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Sunday, June 21, 2009

Link Latte 113



#113 - Week of June 21, 2009

Secret Stalin's Weapon: Terminator Assembly - [wow pics]
Smallest Island Divided Between Two States - [interesting]
$25,000 Formula One Steering Wheel, more - [geek tech]
Carrot Terrorism: art project of Conny Blom - [urban art]
Pictures by Atomic Bomb Survivors - [heart-breaking]
Architect Greg Lynn: Blob Architecture - [interesting]
Madness of Temporary Ski Jumps - [vintage tech]
The Evolution of Space Cruisers - [gallery, overview]
Virtual Calligraphy - [unique art video]
Picasso's Painting with Light - [gallery, click next]
Panoramic view: Luminous Festival, Sydney - [wow pic]
Holodeck: Possible Today?, more - [wow tech]
Unusual, and cruel office prank - [funny]
Bacteria Genome Maps, Brain on Wire - [science, wait to load]
Google Earth Alphabet (nicely done) - [art]
Some of the world's strangest airport runways - [weird]
Is this a "smiling" insect? No, it's an orchid! - [wow nature]
Terrific and Terrifying Tables - [design]
Atlas Obscura: new and promising site - [cool site]
Incredible Images of Waves - [photography]
Nice overview of retro-future technology - [futurism]
Kosher search engine: all sfw, does not work on Sabbath - [hmm..]
Freaky: Celebrities Upside Down - [weird pics]
Dinosaurs say "Hey!" - [video joke]
Old School Medicine Ads - [unexpected, vintage]
Best Ever Wedding Invitation - [funny]
Newborn Anteaters at Tokyo Zoo - [cute video]
The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9 - [fun animation]
Real Life Spider Man - [wow video]
Sorry, I'm Late - [nicely-made stop motion animation]
Make stunning Flash websites for free! - [promotion]
Celebrities who own private islands - [overview]

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The Cutting Edge of Retro Tech
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  • The pic with the Praktica SLR shout be at the technical museum, Dresden, Germany. it is the old factory of Praktika and displays some touchable models like this.
    Read more

  • Dude those are some of the coolest images I have ever seen!
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  • IIRC the cat with the photographers is Socks Clinton.
    Read more

  • so interesting
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  • heres an addition to your animals and cameras
    http://pix.ie/muineach/393009

    its an irish red fox cub who got a bit cheeky :)
    Read more

  • top photo is actually a goal celebration.
    Read more

  • I think the picture with the lady from the beggining of the 20th century it's about the Brownie Camera, launched by Kodak.
    Read more

  • I can't recall the Bertin Aerotrain to be seen in Truffaut's Fahrenheit.

    But there's for sure a futuristic suspended train in this movie, the SAFEGE prototype (see http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Orbit/1061/safege/ for instance). Sadly enough, both projects were abandoned, without much consideration, and left to rot in remote hanger (the SAFEGE firm has patented a kind of monorail system, anyway).

    Greets from France !
    Read more

  • The first link - to the film - crashes my computer. FireFox under W2k.
    Read more

  • It should be just an embedded QuickTime movie - maybe try it in another browser.
    Read more

  • Would love to have that film from the first link as a screensaver
    Read more

  • Brutalist Architecture is a term as is a Modernest Brutalist but as a classic?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_architecture
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernist_architecture

    see: forex Trellick Tower
    Read more

  • The monorail in 451 was an underslung model, see here:
    http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Orbit/1061/safege/safege.html
    The Aerotrain would have been much more interesting, though it would not have fit into the mundane landscape quite as well as the more utilitarian one actually used.
    Read more

  • Wow, I actually saw the meeting of the waters! We traveled up the Rio Negro from Manaus, though, so we didn't get to see most of the cool stuff you did, but it was still awesome... If you ever go back, I would recommend trying to see the "fish festival." I don't remember much about it as I was maybe nine years old at the time, only that people came from miles around to watch performers dance in spectacular fish costumes in a concrete soccer stadium, and it was amazing. to give you an idea of the size of the celebration, the small village it was held in was out of beer for a full week.
    Read more

  • A correction: It's ribeirinhos.
    I think so that typical costumes of Boca de Valeria is about the Parintins costumes not from the indians of Amazonia or it's just for the foreigners
    Read more

  • I'm from Manaus, and this is one of the wonders of the city which is one of the city's in Brazil that's going to be the World Cup Soccer Championship. If you don't know it, come and visit!
    Read more

  • Well...I live in Manaus also...and I gotta tell you...
    We ain't too proud of having Parintins folklore festival this close...
    Read more

  • Wha?

