nuclear testing, photos of london, letters of last resort

Photos of London reflected in puddles.

Letters of last resort are carried by British nuclear subs, and detail what to do in the event the government of Britain is no longer functioning. "According to Peter Hennessy's book Secret State: Whitehall and the cold war 1945 to 1970, the process by which a Trident submarine would determine if the British government continues to function includes, amongst other checks, establishing whether BBC Radio 4 continues broadcasting."

(Mostly) unseen photos from 1955 atomic tests in Nevada. This whole area sort of fascinates me, along with the fact that visitors to Las Vegas used to have atomic test picnics and watch the blasts.

light bulb, mcdonald's mansion, ginormous dog

At Clifton's Cafeteria, someone left a light on. For 77 years. During renovations of the Broadway eatery, a neon lamp that was switched on during the Great Depression is found behind a partition. The owner estimates it's generated more than $17,000 in electric bills.


The most attractive McDonald's in the US?

The biggest dog in the world, George!

molasses, clouds, drowning and profit

The Boston Molasses Flood. My favorite man-made disaster.

I don't even know what to say about this collection of cloud pictures. They're pretty much all this incredible.

Very important for those around water, especially kids and water: DROWNING DOESN'T "LOOK LIKE DROWNING"

TIL that George Lucas thought Close Encounters of the Third Kind would be a bigger hit than Star Wars and Steven Spielberg thought that Star Wars would be bigger and they bet each other 2.5% of each other's total profit and that Steven Spielberg still recieves that 2.5%.

we demand time travel

I'm in Chicago for work (since Wednesday), but here's a picture I found. And love.

Men's hats, Star Trek doctors and camels. Well, just the one camel.

Who killed men's hats? Includes interesting comparison photos.


Leonard McCoy, Julian Bashir and the Emergency Medical Holographic program from Star Trek are doctors. They are not many, many things. This video lists all of those disclaimed occupations.



Camels must be damn patient animals.

Six generations of daughters, I am the Walrus

Analyzing the Beatles' weirdest song: I am the Walrus


Six generations of daughters! In one photo! And an article at the link.

legal gay marriage, trekkies, secret town

11 countries where gay marriage is legal On June 8, 1901, Elisa Sanchez Loriga, dressed as a man and using a male alias, married her girlfriend Marcela Gracia Ibeas. Once the truth was discovered (and published in two newspapers) the women lost their jobs, were excommunicated, and had to flee the country in order to escape arrest. Despite all this their marriage was never annulled, making theirs the first recorded gay marriage in Spain’s history.


We're Trekkies and we know it


Great set of pictures: In 1942, as part of the Manhattan Project, the U.S. government acquired 70,000 acres of land in Eastern Tennessee and established a secret town called Oak Ridge. More info about the photography from the U.S. Department of Energy: Most of them were taken by Ed Westcott [pictured above], who was the only person allowed to photography the Oak Ridge reservation during the Manhattan Project. Aside from documenting the operations of the project, he spent a lot of time capturing everyday life within the 70,000 acre top secret city. All of the photos with people were meticulously posed.

Vintage Red Cross, Bach-loving Japanese and Ellis Island

Vintage Red Cross photos Which apparently I cannot preview here. But they're neat, I swear.


10,000 singers belt out Ode to Joy. A good explanation of why 10,000 Japanese people would do so is here. IMHO, the good part starts at about 6:45, unless of course you enjoy the entire piece of music.


A great set of photos from Ellis Island

nazis, exploding spacecraft, and finding a teacher

A stockbroker named Nicholas Winton brought 669 Czechoslovakian Jewish children to England, saving their lives. He refused to take credit for his deed until his wife found a scrapbook of the children that he saved and gave it to the BBC. He turns 103 this year.

To counteract the next item, here's a more happy story about a guy trying to apologize to his teacher 39 years later.

The Challenger astronauts are widely acknowledged by experts and NASA itself to have been alive and likely conscious until the crew cabin hit the water - 2 minutes and 45 seconds after the explosion. (I ended up wanting to read this whole series of articles, so if you'd like to go to chapter 1 I've made it much easier.)

Salt, M*A*S*H, cows and Brits

Deep below the Mediterranean island of Sicily, thousands of tons of salt are excavated every year. The mining leaves behind miles of tunnels that are “vaulted alabaster corridors” under any available light. See a great set of pictures here.

Robert Altman directed the original MASH movie, and made $70,000 for doing so. His 14 year old (at the time) son wrote the lyrics to the theme song, Suicide is Painless, and made over $1m. Because I live in Wisconsin: The Atlantic has a more-interesting-than-you’d-think article about the genetic science of producing both cows and bulls that drive the efficiency (and profitability) of the dairy industry to ever-greater heights. Did Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie invent Google? Well maybe not but ask the right questions and Google can give you a lot of the same information.