Another crane goes down in NYC. This one sounds like another climbing maneuver mishap: “Contractors were trying to lengthen the crane when a steel support broke.” I'm not looking forward to the start of construction on the high-rise right outside my office window.
The BBC News Magazine used to include images of the front pages of many of the dailies. Lawyers put an end to that, but they continue to have Paper Monitor, which occasionally gives us such a gem as this:
The [Telegraph] does today have the privilege of having a column by the man of the moment, Sebastian Faulks, who has written the new Bond novel. After a few observations about how remarkable Ian Fleming's family are, he tells an awfully amusing tale about how he was watching his barrister brother appearing in court last week but then realised that he didn't know if his phone was switched off and because it was a new phone (a device, you might say), he didn't know how to check if it was on or not without making it beep or buzz. Anywaaaaayyyyy, as it turns out, the phone didn't actually go off, but boy was that a close thing. That's some anecdote.
G.W. Carver's famous peanut recipes are very... peanutty. I really like peanuts, and skimming through these recipes makes me feel a little queasy. I'm almost frightened to see his (less famous) treatment of tomatoes and sweet potatoes.
From the 1920 book Manual of Library Economy, a description of an early hipster PDA:
The Card Diary.--A useful little card index is one which
may go on a desk, and is guided with the days of the week, and
has such other guides as "This Week," "To-day," "Next Week,"
"Miscellaneous matters," etc., which serves as a reminder to its
user. Behind the appropriate guide are filed cards referring to
the matters which are to be dealt with at the time indicated.
These card-diaries are commonly known as "ticklers," and can
be a most effective aid to methodical administration.
The next handy tip is how to make a card catalog to help you organize your office supplies. Really.
An edifying article on surveillance trends in China.
"What is most disconcerting about China's surveillance state is how familiar it all feels. When I check into the Sheraton in Shenzhen, for instance, it looks like any other high-end hotel chain — only the lobby is a little more modern and the cheerful clerk doesn't just check my passport but takes a scan of it.
"Are you making a copy?" I ask.
"No, no," he responds helpfully. "We're just sending a copy to the police.""
It's been pretty clear from recent quotes that Davies is on his way out of Doctor Who. Steven Moffat has just been tipped to replace him. He wrote “The Empty Child”, “The Girl in the Fireplace”, and “Blink”, so we may see a yet spookier vision moving forward. Or maybe The Doctor will start travelling with a girlfriend and his and her exes and best friends.
There's so much to love about this story: A Chess champion, a flying penis, Russians, entertaining comments. It's delightful.
Partly dyslexia, partly Scrabble, I think led to my noticing this clause in a BBC story about new Barry Bonds perjury indictments:
Making it into the record books as the man who had hit more home runs than anyone else in baseball history should have been the crowning achievement of Mr Bonds' storied career'cause, y'know, ‘storied’ anagrams to ‘steroid’. What with their being Brits and all, you know the writer did it on purpose.
“[Regulatory Agency] has not approved or disapproved of [product] or determined whether this [description] is accurate or complete. Anyone who tells you otherwise is committing a crime.”
(emphasis mine)
Got a lovely note from someone who wants me to help him launder a huge sum of money, with this appended:
"En finir avec le spam? Yahoo! Mail vous offre la meilleure protection possible contre les messages non sollicités"
Oui! A thousand times oui!
Azumanga Daioh: the manga: the omnibus, Kiyohiko Azuma
From the author of Yotsuba&!, a fun (but less magical and more wacky) story of girls in high school. Four stars.
The magical life of Long Tack Sam, Ann Marie Fleming
Biography told in comic book and scrap book form, Ann Marie Fleming pieces together the life of her great-grandfather. At first, all she knew was that he was Chinese, had married an Austrian woman, and knew how to do some magic tricks. She shortly learns that he was a giant in the field of vaudeville magic. I loved the intersection of family history, magic and vaudeville history, and world history (the family is only a half-step away from historical disaster at several points). Very much worth a read. Four stars.
Red moon rising: Sputnik and the hidden rivalries that ignited the Space Age, Matthew Brzezinski
Really engrossing look at the politics behind the space race in the US and USSR, from the end of World War II up through the first satellites launched by each country. Very interesting to see the same political wranglings as today, but the behind-the-scenes perhaps stayed behind the scenes. Four stars.