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 […]
These brave men know there is no hope for their recovery.
Posted by Ben on June 7, 2011
https://www.swordbilled.com/these-brave-men-know-there-is-no-hope-for-their-recovery/
When We Tested Nuclear Bombs
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)
Posted by Ben on May 9, 2011
https://www.swordbilled.com/when-we-tested-nuclear-bombs/
Aliens, astronomers, or super-intelligent aardvarks?
You decide. Whatever the case, it’s kind of amazing. (via Ectoplasmosis)
Posted by Ben on August 26, 2009
https://www.swordbilled.com/aliens-astronomers-or-super-intelligent-aardvarks/
Birds of the West Indies
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)
Posted by Ben on September 21, 2008
https://www.swordbilled.com/birds-of-the-west-indies/
Not the best track record
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 […]
Posted by Ben on September 11, 2008
https://www.swordbilled.com/not-the-best-track-record/
I’ll have the veal birds with pine nuts
Airline menus through history (plus a steamship menu or two), at the Northwestern University Library Transportation Archives. (via ResearchBuzz)
Posted by Ben on August 9, 2008
https://www.swordbilled.com/ill-have-the-veal-birds-with-pine-nuts/
Useful information, by any standard
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 […]
Posted by Ben on July 24, 2008
https://www.swordbilled.com/useful-information-by-any-standard/
Water, water, every where… and much of it to drink
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 […]
Posted by Ben on July 31, 2007
https://www.swordbilled.com/water-water-every-where-and-much-of-it-to-drink/