This would be very funny, if it didn’t concern such a grave subject. The only good thing is this fellow had the balls to admit it. And maybe that he is making a small contribution to a more pleasant and productive climate. Here’s the Angry African on the Loose:

So you see. I am a traitor. The people in South Africa is ashamed of me. They will deny knowing me. They will call me names. They will tell their children and the children of their children what happens to people when they leave the hallowed shores of South Africa. The softening of African men. The shame it brings to families. The weakening of the bloodline. The acts of a traitor…

I am sorry my fellow South Africans. I am truly sorry. I beg you for forgiveness. I am but a weak man. Who gave in to temptation. A man who knows to little. A pathetic excuse of a man.

Brave, but I doubt there can be any forgiveness. For the full, awful story, click here. And for the Angry African, I hope the image above haunts you forever. (Said image comes courtesy of Chuck Cage at the excellent Toolmonger blog.)

PS: The angry traitor may earn a small measure of redemption, for reminding me of this wonderful lesson in witty column writing: Oxfamming the whole black world by Binyavanga Wainaina.

Long, long ago, when the spike was little, and computers were still steam-driven and made of wood, I posted a selection of case mods that recall this elegant Victorian era of computing, or were otherwise notable for originality and craftmanship.

I’d like to add one to that collection. Made by Ryan Sawyer (if I’m not mistaken), an illustrator of considerable skill, he posted a few pictures under the name Absinthetic to his LiveJournal. (Not only is that a blogging platform I just don’t get, but links from there get hidden in dark, dusty recesses by my own WordPress dashboard. Bad WordPress. But then, LiveJournal isn’t very nice to WordPress users either. But that’s a different rant for a different day.)

The computer is just beautiful, but the photos appear a little rushed, sadly. They could do with a more carefully set up, lit and staged shoot. Still, a couple are well worth reproducing here. He has some more views of his classy steampunk box, and while you’re there, check out the funky grandfather clock too. (Update: My bad. It’s a Chronotheric Fluxing Capacitron, not a clock, geriatric or otherwise. It does have a time-related function, though, since it served the Victorians as a flux capacitor.)

Nice work, Absinthetic. I’m all a-goggle.

If you have nothing to do this weekend, you might want to check this out. Just don’t tell anyone. Especially, don’t comment with videos of how good you’ve become at it:

Courtesy of Tim Ferris.

Some people have too much time on their hands. Watch how this production line, built from Lego, is started by selecting a colour scheme, and then builds a car to order. It uses Lego Mindstorms programmable robotics. From Jalopnik, via GeekPress. Too cool for words.

When someone breaks an aeroplane, people love to watch. Especially when it’s intentional. Purple Avenger has a spectacular video of a wing destruction test on the Boeing 777. If, on the other hand, it’s your own plane, you don’t want to break it. Especially not when it’s a two-metre model, piloted at 70km/h, from a moving car, in traffic, through a 4km tunnel.

Here’s more cool stuff. These are among my all-time favourite case mods.

1. Steam punk screen and keyboard — Hieronymus Isambard “Jake” von Slatt

Lots of details on how they were built at the Steampunk Workshop links above. This must be just about the funkiest pair of projects I’ve seen in years.

Read the rest of this entry »

I understand how people can make a lot of money if just one in ten thousand fools click on a spam link for cut-price medication paid for by Canadian taxpayers, or buy a dodgy video of Hilton family entrepreneurs. I didn’t expect to see someone punting history articles, however.

This one (valiantly caught by Akismet) must have seen the history tag on my blog, because it is pushing a short, addictive biography on Benjamin Franklin. The same site contains this gem: Civil War Uniform Buttons - The Small Details Make All the Difference! Now I won’t sneer. Considering the small details I’m fussy about in my hobby, I guess all hobbyists are the same. And it’s true I  have received spam when the International Guild of Knot Tyers website was hacked. Why I’m receiving mail from them in the first place I’ll leave as an exercise for the reader, but in their defence, the spam wasn’t their fault and didn’t punt a short but thrilling history of scouting knots.

If this is a trend, I might start looking more favourably upon spam. After all, I’ve long said that too few modern pundits read history, and too many pay attention to Ms Hilton. Will this reverse the trend? Will the spam mafia and pr0n kings tolerate the competition from bearded professors and bespectacled geeks?