Spurred on by Sputnik and the growing development of Soviet space supremacy, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The date was July 29, 1958. In the past fifty years, agency has grown in size and in scope, from the moon to the far corners of the universe, but never has it forgotten its initial vision: the expansion of human knowledge of space, Earth, and everything in between.

Happy birthday, NASA.

Tired of the unending amount of equipment and complication involved with New Age fitness (read: Wii Fit), Todd Levin decided to try out a classic mainstay of health and power: Charls Atlas’s 1922 Dynamic-Tension course.

Next, I stood before a mirror, held my hands as if grasping an imaginary rope just above my head, and pulled downward toward my knees while tensing my arm and chest muscles to provide resistance. According to my new fitness guru, if I “hold in the mind’s eye AT ALL TIMES the Ideal of Physical Perfection,” soon I could advance to other vitality-building exercises, such as gently and rapidly punching myself in the stomach, and washing my genitals with ice water. Yet somehow this still felt less degrading than a spinning class.

Uniformed Letter Carrier with Child in Mailbag:

After parcel post service was introduced in 1913, at least two children were sent by the service. With stamps attached to their clothing, the children rode with railway and city carriers to their destination. The Postmaster General quickly issued a regulation forbidding the sending of children in the mail after hearing of those examples.

More at the Smithsonian Institution photostream and New York Times.

California ban on same-sex marriage struck down:

In a 4-3 120-page ruling issue, the justices wrote that “responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation.”

“We therefore conclude that in view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship, the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples,” Chief Justice Ronald George wrote for the majority.

The ruling takes effect in 30 days.

“UPDATE: Guys this is awesome.”

Blast-Door Art: Cave Paintings of the Nuclear Era

At the back of what looks like an enclosed porch of an unpretentious ranch house near Wall, South Dakota, a steel-runged ladder leads down a 30-foot concrete access shaft. At the bottom, a massive, eight-ton steel-and-concrete door is painted the red, white and blue image of a Domino’s Pizza box, with a slightly altered phrasing of the chain’s familiar promise: “World-wide Delivery in 30 Minutes or Less; Or Your Next One is Free.” But in this case the “Next One” is a Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). For almost three decades, the house was the “Delta One” Launch Control Facility (LCF) for ten Minuteman missiles armed with nuclear warheads. The massive blast door was designed to ensure that the underground launch control center survived a nuclear attack.

Welcome to the mordant, jingoistic and occasionally crude — but rarely before seen world — of “blast-door art.”

HistoryShots creates high-quality information graphics on a number of historical topics. From the Race to the Moon to the Geneology of Pop & Rock Music, you could also say that HistoryShots creates the artwork for my next apartment. All of it. (Well, maybe some Edward Tufte prints just to spice things up.)