Click smaller images to engorge.
[Found in here. Top one from the 2016 RNC… kinda.]
Tag: WTF
Old School Selfie
Bigass Ammonite Fossil is not a Bigass Ammonite Fossil
Yep, that looks like a bigass prehistoric ammonite fossil, and it’s not a snail fossil as the caption states.
Ammonites are perhaps the most widely known fossil, possessing the typically ribbed spiral-form shell as pictured above. These creatures lived in the seas between 240 – 65 million years ago, when they became extinct along with the dinosaurs. The name ‘ammonite’ (usually lower-case) originates from the Greek Ram-horned god called Ammon. Ammonites belong to a group of predators known as cephalopods, which includes their living relatives the octopus, squid, cuttlefish and nautilus [via].
I found the top image (with the erroneous caption) in here, and wondered about the story behind it. Since fossils are typically embedded in rock and I didn’t see any hole or excavation, something seemed off.
Ammonite fossils are common, but are rarely larger than about 9 inches in diameter. Sure, some larger species have been found, but why wasn’t this one encased in plaster, crated up and shipped to an archeological museum? How could something so heavy and brittle stay in one piece while being tilted up? How could four guys lift it, let alone one?
A Tineye search brought me to the source – a 2005 documentary filmed in Lyme Regis, England for the BBC series “Journey of Life.”
“This giant ammonite was actually a replica that we used to show how big ammonites could grow. Made of polystyrene it squeaked as we rolled it down the beach. The look of gob-smack on the faces of Jurassic Coast fossil collectors was priceless!”
Paul Williams, 3 September 2013.
This “fossil” was a prop, and it had a cameo role in Episode 1: Seas of Life.
[Full story with photos here.]
Perhaps you’re wondering why I suddenly found an interest in large fabricated ammonite fossils. It’s because I saw that top picture and wanted to do this with it:
Grinch.
Hot Links Del Mar
Electric eel leaping out of a tank to shock a fake alligator head [via].
Woman from San Diego has been banned from visiting over 21% of America.
Riding the Strandbeest bike [via].
Classic P.J. O’Rourke heresy. (Don’t get any ideas, kids.)
PNBHS Haka for Mr. Tamatea’s Funeral Service is still an excellent tribute.
“100 Years” is a movie scheduled for release in 2115. The idea is to purchase metal tickets and pass them on to your descendants.
“…We can be rich in cotton and mining metals, and silk worms, and we can make things, things cars, the machine can make it for us; and we can have the community, and city, in San Francisco; and we can make things and put them in the store. On the East Coast they have slaves and believe in slavery and made in China…” She has it all figured out.
[Top image: Giant gastropod egg capsules of the species Adelomelon brasiliana washed up near Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires and were herded into concentric circles by locals. Found here.]
Saturday Matinee – USS America, Accidents & Blunders, Johnny Winter w/ Popa Chubby
Cool timelapse of USS America LHA-6 arriving in Pearl Harbor for RIMPAC 2016 (not to be confused with the aircraft carrier USS America CV-66 which was decommissioned in 1996) [via].
[Found here.] Warning: Too dark for young kids.
Here’s something a bit lighter.
Johnny Winter, with Popa Chubby, Frank Latorre & The King Bees, at the B.B. King Blues Club in NYC on 23 February 2014.
Have a great weekend, folks.
The .Gif Friday Post No.442 – Flip Fail, Emu Chase & Dog Spit
Treebeard
[Found here.]
Update: I suspected that it might be a very good photoshop, but I was wrong. It’s a 65 year-old beech tree in Bulgaria. Via UK Daily Mail 1 June 2016:
Deyan Kossev, 49, spotted the unusual tree when he was hiking through the forest, saying “nobody knows” why the trunk and branches have formed this way.
“I was walking through the mountains when suddenly I spotted him. I was speechless and stopped in my tracks. It was surreal, it looks exactly like a man does. It has the legs, arms, body and head of a man and they are all in proportion too.”
Manikins, Watermelons & Fireworks: A Deadly Mix
Proof that manikins have no business setting off fireworks. Jump to 01:00 for the splodeys.
Don’t shoot bottle rockets at each other’s eyes or hold exploding M-80s, kids, and definitely don’t lean over a firework that’s going to shoot into the air and explode [via].
They could at least have made it more realistic and scattered some empty beer cans around. Here’s one with an appropriate soundtrack from 2010:
The manikins recovered from their injuries (several times) but they never learn from their mistakes. This one’s from 2009:
[Above videos courtesy of the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.]
Meanwhile, this guy’s got some manikin blood in him.
Yeah, the explosion turned the lights on and changed his shirt, but so what. It’s still a classic.
Be sane tomorrow, and if you can’t manage that, at least be safe.
Tacky Raccoons 