Quite nice out there today, but can it compete with the Internet? I think not…
Happy invoicing!
- Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece - Arcade blogger Tony looks back at the creation of Atari's excellent vector game: "[Theurer] was the only designer up to that point to have his first game released – something normally unheard of, as most programmers would stumble at their first attempt. That game was none other than the illustrious Missile Command, a huge hit for Atari, eventually selling over 14,000 upright units… what was going to be next?"
- How Do You Rebuild Your Life After Leaving A Polygamous Sect? - "A decade ago, members of the FLDS — a fundamentalist sect of the Mormon church that practices polygamy — began leaving of their own volition. Today, they’re returning home to rewrite the dark narrative that’s formed around them."
- Don't Be Evil - An interview with Stanford professor Fred Turner on the problems arising when the Utopian visions of Silicon Valley meet the hard world of news and politics: "The folks associated with the commune movement—particularly Stewart Brand and the people formerly associated with the Whole Earth Catalog—begin to reimagine computers as the tools of countercultural change that they couldn't make work in the 1960s… I think the impulse to save the world is quite sincere. But people get the impulse to save the world and the impulse to do well for the company a bit tangled up with each other."
- Life Finds a Way Deep in the Mariana Trench - "The deepest, darkest place on the planet is home to myriad bizarre creatures." Nice gallery thereof from NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration and Research 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas
- Naughty Bits: “Monty Python” Goes to Court - In 1976, the Pythons sued American network ABC to prevent them editing the TV shows for broadcast to an audience that was presumed to be less accepting of the broader elements of British humour: "The case of Monty Python v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., was, for several reasons, a diverting one. Besides the novelty of television performers suing to block themselves from being shown on nationwide television, there was the inescapably satisfying sight of high officials of a huge corporation being dragged to the bar of justice by a pack of clowns… The judge, Morris E. Lasker, remarked at one point, 'I am not sitting here just because I am amused, although I am amused.'"
- Does God play Dice? - The text of a lecture by Professor Stephen Hawking on determinism: "This lecture is about whether we can predict the future, or whether it is arbitrary and random… The idea that the state of the universe at one time determines the state at all other times, has been a central tenet of science, ever since Laplace's time. It implies that we can predict the future, in principle at least. In practice, however, our ability to predict the future is severely limited by the complexity of the equations, and the fact that they often have a property called chaos."
- Games Piracy: A Warning From History - "Crime doesn't pay, apparently. Unfortunately, it's an all-too-frequent consequence that being born into a capitalist society doesn't pay either, so it's just something we're going to have to live with." Great collection of scans of old anti-piracy ads by FAST, presumably (and ironically) displayed here without their permission
- Deep England - "On some days, when the veil between worlds is at its thinnest, it is said that you can glimpse the mythical land of Deep England, particularly if you read the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, or the Daily Telegraph too much." Paul Watson on the fantasy of an England that never existed yet still holds a powerful sway over our political discourse.
- Ellis Island: Was your name changed? - Speaking of myths about history, Schelly Talalay Dardashti debunks the notion that immigrants to the USA had their names changed by officials: "It didn’t help that Vito Corleone ('The Godfather, Part 2') had his name changed at Ellis Island when he arrived… Some say that their beloved great-grandmother (insert any other immigrant relative here) told them it happened. When you ask how old their great-grandmother was when she arrived, they say she was 6 months old."
- Legends of the Ho Chi Minh Trail - Remarkable photos of the VietCong's logistical supply route through Laos by Don Duvall, who has travelled the trail on motorcycle to map it with GPS.
Happy invoicing!
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