Get Cynical

And I thought the LEGO guitar was impressive.

With the exception of the wire strings, this instrument is entirely constructed out of LEGO parts–the keyboard, jacks, jack rack, jack rail, plectra, soundboard, bridge, hitch pins, tuning pins, wrestplank, nut, case, legs, lid, lid stick, and music stand are all built out of interlocking ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene) plastic bricks and related pieces.

The earliest known daguerreotype of Lincoln was thought to be this one taken in 1848. Has one taken earlier been found?

In 1977 Albert Kaplan purchased the daguerreotype receipted as “Portrait of a Young Man” from an art gallery in New York. “When I first saw it I thought that there were similarities between the handsome, aristocratic, and tastefully groomed young man of the daguerreotype, and my mental image of President Lincoln.”

The forensic study that Kaplan had done is here. Definitely bears a resemblance.

(via MonkeyFilter)

While most people try to avoid a hurricane, some meteorologists fly right into them. This is a fascinating story about flying into Hurricane Hugo which turned out to be a little more powerful than they expected. I had known about these planes that flew into hurricanes to gather data but I had no clue that sometimes their altitude is only about 1500 feet.

Fifteen years ago, a NOAA hurricane hunter airplane intercepted Hurricane Hugo as it approached the Caribbean islands, just before Hugo’s destructive rampage through the Caribbean and South Carolina. The crew of the airplane were the first people to encounter the mighty hurricane–and very nearly became its first victims. The mission remains the most harrowing flight ever conducted by the NOAA hurricane hunters. I served as flight meteorologist on that flight, and feel fortunate indeed to be able to tell the story.

These are great.

(via Memepool)

Interesting

• Clint Eastwood was once told by a Universal Pictures executive that his future wasn’t very promising. The man said, “You have a chip on your tooth, your Adam’s apple sticks out too far, and you talk too slow.”
• Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he finally succeeded.
• Richard Hooker worked for seven years on his humorous war novel, M*A*S*H , only to have it rejected by 21 publishers before Morrow decided to publish it. It became a runaway best-seller, spawning a blockbusting movie and a highly successful television series.

An organization of hope.

Sweet Jesus, I hate Bill O’Reilly, International is an organization
dedicated to the dissemination of information that exposes
Bill O’Reilly for what he is: The most dangerous man in “news”.

Yikes. And there are still people don’t believe that we came from apes.

(Thanks Rada, I think)