Just like it says, Popcorn Shorts is about the kind of things we think are really interesting, but don’t really need a large article to explain them. From the sublime to the ridiculous, check in here for crunchy bits of info you’ll love to munch. By the way, much (but not necessarily all) of our delicious Popcorn comes from articles we’ve posted on our Facebook page. If you’re on Facebook, please stop by and “Like” us and we’ll keep a fairly-constant-but-not-frequent-enough-to-be-annoying stream of these coming to your virtual door!
World championship marble racing… a new world of sports
from Wikipedia- “Jelle’s Marble Runs is a YouTube channel based in the Netherlands, run by Jelle and Dion Bakker. It is based around marbles, marble runs, and marble races. Content on the channel includes spoofing the Olympic Games, Formula One, and other sporting events… These videos treat the cast of marbles as though they were athletes. Acting as though the inanimate marbles use actual tactics, training, and psychology to compete… The Marble League “Games”, have a choreographed Opening and Closing Ceremony, often created using stop motion. Many of the sports are designed to resemble Olympic sports… As of 24 July 2020, the current channel has over 1.2 million subscribers with more than 90.7 million views, a number that has steadily increased, likely as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports.”
This interactive game explains WHY evil prospers when the good do nothing
Your task is simple… you’ll be God, in control of the ‘shapist’ attitudes of a population of cute squares and triangles. You won’t be presiding over a shape-war hell though, because while these polygons do ‘notice shape’ they aren’t bigots. Each polygon wants their neighborhood to be integrated. They’ll welcome different shapes into their neighborhood, up to a point, but they’ll get angry and move to a new neighborhood if they become the minority. Is that enough to desegregate their neighborhood? What happens when they become more- or less- accepting? What happens if they won’t move to a segregated neighborhood? What happens if you remove all bias? What happens if there never was any bias at all?
No matter what your preconceptions, we bet this game won’t play out like you think. We’ll give you a spoiler… it IS possible to achieve a stable, non-segregated equilibrium (assuming that’s your goal), but it’s not as straightforward as you might think. And here’s another spoiler… achieving that (or virtually any) goal depends on people not sitting quietly and hoping it happens, but actually pushing for the change they want to see!
Strange Oregon vacation getaways… for the vacation you just won’t get this year.
from OregonLive.com- “You might not be able to take a vacation now, but you can dream of one and even make plans. To inspire you, we’re selected a list of the best of Oregon’s oddball vacation getaways, from treehouses and a fire lookout tower to sleek Airstreams and colorful camper vans. Before you go, check govstatus.egov.com/or-covid-19 for the most current travel recommendations and best practices to avoid the spread of the coronavirus. Also read 10 things to consider before going back outside during the coronavirus pandemic in Oregon.”
This is Mars. Go there now.
From the Independent, UK– “Pictures taken from the surface of Mars by Nasa’s rovers have been remastered into 4K resolution, giving an even clearer look at the surface of the Red Planet. British YouTubers ElderFox Documentaries took stills sent from Nasa’s Curiosity, Spirit, and Opportunity rovers and ‘upscaled’ them, splicing them together into a video. They have described it as ‘the most lifelike experience of being on Mars’. Among the images are captures of the Meridiani Planum, a plain near Mars’ equator, where tracks from the Opportunity rover can be seen…”
