Quick Search of DRB:
Lijit Search
drb rss about
suggest
advertise
subscribe
rss rss
rss
airplanes | animals | architecture | art | auto | boats | famous | cool ads | funny pics | food | futurism | gadgets | history | japan
military | music | nature | photo | russia | sci-fi | signs | space | sports | steampunk | technology | trains | travel | vintage | weird

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Riot Vehicle with Water Cannon (Used in Colombia)


"QUANTUM SHOT" #571
Link - article by John Murphy



As a continuation of our article Anti-Riot Police Vehicles, here is a look at the newest SWAT "Riot Truck". The info and images were sent to us by a representative of the ISBI Company, which has a manufacturing plant in Bogota, Colombia. We include his text and pictures with little editing, to pause and reflect on the conflicted and often unstable life in Colombia:




Police and crowd brutality is a fact of life in Colombia. Multiple riots (including Farc Guerrillas, who attack riot vehicles with rifles) cause the Colombian government (and local SWAT teams) to order and often use the reinforced vehicles such as shown here.





The vehicles have to be able to move and shoot water at the same time. This is achieved by using an additional Cummins diesel engine (electronic). The water requirements are twice the international standards. They have to hold at least 11,500 liters of water. Maintenance of the pump can be made from inside the vehicle (thru two doors that access the engine room).



The range of the water cannon is 55 meters. They are operated from the inside through the "joystick" controls. The operator can turn the cannons (and monitors), and also to open and close the pneumatic valves (actuators). Four video color cameras are located on the roof, plus a reverse camera. All digitally recorded for future reference.



The paint has to resist countless stone attacks and should not burn from Molotov attacks.





The armor sometimes can go up to .50 caliber BMG (Browning Machine Gun) UL 752 lLevel 10 (80mm thick glass). The screens have to be made from steel. Wire is not accepted because it bends with large bricks. The screens have hinges so that the glass can be easily cleaned. The windshield screen itself is electric.



The plow is hydraulic. It has a 3 ton capacity. The tires can be protected with tyron bands, runflats, or filled with polyurethane. They have 3 gun ports to shoot tear gas canisters.



The vehicles have to work at high altitude such as that of Bogotá. The chasis can be Kenworth or International - 6X4 or 6X6.



Due to the human rights requirements we do not mix water with chemicals or dies. These vehicles do not produce electric shocks. But believe me, the water pressure alone will disperse an angry crowd. The price of one of these vehicles starts at around US$350,000.


(images credit: ISBI)


Slightly mysterious van

Please help to identify and to find out what sort of vehicle is shown on that image. We can read "Television Detector", which implies some sort of wavelength scanner...


(image via)

UPDATE: Thanks for all the great info! This is a 1960s Commer TV detector van used to find people who hadn't paid their TV Licence in the UK (to keep BBC programming ad free).

More info and images here and here, the technology suppposedly used (which may not work), and the infamous video ad.


CONTINUE TO "ANTI-RIOT POLICE VEHICLES"! ->

Permanent Link......+StumbleUpon ...+Facebook
Category: Military,Automobile

READ LATEST POSTS:

November 20, 2009 - Quantum Shot #599
The Extraordinary World of Ex Libris Art

Mythic, bizarre, fantastic

Biscotti Bits
Mixed Links & Images

incl. "Marvelous Burj Dubai Fountain Show"

SFSite
"Steampunk Anthology" Reviewed, in All Its Brass Glory

Making all sci-fi punks in the world "feel lucky", since 2008
(for other weekly "Biscotti" issues - see our main page and monthly archives)

COMMENTS:

30 Comments:

OpenID eythian said...

I'm guessing that the TV detector is exactly that: a van that detects people using TVs. This may be done in order to ensure that they're not doing so without having a TV license. It's probably British.

___  
Anonymous Macman47 said...

Yup it's an old TV detector van used to find people who hadn't paid their TV Licence in the UK. More of a scare tactic really then an effective system.

___  
Blogger David Drage said...

To follow up the previous two comments (for those that don't know the British system).

