stray bullets

Never bet against a pro “The more you do something, the more it is embodied in you,” Grafton says. “It doesn’t just change your muscle memory, it changes the way you see the world around you.” (via)

Tech visionary Wayne Green: Still on a mission Starting in the early 1960s with an army of can-do, build-it-yourself amateur radio fans behind him, Green encouraged readers of 73 magazine (73 means "best regards" in ham radio lingo), his first and longest-lived publication, to push the limits on the electronic bits and pieces that would evolve into today's e-mail systems, cellular networks and PCs. Interview with the founder of 73 and BYTE magazines.

Moustache protector, anyone? Weird inventions on show A grenade that puts out fires, a self-pouring teapot, periscope spectacles, a peach peeler and a moustache protector are among oddball inventions on show at the British Library. (via)

also:
Top 10 Cell Phone Etiquette Rules People Still Break (via)
Frank Deford: The Swimming Legend You Never Heard Of
How to Tap a Phone Line
How to Shoot Light Trails (via)

viddy:
Dynamic Painting - San Base's Amazing Computer-Generated Art
Cleveland Smith: Bounty Hunter (starring Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi)
The Meters - Tippi-Toes

stray bullets

The Twisted Journey Of 'Napoleon's Privates' "Whenever someone implies that history is boring, I bring up Napoleon's penis..." (via)

10 Badasses From the Pages of History A few surprises in there. A few that I never heard of.

Studs Terkel interviews Frank Zappa In August of 1968, Chicago's WFMT-FM broadcast of Studs Terkel's Wax Museum featuring composer, guitarist and full-time anarchist Frank Zappa. (via)

How Hunter S. Thompson beat back his writer’s block Writers sometimes suffer bouts of major paralysis. They want to write, are desperate to get down something great, but it’s just not coming easily, in fact not at all. (via)

Richard K. Morgan blogging on Amazon US (via)

Baseball diamonds: the lefthander's best friend "Ninety percent of the human population is right-handed, but in baseball 25 percent of the players, both pitchers, and hitters, are left-handed..." There are a number of purely physical reasons why the game favors lefties. Mechanical engineer David A. Peters breaks it down for us.

Pothead Ph.D. I never would have made it this far in graduate school without the aid of marijuana. Not a cautionary tale. Forget all the cliches and misinformation, this guy pretty much nails it. (via)

Japanese etiquette on entering a home or room, take off your shoes A quick primer, with video, for us gaijin barbarians.

also: World Conflicts Today (via); Richard Tomlinson v. MI6 The whereabouts of Richard Tomlinson is unknown, and whether he is alive or dead. (via); The Memory Hole is back!

lagniappe: Down for everyone or just me? (via)