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Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Having a Ball



Link
Scroll down for today's pictures & links.

Having a Ball!

London zoo otter having fun with a small white rock.



url

Today's pictures & links:
Click to enlarge images.

Managing just fine


(image credit: National Geographic)

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Strange Machinery

Neat photo "pool" on Flickr - click here to browse. All kinds of weird mechanisms. Here is a carding machine:


(image credit: massenpunkt)

Test tubes for the aspiring mad scientist:


(image credit: Walter Dukes)

Am awesome Victorian clock at Musee d'Orsay in Paris, 1900:


(image credit: Patrick S.)

Augustinian Friar's Astrological Clock - one of the hands takes 20,000 years to revolve. At the Clock Museum in Vienna:


(image credit: Curious Expeditions)

Strange assembly in Portland, Oregon. What does it do?
(probably some kind of an air duct)


(image credit: Victor von Salsa)

Coming back to our times: Boeing 747 cockpit view, center pedestal:
(click to check out notes describing almost every button)


(image credit: down in the blue)

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Cool Shot of the Day
(in cooperation with National Geographic magazine)

Love is in the air
as Valentine's Day approaches.


(image credit: Adam Rose, National Geographic)

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Mixed fresh links for today:

When fonts decide go dating... - [fun game]
Air Disaster Simulations - [interesting]
Impressive limo for communists - [auto]
Antique Japanese Armor Gallery - [wow history]
Who knew diagrams could be so much fun? - [fascinating]
Best Valentine Secrets from PostSecret.com - [cute video]
Apocalyptic London by day, by night - [wow art]
One Lean Mean Schoolbus - [car video]
Aaaaahhhhhh!!! - [video ad]
A digital pen and computer mouse – all in one tool - [tech]

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"Nature vs. Art" -
New fun poll on Polls Boutique

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Interesting Map: The Hand of Moscow

Form the heady days of Cold War comes this image:


(image credit: R. M. Chapin, Jr.)

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Hy-Art

Marc Olmstead makes Hy-Art - The "Hy" stands for "Hybrid." He takes two or more classic works of art, and combine them into a new, third work. For example, Monet and Dali:



or Tissot and O'Keefe:


(images credit: Marc Olmstead)

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Sparta!!!


(original unknown)

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The Fantastic in Art & Fiction

Rare Manuscript Collection. Here is an example:







------------

In the business news today: markets are rebounding slightly because of the recent reports of increased consumption and consumer spending in the US:



+StumbleUpon

Permanent Link...

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COMMENTS:

6 Comments:

Anonymous jon said...

re: "Test tubes for the aspiring mad scientist":

did someone actually make the ancient egyptian 'thingy' seen here?:

http://ancientx.com/images/sued1_big.jpg

___  
Anonymous Alex said...

The London panorama is great!!
Thanks!

___  
Blogger Avi Abrams said...

Wow, Jon - I think you're onto something!

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jon, Thats amazing.

___  
Blogger Stephen said...

I remember seeing the man with the sewing machine in a National Geographic

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Re: Strange assembly in Portland, Oregon. What does it do?
(probably some kind of an air duct)

It's a dust collector assembly, most likely to collect sawdust.

___  

Post a Comment

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Most Powerful Supercomputers
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  • My favorite line from Barbarella:

    "Angels don't make love... Angels ARE Love!"
    Read more

  • I nominate CQ:

    It's a bit quantum, as it's a movie about a babe-in-space movie, but it is worthy nonetheless

    http://imdb.com/title/tt0254199/
    Read more

  • When I was young, I discovered a stack of Playboys from the '60s in my uncle's old room in my grandmother's basement. One of them had a pictorial of the set of Barbarella you would've loved.
    http://www.dtmagazine.com/cmopg1924/pb368.html
    Read more

  • I would like to see some screen shots of the fantastic outfits from "The Third Element", especially the air/space line hostesses!
    Read more

  • Thanks for the UFO pics. Great show, with some very attractive space ladies: Gabrielle Drake, Ayshea, Wanda Ventham, Delores Mantez and Antonia Ellis.

    Also don't forget Christine Kochanski in Red Dwarf and many Doctor Who companions and Star Trek and... I just exposed myself for the ubernerd I am.
    Read more

  • YOu forgot to mention that Barbarella has an amazing title sequence where Jane Fonda strips and the letters from the titles dance to cover up her lady bits:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH8snUjAAUE
    Read more

  • Ubernerds rule the Earth
    Read more

  • Avi, you are right. We do rule the earth and rightly so!

