A hydraulic analog computer built in 1949 (from scrounged Lancaster bomber parts) that represents the British economy using gauges, sluices, colored water, and felt tip pens. (Thanks, Jere!)
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Ahoy-Hoy!
This is the online home of Rob MacDougall, historian and robot fancier. -
The Good Old
A few of my favorites:
- Math and Unicorns
What is history for?
- A Zooter from a Googly
Why don’t North Americans play cricket? And what does this have to do with rebuilding Iraq?
- R&D
The Cold War avante-garde, from R&D to D&D, the secret origins of hex paper, KAAAAHN!
- The Further Adventures of Ben Franklin’s Ghost
Ben Franklin’s ghost tapped John Murray Spear to build an electrical messiah and save the world. Who was using who?
- Gakutensoku
Japanese robots and the gaijin who keep stealing them. Plus blood sacrifice by index card to begin the information age.
- Math and Unicorns
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The New Old
Most recent posts:
- Burger Time Event Horizon
The unknowability of Ms Pac-Man; Major Wesely and Vietnam; the classic arcade “kill screen” and What Lies Beyond.
- Do You Feel Lucky, Steampunk?
The Kinematrix has you: three alternate Victorian internets.
- The Gilded Age Internet and the People’s Telephone
Plus the Jimmy Carterian Internet and the Millennial Pneumatic Tube.
- That Is All
Is John Hodgman the last observer of Gilded Age telephone etiquette? I WOULD NOT PUT IT PAST HIM.
- All That Camp
Write up and reflection on THATCamp 2008, an excellent “unconference” on digital technology and the humanities.
- Burger Time Event Horizon
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The Old Old
In loose Borgesian categories:
- Academia
- Alternate History
- Asides
- Ben Franklin
- Blogging
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- Comics
- Concept Courses
- Cranks
- Daddyhood
- Digital History
- Early Internets
- Eye Candy
- Favorites
- Found History
- Games and Gaming
- Geek Archaeology
- Gilded Age
- GTD
- Have We Learned Nothing From Flashdance?
- History@Play
- LiveJournal
- My Book
- Old Blog
- Old Weird America
- Real Life
- Robots
- Robots Prepare To Torch Gene Autry
- Russia is Neat
- Science!
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- Telephony
- Travel
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- War and Peace
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Seek!
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The New New
Interwob links to confound and bemuse:
The Henry Ford of Literature
Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, the huckster visionary whose mail-order superhighway paved the way for civil rights, feminism, the sexual revolution and the information age. Also, he may have been murdered by the FBI.Great God, Where Is The Ship?
I don’t talk much politics here, but The Phil Nugent Experience is one political blog I can usually read without curling up into a ball crying. Also: “Drill, Baby, Drill”? Really?Sex Magic Rocket Science
A biography of Jack Parsons, occultist and rocketeer, in comic book form.Wikipedia Is Failing
Wikipedia (who else?) on the ways Wikipedia is failing. (But see also: Wikipedia is not failing; Wikipedia may or may not be failing; Wikipedia on problems solved by MacGyver.)Pants On Fire
Mills Kelly is teaching a course this year that has me seething withjealousyawed respect: Lying About The Past, complete with a second term create-a-hoax practicum.FDR's Men of Action!
Chef Julia Child, historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., White Sox catcher Moe Berg, and the proverbial many more served in an “international spy ring” for the OSS during WWII.Old Weird Google Map
Celestial Monochord goo-maps the Anthology of American Folk Music. What part of that sentence isn’t awesome? (See also.)Happiness is Mandatory
Emo and goth to be made illegal in Russia? Don’t they know if we outlaw emo, only outlaws will be emo?Speak In A Raspy Growl and Carry a Batarang
Scott Kaufman reports (without, alas, documentation) that Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale based their Batman on Teddy Roosevelt.Mangler 2000
From the “We survived, didn’t we?” department: A paean to old, dangerous playground equipment. (But see Greg Downey’s astute response.) Some Of Our Corky Chums
- Ro-Blog
From the dawn of the 21st century: my very first weblog, 2001-2002. - Edge of the American West
Historians Eric Rauchway and Ari Kelman on history, muppets, and the proverbial more. - The Emily Chesley Reading Circle
Studying and celebrating the Speculative Songstress of Southwestern Ontario. - The Skwib
Where to start? Mark Rayner's non-stop sputtering of satire, comedy, and odd, odd fiction. All hail General Kang! - The Gatehouse
Steampunk, dieselpunk, and retro-futurism.
- Ro-Blog
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Behind the Curtain
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© 2001–2007 Rob MacDougall
3 responses so far ↓
1 Brett // May 30, 2008 at 8:46 pm
According to the wiki page, one of the Financephalographs is on display at my own university. I’ll have to try and find it!
2 Airminded · MONIAC and the warfare state // Jun 4, 2008 at 6:04 am
[…] Old is the New New, MONIAC, the MOnetary National Income Automatic Computer: an analogue hydraulic computer designed […]
3 The Financephalograph // Jun 4, 2008 at 4:43 pm
[…] war bonds at work: Brett Holman at Airminded follows up my link to MONIAC with more history, smart analysis, and lots of […]
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