Link About It: This Week’s Picks
The world’s deepest pool, Scotland’s haunted toy store installation, new iPhone features and more from around the web
Artist Rachel Maclean’s Haunted Toy Store in Scotland’s Jupiter Artland
In the forests of Jupiter Artland—the 120-acre outdoor sculpture park near Edinburgh—Scottish artist Rachel Maclean installed an eerie, graffiti-covered toy store with upside-down attributes aplenty. The sinister structure houses unsettling doppelgänger dolls, as well as Maclean’s new 10-minute animated film, which explores the pressures upon youth (from self-esteem to consumerism and predatory behavior) through the struggles of a cartoon princess. It is the artist’s first permanent installation, and a powerful one. Read more about the experience, and Maclean’s further plans, at Artnet News.
Image by Amelia Claudia, courtesy of Jupiter Artland
The World’s Biggest + Deepest Pool, Blue Abyss
Measuring 50m by 40m, with a 16-meter-wide shaft plunging to a depth of 50m, the research pool within Cornwall, England’s Blue Abyss aquatic center will be the biggest and deepest in the world. When it is completed in 2023, it will contain more than 42,000 cubic meters of water—and its salinity and temperature will be able to be controlled. Designed by British architect Robin Partington, Blue Abyss will be used to test underwater robots, offshore-energy advancements, ocean ecology developments, maritime defense and other cutting-edge technology, and act as a training center for astronauts. Read more at Space.
Image courtesy of Blue Abyss
Nintendo Museum to Open in Former Playing Card Factory
Kyoto’s defunct Nintendo Uji Ogura Plant will host the Japanese video game company’s forthcoming museum, tentatively named Nintendo Gallery. The site, constructed in 1969, used to produce playing cards and Hanafuda (a traditional card game, referred to as “the battle of the flowers”). The company—whose hardware includes Game Boy, Wii and Switch, and whose games range from Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong and Legend of Zelda to Pokémon and Animal Crossing—will open the museum in 2024 to showcase their historic entertainment systems alongside developmental exhibits and immersive experiences (a programming mission quite different than the Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan). They also intend to highlight the brand’s “philosophy with the public.” Read more at Artnews.
Image courtesy of Nintendo
Science Behind the Brightest Auroras
Though scientists have long understood the basic mechanism behind auroras (aka the northern lights or southern lights), a new paper published by Nature Communications offers “definitive evidence” on the spectacular physical process behind the brightest auroras. These colorful, undulating displays typically occur when particles charged by the Sun enter into Earth’s magnetosphere, collide with molecules and generate energy. However, physicists from the University of Iowa; Wheaton College; University of California, Los Angeles; and the Space Science Institute in Los Angeles now maintain that brighter auroras arise when these charged particles have their “electrons accelerated by a powerful electromagnetic force called Alfvén waves,” Ars Technica reports. Read more about these waves, and the different kinds of auroral displays, there.
Image courtesy of Austin Montelius, University of Iowa
Apple Messages’ Forthcoming “Shared with You” Feature
For anyone who ever lost track of a link or photo that was sent their way (by not remembering who sent it when), a new feature—announced at Apple WWDC 2021—will aggregate items people receive through iOS within Shared with You, a dedicated content section within multiple apps. This strengthens the integration of Apple Messages with others applications like Apple Photos, Music and News (even Apple TV), which will each have their own “Shared With You” section. Read more about the forthcoming addition at Slash Gear.
Image courtesy of Apple
Link About It is our filtered look at the web, shared daily in Link and on social media, and rounded up every Saturday morning. Hero image courtesy of Austin Montelius, University of Iowa
