The Times profiles Hyman Strachman, a WWII veteran who, at 92, copies bootlegged movies and sends them to troops overseas:

Originally, Mr. Strachman would use his desktop computer to copy the movies one tedious disc at a time. (“It was moyda,” he groaned.) So he got his hands on a $400 professional duplicator that made seven copies at once, grew his fingernails long to better separate the blank discs, and began copying hundreds a day.

[...]

In February, Mr. Strachman duplicated and shipped 1,100 movies. (“A slow month,” he said.) He has not kept an official count but estimates that he topped 80,000 discs a year during his heyday in 2007 and 2008, making his total more than 300,000 since he began in 2004. Postage of about $11 a box, and the blank discs themselves, would suggest a personal outlay of over $30,000.

Let’s hope that the MPAA and studios leave this guy alone.

An extremely rare adult white killer whale has been spotted in the wild.

White whales of various species are occasionally seen; but the only known white orcas have been young, including one with a rare genetic condition that died in a Canadian aquarium in 1972.

I particularly like how the article mentions other white whales while orcas are part of the dolphin family…it’s almost like the author doesn’t know that (should I have chuckled when I noticed the author’s name is Black?).

The London 2012 Olympic organizers contacted The Who’s manager to see if drummer Keith Moon was available to play.

‘I emailed back saying Keith now resides in Golders Green crematorium, having lived up to the Who’s anthemic line ‘I hope I die before I get old’,’ said Curbishley.

I’m hoping that one of these people, who thought Titanic was just a movie, was responsible.

In an interview with Smithsonian Magazine, Matt Groening reveals the true location of Springfield:

Springfield was named after Springfield, Oregon. The only reason is that when I was a kid, the TV show “Father Knows Best” took place in the town of Springfield, and I was thrilled because I imagined that it was the town next to Portland, my hometown. When I grew up, I realized it was just a fictitious name. I also figured out that Springfield was one of the most common names for a city in the U.S. In anticipation of the success of the show, I thought, “This will be cool; everyone will think it’s their Springfield.” And they do.

I want the real Springfield to erect a Homer statue in the middle of town, just like the Jebediah Springfield statue in “The Simpsons”.

Artists Lucie & Simon bring us Silent World which shows what landmarks would look like without people.

Absolutely amazing.

In a study, scientists found that wearing clothes you think have meaning will affect the way you think while wearing them.

If you wear a white coat that you believe belongs to a doctor, your ability to pay attention increases sharply. But if you wear the same white coat believing it belongs to a painter, you will show no such improvement.

This is precisely why I wear an apron when I cook. Makes me feel like I can use the power of the force to make things actually come out well. Sadly, it’s not available anymore.

Up for auction is a photograph of the iceberg that sank the Titanic.

Racing to the rescue as England’s pride and joy went down on her maiden voyage was the RMS Carpathia, which plucked 705 survivors from lifeboats and ferried them to the Titanic’s destination, the West Side of Manhattan.

It was on board the Carpathia that passenger Mabel Fenwick captured the floating ice mass that took down the great ship. The hull of one of the Titanic’s lifeboats can be seen in the top right corner of the historic image.

The auction is mostly postcards and newspapers related to Titanic, but this deck chair is pretty cool.

After taking some ribbing from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson about an error in the starry sky in ‘Titanic’, director James Cameron updated it for the rerelease.

Cameron described Tyson’s original message “quite snarky,” but conceded that the scientist had a point. “With my reputation as a perfectionist, I should have known that and I should have put the right star field in,” Cameron acknowledged. “So I said, ‘All right, send me the right stars for that exact time and I’ll put it in the movie.’”

I wonder if Mr. Tyson has seen the ceiling in Grand Central Terminal?

There’s now a porn mag for the blind with raised text and pictures.

Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos has found, and plans to recover, the first stage of the rocket that powered Apollo 11 to the moon.

I’m excited to report that, using state-of-the-art deep sea sonar, the team has found the Apollo 11 engines lying 14,000 feet below the surface, and we’re making plans to attempt to raise one or more of them from the ocean floor. We don’t know yet what condition these engines might be in — they hit the ocean at high velocity and have been in salt water for more than 40 years. On the other hand, they’re made of tough stuff, so we’ll see.

It’d be fascinating to see what kind of shape they’re in.

The Washington Post’s annual Peep Diorama Contest has been unveiled. Every year I tell myself I’m going to do one for next year, but honestly, I have enough trouble following LEGO directions.

Julian Burford created food related icons for an iPhone app. They look amazing! Love the Oreo and the drip from the Heinz Beanz.

A study has found that women in relationships spend three hours a week redoing the chores that their men have already done because they don’t consider them to have been done properly.

The Sainsbury’s spokesman added: ‘Two thirds of women admit they find they’re pleased when their partners get involved with the cleaning, and are glad when he has recognised that these things don’t get done by themselves.

‘Yet they can’t help but be critical of his attempts, believing they’re not quite up to scratch.

Here’s a hint for men: if you don’t want to do a chore, do it badly the first time and you’ll never be asked to do it again. Don’t want to do dishes? Break one doing them. Don’t want to do laundry? Put a red shirt in with the whites. And the key part…offer to do the chore again, and the woman will beg you not to.

It’s amazing that I’m single, isn’t it?