December 10, 2008
A Review of Criticality Accidents
A Review of Criticality Accidents (3.7 MB pdf) Do you like reading comp.risks, or CVR transcripts from famous plane crashes? Then you may enjoy this technical analysis of 60 accidents where improper handling of fissile materials led to unexpected critical mass. [more inside]
P.O.V. - Inheritance
Imagine watching Schindler's List and knowing the sadistic Nazi camp commandant played by Ralph Fiennes was your father. Inheritance is the story of Monika Hertwig, the daughter of mass murderer Amon Goeth. Hertwig has spent her life in the shadow of her father's sins, trying to come to terms with her "inheritance." She seeks out Helen Jonas-Rosenzweig, who was enslaved by Goeth and who is one of the few living eyewitnesses to his unspeakable brutality.
Trailer. | PBS P.O.V. - Inheritance home page. | Interview with the filmmaker. | Watch the full film online. (December 11, 2008 - January 4, 2009.)
Trailer. | PBS P.O.V. - Inheritance home page. | Interview with the filmmaker. | Watch the full film online. (December 11, 2008 - January 4, 2009.)
Nuclear Redux
Photographer Paul Shambroom has spent the last sixteen years documenting a much-discussed but little seen aspect of American foreign policy -- our nuclear arsenal. [more inside]
Seinimation
Relive some of your favorite Seinfeld moments in animated form through Seinimation! Animated by Eric Yahnker, Seinimation is a series of 11 short animated films based on some of Seinfeld's most memorable scenes. My personal favorites are The Big Race, Seinfeld-noir and George & The Whale. The rest of them are inside... [more inside]
Le territoire des morts
The Carpenters' Final Frontier
The Carpenters... Space Encounters. Just what it sounds like! Parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. [more inside]
gaming a gogh gogh
Sometimes German Aesthetics Appeal To The Wrong Crowd
The MaxPlanckForschung journal cover gets some extra attention when it tries to be 'cool' and get a Chinese tattoo. MaxPlanckForschung usually publishes fairly esoteric scientific papers, and for a special issue on China, it wanted a nice artistic cover with some Chinese writing on it... little did the editors know that they had just published an ad for a brothel. LOL.
Unclear on the Concept
Over four years of "Mr. Boffo" strips lay in Joe Martin's directories, waiting for you to read them -- as panels, strips, and Sundays. (Don't bother with the rest of his site; it's a mess.)
Carter at 100
Elliot Carter, American Composer, turns 100 Born in 1908, Carter's life is a virtual biography of twentieth century music. He attended the US premiere of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Perhaps a slow developer, Carter didn't write his first opera until he was over the age of 90. He turns 100 tomorrow, December 11th. [more inside]
Enceladus
Source Of Geysers On Saturn's Moon Enceladus May Be Underground Water. Earlier this year the Cassini spacecraft detected organic material in the geysers of Enceladus. The question now is, how's the fishing?
Disappearing Places
"I remember having rootbeer floats on the porch swing on hot summer nights... I remember playing with my cousins and the neighbors in the side yard. I remember running to the train tracks just a few blocks away and counting the train cars (sometimes over 100!) as they streamed by. I remember 'Uncle' Bill showing me his missing finger that he lost while working the trains... This is someone else’s house now but my memories still live there." From Disappearing Places: An archive and collective map of places that no longer exist, at least not as they once did. [more inside]
homesick
"This is one of the greatest damn gifts you could ever give to anybody." The EDAR (Everyone Deserves a Roof) is a mobile sleeping shelter for the cold homeless in refrigerator boxes.
Grace Jones in chocolate
Grace Jones in chocolate. That isn’t a clever illustration of an assembly line of Grace Jones heads on the cover of her new album, Hurricane. Those are real chocolate Grace Jones heads made from 16 moulds of her head and body.
Because the landfills out there are frightful, but crafting is so delightful
Christmas is coming, but while the goose may be getting fat, your wallet is not. And you’re dreaming of a green Christmas. How, you ask, can one decorate a home economically and with consideration for the environment? This depends on what you’ve got sitting around the house already. Do you have lots of old Christmas cards that always seemed too pretty to throw away? Use them to make a star or two, tree ornaments, angels, gift boxes, a basket, a wreath or a small tree. [more inside]
How to Toilet Train Your Cat
Don't like scooping cat litter? Toilet train your cat.
Like Twitter, but with more music, less minutiae
Blip.fm has been described as a Twitter for Music. The site allows users to create streaming playlists by searching for music hosted elsewhere online. You can make a playlist for your own listening pleasure, immediately find and hear a song that's been running through your brain, follow the blips of users (or "djs" in their parlance), and give and receive affirmations of musical taste ("props"). If you want more of the world to know exactly what you've listened to at any particular moment, you can integrate your account with last.fm, friendfeed, twitter, and the like. Unlike the late, lamented Muxtape, there are no copyright-violating uploads (that blip.fm hosts, at any rate).
Surely the RIAA will have no problem with this site. Right?
In the goode olde dayes
What's important about St. Mary's City? Margaret Brent was the first woman to petition for the right to vote in English America in 1648
Mathias de Sousa was the first man of African descent to vote in North America in 1642.
The first Catholic Mass was celebrated in English America by Fr. Andrew White 1634, who also described his 1633 Voyage to Maryland (translated from latin). It was also the location of the first Print House in the southern colonies of America. (more articles).( map Then and Now)
Mathias de Sousa was the first man of African descent to vote in North America in 1642.
The first Catholic Mass was celebrated in English America by Fr. Andrew White 1634, who also described his 1633 Voyage to Maryland (translated from latin). It was also the location of the first Print House in the southern colonies of America. (more articles).( map Then and Now)
Steampunk has its Orson Welles
New Hampshire's Drawing Room at the Edge of the Universe. A Christmas carol for the coming depression. A ballad about accidental second chances. A canceled fireworks display leads to a midnight balloon ride and a mysterious quest. Welcome to Atoms, Motion, and the Void. You are the guest of septuagenarian Sherwin Sleeves, and these are his stories. [more inside]
Weapons of Mass Instruction
John Taylor Gatto's newest book, Weapons of Mass Instruction, is out today. Gatto, a former New York State "Teacher of the Year" (1991), is a critic of state education and compulsory schooling in general: "When you take the free will out of education, that turns it into schooling." [more inside]
Anchors Aweigh
The raccoon dog is native to China, Korea, Japan, and southeastern Siberia. Adults measure about 65 cm (2 ft) and weight ranges from 4 to 10 kg (9 to 22 lb). Average litters are large, up to 15 or more pups. Longevity is 3–4 years in the wild and up to 11 years in captivity. The species is found in both plains and mountainous regions and is especially common in woodlands. The Raccoon Dog is commonly seen near villages and in rural areas. They absolutely cannot enlarge their scrotums.
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