![shortformblog:
wired:
Not much happens in Geraldine, a small farming community in the interior of the South Island of New Zealand, about 85 miles from Christchurch. So when Hayden MacKenzie, a fourth-generation farmer there, picked up the phone last Tuesday and got a request to participate in a secret project—one that he wouldn’t even learn about until he signed a vow of silence—he and his wife Anna figured that they’d take a shot. That evening, two men showed up at his cozy farmhouse. They bore a peculiar red device, a sphere slightly bigger than a volleyball perched on a short collar, and attached it to his roof. Then they left.
Only when the men returned the next day did they reveal what they were up to. Inside the red ball was an antenna that would give the MacKenzies Internet access. It was custom-designed to communicate with a similar antenna that would be floating by in the stratosphere, over 60,000 feet above sea level. On a solar-powered balloon.
Oh, and the men work for Google.
[MORE - EXCLUSIVE: How Google Will Use High-Flying Balloons to Deliver Internet to the Hinterlands]
Top that, everything else on the internet tonight.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/1f6f818909e8785b91f86a29154a6722/tumblr_mof038YZ061r69k7do1_500.jpg)
Not much happens in Geraldine, a small farming community in the interior of the South Island of New Zealand, about 85 miles from Christchurch. So when Hayden MacKenzie, a fourth-generation farmer there, picked up the phone last Tuesday and got a request to participate in a secret project—one that he wouldn’t even learn about until he signed a vow of silence—he and his wife Anna figured that they’d take a shot. That evening, two men showed up at his cozy farmhouse. They bore a peculiar red device, a sphere slightly bigger than a volleyball perched on a short collar, and attached it to his roof. Then they left.
Only when the men returned the next day did they reveal what they were up to. Inside the red ball was an antenna that would give the MacKenzies Internet access. It was custom-designed to communicate with a similar antenna that would be floating by in the stratosphere, over 60,000 feet above sea level. On a solar-powered balloon.
Oh, and the men work for Google.
[MORE - EXCLUSIVE: How Google Will Use High-Flying Balloons to Deliver Internet to the Hinterlands]
Top that, everything else on the internet tonight.
(Source: Wired)
gentoo penguins on the sea lion island in the falklands. photo michael lohmann
Billed as “a running diary of an instant tennis classic,” this piece by Brian Phillips is an instant classic itself. I don’t know why tennis lends itself to good, funny, illuminating writing more than other sports (Who birthed this? Xan Brooks? David Foster Wallace? I’ll do some more thinking about that later), but writers who can find the humor and the drama of the game at the same time are some of my favorites. Here are some choice excerpts from Phillips’ diary:
7:16 — Djokovic wins the first game. He’s looking tense but confident, like an anal-retentive piano teacher backstage at the big recital. Nadal, as always, is scowling like a king who’s just condemned his only brother to death.
7:20 — Djokovic has the best service-return game “arguably in our history,” McEnroe says. I love the way tennis people use the word “our” when they talk about the game. It’s like they’re a small, fiercely proud mountain nation or a clan of non-lunching Highlanders or something.
8:25 — Granted, I’ve been typing a lot, but I haven’t seen a single accidental close-up of Rafa digging his underwear out of his ass crack yet. Credit to today’s cameramen — they’re the real heroes out there.
8:29 — Nadal is looking extremely calm — he’s sneering only a little, which is like the tenderest expression from him. Djokovic is looking both bug-eyed and vengeful, like an Imperial admiral who just got chewed out, but not quite killed, by Darth Vader.
9:08 — I blinked and it was 3-0. I’d write that Djokovic blinked, but I’m pretty sure Djokovic has trained himself to blink 2,500 times in a row right before going to bed and never at any other moment.
9:30 — After bouncing the ball for 11 consecutive minutes before his serve, Nadal gets handed a time violation, leading to a long, angry speech from McEnroe about how all umpires should be sacrificed to a volcano.
9:52 — If these guys were really metal bands, I think Djokovic would be called Ritual of Panic and Nadal would be called Red Trajectory. To extend this metaphor, Andy Murray would be called Hunger Dragon and Roger Federer would be a string octet.I tried to control myself and not excerpt the whole thing, but there is just so much that I loved about this piece. Give it a quick read and then head over to whatever watching situation you have to catch the finals. God, I love tennis season.
Founding Father Pin-Ups, 2nd Ed.: Tread on Me
And now for some subversive commentary on the objectification of women…
- How UF works: We have been made well aware that there are currently 15 tornadoes on campus, the entire McCarthy area is flooded, the bus systems isn't working, five individual mass murderer's are loose on campus, and due to Florida's current secession from the Union there is a Civil War currently being waged throughout Gainesville. However, classes and all normal University operations are still in effect.
