“I knew I was going to hit him, and I knew he was going to die.” … “You see a trespasser near the tracks. You have no way of knowing whether he’s going to wave at you or jump in front of your train,” he says. “Even if they see someone standing or lying on […]
Did you know?
In disasters not involving fire, panic is rarely the cause of fatalities, and even when fire is involved, such as in the 1977 Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, in Southgate, Kentucky, research has shown that people continue to help one another, even at the cost of their own lives. That and other useful/interesting/unsettling tidbits about […]
Posted by Ben on April 29, 2012
https://www.swordbilled.com/did-you-know-2/
“I am Paolo Di Lauro, and I am a shopkeeper.”
I’m not sure why this sort of thing is such a constant source of fascination for me, but it is: In the summer of 2005 there was such quiet on the northern front that Neapolitans assumed Di Lauro was back in charge. This was good news rather than bad. People did not know about his […]
Posted by Ben on April 25, 2012
https://www.swordbilled.com/i-am-paolo-di-lauro-and-i-am-a-shopkeeper/
Shorter “Six degrees of aggregation”
It’s the network. Taken together, the badgeholders serve as voluntary traffic wardens for what truly makes Huffington Post so valuable to a company like AOL: Not brand. Not content. But access to the HuffPost network. (Six degrees of aggregation: How the Huffington Post ate the Internet)
Posted by Ben on April 23, 2012
https://www.swordbilled.com/shorter-six-degrees-of-aggregation/
Family Redwood
Ambitious. Clever. Topical? Well, I suppose that depends. But a pretty excellent literary undertaking, on the whole. The simply-named Lord of the Rings Project attempts a family tree of every character mentioned by J.R.R. Tolkien. (via Coudal Partners Blended Feed, if you know what I mean. Oh. You don’t? Er, here: coudal.com)
Posted by Ben on April 3, 2012
https://www.swordbilled.com/family-redwood/
These brave men know there is no hope for their recovery.
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 […]
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/
Drink blood, control humans v. take brain, repair ship
Had marked this bit in the Guardian a while ago as a “read it later” article: Every Doctor Who villain since 1963 (part of the generally excellent DataBlog, which covers all manner of data and visualization [often UK-focused, but still broadly interesting] — and which frequently makes the data used for infographics publicly available through […]
Posted by Ben on March 30, 2011
https://www.swordbilled.com/drink-blood-control-humans-v-take-brain-repair-ship/
Distractions
Although what else are you going to find here, honestly? For the movie lover & designer, a hangman-esque game identifying objects from famous movies based on a simplified illustration: Famous Objects from Classic Movies. Oh yeah, the url is hard to remember, too. (Hint: it’s not.) (via Coudal Blended Feed). Wolverine-as-Velociraptor/Deinonychus, Thor as Anklyosaurus, etc. […]
Posted by Ben on March 13, 2011
https://www.swordbilled.com/distractions/