Spiders respond to potential threats in a number of adorable ways.

Check out this awesome new sonification of the X-ray and other light emissions of giant planets.

Launch of the first Liberty Ship, the Star of Oregon, 1941, colorized. Source: Old Oregon PhotosThe Battle of the Atlantic was a critical front. The Allies regarded the Atlantic supply lines as their lifeblood. Though dramatic-sounding, Britains survival, the shipping lanes between America and Europe, and the Soviet Unions possible survival depended on convoys. The first years of this front favored Nazi Germany.With no real surface fleet, Nazi Germany employed U-boats (submarines). First singly, but by June 1940, the Germans implemented wolfpacks, or submarine groups. These wolfpacks pounced on convoys protected by inadequate defenses, sinking over 1,200 ships by 1941. Even more went to the bottom just in 1942 alone. Both realized attrition as the key to victory. The Allies created the Liberty Ship, a British design mated with American production know-how.Exploited VulnerabilitiesMerchant ships (blue) and U-boats (red) losses in1941. Source: WikimediaThe Allies started the Battle of the Atlantic at a serious disadvantage. First, only a limited pool of escort ships existed. Second, traditional shipbuilding methods took time. Ship construction couldnt keep pace with losses.Lastly, the Atlantics vastness made protection extremely difficult. A glaring example was the Mid Air Gap, located dead-center in the Atlantic. No Allied aircraft could reach here, giving the U-boats immunity from air attack. This gap would exist until mid-1943. Across the Atlantic, the German Navy, or Kriegsmarine, skillfully exploited all these vulnerabilities. Coordinated wolfpacks continually struck, often at night, sending critical cargo to the ocean floor. The few escorts futilely raced between attacks with little to show.The Liberty Ship Program ImplementationA U-boat sank a British merchant ship. Source: Third Reich Collection Library of Congress1942 ship losses ranked worse than 1941. But changes loomed. With American industrial might now fully behind war efforts, Britain and America developed the Liberty Ship.Based on a British design and built using American automobile assembly-line production, the new Liberty ship stressed speed and simplicity. The cookie-cutter approach produced identical ships. Powered by older, dependable 19th-century triple-expansion steam engines, Liberty ships measured 441 feet with a 10,000-ton cargo capacity. And all for $2 million per ship built by 18 shipyardsAll this simplicity became the Liberty Ships secret sauce. Between 1941 and 1945, American shipyards completed 2,710 ships out of 2,751 planned. This made the Liberty Ship the most-produced seagoing ship and an Allied workhorse.Sheer Numbers = VictoryU.S. merchant fleet growth. Source: U.S. Maritime AdministrationAt first, 1943 looked to be a worse repeat of 1942. Ships continued to be lost, victims of still-effective tactics. German losses slowly ticked up, but still averaged an acceptable 5-8 U-boats per month. U-boats sank on average 50 ships monthly from January to May 1943. March losses reached 131, Germanys last great success.But Liberty Ships started rolling from shipyards, outpacing losses. Construction times fell using prefabricated sections and now skilled workers. For every ship sunk, one or more Liberty Ships left the harbors. Ratios of 1:1, 2:1, or even 3:1 occurred. New ship construction soon reached record levels.Even as maritime clashes occurred, the net amount of cargo shipped increased. Standardization meant that each Liberty Ship had a capacity of 10,000 tons. The ships being lost were pre-war freighters, tankers, or tramp steamers. These never matched the cargo capacity of a Liberty Ship.5 Liberty Ships-Simultaneous Launch 8/5/1942. Source: Library of CongressSheer numbers began to tell. In 1943, the U.S. launched 1,121 Liberty Ships. The total number of German U-boats built for World War II reached 1,150. Despite Germanys best efforts, total merchant tonnage actually increased. The Allies absorbed losses more easily- the supply chain never faltered beginning in mid-1943. Any losses really counted as a cost of doing business.A Qualified Unmatchable Leap HelpedSinking of U-185 8/13/1943. Source: Asisbiz.comLike in all wars, a crescendo is reached. May 1943, or Black May to Germany, would be that turning point. Numbers vary, but around 160 U-boats lurked, attacking five convoys. In these seesaw battles, the Allies broke the wolfpacks, destroying 43 U-boats by months end. The astonished Kriegsmarine commander, Admiral Karl Dnitz, recalled nearly all his boats. Such losses became unsustainable, especially with veteran crews killed.What helped defeat the U-boat fleet resulted from experience and technology. Examples of improved technology include radar, faster, more capable ships, forward-firing weapons, and others. New tactics, such as hunter-killer groups and very long-range aircraft, closed the Mid-Atlantic gap.The initiative now stood with the Allies. Despite multiple changes, Germany never regained the advantage. From September 1943 to May 1944, U-boats sank only 27 ships but lost 12. And Liberty Ship construction continued unabated.Their simple design and assembly-line manufacturing enabled hundreds to launch quickly. This became an Allied strategy victory.

