I’m easing into the new year much as one might lower one’s buttocks into an overly warm bath. Which, for you, means another thrilling opportunity to throw together your own pile of links and oddities in the comments. I’ll set the ball rolling with an extensive archive of Sherlock Holmes radio shows, over 500 of them; a jellyfish of note; a superhydrophobic surface; The Art of Ornamental Orange Peeling, circa 1905; a nineteenth century spy camera; and, via Elephants Gerald, “Black Man Super Bikini” and other sub-optimal translations. 

Oh, and a reminder that snow makes people stupid.

The fierce and mighty warriors of professional wrestling. (h/t, Obnoxio) || According to the ladies at Marie Claire, this is now a thing. || Tortoise teamwork. || How do machines learn? Or, the thrill of algorithms. || Siberian farm cats. || The frugal Mrs Thatcher. || Heist. || Hard, harder, hardest. || “Comprised of ten organs covering nine metres, this is one of the most complicated systems in the body.” || Just type stuff. || Cats’ eyes. || Christmas spirit. || Classy as all hell. (h/t, Julia) || Auld Lang Syne interactive music box. || Where railways are. || You are still allowed to swear in Rochdale. || Vintage jackhammer restoration. || The dog copes remarkably well. || Seven wonders in 360. || More tiny worlds. || And finally, in shiny, revamped product news, you want one and you know it.

Why dogs don’t rule the Earth, part 2. || Kid’s got skills. || Lucas wants to warm his legs. || Liverpool’s public wash-houses, 1959. || Feminist scholarship, part 209. || The future is now. || 30 Die Hard factoids. || On stealing Einstein’s brain and keeping it in a beer cooler. || Bunny Lewis in A Couple of Beauties, 1972. Also starring Bernard Manning. || “Radio broadcasts leave Earth at the speed of light. Hear how far the biggest hits of the past have travelled.” || The Hubble advent calendar. || Three-player chess. || The medical effects of Marmite. || Grand Canyon time-lapse. || Disrespected pizza. || Snow in Amsterdam. || John McWhorter on the modishness of Ta-Nehisi Coates. (h/t, Damian) || Hats. || Rokshok. || An oral history of Viagra. || And finally, a short story featuring cats.

Seduction is afoot. 

Via Holborn. 

Heavy metal weather. || Murmuration. || The molecular mechanics of cell division. || A world of data. || In search of hidden dimensions. || The man who created Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future. (h/t, Obnoxio) || The first man-made nuclear chain reaction. || Sunken villages. || When mum dips her toe in virtual reality. (h/t, Damian) || Thickening time. || No offensively dirty faces. || “The time is fastly approaching where the tables are going to turn.” || Winter. (h/t, Ben) || The Great Smog of ‘52. || Impatient dog. || Punks share their wisdom via the medium of leather jackets. || This is one of these. || Big ‘uns. || Berezka. || Zinnia is woke. Don’t be like Zinnia. || And finally, at long last, a site for those who know the visceral thrill of milk floats. It has audio files and everything.