Former CIA Chief of Disguise Breaks Down Cold War Spy Gadgets

STAYIN’ ALIVE (Bee Gees) - Luca Stricagnoli

A Day in Old London in 1920

(via Bits and Pieces)

Walking through the Nostromo

Guy converts his apartment to look like the interior of the Nostromo from the movie Alien 

Cross Section of a Russian Submarine

Interesting photo. Cross section of Russian nuclear submarine. https://t.co/MSKmPX4Lee pic.twitter.com/SFXI30pczI

— Cliff Pickover (@pickover) March 14, 2017

How Animal Sounds Are Made For Movies

The Ingenious Design of the Aluminum Beverage Can

Flying Snakes

Wound Healing Timelapse

(via Bits and Pieces)

BigPixel

Incredible high resolution photography of cities around the world.  Some images are up 195 billion pixels. 

10,000 Litre Coke v Mentos Explosion

Cut to 16 minutes for the action

Things You Do That You Didn't Know Are Illegal

Interesting Reddit thread

(via Digg)

World's Longest Prison Sentences

Interesting article on the world's longest prison sentences

German Flying Train 1902 Restored Footage 60 fps

Arthur C Clarke predicts the internet in 1964

Paul McCartney Shows the Mellotron

A Trip Through Paris, France in late 1890s

Amazing old film of Paris in the 1890s.  Restored and up-scaled to 4k, 60 fps by Denis Shiryaev

Blair's 16 Million Reserve

From the Archive - A review of Blair's 16 Million Reserve (The world's hottest chili powder)

He added a single grain to some tomato soup:

"After about 5 mintues of boiling, my soup was ready to go. First bite was not that hot, so I had the wife take a bite. She threatened divorce once she could speak again, so I tried it again. Then it was hot!"

History of Batman

History and biography of Batman

Dangerous Dining

The World’s 10 Deadliest Delicacies

Making Clint Eastwood

The 5 Best James Bond Books

I must confess to having never read any of the original Bond novels, but I think I might give one a go after reading this list

Alfred Hitchcock On Mastering Cinematic Tension

(via Far Out)

Witness to an execution in the electric chair

Warning - Disturbing. What it's like to witness an execution by electric chair

Tomorrow's World - 1981 - Compact Disc

Heroin Withdrawal: What Going Cold Turkey Feels Like

Mind Blowing Facts

30 Interesting Facts

Seductive Radishes

Gallery of sexy radishes

(via Everlasting Blort)

Fighter Pilot Breaks Down Every Button in an F-15 Cockpit | Ars Technica

World's Heaviest Aircraft Takeoff

Antonov An-225 Mriya Stunning Take Off from Toronto Pearson Airport

Graphics Demo

Graphics demo I made while bored during lock-down.  It's supposed to be in the style of the old Commodore Amiga demos of the 90's.  All sequences rendered in Newtek's Lightwave 3D

World Famous 72 Oz Big Texan Steak Challenge

This girl is a machine

Expensive Fails and Accidents

Photos of horrifying /funny /expensive fails

Best Books of 2020 So Far

Tor.com reviewers’ choice: The best books of 2020 - So Far

How to eat Surströmming

Half-Life's Often Overlooked Details

A look at one of the greatest video games of all time

How to Acquire Good Manners

From The Art of Manliness 

Famous Last Words

My favorite is from double murderer Thomas J Grasso -

"I did not get my Spaghetti-Os. I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this."

Wikipedia list of people's last words

Potato Butts

Um, a gallery of potatoes that look like butts

The Ten Best Films About Food

From The Up Coming - The ten best films about food

Eight Slowest Animals in the World

I'm surprised I'm not on this list

David Bowie Lets Dance (Demo)

Rare demo recording of David Bowie's "Let's Dance". The recording was released in 2018 by Nile Rodgers on what would have been David's 71st Birthday.



(via Boing Boing)

Recent Movies

Cardboard Gangsters 

Irish crime movie looking at gang culture in Dublin.  Gritty and realistic, it follows the lives of a group of friends as they attempt to take over the drug trade in their town.

2017 - 1 hr 32m 

Skyscraper 

Dwayne Johnson plays an ex FBI agent who must rescue his family from a burning skyscraper.  Think Die Hard crossed with Towering Inferno, don't take it too seriously and it's a pretty solid action film.  We found ourselves laughing at some of the impossible action sequences but overall still enjoyed it.

