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Theremin's Bug Let Soviets Spy On USA For More Than 7 Years (hackaday.com)
szczys writes: Theremin, yes the same Theremin who built the instrument that made the Star Trek theme song famous, had a hand in espionage as well. Albeit not a willing one. Turns out his life is actually quite tragic. In addition to that story, Adam Fabio takes a trip through the details of "The Thing", a bug installed in the US Embassy by the Soviet Union during the cold war. It used no batteries, instead depending on a carrier frequency transmitted by the "listener", causing the resonant cavity to transmit back the audio from the room at a higher frequency. Pretty nifty, and so was the hiding place: a hand-carved wooden seal of the United States. Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts, right?
Beware Geeks Bearing Gifts
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
This, my friends, is the geekiest thing you will see today. Trekkie plays Star Trek theme on Theremin.
Better known as 318230.
There was a show called Dark Matters that did a segment on this. The show itself had shitty production values, sometimes went a bit heavy with sensationalism, and the facts were a bit dubious... but some of the segments were decent, and the Theremin one was one of them.
It's like the old joke of the Soviet hell...
Seriously, what we get is either not news or not for nerds. This may be for nerds, but news? That story is like half a century old, that's even old by /. standards!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Why, anywhere you choose ... it's a show about a time traveler, you don't need to see it in order. ;-)
Though, you'll probably find starting with the modern reboot with Christopher Eccleston is probably most available. Since it was a reboot it had to establish some of the things for a fresh audience.
But for some of us, Tom Baker is the nostalgic Doctor because it's the one we saw first and who we think of as the most iconic Doctor. But I think that largely depends on just how long you've been watching it.
It's never too late to binge watch a TV show if you're interested in it.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Theremins were geek-popular long before the Internet existed - let alone recent, forgettable television series...
#DeleteChrome
They have 400+ episodes of the early Doctors before Eccleston. If you didn't grow up on low budget British television it might be hard to watch at first but if you stick with it you get an appreciation for the different personalities of the Doctors.
Depends on what you're looking for. The original run was, well, classic brit sci-fi. The 2009 reboot with Eccleston is a bit more palatable to modern tastes while retaining a lot of the cheesiness that makes Who worthwhile.
Personally, I'd start with the reboot - you can follow along without needing the history of the preceding seasons. I started with the 2009 reboot and it was enjoyable enough. Plus it's on most streaming services.
The 2009 reboot...
2005. Timey-wimey...
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
It's never too late to binge watch a TV show if you're interested in it.
Sadly, it is too late to binge-watch every episode of classic Doctor Who.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
I cringed at the sentence "Receive tuning (if it can be called such) was achieved by the precisely cut antenna." which is actually how EVERY radio is tuned; the antenna is a component of the resonant circuit which forms the receiver.
I've read about the bugged seal for years, when I was a kid it was used as an example how how nasty Soviets could never be trusted. It's an interesting story - but honestly, the story of the US embassy built in Moscow in the early 1980s is much more interesting. I knew two people involved with the analysis of the building and it's a fascinating case of hubris. The US felt that they could detect any passive resonant cavity devices using the same techniques they used for "The Thing" and, more importantly, for active radios, they could detect them by a non-linear junction detector (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonlinear_junction_detector) which finds the P-N junctions of diodes and transistors.
The Soviets, knowing this, simply dumped a bunch of diodes in the concrete used for the building meaning that everywhere in the building, the diodes would be found and could not be distinguished from any other electronic devices in the building making the search for bugging devices impossible.
My friends spent several months chipping at the concrete walls of the embassy and never found any listening devices, just diodes which were labouriously separated from the concrete. It's interesting to see articles of the day (http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/15/world/the-bugged-embassy-case-what-went-wrong.html?pagewanted=all & http://articles.latimes.com/19...) claiming that listening devices were found in the building but what I was told was that there were a few pieces of rebar which were not properly installed and about $500 worth of diodes mixed into the concrete. The claims of listening devices are most likely exaggerated to lessen the embarrassment that the Soviets had pulled over such a big coup over on the US for what amounts to petty cash.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Start at the new Doctor Who in Season 5 episode 1. Watch until "Day of the Doctor". Then go back to Season 1 episode 1. Finish off the rest of new Who. Then go back and watch the classic Who (at least what exists).
Why Season 5 Episode 1? Because there are some huge spoilers in earlier seasons. (It's a time travel show). It also makes a certain episode in Season 4 a lot more tragic.
As for classic who, my advice for watching it is to view it like a play rather than like a modern show.
In Soviet Russia, Theremin plays you!
Unlike porn, which yada yada rimshot hey-ooh!
Now they've got story arcs spanning different Doctors, pretty much (like the 'impossible girl' Clara Oswald arc)
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
I am not liking Capaldi or the new writing though, it just tries too hard to be deep and avant garde anymore.
Have to disagree about Capaldi. Tennant got the right balance of dark and light, but I thought Smith was just all fluff, so I like that Capaldi's Doctor is rougher, grizzly even. But then I was a huge fan of The Thick of It.
The writing, yeah I miss Russell T. Davies. Moffat is clearly a talented writer (I love what he did with Sherlock) but the best episodes of the Who reboot, for me, are basically all Russell. And Torchwood doesn't look like coming back either, I'd probably rate seasons 3 and 4 over all of Who.
Shame Neil Gaiman didn't do more.
Gosh, thanks. That must be why the other ships call me Meatfucker -- GCU Grey Area (Eccentric)
Dr. Who
1. British not American
2. They used the original sound track with tape dubbing. A double bass pluck and a sine wave which was than spliced and plaid back at different speeds.
By the time of the 5th doctor they switched to an electronic synthesizer. Then to a full orchestra.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
The replica is at the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C. and the original is at the NSA Cryptological Museum.
I have seen them both and the replica is a very poor copy of the original wood carving.
There are many schools of thought on this seemingly simple question.
1. Start from the beginning: Doctor 1 This will show his growth and change of character over time... However these episodes weren't made for binge watching, You watch an episode and watch the next on a day later, otherwise you get board to tears.
2. Start with Doctor 4: He was the doctor for the longest time and really defined what is the Doctor
3. Start with Doctor 3: That is where it switched to color as well Doctor 3 was more action oriented than the previous two. Also with more earthly contacts to get more concrete view on what is going on
4. Start with Doctor 9: This is the season reboot a new story plot, with updated effects and acting sensibilities.
I actually went with 4 myself, this was so I can get involved in the universe without feeling like I missed too much. Then I went back to 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 then 1 and 2
8th doctor was in a made for tv movie, so watch it when you get the chance, but it is outside of the rest.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.