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Monday Links from the Bench vol. CDXLVIII

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    Monday Links from the Bench vol. CDXLVIII

    Just for a change this week, you can stay in reading this lot while sheltering from the rain rather than hiding from the sun
    • How an Ex-Cop Rigged McDonald’s Monopoly Game and Stole Millions - How the man responsible for the prize-winning tickets got away with stealing them and either giving them away or selling them, for twelve years: "The odds of Hoover’s win were 1 in 250 million. There were two ways to win the Monopoly grand prize: find the “Instant Win” game piece like Hoover, or match Park Place with the elusive Boardwalk to choose between a heavily-taxed lump sum or $50,000 checks every year for 20 years… The camera crew listened patiently to his rambling story, silently recognizing the inconsequential details found in stories told by liars. They suspected that Hoover was not a lucky winner, but part of a major criminal conspiracy to defraud the fast food chain of millions of dollars. The two men behind the camera were not from McDonald’s. They were undercover agents from the FBI."

    • Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life - "The roundworms from two areas of Siberia came back to life in Petri dishes, says a new scientific study." Next: mammoths!

    • Milky Way’s black hole provides long-sought test of Einstein’s general relativity - "Astronomers have caught the giant black hole at our galaxy’s centre stretching the light emitted by an orbiting star — nearly three decades after they first starting tracking the star." Patience is a virtue

    • Patrick Bateman’s New York: What Happened To The World of American Psycho - "You will never get a reservation at Dorsia… But American Psycho, set in the soulless, superficial, status-seeking world of 1980’s New York finance, name-drops dozens of restaurants and clubs that actually did exist during that era, the elite NYC hot spots where you and I would have absolutely no shot of ever getting in (admit it!)." Movie location scout Nick Carr finds out what happened to the restaurants and clubs namedropped in the film.

    • Doorcases in South-East Marylebone - "In 2017 the Survey of London published two volumes (Nos 51 and 52) covering South-East Marylebone, an area comprising much of the West End north of Oxford Street… We would like to present here a varied assortment of doorcases in the area, from handsome eighteenth-century survivals and neo-Georgian designs, to plain doorways for blocks of modest flats and elaborate entrances for shops and institutions."


    • For One Last Night, Make It a Blockbuster Night - "Everything is 10 years behind in Alaska—including the way people see movies. In three stores across the coldest state in the union, Blockbuster captured the imagination of its residents long after the company ceased operations around the rest of the country. But now, the late fees are finally coming due, and the end of the Blockbuster era is upon us." End of an era in the northernmost state

    • Marine Biologist Melissa Cristina Márquez Was Bitten and Dragged by a Crocodile...and Lived to Tell Her Story - "When a crocodile clamped down on her leg and began to drag her earlier this year, Melissa Cristina Márquez performed the impossible: She stayed very calm." The irony is that she was in the water as she was making a programme about sharks.

    • Should we colonize another world? - "Survival, compounded by fear, are ostensibly the primary motivations for humans to become a multi-planetary species. And though hypothetical mass-extinction events like asteroid impacts or nuclear war may crease our brows, we have advanced technologies—or strong theories about how to make such technologies—in order to safeguard the future of humanity. How pressing, then, is it to colonize Mars?" Brad Bergan considers the risks our species faces, and our interplanetary options.

    • Denis O’Callahan’s Personal History Of Radio Hauraki - Transcript of a talk (sadly lacking the photos that are referenced occasionally) by one of the founders of New Zealand's first pirate radio station: "The authorities had the drawbridge that closed off the Viaduct lowered down to stop us going out. Well, they tried and Peter Telling and a couple of other guys threw themselves into the mechanism of the bridge so they couldn’t close it… while the boat was stuck on the drawbridge, a whole lot of cops came aboard and eventually they got into the engine room and shut down the main engine and we all got arrested and spent the night in the cells at the old Auckland Police Station." Spoiler: they got to sea eventually, and were pretty successful

    • Sanatorium by Ryan Koopmans - Beautiful photos of the ruined sanatoriums of Tskaltubo, Georgia, and the people who live there: "When the Soviet Union collapsed, the buildings were abandoned and fell into decay… In 1992 a war nearby in Abkhazia broke out. Displaced Georgians fled from the conflict and were given temporary shelter in Tskaltubo's unoccupied buildings. Twenty-five years later, hundreds of families remain living in these architectural remains of a Soviet past."



    Happy invoicing!

    #2
    Originally posted by NickFitz View Post
    Just for a change this week, you can stay in reading this lot while sheltering from the rain rather than hiding from the sun
    • Patrick Bateman’s New York: What Happened To The World of American Psycho - "You will never get a reservation at Dorsia… But American Psycho, set in the soulless, superficial, status-seeking world of 1980’s New York finance, name-drops dozens of restaurants and clubs that actually did exist during that era, the elite NYC hot spots where you and I would have absolutely no shot of ever getting in (admit it!)." Movie location scout Nick Carr finds out what happened to the restaurants and clubs namedropped in the film.

    Cheers Nick. A book I've read many times and have actually been to at least one of the places mentioned. Also a book in which Donald Trump features predominantly
    Brexit is having a wee in the middle of the room at a house party because nobody is talking to you, and then complaining about the smell.

    Comment


      #3
      A very good set - thoroughly enjoyed.

      Comment


        #4
        And even if the SSF don't get ya, then we've already had The Carrington Event of 1859.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859

        It'd be a bit more expensive these days.

        No comms, no telly.

        Civilisation just wouldn't survive.


        And I think I'd rather not be bitten by a croc, thanks all the same.


        The Blockbuster thing is quite sad.

        Reminds me of all the things that aren't there any more, mostly such as the places I've worked (or Strangelove Pater & Mater worked) that have closed down & disappeared as if they'd never been.

        There's a review of Taxi Driver on the same site IIRC that's interesting.

        https://www.theringer.com/movies/201...chrader-incels
        Last edited by DoctorStrangelove; 30 July 2018, 14:05.
        When the fun stops, STOP.

        Comment


          #5
          The McDonalds tickets story was terrific. Had me glued all through my lunch. Love a good story written in that level of detail. Gripping stuff. Thanks NF.
          'CUK forum personality of 2011 - Winner - Yes really!!!!

          Comment

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