    Thanks again for your great website. A day is not complete without my Dark Roasted Blend.
    Read more

  • Anonymous, do you mean The FIFTH Element?
    Read more

  • what about nova from planet of the apes?
    Read more

  • The Remake has Rose McGowan playing Barbarella and is being directed by Robert Rodriguez. Just thought you would appreciate the Info.
    Read more

  • And you can't forget Marta Kristen from the original Lost in Space: http://www.martakristen.com/marta/gallery/marta_68.jpg
    Read more

  • When I was young, I discovered a stack of Playboys from the '60s in my uncle's old room in my grandmother's basement. One of them had a pictorial of the set of Barbarella you would've loved.
    http://www.dtmagazine.com/cmopg1924/pb368.html
    Read more

  • Superb post, a subject after my own heart.
    Read more

  • That "unidentified carnivorous plant" looks suspiciously like Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors...
    Read more

  • Regarding the Ford Focus Orchestra, as visually entertaining as that video was, I suspect the music is overdubbed or at least enhanced by real instruments. It sounds too clean to be coming from those contraptions.
    Read more

  • The final "mystery" picture reminds me of some of the album art for the musicians "The Moog Cookbook"
    Read more

  • The what is it pic is an aerial shot of a croc snout.
    Read more

  • If that's not Moog Cookbook, it's someone inspired by them.
    Read more

  • RE: "Child Bear"

    Obviously it's a misspelled version of "Chilled Beer"; but it's get weirder when the Hindi script there says "Government's Chilled Beer Store"!!! WTF!!
    Read more

  • I truly love the UFO drawn above the electricity sign
    Read more

  • The 'Child Bear' one says 'Prakash's Teddy Bear Shop'
    Read more

  • The crushed mercedes is in downtown Macon, GA. I used to drive by there pretty regularly. I'm pretty sure the church spire in the background is St. Joseph's
    Read more

  • "vyhod fasistu z okna" in the antifa picture means "throw the fasist out of window"
    Read more

  • The first one's a warning that there are jellyfish, I believe.
    Read more

  • The top one's a jellyfish warning. Jellyfish in Northern Australia are some of the most toxic animals on earth (most toxic is the Stone fish, which also lives there), so if beaches are prone to jellyfish the warnings are valid.
    Read more

  • I've seen the Church of Uncertain sign several times. It is in Uncertain, TX. Uncertain is a very small town with population just over 100. I always laugh at all the different Uncertain signs there.
    Read more

  • Thank you for the info, campblood... interesting!
    Read more

  • One of my favourites is the "No Dog Poop" sign.

    When I was living in Belgium, I got one of these at the local hardware store and put it up next to my desk at work. I don't think they ever got the joke....
    Read more

  • i'm pretty sure the "the joy of not being sold anything" is a work by Banksky
    Read more

  • I found the "used rainbows" to be the best, although many were good. But about the holy ground: The chucks has a russian orthodox cross, the cell tower has a roman catholic cross. That could be a deliberate thing.
    Read more

  • A note on the http://lh5.google.ca/abramsv/R7Dx-aoDzzI/AAAAAAAAIG4/y27mLScsZXE/79C01484-B431-40DC-B672-2D62558841E7.jpg?imgmax=512 sign. The funny thing about it is a very odd way in which one of the letters is drawn, so it became hard to read the last row differently than 'to shit' in Russian. 'Welcum' would be a good translation, I think.
    Read more

  • The first of the Jon Dunbar photos is especially funny - the Korean words are transliterations of the original English words.

    Going word by word, the Korean is pronounced as follows:

    Kuh Rab (crab)
    Bee Em Tee (BMT)
    Ham (Ham)
    Bee Jee Suh Dee Ra Ee Tuh (Veggie Delite)
    So Buh Way Kul Lobe (Subway Club)
    Chee Keen Bu Ray Suh Tuh (Chicken Breast)

    and so on... The Korean characters spell out the English words - the only actual Korean word on the sheet is Cham-Chi, the word they used for Classic Tuna!
    Read more

  • "inhaled. burned. Thrown away. if it were anything but a cigarette, it would surely be crying"

    Not really engrish at all ... thats actually what it says in Japanese as well.

