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.

Link roundup

1. From a long interview with Mike Mignola at BldgBlog:

I’m not going to do any stories that I don’t want to draw—and, for the most part, those are places that also just aren’t particularly interesting for me to write about.

It’s interesting, because the spin-off book from Hellboy—B.P.R.D.—is written by another writer. I have some involvement there, but the books are written by somebody else. You look at that book now, and the current storyline takes place in a trailer park. It’s entirely made of the places I have no interest in writing about—but the other writer doesn’t have my overwhelming love of the Gothic. He’s a much more modern type of writer, so we differ on our choice of locations.

But, now, a haunted bank? You know, that would be cool—but it would have to be a really, really old bank. And preferably a bank that’s been abandoned for a bunch of years, so you have cobwebs and things. I just like those old, spooky settings.

2. Videogum on all the articles about the kid in the Volkswagen Star Wars commercial:

Really, Internet? This seems lazy, even for you. I mean, I know that you’re basically built on a foundation of kittens wearing casts and lazy Star Wars references, but sheesh.

Exactly. Anyone know who directed the video?

3. "400 hungry wolves overrun Siberian town of 1,300."

*Buy Hellboy toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. An unidentified SEC school complained about Alabama objectifying women to announce its new football recruits.

2. 74 people have been injured by hunters in Italy in the last four months:

The annual bloodletting is a result of the unusual freedom allowed to shooting parties under Italian law. They can go on to private property and fire anywhere not within 50m of a road or 150m of a house.

Via.

3. There's now an official Blogger app for Android.

*Buy Android phones at eBay.

Link roundup

1. The Beat says the Comics Code has been functioning as a zombie business for some time now - - allowing publishers to use it's seal of approval without any actual oversight.

2. When Google starts censoring results, it just ends up embarrassing itself.

3. KFC has really varied its offerings to appeal to different cultures in China:

Yum’s cultural flexibility doesn’t end with the localized menu. While fast-food restaurants in the West often host kids’ birthday parties, KFCs in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang autonomous region that’s home to the Muslim Uyghur people, advertise parties for the families of boys who have just undergone the religious ritual of circumcision.

Via.

Link roundup

1. Something Awful reviews the Nintendo 3DS:

Pilotwings Resort - Take the Wii Sports location, add elements from the classic SNES title, and you've got a minimal effort title that will sell like hotcakes among newcomer Wii gamers and nostalgic nerds alike.

2. Camel racing is popular in Dubai, and nowadays camel jockeys are typically robots (instead of children). Dubai police have uncovered a gang that was selling stun guns, which were then placed inside the jockeys to use against the camels. Via.

3. It's Boing Boing's 11th birthday.

*Buy the Nintendo 3DS at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. NASA:

On November 26, 2010, Pakistani fishermen returned from a day at sea to report that a new island had emerged. The tiny dot of land was a mud volcano, and it was still visible on January 11, 2011, when the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite acquired the top image. The mud volcano was absent in a previous overpass on February 11, 2010, shown in the lower image.

There’s no need to change any maps, however; mud volcanoes have risen off the coast of Pakistan in the past and disappeared again within a few months, washed away by the waves and currents in the Arabian Sea. It is quite likely that this new volcano will meet the same fate. Indeed, a stream of pale brown sediment was snaking away from the volcano to the west on January 11, suggesting that erosion was already underway.

2. Whales have threesomes. Via.

3. Halo 3: ODST design progression. Via.

*Buy Halo toys 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. "Quote MIDWINTER for 10% off all Last Exit to Nowhere items. Offer ends 30th January 2010."

2. "The Best Animated Sports GIFs Of 2010: A Year Of Faceplants, Miracles, And Absolute Silliness." This devastating MMA move is my favorite. Via.

3. I sure hope there's footage of this somewhere - - a Snow White-themed debutante celebration for a 21 year old woman in New Orleans:

As the guests arrived, and after they dispatched their cars to valet parkers who sported red bowties and beanies, they were greeted by little people dressed as the fairy tale's dwarfs, as well as artificial snow falling from the trees.

Via.

*Buy Williams-Sonoma Kid's Parties: Creative ideas and recipes for making celebrations special at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. "A mountain goat that fatally gored a hiker, then stood over the man and stared at people trying to help, had shown aggressive behavior in the past, Olympic National Park officials said Monday." Via.

2. Cool photo of a Southern Masked Weaver.

3. "This year, Bleeding Cool tipped a number of books as ones to watch in the speculator market. So, based on current non-CGC, non variant eBay values, what would your speculator portfolio be looking at if you bought one of each? And what if you had bought one of each?" Here's the list. (If you're a scalper, I hope you lost your shirt.)

2,000 black birds fell out of the sky in Arkansas

2,000 black birds fell out of the sky in a one mile stretch of Arkansas. Apparently no one knows why, yet. Via.

*Buy survival kits at Amazon.

Leftovers 2010: Radioactive wild boars in Germany

"As Germany's wild boar population has skyrocketed in recent years, so too has the number of animals contaminated by radioactivity left over from the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown."

