A bit late getting to ClientCo today due to mild illness, so I might as well waste a bit more time (including yours) by posting some links:
Happy invoicing!
- Alan Turing’s library list - "Sherborne archivist Rachel Hassall has uncovered the list of books Turing took out from the school library while he was a pupil." Easy on the romantic fiction, Alan - oh hang on, you were
- Japanese Fart Scrolls - "I was doing research for another post a while back, and found something a bit…unusual. It was an old Japanese scroll about farting." Proof that traditional Japanese art wasn't entirely about cranes and full moons.
- 14 years ago: the day Teller gave me the secret to my career in magic - Remarkable story of how Teller (of Penn and Teller, not the nuclear physicist) helped a young magician find his way: "When we started we HAD no style, no understanding of ourselves or what we were doing. We had feelings, vague ones, a sense of what we liked, maybe, but no unified point of view, not even a real way to express our partnership. We fought constantly and expected to break up every other week. But we did have a few things, things I think you might profit from knowing..."
- Nuclear Weapons on a Highway Near You - "Big rigs with bombs are secretly cruising America's interstates. But how safe are they from terrorists or accidents?" Interesting examination of how nuclear weapons get from A to B (other than via rocketry).
- The ‘biblical view’ that’s younger than the Happy Meal - "In 1979, McDonald’s introduced the Happy Meal. Sometime after that, it was decided that the Bible teaches that human life begins at conception. Ask any American evangelical, today, what the Bible says about abortion and they will insist that this is what it says. (Many don’t actually believe this, but they know it is the only answer that won’t get them in trouble.) They’ll be a little fuzzy on where, exactly, the Bible says this, but they’ll insist that it does... That’s new. If you had asked American evangelicals that same question the year I was born you would not have gotten the same answer." Food for thought when you see the speaking zoo the Republican party is fielding this year prating on.
- Life, Death, and Splitting Secrets - "Summary: I created a program to help back up important data like your master password in case something happens to you. By splitting your secret into pieces, it provides a circuit breaker against a single point of failure. I’m giving it away as a free open source program with the hope that others might find it useful in addressing this aspect of our lives." Useful project addressing the all-important question of how those left behind will get access to your accounts (whether bank or Facebook).
- An Open Letter to Channel 4 - "Dear Channel 4, I am writing to you with the hope that you will stop ruining my life. While your obsession with my ethnicity is flattering, it has become somewhat apparent to me that you might have gotten the wrong end of the stick. This is sort of awkward for me, because I don't want to be the one to break it to you, but your documentary, 'Big Fat Gypsy Weddings', is unfortunately a work of fiction." A Romany teenager pens a justified complaint.
- Moving 6 Billion Messages Without Being Noticed - "We've just finished moving every message in every user's message center — all 6 billion of them — to a brand new set of database servers, and we managed to do it without anyone noticing. We didn't find much published material about the best way to do this, so we wanted to share a few details with you. It does get a little bit technical though so I won't be offended if you skip over some parts!" Excellent account of solving the kind of problem you'd love your Plan B to have.
- What Happens to the Coke in Coca-Cola? - "While the original Coke formula had a significant amount of cocaine in it, it was quickly limited and, by 1903 or thereabouts, eliminated from the recipe... To this day, Coca-Cola needs coca leaves to make its drinks." Dan Lewis explains where all the coke that doesn't go into Coke goes.
- Man Walks All Day to Create Spectacular Snow Patterns - "Artist Simon Beck must really love the cold weather! Along the frozen lakes of Savoie, France, he spends days plodding through the snow in raquettes (snowshoes), creating these sensational patterns of snow art. Working for 5-9 hours a day, each final piece is typically the size of three soccer fields! The geometric forms range in mathematical patterns and shapes that create stunning, sometimes 3D, designs when viewed from higher levels." Cooler, literally, than crop circles:
Happy invoicing!
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