Monday Links from the Bench vol. CCCXV
Bah! This morning, I made the mistake of going and asking my GP if I should be checked out by a cardiologist, as it's been nearly five years since I've seen one. Much to my surprise, she packed me off to the Urgent Care Centre, who have now referred me to the coronary unit at another hospital across town, who may end up doing an angioplasty 
Luckily, I've managed to sneak home for half-an-hour on my way there so I could post these. Today's top tip: don't ask doctors things 
Happy invoicing!
Luckily, I've managed to sneak home for half-an-hour on my way there so I could post these. Today's top tip: don't ask doctors things - Beat Godfather Meets Glitter Mainman - Transcript of the conversation when David Bowie and William Burroughs met in 1973: ”An Irish cabbie drove Burroughs and me to Bowie's London home on 17 November ("Strange blokes down this part of London, mate"). I had spent the last several weeks arranging this two-way interview. I had brought Bowie all of Burroughs' novels: Naked Lunch, Nova Express, The Ticket That Exploded and the rest. He'd only had time to read Nova Express. Burroughs for his part had heard only two Bowie songs, 'Five Years' and 'Starman', though he had read all of Bowie's lyrics. Still they had expressed interest in meeting each other.”
- There is Only 1 Shenzhen River, So Why Does Google Maps Show 2? - Some strange consequences of Google having to observe different regulations concerning mapping in different parts of the world: ”In Hong Kong (below the river), OpenStreetMap and Google Maps match exactly. In China (above the river), the road networks do not line up. Another strange effect appears if you zoom in closer on the river. As shown in this next image, Google Maps shows several buildings in the middle of the water.” Bonus maps-meet-politics link: Raymond Chen of Microsoft answers the question ”Why isn’t my time zone highlighted on the world map?”
- It’s 2016 already, how are websites still screwing up these user experiences?! - Excellent roundup by Troy Hunt of the most annoying things idiots who create websites are doing to their hapless users: ”We’re a few days into the new year and I’m sick of it already. This is fundamental web usability 101 stuff that plagues us all and makes our online life that much more painful than it needs to be. None of these practices – none of them – is ever met with “Oh how nice, this site is doing that thing”. Every one of these is absolutely driving the web into a dismal abyss of frustration and much ranting by all.”
- Malleus Maleficarum - Bothered by unpleasant witches? ”The Malleus Maleficarum table of contents is your guide to one of the most famous medieval treatises on witches.” Soon to be rebranded as Witch-be-gone™
- Discover The Music Vault: A Massive YouTube Archive of 22,000 Live Concert Videos - Some great stuff here: ”There’s so much Grateful Dead in fact, they get their own channel. You’ll also find plenty more live classic rock shows from Neil Young, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Van Morrison, the Stones, Joe Cocker, and more… If that’s not what you’re into, there’s also plenty of punk and new wave, like the classic Talking Heads performance of “Life During Wartime” above at the Capitol Theatre from 1980 (see the complete concert here). You can also catch Iggy Pop in ’86, Blondie in ’79, the Ramones in ’78, Prince in ’82, or Green Day in ’94.”
- 52 Factorial - "They seem harmless enough, 52 thin slices of laminated cardboard with colorful designs printed on their sides. Yet, as another illustration of the mantra that complexity begins from the most simple systems, the number of variations that these 52 cards can produce is virtually endless. The richness of most playing card games owes itself to this fact." A variety of ways of trying to grasp just how many different ways a pack of cards can be shuffled. It’s unbelievably vast
- Did Richard III kill the Princes in the Tower? - A detailed study of the evidence by Gareth Streeter, in seven parts. ”commentators – both online and off – have treated these questions with great caution. We read that the fate of the Princes in the Tower is an ‘unsolvable mystery.’ We hear that there are numerous arguments for and against the last Plantagenet King’s involvement with it and that we can never really know either way. This is now the narrative that floods the internet. And it simply won’t do.”
- Japan Keeps This Defunct Train Station Running for Just One Passenger - "The train makes only two stops—one when a lone high-school student leaves for school and the other when she returns." Now that’s service
- Milk Float Corner - "Welcome to Milk Float Corner, to the best of my knowledge the only site on the web dedicated to "our friends electric" - the humble milk float. Designed for reliability, durability, and quietness of operation, milk floats are also pollution-free as they glide around during the early hours, and for most people who keep normal hours, the only evidence that they exist at all is the appearance of a pint of milk on the doorstep each morning. But although they may be inconspicuous, they are appealing little vehicles and this page aims to give them a bit more recognition." New year, new hobby?
- Where the Statues of Paris were sent to Die - "The stony gaze of the statue upon his executor says it all. Most of the bronze “men” that once watched over Parisian streets and public squares of the French Third Republic met a most undignified end many years ago, snatched from their pedestals and erased from the history books. During the Nazi occupation of France in World War II, the co-operating Vichy government ordered the removal and destruction of all metal monuments and statues for the purpose of remelting, unless considered to be of “historical or artistic interest” to the new regime."
Happy invoicing!
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