Mystery of Argleton, the 'Google' town that only exists online

Mystery of Argleton, the 'Google' town that only exists online, article.

If I'd known about "trap streets" (phantom streets which map makers put in to detect copyright infringements), I'd probably have thought this was the case when I looked at Google maps close to where I live and saw six streets in a tiny area which I knew only to contain one street. Looking closer though, and to my amazement, the "streets" were real, only very small and old. Two were actually so old they are cobbled, one of those is like two meters across and right up against one building, and the other one is closed off by a fence and is overgrown, and none of them are longer than maybe thirty meters.

This is one of the "streets", the one in front, it's maybe twenty meters long and now used as a drive way for a car dealership.
As you can see, the one which it used to lead to is fenced off and overgrown.



And this is another "street". I guess things have changed since the invention of the car. So far as I can see, this one is not used for anything at all, it leads nowhere, and there are no doors in the building on that side! I think you could sqeeze a car down there, but it'd have to be a small one.


---
I looooove digital cameras, I just pocketed my tiny Canon compact and walked out, it cost me nothing to shoot these (and more) in high quality, and five minutes to put them on the web for the whole world to see. (OK, I'm sure these are not super-exciting to most of the world, but the principle holds. :-)

Ray found this:


Anyway, what can it be but simply somebody's prank.

Ziegfeld Girls (updated twice)

Ziegfeld Girls, article, and photos.
Awesome photography.
Update: Mike Johnston thinks it is by Alfred Cheney Johnston.

Update 2: MJ posts an article on his namesake.

Camera abandoned by student on mountain top is returned

[Thanks to Uncle Ron]

Camera abandoned by student on mountain top is returned, article.

"A student left a camera on a picturesque mountaintop in Snowdonia in an experiment into human trust.
Paul Bellis Jones, 24, left a note with the camera near the summit of Mount Tryfan, instructing walkers to take a picture then leave it for the next person.
He was keen to know if the camera would be returned to his home in Glan Conwy, near Llandudno, as per his instructions, of if it would be stolen instead."
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Behavior and attention

Don't reserve your best behavior for special occasions. You can't have two sets of manners, two social codes - one for those you admire and want to impress, another for those whom you consider unimportant. You must be the same to all people.
-- Lillian Eichler Watson

Interesting idea. I'm sure some will react like "so I should be as pleasant to the bag boy at the supermarket as to the mayor? Yeah, right."

The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds.
-- Tryon Edwards

Aha. That might explain why I have a lousy memory for numbers and a great one for music and pictures and literature. Numbers just don't interest me.

Cloud tsunami

[Thanks to Tommy.]

Mark Watson photographs, from a hang glider, the "morning glory" phenomenon of a huge rolling cloud.

Aaaaaand, this way kewl video of the astounding behavior of water drops in slow mo.

Both video deserve the HQ treatment, is why I don't embed them.

Update:
TC [Girl] said...
LOVED the GORGEOUS quality of BOTH vids...for SURE!! Wish ALL uboobs could be this AWESOME!! Thanks, Tommy & Eo for sharing!! :-)

My pleasure.
Thanks for acknowledging, it's good to hear when somebody likes what you post, even when it's basically a link.
Also thank you for acknowledging when other commenter's comments please or amuse you.

Howl's Moving Castle

Howl's Moving Castle made in lego.
I hope this and the other Miyazaki films will come on blu-ray soon.

World's biggest cruise liner

So they ordered this not long before the WW recession. I wonder if they are nervous now...

Halloween show

[Thanks to Charles.]

Somali Man, 112, Marries 17-Year-Old Girl

Somali Man, 112, Marries 17-Year-Old Girl, article.
Talk about your dirty old men, this guy beats them all.
My hat is off if he can actually still beget.

Update: in comments, Pascal educates my naive Danish ass a little about Somalia.

Update: of course it's well to remember that things are often not like they appear. For instance they might have a very happy happy marriage. Or not. Who are we to know? Or to judge?

Death of the DSLR Camera?

[thanks to 1001noisycameras.com]

Death of the DSLR Camera, article.

It includes an interesting brief outline of the history of SLR cameras, and he has some good points. Although I'm pretty sure the DSLR will stick around for many years yet, for professional users at least, most of the advantages are being eroded from below.

A dream of robots

I dreamed this:

I was in a super-futuristic city. Almost deserted. Very beautiful and high tech.

I spoke to an impressive and visually complex alien/robot/android/whatever. He'd just finished a major task in preparation for the People to come back to the planet. I saw that he was starting to degrade, fall apart. Clearly he was now dying. I pointed it out, a bit alarmed.

He said, "yeah, I always do that, at the end of a major task, every couple million years maybe. Like a Phoenix, I start again with a blank slate. I find it keeps me sleeping better."

---
A bit earlier, he had pointed out that a huge building just had a major update to its security system. Now, when the building was empty, a thick hard glass-like shell closed around it, a few feet beyond the walls and doors. And he demonstrated. I said "well, what if you get caught between the shell and the building?" He said "it's simple, you just go here, and rotate your hand over this lock, so the house computer knows what you want... and then you stick your hand in here and push the secret unlock button..." And pointed to a big, black, crude plastic lever sitting in a big hole in the top left corner of the door!

Magic Mouse (updated)

OK, so I just got the pricey but nicey new Apple Magic Mouse. It's a booooootiful design, and in many ways, so far, the best mouse I've tried. (Not sure yet if it's the best pointing device I've used.)

But I just have to say, I don't get it: optical mice have been common now for a decade, and still they have trouble with smooth tracking on an ordinary wooden desk? WTF?
(Does anybody know a good mousing surface for optical mice?)

But I love the scrolling mousetop surface. Fantastic idea.

Update: Ray suggested denim or art paper. And I happen to have some samples of hand-made paper, so I am trying this now. Early results are promising.
Update: but later ones less so. It developed some jumping and unevenness again. The paper surface was perhaps too rough. So now I'm trying plain copy paper.

Rodion said...
I use this surface at work and home (not for gaiming) with microsoft natural mouse 6000 and really pleased with it.
It helped to greatly reduce arm strain after hours of work.

eolake said...
Thanks. I think I'll try it, because I have just given up and gone back to my Rollermouse.

Update:

There's some evidence that the jumpiness may be related to the wirelessness. From this forum page here.
Quote:
(I wish they had a wired version of the Magic Mouse because I don't like the jumpiness of bluetooth. Especially when you do layout and graphic design, there isn't as much precision with a bluetooth mouse. Plus I'd rather have the $50 price tag than $70. I have a Logitech Bluetooth mouse right now, and if Best Buy has the Magic Mouse in stock by Halloween, I'll have one of those to replace it.)
"This is what I want to know before I buy one. I won't buy another Apple mouse if it's as unprecise and jumpy as the wirless mighty mouse. I like the fluid motion that OSX gives for mouse movement, but it just doesn't follow through on the Mighty Mouse."

Eolake:
I think it's a lousy move by Apple to make a wireless option the only one, if it really is true that it's less precise than a wired one.