NASA established fifty years ago

After the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union in late 1957 awoke the US to the possibility of a developing outer space "gap" with the Russkies, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law on July 29, 1958, thereby creating NASA. Only 11 years later, NASA landed men on the moon. Happy birthday, NASA.

Big 10th anniversary package from Slate. It's

Big 10th anniversary package from Slate. It's interesting to see how it has evolved. Here's a slideshow of the design through the years...the stuff about their failed subscription business model and how they lost marketshare because of it is relevent in the ongoing TimesSelect debate.

George Dyson visits Google on the 60th

George Dyson visits Google on the 60th anniversary of John von Neumann's proposal for a digital computer. A quote from a Googler -- "We are not scanning all those books to be read by people. We are scanning them to be read by an AI." -- highlights a quasi-philosophical question about Google Print...if a book is copied but nobody reads it, has it actually been copied? (Or something like that.)

Great post about Florent, a restaurant in

Great post about Florent, a restaurant in the Meatpacking District, on the occasion of its 20th anniversary. I love the NYC/SF map mash-up and the photo of James Earl Jones enjoying a cup of coffee and a newspaper at the restaurant. (via eater)

Movable Type turns four years old.

Movable Type turns four years old.

Birthday hooky

Today is my birthday -- I'm 2^5!** -- so I'm taking the day off. No posts or links, aside from this one.

** That's ! as in exclamation point, not ! as in factorial. I'm not 1.33 x 10^36 years old today.

Los Alamos From Below: Reminiscences 1943-1945, by Richard Feynman

Los Alamos From Below: Reminiscences 1943-1945, by Richard Feynman. Today marks the 60th anniversary of the first atomic bomb test which bomb Feynman helped build.