That’s an elevator and some of the “safety gates” are missing. The workers are wearing wood clogs. Actual date and place is unknown.
[Found here.]
Category: True Stories
Thundercycle
When you’ve got a genuine Russian tank engine lying around, how can you resist repurposing it? And really, tanks are so lumbering and oafish, and with the price of gas nowadays… something a little more sleek and maneuverable is obviously called for.
This giant motorcycle took the team of welders and mechanics at the Harzer Bike Schmiede in Zilly, Germany, almost a year to craft. It is 17′-4″ long, and 7′-6″ tall, and weighs four-and-a-half tons. 1.8 tons of that is the tank engine itself. The Guinness Book of World Records has just confirmed it is the heaviest motorcycle ever (though interestingly, there is no mention of the size dimensions breaking any records.) They are still hoping to obtain a special license to actually drive it on the road.
[Image and description found here.]
This made my day.
Do you see what I see?
That nano pot was posted here on 6 April 2010 and the Head of Microscopy at UCD found it useful. The other responses on the Quorum discussion are cool, too.
Three Women in China
Earliest Tineye image search results link to various Chinese websites (deleted or defunct) ca. February 2008. One source claims these women were accused of witchcraft, which suggests that the picture may have been related to religious persecutions that occurred during the Taiping Rebellion and/or the later Boxer Rebellion.
Religious persecutions persist in modern day communist China, and they are brutal:
“Rooted in atheism and materialism, the communist regime has been brutally suppressing Uyghur Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Falun Gong practitioners for years. Those who refuse to comply with the CCP’s orders are detained and taken to secretive “re-education camps” where they are subjected to unimaginable abuses, including gang rape and electrocution.” [Source]
[Image found here.]
The .Gif Friday Post No. 670 – Umbrella Fella, First Off the Ferry & Beach Buffoon
2nd .gif: It happened 16 September 2016 on the Protoporos IV ferry at the pier in the port of Crimea, when an impatient driver got into his Lada Priora and stomped the gas according to local Russian reports. The driver survived. [source]
John L. Burns
“On the afternoon of July 1, 1863, as the tide of gray soldiers pushed forward towards town, a 69 year old defender confidently strode towards the expanding struggle. A veteran of the War of 1812, John Burns could not simply stand idly by as his home became a hotly contested battle ground. Moving in with the somewhat incredulous men of the Iron Brigade, the near 70 year old Burns fought along side men 50 years his junior. With them he would remain until wounded. Although the Southerners would capture the ground of the McPherson farm that he helped to defend, with assistance from his Union Army comrades, Burns found his way home where he recovered from several wounds received that day. A few months later, John Burns would have the honor of meeting and walking with President Abraham Lincoln when, in November of that year, Lincoln offered his few appropriate remarks to the dedication of the soldiers national cemetery.
Union Lieutenant Frank Haskell, also present for the battle, wrote of his brief contact with Burns. “I saw “John Burns,” the only citizen of Gettysburg who fought in the battle, and I asked him what troops he fought with. He said: “O, I pitched in with them Wisconsin fellers.” I asked what sort of men they were, and he answered: “They fit terribly. The Rebs couldn’t make anything of them fellers.”
And so the brave compliment the brave. This man was touched by three bullets from the enemy, but not seriously wounded.”
According to Burns’s biography in Appleton’s Cyclopedia, during the last two years of his life his mind failed, and his friends were unable to prevent his wandering about the country. He was found in New York City on a cold winter’s night in December 1871, in a state of destitution, and was cared for and sent home, but died of pneumonia in 1872.
[More about John L. Burns here. Colorized image found here, story here. Not sure why the farmhouse photo is distorted.]
Legible Graffiti
Mathieu Tremblin lives and works in Rennes and Arles, France, finds graffiti and enhances them for legibility (and sometimes the taggers return).
“As if tagging the city was about freedom, and drawing decorative letters about control, I wanted to find a project to turn “ugly tags” into something “beautiful”, but preserve the subversive part of language distortion.”
I find it interesting that the vandalism in France is indistinguishable from that in the US, and I wonder why.
[More images here. Poorly translated background story here.]
Really?
I received 10 unordered face masks from the Association of the United States Navy (AUSN) today. They’re promotional, and include a request for donations.
Made in China.
FASHION MASK
Executive Standard FZ/IT 73049-2014
Safety Class B ( it’s can contact with skin directly)
Fashion dust protection, sun protection thermal mask (not medical mask)
Attention This product can be used with multiple times, washable;
No protection against toxic gases
Effect: please use with caution for skin allergy
Typos are as they appear on the package.
Should I burn them?
Update: Here’s the response from AUSN:
Sir,I apologize for the packaging. In response to our COVID-19 survey which showed that the majority of our members were in need of PPE gear. We had hired a veteran owned company in Illinois to do the production and distribution of the masks. It was not until we received the tracking numbers once they were mailed to our membership that we realized they were not coming from the USA. They do in fact have the ability to insert a N95 filter which would increase the level of protection if desired further protection against the virus.Thank for your understanding.
Jen, Jen, Jen…
[All are my own except for the 2nd. The quote in blue is verbatim from a recent press conference.]
Christ Being Led to the Praetorium
“Christ Being Led to the Praetorium,” from “The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry,” Folio 143, back; between 1412 and 1416, by the Limbourg brothers. Tempera on vellum. Condé Museum, France.
[Found here.]
Tacky Raccoons 