Old school book printing

Printing a Book, Old School from Armin Vit on Vimeo.

This is a facinating video of how books were made, or maybe they are mostly still made this way? Even more impressive is the thought that newspapers did this process every day for each new edition.
Another thought I had was if you went back in time to say pre printing press times, would you be able to describe how books are made? Would you be able to describe anything beyond a simple screw press? How to bind them by hand? I certainly couldn't have described how to print the pages in the manner described in the film, let alone how exactly an digital printer does it today. Looking deeper I was surprised to find that digital printing accounts for only 9% of printing. The wikipedia page on modern printing is interesting reading as well.

SWAT

I've blogged before about the effect of the War on Drugs on the US:
The War on Drugs
The Land of the Free?
To add to these, here's another social cost paid by citizens of the United States for the War on Drugs is the prevalent use of SWAT teams to serve warrants and make arrests. From the ACLU "Blog of Rights: Officer Acquitted in Fatal Shooting of Unarmed Woman and Baby":

SWAT raids are usually forced, aggressive, unannounced entry by heavily armed policemen dressed as soldiers, and are often accompanied by flash-bang grenades and major damage to the residence or business.

And they occure roughly 40,000 times a year! From "Overkill: the Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America":

Americans have long maintained that a man’s home is his castle and that he has the right to defend it from unlawful intruders. Unfortunately, that right may be disappearing. Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units (most commonly called Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT) for routine police work. The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home.

These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers. These raids bring unnecessary violence and provocation to nonviolent drug offenders, many of whom were guilty of only misdemeanors. The raids terrorize innocents when police mistakenly target the wrong residence. And they have resulted in dozens of needless deaths and injuries, not only of drug offenders, but also of police officers, children, bystanders, and innocent suspects.

3 million Americans behind bars, paramilitary home invasions, Rockerfeller laws that make selling two ounces of marijuana punishable the same as second degree murder (a minimum of 15 years to life in prison, and a maximum of 25 years to life in prison)... boy am I happy Canada didn't follow the US down this awefull rabbit hole.

Goatee Guide!

This is the kind of product I wonder why I didn't think of sooner! Link

Epic bad album covers

This collection is good for half a dozen laugh minimum. Link

Simpson's Quizes

"Troy McClure film or actual terrible movie?" quiz.
I got 10 out of 15. A toughy, here's a list of all his films.

"Simpson's softball" quiz. I got 8 out of 9. Much easier.

Olympic Torches and Event Schedule

The New York Times is king for churning out interactive stuff.
Here's a link for pics of the Olympic torches as they have evolved over time. Link
Here's a link for Olympic event schedules. Link

Amazing paper art

This is amazing stuff, I'm always super impressed when the materials are so humble, and the results are so amazing. Link Link

Pixar's Blockbuster Secrets

Facinating article from the Harvard Business Review. I had no idea that Pixar was on such a roll:

Wall-E is the studio’s ninth consecutive number-one movie since the release of Toy Story in 1995, an unparalleled record of creative and commercial success.

Turns out they have a very different business model from the rest of Hollywood. Link

Impossible to watch without flinching at the end

This is one big snake. Link

Elivis isn't dead, he just time-travelled back to Rome!

Link