    Why so serious, son?
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  • This is a requirement, Peter, and we could not make it funny enough ;)
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  • Ehh... that's good that you're posting your P.P. like that, however.. I don't believe that the ability to change it at any time w/o direct user notification is a good thing (and even though IANAL I believe it may be illegal too...) Otherwise please keep up the good work, I check on DRB daily for your cool articles, especially of CCCP tech!
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  • Brilliant, some great photos and illustrations. I am a firm believer in this technology and can't understand why it is not being advanced further.
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  • Is there a link to a higher-rez version of the first photo? I looked into the guys flickr page but he has too many photos and I can't find it.
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  • ah poor abandoned VVA 14! should be cared much. any geeky millionaire out there?
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  • The proper rendering of the acronym is "Wing In Ground effect".

    A high-flying aircraft's wings force the air downward, and the reaction (Newton's Law) holds the plane up.

    Close to the ground, the downward-moving air hits the ground and rebounds. The upward-moving air adds a bit of energy back to the system; that is the "ground effect". If the wings are in the ground effect zone, the ekranoplan doesn't need as much power to fly.

    The bigger and heavier the ekranoplan, the more air is forced downward and the stronger the ground effect. A big one is therefore safer, because it can go higher. An ekranoplan makes its entire flight in what is actually takeoff and landing mode for a "normal" airplane, and takeoff and landing are the most dangerous parts of the flight.

    Regards,
    Ric
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  • orly? o no.... k

    Before chatspeak, there were Russian planes.
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  • Elise: great explanation of the "Orlyonok" name origin. lol.
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  • Avi thanks a ton for putting up another Ekranoplan showcase. I love planes, but I love Mother Russia's planes even more. Great job!
    Read more

  • Vadi,

    Another link to the first image - from the artist's official site:

    here
    (click on 'view hires gallery)

    another great article, DRB!
    Read more

  • I'm not an airplane geek, I'm just a science fiction geek, but if someone would put out a line of these in small plastic models, I'd definitely be hooked and start building and collecting them!
    Read more

  • Some of those look straight out of Mobile Suit Gundam---not at all surprising when you consider that many designs in Japanese anime are inspired by Russian rocket and aeronautical designs. Thanks for a great pair of articles on one of my favorite planes! (boats?)
    Read more

  • Here the information and a photo Ekranoplans:
    http://images.yandex.ru/yandsearch?p=0&ed=1&text=%D0%AD%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BD&stype=image
    Read more

  • I believe that the black and white picture of the large headed person is from the short sci-fi film "To Serve Man". The guy in the photo is actually an alien.
    Read more

  • The soap-bubble rabbit looks like a render test showing an iridescent shader and HDRI reflection mapping.
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  • Anonymous was half-right. It was an old Twilight Zone episode, called "To Serve Man." One of the classics:

    http://www.cbs.com/classics/the_twilight_zone/video/video.php?cid=649562032&pid=EhJkGeNGuUqJfc9CCfD81h6TpxCIglq1

    K
    Read more

  • The Russian building tradition goes back a long way, enough to have the name Potemkin village.
    Read more

  • The person you borrowed the gum-massage ad from has some issues.

    Check out his personal comments.

    He complains about TV making people into idiots that don't read, yet he can't spell words correctly.

    And his factual errors are hilarious:

    Characterizing blood sucking mosquito as female is sexists? Errrmmm ... male mosquitos don't suck blood.

    Adding Iodine to salt to prevent goiter is dated medicine? Iodized salt is why no one gets goiter in civilized countries.

    Man needs a spell checker, and needs to lrn2Google.
    Read more

  • The done-headed man is Ted Cassidy who later played "Lurch" the butler in the Adams Family TV series.
    Read more

  • The alien is actually an early role for Richard Keil, later played "Jaws" in the Jame Bond series
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  • i like the soap bubble rabbit :D
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  • I was guessing Lurch also, but Jaws is the correct answer.
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  • The soap bubble-shaped rabbit is a screen capture showing the real-time possibilities of nVidia graphic cards using Cg (C for graphics)language. Cg is part of Cg toolkit and the first version came when they released the GeForce 3, the first mainstream programmable graphic architecture. Using pixel and vertex shaders, the manipulation of objects in the demo occur in real-time.

