Strange Engines

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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:
- Curling for Loonies
  O for the days when the worst thing Americans had to fear was the demise of league bowling.
- Dr. Hodgman, I Presume
  John Hodgman, the primal scene of American historiography, The Muppet Movie, and how history judges a dream-thief.
- Geek Shakes Tiny Fist on Weblog. Dozens Bored. Film at Eleven.
  Look into the future. Wave. The children of 2024 are looking back at us and holding us responsible.
- Damn Right Your Dad Drank It
  Closing the generation gap… with whisky, damnit.
- Two Turntables and a Cactus Thorn
  Scratching and needle-dropping, ca. 1917. Plus: Gloria Swanson looking gothy.
The New Old

Most recent posts:
- Pants Extinguished
  Sweet: Mills Kelly’s why-didn’t-I-think-of-that class on historical hoaxes has completed, and come clean on, their promised hoax.
- Are Whales Fish?
  Don’t get me started.
- The Atlas of True Names
  Every country on earth is transformed into a D&D campaign just by translating all the place names.
- 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.
The Old Old

In loose Borgesian categories:

Strange Engines

July 9th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Centrifugal steam guns and other strange weapons of the Civil War.

Tags: Old Weird America · Asides · Technology

1 response so far ↓

1 Rob // Jul 9, 2008 at 3:53 pm

I’m suddenly nostalgic for the days when “it’s about history and stuff” was a specific enough mission statement for a new weblog.

Seek!
The New New

Interwob links to confound and bemuse:

North Country Blues
Or, why did Dylan go south?

Crouching Data, Hidden Patterns
Flowing Data ranks the year’s Best Data Visualizations; two of five come from my visualization crush Amanda Cox.

Pants Extinguished
Sweet: Mills Kelly’s why-didn’t-I-think-of-that class on historical hoaxes has completed, and come clean on, their promised hoax.

Vague Memories of America
American Memory archives + members of Skinny Puppy + multimedia + post-industrial music = some damn cool I don’t know what. (Douglas Rushkoff explains a bit.)

Robo-Theorizing
Bill Benzon on Astro Boy and the robot as subaltern. Hat tip to The Constructivist–but which of his blogs to link to?

The Better Dinosaurs of Our Nature
An “alternate history theme park” in which dinosaurs fight in the Civil War. Where was this in 1996?

Slow Blog Manifesto
Slow and low, that is the tempo. Hat tip to Dan Cohen.

Perky Canada Has, Um...
Remember that old Onion headline: “Perky Canada Has Own Government, Laws”? Apparently, for the next eight weeks, we don’t!

Channel Ocho
Or, television without context. Warning: may be creepy. Will be weird.

The Stoner and the Ant
Luc Sante is my hero.
Some Of Our Corky Chums
- Easily Distracted
  Timothy Burke's terrific history, pop culture, academia blog.
- Bibliodyssey
  "Eclectic book illustrations" doesn't begin to cover it: an endless parade of images haunting and strange.
- Route 96
  Ten thousand miles of American cheese.
- Randomosity
  Digital scholarship, data visualization, and the history of drink.
- Ro-Blog
  From the dawn of the 21st century: my very first weblog, 2001-2002.
Behind the Curtain

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Old is the New New

Dropping history like Galileo dropped the orange.

Ahoy-Hoy!

The Good Old

The New Old

The Old Old

Strange Engines

July 9th, 2008 · 1 Comment

1 response so far ↓

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Seek!

The New New

Some Of Our Corky Chums

Behind the Curtain