No, it's not the Doomsday Device launch key from the "Dr. Strangelove" movie :)
SOLUTION:
This is a USB self-destruct switch, also known as the "USB Data Shredder". Thanks to T, here is a link, and I found another page with a few more pics:
"Despite the skull and crossbones that cover the bright red button at the center of this Self Destruction USB Hub and give it the aura of impending doom if you get anywhere near that button, the device is actually just a four-port USB hub. But in those moments in front of your computer when you lose a ton of work, get fired via email, or slow processing simply breaks the camel's back, sometimes a resource for even merely mimicking your own self-destruction can provide relief. You'll be happy when you wake up the next morning that it wasn't real."
"This picture shows an RCA color TV camera installation at at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. in the 1955-56 period. This system was used to televise operations for instructional purposes. The round object in the center is a high-intensity lighting fixture with an opening in the center. The mirror above the lamp allowed the TV camera to focus on the operation as it proceeded. This picture was probably taken just after the installation was completed. It might be safely assumed that the patients were not expected to lie on the floor." (Reverse Time)
Despite the skull and crossbones that cover the bright red button at the center of this Self Desctruction USB Hub and give it the aura of impending doom if you get anywhere near that button, the device is actually just a four-port USB hub. But in those moments in front of your computer when you lose a ton of work, get fired via email, or slow processing simply breaks the camel's back, sometimes a resource for even merely mimicking your own self-destruction can provide relief. You'll be happy when you wake up the next morning that it wasn't real.
WHAT A GREAT SERIES! Thank you for the inspiration! If I don't get my garden work done, it is the fault of the friend who sent me the link to this great article!
Like don't diss Marxism Leninism! Soviet Union, China, Cuba, North Korea, Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, Chauchesku... That was just a fluke. Just because Marxism has turned every country it touches into a poverty stricken facist hell-hole, doesn't mean there is anything wrong with Marxism or Leninism! Marxism failed because the people in those countries where inherently inferior and evil - Why if good white upper middle class bay-area hipsters like Cory Doctorow were leading the revolution, it would be nothing but kittens and cupcakes for everyone! After all, Cory is so much cooler than a bunch of dirty and ignorant cossacks.
Insightful and profoundly witty though Anonymous' critique may be, it misses doctorow's point. There may well be very good reasons for criticizing communism, but jet-powered ice-sleds isn't one of them.
These are great pictures, and thanks for posting them. But I've got to agree with doctorow, the commmunism crack is silly, particularly since it was only thanks to the revolution that backward, monarchist, agricultural Russia left the dark ages and actually became industrialized.
I'm with the first anonymous poster- clearly Lenin was responsible for the failure to realize futurist visions not only in Russia, but in every other country in the world. I think he must have used commie magic, or something. Seriously though, obviously this vision of the future never came to pass because it's _completely absurd_. Those sleds are hard to make out, but aren't those propellers in front? They appear to float in mid-air, unconnected to the vehicle. It'd be great to have the streets filled with those- one could imagine the carnage if they crashed into anything.
I'm in agreement. There isn't anything funny about Bull baiting. If you can post a series of the person that made the dogs attack the bull being fucked to death by a Rhinoceros I'll laugh at that.
Those were truly awesome. I need a kit-car version of that first one, so my lifelong dream of filming a movie called "Four-Wheelin' at the Mountains of Madness" can finally be fulfilled.
the guy that owns it is a retired airline pilot. he bought that plane used, put it in that forested area and it's his house. he lives somewhere in oregon.
Another notable airplane conversion was a de Havilland converted into a cafeteria by Mexico City's airport, which eventually spawned the Wings restaurant chain. The only picture I could find is under "Historia" at their (over-flashed, slow-loading, misspelled) site at http://www.wings.com.mx
Living in an old airliner up on blocks in your yard isn't all that much different from living in a beat up trailer, but I'd do it, especially if I could get ahold of a 747.
I was in Coca, Ecuador last summer and saw, of all things, a jet airplane turned into a floating nightclub- https://webspace.utexas.edu/faigley/www/ecuador/pages/IMG_1027_JPG.htm
Boeing 307 Stratoliner. IMHO one of the most elegant propdriven aircraft ever produced, certainly the rarest.
I actually worked on this same plane when this picture was taken. I was one of the electricians that restored the plane after it ran out of fuel over Elliot Bay in 2002. A once in a lifetime experience that was.
That football shaped antenna is for the ADF radio, all of the original radio's work on this plane, restored by an old timer who devoted many hours to restoring the radio system, among other retirees from Boeing that helped to restore this wonderfull aircraft.
The Boeing S307 PAA flying cloud in this picture is the only surviving aircraft of ten that were built in the late 30's before WW2. It was designed at the same time as the B17 bomber so it has very similar wings and engines as the old bomber.
A perfectly restored flying craft, the plane now resides in it's final resting spot in the center of the Smithsonian air museum Steven Udvar Hazey Center near the Dulles Airport in Washington DC.
it's so wonderful to discover your blog!~!~!! (found out about it thru GROWABRAIN)...your blog is so amazing and inspiring and entertaining...I'd like to spend hours looking at the pics and reading what-not...
its a pitiful state of affairs when a sociologist (scientist) from any University has a country in a map that doesn't exist for 15 years - namely Yugoslavia....
Quantum Shot # 139
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6 Comments:
Euthanasia machine?
The back of the first machine reminds me of a USB connector.
It's a USB hub which for no good reason has a big red button - it has been on Gizmodo but I can't be faffed to find the link...
http://www.productdose.com/article.php?article_id=5085
Despite the skull and crossbones that cover the bright red button at the center of this Self Desctruction USB Hub and give it the aura of impending doom if you get anywhere near that button, the device is actually just a four-port USB hub. But in those moments in front of your computer when you lose a ton of work, get fired via email, or slow processing simply breaks the camel's back, sometimes a resource for even merely mimicking your own self-destruction can provide relief. You'll be happy when you wake up the next morning that it wasn't real.
It may be a USB hub, but it is very similar to the controller for a 100 ton sheet-metal press at a factory I worked at back around 1987.
Looks like I'm not the only one with human like USB stick cozy design:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/53/148857173_11c09f04cb_m.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/54/148857172_5dd321c7ea_m.jpg
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