February 21, 2011
Deterrent failed. Mission accomplished.
Only 60,000,000 citizens killed?! Success!!! A 1950s Air Force film on what might happen in the event of a U.S.-Soviet nuclear conflict has been declassified and is available in full, online, from the National Security Archive of George Washington University.
Organizing the Bookcase
Organizing the Bookcase to the music of Rodrigo y Gabriela, by Sean Ohlenkamp. His version of The end of Movember. Portfolio inside.
E-book piracy accelerates
With the success of the Kindle and iPad e-book piracy accelerates.
Tempel 1 Part Deux
On February 14 NASA's Stardust-NExT mission revisited the comet Tempel 1. Tempel 1 was first visited by NASA's Deep Impact, which smashed into the comet back in July 2005. [more inside]
You are your life and nothing else, pig rider.
Shooting the Optimum Spot
Corinne Vionnet sifted through online searches of the world's most recognizable tourist attractions in order to carefully layer 100's of photos of each on top of one anther until she created her desired result. Her site contains a few smaller ones which aren't available in the blog post, as well as some more information on the project. [more inside]
Weather Geeks: Use it or Lose it.
The author of the "Forecast Center" column from Weatherwise magazine to place Forecast Center articles online. So if you want to sharpen your analysis skills, there's a mountain of Forecast Center installments going back to 2001 in full resolution. There is a permanent embargo on all articles newer than 12 months old, so the first issue of 2010 is as far forward as the articles go, but they go back as far as July/August 2001. For example, Hone your hand analysis skills and get your forecast on for the upcoming severe storm season on the Plains.
Player 2 Has Entered The Game
Pinball retailer Jersey Jack Guarnieri has started a new pinball company to challenge Stern. Stern is currently the only major manufacturer of pinball tables. However, their recent Avatar table has been criticized for its simple rules and lack of mechanical toys. Jack is already accepting pre-orders for his official Wizard of Oz pinball table. But will he be able to take on Stern and return competition to the industry?
More quakes in New Zealand
The Revolution That Gave the World "People Power"
The EDSA People Power Revolution began in the Philippines 25 years ago on this day. On February 22, 1986, tiring of a thieving, murderous dictator, Filipinos flocked to a Manila highway to willingly serve as human shields to two high-level defectors from the government. Faced with wavering loyalist troops and crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands, President Ferdinand Marcos fled the Philippines for Hawaii on February 25, where he died three years later.
Was it happily ever after for the Philippines? Not a chance. [more inside]
Weird Al kid's author
LoZ turns 25!
Today is the 25th anniversary of the release of The Legend of Zelda. Celebrate by learning about some of its oddities or watching some commercials!
DIY Tanto
The Tatara Project: Learn how to make your own Japanese tanto knives from homemade steel; just follow these explicit directions and 125 photos.
Offhand, I can think of two Jacks...
When the legal department of Warner Bros. were notified of a forthcoming feature-length Casablanca spoof in 1945 - A Night in Casablanca, featuring a lead character named 'Humphrey Bogus' - they were naturally curious as to the specifics, and so innocently requested more information from the movie's creators, the Marx Brothers. Very quickly Groucho, sensing the opportunity for free publicity, fabricated a lawsuit from the studio and a crowd-pleasing defense... [more inside]
How It Feels To Be Free
Angry Bird-day To You, Angry Bird-day To You
The House that Jack built
Pump Up The Volume - The History Of House Music was a three part documentary (1 Time To Jack, 2 Can You Feel It, 3 From Hardcore To Handbag) first shown in the UK in 2001, telling of House’s origins in the Chicago underground, it’s crossing over the Atlantic and evolving into illegal Acid raves before entering into the mainstream in Britain. (Some NSFW language) [more inside]
Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Fox, Storm
Bullestorm is a rather silly FPS from People Can Fly, focusing irreverance, violence, points for ridiculous achievments and fun fun. It's marketing campaign has included the meta-game "Duty Calls", which savagly skewers it's equally violent but far more self-serious competition such as Call of Duty: Black Ops. Naturally, Fox news has freaked out and started a campaign against it, including a claim that it will cause rape. Rock, Paper Shotgun responds. FOX responds to the response. RPS responds to the response to the response, with a summary of the debacle so far.
Psykopaint
Psykopaint is really fun, visually interesting and free. It is a rich internet application in which you can turn your pictures into paintings by grabbing one of the 6 brushes provided and start painting while the colors are selected automatically for you. Created by Mathieu Gosselin.
“Duuuuuuuudddde! It’s 7 a.m. where you are, who died?”
Security reporter Brian Krebs [previously] visits Russian illicit online prescription baron Pavel Vrublevsky.
Innere Glut.
“The prevailing attitude seems to be that issues of politics and morality—the sort of issues that most people can perceive clearly in connection with, say, corporate glass ceilings or the patronage of lunch counters—are suddenly off limits where music is concerned.” [more inside]
A font of wisdom
Reviving a Masterpiece of 16th-Century Type Design. The Polyglot Bible published by Christopher Plantin form 1569-1572 was the one of the greatest typographical achievements of the 16th century, and features a Hebrew typeface specially designed for the work by Guillaume Le Bé. More than 300 years later, type designers Scott-Martin Kosofsky and Matthew Carter have recreated Le Bé's design for use in a new ebook of the poems of Yehuda Halevi.
There's a black man standing in your Oxfords with you
Bill Cosby: "A lot of people think we oughta wash white, but we aint gonna, you see." "People think that we Afro-Americans started with nothing but little grass skirts like the kids in the Tarzan movies....but uh, we had something before we left Africa." "Now if you want to look history right straight in the eye... you're going to get a black eye. Because it isn't important whether a few black heroes got lost or stolen or strayed in American history textbooks. What's important is why they got left out."
Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed. (Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) [more inside]
I am not a role model?
American basketball icon Charles Barkley turned 48 yesterday to a certain amount of televised fanfare. For those who have followed the ups and downs of the round mound of rebound over the past 25 years, his staying power has been impressive. The author of four books has even recently launched his own website. From a quixotic attempt at a political career to a golf reality show to his current role as an NBA analyst, Barkley’s on-camera life has been far from boring. And while many of his Dream Team peers are fading into middle age, Barkley’s image and popularity have continued to improve, despite his best efforts off-camera to the contrary. From a shout out by the President to a serenade by Stevie Wonder, does everybody now love Sir Charles?
letting some cars get ahead of you is NOTHING
10 years ago Metafilter discussed William Beaty's Traffic Wave theories about why traffic jams happen. Since then he's conducted some experiments that he says prove regular drivers can help stop them from happening. [more inside]
"Now that we know who you are... I know who I am."
Dear M. Night Shyamalan, Sincerely, Omer Mozaffar.
Revolution? Pass the popcorn...
What if the egyptian protesters were democrats? "In short, if the Egyptian protesters were Democrats, they would have undertaken no revolution. The Democratic Party represents the pervasiveness of elite corporate power; its liberal supporters represent the appropriation of oppositional politics into the neoliberal economies of electoral hegemony; the Egyptian protesters represent a determined, collective will to social justice and legitimate freedom. If those protesters were American liberals, they would have sided with the state while professing support for the people."
Posmania
Posemaniacs is a site offering 3D, rotatable figures in a variety of poses for drawing. It has a program that chooses random poses and gives you a time limit to draw them and a perspective editor that makes guidelines for one-point perspective. [more inside]
Imagine there's no goverment
Worse than Iraq: 253 days without a working goverment - a new world record, and no solution in sight. [more inside]
In the library with a wrench
Various ways of killing porcelain vases.
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