The Early Television Foundation and Museum Website covers the nascent days of the nation's pastime, with interesting items like mechanical TVs and programming schedules from 1939.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim on Sep 9, 2008 - 11 comments

Making your own transistor is probably beyond the abilities of a dedicated hobbyist. However, making simple triode vacuum tubes is practical. Many hobbyists have done so over the years. In this video, French ham-radio operator Claude Paillard shows you how. HIs model is the WWI-era type TM of 1915. (and btw, 2007 was the 100th anniversary of electronics, since de Forest made his first vacuum tube in 1907.)
posted by metasonix on Jan 4, 2008 - 22 comments

Some commuters are nervous about London Underground drivers filming journeys on their camera phones and posting them on YouTube. YouTube links all. BBC Story.
posted by nthdegx on Jul 13, 2007 - 22 comments

(Spoilers in most links). So an SNL digital short, Dear Sister spoofs the second season finale of the OC. Now the internets just don't know when to stop, with parodies (of the parody) playing on everything from the obvious like The Departed, LOST, Snatch, The Matrix, Reservoir Dogs, and Predator to the not-so-obvious like Lord of the Rings, Raging Bull, Monty Python, Duck Hunt (my favorite), Looney Toons, LazyTown, Smash Brothers, Office Space, and Bio-Ooze Super Soakers.
posted by ztdavis on Apr 28, 2007 - 65 comments

Hometown Baghdad Web documentary series about the life of 20 somethings living in Baghdad - an interesting addition to the list of more famous web threads on life in Baghdad.
posted by specialk420 on Mar 29, 2007 - 4 comments

Ghosts of the London Underground - a documentary. More here.
posted by greycap on Jan 31, 2007 - 7 comments

In 1999, to mark the centennial of Alfred Hitchock's birth in the Leytonstone district of London, 17 mosaics were installed in the entrance corridors of Leytonstone tube station. Each mosaic celebrates a different Hitchock masterpiece. True to form, Hitch makes several cameos among the mosaics.
posted by lilbrudder on Aug 7, 2006 - 18 comments

London Underground Fashion Victims - as featured on the Going Underground blog.
posted by Mwongozi on May 6, 2006 - 33 comments

Music history rendered on a London Tube Map They say: "Could we chart the branches and connections of 100 years of music using the London Underground map? Dorian Lynskey explains how a box of coloured crayons and lot of swearing helped." I say: Look also at the comments in the accompanying thread, which features trolling, snarkiness and repetition, beginning with "Why did you do this? What is the point? Wouldn't you have been better off doing something else? Sometimes you media people really worry me." The Guardian are introducing commenter registration on their new blog.
posted by feelinglistless on Feb 12, 2006 - 18 comments

Harry Beck's famous map [current 287K .gif version] of the London Underground has a long history and is often praised as a definitive example of excellent information design. Many consider it unimprovable, but that doesn't stop many others trying. The latest variant is a project by Oskar Karlin, redesigning the map to illustrate journey time [warning: large, slow loading .pdf]. [partly via]
posted by normy on Dec 5, 2005 - 17 comments

Why you yellow rat bastard...When I get ahold of you, I’ll put two zigs on both cheeks. You’ll remember me for the rest of your.... I know you! Don't worry! Louis 'Red' Deutsch spouted perhaps the filthiest, yet most eloquent cursing you may ever hear. I got an underground tape of the prank phone calls from a buddy of mine back in high school. Certainly it's influenced everyone from Matt Groening to the Jerky Boys. The prank calls to Red have even had a (lousy) movie feature (with perhaps the best casting I've ever seen). More than 25 years later I still laugh my head off at even the cadence of Red's profanity.
posted by Smedleyman on Oct 2, 2005 - 16 comments

Some cool little tube amps. The world's smallest production tube amp and world's Smallest Vacuum Tube hi-fi stereo amplifier. These are too cool.
posted by KevinSkomsvold on Aug 27, 2005 - 31 comments

FT changes headline on Blair's statement. This morning, I picked up the paper copy of the Financial Times, scanned the headline, and harrumphed, remarking that "I had seen something like this before". Yesterday, the FT website had the same title - "Blair rejects calls for probe into bombings." Today, however, the headline has been changed to "Blair promises to hunt down bombers". (BTW, it's UK conservatives calling for a probe). Not only that, but the text in question is purged:

Tony Blair will on Monday reject Conservative demands for a government inquiry into last week's London bomb attacks, insisting such a move would distract from the task of catching the perpetrators.

Gentlemen, prepare your tinfoil hats!!
posted by rzklkng on Jul 11, 2005 - 19 comments

The London Underground is home to some of the most interesting, weird and fun adverts, which have been tailored to the fact that they have huge posters that passengers are often looking at for minutes at a time while waiting. In Copywriting goes Underground, they challenged ad agencies to write an ad which had at least 50 words in it. Some are crap, but some are pretty innovative - check them out.
posted by adrianhon on Jun 21, 2005 - 15 comments

In a shocking, or not turn of events the Pope may be getting a feeding tube to match Terry Schaivo's and complement his big hat.
posted by petrilli on Mar 29, 2005 - 59 comments

Ever wonder what the London Underground Map [105 KiB PDF] would look like if it were geographically accurate [255 KiB GIF]? If you could morph [13.7 KiB Flash] between those two versions and Harry Beck's 1933 map [112 KiB JPG]? What it will look like in 2016 [218 KiB PDF]? What if you replaced all the stations, even ones that are no longer used, with well-known personalities [46 KiB JPG inset]? If you knew exactly which carriage to get on so you'd already be at the Way Out (never "exit" [23 MiB PDF]) when your train stops (or doesn't stop)? If you had a similar schematic for buses [245 KiB PDF] or river boats [50 KiB PDF]?

Pass your Oyster card over the reader and go on a tour of interesting, imaginative, and subversive maps and diagrams of London public transport. And as you leave, remember to Mind the Gap, Stand on the Right [671 KiB JPG], and Always Touch Out.
posted by grouse on Mar 7, 2005 - 65 comments

Another Magnificent Obsession is born. The fiance of a friend just gave me her small collection of antique radios that they won't have room for in their new place. While looking for care instructions, I discovered a whole new subculture where art, science, design, and craftsmanship co-exist. They don't make 'em like this anymore, folks.
posted by keswick on Apr 4, 2004 - 13 comments

3D Tube Map
posted by Orange Goblin on Nov 28, 2003 - 18 comments

Lo! Behold the power of the internet!
That'll teach the guy to put sharply-worded messages on his own property. The nerve of some people.
posted by phalkin on Feb 10, 2002 - 7 comments

How do they do it? The Guardian sent their reporters to the four corners of the world to review...underground railways. The findings prove predictably that anything is better than The London Underground. In Prague for example: "Not long ago, a man paid for adverts to be put up in all 940 trains, pleading with his girlfriend to take him back. Czechs understand the romantic potential of the metro and it has found its way into a fair amount of the nation's modern literature. "
posted by feelinglistless on Aug 22, 2001 - 22 comments

Tube drivers strike and the queue system falls apart! Getting to work was bad enough thanks to strking tube drivers and crack smoking officials at Hammersmith Bus station, now how the hell do I get home?
posted by Foaf on Feb 5, 2001 - 13 comments