Monday Cup Of Links #16 - Mummy Voices, Spacebots, Catfish, and Chosen One Books
Happy Monday!
And a happy Year of the Rat!
I’m putting out my links a little later than I planned today, but here are some interesting things I’ve been chewing on the past week.
A bunch of British academics CT-scanned and 3D-printed the voicebox of a 3000-year old mummy at the Leeds museum, and replicated his voice. It’s just an ‘ehhhhh’ sound for now, because they haven’t approximated what the fleshy parts (that are long gone) would do, like vocal folds, tongue and the shape of his mouth. This is incredibly exciting! Imagine being able to watch a Cleopatra movie with real voices and deepfaked actors.
India has its first space robot, Vyomamitra (space-friend). She’s just a prototype for now, who was programmed to introduce herself, but she’s going to be on unmanned missions, and is going to use sensors to report her experience. These can then be used to get a more realistic pictures to use for manned missions.
ICYMI: My Thursday post on how someone could travel between Mangalore and San Francisco in the 16th and 17th centuries. I had a lot of fun writing it, and I like how everyone has reacted to it!
The American Dirt Controversy. This awoke all the parts of me that have been annoyed by how the Intelligentsia decides to anoint a book that mirrors their world view, and then a bunch of influencers fall in line to call it the best thing since sliced bread. Even if the people it’s supposed to be based on don’t like the portrayal. They do this ALL THE TIME with books about India, most notably The God Of Small Things and White Tiger, and I’m sick of it.
GIF of the week: A school of striped eel catfish swim in formation as they take turns feeding on the ocean floor, and watching for predators.