In the UK everyone with a TV has to have a TV License. The funds raised are then ploughed back in to the BBC so that they can produce programming without having to rely on advertising, therefore (theoretically) producing a high standard of programming that does not pander to the lowest levels of crass commercialism. Of course that does not explain programmes like Eastenders or the usual early evening Saturday night dross, but the theory is sound!

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As above and more info here at the Mail on line.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-468466/The-new-TV-detector-reach-home.html?foo=2

And the "infamous" imformation film is on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NmdUcmLFkw

___  
Blogger slim_adi said...

the van iteslf is an old commer van used by most of the public utility companies at the time - more info here http://www.commervan.com/?page_id=7

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Re: the Commer Van after the piece on the Colombian crowd control vehicle.

It was used for enforcing TV Licensing in Britain. One had to purchase a TV license to operate any TV receiver.
The money went to support the Beeb (BBC), the public broadcaster in Britain. This was continued even after
commercial (With paid advertising) TV became available in Britain. The equipment in the van could detect RF
(Radio Frequency) leakage from a TV receiver and consequently require that the offender purchase a license.

___  
Anonymous daf said...

The TV detector vans were used in Britain to fool the uneducated masses into believing that the authorities could tell whether they were watching TV without a license...
The technology to do this does not exist.

___  
Blogger Autospike said...

Television Detector van history, via autoblog

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/06/09/a-visual-history-of-the-bbcs-tv-detector-vans/

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The technology to do this does not existEver hear of Van Eck Phreaking?

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

From what I understand there was no need for equipment in the van. Since television ownership was ~100% all they needed was a list of houses that hadn't bought a licence and then turn up there. As an impoverished student in the 80s I didn't have a telly and so didn't have a licence. I received several notices saying I would be punished and I had to write many times to confirm that I was innocent. IIRC the Beeb also required radio licences for a while...

___  
Blogger davidg80 said...

why would FARC Guerrilla ever have an encounter with an Anti-Riot unit of the police? It's the Colombian army that faces off with the Guerrilla.

___  
Anonymous Ángel said...

I agree with davidg80. I´m colombian and I live in Bogotá and those vehicles are only mostly used in university protests and riots but in my whole life i have never seen one of that fighting against any FARC militant or even anyone with camouflage...It´s a shame that the world keeps thinking that Colombia is just a big jungle filled with savages...think twice

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Praise to the editors of this fine blog for, uhm, the way the text reads now.

___  
OpenID eythian said...

I'm given to understand that the detector vans could receive the intermediate frequencies that TV sets give off as part of the process of amplifying the signal for demodulating. (See wikipedia for superheterodyne, intermediate frequency)

Of course, I'm still not sure how effective it would be in real life.

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Colombian machine seems nice, but is not as used as you would think. Most of the violence in the country is not in the cities and mob control is dangerous but usually the police is there just to watch the people protesting. There are notable exceptions, and there is crime in the streets, but that´s not how you use this machine.

___  
Anonymous glenruben said...

The last image is probably from the government somewhere where you have to pay mandatory TV licence money, the control group rolls around in these vehicles with a map and a list over which households own a TV but havent paid their licence, then they start knocking on doors and harrassing you until you pay. We still have these in Norway today.

___  
Blogger Twinnie said...

Commer PB Autovan.

I have one sitting out the back of my house which I'm doing up for a trip around Europe this summer.

I was actually sitting here mixing the paint stripper for it while I was reading this article.

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You Colombianos need to relax, nobody is dissing your country. If this thing is mainly used for student protests, why is it required to be able to withstand .50 cal machine gun fire? Do Colombian university students usually carry assault rifles?

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Indeed, a television detector van, from the 60's, used by the UK gov to find folk who were using tv's , without the proper licence..

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I recall the "pay your license" ads, they used to imply that the people in the van could actually see what program you were watching.

Of course if you were in an apartment block they had no hope of picking you out.

If you tried to avoid the license issue by using your TV for watching videos only, they still had you because the licensing law referred to possessing a demodulator rather than watching broadcast programs. I think that would exclude computer monitors.

