Monday Links from the Gap Between Teams Meetings vol. DCCCXXI

[ladymuck]

Ah, I thought that Interflug logo looked similar to the Lufthansa logo, and it seems there were some post war shenanigans.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Gun-toting loners also don’t tend to handle catastrophes very well: instead, the survivors of crises tend to be those with lots of social connections.

That's me tulip out of luck then. .

On the hitman thing: offed with a 32. It always amuses me when Maigret finds that the gun is inevitably a 6.35mm (.25ACP): James Bond's favourite.

[xoggoth]

On that hit man thing, some ways of killing people in fictional novels/stories are total nonsense. Reading a story the other day and there was that one you see so often, tampering with brakes in a car. In reality you would probably notice a brake problem just backing out of your drive, chances of a fatal accident are pretty small.

[NickFitz]

Happy autumnal equinox! The sun crosses the equator at 19:19BST, so here's some reading to pass the time till then

• The Florida Divorcée’s Guide to Murder - ”Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors inspired a triple murder and led to a major First Amendment case. Still, the book is just one chapter in the bizarre story of its author, ‘Rex Feral,’ a 77-year-old great-grandmother wrestling with decades of guilt and living anonymously—until now.” When Gayle McCool wrote a book largely based on movies and TV, she didn’t anticipate the consequences that would shape the rest of her life.
• Self-Assembly Gets Automated in Reverse of ‘Game of Life’ - ”In cellular automata, simple rules create elaborate structures. Now researchers can start with the structures and reverse-engineer the rules.” As Kierkegaard might have said, Conway’s Game of Life can now be understood backwards
• To Catch a Killer Shark - ”Using DNA analysis, scientists linked the same shark to two bites on people. Now, they want to use the work to save other sharks' lives.” There may indeed be “problem sharks” that have a penchant for biting people, but should we get all mediaeval and put them on trial?
• The rewards of ruin - ”Societal downfalls loom large in history and popular culture but, for the 99 per cent, collapse often had its upsides.” Turns out the “fall of civilisation” may be bad for the people on top, but it can work out surprisingly well for the rest of us
• Gobsmacked! Supernatural Sightings After a Flood - Floods in Kentucky appear to have upset supernatural beings: ”Gwen thinks the goblin attached himself to the wheel bed of her truck because the creature reemerged when she got back to her house. She described the goblin as small and resembling an elf-like creature… Worried someone would harm the little creature, Gwen drove slowly to lure him back to the holler she found him in.”
• Madness on a mountain: for 15 years, my mom was trapped in a mutual psychosis - A rare diagnosis explained Joelle Fraser’s mother’s peculiar lifestyle: ”She fell mysteriously ill while living in a remote cabin with my stepdad, and I suspected it was a cry for help. Then came the unexpected diagnosis: folie à deux.”
• Drawn in the dock: the story of courtroom illustration - All about those often very strange depictions of criminal trials: ”There are four professional courtroom sketch artists in total: Priscilla Coleman, Siân Frances, Julia Quenzler and Elizabeth Cook. Not only are they a rare breed, but the trade’s very existence is also now under threat as new laws were passed in January 2020 allowing cameras into the country’s Crown Courts, including the Old Bailey, to broadcast the sentencing remarks on high-profile criminal cases.”
• me'te.o.ra - ”This website uses openly available meteorological data (openmeteo API) to generate sounds depending on the weather of the location typed.” You can type in multiple places to gradually build up a soothing ambient soundscape, or possibly a cacophony if you choose places that are experiencing storms right now
• German missiles that crashed in Sweden 1943-1944 - HT to DoctorStrangelove for this interesting collection of information about stray V1s and V2s: ”During second world war, seven German missiles from the rocket development works in Peenemünde crashed in Sweden. These missiles were captured by the Swedish army and was subject to careful technical examination, which eventually was to become the foundation of the Swedish missile program at SAAB and other Swedish vendors.” And there’s more: ”If you want all facts in depth and detailed, I recommend my essay on the subject: The Rocket and I where I take a closer look at the events from my own perspective.”
• Interflug, 1970s. - More cool retro ephemera from Present & Correct: ”Found at a flea market, scanned for you. Destination labels from East German airline Interflug.”
  
  

Happy invoicing!