Old is the New New

Tom Englehardt posts Chalmers Johnson’s review of Alex Abella’s new history of RAND.

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What appears to be H.P. Lovecraft’s Commonplace Book: creepy images, story ideas, and games he’d like to run. (Via Felix Gilman.)

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Do not laser-shark me, oh my darling: isn’t everything better with rayguns?

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It’s been well linked (Barista assumed it was taking the piss but I think he underestimates Chabon’s geeky earnestness) but it’s worth it: Michael Chabon on the superhero unitard. PS How good is All-Star Superman, am I right?

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Paul Collins on the Mundaneum, a networked encyclopedia on fifteen million index cards (shades of the Memex?). Plus index cards as (literally) the U.S. War Department’s killer app.

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BLDG BLOG’s Geoff Manaugh on mapping the fictional onto the real.

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You heard it here first:* Moby Dick is awesome! (*No, you didn’t.)

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Feast your ears on the oldest known sound recording–from 17 years before Edison’s phonograph. (Via Corn Chips & Pie.)

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Khalid (née Bertram) Sheldrake, the “power hungry, toothbrush mustachioed, British ninny” who somehow failed to convert western China to Islam.

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Excellent robot content from Dave Lester. Ah, but was it trained to smash your camera?

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Well, I know what we’ll be discussing in my U.S. history class next Monday.

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It’s just like Jeremy Boggs says: History is a perpetual beta.

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“The definitive token of worth, money is intrinsically worthless.” Nice little article on hobo nickels.

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NYT on Gygax: “Gary Gygax died last week and the universe did not collapse. This surprises me a little bit, because he built it.”

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Chuck Klosterman on road movies in this month’s Believer.

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