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Monday Links from the Bench vol. DXXVIII

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    Monday Links from the Bench vol. DXXVIII

    If the aftermath of Storm Ciara meant you couldn’t get to your ClientCo today, you’ll need some reading to pass the time. If you did get there, doubly so.
    • The Edison of the Slot Machines - The story of Tommy Glenn Carmichael, possibly the most successful slot machine cheat ever: ”He needed a new tool, something to replace the clumsy old instrument that had landed him in the penitentiary. Night and day in his Vegas apartment, he toiled on a Fortune One video poker machine… Then, in the recess of sleep, the solution appeared in all its brilliant simplicity: a flexible piece of metal, wedged at the top, and some piano wire.”

    • Unpacking the Black Box in Artificial Intelligence for Medicine - Is it necessary for us to understand how AI works if we're trusting medical decisions to it? ”Among researchers, there’s a growing call to clarify how deep learning tools make decisions — and a debate over what such interpretability might demand and when it’s truly needed. The stakes are particularly high in medicine, where lives will be on the line.”

    • Cartoons and propaganda: Osbert Lancaster at the PWE - The Daily Express cartoonist's contributions to wartime propaganda efforts: ”[Moffen-Spiegel] contains a series of cartoons ridiculing the Nazi high command and other German officials, all of which were originally drawn for the Daily Express by Osbert Lancaster (1908-86).”


    • CineShader - Develop 3D graphics tools in your browser: ”CineShader is a real-time 3D shader visualiser. It leverages the Shadertoy.com API to bring thousands of existing shader artworks into a cinematic 3D environment.”

    • Here Is the Soviet Union's Secret Space Cannon - ”In 1975, the USSR actually fired a cannon from an orbiting space station. Forty years later, we finally got a good look at this gun.” Officially, this is still the only weapon ever fired in orbit - though of course they would say that.

    • February 1961: At Home with the Profumos - ”It seemed an innocent time when House & Garden magazine visited Secretary of State for War John Profumo and his wife, the actress Valerie Hobson at their home in February 1961. The name Profumo wasn’t automatically followed by the word ‘Affair’ back then.” The calm before the storm…


    • Neanderthals’ relatives climbed an erupting volcano 350,000 years ago - ”Roccamonfina volcano, about 60km northwest of Vesuvius, erupted violently around 350,000 years ago. Pyroclastic flows—deadly torrents of hot gas and volcanic ash—raced down the sides of the mountain. But within a few days, a small group of hominins trekked across the layer of ash and pumice that covered the steep mountainside. Recent analysis and some newly identified prints suggest that the intrepid (or reckless) hominins may have been Homo heidelbergensis who lived and hunted near the volcano.” Must have been a Bank Holiday

    • A dead star's spin is dragging the fabric of spacetime along with it - ”After observing a binary system of two dead stars for 20 years, astronomers have detected the very subtle effect of Einstein's hand: Frame-dragging, an outcome of General Relativity where a rapidly spinning massive object literally drags the fabric of spacetime around it, winding it up like a thread around a spindle.” Odd place, space

    • Meet a Man Who Spent Nineteen Years Training Alligators to Sing - The strange calling of M. Pernelet: ”You’re probably wondering if there is a contemporary account of Pernelet’s act that is jam-packed with misinformation about alligators and crocodiles. You’re in luck: Here is an unbylined profile of alligator and crocodile singing-master M. Pernelet, which was originally published in the Philadelphia North American, as reprinted in the Salt Lake City Herald, Feb. 23, 1902.”

    • Architectural Gems: Wetherspoon Pubs that used to be Cinemas - ”Here’s a list of must-visit Wetherspoon pubs that once upon a time were cinemas.” This is the former Maindee Cinema in Newport.



    Happy invoicing!

    #2
    Missed two Wetherspoons I know of!

    Regal in gloucester

    The one in Llandudno
    Rhyddid i lofnod psychocandy!!!!

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by psychocandy View Post
      Missed two Wetherspoons I know of!

      Regal in gloucester

      The one in Llandudno
      "The Moon Under Water" - Deansgate Manchester.
      Old Greg - In search of acceptance since Mar 2007. Hoping each leap will be his last.

      Comment


        #4
        Very brave of you to post a feature on Wetherspoons - one or two of our regulars will be foaming at the mouth
        Very interesting though, I'm tempted to visit Whitstable just for the Peter Cushing!
        His heart is in the right place - shame we can't say the same about his brain...

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