Friday links

100 years ago - Prohibition in the United States began in January 1920 and ended in December 1933. Related: here's Winston Churchill's doctor's note allowing him to drink "unlimited" alcohol in prohibition-era America.

For Al Capone's birthday, here's the story of that time he bought large blocks of stock in miniature golf construction companies.

Barns Are Painted Red Because of the Physics of Dying Stars.

January 17 is Ben Franklin's birthday - bio, quotes, videos, his 200+ synonyms for drunk, the bodies found in his basement, and more.

What could go wrong? Living ‘Franken-concrete’ which can heal its own cracks and even ‘give birth’ to new bricks, has been developed by scientists.

The Ten Most Important Weapons of the Middle Ages.

ICYMI, most recent links are here, and celebrating the Feast of the Ass, the science behind why dark winter days bum people out, learning any subject with Richard Feynman's notebook technique, the folklore of gin, and a 1918 publication on remedial politics for newly-enfranchised women in the UK.

Must watch interview with the "napalm girl" from the 1972 Pulitzer-winning photo

Remember the Napalm Girl from the Vietnamese War?

Per Wikipedia:

In this Vietnamese name, the family name is Phan. According to Vietnamese custom, this person should properly be referred to by the given name Kim Phúc.

Phan Thị Kim Phúc OOnt, born April 6, 1963), referred to informally as the Napalm girl, is a South Vietnamese-born Canadian woman best known as the nine-year-old child depicted in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken at Trảng Bàng during the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972. The well-known photo, by AP photographer Nick Ut, shows her at nine years of age running naked on a road after being severely burned on her back by a South Vietnamese napalm attack.

Watch this interview.

"I was in agony. Naked. So ugly. I wish that picture wasn’t taken." Phan Thị Kim Phúc’s life changed forever when she became known as “the napalm girl” in a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph.

She offers her Brief But Spectacular take on forgiveness and that girl in the picture. pic.twitter.com/H4zglrxkfk

— CBC Docs (@cbcdocs) January 16, 2020

Here's her wiki. More here, and here's the photographer remembering that day: My picture led to end of the Vietnam war: ‘Napalm Girl' photographer Nick Ut tells TNM.

Tuesday links

Happy Feast of the Ass!

Alcohol tolerance might have saved our ancestors from extinction, scientists claim.

A 1918 Remedial Introduction to "Politics" for Newly-Enfranchised Women in the U.K.

Richard Feynman’s “Notebook Technique” Will Help You Learn Any Subject–at School, at Work, or in Life

The Science Behind Why Dark Winter Days Bum People Out.

The Folklore of Gin.

ICYMI, most recent links are here, and include Pachelbel's Canon In D performed by train horns, National Geographic’s 100 best photos from 2019, the history of robocalls, and a cumulative list of the Darwin Awards.