Friday, February 28, 2014

What could MEWOBOR license plate mean?


Saw this one today, Delaware license MEWOBOR. I want to respect the effort to get this personalized license plate and understand the message, but I don't get it.

Any comments or interpretations?

Friday, February 21, 2014

Preparing the pictures of me with past presidents for my office.

Do you know how people put pictures of themselves with famous people on the walls of their offices in order to show the influence they have?  I have especially seen this for those who work in government.

I was able to get my picture with several presidents at the baseball game so I am ready to fill my office wall.


 President Washington
 President Jefferson

President Lincoln

President Roosevelt (Teddy)

These may seem like pictures taken with mascots at National's Park before a baseball game last summer, but these are legit.

Enigma machine at the Franklin Institute

Back in June, the Spy exhibit at the Franklin Institute had a real live Enigma machine used by the Germans in World War II to encode their secret transmissions.  Lucky the Allies had broken the code and could read those transmissions.

You may recall that we had a chance to visit Bletchley Park, the place where the British and their allies worked on breaking the code, as a side-trip on a visit to London some years ago.




The instruction are in German, but are provided for the interested user.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Artifacts from the Hughes Glomar Explorer, real life inspriation for Charles Stross' The Jennifer Morgue.

Charles Stross in the Jennifer Morgue explored the secret history of the ship, the Hughes Glomar Explorer. There really is such a ship.  At the Franklin Institute in June an exhibit of the history of Spying had artifacts from Project Azorian, the attempted lifting of a soviet submarine by the Hughes Glomar Explorer.


A commemorative plaque.


A belt buckle and in the background a manganese nodule that was an example of the intended use of the ship.


Of course in Stross' novel nothing so mundane as a Soviet submarine is lifted, the true prize was yet another eldritch horror.

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Freezing rain coats the world


It was freezing rain this morning and it coated all the trees beautifully but not so much that I wanted to get wet taking close up pictures. These are some hanging plants close to the house.