Author: John

Norwegian Ninjas!

Say what you will about the concept of Norway having ninjas but you have to admit that it could be very funny.

Kommandør Treholt & Ninjatroppen is the true story of how Commander Arne Treholt and his Ninja Force saved Norway during the Cold War. The story takes place in the time right before Treholt’s arrest on espionage charges in 1984, and reveals a spectacularly different version of our recent past than has been previously known.

I’m looking forward to seeing this gem.
News: Death Strikes Silently From The Fjords! The NORWEGIAN NINJA Trailer Is Here!.

The Itinerant Photographer – The Ultimate DIY Photo Studio

I’m fascinated by these cameras. They are an entire photo studio in a box. The photographer uses a hood on the back of the camera to compose and focus and image on the ground glass inside the large box. Once the image is set, the camera is made light tight and the film ( photographic printing paper) is placed on the focal plane. An exposure is made and the photographer reaches inside the camera via a light proof sleeve and develops the paper in the chemistry that is contained in the box. the result is a paper negative that can be re-photographed to produce a positive print. So far this is the best collection of these remarkable cameras I’ve ever come across. They are still used in parts of the world where minilabs and digital cameras are rare.

[Via MAKE]

The Cuban Polaroid

Phoenix Mars lander Killed By Ice


Landing on Mars in May of 2008, the NASA Mars Phoenix Lander worked remarkably well until November of the same year. It sent back hundreds of images and did soil testing that found calcium carbonate and perchlorate. The mission was only supposed to last for three months but like other NASA missions the service life of the lander exceeded expectations and only ended when the winter sun could no longer charge the probes batteries. When the Martian winter had passe it was hoped that the lander might have survived the deadly cold (-87C) and contact could once again be established. However it was not to be. The lander was no longer responding to commands issued from NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter as it did a number of passes over the landing site in multiple listening campaigns. Eventually an image was obtained from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter the that confirmed the speculation that an estimated 100 pounds of icy buildup has damaged the delicate solar panels.
Phoenix Mars Lander is Silent, New Image Shows Damage.

24 Hours Trapped Inside Starbucks

StarbucksA writer spends 24 consecutive hours in a Houston Texas Starbucks and lives to tell about it:

“15 hours, 11 restroom visits, and 16 drinks in. 3:06 PM May 14th via Twitterrific”

At this point, it really felt like I was seeing things. The drinks weren’t the worst part, it was mostly the restroom. My bladder began to hurt. Later, it would go numb.

The Starbucks Experiment: 24 Hours Trapped Inside Starbucks

Mystery Camera and the Film From Within…

Every once in a while I’ll stumble across a ‘classic’ camera when I visit the local second hand store. I recently picked up a Kodak Duaflex IV that was in pretty bad shape. The faux leather case was hard and cracked, there is rust on anything that could rust and weird corrosion on whatever wasn’t rusty but the lenses looked OK and the shutter moved. I was thinking that this would be a great camera to pull apart for the glass and shutter mechanism. I’ve been doing an on again off again search for simple camera shutters for my own creations, the Kodak looked to be a likely source. I’d rather have a nice Copal or Zeiss shutter from a folding camera but this would do.
How I managed not to open it while I was at the store is beyond me. If I had I would have noticed the exposed roll of vintage 620 format Kodacolor-X that was neatly waiting for someone to process it. Continue reading “Mystery Camera and the Film From Within…”