bookofjoe

My Dead Hand

From Wikipedia:

Dead Hand (Russian: Система «Периметр», Systema "Perimetr", lit. "Perimeter" System, with the GRAU Index 15E601, Cyrillic: 15Э601), also known as Perimeter, is a Cold War-era automatic nuclear weapons-control system (similar in concept to the American AN/DRC-8 Emergency Rocket Communications System) that was constructed by the Soviet Union.

The system remains in use in the post-Soviet Russian Federation.

An example of fail-deadly and mutual assured destruction deterrence, it can automatically initiate the launch of the Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) by sending a pre-entered highest-authority order from the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Strategic Missile Force Management to command posts and individual silos if a nuclear strike is detected by seismic, light, radioactivity, and pressure sensors even with the commanding elements fully destroyed.

By most accounts, it is normally switched off and is supposed to be activated during times of crisis; however, as of 2009, it was said to remain fully functional and able to serve its purpose when needed.

I had the most wonderful idea just now.

Long story short: I may — may — start today to advance post way beyond what I've ever done before.

My all-time record is 160 posts ready to appear in sequence automatically for 20 days, back around 2010 when I was posting 8x/day (!).

I did that out of necessity since I'd agreed to do a two-week-long anesthesia locum tenens in Richmond, Virginia, some 75 miles from where I live in Charlottesville, which included night call every four nights.

I figured I might be in no mood to create boj posts after pulling an all-nighter, living in a hotel room with who knows how decent internet.

My brainstorm this morning: create and advance post 1,825 boj entries — a full year's worth at my current rate, 5x/day.

I love this because should I spontaneously combust — my preferred mode of departure from this mortal coil — no one would be the wiser until one day there were no posts.

As days of stasis accumulated, more and more concern about me would make itself known online, until someone discovered that I'd crumped months earlier.

Ha!

Butterfly demonstrates the art of camouflage

New York City Reservoir System Water Levels

Wrote Dwight Garner in the New York Times, "Every morning in this newspaper you can, if you dare, check the level of New York City's reservoir system, which supplies our fresh water, more than a billion gallons a day."

More: "This sprawling upstate network has kept up with the city's demands for more than a century. This week it's at about 80 percent of capacity — not bad but below normal. A writer could begin a buzzard-black apocalyptic novel with a scientist noticing levels are falling."

Fun with Figs

Above, my manipulation of an organic Turkish fig.

I have an incurable habit that began when I was a kid of doing stuff to my food to make it more appealing or seem more abundant.

At best this is annoying, at worst irritating to the point peeps get up and go somewhere else.

No matter.

As you can see, one fig is transformed into a number of succulent slices to prolong my enjoyment.

You can too!

Full disclosure: it took me three tries to get a usable video because I wasn't quick enough with my knife to complete my preparation during the 30-second RayBan Stories glasses time frame.

The glasses now offer an option to make the default 1 minute but I'm going to stick with the 30 second limit: less is more for sure in my case.

Animated Bowl — Kenny Sing

Wrote Clive Thompson:

Kenny Sing is an artist who makes gorgeous "animated bowls" — decorated with imagery that, when you spin the bowl, creates a zoopraxiscopic effect in which the imagery appears animated.

He's posted a short video showing how he made that bowl above.

It's quite astonishing, as is the rest of his work on display at his Instagram feed; you can buy his work at his online store, too.

As he describes his process with this particular bowl:

I always create perfectly looping animations where the first frame matches the last frame, but this animation doesn't loop, creating more of a spinning animation. This really tricks the brain into thinking the animation is rotating, but if you stare at just one circle in one spot, it appears to be almost stationary. The animation continues to change as the rotation speed slows over time and the rotations per minute, number of frames, and frame rate of the camera go in and out of matching up perfectly with each other to create this visual effect.

Can he make a bowl like this for you?

Apply within.