2018 - 1 hr 49m 

Hereditary

Not your usual horror film with jump scares and over the top gore,  Hereditary relies more on atmosphere and striking visuals.  The acting is pretty good for a horror film and it features some truly harrowing scenes that I don't think I'd want to see again.  The only problem you might have is with the ending, which veers away quite a bit from what you're expecting.

2018 - 2 hr 7m 

Euthanizing of a Dangerous Bee Hive

A long watch but worth it - destroying a hive of extremely dangerous bees. 

Marine Reacts to Full Metal Jacket - Fact or Fiction

2020 The Movie

Fake movie trailer for 2020



(via Geekologie)

What Did Ancient Rome Look Like?

Fascinating CGI visualization of ancient Rome.

Irish Crime Busters

Making a GOOGOL:1 Reduction with Lego Gears

Virtual Tour of the Statue of Liberty

View the interior and exterior of the world famous monument in a series of 360 panoramas.

Millennium Batwing

Reddit user amusered has spent over a year creating this incredible mashup of the Millennium Falcon and Batman's Batwing in Lego

(via Bits and Pieces)

Star Wars Original Trilogy Adapted Into Radio Dramas

A great listen for Star Wars fans - episodes I to III adapted into radio plays for NPR.  Featuring the original score and sound effects 

Star Wars Quiz

How well do you know the Star Wars universe?  I scored 26 /28/  There are spoilers if you haven't seen all the movies

Nocturnal Cat Attacks

Man films his cat attacking him through the night



(via Cynical-C)

Chernobyl: The Disaster and Aftermath

This week marks 34 years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. I was lucky enough to visit the exclusion zone recently which you can read about here.

 

Water Tower Collapse Compillation

Clint Eastwood (GORILLAZ) on Triple Neck Guitar - Luca Stricagnoli

Better Call Saul Burger

Someone made the the delicious sounding burger that Kim orders in the season 5 finale.

British Vintage 1970s Toy Adverts

My latest Minecraft Video

Don't Watch These Movies If Quarantine is Driving You Crazy

10 Things You Didn't Know About The Friends Theme Song And Intro

Interesting article for fans of the show

Online Toilet Paper Calculator

How much toilet paper will you need while isolating yourself.

Barry's Minty Biscuits

(via Joanne Casey)

Twisting Steel With Lego

With two Lego motors and some clever gearing to increase torque you can twist metal.

50 Best Science Fiction TV Shows

A great list with a lot of my favorites

Construction on 500 Fifth Avenue, New York City, 1930

Movie Links

The most rebooted movies

The best sad movies

Songs that are bigger than the movies they came from

The 25 best movies about gambling

Movies like 'Joker'

The best movies from books

Best movie cars

My Retro Game

Got my first review today for the game I've been working on for the last 6 months, and you can read it here!

Can You Really Hire a Hit Man on the Dark Web?

What do you think?

(via Geek Press)

Globe Making in 1955

(via BoingBoing)

Can Non-British People be Knighted?

Yes they can, they don't have the title 'Sir' but can add KBE (Knight of the British Empire) to their names. Here are 12 non British Knights or Dames.

The Batman Experience - Restoring the 1989 Batsuit

Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love Lead Vocal Track Isolated

Taxidermy Fails

Some of these are hilarious - Taxidermy Fails

Diecast Rally Car Racing | Event 1 Round 1 | Tomica Hot Wheels Matchbox

This gave me a smile - A toy car race filmed like a real event.



(via Digg)

Manicomio di R

Photo tour of an abandoned mental hospital in Italy.

The sound of Covid-19

Well, sort of.  Someone took the DNA data of Covid-19 and turned it into musical notes.



(via Everlasting Blort)

Unappetizing-Looking Desserts

Desserts made to look like disgusting things

My Retro Game

I'm pleased to announce that my retro game for the ZX Spectrum - Springbot -  is complete and you can download it here!  You will need a ZX Spectrum emulator to play.

Here's a short game-play video.

Ex-Mob Boss Plays Never Have I Ever

A Trip Through New York 1911

Restored with neural networks 1911 New York footage taken by the Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern on a trip to America

"Alien: Covenant" Movie - Set Construction Time Lapse

Cats With Cartoon Mouths

That is all

Abandoned Hungarian Power Plant

Exploring an abandoned power plant that was used as a filming location in the movie Blade Runner 2049

Related - Abandoned power plants

How 'The Manalorian' Uses the Unreal Game Engine to Generate and Film Scenery

Top 100 Hydraulic Press Moments

What if Humans Tried Landing on the Sun?

I would just go at night.

