Happy New Year
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Here's hoping you all have a Happy New Year, and may your New Year's Eve celebrations be free of giant bee attacks and other such calamities.
Thirst & Camaraderie
Saturday, December 30, 2017
How Fear Came by Rudyard Kipling
The stream is shrunk--the pool is dry,
And we be comrades, thou and I;
With fevered jowl and dusty flank
Each jostling each along the bank;
And, by one drouthy fear made still,
Forgoing thought of quest or kill.
Now 'neath his dam the fawn may see,
The lean Pack-Wolf as cowed as he,
And the tall buck, unflinching, note
The fangs that tore his father's throat.
The pools are shrunk--the streams are dry,
And we be playmates, thou and I,
Till yonder cloud--Good Hunting!--Loose
The rain that breaks our Water Truce.
Labels:
Cryptic post,
How Fear Came,
Rudyard Kipling
Samba Noir
Friday, December 29, 2017
Get ready for a seductive weekend with Toco.
Labels:
Music,
Samba Noir,
TGIF,
Toco
The miniature worlds of Tatsuya Tanaka
Thursday, December 28, 2017
![]() |
Click any image to enlarge |
These sample were taken from Colossal Art, there are more after the fold, and at either of the 2 links.
Washing dishes
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
With the holiday feasts over, it is time to wash dishes. Above is a video somebody made by putting a GoPro into a dishwasher. There are a surprising number of videos of the inside of dishwashers. I picked a short one because, well let's be honest here, even by my somewhat sketchy standards these are some pretty damn boring videos.
And of course, if you don't have a dishwashers, you'll want some Lux detergent to be easy on your hands when you wash dishes the old fashioned way.
Merry Christmas
Sunday, December 24, 2017
Santa's sleigh seems short on reindeers, but the old guy is magical so's I guess it is OK. Anyhoo ... have a good one all.
How long will this vile custom last?
Saturday, December 23, 2017
![]() |
The Mistletoe Bough by Francis Wheatley (click to enlarge) |
Considering the recent news of sexual coercion, and the ever expanding #MeToo business, I suspect that eventually in some circles simple flirtation may get swept up in the new Victorianism. I wonder if the mistletoe will survive? Or will it be as scandalous as showing an ankle?
Meanwhile, a poem:
Pick a berry off the mistletoe
For every kiss that’s given.
When the berries have all gone
There’s an end to kissing.
A different Christmas song
Friday, December 22, 2017
Well, if you're tired of Jingle Bells, this aint it. Above is a Japanese Christmas song that mixes up a lot of Christmas tunes, features the bubbly dancing singers in a refrigerator at one point, and repeats the lyric "Santa, Santa, Santa" an lot. Oh, there's also a roast turkey floating around in one scene and the girls also participate in the hallowed Christmas tradition of smashing cakes in each other faces. Enjoy.
A Dragon Climbing a 17 Story Pink Tower
Thursday, December 21, 2017
![]() |
Click any image to enlarge |
Making toilet paper rolls
Monday, December 18, 2017
Yet another one of my oddball manufacturing videos. This one from some Chinese company touting their toilet paper rolling machine. The little shop sure is noisy, I wonder what all that pounding was about? Also, it sure seemed like they wasted a lot of tissue loading the machine, but I suppose it is very difficult to work with the large sheets of it.
Panaramic pictures from the past
Saturday, December 16, 2017
![]() |
Click any image to enlarge |
Before there were smart phones
Saturday, December 09, 2017
This is a 1905 advertisement from the Seattle Independent Telephone Directory selling residential telephone service. It's clearly aimed at women, who apparently wore lacey dresses and Easter bonnets when they spoke on the phone back in the old-timey days. If you can't read the print on the ad, this is what they tout:
Advantages of a residence telephone
- Makes engagements
- Invites you friends
- Friends can call you
- Does your shopping
- Reserve theatre tickets
- Orders your groceries
- And corrects mistakes
- Calls the plumber
- Hastens the delivery of goods
- Saves letter writing
- Calls your husband
- Saves time and steps
- Runs your errands
- Calls the doctor
- Calls the fire department
- Calls the police
I'm guessing the home phone service wasn't really a hard sell to women, but the issue of it was the cost, which husbands might object to. The bullet points seem like a list of talking points she might use to convince him the phone bill was worth it.
Aside from that I find the active voice odd. The telephone "makes engagements" rather than you "make engagements". Strange that they make the phone the agent of action rather than the person.
Too Old to Die Young
Friday, December 08, 2017
Get ready for a conflicted weekend with Brother Dege.
Labels:
Brother Dege,
Music,
TGIF,
To Old to Die Young
Day of Infamy
Thursday, December 07, 2017
Making pencils
Tuesday, December 05, 2017
In the above video a person makes a pencil using paper, glue and what I think is a mechanical pencil lead. It strikes me as an odd thing to craft. One doesn't think a pencil as being hand made in the old days -- like churning butter, or knitting or whatever. Instead pencils seem to be things that were always manufactured. Beside, I wonder how easy it is to break the lead in the paper tubes? Are they even practical?