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hi, i just found this article, and i think the photos are geat, because i'm colombian and i haven´t seen one of this from inside and didn't know about the technology involved, but i have to say that this does not represent the people of Colombia, the times they use this kind of trucks are rare... and are against riots presented in universities and some manifestations where the invoved people start things up manipulated by criminals (guerrrilla and anarchists).

thanks

___  
Anonymous Ant said...

In answer to your request for information on the truck in this picture, These are known here in the UK as a 'TV detector van'. And these vans were used to detect anybody using a TV without a license.

Here in the UK the BBC (Television, radio and online) is funded using a license system, basically a tax that must be paid by anyone using a TV.

This funding model, whilst seeming bizarre to many who don't live here and some who do!, means the BBC is able to broadcast 6 national TV networks, 7 national radio stations, The BBC.co.uk website, and a whole raft of local media outlets. And none of these networks carry any commercials whatsoever.

The license costs a not insignificant $229 per year, and as such many people don't pay it. As it is a legal requirement to have a license if you own a TV, these vans used to drive up and down streets, and could supposedly tell if a Television was on in an unlicensed property.

It all sounds a bit Orwellian, I know, but many suspect these vans were more a way of putting the fear into license-fee evaders. Most evaders of the license fee are caught via a database these days. Even when they were in use, they were used rarely. I'm 38, and I think I've only ever seen one of these vans/trucks once or twice in my life.

___  
Anonymous Tim A. said...

These vans could locate down to the
room in a house if there was a TV in operation - which was then
cross-referenced with the licenses and if there was no licence for that dwelling, a fine was issued.

When I lived in the UK I remember they would prowl around the streets in the evenings - and also at lunchtime when the popular lunchtime shows were on.
They could even tell what programme you were watching.

There have also been rumours that because they were so accurate, they were used by MI5 to detect transmissions from Soviet Spies during the Cold War...

___  
Blogger Avi Abrams said...

Thanks for all the info, guys! Updated...

___  
Anonymous Ángel said...

Hi again, good comment the one posted by an anonymous...0.5 caliber guns...I´d say that has to be wrong, I´m an student in Bogotá, and if they´d dare to use guns in protests the government would be in a lot of trouble, I can assure that. Another possibility is that maybe it can be used near some capital cities and towns to break riots and protests but the fight against guerrilas id discarded but not because I want to defend my country but because the topography and geographical conditions would turn those vehicles to pieces in days.

Keep the good job DRB and thanks to Anonymous.

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

...Beautiful trucks. WAY over spec'd for what Columbia has used it for. (You can see it in the news as well.)

The riots are usually sparked by FARK propaganda. Some of the protests can really get out of hand. To keep the enforcement safe from the pure passion and engagement from these political issues - these trucks are brilliant and do wonders for crowd control. Hell, if FARK had a sniper or something else kicking around - the potential is there, the armor would do wonders.

Maybe the "too much" is pro-active and better than "too little"

___  
Anonymous Amitbhawani said...

That looks similar to the one in Death race but it had more weapons then this one and it was much larger

___  
Blogger Alejandro said...

WTF?? "Multiple riots (including Farc Guerrillas, who attack riot vehicles with rifles" LOL you think colombian people have to fight all day against guerrillas in the city, they are only in the jungle. Although colombia is one of the best countries in security: The bulletproof clothes obama uses are made by a colombian.

___  
Blogger David said...

"Multiple riots (including Farc Guerrillas, who attack riot vehicles with rifles)": Please, don't make up the information, the guerrillas are in the jungle, and they should be the target of the Colombian military and police there. Though, the people who demonstrate through riots do it because their rights are being violated. The anti-riot units have been accused by NGOs for being the ones that act with most brutality and violence against civilians. See this video so to know how things are like in my country, Colombia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZdnMsPrrNQ

___  
Anonymous Dallas Computers said...

I know in the article, it states "The tires can be protected with tyron bands, runflats, or filled with polyurethane", but to me the weakest part of the vehicle by far is the tires. Once immobilized (which could be done in any manner of ways), the vehicle is a sitting duck. I wouldn't want to be trapped inside.