    I think its a really good sign actually.
    Read more

  • The BIG "van seumeren" crane:
    This company (now: Mammoet") owns the two largest cranes in the world. Both can be transported in 40 foot container sized parts. THe assembly on site takes a mere two days. They´re the same people thatraised the Kursk submarine in murmansk. A wonderfull example of dutch stuborness...
    Read more

  • reminds me of the "mercedes massacre" last year in berlin! ;)

    mercedes massacre
    Read more

  • Once again a great line up.
    Keep up the good work.
    Read more

  • look this after very strong vind http://picasaweb.google.com/c25land/JeB
    Read more

  • haha the first 4 pics of the 2 part happened in holland they where lifting a dredging boat wich has sunk.
    the first crane fell over and the mamoet had to come whit a crane
    link
    http://www.waldnet.nl/fotonieuws.php?d=1163946127
    Read more

  • s u p e r b
    Read more

  • The big tube thing lifted from either end is part of the pylon (upright) for a wind turbine. Great collection of photos!
    Read more

  • This puts on the desk the importance of training and knowlege in fisics and mechanisms that a crane operators mus have before taking the machine's controls.
    Read more

  • The last photo of the tree girl is from a movie poster of some sad Sandra Bullock movie that just came out and no one heard about.
    Read more

  • yer the movie is premonition. not that im a fan of it. i just work in a video shop.
    Read more

  • The video is by a french guy called Remy from nimportequi.com. He does great stuff and it would be nicer to give him the creds than to post a link to youtube....
    Read more

  • wonderful... I updated credits.
    Read more

  • Thank you for cool blog!

    Regarding the tree lady... Here is a "real" on i shot in Amsterdam: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rasta_p/2238385373/
    Read more

  • That Sandra Bullock movie is called Premonition.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477071/

    Cool image though.
    Read more

  • That picture called Vegas with the Golden nugget hotel isn't Vegas it's Reno, Reno has the golden nugget.
    Read more

  • Note the "godless" version of the Pledge of Allegance - the addition of "under God" came in the 1950s.
    Read more

  • The pictures of the people bathing at the edge of a waterfall were taken at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. It is quite safe to chill out in the shallow rock pools right by the edge. Quite a breath taking experience indeed. Great collection of pictures. Thanks.
    Read more

  • The baby magpie with its mouth open and the odd cashews photos are made into online jigsaw puzzles that you can play on the National Geographic site (pages 3 and 4):
    http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/yourshot/jigsaw-puzzle.html
    Read more

  • I`m guessing... toilets?
    Read more

  • The logical answer would be linked the earlier note about them possibly being on a trade route, they were probably used to collect rainwater so it would help travelers or some sort of message courier with water so they didn't have to run off path as much trying to find water.
    Read more

  • Ye olde warp zone.
    Read more

  • the rainwater thing doesn't really fit, otherwise there wouldn't be any lids
    also, they would probably be more evenly spaced rather than clustered about.
    I addition, there used to be lots of smaller ones but the ones that were small enough to be moved have mostly been stolen.
    There's a fantastic story about how they were used to make sake and covered with the skins of fallen enemies, but the guides keep telling you they really don't know, although their best guess is that they were tombs, either for actual bodies or for ashes
    Read more

  • They're drums. Stretch a skin, tie it in place and bang it with a stick. Woomba-loomba! Woomba-loomba! Boombadoomba BOOM BOOM BOOM!
    Read more

  • They where used by MACV-SOG to capture demons.
    Read more

  • Apparently they were used to store alcohol left for weary travellers along specific trade routes. But some of the other tales are much more entertaining.
    Read more

  • Definately ovens. Clustered about where there were farming villages. The remains of the housing just eroded over the years.
    Read more

  • Toilets IMHO
    Read more

  • I agree with the genius who said they're little tombs for ashes or whatever body parts would fit in them.
    My uneducated guess is that they were made after a battle. My Buddhist friend from Thailand said that most people are buried in tombs if they can afford it.
    Read more

  • My father who is from Laos used to tell stories of ancient armies who would use these jars as containers for grain, however without further evidence one can't really know.
    Read more

  • After watching the Alien movies it's pretty obvious what these are for. Wonder if there are still some in the ones with the lids.
    Read more

  • I'd go with either ovens or storage of some sort. I doubt it's rain water, but it's possible that water was collected for crops
    Read more

  • About the STS-75 "Tether Incident" video, what we're seeing are objects close to the camera, which is obvious for a couple of reasons:

    Their fuzzy outline, when supposedly moving behind the tether is more in keeping with small particles near the camera going out of focus.

