via io9: ‘I have a friend who says three in the morning is the time we all spend laying awake, staring at darkness, and thinking about all the mistakes we’ve made in our lives. Everyone reading this knows that she’s right. But it doesn’t need to be this way. We could use this time productively, the way our ancestors did.

The concept of first sleep and second sleep is a very old one. As the light waned in the evenings, people would go to bed and sleep for about four hours. In the middle of the night, they’d wake up and stay awake for a few hours. People would usually use this time for quiet recreation. They’d talk a bit, eat a little, perhaps read or pray, and most people agreed that this was the best time for married couples to roll around on the mattress.

After a few hours, they’d get sleepy once again and settle back down to sleep. The second sleep would see them through until dawn, when they’d get up and take on their day. It’s easy to see why the concept of two sleeps was popular. Instead of being dead tired at the end of the day, you could fall into bed and sleep for a few hours before waking up and having fun. It would allow a more complete break between one day and the next, a little bubble of “me time” between working days. And it might eliminate those three o’clock thoughts.’

via Gizmodo: ‘Where the hell did the antimatter come from? That’s what atmospheric scientist Joseph Dwyer has been trying to figure out for the past six years, after his research plane accidentally flew through a thunderstorm into a cloud of antimatter in 2009…’

via The Verge: ‘I mean, the headline says it all really. This is a website you go to and type something in and then that something gets turned into a drum beat. You can literally stick any words you like into it — famous words, rude words, long words, made-up words, you get the idea. The whole project is the creation of developer Kyle Stetz and follows in a long line of musical-keyboard-procrastination tools. (See also Daft Punk keyboard and Patatap.) You’d be mad not to at least type your name in.’