Category: Bizarre

Ancient Engineering – Yellow Dragon Cave Water Mill

Wooden waterwheel in front of Huanglong Cave (Yellow Dragon Cave) is a karst cave located near the Wulingyuan District of Zhangjiajie City, Hunan, China.

“Turns out the area that these wheels were traditionally in was flooded as part of the 3 gorges dam, so this is a reconstruction for people to see what they would have looked like.” -comment on Reddit

Everything ancient in China is almost always a reproduction, including this. It’s an elaborate kinetic sculpture – the water mill doesn’t appear to mill anything. China lets you look around the cave a bit on Google Maps street view: 29°22’1.62″N 110°36’47.79″E

[Video found here; a longer version without music here.]

Mujeres en una tina caliente de hidromasaje

Una construcción maravillosa para alojar los placeres que las mujeres de San Petersburgo se daban en 1973.

[Image and caption found in here.]

I found a button hole.

The Niva button factory in Patisia, Greece, opened in the 1940s and remained in operation for decades before being abandoned.

“The photo was available on various international websites. Most of them state that it is an abandoned button factory in China. […] With a little searching and a lot of luck, we found where the ghost factory really is! It is not in the Chinese city of Longhua Shenzhen, as mentioned in most posts, nor are we talking about a set photo. The abandoned button factory is located in Patisia!”

[Top image found in here, other images and story here via here.]

Psephographic Hot Links

Dance of the Rona, Shardcore (2020) from The Sounds of Covid-19“NIH released the DNA sequence of Covid-19, so I decided to convert it into musical notes and hear what it sounds like.”
The excerpt is from the .midi file download, speed x2, and chopped down to six minutes. I like the uncut electromix version better.


[h/t Lucy Dynamite]

Stickybuddy.

Bite the Habanero.

I Don’t Look Good Naked Any More.

Something’s in the air over Moscow.

Prisencolinensinainciusol. [h/t Innocent B.]

Colorized jitterbuggery of “Hellzapoppin.

The first Ronald McDonald was Willard Scott.

A photo of mating weevils is available at FineArtAmerica.

Bulletproof Enterprise Jeffrey Epstein Air Freshener (1 Pack)

Nestlé Australia decided its “Red Skins” candy might offend some people so they renamed it “Red Ripper,” the nickname of serial killer Andrei Chikatilo.

Map of Pornhub search terms by state (for Election Week 2020).

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

 

The .Gif Friday Post No. 657 – Morphing

[All found here, via here.]

There’s a huge bug in the tent.

Or not.

Continue reading “There’s a huge bug in the tent.”

A Slight Chance of Showers with Busty Winds

[Found here.]

Great Big Blobs

NASA scientists are studying planet magnetic fields and revisited raw data collected by Voyager 2 over three decades ago. They found that

Voyager 2 spotted a massive magnetic bubble pulling gas out of Uranus’ atmosphere.

https://www.space.com/uranus-gas-blob-voyager-2-discovery.html

Such loop-like plasmoids are typically formed as a spinning planet flings bits of its atmosphere to space. “Centrifugal forces take over, and the plasmoid pinches off.”

https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/details.php?article_id=119

Uranus pinches off big blobs and flings them.

Preliographical Hot Links

Filipino Box Spring Hog, Tom Waits (1999) Album: Mule VariationsIf you don’t know who Tom Waits is, I truly feel sorry for you. Redeem yourself by clicking on this.

From the Dept. of Rare Honesty:
I received a letter from USAA this week.

“Attached is a check for $53.12. This amount represents a refund for all finance charges and fees that should have been reimbursed, as well as interest of $50.22.”

Apparently, the amount “disputed” was $2.90. Assuming 7.5% compounded interest, it dates to 1980. No idea what I “disputed.”

Peckerholes.

Remembering Snooty.

Jon Rahm’s got a Jesus ball.

HUGE solar flare and more cool astrostuff.

“This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.”

Spontaneous human combustion cases are rising.

Why over 100 Seattle police quit the force (in their own words).

Interview with David Kahn (author of The Code Breakers) on modern cryptography trends (2013).

In 1968, Bernd Boettger escaped from East Germany with a home-made submarine. [Related escape story here.]

Why I Hate Australians is a rant from 2006. It’s got over 1,200 comments; more are added daily.

[Top image: Ol’ Blue Boar weighs 500 pounds, is missing an eye, has razor sharp teeth, and is the meanest pig in the world.]

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

The .Gif Friday Post No. 658 – Demo Bueno, Stockin’ the Station & Zamboni Flambé

[Found here, here and here.]