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Monday Links from the Bench vol. CCCXC

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    Monday Links from the Bench vol. CCCXC

    Yesterday was my tenth anniversary of joining CUK, but sadly my request for time off from posting links to celebrate was denied
    • Why the US government once sued a Nevada casino over a 14-pound solid gold rooster - "On a blazing hot afternoon in July 1960, three armed US marshals raided a casino lobby in Sparks, Nevada, and proceeded to seize a golden statue of a rooster… The metal bird was now a defendant in a Federal complaint brought by Treasury Department, entitled United States of America v. One Solid Gold Object in Form of a Rooster.” In a country whose currency is tied to the Gold Standard, it seems nobody’s massive gold cock is safe

    • The Balanced Ternary Machines of Soviet Russia - ”It's pretty common knowledge that computers store and operate on data using the binary number system… it's hard to imagine that computers could operate in any other way. But, in Soviet Russia during the 1950s, they did.” Andrew Buntine on the Russian base-3-based computer Setun.

    • Mallory Ortberg's Internet - Profile of Mallory, co-founder of The Toast and creator of such delights as Paintings Of The Nine Muses Dejectedly Performing Their Duties, Two Monks Learn How To Draw Hands, and Texts From Samuel Coleridge

    • Fish Hammer - Turns out the robot uprising will be led by the fish: Neil Mendoza’s project uses computer vision to track a goldfish whose movements control a hammer, which smashes things: ”As Smashie swims around the aquarium, his position is tracked with a webcam… The hammer head drops based on the slow rotation of a cam that the hammer rests on.” Should you wish to wreak your own destruction, detailed plans are available at Instructables: Fish Hammer Actuation Device.

    • Neural networks can name guinea pigs - One upside to our enslavement by the machines will be that somebody’s taught them how to name guinea pigs: ”Neural networks are a type of computer program that mimic the way human brains learn… yesterday, I got an email from the Portland Guinea Pig Rescue. ‘Have you ever trained a neural network to generate guinea pig names?’” So Pogle should be OK


    • The Red Special: Brian May’s Handmade Guitar and Red Special restoration 1998 - HT to vetran for these pieces about Brian May’s guitar, originally made by Brian and his dad Harold, and restored by Greg Fryer: ”To put it simply, the ‘Red Special’ is a work of genius which addresses many design issues such as the tremolo tailpiece/bridge system and headstock design far better than any of the other very successful contemporary guitars of the time (think Fender Stratocaster, Gibson SG & Les Paul etc)… no guitars since the middle 1960s have bettered Brian and Harold’s innovative design.”

    • Over and under - A guide to the various kinds of bridges found on the British canal network: ”Each one was designed for a set purpose: to meet the needs of the industry of that time or to work harmoniously with the contours and constraints of the canal… As you walk, imagine a time when heavy horses would have pulled cargo-laden barges along the canal and when carriages passed over the bridges, headed for nearby markets and towns.”

    • The art of Defendo, or how to fight like a Canadian: ‘Destroy them. Don’t feel sorry for them’ - The story of Bill Underwood, who developed techniques of unarmed combat taught in the Second World War and, later, to civilians: ”Before Underwood came along, Canadian army recruits were taught to box and wrestle, gentlemanly stuff, featuring combatants bobbing and weaving and rolling around on a mat. Underwood didn’t care for boxing… His big idea involved teaching Canadians to fight dirty. Forget bobbing, weaving and wasted movements: press the attack and strike with the elbows, the edge of the palms and the outside of the forearm, hard bone surfaces.”

    • What one man learnt by charting World War II in real time on Twitter for nearly six years - "Alwyn Collinson has chronicled the Second World War in dozens of daily tweets timed to the hour that events happened. Jamie Merrill reports on his epic history project." Next time somebody tries to tell you what Twitter is “for” or how it “should” be used, ask them where this story fits into their certainties

    • The Second World War in Color - Colour photography was expensive and so uncommon during the war, but here are some great photos from a recently-published book, drawn from the Imperial War Museum’s collection. Here’s Wing Commander Johnnie Johnson with Spitfire and Labrador in Normandy:



    Happy invoicing!

    #2
    Originally posted by NickFitz View Post
    Yesterday was my tenth anniversary of joining CUK


    The gold article was fascinating! Wow! It shows how far the world has come.

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by NickFitz View Post
      ...
      [*]The Second World War in Color - Colour photography was expensive and so uncommon during the war, but here are some great photos from a recently-published book, drawn from the Imperial War Museum’s collection. Here’s Wing Commander Johnnie Johnson with Spitfire and Labrador in Normandy:

      [/LIST]

      Happy invoicing!
      I wonder what that black dog's name was.
      Work in the public sector? Read the IR35 FAQ here

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by OwlHoot View Post
        I wonder what that black dog's name was.
        RTFMA: "The RAF’s top-scoring fighter pilot, Wing Commander James ‘Johnnie’ Johnson, with his Spitfire and pet Labrador ‘Sally’ in Normandy."

        Comment

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