Wonderful illustrations from a Soviet-era Russian translation of the Hobbit.
The article is titled “Russian Lord of the Rings”, but everything I could see was from The Hobbit.
Also three clips from a low-budget Soviet movie version. Somehow it seems particularly appropriate for the dwarves to speak Russian. Perhaps it is because they look like Orthodox monks.
Via BoingBoing
The I.M. Gelfand Seminar.
From John Baez.
Soviets Built a Doomsday Machine; It’s Still Alive
led me to Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine
That’s right, an actual doomsday device—a real, functioning version of the ultimate weapon, always presumed to exist only as a fantasy of apocalypse-obsessed science fiction writers and paranoid über-hawks. The thing that historian Lewis Mumford called “the central symbol of this scientifically organized nightmare of mass extermination.” Turns out Yarynich, a 30-year veteran of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces and Soviet General Staff, helped build one.
Dead Hand is continuously being upgraded.
Soviets Built a Doomsday Machine; It’s Still Alive
led me to Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine
That’s right, an actual doomsday device—a real, functioning version of the ultimate weapon, always presumed to exist only as a fantasy of apocalypse-obsessed science fiction writers and paranoid über-hawks. The thing that historian Lewis Mumford called “the central symbol of this scientifically organized nightmare of mass extermination.” Turns out Yarynich, a 30-year veteran of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces and Soviet General Staff, helped build one.
Dead Hand is continuously being upgraded.
Happy Earth Day/Happy Lenin’s Birthday !
Soviet nuclear detonator console used in the fifties and sixties
Part of the Equipment from the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site.
Via Make.
I saw the PBS show last night. I thought it was really good, although the second part dragged a bit compared to the first “57 minutes of scheming and vindictiveness” about how she came to the throne.
BTW, the horse myth is totally fictional.
From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 