Geek Book Porn #3 (The Codebreakers)

The pictures below are of the front cover, spine and back cover of a first edition copy of David Kahn's 1967 book "The Codebreakers". This is THE pioneering book about the history and principles of cryptology, which made them available to ordinary citizens...no longer reserved for the purposes of government.

I found this book in a neighborhood bookstore about 10 years ago. Also have the updated version in eBook form, covering modern inventions such as public key cryptography.

Take a moment and look at the bottom picture, the rear cover table of contents...it gives a good idea of the rich awesomeness of this book. The history of cryptology and secret messages has been a rich and fascinating one, with some succeeding due to strong secret messages (e.g., the US's Navajo code talkers in World War 2) and death and ruin caused when secret communication is broken:

• Mary, Queen of Scots, doomed to execution because her secret message was broken by Queen Elizabeth's agents

• The Zimmerman Telegram, captured and broken by intrepid Britons, Helping to bring America into world War 1.

• Breaking the German Enigma allows the reading of German military communications during World War 2.

• US victory at Midway and the assassination of Admiral Yamamoto allowed by the breaking of Japanese cyphers

This book is also one of the first publications ever to mention the National Security Agency and it is one that they tried to suppress. Wikipedia link

Geek Book Porn #2 (history, English language)

Various views from:

"The Grandest Century in the World's History" published 1900. Looks at the 19th Century in detail (exploration, invention, etc)

"The American Pageant" published 1956.

"The Development of English Literature and Language" 1882.

(Teaser for the Codebreakers)

Geek Book Porn #1 (Hidden Treasures)

We've had a discussion of cool older books on Twitter today, so I'm posting up some pictures of some of my coolest old books and some of their stories.

Hidden Treasures is a book published in 1887, with the purpose of presenting role models for success to young people just starting out. There's a neat inscription on the inside from a father to his son.

(Purchased by me for $4 at an antique store in a church in Ransomville, NY)

The Hurtling Moons of Barsoom

A quote from Robert Heinlein's Glory Road that kind of sums up life:

What did I want?

I wanted the hurtling moons of Barsoom. I wanted Storisende and Poictesme, and Holmes shaking me awake to tell me, "The game's afoot!" I wanted to float down the Mississippi on a raft and elude a mob in company with the Duke of Bilgewater and Lost Dauphin.

I wanted Prester John, and Excalibur held by a moon-white arm out of a silent lake. I wanted to sail with Ulysses and with Tros of Samothrace and to eat the lotus in a land that seemed always afternoon. I wanted the feeling of romance and the sense of wonder I had known as a kid. I wanted the world to be the way they had promised me it was going to be, instead of the tawdry, lousy, fouled-up mess it is.

I had had one chance - for ten minutes yesterday afternoon. Helen of Troy, whatever your true name may be - and I had known it - and I had let it slip away. Maybe one chance is all you ever get.

Geek Tattoo Idea: Forbidden Planet

OK, I'm a geek and keep thinking of new geeky tattoo ideas. This one is a salute to the 1956 movie Forbidden Planet, a K00L movie about a ship visiting a planet inhabited by a scientist, his daughter...and a mysterious menace. It starred comedian Leslie Nielsen (Airplane, Police Squad) in an early dramatic role, as well as the stunning and talented Anne Francis.

I combined the elements that I'd think about incorporating in the tattoo in the schlepped screen shot above. There's a cool 1950s science fictiony background of the ship landing on the planet. On one side, the Monster from the Id is menacing the two main players. Leslie Nielsen is facing off with it but as Frank Drebin from Police Squad, with a .38 instead of a laser. Beside him, Anne Francis' character is also firing at the Monster but has had the good sense to take cover behind the robot...

Awesome Palahniuk Quote

Old George Orwell got it backward. Big Brother isn't watching. He's singing and
dancing. He's pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother's holding your attention
every moment you're awake. He's making sure you're always distracted. He's
making sure you're fully absorbed... and this being fed, it's worse than being
watched. With the world always filling you, no one has to worry about what's in
your mind. With everyone's imagination atrophied, no one will ever be a threat
to the world.

-From 'Lullaby' by Chuck Palahniuk

For Kristen Wiig

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
by E. E. Cummings

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands