True Stories – Page 58 – Tacky Raccoons

Fire and Ice – February 2015

Philadelphia firefighters work the scene of an overnight blaze in west Philadelphia on February 16, as icicles hang from where the water from their hoses froze. Bone-chilling, single digit temperatures have gripped the region, prompting the closure of all parish and regional Catholic elementary schools in the city of Philadelphia.

Ice encases a traffic light and two fire fighting ladders, formed from water used to fight a fire, near the scene of an overnight blaze in west Philadelphia on February 16.

Vehicles and a building are covered with ice as firefighters worked to keep a warehouse fire down in the Brooklyn borough of New York on February 1.

Beacon Street in Boston on February 16.

That last one wasn’t the result of fire hoses, but it’s awesome. Beside the threat of ice and snow collapsing roofs, the huge icicles are potential killers down below.

[All images and captions from here, via here. Click photos for full size.]

Saturday Matinee – Mardi Gras & St. Valentine’s Day Combined: Smoking Time Jazz Club, Grampa Eliot and Doreen’s Jazz

“Percolatin’ Blues” courtesy of Smoking Time Jazz Club.

Grampa Eliot sings the truth.

Doreen’s Jazz is entirely awesome.

Have a great weekend, folks, remember the Presidents who afforded us our freedoms and those who assist in taking them away, and be back here tomorrow for more stuff.

Oh, and this and this. Do it.

The Bug That Wasn’t A Bug But Was.

Take a guess as to what it was – the answer’s below the break. Continue reading “The Bug That Wasn’t A Bug But Was.”

Aztec Death Whistle

It sounds exactly what my daughter’s boyfriend listens to. At first I thought it was a hoax, but apparently it’s not.

[Found here, via here.]

Screen Caps – How To Make

That’s a CRT Trace Camera for HP 54600 series digitizing oscilloscopes, but you already knew that. Circa 1991, that state of the art high-tech appurtenance would cost over $1k in 2015 dollars.

[Found here.]

Fireproofing

[Found here.]

The Kinder River Waterfail

Kinder Downfall is the tallest waterfall in the Peak District, with a 30-metre (98 ft) fall. The waterfall was formerly known as Kinder Scut, and it is from this that the plateau derives its name. Although usually little more than a trickle in summer, in spate conditions it is impressive. In certain wind conditions (notably when there is a strong west wind), the water is blown back on itself, and the resulting cloud of spray can be seen from several miles away. [Wiki]

[Found here, via here. 1st link has a video that blows me away.]

Cabezas de bebé en las rodillas

For those of you who don’t “hobble the spaniel,” here’s Bing Translator: “Heads of baby on her knees.”

[Found here.]

“The Mind that can’t stop thin king.”

No one can stop thin king. The entire concept is awesome, because when you squint your eyes you can see a small dog squatting in your mother’s flowerbed. The image is copyrighted, just like every other scribble you’ve ever seen on the internest.

“…Sophie ankle-biting kikmi dog nipping my ankles as I step out my own front door and laughing as she poops on my own front porch and laughing the way a kikmi dog does knowing that she doesn’t live here and is too small to send flying to the curb with the quick broadside of a boot – until now.”

[Found here.]

1952 Ariel Square Four Wood Racer

More than one person actually built one of those vehicles, and one of the cars is in a museum in St. Louis, Missouri (oh, and check out that 1956 prediction of a Smart Phone).

We bet that most people are only faintly aware that the Ariel motorcycle brand existed at all. There was a time, though, when the British company was a pioneer in new and exciting technologies, innovating where others were content to soldier forward with tried-and-true methods. In fact, its eventual failure was due in part to its futuristic designs. For instance, Ariel introduced the world to its Square Four motorcycle in 1931. Named for its oddly-shaped engine architecture that placed four cylinders in a box pattern, the Square Four was completely unlike anything else offered at the time and used two sets of pistons mated at the flywheel inside a single engine block that was capped by a single head casting. Different to say the least, but ultimately pretty successful for Ariel, which went on to sell over 15,000 of the bikes before production ceased in 1959.

An interesting home-built hotrod has just shown up on eBay that mates this classic engine to a custom wooden body designed by – get this – a boat builder. The vehicle itself was inspired by a Modern Mechanix Magazine article from the ’50s and features a French connection by way of suspension components from a Citroen. Cadillac bullet-shaped tail lights may look a little out of place, but are nothing if not period correct.

[Found here, via here. Related post here.] Oh, and did you spot that “Phone of Tomorrow? The prediction wasn’t far off. Link at the link.