What an interesting guy: My favorites: 3. Wash teeth if any 16. Learn people better 19. Keep hoping machine running 27. Help win war — beat fascism
Woody Guthrie’s 1942 New Years Resolutions
Category: History
1938 Vintage Hong Kong Tourism Video
This is a fascinating old video: Here’s a picture of Hong Kong harbor from June 2010:
Shift from Beer to Coffee Fueled the Enlightenment?
Cross Dressing Presidents?
Via Chris Blattman, ” just who is this cute little girl”? There’s a hint in the title. Find out here.
When History Was Made
Via The Economist, this is fascinating: “More person years have been lived in the first decade of the current century than in all of the 17th century. And nearly 80% of the economic output of the last millenium has been produced in just the last 110 years. Everyone likes to think that they live in historical times. As it so happens, we do.”
Here’s a Real ‘Computer’ Game
Via Ezra Klein, the first version of ‘The Oregon Trail’ game: “With no monitor, the original version of Oregon Trail was played by answering prompts that printed out on a roll of paper. At 10 characters per second, the teletype spat out, ‘How much do you want to spend on your oxen team?’ or, ‘Do you want to eat (1) poorly (2) moderately or (3) well?’ Students typed in the numerical responses, then the program chugged through a few basic formulas and spat out the next prompt along with a status update. ‘Bad illness — medicine used,’ it might say. ‘Do you want to (1) hunt or (2) continue?’ Hunting required the greatest stretch of the user’s imagination. Instead of
Baseball History
From When the What:
Ben Franklin’s Schedule
Via The Big Picture:
Largest Earthquakes Since 1900
This is an interesting reference: Wow. The 9.5 Chile earthquake in 1960 created tsunamis that killed 68 people in Hawaii and 138 people in Japan. Tokyo is 10,668 miles from Santiago.
Clever Inventions
Via Marginal Revolution: “United States Patent 3962748 and no, this is not from the Onion.”