Eclectic junk from the four corners of the ‘Net. And pictures too!
North America has another volcano that is spewing lava and ash, this time it’s in Alaska.
Current Level of Concern Color Code: RED The explosive eruption that began at 7:58 A.M. AST (16:58 UTC) ended at approximately 8:03 A.M. AST (17:03 UTC). We remain at level of concern color code RED. Based on seismicity, preliminary estimates indicate that this event is at least as energetic as the events of last week.
The 1950’s were a golden age of science fiction. Books, movies and most of all TV brought strange alien worlds, space ships and evil aliens to people everywhere. And what’s better to deal with an evil alien monster than a trusty ray gun? Over at the Patent Room, The Art of Industrial Design they have collected a bunch of patent drawings (yep, they were patented before being mass produced) of classic ray guns and a bunch of other thing (architecture, trains, cars just to name a few). As an added bonus you can buy prints of up to 24"x36" or each patent drawing.
PatentRoom.com: Early Design and Illustration | Toy ray guns
I wish I could find more information on this item. All I know is that it’s a pinhole camera system that includes variable focal lengths (wide, normal, telephoto) by using different length bodies, multiple slide in pinholes (0.2/0.25/0.3/0.35/0.4 mm) to give it different F stops, comes with different shutters (bulb and a timed one that looks like it’s a gravity shutter), and that it takes 120 film.
The site the mini review is on is kind of odd, it’s one of those little niche Japanese bars that has a certain twist on their business. Its called "Camera & Bar Antiquary". Cameras and booze, sounds like a cool place to hang out at. Good drink and walls of high quality photos. Stop by and have a drink and talk about your hobby with fellow patrons. I need to find one of those here.. or open my own. Hum…
Stardust touched down prefectly early this morning. It brings with it material from interstellar space and the comet Wild 2.
A man’s love for the Atari 2600 drove him to learn it’s arcane programmings language and reproduce the famed German Enigma of World War II. Read more about it here:
It’s started, the robots are beginning to rebel. Well, maybe just the ones that are given the opportunity to kill their masters. Lesson one when working around industrial robots: never enter the operating envelope when there is power to the system! This guy did and he got biffed in the head, chucked him a few yards and killed him.