sword-billed hummingbird » History

These brave men know there is no hope for their recovery.

Ben — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:02:31 +0000

I keep coming back to this. It’s fascinating. In 1969, William Safire wrote a speech to be read by President Nixon in the event that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were trapped on the moon… forever:

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

Via the fascinating Letters of Note. Well worth the full read.

When We Tested Nuclear Bombs

Ben — Mon, 09 May 2011 20:40:53 +0000

A typically excellent slide show put together by Alan Taylor (formerly of the Boston Globe’s similarly excellent Big Picture feature): When We Tested Nuclear Bombs.

(hat tip: Coudal Partners Blended Feed)

Aliens, astronomers, or super-intelligent aardvarks?

Ben — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:22:00 +0000

You decide. Whatever the case, it’s kind of amazing.

(via Ectoplasmosis)

Birds of the West Indies

Ben — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:28:13 +0000

I always knew there was a secret reason for my liking James Bond.

Secret reason: James Bond was an ornithologist. And Ian Fleming enjoyed birding.

Perfect!

(Although I realize this may already be semi-common knowledge that I’ve merely evaded up to this point.)

(via a silly list in The Atlantic)

Not the best track record

Ben — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:37:13 +0000

Which is, really, fortunate.

“10 other dates when the world failed to end.”

One of my favorites:

Sept 11-13 1988 – Former Nasa engineer Edgar Whisenant sold 4.5 million copies of his book 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988, mostly to evangelical US Christians. Follow-up works, which revised the prediction for dates in the 1990s, failed to sell as well.

Shocking! (Emphasis added.)

Also, I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be “March 1997″ and not “Match 1997″.

(via Monochrom)

I’ll have the veal birds with pine nuts

Ben — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:20:46 +0000

Airline menus through history (plus a steamship menu or two), at the Northwestern University Library Transportation Archives.

(via ResearchBuzz)

Useful information, by any standard

Ben — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:41:45 +0000

No child should touch a gun or pistol, or on any account present one at another person. We behold a little boy shooting his sister dead!

And:

Here we see the danger of playing with lighted candles. One little girl has set the bed-curtains on fire, and the other her hair; and both are in great danger of being burnt to death, unless someone grants them speedy assistance.

From The Book of Accidents (1831), with excellent woodcut illustrations.

(via Ectoplasmosis)

Water, water, every where… and much of it to drink

Ben — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 03:06:13 +0000

Elizabeth Royte, who wrote the charming eco-logue the Tapir’s Morning Bath, does a piece on New York City’s water supply. It’s interesting, both historically and also in the infrastructural how-it-works sort of gee-whiz way. (It also encourages me to move Royte’s book on garbage further up on my to-read list.)

(If the NYT can make a corny Elia Kazan reference, then I can make a tired Samuel Taylor Coleridge reference, is all I have to say for myself.)