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Monday Links from the Bench vol. CDXLII

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    Monday Links from the Bench vol. CDXLII

    Apparently there's some kind of footballing contest cluttering the TV at the moment, but it's easy to dodge it on the Web
    • McMoon: How the Earliest Images of the Moon Were so Much Better than we Realised - "Fifty years ago, 5 unmanned lunar orbiters circled the moon, taking extremely high resolution photos of the surface. They were trying to find the perfect landing site for the Apollo missions… After their use, the images were locked away from the public, as at the time they would have revealed the superior technology of the USA’s spy satellite cameras, which the orbiters cameras were designed from." How the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project photographs were recovered from the tapes on which they'd originally been stored. You can also have a look at the project's blog, and the recovered images are now hosted by NASA's JPL at Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) Online Data Volumes.

    • Layers of London - This project allows you to layer old maps of London, such as a Tudor map from 1520, on a modern interactive map of the city, and explore associated resources: "The layers include historic maps, images of buildings, films as well as information about people who have lived and worked in London over the centuries."

    • Davey Jones, the Man Behind the Real Ale Twats - Interview with the man behind the Viz strip: "I’ve spent quite a lot of time in pubs and the characters are sort of composites of types that I encountered. There was a bloke who used to come into my local in Newcastle who had a big beard and a beret and always seemed to be carrying several shoulder bags. He may not even have been a real ale enthusiast – I don’t think I ever heard him speak – but he had the right look, so I drew him. Probably very unfairly."


    • The Next Plague Is Coming. Is America Ready? - "The epidemics of the early 21st century revealed a world unprepared, even as the risks continue to multiply. Much worse is coming." TLDR: if you thought Ebola was bad, wait till you see what else nature combined with rapid international travel has up its sleeve.

    • She Caught Bullets with Her Bare Hands — and Made Magic’s Glass Ceiling Disappear - "When her husband died and left her penniless, audacious Adelaide Hermann transformed from lowly assistant to ‘the Queen of Magic.’”

    • BBC sound effects 1940–86 - You may remember the BBC sound effects library from a couple of months ago. Some of the locations where they were recorded are known, so the London Sound Survey has put them on a map. ”The BBC's numerical filenames have been replaced with descriptive ones, and brief descriptions of the recordings have been copied from the database. You can use placenames and other distinctive words from the descriptions to look up the original recordings on the sound effects website.”

    • So what’s the story? The prototype book - How salesman Douglas Keen invented the Ladybird book: ”Keen realised there was a gap in the book market for well-made, robust and colourful books in schools… Children’s book publishing was still seen as a sideshow, Keen as enthusiastic but misguided, and the company went on as before.” There’s an exhibition covering the history of Ladybird books at The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge in Canterbury until late September, if you’re down that way


    • Love Boats: The Delightfully Sinful History of Canoes - "Before the youth of America fooled around at drive-ins and necked on Lover’s Lane, they coupled in canoes. Boatloads of them. In the early 1900s, canoes offered randy young guys and gals a means of escape to a semi-private setting, away from the prying eyes of their pious Victorian chaperones." One reason to head up the creek

    • Can there be a ‘very good dog?’ Philosophy has an answer - On the interesting question of attributing morality to animals: ”Does a dog know right from wrong? It’s a question philosophers have long pondered, coming to a slew of different conclusions.”

    • 507 Mechanical Movements - "This is an online edition of the classic technical reference Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements by Henry T. Brown. This site contains the original illustrations and text from the 21st edition of the book, published in 1908. It also includes animated versions of the illustrations, and occasional notes by the webmaster." The coloured images are the ones you can click on to see an animation showing them in action.



    Happy invoicing!

    #2
    Originally posted by Tim Stoffel on McMoon
    tim Stoffel says:
    18th June 2018 at 12:16 am
    I paid several visits to McMoons during this amazing project, and was taken back by the sheer complexity of what they had to do. The FR900 is basically a insturmentation version of a quadruplex videotape recorder. It used the same heads, required a vacuum guide to hold the tape in the correct position, and required new bearing be made to some incredible precision. The signal recover process was once highly classified, and that apparently had a page of equations and a block diagram to work from. Brilliant signal system engineer Al Stern, formerly of Ampex, designed a digital approximation of the original analog signal system that apparently worked on the first try. Although my involvement with the project was very trivial, it was something I will always remember.
    Good to see this again.

    Not quite ebola, but inneresting none the less:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-44484599
    Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 18 June 2018, 13:58.
    When the fun stops, STOP.

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
      Good to see this again.

      Not quite ebola, but inneresting none the less:

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-44484599
      In 1796 he immunised James with fluid from a cowpox lesion on the arm of a milking maid called Sarah Nelmes and then, after exposing the boy to smallpox, confirmed he was protected against it.
      That's the way to do it. None of this expensive clinical trials and years of research rubbish.
      'CUK forum personality of 2011 - Winner - Yes really!!!!

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by northernladuk View Post
        That's the way to do it. None of this expensive clinical trials and years of research rubbish.
        People say poverty is a bad thing and work to eradicate it but, without such expendable folk, we wouldn't be as medically advanced as we are now. The poor serve the greater good.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by ladymuck View Post
          People say poverty is a bad thing and work to eradicate it but, without such expendable folk, we wouldn't be as medically advanced as we are now. The poor serve the greater good.
          So why change a good thing? Cheaper and more useful than sterilisation.
          'CUK forum personality of 2011 - Winner - Yes really!!!!

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by NickFitz View Post
            The Next Plague Is Coming. Is America Ready? - "The epidemics of the early 21st century revealed a world unprepared, even as the risks continue to multiply. Much worse is coming." TLDR: if you thought Ebola was bad, wait till you see what else nature combined with rapid international travel has up its sleeve.
            NickFitz calls it again.
            When the fun stops, STOP.

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post

              NickFitz calls it again.
              DOH! Seeing that Monday Links title at the top of the list, I assumed it must be Monday and for some unaccounable reason I was a day out!
              Work in the public sector? Read the IR35 FAQ here

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by OwlHoot View Post
                DOH! Seeing that Monday Links title at the top of the list, I assumed it must be Monday and for some unaccounable reason I was a day out!
                That's what happens in nursing homes
                "A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims, but accomplices," George Orwell

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Paddy View Post

                  That's what happens in nursing homes
                  Hang on, today's wednesday isn't it? Nurse! Nurse!
                  Last edited by OwlHoot; 19 February 2021, 20:45.
                  Work in the public sector? Read the IR35 FAQ here

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by OwlHoot View Post
                    Hang on, it's wednesday today isn't it? Nurse! Nurse!
                    Do you also think it's still 2018? That blissful before time...

                    Comment

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