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Category: links
Space bomb
In the summer of 1962, the U.S. blew up a hydrogen bomb in outer space. Apparently, they were trying to see if the Van Allen radiation belt could be used to attack a hostile nation.
In any case, says the science history professor, “this is the first occasion I’ve ever discovered where someone discovered something and immediately decided to blow it up.”
It was one of those scientific theories that had “good idea” written all over it.
On LEGO
You can still buy a giant box of LEGO with 1600 bricks. That’s for those people that moan about the number of paint-by-numbers sets, branded kits and general non-creativeness of LEGO compared to when they were growing up. I’d also recommend the x-large grey baseplate — it was one of my favorites.
Mario 3 speed run
A video of someone beating Super Mario 3 in eleven minutes, and a poster outlining the button sequence needed to do it. Although, it’s really skill more than anything.
Writing ideas
Bernadette Mayer’s list of journal ideas — exercises and experiments in writing. Filed away for future reference.
Uncovered posters from the 1950s
An interesting set of advertising posters from the 1950s recently uncovered at the Notting Hill Gate tube station in London. The passageway had been sealed off when the lifts were replaced with escalators.
Google type
Typekit and Google have teamed up to create the open-source WebFont Loader. The software can make use of Typekit’s extensive library, Google’s new collection of webfonts or it can be self-hosted.
Writing systems of the world
The Beauty of Typography: Writing Systems and Calligraphy of the World. An extensive introduction to a number of non-Western writing systems.
Pentagon brownie recipe
How to make brownies, Pentagon style. The 26 page specification, also known as MIL-C-44072C, is available for your perusal.
Big bang
The Big Bang was an explosion of space, not in space.
The Big Bang wasn’t an explosion of stuff like atoms or molecules, it was an explosion of a place and instance, it was the creation of when and where. Before the Big Bang there was simply nothing, there was no ‘where’ nor was there a ‘when’. It doesn’t even make sense to say ‘before the Big Bang’.
Facebook privacy
A bewildering tangle of options. To manage your privacy on Facebook, you will need to navigate through 50 settings with more than 170 options. The site has gone from walled garden to glass box on a busy street corner.
Gopher archive
John Goerzen has archived Gopherspace (all 40gb) and made it available as a 15gb compressed torrent. Gopher was around in the 1990s before the World Wide Web, it was similar, but not hyperlinked. I remember using Gopher in high-school, it was the first time I ever came across the