WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net, technology and science news
by Alan Lenton
Leafing through my diary (yes, I do have a paper diary) I see it's been six weeks since the last Winding Down. Six weeks since I was first laid low by the dreaded shingles, which still hasn't completely cleared up. Fortunately it's cleared up enough to at least let me get some decent sleep at night, which means my ability to concentrate is improving.
I'm still not up to inscribing the usual snappy, incisive and witty repartee that you, my readers, are used to receiving from me. But I'm getting there. Looking through the backlog for the last month and a half, I noticed that there were more than the usual sets of pictures, so I thought that I would gather them all together in this edition, since I'm not up to writing real analysis.
I hope you like at least some of my choices. Hopefully, there is something for everyone in this selection.
Here we go!
New Atlas has some really nice pictures of what it considers to be beautiful airplanes from the history of aviation. Though I wouldn't necessarily agree with their definition of beautiful, it does have some good stuff in the gallery. Oh, and the picture of the Grumman F7F Tigercat is really cool.
https://newatlas.com/most-beautiful-airplanes/54548/#gallery
Here's something for Star Wars fans. A couple of friends are building an accurate full scale Millennium Falcon Cockpit - in the garage... The article includes a video of the guys talking about the project, as well as some still shots.
https://www.sciencealert.com/replica-millenium-falcon-cockpit-screen-accurate-star-wars-fans
The UK's National Health Service (NHS) recently passed its 70th birthday, and so the Nursing Times opened a newly discovered photo archive to show some pictures of what nursing was like around the time of the Second World War, before the NHS came in to existence. I think I would have freaked out becoming conscious and finding myself being 'decontaminated' by the figures shown in one of the pictures.
https://www.nursingtimes.net/news/education/rediscovered-photo-archive-gives-insight-into-nursing-before-nhs/7024250.article
And now more stuff from New Atlas. A gallery of really stunning photographs, as seen from the cockpit of a 747. Features shown include storms, St Elmo's Fire (and just who was St Elmo, anyway?), lightning, cloud formations, the Northern Lights, rivers, and the Sahara. Impressive!
https://newatlas.com/gallery-photography-from-cockpit-747-storms/54704/#gallery
Next, a rather different picture - and panoramic view of London in 1866. Well sort of. It is, in fact, a Japanese block print by Utagawa Yoshitora, who'd never actually been to London. So, here you are - the Japanese version of London in 1866. PS: can you find the second of the two copies of St Pauls cathedral?
https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2018/05/22/japanese-prints-of-london-in-1866-are-very-japanese/
It seems that the USA's National Security Agency (NSA) has recently released a bunch of posters that is used in the 1950s and 60s to remind it's employees about the need for security. Some of them look very dated now, but they are an interesting take on an important period of the cold war. The article includes a sample of the posters and a link to the complete set (which is a pdf file). Thanks to reader Michael for drawing my attention to the posters.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/43548d/nsa-historical-propaganda-posters-foia
Of course, no set of visual subjects would be complete with out some astronomy pictures, so it's back to New Atlas to fix that omission. This is a set of pictures of Nebulae, which are the remains of exploding stars, especially the expanding debris from the explosion. I've got several of them available as wallpaper for my computer. My favourites? The Crab Nebula (an old favourite), the Helix Nebula (very creepy), The Horsehead Nebula (another old favourite), and the remarkable Pillars of Creation.
https://newatlas.com/nebula-gallery-photos/55022/#gallery
Any finally, back down to Earth with a picture of the full moon over Manhattan's East 96th Street. Nice work, and difficult to get just right. Enjoy.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180630.html
And as a bonus, a quote for the week from the Brit politician Herbert Asquith:
"The War Office keeps three sets of figures: one to mislead the public, another to mislead the cabinet, and the third to mislead itself."
Source Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Acknowledgements
Thanks to readers Barb, nd Fi and Michael for drawing my attention to material for Winding Down.
Please send suggestions for stories to alan@ibgames.com and include the words Winding Down in the subject line, unless you want your deathless prose gobbled up by my voracious Thunderbird spam filter...
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
8 July 2018
Alan Lenton is an on-line games designer, programmer and sociologist, the order of which depends on what he is currently working on! His web site is at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/index.html.
Past issues of Winding Down can be found at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/index.html.
