Barren AND Dangerous

The top sign is good enough for me. It needs no clarification UNLESS the second sign means “Don’t Take A Single Step In Any Direction – Just Sit Down And Pray For Your Soul.”

It’s more likely a warning not to fire up a cigarette because you’ll ignite the atmosphere and kill off all life for miles around except for cockroaches.

Sol de Mana Geyser Basin, Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia.

This is not a trip for the faint-hearted or picky eater. The round trip is long and extremely bumpy, nights are freezing and the days are hot, accommodation is shared, the bedding dubious and the showers ice-cold. So go prepared, take food and drink supplies, warm bedding and clothing, tissue wipes, hand sanitizer, toilet paper and plenty of batteries for the camera… and book a room for when you get back because boy are you going to need a shower! But the inconvenience of all these things palls into insignificance when sitting under the cold silent star laden sky at night with a bottle of wine and newly made friends, being steamed cleaned by the geysers at dawn as the sun rises, or having lunch by multi-coloured lakes dotted with hundreds of pink bobbed flamingos.

[Image and story found here, with more amazing photos.]

Saturday Matinee – Giant Snail, Giant Slug, Doug & The Slugs, Sharks Took The Rest, & Tokyo Ska Paradise

Glad those things don’t leap, but these slugs did:

We’ve featured Doug & The Slugs before. That vid dates to 1980, and 20 years later (the late) Doug Bennett was still singing the same song.

There just aren’t enough snail and slug songs IMO, but here’s “Snails” by Sharks Took The Rest. Not exactly my cup of gastropodia, but at least they contributed to the movement.
MOR SNALE SONGS PLZ

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra is just the thing to wind up this Saturday Matinee. Have a great weekend, folks, see you back here tomorrow.

The .Gif Friday Post No.236 – Psyche Ducky, ChocoLoLo & “STOP IT!”

[I stole the top one from here and messed with it. 2nd & 3rd found here & here. Tip o’ the Tarboosh to OddMan. ]

Now Freeze

[Found here.]

Independence Day

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Continue reading “Independence Day”

Footprint

Creatures big and small had their footprints dipped in ink and imprinted on paper at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, as part of a new elephant conservation project in Thailand’s Kui Buri National Park on June 26, 2012. Animal handlers at the Taronga and Western Plains Zoo plan on collecting the footprints of 4,000 animals when all is said and done.

[Found here.]

America Truly Is The Greatest Country In The World.

Kitty Werthmann was born in Austria and witnessed the effects of Hitler’s policies first hand. The article below dates to at least 1996 -I found it in the July 2012 issue of Military. As we approach another Independence Day it seems entirely appropriate for recirculation, especially in this election year.

Commentors on the websites where the article appears generally consider it to be historically accurate, with the exception of her description of the Austrian election which was a contrived fraud. Others corroborate her story. Left-leaning blogs dismiss Werthmann due to her religion, her position on the 2nd Amendment, her age, and especially because she’s a popular speaker at TEA Party rallies. One website even described her article as pure propaganda.

Regardless of the criticisms, it’s a must-read, IMO. -Bunk
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

America Truly Is The Greatest Country In The World.

By: Kitty Werthmann

What I am about to tell you is something you’ve probably never heard or will ever read in history books. I believe that I am an eyewitness to history. I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history. We elected him by a landslide – 98% of the vote. I’ve never read that in any American publications. Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.

Continue reading “America Truly Is The Greatest Country In The World.”

Priorities At The Movies

[Found here.]

Chock Full O’ Vitamin Z



[Found here, by way of here. Click for bigger.]

Saturday Matinee – Cat Fail Sail, Mechanical Principles, & Tom Waits

[Tip ‘o the tarboosh to Mrmacs who found it here and insisted that we post it.]

“Mechanical Principles” – Simple gear actions from 1930 by Ralph Steiner, set to classical music. From the UToobage comments:

Some of the mechanisms featured:
0:16 Positive displacement pump
0:26 Four-stroke engine piston;
0:50 Simple steam engines or pumps;
2:00 Steam engine reversing gear as on ships;
3:10 Differential gear;
4:05 Worm gear;
4:10 Archimedes screw;
5:22 Geneva gear;
5:32 Pawl and ratchet;
5:55 Grasshopper escapement;
7:15 Scotch yokes;
8:07 Positive displacement pump (same as 0:16);
9:29 Wheel and disc integrator used in analog computers;
9:54 Possibly a turbine.

The only other soundtrack I can think of that might go along with that vid would be something by this guy:

Tom Waits’ Private Listening Party. I’m there if you need to get in touch with me. Have a great weekend, be back here tomorrow.