Obama's Cone of Silence

The BBC has an article about the mobile security setup that the US president uses when he travels.

Designed to withstand eavesdropping, phone tapping and computer hacking, Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities - also known as SCIFs - are protected areas where classified conversations can be held.
They can be permanent enclosures within a building, or mobile areas set up when a world leader is on the move, to allow them to view sensitive documents or have secret conversations without any outsiders listening or hacking in.

Video: The Joy of Stats

The Hans Rosling video The Joy of Stats is now online.  It is a bit long, almost an hour, but is a good intro to what Rosling has been saying about how statistics can be used to help people.  He also makes the point that increasingly powerful computers make bigger and bigger volumes of data usable by humans.

A while ago I blogged about a TED talk that Rosling did using animated graphics to show changes in statistics from the third world.  Still worth a look if you don't have time for the Joy of Stats.

Marines Need Their Chocolate Milk

According to this article in Slate, the US Marine Corps requires the companies that run their mess halls to have chocolate milk at all meals.

The US Army on the other hand has the following breakfast requirements:

eggs-made-to-order, three types of bread, three types of meat, six kinds of cereal, no fewer than one potato dish, and at least one pastry

Intelligence Artist

You may have heard of War Artists who are officially sanctioned artists who accompany troops on missions but the New York Times has an article about an artist who did a similar thing for MI6, the British Secret Service.

Lego Tank Filmed by Lego Chase Cars

Gizmodo (which has a horrible new site design) has a post with a cool video of a small Lego tank.  The tank gets extra mobility by using omni wheels.  The video is extra cool because it is filmed by a video camera on another Lego car. 

DIY Pocket Tool

Make has a post about the Switch modular pocket knife.  It comes with a James Bond style case from which you select your attachments.  There are three different sized frames you can use for anywhere between 4 and 13 of the 17 attachments.

Factoid: US Army loses more troops to suicide than in Iraq and Afghanistan

Congress.org reports this astounding fact about US Army losses:

For the second year in a row, the U.S. military has lost more troops to suicide than it has to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 via kottke.org

Video: View From the Tip of a Sword

This is a bit vertigo inducing but this YouTube video shows what it looks like if you attach a video camera to the end of a sword.

The Dakar Rally

I'm not a big sports guy but I enjoyed these photos from this years race on The Big Picture.  The rally is now held in South America but the terrain looks just as rough as in Africa.

Video: Tim Ferriss Learns Samurai Horse Archery

A post on Tim Ferriss's (of the 4 Hour Workweek) blog has a video of what was probably meant to be the pilot of a TV show.  Ferriss goes to Japan to learn yabusame which is a type of horse archery.  He only has five days to learn so he has to use various advanced training techniques.

A well done video.  The yabusame stuff is interesting as are Ferriss's techniques.  It would have been interesting to see what other things he would have done if the series had had more episodes.

iPhone Demo Video: WordLens

Lifehacker has a post with an amazing video of an iPhone app called WordLens.  The app, at least in the video, does real time translation of signs from Spanish to English.  The cool part is it preserves the font and colours of the original.

I have seen their free demo app that reverses text and it is very cool but sadly it only impresses geeks.

Nickel For Scale

Make has a post with a short video that demonstrates using a nickel (a 5 cent coin) to determine the size of objects in a picture.  In the video they place a nickel on the back of someone's hand to determine the correct size of a ring.

Obit: Richard Winters - leader of the Band of Brothers

The Washington Post has the obituary of Richard Winters.  During the Second World War, Winters was the commander of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division - better known as Easy Company of Band of Brothers fame.

High Speed Graphiti Tagging

Make has a post showing a neat little attachment you can make for a spray paint can that can make endlessly repeating stencils.  It is a bit of a shame that the demo video appears to use the device for vandalism but you can't really blame the gizmo for that.

The Economist: Life Begins at 46

The cover story on the Christmas issue of the Economist is titled "Life Begins at 46".  For those of us turning 46 this year this sounds like good news.  Unfortunately, what they mean is that 46 is that age at which people on average are the least happy.  After that their happiness level increases every year.

So I guess they're saying that if I can get through the next year I should be laughing.

Fire Department Activity Map as Art

Infosthetics.com has a photo of some wall art that is actually a map showing locations of incidents worked by a particular station of the Ulvenhout fire department in the Netherlands. 

A Koran Written in Sadam Husein's Blood

This is just weird.  According to this article in the Guardian, while he was president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein had blood drawn regularly so that he could have a Koran written in it.  Now of course the Iraqi government don't know what to do with it - they'd like to get rid of anything to do with Saddam but they can't throw away the Muslim holy book.

Space Station in Front of the Eclipse

Astronomy Photo of the Day has a picture of the recent eclipse but this one shows the International Space Station passing in front of the sun at the same time.

Letter Reveals 1916 Christmas Truce

Canada.com has an article about a recently discovered letter that mentions a previously unknown First World War Christmas truce.  The 1914 truce is apparently well documented but this letter mentions one in 1916.  The author of the letter, 23-year-old Private Ronald MacKinnon, was killed at the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

Custer's Last Flag Sold at Auction

The Seatle Times reports that the only flag (actually a guidon) recovered from Custer's Last Stand has been sold at auction for $2.2 million.