Thursday, March 1, 2012

Old Maps...

A large collection of old maps is up online, and you can explore it for free.  Within a few minutes I was able to find the map from 1888 at right (click to enlarge), which shows the area around where I grew up, just south of Robbinsville.  Of course there isn't complete coverage of every area, but if you browse through their collection you'll find that a surprising part of the globe is covered.

Kudos to the folks at the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection for a beautiful example of applying modern technology to the challenge of making such a fine collection publicly accessible...

Saving a Whale...

A great little film passed along by reader Simi L.:


TSA: Fail...

A former FBI counter-terrorism agent articulates what's wrong with the TSA's security theater...

I think the solution is simple: disband it.  The organization has spent billions of dollars with no discernable effect other than to piss off a whole bunch of citizens.  It's long past time for it to go...

Species Rescue...

It sounds almost like a bad sci-fi novel: rats wipe out an interesting species on a large island, but years later scientists discover a tiny population surviving on a desert island.  After two years of effort they get permission to take four individuals to attempt captive breeding.  The first two individuals taken die shortly after leaving the island.  The second two (dubbed “Adam” and “Eve”) nearly die, but a last-ditch, guessed-at food supplement revives them.  Not long after: now we have thousands of descendants of Adam and Eve.  And now they'd like to reintroduce them back to the island where the rats killed them all.  Fascinating story!  Here's video of one of the these animals hatching – it's a giant walking stick insect:

Icy Fingers of Death...

Super-chilled brine flowing into merely cold seawater forms ice in the lower-salinity water. This time-lapse film captures this, along with the slow-moving sea life that the ice overcomes. This little clip and the accompanying story are the first I've ever heard of this strange natural phenomenon...


New World Record!

For the length of a paper airplane flight: 226 feet, 10 inches