What happened when I tried the U.S. Army’s tactic to fall asleep in two minutes

Someone tried the sleep hack I posted a few days ago to see if it actually works, and you can see their results here.

Construction Workers on the Chrysler Building, 1929-1930

Creepy Things You Can Buy on Amazon

I don't really know what use a fake tongue or a bat skeleton would be but apparently you can buy them from Amazon

Sharpest Chocolate Kitchen Knife in the World

I find this guy's videos really interesting, he makes knives from all kinds of weird materials from cardboard to seawater. In this video he makes a kitchen knife out of chocolate.

Grandma Builds Wheelchair Ramps Using Lego Bricks

'Lego Grandma' Rita Ebel builds wheelchair ramps from Lego to raise awareness of handicapped people.

Making a semi-hollow neck-through winter bass guitar

Optical Illusions That Bend Your Brain

Collection of interesting optical illusions

PlayStation History Quiz

I got 10/15. Find out if you are a true PlayStation fan by taking this quiz

Screen Used Robin Suit - Update

I'm fascinated by all things Batman related, this is an update to an earlier post which you can view here.

The Linn LM-1: The Drum Machine that changed everything

A look at the legendary Linn LM-1 drum machine and the history of drum machines.

Mascot Can't Stay on His Feet

(via Reddit)

The James Bond Guitar Chord

The new theme by Billie Eilish features the classic Bond guitar chord.  You can learn more about it, including how to play it here.

The ultimate guide to The Beatles: A 17-Hour Chronological Playlist of 338 Songs

Far Out Magazine has compiled a 17 hour Spotify playlist of Beatles tracks for you to stream.

The Big Dipper Constellation is a Swiss Army Knife for Sky Watchers

Interesting article about how you can use the Big Dipper constellation as a compass, clock, or even a ruler

Dropping Ice Down a 450 Foot Hole

What does a 9 inch ice core sound like when dropped down a 450 foot hole? Like this! Credit to @peter_neff for the idea and @Scripps_Polar, @sciencejenna, @GeosciencesPU, @US_IceDrilling, and @paleosurface for the execution! pic.twitter.com/pW7LxKdbUB

— John Andrew Higgins (@blueicehiggins) February 7, 2020

Lego Car Factory

How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

Relaxation technique developed during WW2 that helped stressed fighter pilots to sleep.  Apparently, once mastered, it works for 96% of subjects.

Photos of Steam Engines After Boiler Explosions

These are quite comical to look at for some reason. Link

(via Bifurcated Rivets)

30 Certified Fresh South Korean Movies To Watch Now

With Parasite winning best film at the Oscars this year, here are 30 South Korean films certified 'fresh' on Rotten Tomatoes.  My favorites from this list would be I Saw The Devil, Oldboy, and The Villainess.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Footage

Wow

Tomorrow's World: Mobile Phone 13 September 1979 - BBC

Video Game Movies

The worst video game movies

The best video game movies

I Met The Walrus

In 1969 a 14 year old boy called Jerry Levitan managed to sneak into John Lennon's Toronto hotel room and persuade him to record a 30 minute interview.

In 2006 the recording was edited down to 5 minutes and made into an animated film called 'I Met The Walrus'.  The film has won many awards and has appeared at film festivals around the world.

The Most Amazing LEGO Projects Ever Made

To celebrate the premiere of the new show Lego Masters on Fox, geek.com has compiled 10 of the most amazing Lego Projects ever made

Weird Stuff in a Can

Making a Joker Face With a 3D Pen

Children's Books

The best books to read to your children in 2020

10 children's books to read this winter, reviewed by kids

What if Earth Was a Super-Earth?

What if Earth were more like its larger cousins?

Road Manners 1964

World's Smallest Cat

Movie Mortality

Interesting infographic on actors with the most movie deaths

Ames Window

(via Weird Universe)

Screen Used Robin Costume

Quiz Time

Ultimate Friends trivia quiz

Match the footballer to the car

Toughest Star Trek trivia quiz

Ultimate Skyrim Quiz

Inside Chernobyl’s Nuclear Ghost Town as Pripyat Turns 50

I was lucky enough to be able to visit Pripyat in October last year, it was an amazing experience. You can see some of my photos here. Here's a look at the Pripyat ghost town as it approaches 50 years old.

An 1895 film Upscaled to 4K Using Neural Networks

The results are very impressive

(via Geek Press)

Toss a Coin to Your Witcher

I'm really enjoying The Witcher on Netflix and looking forward to the next series.  It features a catchy song called 'Toss a coin to your Witcher', sung by Geralt's companion, the bard Jaskier.  Remixes and covers of the song are appearing all over the internet and AV Club has rounded up some of the best ones.