    If some of the "ufos" were a mile in size, they would have been visible from the ground. Hundreds of amateur astronomers were watching it, and none of them saw any "ufos" flying around the tether.

    There is having an open mind and leaving your mind so open that your brain falls out.
    Read more

  • I do not know anything about this dog on the gun, but there seems to be a tradition:
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=503870&in_page_id=1811
    Read more

  • Kedamono:
    yes, this is how legends about ufos originate; good illustration.
    Read more

  • I do not doubt that the objects in the "Tether Incident" are indeed smaller debris closer to the camera, but why do they appear to go behind the tether? Is the tether image burned into the camera chip (like tube style cameras of old)? You would think that NASA would have better cameras than that.
    Read more

  • If you check out the full videos of the tether incident, you can see that the tether breaks and coils up - but in the footage allegedly showing the ufos, the tether is poker straight, and there is no perception of distance or scale. The suggestion is that this is very zoomed in footage of something else. It also appears that the ufo footage is tacked on to the end of the NASA footage, it doesn't look very official
    Read more

  • Well, in the documentary "ufo's, the greatest story ever denied" on Google Video, you can hear that they were filming with an infrared camera instead of a normal camera, that may be an explanation why we can't see them with our eyes, I find it a very interesting video, and imo it's not your regular debris... why would debris become translucent and then solid, have a spoken shape which changes sometimes! and they all look the same, It's like you drop food in an aquarium, and all the fish come to see what's new (that's how the former nasa guys says it in the documentary :)

    The tether stretched out and is way further than in the beginning, why it is so wide, i don't know :)
    Read more

  • After studying the footage more I must admit I'm even more confused. When the tether snapped, it bunched up at one end. There's no evidence of that in the "UFO" footage. All of the UFOs seem to be traveling on linear paths which would be consistant with debris in space, but it's coming from all directions. Weird.
    Read more

  • Regarding the picture of the dog on the gun.

    Sinbad was the mascot of the US Coast Guard Cutter Campbell. As for the insignia on the gun, it is not political confusion but a indicator of the number of engagements by the cutter.

    Mor information is availabe here:
    http://www.uscg.mil/history/faqs/Sinbad.html
    Read more

  • I believe in UFO's. But I believe this is dust.
    Read more

  • The debris "translucent and then solid" because it's coming in and out of focus. Try it yourself if you don't believe it - stick a small spot on the window and take pictures of the world beyond. If you focus on the spot it'll be sharp and solid, if you focus in front or behind it'll appear translucent.

    The tether clearly coiled up as it relaxed - so what we're seeing isn't twelve miles long but a much shorter coil which appears straight because the turns of the coil are closer together than can reasonably be resolved at that distance.
    Read more

  • Does anyone know about some analysis of the tether video? I googled the incident but all I found was a lot of people blindly screaming at UFOs without any kind of analysis.
    Read more

  • @ Skipweasel

    Look again, and look closely, i don't mean translucent when zooming in or out, they are actually changing from transparent to semitransparent and solid, like you see in some under water creatures too, there's this "glow" going through them. Not all of them show this behavior but some do, and you can also see this happening as in some "dots" (the smaller ones) just appear out of nowhere and disappear into nowhere, inside the camera-angle...

    I know things become sort-of transparent of blur if you zoom in next to a near-by object. Just look closely again, and you'll see what I mean with translucency
    Read more

  • Start looking at 5:40 on the left side of the video, you'll see what i mean, there are also close-ups during the rest of the video
    Read more

  • The Nazi DOG is obviously an AMERICAN dog on top of a captured nazi weapon.
    The letters on the helmet USCC? USCG?
    are United States ?Coast Guard?
    Read more

  • Thanks for the info about the dog - it's updated now.
    Read more

  • Yes, the debris is probably floating in and out of shadows, causing the appearing disappearing act, and as for going 'behind' the tether, it's simply the sensitivity of the camera being very high. The tether is really bright, but the sensitivity isn't really uniform, and the over-saturation of the tether blots out the less bright debris. The same noise was made over the black crosses on the camera lens on the moon, they disappeared over white astronaut suits because of the over-saturation, and people claimed they were on the set background.
    Read more

  • I think the pulsating, blinking effect in the video is just those pieces of debris rotating in the sunlight. They reflect different amounts of sunlight as they rotate.
    Read more


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