Wikimedia CommonsVirginia Woolfs suicide note revealed the immense mental anguish the writer was in before she took her life.The works of prolific English writer Virginia Woolf continue to influence modern culture a century after they were written. And while her renowned novels like Mrs. Dalloway and essays like A Room of Ones Own remain captivating to this day, so too does the story of Virginia Woolfs suicide, when on an early spring day in 1941, she filled her pockets with rocks and walked into a nearby river.But behind the tale of Virginia Woolfs death is the haunting story of a woman who battled tragedy and mental illness for most of her life, ultimately succumbing to her own harrowing thoughts.The Woman Behind The TragedyOn January 25, 1882, Virginia Woolf, ne Adeline Virginia Stephen, was born into a privileged English family.Her parents, Sir Leslie Stephen and Julia Stephen, were prominent figures in their London community. Both were writers themselves, with Leslie working as the editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and Julia penning a book on her profession, nursing.Woolf and her sister, Vanessa, were first schooled at home in their fathers vast library. Soon enough, they both attended the Ladies Department of Kings College London.Wikimedia CommonsVirginia and her husband Leonard Woolf.After graduating, Woolf fell swiftly into the world of literature, joining a circle of artists and intellectuals known as the Bloomsbury Group. This is where she met her husband, essayist Leonard Woolf. Soon after their 1912 marriage, the couple bought a printing press, Hogarth Press, and published the works of writers such as Sigmund Freud and T.S. Eliot.Woolf also started publishing her own writing, beginning with her first novel, 1915s The Voyage Out. However, she didnt reach true renown until her fourth novel, Mrs. Dalloway. Published in 1925, this novel tackled modernist themes such as feminism, mental illness, and homosexuality.Woolf then published other notable and popular novels such as To the Lighthouse and Orlando, as well as feminist essays such as A Room of Ones Own and Three Guineas. All of these works led to her critical success as a revolutionary and prominent writer.But, with several failed suicide attempts already behind her, it was clear that Woolf was not as well as her sharp writing and crystalline ideas might have suggested.What Prompted Virginia Woolfs Suicide?Virginia Woolf once said, Growing up is losing some illusions, in order to acquire others.Woolf lost many of her illusions as a young child through multiple instances of trauma. The first of these came when her half-brothers, George and Gerald Duckworth, began to sexually abuse her. In her personal essays, Woolf revealed that the abuse occurred from the time she was six up until she moved out of her family home at the age of 23. While this sexual abuse most likely prompted many of her struggles with mental illness, her mothers death in 1895 appeared to be what solidified them. Soon after, at the age of 13, Woolf had her first mental breakdown.Wikimedia CommonsVirginia Woolf reportedly made several suicide attempts in her lifetime.In the years following her mothers death, Virginia Woolf experienced a succession of trauma. Her half-sister Stella passed away two years later and in 1904 her father died from stomach cancer. This soon led to Woolf being institutionalized for a brief amount of time.Even after her writing success and happy marriage to Leonard, Woolf continued to deal with depression and mental illness. She made several suicide attempts throughout her life and suffered from hallucinations as well as periods of mania.Woolf tried various psychiatric treatments, but because of the infancy of mental health research during her time, they had only negative results. One of these treatments even involved pulling several of her teeth out, a common medical theory in the 1920s that associated mental illness with dental infections. Virginia Woolfs Suicide Note And Final MomentsOn the morning of March 28, 1941, Leonard Woolf knew that something was not right with his wife of 29 years.After speaking with her in her writing lodge outside of their Sussex home, he suggested that she go inside and rest. This was the last time Leonard saw his wife alive.Wikimedia CommonsVirginia Woolfs heartbreaking suicide note. It was the third such note she wrote before taking her life.After Leonard went to his office, Woolf put on her fur coat and Wellington boots, exited the front gate, and made her way to the River Ouse next to their house. When Leonard went upstairs to check on her a couple of hours later, he found two suicide notes in the place of his wife. One was addressed to him, and the other to her sister, Vanessa. Virginia Woolfs suicide note to her husband read, Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we cant go through another of those terrible times. And I shant recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I cant concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do.The note continued: What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me, it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness I dont think two people could have been happier than we have been.Frantic upon reading Virginia Woolfs suicide note, Leonard Woolf searched nearby for her. He soon found her footprints and walking stick on the river bank, but the water had already swept her body away. It would be found three weeks later, washed up near Southease, England.When Virginia Woolfs death was announced, T.S. Eliot wrote that it was the end of a world.The Lasting Legacy Of Virginia Woolfs DeathFollowing Virginia Woolfs death, she was cremated and her ashes were sprinkled beneath the two Elm trees, nicknamed Virginia and Leonard, in the couples backyard. Leonard had a stone engraved with the last lines from her novel The Waves: Against you I fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death! The waves broke on the shore. She left a novel and autobiography unfinished. Virginia Woolfs suicide note would be her final piece of writing.Wikimedia CommonsA portrait taken less than two years before Virginia Woolfs death.Woolfs name and memory, however, have lived on. Her novels have become beloved classics, while her essays have turned her into a modern feminist icon. She was even immortalized in the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Hours by Michael Cunningham, with Nicole Kidman playing her in the film adaptation.Furthermore, Virginia Woolfs death also inspired a team of researchers to work on creating an app that could predict a persons suicidal tendencies based on their writing. By studying Woolfs diary, which she kept throughout her lifetime, as well as her personal letters, the team hopes to create software that can analyze texts, emails, and social media posts of at-risk patients. When the app identifies a negative change in the writing of the patient, it will automatically alert a caregiver in time to intervene.In this way, Virginia Woolf has left behind a legacy that is much larger than her life or death. As she once wrote, When you consider things like the stars, our affairs dont seem to matter very much, do they?Now that youve seen Virginia Woolfs suicide note and read all about her death, discover the stories behind some more of historys most famous suicides. Then, read about Japans haunting suicide forest.The post I Am Going Mad Again: The Tragic Tale Of Virginia Woolfs Death appeared first on All That's Interesting.

