APOLOGIES for last week's unplanned hiatus. On with this week's links...

Bitcoin's Manic Miner (Ars Technica). Meet the man who, between his three facilities in America and Poland, each burning more electricty than a small town, accounts for around 5% of the world's BitCoin mining capacity.

When the sky explained everything (Nautilus) A lovely history of the earliest days of astronomy, and its twin legacies of science and myth.

Algorithms can be more accountable than people (Freedom to Tinker). Unlike humans, algorithms cannot lie, dissemble, deceive themselves or misremember why they really did something. Anyone can check why they give the results they do.

Prosthesis turns drummer into three-armed cyborg (Georgia Tech). Surely no further elaboration is necessary?

 I was a pig semen catcher (Modern Farmer). Ever wondered how you do quality control on pig semen? "We test by ALL the senses. When boar young, semen sweet. When board old, semen bitter".