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Why do politicians always go for babies to be photographed with on their campaign trail...I would never let one of them hold mine to try and use them as a boost to their popularity. Its wrong as far as I am concerned to use babies and children to get their policies across.
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That camshaft is huge. I wonder how hard it is for this thing to sink.
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I wonder the same thing. How do these ships fair compared to smaller ships, in the roughest of seas?
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I wonder what sort of stuff they ship with it.
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Uhhh thats a crank shaft not a cam shaft.
--ShagSpeed
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The norwegian company he is talking about is Bergersen Shipping.
The ship carried oil and needed specially built ports to fill/empty its hulls.
This ship is a legend.
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sure it's nice to have a big haul of a ship, but if it sinks you lose that much more in one shot...
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Thank you for this updated link - article updated now.
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Check out the pic I took of "Freedom of the Seas" in Oslo last summer...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brandnewbrain/139791450
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Oyvind, thanks for this
lovely pic!
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Hi, I'm a Korean Blogger focusing on Internet issue, gossips, and gadget. Anyway, I posted about your amazing articles and internet traffic. Thank you.
by Outsider
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The only thing missing is the cornfield.
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omg!! that's not a ship its an island!!
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nice blog!
did you have a look at the Vincent Callebaut's projet, the lilypads, floatting cities?
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The last photo is the Isthmus of Corinth, in Greece.
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I agree with the previous anonymous. The last photo indeed is the Corinth channel in Greece.
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For the love of Pete - it's the work of the French military!
http://www.dbookbooth.com/view_product.php?product=407
Description:
So, what's the most unusual military vehicle you can think of? Maybe the Japanese airplane-launching submarine of WW2? Or perhaps the Soviet attempts to build a flying tank? Or perhaps the 1000 ton rolling fortress the Germans tried to build in WW2? All quite odd, I agree, but barely made it past the drawing boards. For us, the oddest is a moped armed with a 75mm cannon.
After World War II, there was little money for defense spending while the nations of Europe rebuilt their industry and society. When there was some cash to spend, one had to be creative to stretch it as far as possible. The French probably accomplished the most astounding example of that with the ACMA Troupes Aeról Portées Mle. 56. Deployed with their airborne forces, this was essentially a militarized Vespa scooter outfitted with a 75mm recoilless rifle. Five parachutes would carry the two-man gun crew, weapon, ammunition, and two scooters safely to earth, and the men would load the weapon on one scooter and the ammo on the other, then ride away. More impressively, the recoilless rifle could be fired effectively on the move by the best of the gun crews. Total cost? About $500 for the scooter and the recoilless rifle was war surplus. Were they successful military machines? Well, the French Army deployed about 800 armed scooters in wars conducted in both Algeria and Indochina.
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That's the only time I've seen a Vespa that could honestly be called a crotch rocket.
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'troupes aéroportées' not 'aerol portées' :)
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So recoil wasn't a problem with a recoiles rifle? Crazy.
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I don't mean to be hypercritical but don't call a scooter a moped.....it calls into question your entire writing ability if you dont even research the topic enough to know the difference
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moped is how they call it in the linked article. However, you are right, and I changed the quote.
Thanks for pointing it out.
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I saw this contraption in another article that says the Vespa was only used for transporting the rifle. I think that is probably the truth because, if you look at the way the rifle is mounted, there is no way to adjust the elevation of the weapon independent of the scooter.
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you can't be supposed to sit on it while fireing? right?
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Hmm, this is certainly a way to consider adapting my scooter so that people in cars/trucks/SUVs will pay attention and not cut me off!
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The Vespa was designed to utilize the surplus starter motors from WWII Italian aircraft. The Vespa is the ultimate example of beating swords into plowshares. I do not appreciate the French military turning our lovely freedom wheels into messengers of death.
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Aside from the problem of fixed elevation, there's absolutely no reason why this couldn't be fired with a rider on the saddle. Recoilless rifles up to 105mm were fired from the shoulder, so the only thing stopping someone from firing this is the psychological impediment of having it between their knees.
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The 75mm was light enough to be shoulder-fired by a strong man, but was usally fired from an ordinary machine-gun tripod.
What looks odd about this thing is that the gun doesn't look easily removable from the Vespa. It's got to be drawn back until the muzzle clears the hole.
The tripod, and more ammo, could certainly be carried on the other Vespa. And that all makes sense.
Shooting the gun while mounted on the Vespa: that seems pretty desperate.
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Elevation wasn't a problem - it's a recoilless rifle, not an artillery piece. This was designed to fire rockets, not bullets. The rockets travelled essentially in a straight line, so "up-arcing" was not needed. I'm sure that the rifle was designed to be fired whilst installed on the scooter.
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Recoiless rifles don't use 'rockets' either. It works just like a regular artillery piece except that the casing is perforated (holes up and down the brass case, lightly covered but that blow out upon firing) and the rear of the artillery is ported. When fired, equal energy goes out the case holes and through the rear of the gun (blast) to counter the recoil of the shell going out the business end, thus 'recoiless'. Don't be standing behind one when it fires - you would be roasted!
Recoiless rifles fell out of favor by the '70s - early '80s, due to the shell weight (all that extra powder to just go out in the rear blast) and with the introduction of wire guided missles, et al.
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"Recoilless".
Don't stand behind it, though, it throws an equal mass out the back to cancel the recoil.
They also fitted 75mm recoillesses to B-25 bombers in WW2 and used them for shooting up trains and armor on the ground.
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I"ve never seen a more stunning example of a bunch of guys who have no idea what they're talking about.
