More on this, here:

• The mystery over why human brains have shrunk over time | BBC |18 May 2024

• Human brains have shrunk: the questions are when and why | Front. Ecol. Evol., 22 June 2023

From wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bounty_jumper

men who enlisted in the Union or Confederate army during the American Civil War only to collect a bounty and then leave.

A month after the Battle of Fort Sumter the United States Congress passed a law allowing for bounties up to $300. The Confederate government did likewise, starting at $50 and then later in the war increased the bounty to $100.

As the typical Northern private was paid $13 a month, the bonuses were considerable.

Risky, since desertion for them could mean torture or execution, but the money was really good for the time.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/64979256

From the wikipedia page:

A gamergate (/ˈɡæmərˌɡeɪt/ GAM-ər-gayt) is a mated worker ant that can reproduce sexually, i.e., lay fertilized eggs that will develop as females. In the vast majority of ant species, workers are sterile and gamergates are restricted to taxa where the workers have a functional sperm reservoir ('spermatheca'). In some species, gamergates reproduce in addition to winged queens (usually upon the death of the original foundress), while in other species the queen caste has been completely replaced by gamergates. In gamergate species, all workers in a colony have similar reproductive potentials, but as a result of physical interactions, a dominance hierarchy is formed and only one or a few top-ranking workers can mate (usually with foreign males) and produce eggs. Subsequently, however, aggression is no longer needed as gamergates secrete chemical signals that inform the other workers of their reproductive status in the colony.

Depending on the species, there can be one gamergate per colony (monogyny) or several gamergates (polygyny). Most gamergate species have colonies with a few hundred or fewer workers.

Also the designer thought up to 50% of New Yorkers would ride it... Because he is unaware that most adults have no interest in riding 100 foot drop coasters

Sterling Ball, whose company is the world's leading maker of premium guitar strings, explains why he made the move to open source and why he's never looked back since.*

*editorial: Spite!

He sabotaged the French attempt to negotiate a peace with the Haudenosaunee and managed to keep them at war with each other while both agreed to peace with his tribe. Truly masterfully done.

Sacha Baron Cohen, in the persona of bad boy rapper Ali G, amused Harvard's Class of 2004 at Class Day ceremonies Wednesday, June 9 in Tercentenary Theatre.

Around 2:52

Back in 2020, Brazil launched the PIX system of instant money transfer between any and every bank within the country. Meta was already trying to implement Whatsapp Pay in Brazil around late May, but was being held back by regulation agencies, on purpose, in order for PIX to rollout first. PIX started working around November 2020, while Whatsapp Pay was allowed to resume work in March 2021, but it fell flat and was scrapped away some time later.

For context, some 98% of Brazilian phones have whatsapp and it is the 2nd largest market for the app, only behind India. Had Meta gotten its way, a huge number of Brazilians would've had their finances controlled by Meta.

The photo in the article shows the kind of webbing I used to think was made by spiders. The silk strands are usually around 90-100nm, or almost 100 times thinner than human hair

Nothing surprising given how terrible Trump is, but nonetheless.

He also was present at a Ku Klux Klan demonstration in 1927.

Soviets seemed to treat a lot of Nazis as nicely as the Seppos did.

They used EEG & transcranial magnetic stimulation to send left/right information with an 81% success rate!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphene#Research

TIL that when you see a CAPTCHA, it might not just be training AI — it could be feeding a “CAPTCHA farm.”
These are rooms full of real people getting paid a few cents per solve, basically acting as reverse Turing testers. The irony? AI companies outsource their hardest puzzles to actual humans — often in developing countries — to keep their models learning.
We train AI to be human-like, and humans get paid like machines. Wild.

• add or modify calendar events and send email to guests without owners' knowledge

This app can add, remove, or change calendar events on your phone. This app can send messages that may appear to come from calendar owners, or change events without notifying their owners.

When I was in elementary school,our Chinese teacher had gave us a exercise book,each page gives a story, we read it and write answers below.The book should be ditched when finished it or graduated and it's been near 10years I couldn't remember the book,the stories and what was I like at that time,but one foreign story's very impressive when I read it from the book,and I still remember the details without ever seen again,

The story I remembered:

A little boy was extremely hungry and thirsty , he past a house for help , a young lady comes out and generously gives him big glass of milk.The boy memorize her kindness in his heart. Time past by that lady got severe illness , it could be cure but when the bill was sent to her ,she's afraid , she finally opened it with fear, it was the amount of milk and the name of the doctor,he was the little boy.

In my memory , the stories on the book was told are all real,and this single one sometimes appearing in my mind,as I knew I have depression , I think about it more ,some people release their little kindness and I could remember it so long.I see some girls as how the young lady was in that little boy's eyes.And as I think , it looks more like fictional: HOW CAN THE DOCTOR RECOGNIZE THE LADY?Name or other things,even though he can get it during the quick help,it was not written...(and lacks other information)It tends to teach people be gratitude.

I search for it and found the story in Chinese, then I search the name of the doctor,it has Wikipedia page,finally I search "Howard Atwood Kelly milk" and found the story.

According to https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-milk-of-human-kindness/ (both story above and the real),Kelly was just have a break,the girl's illness was also not serious,Kelly paid it himself same as he did to many other patients that were not rich.

It should be the first "real" story of gratitude that I've heard,fits the quote "滴水之恩，湧泉相報“，I could also see some similar in Chinese history like what Han Xin did, but it's only history though.I would be glad if the story is 100% real.

Even if you are not weak anymore, you still no opportunity to repay some which helped you.It will be great that thus kindness can be everywhere instead of ABUSING,CHEATING...

Thank you all for reading my texts .