Super Volatile

Krzysztof Szafranek's link blog

Hi, I'm Krzysztof and I make websites.
When I'm not making websites, I read these.
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Feb 11, 2012 / 10:49am

To My Old Master

Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.
more on lettersofnote.com

A letter written in 1865 by an emancipated slave to his former master. It feels now like it's from a different universe.

Filed under: history  
 
Mar 30, 2011 / 10:58pm

Cosmonaut Crashed Into Earth 'Crying In Rage' : Krulwich Wonders…

On launch day, April 23, 1967, a Russian journalist, Yaroslav Golovanov, reported that Gagarin showed up at the launch site and demanded to be put into a spacesuit, though no one was expecting him to fly. Golovanov called this behavior "a sudden caprice," though afterward some observers thought Gagarin was trying to muscle onto the flight to save his friend. The Soyuz left Earth with Komarov on board.
more on npr.org

Moving story of Vladimir Komarov, a soviet cosmonaut.

Filed under: history   space exploration  
 
Feb 10, 2011 / 11:17pm

Steve Heller hunts down a Nazi graphics standards manual

Published in 1936, The Organizationsbuch der NSDAP (with subsequent annual editions), detailed all aspects of party bureaucracy, typeset tightly in German Blackletter. What interested me, however, were the over 70 full-page, full-color plates (on heavy paper) that provide examples of virtually every Nazi flag, insignia, patterns for official Nazi Party office signs, special armbands for the Reichsparteitag (Reichs Party Day), and Honor Badges. The book “over-explains the obvious” and leaves no Nazi Party organization question, regardless of how minute, unanswered.
more on observatory.designobserver.com

Axiological concerns aside, distinctive brands are not born accidentally.

Filed under: design   history  
 
Jun 18, 2010 / 12:08am

Once Upon a Time in Afghanistan...

But it is important to know that disorder, terrorism, and violence against schools that educate girls are not inevitable. I want to show Afghanistan's youth of today how their parents and grandparents really lived.
more on foreignpolicy.com

Afghanistan you didn't know it existed. A fascinating photo story from 1950's.

Filed under: afghanistan   history