Monday Links from the Bench vol. CCCLXXVIII

[northernladuk]

So, You Want To Test A Nuclear Weapon? - "Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you have a brand new nuclear weapon. Let’s not quibble for the moment over how it came to be… All that matters is that you have it. But does it actually work?" Phil B considers the ways you might go about checking.

You can have Wales to test it in if you ask nicely

[jmo21]

[*]The Cat Concerto - Timothy Thornton on the 1947 Tom and Jerry Oscar-winning cartoon: ”This cartoon is gorgeous to watch as a pianist who’s played the piece: it absolutely mines it for humour, it engages deeply and it fakes so little. The “wrong notes” when Tom is smacking the keyboard trying to catch Jerry are there in the score; that’s how it’s meant to go. The bit where Jerry sticks a mousetrap in the keyboard – it is in Liszt’s original a very quick alternation between two notes over an octave apart with those in the middle untouched. The bit where Tom’s little finger stretches to be suddenly a few feet – those sudden silly high notes are there in the score.” As he says, this video might get pulled quite quickly, and you’ll have to search on YouTube or Vimeo yourself. The embedded version below is part one of a version which has been split into three parts, presumably to try to get around the studio’s attempts to take it down

My kids love Tom and Jerry, and we have this one recorded off one of the kids channels on our Sky box and they watch it quite often. Timeless classic.

[barrydidit]

Vintage crop this week

[ctdctd]

Good old Tom & Jerry. Takes me back more years than I care to remember!

Like the tractor hacks as well! Screw the little man and he'll fight back.

[Uncle Albert]

Thanks NF.

The hand transplant one reminded me of John Irving's "The Fourth Hand" which I read a few years back.

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

[NickFitz]

Bit later than usual today. I blame BST

• The Hollywood Exec and the Hand Transplant That Changed His Life - "In just 30 hours, a superfit reality TV producer went from the top of his game to the precipice of death. What happened next would teach him everything about grace, resolve, and the power of love."
  
  
• 88 hidden secrets & spots in the Back To The Future trilogy - ”There are lots of hidden jokes, references and nerdisms in the Back To The Future trilogy. We've found 88 to get you started.” Seb Patrick uncovers every secret joke in the films
  
  
• Banana: After 50 years the ultimate Warhol Velvet Underground mystery is finally (almost) solved!! - Howie Pyro has tracked down a little piece of cultural history: ”With the advent of the Warhol Museum, Andy’s every movement, thought, and influence has been discussed, dissected, filed and defiled ad nauseum. Every single piece of art he ever did can be traced back to an original page in a newspaper, an ad in the back of a dirty magazine, a photograph, a Sunday comic, or an item from a supermarket shelf and they’ve ALL been identified and cataloged. Except for one.”
  
  
• Archive Tape Digging: March 2017 - And some British cultural history: ”Last weekend, I went to pick up around 130-ish VHS tapes which, I was told, stretched all the way back to the early 1980s. And, with this sort of prospect dangling in front of me, I couldn't resist exploring them.”
  
  
• Wolfram Tones - "An Experiment in a New Kind of Music — made possible by the Wolfram Language and A New Kind of Science.” Generate new music algorithmically, with control over a huge range of parameters.
  
  
• Secret colours of the Commodore 64 - WARNING: flashing images. Aaron Bell uncovers a technique which allowed the comparatively limited palette of the C64 to be extended: ”I read a caption that stuck with me for years afterward. Underneath a screenshot of a colourful robotic dragon, it read: ‘Hold on... You can't get this colour on a 64! Well, you can if you swap pale green and cyan 50 times a second!’”
  
  
• So, You Want To Test A Nuclear Weapon? - "Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you have a brand new nuclear weapon. Let’s not quibble for the moment over how it came to be… All that matters is that you have it. But does it actually work?" Phil B considers the ways you might go about checking.
  
  
• Why American Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors With Ukrainian Firmware - ”To avoid the draconian locks that John Deere puts on the tractors they buy, farmers throughout America's heartland have started hacking their equipment with firmware that's cracked in Eastern Europe and traded on invite-only, paid online forums.”
  
  
• Anthony Bourdain Does Not Want to Owe Anybody Even a Single Dollar - The celebrity chef was terrible with money until he had it: ”Before he was the guy from Parts Unknown, he was 44, never had a savings account, hadn't filed taxes in 10 years, and was AWOL on his AmEx bill. That turned out to be a great financial education.”
  
  
• The Cat Concerto - Timothy Thornton on the 1947 Tom and Jerry Oscar-winning cartoon: ”This cartoon is gorgeous to watch as a pianist who’s played the piece: it absolutely mines it for humour, it engages deeply and it fakes so little. The “wrong notes” when Tom is smacking the keyboard trying to catch Jerry are there in the score; that’s how it’s meant to go. The bit where Jerry sticks a mousetrap in the keyboard – it is in Liszt’s original a very quick alternation between two notes over an octave apart with those in the middle untouched. The bit where Tom’s little finger stretches to be suddenly a few feet – those sudden silly high notes are there in the score.” As he says, this video might get pulled quite quickly, and you’ll have to search on YouTube or Vimeo yourself. The embedded version below is part one of a version which has been split into three parts, presumably to try to get around the studio’s attempts to take it down
  
  
  

Happy invoicing!