Black gyrkin. Incredibly handsome.
Portrait of the gyrkin as a young man.
Schneier on ‘What the Terrorists Want’
As a follow-up to my word of the month, read this short essay by Bruce Schneier on the goals of terrorism. Hint – blowing things up is not a goal in and of itself, it’s a means to an end. If you don’t know who Mr. Schneier is, some general info is here and some fun facts are here (reload the page for more info).
Happy Kittinger Day!
Today is the anniversary of Joseph Kittinger’s third and highest parachute jump in 1960. Using a helium balloon, he reached an altitude of 31,300 meters; upon exiting the gondola, his speed peaked at something close to 618 mph. The film of the jump shows the curve of the earth and a sky that is quite black – he was a third of the way to the Karman Line (100 km up; the line that officially marks ‘space’). A couple clips, while I figure out how to embed videos into the blog: a short subject on Project Excelsior and a clip from the Discovery Channel showing the jump. Col. Kittinger is one of the unsung pioneers of the space age; prosit!
Update – Aug 16, 2012. In a classic case of link rot, both the above clips have been yanked from YouTube. Here are a couple others.
A newsreel piece:
*
There are a quite a few YouTube color clip assemblages with iffy soundtracks. This is not one of them:
Word of the month.
Insouciance.
This is the best commentary on/reaction to the London arrests I’ve read (so far – top it, somebody).
Maybe it’s just, I cast my eyes back on the last century …
FDR: Oh, I’m sorry, was wiping out our entire Pacific fleet supposed to intimidate us? We have nothing to fear but fear itself, and right now we’re coming to kick your ass with brand new destroyers riveted by waitresses. How’s that going to feel?
CHURCHILL: Yeah, you keep bombing us. We’ll be in the pub, flipping you off. I’m slapping Rolls-Royce engines into untested flying coffins to knock you out of the skies, and then I’m sending angry Welshmen to burn your country from the Rhine to the Polish border.
US. NOW: BE AFRAID!! Oh God, the Brown Bad people could strike any moment! They could strike … NOW!! AHHHH. Okay, how about .. NOW!! AAGAGAHAHAHHAG! Quick, do whatever we tell you, and believe whatever we tell you, or YOU WILL BE KILLED BY BROWN PEOPLE!! PUT DOWN THAT SIPPY CUP!!
… and I’m just a little tired of being on the wrong side of that historical arc.
Perfect.