Month: November 2021

Armistice Day – The 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month 1918

Graphical Record of the End of the War. Gunfire was ongoing up until the last minute before 11am 11 November 1918.

1 November 1918
On the Front

Mom and Dad:

“Soldier Bill” in souvenir German uniform, France 1918

Well a few lines. I received two letters from you last evening, and they made an excellent way for me to spend “Halloween.” Reading and rereading them.

A new drive started last night. The fellows called the start, “Holly even”, the Kaiser. Some noise. I suppose our kids tore off the usual stunts didn’t they.

You mentioned in one of you letters that you wanted to know the happenings for a while. Well, here is my diary for a day. And since almost every day is the same, you can get an idea from this: Continue reading “Armistice Day – The 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month 1918”

Stuff I Do When I’m Bored

Mr. Edison’s Hands

The Only Authentic Photograph of Mr. Edison’s Hands Ever Taken Publisht Here for the First Time. The Spots on the Hands Are Chemical Stains Which Could Not Be Washt off at the Time the Picture Was Taken.
IF THE WORLD WERE CALLED UPON TO MAKE AN INVENTORY OF WHAT MR. EDISON’S HANDS ACTUALLY WROUGHT IN ENRICHING THIS PLANET, THERE WOULD NOT BE GOLD ENOUGH TO PAY HIM.
Copyright by E. P. Co., 1919 All rights reserved.

[Image from Electrical Experimenter Magazine,  December 1919, p. 20.]

P. K. Kunze’s Contribution To The World – A Vise With Oscillatable Cheeks

According to the U.S. Patent, the machine was described as a Device For Obtaining Intimate Contact With Engaging, Or Clamping Bodies Of Any Shape, or DFOICWEOCBOAS for easy. It contained 30 nested rotating jaws.

Application filed March 21, 1912.
Serial No. 685,288.
The invention purposes to effect by means of rotatable and oscillatable cheeks, an intimate contact, engagement with or clamping of bodies of any shape, the contact being effected at as many points as possible, Whereby owing to the reactions or the automatic adjustment to the position of equilibrium of all the cheeks, if the latter are symmetrically arranged, the pressure is uniformly distributed over all points of contact, while if the arrangement is unsymmetrical there is a greater pressure to one side.

The Mantle Vise, Mantle & Co. New York, NY, ca.1922.

Inventor Paulin Karl Kunze was a “subject of the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, residing at Vienna.”

The term fractal was coined by French mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot in 1973 and is defined as “never-ending pattern.” Jump to 34:00 for a silly but cool demonstration of the completed restoration.

[Found at BustedNuckles & the U.S. Patent Office. Images of Mantle & Co. vise found here and here.]

Bathykolpian Hot Links

Soup du Jour by Lemanshots 2021.

Cuttin’ In, Johnny “Guitar” Watson (1961)John Watson Jr. came from a musical family, and when he was 11, his grandfather offered to give him a guitar if, and only if, the boy didn’t play any of the “devil’s music.” His recording career spanned forty years;  his highest charting single was A Real Mother for Ya (1977). Frank Zappa: “Watson’s 1956 song ‘Three Hours Past Midnight‘ inspired me to become a guitarist.” Many others were influenced as well.

Are trees racist?

The History of Punk.

The Ghost Dance in 1894.

Games involving dead octopi.
[h/t Octo]

Geostorm hits the NY tri-state area.
[h/t Bunkerville]

Rent a flat in Augsburg Germany for $1 / per year.

The Great Gazoo was voiced by actor Harvey Korman.

The theme to Raising Arizona, Way Out There, was written in 1936.

Twitter secretly removes likes and retweets. See what Twitter doesn’t want you to see.

[Top image: Soup du Jour by Lemanshots 2021.]

From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago.

Saturday Matinee – SPOT, Mr. Hurley & Die Pulveraffen, and The SIDH

Boston Dynamics did it again – and that’s not a typo in the title – the robot is named Spot.

Straight from the Caribbean Osnabrück, Mr. Hurley & Die Pulveraffen (the Powder Monkeys) are German “grogstars” playing Irish melodies with a rock pirate theme. (A powder monkey’s job was to bring black powder to the ship’s cannons.) Yo ho and shalalala.

The SIDH is an Italian band that plays electro Celtic metal bagpipe club music; 2018 band interview here.
Iain Marr – whistle player/piper
Federico Melato- keyboards and percussion
Michael Subet – bass
Salvatore Pagliaro – electric & acoustic guitar
[h/t Mme. Jujujive]

It’s that time of year when we set our calendars back, so have a great three day weekend and we’ll see you here tomorrow.

The .Gif Friday Post No. 705 – Baby Butthead, Squirrel Scream & Monkey Thumper

[Found here, here and here; h/t Don J. for the butter.]

The Visitor

https://australiananimalcollective.tumblr.com/post/666291504669687808

The Modern Nancy

Olivia Jaimes‘ update was a few years back (2019) but it was an was an interesting take on Ernie Bushmiller’s classic strip. More about her revamp here.

Yeah, we have a Nancy Archive, too, because Bushmiller was awesome.

Camouflage Tip

Do this.

Don’t do this.

[Images found here and here.]