Moving the SR-71

The SR-71 in transport between Burbank and Palmdale, sometime in the 60's. (This is an SR-71, btw.)

Link roundup

1. List of notable players drafted by MLB including two paralyzed players.

2. Photos of Children of Russian Oligarchs. And weird Russian wedding photos. Via.

3. Giant TARDIS. Via.

Link roundup

1. Great article at Wired. Here's the start:

James Scott encountered that scent for the first time a decade ago in a town called Lakeshore, Ontario. Just across the river from Detroit, Lakeshore is where barrels of Canadian Club whiskey age in blocky, windowless warehouses. Scott, who had recently completed his PhD in mycology at the University of Toronto, had launched a business called Sporometrics. Run out of his apartment, it was a sort of consulting detective agency for companies that needed help dealing with weird fungal infestations. The first call he got after putting up his website was from a director of research at Hiram Walker Distillery named David Doyle.

Doyle had a problem. In the neighborhood surrounding his Lakeshore warehouses, homeowners were complaining about a mysterious black mold coating their houses. And the residents, following their noses, blamed the whiskey. Doyle wanted to know what the mold was and whether it was the company’s fault. Scott headed up to Lakeshore to take a look.

When he arrived at the warehouse, the first thing he noticed (after “the beautiful, sweet, mellow smell of aging Canadian whiskey,” he says) was the black stuff. It was everywhere—on the walls of buildings, on chain-link fences, on metal street signs, as if a battalion of Dickensian chimney sweeps had careened through town. “In the back of the property, there was an old stainless steel fermenter tank,” Scott says. “It was lying on its side, and it had this fungus growing all over it. Stainless steel!” The whole point of stainless steel is that things don’t grow on it.

2. Broccoli Gratin recipe.

3. Negative review of the new Games Workshop resin finecast miniatures.

Link roundup

1. The US Army design guide is available for download (top, right). Via.

2. "On Feb. 5, 1958, a B-47 bomber dropped a 7,000-pound nuclear bomb into the waters off Tybee Island, [Georgia], after it collided with another Air Force jet. Fifty years later, the bomb — which has unknown quantities of radioactive material — has never been found." Via these sites.

3. Custom Portal gun.

Link roundup

1. I'm not saying I agree with her assertions, but it's fascinating to read how a defense attorney would go about defending Dominique Strass-Kahn.

2. A football player drafted in the seventh round by the Bills has lost 75 pounds:

The Tennessean has a story today about [Michael] Jasper’s journey from Bethel to the NFL and from a high of 448 pounds to a svelte 375, and it includes details like the fact that Bethel didn’t have a scale that would register higher than 400 pounds, so when Jasper needed to monitor his progress in trying to lose weight, he’d go to the McKenzie Feed & Grain Store.

3. Sounds like the start of a thriller:

An outbreak of smallpox was the farthest thing from Paul Levengood's mind when his staff at the Virginia Historical Society put together an exhibit of "bizarre bits" in the society's collection since its founding in 1831.

There was Confederate President Jefferson Davis's cigar, confiscated by Union troops. There was a fungus carving of Robert E. Lee on his horse Traveller and a wreath made of human hair.

Then someone mentioned a letter, handwritten and dated 1876, with what appeared to be a smallpox scab pinned inside—light brown, about the size of a pencil eraser, and crumbling.

Via.

Link roundup

1. This seems like a short story waiting to happen. Or maybe the start of the article is a short story all by itself:

In a small, windowless room in the bowels of the Westin St. Francis hotel on Union Square, Rob Holsen washes the hotel's money.

Every penny, nickel, dime and quarter.

Via.

2. The Chinese respect the Jews:

Last year’s Google Zeitgeist China rankings listed “why are Jews excellent?” in fourth place in the “why” questions category, just behind “why should I enter the party” and above “why should I get married?” (Google didn’t publish a "why" category in Mandarin this year.) And the apparent affection for Jewishness has led to a surprising trend in publishing over the last few years: books purporting to reveal the business secrets of the Talmud that capitalize on the widespread impression among Chinese that attributes of Judaism lead to success in the financial arts.

Via.

3. The Wall Street Journal's list of the best economics blogs.

Link roundup

1. Dead Space-inspired backpacks available for preorder. Via.

2. "Capable of reaching speeds exceeding 70 kilometers per hour, the pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) is one of the fastest mammals on earth. No large North American carnivore can match it for speed – some conservationists have go so far as to suggest importing cheetahs to special parks to reinstate the evolutionary race between pronghorn and extinct big cats." So, which animal kills pronghorn?

3. Gallery of photos showing off 826LA's Time Travel Mart.

*Buy Essentially Odd: A Catalog of Products Created For and Sold at the 826 Stores at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. More information about the British spy, whose decomposed body was found locked inside a large sportsbag in the bath.

2. Google Code University, a collection of tutorials on languages like Python, Java and Go for relative beginners. Via.

3. "The highest paid athlete of all time was a charioteer from ancient Rome, say researchers."

*Buy Spy Dust: Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools and Operations That Helped Win the Cold War at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Charges were dropped in the "Octopus Murders," which earned that name because there were so many theories about who committed the crimes.

2. Pikachu animated gif.

3. Destructoid is giving away an iPad.

*Previously: Pikachu paper toy.

*Buy Pikachu toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Ted Nugent paper doll.

2. Massive homeless encampment on Oahu.

3. I love Q&As about toy manufacturing:

Can you tell us why the SDCC Plastic Man’s stretchy arms are all one solid color? Why couldn’t his hands be flesh colored?

Good question! When you do a stretch accessory, it is not possible to do it in two colors. We looked into painting the hands flesh color, but the paint would chip off as it stretched. In this case the colors are limited by the action feature of the toy, not a design choice.

4. Chris Samnee is giving away a Thor sketch.

*Buy sketch cards at eBay.

Twilight, spiked (link roundup)

A one-image review of Twilight by the MIT Science Fiction Society. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Comment and win 100 one-color letterpress invitations or Save the Dates (if you're getting married).

2. Bad call cost a pitcher a perfect game with two outs in the ninth inning.

3. If you're looking for a short story idea, try this Craigslist ad.

*Previously: Twilight Zone/Twilight mashup.

*Buy baseball bobbleheads at eBay.

Graffiti victim's revenge (link roundup)

A building takes revenge on a tagger in this new sculpture by Terry Border.

And a few more links:

1. Seth Godin praises Mark Frauenfelder's new book, responds to the damning Publisher's Weekly review - - the first editorial review at Amazon.

2. Funny line about sexual orientation.

3. Is a former professional freestyle skier now a pimp and sex club promoter in Denver?

4. "Previously secret papers declassified Friday revealed that British ballerina Margot Fonteyn was heavily involved in plotting a coup to overthrow Panama's government, detailing how her clandestine political activities both exasperated and amused officials on both sides of the Atlantic." Via.

*Previously: Be An Interplanetary Spy.

*Buy The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg at Amazon.

If William Gibson was a children's book illustrator (link roundup)

Or so says William Gibson. Can't say I get it, but I like the picture.

And a few more links:

1. Send an email and maybe win a great Warhammer 40K miniature.

2.Peter Feld:

I am so happy to have zero friends with whom my "social obligations" include giving and receiving digital images for my imaginary "farm."

3. The oil spill in the gulf is an awful lot like a Michael Crichton novel: Meet the Team of All Star Scientists Obama Assembled To Fix the Oil Spill.

4. Dishonorable NHL awards 2010. Want to know who led the league in diving penalties? Via.

*Previously: Teasers from William Gibson's Zero History.

*Buy painted miniatures at eBay.