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I'm the owner of such a Vespa TAP Military Scooter and also search information for several years now. There is a "huge hill" of wrong information written. The person who was write the M20 75mm could fired from the shoulder of a strong man didn't have seen ever this canon in real or did transportet it from one point to another point. The manual from the US Military is speaking of a six man team. The firing was every time from a tripod which was also transported with this Vespa. Normaly a collector has only the Vespa and the M20 75mm. Firing fixed from the Vespa was impossible, because by driving you didn't had any change to be in a fixed route. But there are also other different points because it's impossible.
The Vespa had his own constructed motor and never ever a surplus starter motor from a aircraft. This is realy a fairytale.
Again: "I'm sure that the rifle was designed to be fired whilst installed on the scooter."
I was spoken with a old military soldier from the french army who was ridding such a Vespa in Algeria. IT WAS IMPOSSIPLE TO DO THIS. Also the had big problems with this Vespa and their 8" wheels in the sand to drive with this complete package (6 rockets, tripot, M20 75 MM, driver, diff. small things, some fuel add.). The conception was changed into Vespa scooter with a radio equipment in a trailer (as seen also on photos from the museum of piaggio).
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if it wasnt designed to be fired while attached, why mount it through a hole in the front? wouldnt it have been simpler to mount and easier to remove if just lashed to the side?
either way if anybody has any official documentation on it that would be great. it is a very interesting vehicle.
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You don't remove the rifle by pulling it backwards. The saddle has hinges so you can easily open it sideways. If you look closely, you will see that there's a latch on the front shield just above the muzzle of the gun. This latch can be removed easily, thus making it possible to lift the rifle of the Vespa. Quite ingenious really. Remember this was the 50's. The first model appeared in 1956 and the second one in 1959, the differences being in the materials used for the cooling hood of the engine and the ACMA badge.
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has anyone got one for sale in any condition.private collector seeks. please e.mail lou.shed@blueyonder.co.uk
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the m 20 (US army issue) altho a little heavy at 114.5 lbs it was shoulder fire weapon ,recoilless means just that it dont kick ,it shakes .speculation on my part is the little vespa was just a way to get a 6 man crew down to 2 ,air dropable didnt have to travel far or fast ,need proof of this?my team had an air dropable steal wheel roller ,now that is scarie watching it tossed out of a c47
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No wonder the French lost both Algeria and Indochina . . .
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Very neat little contraption... A bunch of nitwits pretending they know what they're talking about though. "Rifle" and "cannon"; these words have nothing to do with missiles. It fires an artillery shell. And firing a 75mm cannon (let alone 105mm) on a man's shoulder is about the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
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Like this one, an 90mm one, shown in the picture fired from the shoulder:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M67_recoilless_rifle
Recoilless rifles aren't cannons either, they are their own type of weapon.
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Wow, looks like that scooter on www.customeretrofit.com
It is a crazy scooter there. Modifiying the scooter and doing a custom retrofit on it.
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I love these little guys! I might just have to start making some of these out of old stuff I've got lying around.
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Totally. Gundams are the worst thing ever.
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The uncredited artbot (above the mouse) is by Al Honig (http://www.alhonig.com/). I'm sure he'd appreciate the link!
Cheers,
Head Rotor from Suicidebots
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Hey thanks for this artbot info! Great scultures!
Added the link.
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Those are so cool!
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The 'dreadnaught' bot is just a slightly customized Dreadnaught figurine from Warhammer 40,000, a tabletop wargame from British publisher Games Workshop. Some Russian guy just went fro more steampunk look, instead of 40K canonical techno-gothic.
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"pitkä kuljetus" is Finnish and means "long transportation" so the truck is most definitely Finnish.
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Yeah, and the transportation took certainly place in Finland which is not, by the way, Eastern European country.
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Good detective work!
Thanks for the tip... fixed
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Love your blogspot - so much to see and always fascinating photos. Thanks!
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"The Soviet Buran shuttle on top of the giant An-225 (6 engines!)"
32 wheels!
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That stationery set is creepy as hell!
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that's not a "thinking of you" card I'd ever want to receive, thanks.
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LOL
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well at least he enjoyed himself
www.tratfor.com
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In the background of that second last picture, it says
2006 6GB $400.00
6GB? $400? You can get 500GB for under $300.00.
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Hm... this is the stand of one of the Russian dealers; i guess it gives an idea of Russian souped-up prices.
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Very cool. You'd think they would have put the drive in that first picture in some kind of crate before they loaded it on the plane.
How'd you do that cascading pics thing at the bottom of your post? Is that something from Blogger?
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by the time, the size reducing.. now I can have my 2 GB flashdisk as big as my finger.. I can't imagine how small it will be after 20 years after now..
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yeah it's only a hard disk that needs a huge magnifying glass to view, something that small couldn't possibly cost more than a regular hard disk :P
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God create man..
man create alphabet,
so, it's not difficult for God to write alphabet on His creature..
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"QUANTUM SHOT" #62
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SFSite
5 Comments:
Except for 4, 5, and 15, I've said every single one of those, though not to a customer directly.
Thank you for the procrastination one. I think i just found my new life motto and screen saver.
Those posters are copyright material. Just a fair warning that you might at least want to give credit to Despair.Com -- the folks that make them. (Not the Star Trek ones though.)
I'm not affiliated with them, but I have purchased their calendar. :)
BTW, your word verification isn't a word.
Thanks for the heads-up. I credited another site as source, but now included Despair.com, as well. A few of the posters are "homemade" on the make-it-yourself site linked above.
I don't think you need to worry too much about copyright for these kinds of things.. especially since the ones that might be copyright have a watermark on them anyways....
ANYWAYS, the link you put for the "make your own" demotivational pictures isn't working, I use www.demotivationalpics.com/index.php#generator to make my demotivators. That site is great.
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