages, such as English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, and Russian, etc.

However, there are also several languages that are traditionally written from right to left, with the characters or letters appearing in sequence from right to left. These languages include Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu, etc.

And there are languages that are written vertically, with characters or letters appearing in columns from top to bottom, such as traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

In recent times, many vertical-writing languages have also adopted horizontal writing systems for digital communication or print media. For example, modern Japanese is often written horizontally in electronic media, while traditional vertical writing is still used for many formal documents and publications.

PUBLIC DOMAIN

Sources for public domain historical videos

1. The Prelinger Archives: Prelinger has a collection of over 60,000 public domain films, videos, and other ephemera, all available for free download and reuse. The archive features a wide range of historical footage, including educational films, government propaganda, and old newsreels.

2. The National Archives: The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has a large collection of public domain videos, including historical newsreels, military films, and other government-produced content. These videos are available for free download for use. There is also a NARA YouTube channel.

3. Internet Archive: The Internet Archive is a digital library that offers a wide range of public domain content, including historical videos. The archive includes newsreels, documentaries, and other historical footage, as well as a large collection of public domain movies and TV shows.

4. Library of Congress: The Library of Congress collects everything and has a collection of public domain videos and other multimedia content, including historical footage, interviews, and lectures. The videos can be accessed through the Library's website or on its YouTube channel.

Though most materials are public domain content, some videos may have usage restrictions, such as requiring attribution or prohibiting commercial use. Be sure to check the terms of use for each video before using it in your own projects.

21ST CENTURY COMMUNICATIONS

Message in a bottle floats from Nova Scotia to Bahamas beach - Accuweather-UPI

MODERN BATS

Bob Kane, the co-creator of Batman, died on November 3, 1998. He was born on October 24, 1915, in New York City, and began working in the comic book industry in the 1930s. Kane is best known for his work on Batman, which he co-created with writer Bill Finger in 1939, with some assist from Jerry Robinson.

Kane worked on various Batman comics throughout his career, and was also involved in numerous Batman-related television shows, movies, and merchandise. Kane was inducted into the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame in 1996, and though has become a controversial figure in recent decades because of arguments over the true percentage of creative input between Finger and Kane on the creation of the multi-billion-collar earning Batman character, Kane is nonetheless widely regarded as one of the most influential and important figures in the history of comic books. Bob Kane was born on October 24, 1915, in New York City, New York, United States. His birth name was Robert Kahn, and he was the son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants.

THE FUTURE

Schools banning ChatGPT for the obvious reasons – WRAL

MODERN TRENDS

Younger and younger people are getting cosmetic surgery procedures in order to look more like their filtered profile images used on social media – Kathimerini [Greek]

Isn't this just a radical extension of the concept of using makeup in general?

HEALTH

Food Hazards: Link seen between processed foods and cancer

Article at UPI MSN

200,000 adults, part of a ten year "observation" by the Imperial College London's School of Public Health, were found to have higher risks on brain and ovarian cancers, linked to consuming over-processed foods. Other health issues are described in the article at UPI which also points out the percentages for increase risk from "ultra-processed" foods. The article doesn't distinguish between "over-processed" and "ultra-processed" and it appears to mean the same thing.

Tashen - Feb 2, 2023: the Art book publisher (perhaps more accurately they're a coffee table book and fat mini-coffee table book publisher ) is having a very large sale – Tashen Sale Page

What will this mean later in tech design? Apple is losing its top designer – Seeking Alpha

Philatelics

Apparently issued June 20, 1960 in anticipation of the July 9–16, 1960 London International Stamp Exhibition. Stamps like these were issued as souvenirs and for purchase at the events.

This stamp celebrates the Tercentenary of the appointment of Colonel Henry Bishop as the UK's very first Postmaster General.

The stamps show "Bishop's Mark" which are the world's first hand-stamped dating system for marking when a postal item entered the system. This idea (in 1661) was to help facilitate speedy delivery through the system.