siliconia @@@

[Gizmodo - This Is the Nuclear Bunker Where Wikileaks Will Be Located]

This is Pionen White Mountains, the nuclear bunker in which Wikileaks will locate some of its servers. It was excavated 98 feet underground, in a rock hill in the center of Stockholm, Sweden, during the Cold War.

Originally, it was just a bomb shelter built in 1943. In the 70s, the Swedes turned the shelter into a full bunker, a civil defense center that was going to hold an emergency unit of the Swedish government in the case of a nuclear war.

Now, protected under thirty meters of rock and 1.64-feet-thick solid steel doors, it is the colocation center of Bahnhof, a Swedish internet hosting company. Bahnhof further expanded the facilities when they took over it, blasting new space for gas oil power plants extracted from decommissioned German submarines. In the case of an external power outage, the generators would kick in, keeping the servers running non-stop.

#infowar

xplanes:

Battle of Britain stories

Question: What is the connection between the Battle of Britain and…Word Processing???

The answer is Ulrich Steinhilper. Steinhilper, a Luftwaffe officer who had become an ace during the Battle, was shot down and captured in October 1940. His first autobiography - Spitfire On My Tail - is the story of his childhood and his days in the Luftwaffe. An absolutely fascinating book, painting a vivid and poignant picture of life in pre-war Germany - and in a brand new air force.

An extract - during dogfighting practice in the Spring of 1940, Steinheilper had to bale out of his aircraft, after colliding with another aircraft:

”..As I floated down, the squadron came back and flew around me in steep banking turns. It was a beautiful sight, but more than this, I became aware of a sound which i had never experienced before. Within the confines of my cockpit I’d often seen the squadron airborne in full strength but, blotted out by the noise of the aircraft and masked by my helmet and phones, I’d never heard it like this. To be suspended in there in the air on such a wonderful spring day and have those beautiful aircraft curving around, their powerful engines growling, was something I’ll never forget.

Kühle came close, leading the squadron and gave me a cool and friendly wave then returned to base, wondering as I was what the hell had happened..”

The book’s insight into the workings of the Luftwaffe will be mentioned in future posts. Steinhilper also wrote two books about his life during wartime, these telling of his escape attempts as a prisoner of war in Canada.

After the war, Steinhilper found himself working for IBM Germany as a typewriter salesman. He submitted an idea called Textverabeitung (“Word Processing”) - a concept for marketing office products - as a Staff Suggestion, and was paid 25 German marks for his trouble. IBM eventually ended up sending him on a trip around the world in recognition of this.

(above: Steinhilper’s dog “Seddy”, on the wing of a Messerschmitt Me 109 E)

(via equaldesign)

Просто сделайте это

Digitalarti Mag #3

BBC - Dimensions - great visualisations from BBC Labs

The area covered by the Tora Bora caves, Guantanamo Bay military base, How big would the Moon be centered at your house, Spitfire takeoff distance, Great Wall of China lenght, Flight range of Messerschmitt Bf109E, Moonwalk… all compared to the landscape around you

uncertaintimes:

Mark Tansey : Innocent Eye Test (1981)

uncertaintimes:

Magnus

wowser

t-s-k-b:

cyberneticzoo.com » Blog Archive » 1969 – GE Walking Truck – Ralph Mosher (American)

similar: Horse of steel running across the fields