The New York Times: Tokyo flood preparations
An amazing underground system to control flood water in Tokyo.
Posts tagged with
bookmarks
Rob Reid: The $8 billion iPod
Rob Reid on Copyright Math - an oldie but a goodie.
AtmanOS
Run Go programs on a hypervisor without a conventional operating system.
Churchillian Drift - Wikipedia
The Repressive, Authoritarian Soul of “Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends”
Wilbert Awdry, who created Thomas the Tank Engine, disliked change, venerated order, and craved the administration of punishment.
The Dad Who Photoshops His Baby Daughter Into Dangerous Situations
Stephen Crowley has gained Instagram fame for his playful manipulated images of his child posing in what he calls “marginally dangerous” situations.
A working game of Tetris in Conway's Game of Life
A truly epic amount of work, very impressive!
Mike Hearn: It’s time to kill the web
Interesting consideration of the systemic issues with web applications (security and otherwise) (part 1) and a potential way out (part 2).
The Art of Making a Nixie Tube
This is infuriatingly riveting.
APOD - Inverted City Beneath Clouds
Amazing reflection of Chicago reflected in the lake below clouds at sunset.
Atlas Obscura: The Gates of Hell
Fiery crater caused by a Soviet gas drilling accident that has been burning since 1971.
The Bad Hair, Incorrect Feathering, and Missing Skin Flaps of Dinosaur Art
Atlas Obscura look at the pitfalls of illustrating prehistoric creatures.
via jwz
The Evolution of Trust
An interactive guide to the game theory of why & how we trust each other by Nicky Case. Well worth clicking through.
An interactive guide to alternative voting systems
Nicky Case on how different systems of voting compare (Australia's isn't that good after all...)
Benjamin Button Reviews The New MacBook Pro (Pinboard Blog)
:D beyond the humour, this is quite an insightful way to review new products really!
How to decode the images on the Voyager Golden Record
Just in case you find Voyager I or II, here's how to decode the images on the golden records. For the rest of us, you can look at the pictures (there's a few odd choices really...) (and turn down the sound!)
The New Mother
A very interesting short story by Eugene Fischer - sort of a counterpoint to stories along the lines of Children of Men.
Frameless Geodesic Dome
A frameless geodesic dome designed to be easy to fabricate and build.
Soldering iron Tetris!
The [TS100](https://hackaday.com/2017/07/24/review-ts100-soldering-iron/) uses a micro-controller for temperature control and someone has made Tetris for it, with bizarre stakes - each time you lose a game the tip temperature is raised!
LOOPY - feedback loop simulator
This is pretty neat, draw feedback loops and simulate them.
Lost knowledge: ropes and knots
"Few realize the importance that knots and cords have played in human history. It is remarkable that they are not even mentioned in otherwise great books on the history of technology."
Makefile to pre-process downloaded podcasts
I recently updated my podcast pre-processing script to Python 3.6 & the multiprocessing.Pool module and then a few days later realized the whole thing would be much better as a simple Makefile
The goal is to:
- reduce filesize of podcasts (192kbit/s is overkill for spoken word!)
- normalize the volume and convert to mono (easier to listen to when riding/running and it's windy)
- speed up playback (people talk too slow!)
- strip tags (so my dinky mp3 player doesn't put the podcasts into different "folders")
Source:
Prerequisites:
The Biggest Rocket ever Designed? - The Sea Dragon
This big dumb rocket has a lot going for it. The ocean launch is particularly neat.
Hand powered drilling tools and machines
Boring is quite interesting - how hole-making tools have evolved.
Selenium Python Bindings 2 documentation
See also https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/chromedriver/