This is what I found when I opened the paper this morning:
This is the first time in history a political party has nominated the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation.
Please do not harass the advertiser; compliment them for product placement instead. Image resized and cropped from my MojoFone .jpeg. No photoshop.
He meant to do that. Stunt pilots Lt. Ormer “Lock” Locklear and co-pilot Milton “Skeets” Elliot were filming The Skywayman, a silent movie released in 1920, and crashing the church steeple was part of the script.
From Wiki:
Principal photography on The Skywayman began on June 11, 1920, with DeMille Field 2 as the main base of operations. Despite Locklear’s public claim that new stunts “more daring ever filmed” would be involved, the production would rely heavily on models and less on actual stunt flying. Two stunts, a church steeple being toppled by Locklear’s aircraft and an aircraft-to-train transfer were both problematic and nearly ended in disaster.
Their final stunt did end in disaster, a nighttime dive that killed both Locklear and Elliot instantly when they didn’t pull up in time.
[Image found here.]
Amazing Naval weaponry: Lasers, Railguns and Hypervelocity Projectiles. If this is unclassified, just think of the stuff that is.
Greek Fire was a weapon used successfully to thwart invasions by muslim pirates in the early 7th century.
The Crusades were fought in response to Islamic aggression in the 11th century.
Who were the Barbary Pirates?
Okay, so the carpet caught fire. Big deal. It was an act of God.
Here are the rules for Kingyo-sukui.
Ruining Rock Paper Scissors. Look. Just throw the same 3 times in a row, then double your bet and throw the one that beats your previous three. Pocket your winnings and leave the neighborhood asap. Coming up next: How to get dibs on a baseball bat.
Wild Man From Borneo by Kinky Friedman. One of these days he’s going to have a Tribute band.
I’m not a “gamer” so I’m not sure what to make of The Stanley Parable, but it looks pretty cool.
[Top image from The Greatest Rock Video Under Two Minutes Ever.]
I generally avoid posting cat videos, but this one made me smile. [Found here via here.]
“At a time when the Vietnam War was at its height, one man, John “Chickie” Donohue, snuck back into the war zone to find his 3 closest friends and buy them a beer.”
This guy is probably the only good excuse to get burned up at Coachella. Here’s Gary Clark Jr. cranking some retro blues/rock awesomeness on 16 April 2016.
Have a great weekend folks, see you back here tomorrow for stuff.
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If this is your first time here, have a walkabout; just make sure you leave a trail of breadcrumbs and set the timer, or else click on the “Sampler Plate“at top right. Lot of stuff buried in these archives. We have .gifs every Friday, UToobage every Saturday, and Sundays are often link dumps. –Bunk
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Greek-American inventor Elie Aghnides amassed a fortune coming up with clever inventions.
One of his more unusual creations was the “Rhino,” an amphibious four-wheeled vehicle designed to patrol and defend the vast roadless wastes of Alaska and Canada.
Weighing in at five tons, the four-wheel-drive machine could hit speeds of 45 miles per hour on the highway.
Defining features were its massive front wheels, which had six-foot diameters and weighed 1,500 pounds each. Their hollow, hemispherical shape gave the Rhino its unique all-terrain capability. As the vehicle sank into mud, sand, or other soft surfaces, the bearing surface of the ribbed wheels increased, giving it greater traction.
The Rhino’s massive wheels and low center of gravity also meant it could tip 75 degrees to either side without toppling over.
In the water, the hollow wheels provided flotation, while a rear water jet provided propulsion at speeds of about four miles per hour.
The Marmon-Herrington Company of Indianapolis built one prototype of the Rhino for demonstration. The United States military declined to purchase any, reportedly out of concern that the wheels could be punctured by gunfire, sinking the vehicle [via].
Not only could it float, it had such a low center of gravity that it was nearly impossible to overturn. Here it is in action:
Elie Aghnides didn’t stop there. He created another prototype amphibious vehicle named “The Cyclops,” but for some reason the prototype construction failed. Aghnides won a $120.5K settlement with The Marmon Group in 1972.
I want one, if only to crash Burning Man without paying.
[Images from here, here and here. Found here.]
[Leer sobre la historia del día, clic aquí.]
[Found here.]
USNI News asked its readers, “What is the greatest warship of all time and why?” Though what makes a warship great is highly subjective, our readers offered their education and expertise to put forth their ideas as to what the answer to that question should be. And with nearly 900 reader-generated answers and more than 26,000 votes, the results are in.
The results are interesting, and this one amazed me.
Readers also held particular esteem for the uniquely Korean “turtle boats” that came into form under Admiral Yi Sun-Shin, who in 1591 resurrected and modified the best features from designs from nearly two centuries prior to produce the Kohbukson — “turtle ship” — whose convex-covered decks resembled a turtle shell. Averaging in length from 70-110 feet, these flat-bottomed, boats, studded with spikes to prevent board and spaced with gunports, loopholes for muskets, and sporting a a powerful psychological weapon — a smoke-spewing dragon’s head at the bow — were not only virtually impenetrable, but also fast and maneuverable. The ships played a decisive role in defeating regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s numerically-superior fleets during Japan’s invasion of the Korean peninsula of the Imjin War of 1592-1598. The ramifications of that defeat still resonate to this day.
More on the Turtle Ships (including a link to a History Channel vid) here. See the rest of the poll winners here.
What an ordeal.
Once Verizon bumped off its FIOS service to Frontier Communications on April Fool’s Day (appropriately enough) stuff happened.
We started hearing an unidentifiable *beep* from somewhere in the house, but it was of such short duration we couldn’t pinpoint the source. We timed it, and the missus and I positioned ourselves in various spots every 15 minutes attempting to triangulate it with no luck. We were hunting for an electronic cricket and after unplugging/dismantling every thing we knew that could beep, it kept recurring. We thought we we’d been pranked by a friend, cursed him while searching likely spots he might have hidden a quarter-sized “beeper.” No dice.
On a whim I opened up the FAU closet and found the culprit. There was the Verizon FIOS equipment, and every 15 minutes it was telling us that its backup battery was dead. Bastards.
So I reset the alarm, yanked the battery. Silence for 24 hours, and then it began again – every fifteen minutes. Hitting the reset button daily was a temporary solution, but we could finally get some sleep without that infernal beeping.
Perhaps it was just a coincidence, that I’d only imagined that the Utoobage was stuttering. Nah.
Then BAM.
Nine days later, our landline and internest access crapped out. The landline came back, but internet access and WIFI was dead. I called Frontier Communications. Technicians would be out the following day between 8AM and 6PM (a tight window) so I took the following day off without pay, as did the Frontier Communications techs who didn’t bother to show up or call to cancel the appointment.
Buh-bye, Frontier Communications.
Time Warner Cable has been deluged with calls from disgruntled Verizon / Frontier Communications subscribers to set up new services, so we waited it out. Three “appointments” later, Time Warner Cable finally came through this morning.
I never realized how much we depend on internest access, and having to watch TV only added to the torture. Instead, I watched “End Of The Century” and “The Imitation Game,” and read Elliot Carson’s excellent book “Joe Rochefort’s War.”
Anyway, we’re back. Thanks for your patience, and we’ll try to make up for lost time.
Bunk
[Related post here, and no, that’s not me in the .gif.]
Tacky Raccoons 