High Definite/Stuff That’s Interesting

A handy map of states to avoid, from Goodreads:

A map of what each state thinks of Twilight ends up looking a lot like a map of the most recent election results. On the map above, the readers in the red states rated the book highly (the darker the red, the higher the rating), while readers in the blue states gave it a lower rating). The Midwest and the South represent The Twilight Belt, while the coasts were decidedly less impressed with the book.

Reviews were mostly distributed according to population, with the notable exception of Utah. Utah is the 34th most populous state in the US, but it generates the 6th most reviews of Twilight. In terms of cities, Salt Lake City—the 125th largest city in the country—is second only to New York in number of Twilight reviews. Opinion on the book is split in the Beehive state, with the average rating a pedestrian 3.64.

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The appropriately titled Moses Bridge, by RO & AD Architects, is a pedestrian bridge that allows you to “part” the West-Brabant waterline.

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Australian designer Edward Linacre has received this year’s James Dyson Award with his Airdrop irrigation concept. The self-powered irrigation system draws inspiration from the Namib Desert beetle, which survives in the desert by collecting fog droplets on its wings.

Moisture is harvested out of the air to irrigate crops by an efficient system that produces large amounts of condensation. A turbine intake drives air underground through a network of piping that rapidly cools the air to the temperature of the soil where it reaches 100% humidity and produces water. The water is then stored in an underground tank and pumped through to the roots of crops via sub surface drip irrigation hosing.

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Saw this video yesterday promoting David McRaney’s book, You Are Not So Smart, and I was going to post it…

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I’ll just leave this here.

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With the world’s population set to hit 7 billion on the 31st, the BBC has put together this nifty little tool that approximates where you fit into that 7 billion by using your birthdate.

Try it out here. | Via

NPR’s Planet Money got its hands on a government report entitled “Life After Debt“, which concluded the action would actually harm the global economy.

If the U.S. paid off its debt there would be no more U.S. Treasury bonds in the world. “It was a huge issue … for not just the U.S. economy, but the global economy,” says Diane Lim Rogers, an economist in the Clinton administration.

The U.S. borrows money by selling bonds. So the end of debt would mean the end of Treasury bonds.

But the U.S. has been issuing bonds for so long, and the bonds are seen as so safe, that much of the world has come to depend on them. The U.S. Treasury bond is a pillar of the global economy.

Banks buy hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth, because they’re a safe place to park money. Mortgage rates are tied to the interest rate on U.S. treasury bonds. The Federal Reserve — our central bank — buys and sells Treasury bonds all the time, in an effort to keep the economy on track.

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The latest RSA Animate features renowned psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist, who explains how our “divided brain” has profoundly altered human behaviour, culture and society.

RSA | Previously: The Paradox of Choice

Michael Stevens of Vsauce explains.

Vsauce | Via