    You can download the Cg toolkit here: http://developer.nvidia.com/object/cg_download.html
    Read more

  • I'm guessing that the TV detector is exactly that: a van that detects people using TVs. This may be done in order to ensure that they're not doing so without having a TV license. It's probably British.
    Read more

  • Yup it's an old TV detector van used to find people who hadn't paid their TV Licence in the UK. More of a scare tactic really then an effective system.
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  • To follow up the previous two comments (for those that don't know the British system).

    In the UK everyone with a TV has to have a TV License. The funds raised are then ploughed back in to the BBC so that they can produce programming without having to rely on advertising, therefore (theoretically) producing a high standard of programming that does not pander to the lowest levels of crass commercialism. Of course that does not explain programmes like Eastenders or the usual early evening Saturday night dross, but the theory is sound!
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  • As above and more info here at the Mail on line.
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-468466/The-new-TV-detector-reach-home.html?foo=2

    And the "infamous" imformation film is on YouTube

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NmdUcmLFkw
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  • the van iteslf is an old commer van used by most of the public utility companies at the time - more info here http://www.commervan.com/?page_id=7
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  • Re: the Commer Van after the piece on the Colombian crowd control vehicle.

    It was used for enforcing TV Licensing in Britain. One had to purchase a TV license to operate any TV receiver.
    The money went to support the Beeb (BBC), the public broadcaster in Britain. This was continued even after
    commercial (With paid advertising) TV became available in Britain. The equipment in the van could detect RF
    (Radio Frequency) leakage from a TV receiver and consequently require that the offender purchase a license.
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  • The TV detector vans were used in Britain to fool the uneducated masses into believing that the authorities could tell whether they were watching TV without a license...
    The technology to do this does not exist.
    Read more

  • Television Detector van history, via autoblog

    http://www.autoblog.com/2008/06/09/a-visual-history-of-the-bbcs-tv-detector-vans/
    Read more

  • The technology to do this does not existEver hear of Van Eck Phreaking?
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  • From what I understand there was no need for equipment in the van. Since television ownership was ~100% all they needed was a list of houses that hadn't bought a licence and then turn up there. As an impoverished student in the 80s I didn't have a telly and so didn't have a licence. I received several notices saying I would be punished and I had to write many times to confirm that I was innocent. IIRC the Beeb also required radio licences for a while...
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  • why would FARC Guerrilla ever have an encounter with an Anti-Riot unit of the police? It's the Colombian army that faces off with the Guerrilla.
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  • I agree with davidg80. I´m colombian and I live in Bogotá and those vehicles are only mostly used in university protests and riots but in my whole life i have never seen one of that fighting against any FARC militant or even anyone with camouflage...It´s a shame that the world keeps thinking that Colombia is just a big jungle filled with savages...think twice
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  • Praise to the editors of this fine blog for, uhm, the way the text reads now.
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  • I'm given to understand that the detector vans could receive the intermediate frequencies that TV sets give off as part of the process of amplifying the signal for demodulating. (See wikipedia for superheterodyne, intermediate frequency)

    Of course, I'm still not sure how effective it would be in real life.
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  • The Colombian machine seems nice, but is not as used as you would think. Most of the violence in the country is not in the cities and mob control is dangerous but usually the police is there just to watch the people protesting. There are notable exceptions, and there is crime in the streets, but that´s not how you use this machine.
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  • The last image is probably from the government somewhere where you have to pay mandatory TV licence money, the control group rolls around in these vehicles with a map and a list over which households own a TV but havent paid their licence, then they start knocking on doors and harrassing you until you pay. We still have these in Norway today.
    Read more

  • Commer PB Autovan.

    I have one sitting out the back of my house which I'm doing up for a trip around Europe this summer.

    I was actually sitting here mixing the paint stripper for it while I was reading this article.
    Read more

  • You Colombianos need to relax, nobody is dissing your country. If this thing is mainly used for student protests, why is it required to be able to withstand .50 cal machine gun fire? Do Colombian university students usually carry assault rifles?
    Read more

  • Indeed, a television detector van, from the 60's, used by the UK gov to find folk who were using tv's , without the proper licence..
    Read more

  • I recall the "pay your license" ads, they used to imply that the people in the van could actually see what program you were watching.

