The 3,000 year old police force

Huh?

Well, that sounds on the up-and-up. Let's go to the website for the organization, and see what they have to say.

Yes, the Knights Templar's were invented 2000 years earlier than anyone thought. Most sources put the Order's origins in the early 12th century AD, or CE, if you prefer. But that was just a cover story. They'd been around since the Greek Dark Ages. Let us return to their page:

So you're born into it, and then an application. A two-step procedure, in other words. Well, you can hardly blame them for the shaky English; that's probably translated from the original Mycenaean text, and Google Translate doesn't do that language very well.

A scene from Templar's HQ:

TECH I really, really don't want to do this. Daily Beast:

The author of the piece is skeptical anyone will want it, or that it will work. Other than that, I'm sure it's the future. Thanks, but I'll take retinal scans or fingerprint identification. I'm old-fashioned that way.

They're treating it as a prank or a joke instead of the David Lynch-like nightmare image it really is. Let's hope they announce the creator of the tableau isn't facing any charges, and should tell us what the story's about.

SHUTTERED The one-hour photo store isn't just doomed, it's dead and buried. Bloomberg:

The animated infographic is interesting; watch the stores disappear entirely from North Dakota. I remember when one-hour processing was a Miracle of Science; when I grew up you dropped off your Instamatic cartridge at the drug store and waited days to get back your shots. Your blurry, off-kilter, disappointing shots. A year of so ago someone came up with a One-Hour Photo app. Ninety-nine cents. You took a picture, and then waited an hour to see it.

Ninety-nine cents.

VotD Courtesy of OpenCulture, here's some color film of Berlin after the defeat of the Germans. Note how the minute you leave the British section you're staring at a big picture of Uncle Joe.