Jessica Hische created a simple website to help guide Mac users into typing the correct quotes, accents and dashes in your writing without googling or using other hacks.
via swissmiss
Researchers figured out that plants whose nectar had caffeine in it made bees more likely to remember and return to them for pollination.
There was a small effect of caffeine on the rate of learning; bees that were given caffeine-laced nectar learned to associate the scent with the reward a bit faster than the bees that weren’t given caffeine. Where the researchers saw the biggest difference, however, was in the bees’ long-term memory. When given caffeine, bees were three times more likely to recall the association 24 hours after being trained, and twice as likely to remember it 72 hours later.
…
Probing a bit deeper, the researchers then turned to the question of how, exactly, caffeine enhanced the insects’ memories. Although bee and human brains are quite different in terms of structure, they function in many similar ways. A group of neurons in the bee brain called “Kenyon cells” are somewhat homologous to our hippocampal neurons, which play a role in associative learning. The researchers recorded activity from bees’ Kenyon cells, and found that caffeine increases these neurons’ excitability, making them more likely to fire in response to sensory stimuli. The more responsive these neurons are, the faster the bees’ brains can make the connection between the scent stimuli and the sweet reward.
via and Susan Orlean
A Pixar story artist tweeted a list of rules for storytelling. Aerogramme Writers’ Studio compiled them in a single place. It’s a good look at how to better your writing – and approach work/life. One of my favorites:
17. No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.
via Boing Boing
How our faces evolved over 7 million years. It’s neat to see how our jaw became less pronounced as our brains grew.
via Kottke
Spencer Ackerman has the nerdiest but fantastically awesome analysis of the Empire’s military mistakes at the Battle of Hoth. He breaks it down from the approach, the attack strategies, the timing, and the poor planning on Vader’s part. The whole thing is fun to read.
I’m not going to give away too many spoilers but he ends with this:
What did the Empire gain at Hoth? It had the opportunity to deal the Rebel Alliance a defeat from which the Rebels might not have recovered: the loss of its secret base; the loss of its politically potent symbol in Leia; and most of all the loss of its promising proto-Jedi in Luke. Instead, Luke escapes to join Yoda; Leia escapes with Han to Cloud City (where Vader has to resort to Plan B); and the Rebel Alliance’s transport ships largely escape to join up at a pre-established rendezvous point, as we see at the end of the film.
At the very most, the Empire’s assault on Hoth killed a couple of low-ranking Rebels and destroyed a few transit ships — which we don’t even see on screen. Instead of crushing the Rebels, it scattered them, leaving them to survive for the additional successes they’ll achieve in Return of the Jedi. It’s a classic fiasco of overconfidence and theology masquerading as military judgment — and the exact opposite of the Empire striking back.
via Sara Pavis who posted it to Kottke.org