Happy 50th Birthday, VCR!

On April 14, 1956, Ampex unveiled the first video tape recorder at the National Association of Broadcasters trade show in Chicago. It was made by six men, one of whom, Ray Dolby, made a bit of a name for himself later in the audio recording field.

http://tvtechnology.com/features/news/2006.04.12-n_the_video_tape_02.shtml

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/15/0537200

Huh. Andre Norton passed away March of last year

I don't recall hearing about it. She was quite a writer.

http://www.sfwa.org/news/anorton.htm

The father of the AK-47 still going strong at 86

I'm glad to hear him still being active at 86. He invented a wonderous firearm, I had a Chinese variation called an SKS. They're incredibly sturdy and they work reliably under the most horrible conditions, I knew about American soldiers during the Vietnam war using captured weapons, I didn't know they were doing the same thing in Iraq. I guess that I'd hoped that the American arms manufacturers had refined the M-16 and its children sufficiently that it would work well in any climate, I guess I was wrong.

Here's the article.