    Of course if you were in an apartment block they had no hope of picking you out.

    If you tried to avoid the license issue by using your TV for watching videos only, they still had you because the licensing law referred to possessing a demodulator rather than watching broadcast programs. I think that would exclude computer monitors.
    Read more

  • hi, i just found this article, and i think the photos are geat, because i'm colombian and i haven´t seen one of this from inside and didn't know about the technology involved, but i have to say that this does not represent the people of Colombia, the times they use this kind of trucks are rare... and are against riots presented in universities and some manifestations where the invoved people start things up manipulated by criminals (guerrrilla and anarchists).

    thanks
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  • In answer to your request for information on the truck in this picture, These are known here in the UK as a 'TV detector van'. And these vans were used to detect anybody using a TV without a license.

    Here in the UK the BBC (Television, radio and online) is funded using a license system, basically a tax that must be paid by anyone using a TV.

    This funding model, whilst seeming bizarre to many who don't live here and some who do!, means the BBC is able to broadcast 6 national TV networks, 7 national radio stations, The BBC.co.uk website, and a whole raft of local media outlets. And none of these networks carry any commercials whatsoever.

    The license costs a not insignificant $229 per year, and as such many people don't pay it. As it is a legal requirement to have a license if you own a TV, these vans used to drive up and down streets, and could supposedly tell if a Television was on in an unlicensed property.

    It all sounds a bit Orwellian, I know, but many suspect these vans were more a way of putting the fear into license-fee evaders. Most evaders of the license fee are caught via a database these days. Even when they were in use, they were used rarely. I'm 38, and I think I've only ever seen one of these vans/trucks once or twice in my life.
    Read more

  • These vans could locate down to the
    room in a house if there was a TV in operation - which was then
    cross-referenced with the licenses and if there was no licence for that dwelling, a fine was issued.

    When I lived in the UK I remember they would prowl around the streets in the evenings - and also at lunchtime when the popular lunchtime shows were on.
    They could even tell what programme you were watching.

    There have also been rumours that because they were so accurate, they were used by MI5 to detect transmissions from Soviet Spies during the Cold War...
    Read more

  • Thanks for all the info, guys! Updated...
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  • Hi again, good comment the one posted by an anonymous...0.5 caliber guns...I´d say that has to be wrong, I´m an student in Bogotá, and if they´d dare to use guns in protests the government would be in a lot of trouble, I can assure that. Another possibility is that maybe it can be used near some capital cities and towns to break riots and protests but the fight against guerrilas id discarded but not because I want to defend my country but because the topography and geographical conditions would turn those vehicles to pieces in days.

    Keep the good job DRB and thanks to Anonymous.
    Read more

  • ...Beautiful trucks. WAY over spec'd for what Columbia has used it for. (You can see it in the news as well.)

    The riots are usually sparked by FARK propaganda. Some of the protests can really get out of hand. To keep the enforcement safe from the pure passion and engagement from these political issues - these trucks are brilliant and do wonders for crowd control. Hell, if FARK had a sniper or something else kicking around - the potential is there, the armor would do wonders.

    Maybe the "too much" is pro-active and better than "too little"
    Read more

  • That looks similar to the one in Death race but it had more weapons then this one and it was much larger
    Read more

  • WTF?? "Multiple riots (including Farc Guerrillas, who attack riot vehicles with rifles" LOL you think colombian people have to fight all day against guerrillas in the city, they are only in the jungle. Although colombia is one of the best countries in security: The bulletproof clothes obama uses are made by a colombian.
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  • "Multiple riots (including Farc Guerrillas, who attack riot vehicles with rifles)": Please, don't make up the information, the guerrillas are in the jungle, and they should be the target of the Colombian military and police there. Though, the people who demonstrate through riots do it because their rights are being violated. The anti-riot units have been accused by NGOs for being the ones that act with most brutality and violence against civilians. See this video so to know how things are like in my country, Colombia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZdnMsPrrNQ
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  • I know in the article, it states "The tires can be protected with tyron bands, runflats, or filled with polyurethane", but to me the weakest part of the vehicle by far is the tires. Once immobilized (which could be done in any manner of ways), the vehicle is a sitting duck. I wouldn't want to be trapped inside.
    Read more


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