P.D. Smith, author of Doomsday Men, on mad scientists and the dream of the superweapon.
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This is the online home of Rob MacDougall, historian and robot fancier. -
The Good Old
A few of my favorites:
- Wichita Mind Control
The Wichita, Kansas Public Library in 1952 was probably the last place on Earth you’d expect to get your mind blown.
- The Secret Syllabus
Is this post good? Sir, it is pie.
- OGTD, Original Gangsta
The Golden Age “Getting Things Done.”
- History and Appliances: The Case for Luddism
All hail King Ludd.
- Go Western, Young Man
In which our hero lands a job, and bids adieu to the Chronicle of Higher Ed.
- Wichita Mind Control
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The New Old
Most recent posts:
- I Have Until January 20!
Reactions to the Obama election from all around Bloggyville.
- American For A Day
Post-election euphoria: I feel so full of “less shame,” I can’t tell you.
- Pandemonium on the Potomac
Six man mixed tag-team elimination match.
- One More Sleep
A night of broken dreams and fractured hips.
- Burger Time Event Horizon
The unknowability of Ms Pac-Man; Major Wesely and Vietnam; the classic arcade “kill screen” and What Lies Beyond.
- I Have Until January 20!
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The Old Old
In loose Borgesian categories:
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The New New
Interwob links to confound and bemuse:
The New Beautiful and Enjoyable Game of Apes
Is only one of five centuries of board games at the always beautiful and enjoyable BibliOdyssey.Worthwhile Canadian Initiative
Two good friends of mine have just launched Social Ch@nge, a blog about using the net for nonprofits, with some constructive criticism of Joe the Plumber’s official (!) website.Stock Market Skirt
A party dress with a hemline that automatically rises and drops along with the stock market. My man Bill discusses.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.) Some Of Our Corky Chums
- Petri Dish
Love this blog. Long link-happy lab notes on science, pop culture, and history. - Randomosity
Digital scholarship, data visualization, and the history of drink. - Bldg Blog
"You know I always wanted to pretend I was an architect." Terrific blog about buildings and what goes into them. - Chapati Mystery
Decolonize your head: Sepoy & his fellow mutineers blog about South Asia's past, Pakistan's future, and everything else worth knowing. - Old Roads
You said it, Martyn: The past is "a library of human choices, reminding us that the world is larger than we are being led to think."
- Petri Dish
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Jess Nevins // May 18, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Um…he’s not quite got it right, as far as 19th & 20th century reaction to super-weapons. You have only to look at the English public’s reaction to news of what the Maxim gun was doing to see that this disquiet with super-weapons is by no means confined to the 20th century, nor is the glorification of those weapons a 20th century phenomenon. And Wells meant Moreau as a hero gone only slightly mad, not as a villain.
Oh, sorry: [/quibble]
2 Rob // May 23, 2008 at 3:11 pm
On this subject, Jess, you’re like E.F. Hutton: when you quibble, people listen.
I actually just got a nice email from Peter Smith - he says that the book (unlike the blog post) does go back to the 19th C and earlier. It’s on my list to check out.
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