You've seen Doom run on a McDonald's cash register. You've seen it run on a lawnmower. You've seen it run on Google's search bar. Now you can see it running on some lab-grown brain cells fused to a microchip. Perhaps a glimpse into our distant cyborg future, the company behind some of the world's most advanced biological computers has got a load of them not only running id Software's iconic FPS game, but actually playing it. Not very well, mind you.

Grim Dawn is ten years old, and developer Crate Entertainment is celebrating by putting the final touches on its upcoming expansion, Fangs of Asterkarn. It might not have the audience of Blizzard's behemoth, but the dark-fantasy ARPG remains one of the best games like Diablo to this day, and it's about to get a serious upgrade. Built in the Titan Quest engine and inspired by Victorian-adjacent mythology, its world and buildcrafting absolutely stand the test of time, as evidenced by its 'overwhelmingly positive' 95% Steam review score. Now, the team behind it is preparing for its "final hurrah."

Everyone has their own reasons for loving Stardew Valley: the coziness, the music, the romance, the mods. Sure, I'm deeply appreciative of all those elements too - despite all the challengers that came after its launch ten years ago today, and the many more that will spring up in the future, Stardew remains one of the best life games ever made. However, there's an even more important reason why Eric 'ConcernedApe' Barone's masterpiece is one of my all-time favorites - it still holds the record as the game I've played the most with my wife.