June 5, 2008
Cyber Command Über Alles
"I like to see black words on white paper rolling up in front of my gaze."
"I have never had an accident where I have pressed a button and accidentally sent seven chapters into cyberspace, never to be seen again. And have you ever tried to hack into my typewriter? It is very secure," says author Frederick Forsyth. In the computer age, people still love typewriters. BBC News Magazine examines why, with some interesting comments after the article. Via.
There's no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you'll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?
Russian car magazine "Autoreview" has posted photos of a 1978 Korean Air Lines (KAL) forced landing to accompany an article about the Land Rover Defender pickup that was used to haul equipment at that time.
Apparently, Korean Air Lines is not amused (Korean) by this effort to dig up the past.
More photos. Via the always awesome Marmot's Hole. [more inside]
Not the Ford Galaxy
Five years and 800,000 images went into producing a 4 gigapixel mosaic image of the galactic plane, which when printed out is 180 feet long. But it has been made browser-sized by GLIMPSE, the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire, the research group which, along with MIPSGAL, created the image: A Glimpse of the Milky Way.
magical balls
This fun Japanese contact juggler's clip is proving popular lately, but he is not the first Japanese practitioner of the art to surface online. Here are several more highly entertaining Japanese contact juggler clips worth watching: one, two (starts about 1:06), three, four, five. (all via the highly entertaining Ministry of Manipulation's blog). [more inside]
Sacred bulls and headless pyramids.
Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered the "missing pyramid" of a pharaoh and a ceremonial procession road where high priests carried mummified remains of sacred bulls.
Word Nerds
Inflatable Electric Cars
Inflatable Electric Cars When it arrives (hopefully in 2010) it will apparently be able to 2500 miles per charge.
"Changes in my cervix throughout the month"
"Day Ten - Cervix low and closed. Notice blood spot near os and brown clot near cervix (right). Possibly from vigorous intercourse earlier that day (not mittelschmerz as I am not ovulating yet)." First link has graphic photos that may be NSFW.
The world’s worst disease
While many ailments are considered terrifying, Lesch-Nyhan is the stuff of nightmares. An extremely rare genetic neurological disorder with no cure, it often compels its victims to self-mutilate, even when they understand that doing so causes them harm. Richard Preston used Lesch-Nyhan as a plot device in his best-selling thriller The Cobra Event, and went on to write a fascinating article about the disease, its sufferers, and its implications for human behavior in the New Yorker. [PDF]. [more inside]
Blog about those who tried to rock
For Those Who Tried To Rock is a blog about the bands that never went anywhere, for example. Urbicide, The Tribulations and Only One. The band photos are usually accompanied by mp3s and short testimonies, such as this one about Soft Option: "Flock of Seagulls owned Liverpool when we came together but we were really Depeche Mode fans. Trouble was, we only had one Synth – the Roland pictured above – so on the more complicated songs we covered like Everything Counts (see cassette below) I had to play parts on a Melodica – the small keyboard you blow into. It was my Mother's idea. We went to an all boys school, so the gigs were boys only, which meant we did not get laid but the nights we played were some of the greatest of my adolescence." [via Carrie Brownstein's Monitor Mix]
Mapping Iran's Online Public: Politics and Culture in the Persian Blogosphere.
Sensible units
123 mm = 12 stacked CD cases. 6 miles = 30 Eiffel Towers. 5 acres = 11 ice hockey rinks. Sensibleunits.com converts any length, area or mass into real objects.
Senate Intelligence Committee Phase II Reports
Senate Intelligence Committee Unveils Final Phase II Reports on Prewar Iraq Intelligence. Phase II Report on Public Statements [PDF] and Phase II Report on DoD Policy Office [PDF]. This may come as a shock, but most of what the Bush Administration said about Iraq wasn't true. Republican co-chair Bond, Kit Bond, says the reports are "political theatre." [more inside]
1966 federal ban on racial discrimination in housing
The Meaning of Box 722. Letters to Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois in reaction to the 1966 civil rights bill, particularly the federal ban on racial discrimination in the sale and rental of housing. At the time, Chicago was the most segregated city in the north, with boundaries enforced by mob violence. By Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland. When I started researching NIXONLAND I knew the congressional elections of 1966 would form a crucial part of the narrative. They'd never really been examined in-depth before, but by my reckoning they were the crucial hinge that formed the ideological alignment we live in now. Via Brad DeLong.
In an Instant.
In an Instant. "Would a doctor come right here?" David Steiner, 65, reflects on how the night of June 5, 1968, changed his own life forever. (LA Times reg. req.)
Canada's second National Anthem, no more.
The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Coporation) has decided to not renew a licensing agreement for the Hockey Night in Canada theme music (Youtube link).
Mortgaging America
America's for sale. Just ask Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. With the U.S. economy in shambles, Paulson just spent four days touring the Middle East, hat in hand, looking for investors to bail us out. Specifically, on Monday, Paulson met with heads of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the world's largest "sovereign wealth fund" with roughly $875 billion in assets, and encouraged them to buy American businesses. Mortgaging America by Eric J. Weiner (LA Times Op Ed) [more inside]
Boullée in North Dakota
The Safeguard system consisted of three primary components, a Perimeter Acquisition Radar, Missile Site Radar and Remote Sprint Launchers.
Boullée in North Dakota [via]
Is this it? Yes, it is. But it's plenty.
A squirrel enjoys a nice cracker, to the tune of "If This Is It" by Huey Lewis. Strangely satisfying. [more inside]
BK Veg City.
German advertising agency .start has created an ad campaign for Burger King Europe complete with various tray liners (1 2 3 4), an interactive website, and TV commercials.
Doug and Jeffrey
Miniature Illuminated Manuscript
The Morgan Museum currently have an exhibition featuring the 1517 Prayer Book of Claude de France, a gorgeous miniature (2.75 x 2 inches) illuminated manuscript, together with the Prayerbook of Claude's mother, Anne de Bretagne. [via]
I'm Tom freakin Skilling!
WGN-TV's Tom Skilling is legendary Chicago weatherman with an equally famous brother. While Sam Zell's ownership of Tribune Corporation has ruffled the feathers of many, even a mefite, it's very clear who is running the company.
Next Time Won't You Sing With Me?
An introduction to Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park: A WWII juggernaut. It decrypted German Enigma (try one!) and Japanese messages on an industrial scale in huts and blocks, had an outpost in Mombasa, and built one of the first modern computers (it helped that Alan Turing was on staff). Now a diverse museum with or without a funding problem, it generated yet more intrigue in 2000 when an Enigma was stolen, and hosts a rebuilt, working Colossus that launched a cipher challenge. Beating it wasn't easy! [more inside]
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