Commander Shanti Sethi

If I understand it right, this is Shanti Sethi, commander of the Destroyer USS Decatur. She has a blog. Via.

Link roundup

1. Newsweek has an awfully disturbing article about rape (against men and women) in the armed forces. (I've made a lot of jokes about The Daily Beast, but Newsweek has actually been a really solid magazine since Tina Brown took over.)

2. So is it bad taste if I follow that link with this one on how to win a fight against a much bigger man?

3. And finally, an article about what it's like to work at Games Radar. Key quote: " I realized that only one thing differentiated me from the author [of the press materials], who was obviously far better suited to write the preview. I was unaffiliated with THQ." Via Reddit.

Heartwarming video: Home from Afghanistan, an Airman wakes his brother

Home from Afghanistan, an Airman wakes his brother. Via Reddit.

Image roundup

A few gems from Reddit:


A Japanese home is seen adrift in the Pacific. See it in very high res at the link.



Soldier with kitten.



Baby Wookiee, perhaps?



Mrs. Chiggers wins every staring contest.



Bicycle/unicorn.

Link roundup

1. I like the look of the art for the upcoming all-ages Wonder Woman picture book Wonder Woman: The Story of the Amazon Princess

2. Great article about an SR-71 Blackbird flying over Libya in the 80's. Here's a strange detail about the plane at rest:

Ironically, the plane was dripping, much like the misshapen model had assembled in my youth. Fuel was seeping through the joints, raining down on the hangar floor. At Mach 3, the plane would expand several inches because of the severe temperature, which could heat the leading edge of the wing to 1,100 degrees. To prevent cracking, expansion joints had been built into the plane. Sealant resembling rubber glue covered the seams, but when the plane was subsonic, fuel would leak through the joints.

3. Disturbing article about the increasing number and increasing sophistication of fake commenters.

Bat Bombs

Here's a ten minute video about America's experiment with bat bombs in World War II. Wikipedia explains:

Bat bombs were bomb-shaped casings with numerous compartments, each containing a Mexican Free-tailed Bat with a small timed incendiary bomb attached. Dropped from a bomber at dawn, the casings would deploy a parachute in mid-flight and open to release the bats which would then roost in eaves and attics. The incendiaries would start fires in inaccessible places in the largely wood and paper construction of the Japanese cities that were the weapon's intended target.

Developed by the United States during World War II, four biological factors gave promise to this plan. First, bats occur in large numbers (four caves in Texas are each occupied by several million bats). Second, bats can carry more than their own weight in flight (females carry their young—sometimes twins). Third, bats hibernate, and while dormant they do not require food or maintenance. Fourth, bats fly in darkness, then find secluded places (often in buildings) to hide during daylight.

The plan was to release bat bombs over Japanese cities having widely-dispersed industrial targets. The bats would spread far from the point of release due to the relatively high altitude of their release, then at dawn they would hide in buildings across the city. Shortly thereafter built-in timers would ignite the bombs, causing widespread fires and chaos. The bat bomb idea was conceived by dental surgeon Lytle S. Adams, who submitted it to the White House in January, 1942, where it was subsequently approved by President Roosevelt. Adams was recruited to research and obtain a suitable supply of bats.

Much more here.

UPDATE: Coincidentally, I just saw this:



Roger Dean's album art for "Nitro Function" by Billy Cox. Via these sites.

*Buy propaganda posters at eBay.

Master of Space Air Force patch

Wikipedia:

The 50th Space Wing (50 SW) is a wing of the United States Air Force under the major command of Air Force Space Command (AFSPC). It was activated on 30 January 1992, replacing the 2d Space Wing, which was deactivated on the same date. The unit is the host wing at Schriever Air Force Base, located east of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Their primary responsibility is to track and maintain the command and control, warning, navigational, and communications satellites for AFSPC. The 50th Space Wing also manages the Global Positioning System.

Via.

*Buy Air Space patches at eBay.

Disney's World War II mascots

This site features a few dozen of Disney's World War II mascots. I used some of them to create the widescreen wallpaper you see above. Via.

*Buy World War II : The Disney Patches at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. "Camp Century—aka 'Project Iceworm'—was a 'city under ice,' according to the U.S. Army, a 'nuclear-powered research center built by the Army Corps of Engineers under the icy surface of Greenland.'"

2. If these estimates regarding Apple employee salaries are accurate, then the employees are either totally fungible, or suckers. Via.

3. Illustrator Dan Santat talks about turning down a recent job offer from Google.

*Buy military patches at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Cupid paper toy - - part of a promotion for the new Papertoy Monsters book.

2. Cool photo of a fighter jet.

3. Apparently sharks are swimming along the flooded streets in Australia. I couldn't find photos or video, but here's a compilation of street-level videos of flooded streets.

Link roundup

1. "Love me when I least deserve it, because that’s when I really need it." Via.

2. "Military porn is China's preferred deterrence."

3. Entertainment Earth has the Mega Man model I've previously posted for $28.

Link roundup

1. Vice Magazine sneaks into the world's largest trade show for selling military-grade weapons.

2. You might want to remove your personal information from Spokeo.

3. Photo of the sun tracing an analemma through the sky over the course of a year. Via.

*Buy News, Nudity & Nonsense: The Best of Vice Magazine Vol. II 2003-2008 at Amazon.