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Monday Links from the Bench vol. CCXLII

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    Monday Links from the Bench vol. CCXLII

    Getting colder this week, apparently, presumably so people feel the benefit when the traditional August Bank Holiday sunshine arrives
    • Two contrasting experiences: Matt Honan with I Liked Everything I Saw on Facebook for Two Days. Here’s What It Did to Me and Elan Morgan with I Quit Liking Things On Facebook for Two Weeks. Here’s How It Changed My View of Humanity. The choice, as they say, is yours

    • Lorem Ipsum: Of Good & Evil, Google & China - "Imagine discovering a secret language spoken only online by a knowledgeable and learned few. Over a period of weeks, as you begin to tease out the meaning of this curious tongue and ponder its purpose, the language appears to shift in subtle but fantastic ways, remaking itself daily before your eyes. And just when you are poised to share your findings with the rest of the world, the entire thing vanishes." Brian Krebs on a recently-observed peculiarity in the way Google Translate handled “lorem ipsum”, the widely-used placeholder text. Was it an artefact of the algorithms, or had somebody somehow managed to subvert the system to act as a form of steganography? Probably the former, but you never know…

    • The Crash of Navy Blimp L-8 - A mystery from World War II, 72 years ago this past weekend: ”The tide of war in the Pacific was turning. The Doolittle raids on the Japanese home islands demonstrated the American resolve to fight & win and, in June of 1942, the naval battle at the Midway Islands dealt a crushing defeat… At 6:03 in the morning, naval blimp L-8 took off from Treasure Island, located in the center of San Francisco Bay, with its crew of two.”

    • Diary: On Being Stalked - ”I write this with a baseball bat by the bed. A weapon that will do more damage than you can bring yourself to inflict is useless; last time I made the wrong choice… One neighbour says if she saw him by the road at night she would run him down. Others tell me to get a gun and shoot on sight.” A shocking account of ongoing harassment by Helen DeWitt.

    • The Part of the Plane You Never Get to See: What Do Cabin Crews' Chillaxation Spots Look Like? - Rather nice, if a bit cramped, it turns out: ” If we look at the design-phase mockups, below, we can see the designers initially had a slightly different idea: In addition to the cleaner, clutter-free surfaces, the place is well-stocked with pillows in an effort to promote cabin-crew pillow fights.”


    • Inside a Chinese Bitcoin Mine - "The first thing you notice as you approach the warehouse is the noise. It begins as soon as you step out of the car, at which point it sounds like massive swarm of angry bees droning away somewhere off in the distance. It becomes louder and louder the closer you get to the building, and as you step through the doors it becomes a deafening and steady roar; a combination of tens of thousands of tiny ASIC chips hashing away, and dozens of large industrial fans serving to cool down the “workers”." Apparently it costs about US$60,000 a month to keep this setup running

    • Why Americans Love Guns - A history of the USA’s relationship with firearms: ”Without firearms and the determined settlers carrying them, this country would be a fraction of its size, never realizing what we called the Manifest Destiny to span the American continent coast to coast. But the real history of the Old West is far less noble and clear-cut than the legends we hold in our collective imagination.”

    • What Actually Happens At The End Of 'Trading Places'? - An explanation for all those normal people to whom the trading scene is just confusing: ”I recently talked to Tom Peronis, a guy who has spent years trading OJ options. He walked me through every step of Winthorpe and Valentine's plan.”

    • DOGS IN ELK - A classic thread from a gardening forum in 1999. User Anne V’s dogs have crawled inside an elk carcass, and won’t come out: ”Elk are very big this year, because of the rain and good grazing and so forth. They aren't rolling. They are alternately napping and eating. They each have a ribcage. Other dogs are working on them from the outside. It's all way too primal in my yard right now. We tried the hose trick. At someone elses house, which is where they climbed in and began to refuse to come out. Many hours ago. I think that the hose mostly helps keep them cool and dislodges little moist snacks for them. hose failed. My new hope is that if they all continue to eat at this rate, they will be finished before the houseguests arrive.”

    • Dave Pointing - After the glory that was “Kim Jong-Il Looking At Things”, it’s David Cameron’s turn:


      Dave pointing The Way Out


    Happy invoicing!

    #2
    Poor old Dan Ackroyd.

    The Eddie Murphy Rule for Futures Markets: First the Volcker Rule, Now This - MarketBeat - WSJ
    Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

    Comment


      #3
      the stalker, scary the law deals so badly with this.
      Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

      Comment


        #4
        the missing blimp crew - I know the japanese had subs that actually carried a seaplane, and the japs had lots of small escort carriers, but I doubt if any of these would have had half the range to get close to SF
        (\__/)
        (>'.'<)
        ("")("") Born to Drink. Forced to Work

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