I’ve heard of alternatives to the dominant diatonic scale — the one with “octaves” — but as someone who, at best, has a passing knowledge of music theory, it was mostly Greek to me. This article, with the corresponding samples, is the first time I felt some comprehension of how such an alternate scale would work.

The unusual scale she played ended on a high note that was triple, not double, the frequency of the low note, and the interval was divided into 13 equal steps. This new system, called Bohlen-Pierce, was independently invented in the 1970s and 1980s by two engineers and a computer scientist as an alternative to the traditional musical system. Initially a mixture of math, music, and theory, Bohlen-Pierce has now grown into a living art, as people around the world have begun building instruments, composing pieces, and developing a music theory, all using notes that most people have never heard.

And for those looking for more, the Wikipedia page is always a good place to start.

An amateur historian takes on this mystery:

But here was a Royal Navy surgeon in 1911 apparently ignorant of what caused the disease, or how to cure it. Somehow a highly-trained group of scientists at the start of the 20th century knew less about scurvy than the average sea captain in Napoleonic times. Scott left a base abundantly stocked with fresh meat, fruits, apples, and lime juice, and headed out on the ice for five months with no protection against scurvy, all the while confident he was not at risk. What happened?

(via Waxy Links)

In mice, evidence is growing that the flora of your digestive tract play an important role in maintaining a healthy weight:

When transplanted, their gut bugs turned other mice obese, suggesting that altered bacteria were not only an effect of weight gain, but a cause. The Science findings complement those, but also emphasize the immune system’s role and the possibility of appetite change.

Ever since I watched this episode of “the show” over three years ago (wow) it’s stayed in the back of my mind. And since Firefox (or user error) busted my cycle of having 40+ tabs open persistently — some were from September — it’s been at the forefront. So whether you’ve seen it before or you haven’t go watch zefrank explain something that could change your life.

This story — provoked by and about an event mostly unknown outside of Britain — isn’t for the faint-hearted, but the conclusion’s useful for all:

[I]ndignation is relatively easy to satisfy, and demands no sacrifice, no exposure to horrid experience, no damage to the soul. To continue feeding indignation against a 10-year-old boy who glimpsed Hell, and who knew it, is at best unworthy, and at worst is itself a manifestation of wickedness.

(via Lloyd, who calls it “Best & worst thing I’ve read in a very long time.”)

This story — provoked by and about an event mostly unknown outside of Britain — isn’t for the faint-hearted, but the conclusion’s useful for all:

[I]ndignation is relatively easy to satisfy, and demands no sacrifice, no exposure to horrid experience, no damage to the soul. To continue feeding indignation against a 10-year-old boy who glimpsed Hell, and who knew it, is at best unworthy, and at worst is itself a manifestation of wickedness.

(via Lloyd, who calls it “Best & worst thing I’ve read in a very long time.”)

A great essay about what that means.

Foreignness is intrinsically stimulating. Like a good game of bridge, the condition of being foreign engages the mind constantly without ever tiring it. John Lechte, an Australian professor of social theory, characterises foreignness as “an escape from the boredom and banality of the everyday”. The mundane becomes “super-real”, and experienced “with an intensity evocative of the events of a true biography”.

(via Marco)

Everything about this article feels obvious, but I’ve never seen it articulated so well:

Being intelligent is like having a knife. If you train every day in using the knife, you will be invincible. If you think that just having a knife will make you win any battle you fight, then you will fail.

(via @scrivs)

I had no idea. (via mLG)

This review of a forthcoming book contains a wallop of interesting things I’d never known about America’s favorite sport fish:

Among others described in Halverson’s book is Al Reese, a crop duster and barnstormer who in the late 1940s helped persuade California’s Department of Fish and Game to drop rainbow trout into mountain lakes from the air. (He tested the fishes’ ability to survive the trip partly by holding live specimens out a car window at 70 miles per hour.) The state agency recruited World War II pilots and purchased surplus military airplanes to dump the fish, generally from about 200 feet. Many of the trout died on impact with the water or ended up stuck in trees, but enough survived to inspire the agency to similarly drop turkeys, partridges, and even beaver (in burlap sacks attached to parachutes).

(via Arts & Letters Daily)