Thursday, September 30, 2010

Ink corrosion


The ink corrosion website: "presents information on iron gall ink; its importance in (art) history; and its slow, self-destructing properties known as iron gall ink corrosion."

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Human Torpedoes


Kaiten type Human Torpedoes: "were the first Japanese 'Special Attack' weapons, vehicles whose operational use involved the certain death of the crew."

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

John Sweeney revisits the Church of Scientology

BBC News - Panorama: "In 2007, while investigating the Church of Scientology for Panorama, reporter John Sweeney had a dramatic on-camera confrontation with a church spokesman named Tommy Davis. The church was accusing the reporter of bias and it attempted to stop the documentary from being broadcast - a campaign backed by Scientology A-lister John Travolta. Sweeney has returned to investigate the church again."

Monday, September 27, 2010

Impermanence

The Planets Time Capsule: "is a metal box that contains at risk digital objects: a JPEG photograph, a message in Java source code, a short film in .MOV format, a web-page in HTML and a brochure in PDF.

Each object is stored in its original format and a new format more suitable for long-term preservation such as PDF/A, TIFF, JPEG2000 and MPEG4. The objects are stored on media that range from paper, microfilm and floppy discs to CDs, DVDs and flash-drives and HDDs.

Inside the box are the original and new objects, storage media, and some reading devices. It also includes conversion tools that were used to migrate the objects as well as software to open and view/use these objects and supporting software all the way down to an operating system; descriptions of the file formats, of the file systems and encodings used on the storage media; and description of all these objects and their relationship to supporting technology and recognised standards."

Stuxnet

Stuxnet: "is the first discovered worm that spies on and reprograms industrial systems."

Sam’al

The Neubauer Expedition to Zincirli: "is conducting a long-term, large-scale exploration of an important Iron Age city in southeastern Turkey, in the province of Gaziantep near the border with Syria."

Shirley, You Can’t Be Serious

The Bygone Bureau: "Jonathan Gourlay is white, and all of his students are black. What’s the one word he shouldn’t say?"

Sunday, September 26, 2010

The Tenement Museum

"We tell the stories of 97 Orchard Street. Built on Manhattan's Lower East Side in 1863, this tenement apartment building was home to nearly 7,000 working class immigrants."

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Consuming cats and dogs

Cats and dogs in the animal cruelty law: "Cruelty to Animals law (draft for expert feedback) states that for individuals, the illegal consumption or sale of the meat of dogs or cats may result in a fine of up to 5,000 yuan, up to 15 days in prison, and a signed statement of repentance; companies or organizations can be fined between 10,000 and 500,000 yuan."

X-15: Extending the Frontiers of Flight

NASA - Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate: "The X-15 was the ultimate 'X' vehicle. Built in the 1950s, she became the fastest and highest-flying winged aircraft of its time. During 199 flights from 1959 through 1968, she collected data about hypersonic flight that was invaluable to aeronautics and to developers of the space shuttle. This book describes the genesis of the program, the design and construction of the aircraft, years of research flights and the experiments that flew aboard them." Available for download as .prc | .pdf | .epub | .pdb

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Repo Chick release

Repo Chick (2009)"The crew came in for work on the fourth day and found that the RED Digital Cinema Camera, most camera accessories, a portable sound package, two computers, digital still equipment, and personal effects were stolen. The RED #1605 has not been found.
Director Alex Cox [Repo Man] was not a fan of the Red One camera, writing on his blog that "the hated high-tech camera continues to cause difficulties, problems, and slowdowns."
Scathing review.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Phoenix

U.S. Submarines: "The Phoenix would be suitable for use as an exclusive submarine cruise ship or as a charter yacht.

The estimated price of the Phoenix is $78 million."

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Glamorous killing machine


Suren Manvelyan

ONCIX


Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive: "The ONCIX poster 'Espionage is No Sure Bet' won first place (Professional Category) in the National Classification Management Society's poster competition". I wonder how bad the others were.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

The Lawrence Lions

Dunedin, New Zealand: "Thursday 30 March 1978 was a night of high drama in Lawrence, Central Otago, with 'Carlos' Circus' in town.

At about 8.20pm, following the late show, two of the three circus lions left the ring and found the door of the exit tunnel open. The three year old animals, called Sultan and Sonia, made their quick escape out into the football field where the circus was based."