Six Things, Volume 121

Attoseconds | Nature | Roads | Ozzy | Divine | Fish

A brief, desultory Six Things this week. Apologies.

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Thing 1 – Attoseconds

The extremes of time and space never fail to boggle the mind, recalling the exchange between Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel and David St. Hubbins as they stand in quiet contemplation of Elvis Presley’s grave:

“It really puts perspective on things, doesn’t it?”

“Too much. Too much fucking perspective.”

The latest example to cross my radar is the attosecond (a billionth of a billionth of a second, or 0.000000000000000001s), about which this article was both enlightening and entertaining.

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Thing 2 – Nature

Some extraordinary photographs in the gallery of winners from this year’s BigPicture: Natural World Photography Competition. The octopus one in particular is amazing.

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Thing 3 – Roads

This is a nice thing for fans of maps and images and images of maps. Type in the name of a town or city (or even a village or district) and it will render every single road in it.

Thanks to Alastair Humphreys and his newsletter Shouting From The Shed for this one.

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Thing 4 – Ozzy

Ozzy Osbourne died, and we were sad. In his honour, there’s this survey of the Metal Scream, including videos about its origins and the ten longest screams in the oeuvre. And this is a splendid analysis of the fonts on Black Sabbath albums.

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Thing 5 – Divine

Katherine Brent, water diviner.

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Thing 6 – Fish

Lovely, this. Draw a fish.