Archive for January 2014
“Whenever a toddler sees a pile of blocks, he wants to tear it down”*…
Jonathan M. Guberman made a set of alphabet blocks featuring iconic images of the things he and his wife were looking forward to sharing with their newborn son. Though Guberman started before his son was born, it took until his son was nearly a year old to finish these 36 1.5″ blocks. Here’s the full set of blocks on Flickr and the full list of references included on the blocks.
Quoth Jonathan:
There are 36 blocks — the English alphabet and ten digits — showing 134 images of people, animals, monsters, robots, vehicles, organizations, devices, tools, and objects from some of our favourite movies, TV shows, books, comics, video games, poems, and sculptures, as well as a few from the real world for good measure (and a couple not-so-favourites for comic relief/alphabetical exigency; I’m looking at you, Zardoz). The only real rule I followed in choosing subjects was trying to maintain an even gender balance.
Read the full story, and examine the blocks, at the ever-enlightening Laughing Squid.
* J.J. Abrams
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As we get in touch with our inner nerd, we might recall that it was on this date in 1958 that, as part of its participation in the International Geophysical Year, the U.S. launched its first satellite, the Explorer I— following the launch the prior year of the first two satellites, the Soviet Union’s Sputnik I and II, and beginning the space race.
Hello?… Hello?…
Quoth the always-amusing Tyler Hellard: “ConferenceCall.biz is a spectacular display of existential despair and the modern condition.”
And indeed it is.
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As we remember that we can press “8” to mute at any time, we might email elegantly and creatively designed birthday greetings to Douglas Carl Engelbart; he was born on this date in 1925. An engineer and inventor who was a computing and internet pioneer, Doug (who passed away last year) is best remembered for his seminal work on human-computer interface issues, and for “the Mother of All Demos” in 1968, at which he demonstrated for the first time the computer mouse, hypertext, networked computers, and the earliest versions of graphical user interfaces… that’s to say, computing as we know it.
“I’ll give you my one-handed flail when you pry it from my cold, dead hands”*…
From the one-handed flail…
to the flamethrower…
… “10 Crazy Weapons That Are Still Legal In The U.S.”
* variation on the NRA’s slogan, popularized by Charlton Heston: “I’ll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands”
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As we re-read the Second Amendment, we might recall that it was on this date in 1998 that a tobacco company executive– Steven Goldstone, RJR Nabisco chairman and CEO– acknowledged the health risk of tobacco products under oath to Congress for the first time.
Concern about the safety of tobacco dated back to the 19th Century, and links to lung cancer emerged in the early 20th. But it was in 1950, with the publication of Richard Doll‘s research in the British Medical Journal, that a close link between smoking and lung cancer was scientifically established. Many studies quickly followed, confirming Doll’s findings and establishing the addictive quality of nicotine. Still, as recently to Goldstone’s testimony as 1994, seven tobacco company executives had sworn under oath that nicotine was not addictive.
Cold, Cold, Cold…
xkcd‘s wise Randall Munroe on the tricks that memory can play… and the havoc they can wreak on rational discussion of climate change…
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As we tie strings around our fingers, we might recall that it was on this date in 1896 the the first speeding ticket was issued: to Walter Arnold in Peckham in Kent. He was caught doing 8 mph in a 2 mph zone, and was fined one shilling.
The first traffic ticket in the U.S. was issued three years later, to a New York City taxi driver caught doing 12 mph down Lexington Avenue.
“Science does not know its debt to imagination”*…
The image above– William Heath’s “Monster Soup- Commonly Called Thames Water– a Microcosm, dedicated to The London Water Companies“– is one of over 100,000 historical images made available last week by the Wellcome Library under an open license (CC-BY – meaning they are free for any re-use provided that the Wellcome Library is credited). Focused on themes ranging from medical and social history to contemporary healthcare and biomedical science, it’s one of the world’s richest and most unique collections.
As the curators suggest, “whether it’s medicine or magic, the sacred or the profane, science or satire – you’ll find more than you expect…”
* Ralph Waldo Emerson
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As we unpack our tea sets to celebrate Lewis Carroll’s birthday, we might send contagiously-warm birthday greetings to Thomas Willis; he was born on this date in 1621. An English doctor who played an important part in the history of anatomy, neurology and psychiatry, he was particularly important to the emergence of epidemiology. In De febribus (1659) he helped crystallize the field with an examination of epidemics of smallpox, influenza, plague, war-typhus, measles, and the first medical description of typhoid fever.
Willis is also remembered as the host of regular gatherings in 1648-9, in his rooms at Oxford, of a club of scientists including Robert Boyle, Christopher Wren, and John Wilkins; he and they went on to become founding members the Royal Society.
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