At any rate, below is a video of pencil making in a factory. Oddly, it seems more natural to me than the above crafting.
Revenge and Regret
Saturday, December 02, 2017
Under Her Dark Veil by Anna Akhmatova
Under her dark veil she wrung her hands.
"Why are you so pale today?"
"Because I made him drink of stinging grief
Until he got drunk on it.
How can I forget? He staggered out,
His mouth twisted in agony.
I ran down not touching the bannister
And caught up with him at the gate.
I cried: 'A joke!
That's all it was. If you leave, I'll die.'
He smiled calmly and grimly
And told me: 'Don't stand here in the wind.'"
Labels:
Anna Akhmatova,
Cryptic post,
Under Her Dark Veil
Eye of the Hurricane
Friday, December 01, 2017
Get ready for a jazzy weekend with Tony Succar.
Labels:
Eye of the Hurricane,
Music,
TGIF,
Tony Succar
More sleeping in space
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
From sleeping on the Moon we move onto sleeping on to sleeping on the ISS. They have much better arrangements than the lunar lander. They have little compartments with a sleeping bag tethered to the wall, a computer they can use for email and whatnot, and a door they can close for privacy and darkness.
One interesting detail -- the air needs to be well circulated or, in the weightlessness, a bubble of exhaled carbon dioxide will form around their heads as they sleep.
Sleeping on the Moon
Saturday, November 25, 2017
Amy Shira Teitel of Vintage space has an article, Astronauts
Didn’t Sleep So Well on the Moon, on the discover website. The above video is a companion to that article. All of the early capsules -- from the Mercury program through Apollo -- were remarkably small and cramped. It always struck me they must have been agony to sit in for days on end, but it never crossed my mind how miserable the sleeping conditions were as well.
Below is an excerpt from her article. Be sure to follow the above link and read it all.
History’s first lunar sleep period came after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon; the original plan called for a sleep period before going outside but excitement prevailed and the EVA was moved up. Once back inside, Armstrong and Aldrin tried to make themselves as comfortable as possible without any beds. As per an early schematic of rest positions, Armstrong lay on the ascent engine cover with his legs in a makeshift sling, his boots under the DSKY, and his head on a flat shelf. Aldrin curled up in a semi-fetal position on the floor — neither could properly stretch out in the tiny spacecraft.
Exacerbating the already uncomfortable setup was their bulky spacesuits; this was NASA’s attempt to keep any dust they tracked back inside after the EVA from behind inhaled. Mission planners also hoped that the buttoned up suits would cut out some of the ambient noise, but it didn’t. All night the glycol water pump whirred. The suits got uncomfortably cold even with the cooling system disconnected. And it was uncomfortably bright. A fair bit of sunlight bled in past the windows shares, and the display lights and illuminated switches only added to the brightness. The crew eventually took off their helmets but nothing really helped. Sleeping in the LM became a battle to find what Armstrong called in the post-flight debriefing “a minimum level of sleeping conditions,” and it was a battle they lost. “The rest period was almost a complete loss,” he said.
Labels:
Moon,
space flight,
Technology
Black
Friday, November 24, 2017
Get ready for a Black Friday weekend with Smith & Meyers covering Pearl Jam's Black.
Labels:
Black,
Music,
Smith & Meyers,
TGIF
Attitude adjuster for our elites
Sunday, November 19, 2017
Reading the headlines lately, I can think of several people that would serve our needs best by retiring from public life and spending several hours a day exercising one of these machines. If nothing else, it sure would beat listening to their insincere apologies.
A Hard Day's Night
Friday, November 17, 2017
Get ready for a different perspective on things this weekend with Katja Ebstein.
Labels:
A Hard Day's Night,
Katja Ebstein,
Music,
TGIF
Sculpture from scaps
Thursday, November 16, 2017
![]() |
Click any image to enlarge |
Making a bow, arrows and a quiver the old school way
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
A fellow makes a bow, arrows and a quiver using nothing but a stone axe and a stone chisel. He has much more at his website Primitive Technology.
Some mighty fancy clothes
Sunday, November 12, 2017
![]() |
Click to enlarge |
Art of the Russo-Japanese War
Saturday, November 11, 2017
![]() |
Click any image to enlarge |
Sitting in the interval between the American Civil War and WWI, its battles, on both the land and at sea, featured armies and navies struggling to integrate modern firepower into their tactics and strategies. Russia further suffered from having to fight the war at an enormous distance from its heartland. In the end Russia lost the war to a presumed inferior Asiatic opponent and the path towards WWII's Pacific battles was set.
The artwork from the war is interesting in that it features both European and Japanese styles. The contrast between the two artistic heritages is striking. There are more examples after the jump.
Notte Di Luce (Knights in White Satin)
Friday, November 10, 2017
Get ready for an overwrought weekend with iL Divo's Italian version of Knights in White Satin.
Labels:
Knights in White Satin,
Music,
Notte Di Luce,
TGIF
Walking a street in Addis Abba
Wednesday, November 08, 2017
Another in my series of videos of people just walking down streets in cities. In spite of the relative poverty of the Ethiopian capital, the contrast with the scenes in my last street walk -- Buying street food in Pyongyang, North Korea -- is striking. The north Korean capital, even in a scene that was likely staged, seems very empty and bleak in comparison.
