The
nuclear weapons simulator at CarlosLabs
(previously) has been updated to include fallout wind drift, pressure and thermal events to evaluate the impact of everything from a suitcase nuke to the
Tsar Bomba on your city. The
Missile Range Tool can show if you are in the vicinity of any delivery systems currently in service, or compare your location to the range of those used historically, such as the V2. For the effects of the cosmic collisions of asteroids and comets (and featuring rather more science) there's the
Earth Impact Effects Program.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul
on Nov 1, 2010 -
41 comments
In 1948, in the aftermath of the Second World War, with Europe still in ruins, three young Belgian comic strip artists, Joseph Gillain (aka
Jijé), Maurice de Bevere (aka
Morris) and
André Franquin, crossed the Atlantic with the intention of settling in the US.
All three would eventually return to Belgium, their hopes of working for Disney ultimately dashed by the turmoil of the McCarthy years. However, in the meantime they made the acquaintance of their colleagues of the Charles
William Harvey Studio in New York, including a cosmopolitan young wit named
René Goscinny.
[more inside]
posted by Skeptic
on Oct 29, 2009 -
37 comments
The Letter of Last Resort. At this very moment, miles beneath the surface of the ocean, there is a British nuclear submarine carrying powerful ICBMs ... there is a safe attached to a control room floor. Inside that, there is an inner safe. And inside that sits a letter. It is addressed to the submarine commander and it is from the Prime Minister. In that letter, Gordon Brown conveys the most awesome decision of his political career ... and none of us is ever likely to know what he decided.
posted by veedubya
on Jan 22, 2009 -
65 comments
We wanted to hold onto them for as long as possible. Not as much as a tribute to the early history of MAD... but because these paintings were covering up quite a few holes in the walls.
posted by R. Mutt
on Oct 17, 2008 -
8 comments
No Tourists, No Artists. Tourists at
Atlanta's Underground didn't realize they were working with an real live artist, but they were.
Tom Richmond,
Caricaturist Of The Year for 1998 and 1999,
recipient of a Reuben Award in
2003 ,
one-time comic book creator, and frequent artistic contributor to
Mad Magazine (
movie parodies, mostly), supported his freelance work for almost 18 years by doing cartoons-for-hire in
historic Underground Atlanta.
Despite many efforts to "save" it,
Underground continues to
fade in popularity and the tourist traffic just dwindles on down, leaving folks like Tom no choice but to pack up their paints and leave. Tom's story makes for interesting insight into a job that most of us might take for tourist-trapping huckstery.
(via Radical Georgia Moderate)
posted by grabbingsand
on Jan 7, 2008 -
14 comments
"I... Forgot." Upon the death of a possible BSE cow, "the unidentified doctor preserved the brain stem sample in formalin... but then 'simply forgot' about it until mid-July." That's the reason why we're only hearing about it now. Any
questions?
posted by soyjoy
on Jul 27, 2005 -
50 comments
The search for Alfred E. Neuman Carl Djerassi emigrated to the US after Hitler's annexation of Austria, and in his essay traces the gap-toothed Mad Magazine spokesman from his original sighting on a German anti-semitic propaganda poster (PDF).
posted by docpops
on Feb 1, 2005 -
27 comments
Spy vs. Spy sell out! Mountain Dew has roped in the infamous black & white spies to shill their beverage. Quicktime needed to view the commercials.
[via waxy.org]
posted by riffola
on Jun 28, 2004 -
11 comments
A Mad Parody Of The Onion Well, if this isn't Meta, I don't know what is. Certainly, we all know about
The Onion (and, indeed, our consensus is that we don't post Onion links here). The fine fellows at
MAD magazine have hoisted the Area Men by their own petard. I hate to say it, 'cuz I think The Onion is often quite funny, but they've got it nailed. (via
Heath Row's Media Diet)
posted by briank
on Nov 13, 2002 -
58 comments