This Metal cover one is probably my favourite.

Drawing 100 Batman Suits in 24 Hours

Incredible, I wish I could draw like this

 

ILM Behind the Magic: The Visual Effects of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

10 Of The Best Accessories For Nintendo Switch

Essential accessories for your Nintendo Switch console.

4K Gaming Desktop Wallpaper

Large collection of beautiful high-resolution wallpaper

Pixar Easter Eggs

Disney has released a video showing the hidden 'easter eggs' that link each movie.

The attention to detail here is INCREDIBLE. We have no choice but to stan—and stream—@Pixar! Happy Anniversary to the iconic studio. pic.twitter.com/Ovj8f3mWSL

— Disney+ (@disneyplus) February 3, 2020

Micro-tonal Guitar With Adjustable Lego Fretboard

This is quite impressive, guitarist Tolgahan Çoğulu has created an adjustable microtonal guitar with a lego fretboard.

21 'F' Rated Movies From CinemaScore

CinemaScore is a market research company that polls movie audiences on opening night.  Only 21 films have received an 'F' rating, here is the full list

My Retro Game

Some gameplay from my almost complete (and still untitled) ZX Spectrum game.  I'm surprisingly bad a playing my own game!

Bus Road Test 1957

Sega Outrun

A look at the different versions of Sega's classic racing game, 'Outrun', from the ZX Spectrum to the Nintendo Switch.

How the Beatles’ ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ Got Its Psychedelic Sound

The song was way ahead of its time, and probably my favourite Beatles track.  How it got its distinctive vocal sound.

Mob Boss Reviews Mafia Movie Scenes

Probably NSFW

More Bad Album Covers

Bad Christian album covers with unfortunate titles.

Evolution of the Batmobile

When Kids do Makeup

Funny Twitter thread shows what happens when kids are let loose with makeup

No, this is not an industrial accident involving a chainsaw.

Star Wars Underworld Test Footage

Long before the Mandalorian, George Lucas had been working on live-action Star Wars TV series called Underworld.  Unfortunately, due to cost concerns, it was cancelled.  This test footage from the show has appeared online today through the holonet YouTube channel.

Bad Airline Food

Pictures of truly awful airline meals.

Inouye Solar Telescope, High Res Images of the Sun

Incredible new images from the Inouye solar telescope can capture features as small as 30km across.

Quiz

I got 7 / 13, Snow in book, movies, and Music

Sleaford Mods, Jobseeker

My favorite band at the moment (nsfw).

Batman Actors 1943 - 2016

Making Lego Gummy Candy

How to Read The Witcher Books in Order

'The Witcher' is a series of fantasy novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. First published back in the '90s, they've had a cult following over the years but have been brought more into the mainstream, firstly with 'The Witcher' series of video games, and the more recent series on Netflix.  If, like me, you want to delve into reading the books here's a handy guide to reading them in order.

The 100 Greatest Movies Of The 21st Century: The Readers’ List

From Empire

The 10 Best Jeff Goldblum Movies, Ranked

'The Fly' 1986, was the first Jeff Goldblum movie I watched and still remains a favourite of mine.  I also thought he was great in 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'.  Here are Cinema Blend's 10 best Jeff Goldblum's movies ranked.

Key and Peele - Shady Landlord

The 1st Beatles Song to Feature a John Lennon Guitar Solo

Interesting article with other facts about the Beatles.  For example, I didn't know that Paul McCartney played the solo on 'Taxman'.

Related - The George Harrison Guitar Solo the Beatles' Engineer Called 'Embarrassing'

Robot Gorilla Is Accepted By The Alpha Silverback | BBC Earth

(via Cynical-C)

Great Moments in PC Gaming

The opening train ride of Half-Life

Undercover Boss Where Are They Now - Kylo Ren

Why Your 'Star Sign' is Probably Wrong

Professor of astronomy James Kaler explains why

The Rubberbandits, Dads Best Friend

Triple Threat Sandwich Challenge

Link Dump

World's biggest Snickers bar

Lego Cybertruck

What a Big Mac costs around the world

My Bartop Arcade Machine Build

This is the first time I've built a two-player machine, and also my first bartop build.  It's powered by a Raspberry Pi computer and has a pretty decent 50 watt sound system.  It took over a year on and off to complete but I'm quite pleased with the results.  You can see some photos of the build process here.

