Category: Contributions to the World

Freddy Heineken’s Contribution To The World: Beer Bottle Masonry

 

…The idea of turning waste into useful products came to life brilliantly in 1963 with the Heineken WOBO (world bottle). Envisioned by beer brewer Alfred Heineken and designed by Dutch architect John Habraken, the “brick that holds beer” was ahead of its ecodesign time, letting beer lovers and builders alike drink and design all in one sitting.

This is masonry. Each course is restrained by the male/female neck/punt connection, but the glass frogs (the bumps on the tops and bottom sides of the bottle) don’t provide a lot of friction, so some method of vertical reinforcement is required. Can’t tell how they anchored it to the foundation, or how they attached the roof framing.

I suppose it works in regions with few earthquakes, no serious windloads, and for people who really like green beer bottle natural lighting.

[Found here via here.]

Huang Yung-fu’s Contribution To The World: Painted Village, Taiwan

What started as a hobby became something with more of a purpose. Local families were protesting the scheduled demolition of an abandoned 1940s military encampment just on the outskirts of Taichung. Huang Yung-fu, who is now known as ‘Grandpa Rainbow’ is a veteran with no previous professional trainings. He just picked up a paintbrush about 4 years ago and the whole neighborhood is his huge and borderless canvas to paint.

[Images and caption found here via here.]

A Da Vinci Bridge – 15th Century Engineering

Okay 1502 AD is technically the 16th Century, but the engineering was already in existence.

VERY cool – You can build it on the spot if there’s available timber, no connectors required, and you can knock it down and take it with you once your army has crossed the stream, arroyo, ravine or ditch. Here’s one in use (with planks installed):

This kid constructed one without notches or connectors, using friction and compression only.

[Top image from Da Vinci. 2nd image from here, video from here, links found in here.]

Ruth Norman’s Contribution To The World: Intergalactic Psychic Communications

Ruth Norman (1900-1993) was the gilded leader of “Unarius,” a UFO cult founded with her husband Ernest in 1954. Ruth was not only a figurehead for “interdimensional understanding” but a master at putting together looks fit for an intergalactic space queen.

[Photos & modified caption found here and, yes, there’s more.]

Huang Shiguo’s Contribution To The World: Making Paper The Hard Way

“A 65-year-old resident of a Chinese village named Huang Shiguo has been making paper according to old traditional technology for the last 36 years. According to him, for a month he produces about 3,000 sheets of such paper, earning about 9,000 yuan or 1,400 dollars.
[Huang] argues that paper made in a traditional way is much more durable, quality and soft compared to the manufactured methods. The master sells its products in the local markets of China.”

At time of posting, 9,000 yuan is equivalent to US $1,355, so each sheet of handmade paper earns him about 45 cents. Not bad, given the cost of living in rural China, but he’s not living in rural China. He’s demonstrating and preserving ancient technology, and selling his expensive product while living in a tourist mecca. Pure undiluted capitalism. Kudos.

“Huang Shiguo, 65, makes paper using ancient methods in his home in Baishui Village, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Southwest China’s Guizhou Province. Huang said he began learning the traditional paper-making craft at 29 and has been dedicated to the ancient craft ever since. Locals in the area have a more than 1,000-year history of paper making as the region is rich in Yangshan Bamboo, a main material needed for the craft. Huang said the typical process involves 72 steps and 55 days to produce paper.”

[Photos and 1st caption (translated from Russian via Google Translate) found here. 2nd caption from here.]

6 June 1944 D-Day

In 1944, and against the odds, General Dwight D. Eisenhower accepted the risk and subsequent bloodshed in order to prevent more of it. His leadership freed France from Nazi Germany occupation and was the beginning of the end of the war in Europe.

General Eisenhower was mocked by the left as a dullard, stupid and ignorant. He wasn’t. Not by a long shot.

[Found in here.]

Fallen Astronaut Memorial

Fallen Astronaut is an aluminum sculpture of an astronaut in a spacesuit which commemorates astronauts who died in the advancement of space exploration. It is currently at Hadley Rille on the Moon, having been placed there by the crew of Apollo 15.

It’s the only art installation on the moon. Fourteen names are listed on the memorial plaque, but three are missing. The deaths of two cosmonauts were unknown to the western world, and one astronaut was accidentally overlooked.

[Found here.]

M. Alexis Dolinoff’s Contribution To The World

[Image found here. Related posts here.]

Charles Brace Darrow’s Contribution To The World: Monopoly

Darrow’s “Monopoly” made him a millionaire, but it wasn’t completely original. It was an adaptation of “The Landlord’s Game” patented over three decades earlier by Elizabeth J. Magie:

 

Elizabeth Phllips (nee Magie) renewed her patent in 1924.

[Found here.]

IL Giorno di Cristoforo Columbo

The first commemorative stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service honored Christopher Columbus on the 400th anniversary of his first voyage. $5 bucks in 1892 equates to about $130 in 2017 U.S. dollars, and not many could afford that steep price to ship something trivial.

The signature of Cristoforo Colombo [Italian], aka Cristóbal Colón [Spanish], aka Christophorus Columbus [Latin], aka Christopher Columbus [Anglic]. For the life of me I can’t decipher it, except that the “X” is likely the sign of Christ.

Apparently this mystery has stumped many, and it remains unsolved.

This one dollar Bahamian bill issued in 1974 features an image of Christopher Columbus and equals about $5 U.S. in 2017.

Columbus was a tyrannical leader by most accounts, but the fact that he made four round-trip voyages to The Americas tells us that he had men who were willing and able to take those dangerous risks on both sides of the Atlantic. (Note that Spanish law limited merchants to one slave per ship [source].)

As governor of Hispaniola and the Indies (1492-1499) he was a cruel despot and was removed and jailed by Queen Isabella I of Castile.

[Side note: Queen Isabella I presided over the final years of La Reconquista that began about 711AD. She didn’t put up with no jihad jibbajabba.]

Should we remove Christopher Columbus from history and kowtow to a relative handful of racist SJWs?

NO. His historical accomplishments far outweigh his failures, and he should be honored for his astounding bravery and seamanship in the face of the unknown, not his subsequent decline into dementia and moral turpitude. Any person, group or organization that attempts to rewrite history has nefarious motives in mind.