Labels:
Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia,
walking in cities
Prior to the rise of motels
Tuesday, November 07, 2017
![]() |
Click any image to enlarge |
And, as long as we're talking about inns, below is Chapter 16 of Don Quixote, which details his adventures in an inn he imagines to be a castle.
The innkeeper, seeing Don Quixote slung across the ass, asked Sancho what was amiss with him. Sancho answered that it was nothing, only that he had fallen down from a rock and had his ribs a little bruised. The innkeeper had a wife whose disposition was not such as those of her calling commonly have, for she was by nature kind-hearted and felt for the sufferings of her neighbours, so she at once set about tending Don Quixote, and made her young daughter, a very comely girl, help her in taking care of her guest. There was besides in the inn, as servant, an Asturian lass with a broad face, flat poll, and snub nose, blind of one eye and not very sound in the other. The elegance of her shape, to be sure, made up for all her defects; she did not measure seven palms from head to foot, and her shoulders, which overweighted her somewhat, made her contemplate the ground more than she liked. This graceful lass, then, helped the young girl, and the two made up a very bad bed for Don Quixote in a garret that showed evident signs of having formerly served for many years as a straw-loft, in which there was also quartered a carrier whose bed was placed a little beyond our Don Quixote's, and, though only made of the pack-saddles and cloths of his mules, had much the advantage of it, as Don Quixote's consisted simply of four rough boards on two not very even trestles, a mattress, that for thinness might have passed for a quilt, full of pellets which, were they not seen through the rents to be wool, would to the touch have seemed pebbles in hardness, two sheets made of buckler leather, and a coverlet the threads of which anyone that chose might have counted without missing one in the reckoning.
On this accursed bed Don Quixote stretched himself, and the hostess and her daughter soon covered him with plasters from top to toe, while Maritornes- for that was the name of the Asturian- held the light for them, and while plastering him, the hostess, observing how full of wheals Don Quixote was in some places, remarked that this had more the look of blows than of a fall.
It was not blows, Sancho said, but that the rock had many points and projections, and that each of them had left its mark. "Pray, senora," he added, "manage to save some tow, as there will be no want of some one to use it, for my loins too are rather sore."
"Then you must have fallen too," said the hostess.
"I did not fall," said Sancho Panza, "but from the shock I got at seeing my master fall, my body aches so that I feel as if I had had a thousand thwacks."
(continues after the jump)
Gangsta's Paradise
Friday, November 03, 2017
Get ready for a felonious weekend with Postmodern Jukebox featuring Robyn Adele Anderson.
19th Century Scientific American
Monday, October 30, 2017
![]() |
The covers on this page, and those after the jump, are from the Magazine Rack's Scientific American (1845-1909) Collection. If you follow that link you can actually page through the old issues and see all of their content. Be warned, it can be a tremendous time sink.
Labels:
Science,
Scientific American
Chemical reactions
Sunday, October 29, 2017
These films are from Envisioning Chemistry, which is part of The Beauty of Science website. Much good stuff at both links.
Wicked Game
Friday, October 27, 2017
Get ready for a goofily gothic Halloween weekend with HIM.
Labels:
HIM,
Music,
TGIF,
Wicked Game
The Lights of Canopus
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
![]() |
Click any image to enlarge |
The illustrations on this page, and after the jump, are from the Public Domain Review. There are more illustrations at that link.
Buying street food in Pyongyang, North Korea
Monday, October 23, 2017
Jaka Parker, an Indonesian variously described as a freelance photographer or embassy employee has a YouTube channel with numerous videos of North Korea. I imagine they are a bit dodgy -- how dodgy I don't know -- but they are still quite interesting.
Even if this video is an attempt to film a Potemkin village, the largely empty streets and line of uniform, green food stalls deliver their own message.
Labels:
North Korea,
walking in cities
Scandal in the art world
Saturday, October 21, 2017
![]() |
Click image to enlarge |
The image is from The Surreal Collages of Barry Kite.
Bird on a Wire
Friday, October 20, 2017
Get ready for an avian weekend with Willie Nelson's cover of the Leonard Cohen classic.
Labels:
Bird on a Wire,
Leonard Cohen,
Music,
TGIF,
Willie Nelson
Restored 1928 Rolmonica
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
I guess you could say an organette (Rolmonica is a brand name) is the harmonica version of a player piano. They were first made in the 1860s and were still being sold in the early part of the 20th century. Rolls were available for all popular songs of the time.
Victorian era exercise equipment
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
![]() |
Click any image to enlarge |
As the Daily Mail chronicles in their article Inside the Victorian gym, the Swedish physician Dr. Gustav Zander solved their dilemma by inventing numerous exercise machines for use in spas and gyms worldwide.
Pictures here, and after the jump, are some of his machines. There are more, as well as information about Dr. Zander at the above Daily Mail link.
Labels:
exercise,
Gustav Zander,
History
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)