Old Content

I'm slowly restoring archived content going right back to 2006.  There's a lot of stuff though and approximately 80 to 90 per cent of the links are broken or simply don't exist any more.  Bear with me!

3000 Year Old Mummy Speaks.

Using 3D printing to recreate his vocal tract, academics have been able to recreate the voice of the Egyptian priest Nesyamun, a 3000-year-old mummy.  At the moment it's more of a noise than actual speech, but they hope to use computer modelling to recreate actual words or sentences.

Cutting Books In Half?

Man called 'murderer' for his unusual book 'hack'.  I think 'murderer' is too soft a word!

Graf Zeppelin Over Leeds UK 1931

Probably only of interest to Leeds people like me, but I thought this was fascinating.

The LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin was the sister ship of the Hindenburg airship and offered the first transatlantic passenger service. It made 590 flights before being taken out of service after the Hindenburg disaster. You can view its flight log here.

You can read more about the craft on its Wikipedia page

(via Reddit)

RIP Terry Jones

City Roads Project

Andrei Kashcha's city roads projects lets you enter any city name, and creates a map showing every road within its boundary. You can download the map as a .png or even get it printed onto a mug.

(via Digg)

Irish Girl Really Wants To Go To The Pub

I have to admit, she makes a good case.

Tomorrow's World 1989 Talking About 2020

Tomorrow's World was a BBC series that ran from 1965 until 2003, it covered new developments in science and technology and was one of my favourite shows when I was a kid.  Here's a clip from a 1989 episode where they talk about how technology will play a part in our lives in 2020.

Quick, Draw!

Quick, Draw! is an online game developed by Google as part of its A.I Experiments project.   You have 20 seconds to draw something on the screen and the A.I tries to figure out what it is.

More A.I Experiments

GameCube Joy-Cons for Switch

Shank Mods have made these nifty working GameCube Joy-cons for the Nintendo Switch.

New York Public Library - 10 Most Checked Out Books

In honour of their 125th anniversary, the New York public library has published a list of their 10 most checked out books. 

The 10 Levels of Bass

Davie504 is an incredible player and my favorite Youtube bassist. 

Kerrang! 50 Of The Worst Album Covers Ever

Some of these are pretty awful (and NSFW), 50 worst album covers

Doom Eternal - New Trailer

Can't wait for this but I think it might be time to upgrade my PC.

Fecking Good Gin

We were in Ireland for Christmas and New Year, I saw this in a local supermarket.

Solving a One of a Kind Puzzle Worth $2000

I'm back (I think)

I've decided to resurrect this old blog after 10 years(!) of not posting anything. I'm not sure how often I'll get to update but I plan to post links on projects I'm working on, and any interesting links I think are worthy of a post. Unfortunately, I've had to remove the entire archive, the oldest posts are from 2006 and a lot of the links are broken or non-existent now.  I may get around to restoring some of the old content in the future, it just depends how much time I have.

I hope to get some pics of my recent trips up in the next few days, so call back soon.

Scot Trooper

Saw this guy in Edinburgh recently. I didn't have the nerve to take a picture from the front.

Chernobyl 2019

I was lucky enough recently to take a two-day tour of the Chernobyl exclusion zone in Ukraine, it turned out to be a fascinating and incredibly moving experience.

  

Chernobyl was the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history.  On 26 April 1986, reactor No. 4 exploded causing radioactive material to escape and spread over the area, and most of Western Europe.  The disaster was eventually contained but rendered the surrounding area uninhabitable. 

The area is now safe to visit and work in for small periods of time, but it is estimated that the 30km exclusion zone will not be safe to live in for approximately 20,000 years.  

These are a small sample of the photos I took, you can see more in my Flickr collection. 

Wedding March Fail

A poor bride has to walk down the aisle to an absolutely terrible rendition of the wedding march performed on trumpet.

My Retro Game

I used to be a fan of the ZX Spectrum home computer in the '80s, and always wanted to try my hand at developing a game.  I recently discovered that there is a thriving scene for creating new games for the system using a tool called Arcade Game Designer.  AGD was created by industry veteran Jonathan Cauldwell and highly simplifies the task of creating quality retro games.  Below are a couple of screenshots from my (as yet untitled) project.

To find out more about AGD and view Jonathan's other projects then click here.

Play Game & Watch Online

I used to love these old LCD games when I was a kid in the 80s, I actually used to own the Donkey Kong one above.  You can play them all here in your browser.