hylobatidae.org

Haven't had much in the way of intertubes. Have some photos instead - a couple shown below...

Bonus Space Plumbing corner:

• Houston, we have a hygiene problem - I've seen the Apollo 10 command module at the Science Museum in London. I didn't realise it had hosted such drastic ... floaters.

Stuck behind a really slow internet connection. Please accept some text-only links:

• Namie, Fukishima Prefecture, Japan - the world has a new Pripyat with the evacuated lands around the Fukushima nuclear power station. Perhaps politically motivated, a Google Street View car has been let loose on the roads of one particular town. Effectively abandoned, the dereliction ranges from the occasional earthquake-damaged building in the town to a scoured, apocalyptic coastline. Grim viewing.
• Baking a Hello World Cake - there's an esoteric programming language named Chef, which visually mimics cooking recipes. Unfortunately, the usual 'Hello World Soufflé' contains such unlikely ingredients as six gallons of oil and a hundred eggs - so one hero decided to design a functioning chocolate cake recipe as an alternative...
• Escape crew capsule - for when an ejector seat isn't enough. The accompanying photo of a capsule from a B-58 Hustler is a thing straight from science fiction.
• New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual - need to design yourself a '70s subway station, complete with fully authentic typography? Here you are. via locworks

Bonus Rampant Spoilers section:

• So, the splendid Bioshock Infinite has had plenty of interesting things written about it. Some only-read-if-you've-played-it articles here, here, here and here.

Iain Banks - both with and without the 'M.' - diagnosed with terminal cancer.

If you haven't already noticed, his writing's a bit of a major personal influence.

Today's somewhat abbreviated Things has been slightly delayed due to finishing Bioshock Infinite. Oops. Mini-review: excellent. Also, people claiming the ending doesn't make sense? Amateurs. Any fan of Fringe would follow it just fine...

Soyuz TMA-22 launch - further to last week's article's Feynman love-in in the comments, here's a counterpoint to the Space Shuttle's tendency to explode when launched in cold weather. A Soyuz launching during an actual blizzard? Hell yeah. Around 22 seconds in - gorgeous.

Rare Images From Inside a Soyuz During Flight - shots from inside Soyuz TMA-20. So what's it like inside one of those things? Kind of cramped. I suddenly understand exactly why they developed a six-hour flight to the International Space Station to replace the usual two-day one...

Tupolev Tu-160 - while we're at it, have a lovely photo of this monster from the latter days of the Soviet Union. A book I had as a child had a few artists' impressions and a fuzzy satellite image of this thing. And plenty of information on the American B-1.

Bonus Would Give Cyriak Nightmares corner:

• Man Spaghetti - contains neither man nor spaghetti. Utterly surreal, disturbing animation. via b3ta

Quick space-oriented edition while I catch up with stuff.

F-1 Engine Recovery - if you launch a skyscraper-sized monster up into the air, it's not going to disappear. Some of it will come back to Earth - or the sea in this case. And decades later, a billionaire will fish rusty bits of rocket engine out of the ocean. Corroded, destroyed '60s space hardware? I'm happy. via Jeff S.

The Fading Grandeur of Abandoned Soviet Space Facilities - meanwhile, on the other side of the planet - a nice compilation of links, including the previously mentioned Lana Sator's rocket factory infiltration. See also: the fate of the Buran. via locworks

BLACK ARROW - and then, on another side of the world, in Woomera, Australia - there's the remnants of the British space programme. Our first satellite is quite likely still beeping away up there, should anyone care to listen in...

Bonus Yet-to-upload-to-Flickr-but-there's-my-frequently-updated-photos-to-look-at corner:

• Space Shuttle Discovery - saw it some weeks ago, outside Washington (DC). It's big, scarred and decidedly more impressive than my 1:72 scale model. This model has a much better paint-job than mine.
• Space Shuttle Interior - I got inside! Albeit the full-sized trainer in Washington (state, just south of Seattle). Typed while watching this - at twenty minutes in? Piss off, that's not a Shuttle. Way too roomy for a start...