Tuesday links

November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day, when God preserved us from the "secret contrivance and hellish malice of Popish Conspirators".

How Breakfast Became a Thing - the "most important meal of the day" line was an ad campaign to sell more cereal.

An 18th-century guide to hunting vampires inspired the first works of vampire fiction.

This Chart Explains the Chemicals That Give Autumn Leaves Their Color.

Why is ice so slippery?

A Cultural Historian Explores an Old Mental Hospital.

ICYMI, most recent links are here, and include awkward fashion ads from the 1970s, when George Soros broke the British pound, why pigeons bob their heads, and the Swiss town where residents spent a lifetime aging a wheel of cheese for their own funeral.

From a Cincinnati HS: Periodic Table of Pumpkins

Apparently Anderson High School in Cincinnati has done one of these each year for the last several years. This story is from last year's version, but the picture (click here to embiggen) is this year's.

click here to embiggen

via @JustinGood

Wednesday links

Excellent site for DIY intelligent women's costumes.

Home invasion, Canadian style: RCMP reminds Nova Scotians to lock their doors after pair enter stranger's home, clean it. 

The Lighthouse That Wrecked More Ships Than it Saved.

This Chart Explains the Chemicals That Give Autumn Leaves Their Different Colors.

A self-cleaning house.

Lessons from the Sioux in How to Turn a Boy Into a Man.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include Trafalgar Day, Oktoberfest history, an 1880-era costume guide, how birds avoid crashing into each other in mid-air, and the history of Uranus jokes.

Tuesday links

Most Popular Thanksgiving Foods in All 50 States, Mapped.

Can you make a 10-year malt whisky in weeks? The chemistry says yes.

Self-Help Lessons from Napoleon Bonaparte.

Some of the best newspaper corrections ever, including an excellent 2001 apology to Mark Steyn.

Frank Lloyd Wright had a plan to build a ‘city of the future’ on Ellis Island.

Boys will be boys: Why Teenage Male Mammoths Tended to Die in Really Silly Ways.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include Veterans Day history, a keg of ranch dressing, a gallery of 48 wild hamsters, and the 1968 memo to Gene Roddenberry re William Shatner's disappearing wigs from the Star Trek set.

Friday links

Fashion Advice from a 1980s Stasi (East German secret police) disguise seminar..

Is Margarine Dead?

Snacks and serendipity: How the microwave was invented by accident.

This is very cool to watch: The Chemistry of Matches, in Super Slow Motion.

13 classic video games you can play right now in your web browser.

The next generation of Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot is here, and it's approaching Terminator Genisys-like appearance.

ICYMI, Thursday's links are here, and include calculating how long would it take for a single person to fill up an entire swimming pool with their own saliva, real-life technologies inspired by video games, a human-sounding Dorito-eating goat (with bonus goat-related links), and 10 of history's most famous prostitutes.

The Chemistry of Matches, in Super Slow Motion

My perspective on chemistry has changed quite a bit since the dry, impenetrable subject I was forced to take it in high school and college, largely because of this sort of well-made video.  

The American Chemical Society produced the original of this slow motion video last year, and has now taken this footage (shot at 4,000 frames per second) and added an explanation of the sequence of chemical reactions that take place at the molecular level when a match is struck.

From youtube channel Reactions:

To fire up the grill or the gas stove, we often reach for a match. It turns out there’s a lot of chemistry going on to make those little wooden wonders work. The best way to find out about the chemistry of burning matches is to watch it in ultra-slow motion. 

Click here to embiggen

Lots more on the history of matches at Compound Interest.

via Gizmodo.