*Buy geiger counters at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Rose George spent five weeks on a container ship and wrote a great article about it. For example:

After Suez, we enter pirate waters. Channel 16 is suddenly listened to much more carefully. Channel 16 is the official emergency and notification channel with strict codes regulating its use. You use Channel 16 to call someone, then you both agree on another channel for further conversation. In practice, that often fails, particularly in calm waters where there isn't much to do, and where pirate-provoked tension needs release.

The Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean, these are the seas of name-calling. Here, it is common to hear Indian voices yelling out, "Filipino monkey!" The captain finds this unpleasantly racist, but the Filipino voices generally retaliate. "Indian, I can't see you, but I can smell you!" There is no way to tell who is calling, so bored watch officers clog the airwaves for fun. When piracy started up again around 2004, there was a period when pirates would play music over Channel 16 just before they attacked, both to unsettle seafarers and to stop ships communicating with the shore.

The second mate has spent many a night listening to weirdness. Around these parts, he tells me, you also hear ghostly voices shouting, "Mario! Mario! Mario!" It's not just him: Friends of his on other ships have made posters about the ghostly Mario-shouter, but no one knows who it is. I don't think they want to know. Strange things happen at sea, and so they should.

2. Firefox set up a live webcam where you watch the Firefox mascot (a red panda). I highly recommend the highlight reel and meet the cubs videos for cute overload.

3. There's a house in Southern California that's full of explosives. It's so dangerous, the authorities are going to build a wall around the house, evacuate the neighbors, spray the area with flame retardant, close the nearby freeway, and burn the house to the ground.

*Buy plush red pandas at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Gawker says, "Miley Cyrus' Mom Had An Affair With Bret Michaels." (The photo of the two of them illustrates the uncanny valley problem, right?)

2. And the news about Demi Lovato is even sadder.

3. "FIFTH female officer at scandal-hit prison resigns after claims she 'had sex with an inmate.'" (It sounds like at least some of the women took advantage of extremely lax hiring standards to get jobs where their boyfriends were housed.) Via Fark which offered a better headline.

*Buy back issues of Tiger Beat at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Outrage over taxpayer money being used to pay for pornography. Plus, a medical explanation for why the expenditure is warranted.

2. Galactus as a vampire.

3. The kid who played Alfalfa on Our Gang apparently used to play horrifying practical jokes on people.

*Buy Galactus toys at eBay.

Dog the Bounty Hunter threatens to hunt Randy Quaid

Randy Quaid and his wife have fled to Canada and are seeking asylum. They are frightened that if they remain in the USA, they will be killed by the same "Hollywood Star Whackers" that killed Heath Ledger (but who are apparently impotent in Canada). Dog the Bounty Hunter appeared on the George Lopez show to threaten to bring Quaid to justice (3:30 in). (He also puts on a clinic promoting his show and sponsors.)

*Buy Lobo toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Photos of new Clone Wars action figures (Clone in training armor, new Cad Bane with robot assistant, etc.).

2. A crocodile smuggled onto a plane got loose and caused a crash (killing everyone on board, except for the croc). Via.

3. An ESPN reporter fell for a prank and smashed up her hotel room. Via.

*Buy Star Wars Happy Meal toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Despite the huge negative press, Leno is tied with Letterman and his total audience is 44% higher than Conan's.

2. AMC kid's packs will now feature Matt Hawkins's art (but unfortunately won't also turn into paper toys).

3. "During a match for promotion to the top tier of Peruvian soccer, one team handed the other 'energy drinks.' How friendly. Four players collapsed, and the drinks turned out to contain tranquilizers." Video link.

*Buy soccer jerseys at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. NASA & Etsy Space Craft Contest. Via.

2. Tiny privacy curtain automatically chases people as they walk past a storefront window. Via.

3. "Fertility experts at the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine assisted in the very real birth of a healthy baby in May from an embryo that had been 'cryopreserved' for 19 years and 7 months." Via.

*Buy NASA patches at eBay.

Link roundup

1. James White is holding an art contest.

2. What it was like for the trapped Chilean miners:

And they were not confined to the “rescue chamber,” the size of a Manhattan studio apartment. (The first drill bit reached the chamber in August and the miners attached a note to it saying that all 33 were alive.)

“They had the run of the mine,” said Jeffery H. Kravitz, acting director for technical support at the United States Mine Safety and Health Administration. With half a mile of tunnels open, he said, “they had places to exercise and to use for waste.” One miner ran several miles a day.

“They even had a sort of waterfall they could take a shower under,” Mr. Kravitz said. “They requested shampoo, and shaved for their families.”

3. This site allows you to opt out of Yellow Pages. Via.

Link roundup

1. Here's the latest mortifying tale of a reply to all mishap. Which is a good time to ask: do any popular email programs offer a setting where whenever you hit reply to all, a pop up window asks, "are your sure you want to reply to all?" I'd love to have that feature (and know many people who need it).

2. "In the latest in a series of unusual efforts to make Paris green, the city is now offering residents free sparkling water to try to wean Parisians not from red wine, but from overconsumption of plastic bottles." Via.

3. Washington DC "makes it illegal for anyone to work as a 'sightseeing guide' without first passing a test and obtaining a special government license." Via.