Only three more days after today… the bench is calling 
Happy invoicing!
- For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II - "...beside a stream there was a dwelling. Blackened by time and rain, the hut was piled up on all sides with taiga rubbish—bark, poles, planks. If it hadn't been for a window the size of my backpack pocket, it would have been hard to believe that people lived there. But they did, no doubt about it.... Our arrival had been noticed, as we could see." The astonishing story of the Lykov family, who fled into the Siberian taiga in 1936 in the face of religious persecution, and had no further contact with anybody else until Soviet scientists discovered their hut in 1978.
- World's largest natural sound archive is now online - "After 12 years of work, Cornell's Macaulay Library archive, the largest collection of wildlife sounds in the world, is now digitized and fully available online." Want to hear the call of the Whiskered Screech-Owl (Megascops trichopsis)? They've got you covered, along with over 175,000 other recordings to choose from.
- Simulated Pickett N4-ES Slide Rule - It's a slide rule in a web page. It slides and you can use it to build Concorde or the Brooklyn Bridge.
- The Duke in his Domain - Truman Capote's classic New Yorker profile of Marlon Brando: "Even the film's director, Joshua Logan, was impelled to say, after working with Brando for two weeks, 'Marlon's the most exciting person I've met since Garbo. A genius. But I don't know what he's like. I don't know anything about him.'"
- How to Read an FBI File - "Maybe you found an FBI file on the web, maybe you got it through a web site like Get Grandpa's FBI File or Get My FBI File, maybe you found it at the National Archives, or maybe it was up in the attic in great-aunt Mildred's possessions... If you're serious about trying to understand the stuff in that file, this document is for you." A thorough guide to understanding the bits that haven't been obliterated by a huge black splodge.
- What they don't tell you in the plane safety demo - Interesting explanation of what's behind all that strange arm-waving and so on. You can go on a course if you want: "You get to jump down an emergency slide! And if you’ve ever wanted to pull the inflation cord on one of those airplane life vests, this is your chance. You also get to evacuate a cabin filled with smoke (it's the kind used in a theater or rock concert, but it does the trick). You'll practice the fine points of the "brace position." And best of all, you understand why some of those more obscure procedures and safety warnings are part of the flight experience."
- DNA Science and What Russian Researchers Have Surprisingly Discovered… - CRAZY PSEUDOSCIENCE ALERT!!! "It appears that all human languages are simply verbalizations of our DNA. Most astounding of all, the team discovered that living human DNA can be changed and rearranged with spoken words and phrases." There are people out there who take this horsetulip seriously. Worrying.
- It Takes Planning, Caution to Avoid Being 'It' - Ten apparently normal American men, with respectable jobs in business and so forth, have spent the last twenty-three years playing tag every February. Seriously: "At one point, Chris Ammann was living in Boston. So Mr. Konesky dipped into his frequent-flier miles and crossed the country on the last weekend of the month. He spent the next two days in the bushes outside Mr. Ammann's apartment, sitting in his friend's favorite bar or driving up and down his street. Mr. Ammann never showed. Mr. Konesky was "It" for the year."
- Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s Eight Books Everyone Should Read - "...while printing the name of noted science advocate and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on the cover of a book might not move as many copies as Oprah’s blessing, I’d be a lot moe likely to pay attention to his suggestions. Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be a Neil deGrasse Tyson Book Club at the moment, so I’ll just have to stick with these eight books he suggests we all owe it to ourselves to read." Good list.
- Submarine Cable Map - An interactive map allowing you to explore the world's network of undersea cables, and beautifully drawn.
Happy invoicing!