___  

Post a Comment

<< Home


SF ART & BOOK REVIEWS:
Don't miss: The Ultimate Guide to SF&F Writers!
Fiction Reviews: Alastair Reynolds "Chasm City"
Short Fiction Reviews: Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" (with pics)
New Fiction Reviews: The Surreal Office

MORE RECENT POSTS:


Outrageously Creative Ads, Issue 12

Unexpected Weirdness & Visual Candy


Weird Food McDonald's Sells Around the World

Spaghetti! Soaked! In Sugarrr!


The World's Most Magnificent Pipe Organs

Simply Blockbusters of Their Time!


Lovely Cowgirls in Vintage Westerns

Beauties with guns scorched the screen... and it was good


Weirdest Cell Phones Ever!

Totally non-conventional looks and futuristic specs.


British Pubs: Signs of the Times, Part 2

Pub signs are almost like time machines...


Fabulous Las Vegas: Vintage Treasures

Part 1: Glamour vs. Kitsch


Incredible Astronomical Clocks

Antique and medieval technology blended with art


Battersea, and Other Abandoned Power Stations

Part 2 of popular urban exploration series


Hilarious & Crazy Signage

Part 13 of this side-splitting series


Living, Growing Architecture

Grow your house one root at a time


Alone in the Wild: Yukon Survival Saga

How to eat porcupine livers, and more!


Unusual and Marvelous Maps

Alternate histories, sea monsters, weird politics


Airships & Tentacles

Exclusive Interview with artist Myke Amend


Jet Engines on Trucks (For Fun and Profit)

Snow-blowers from hell, and more...


Star Wars for Your Mind, Heart and Soul

Part 3 of the popular series


Britain's Colorful Pub Signs, Part 1

A map to your last night adventures


Flying Colors! Creative Paint on Airliners

Groovy additions to the fleet...


Walled Cities: Keeping Out the Joneses

Highlights of the defensive architecture


Postage Stamps From the Future

...and some alternative realities


The Glamour of Flight: Sexy Stewardesses

Part 4 of highly popular series


Flags of Forgotten Countries

Don't just wave a black flag... consider your options


Spectacular Steampunk Art Update

Part 2 of this eye-popping, mind-boggling series

MORE OF THE RECENT POSTS:








Anything for the Perfect Shot! Part 3
Charmed by the Unknown Brazil
Ekranoplans Showcase, Part 2
Riot Vehicle with Water Cannon
Thrilling Vintage Movie Posters
Cheers to Beers!
Most Interesting Bridges, Part 3
Mesmerizing Kinetic Sculptures
Real Life Spy Gadgets
Tangled & Crazy Wiring
Underground Cities and Bunkers
Extraordinary Clocks & Watches
Pasta Monster & Other Strange Food
How Morgan Cars Are Made
Abandoned Boeing-747 Restaurant
Surprised Astronauts (Funny Pics)
One-Track Wonders: Early Monorails
Komodo Dragons: They Eat Meat
Spring Cleaning of the Mind: Surreal Art
Crazy & Funny Faces, Part 5
Wonder Weapons of World War Two
Narrow Buildings in Japan & Around the World
The Cutting Edge of Retro Tech
Bladerunner Tokyo Large-Format Photography
Nightmare Playgrounds, Part 3
Victorian Flea Circuses: A Lost Art Form
Strangest Music Scores, Part 2
Monstrous Aviation: Huge Helicopters!
- many more in the Archives and in the Contents Index (left bar)


FULL ARCHIVES (with previews, fast loading):

September 2009 -- August 2009 --
June-July 2009 -- May 2009 -- April 2009 -- March 2009 --
February 2009 -- January 2009 -- December 2008 --
November 2008 -- October 2008 -- September 2008
August 2008 -- July 2008 -- June 2008
May 2008 -- April 2008 -- March 2008
February 2008 -- January 2008 -- Dec, 2007
November 2007 -- October 2007 -- Sept, 2007
August 2007 -- July 2007 -- June 2007
May 2007 -- April 2007 -- March 2007
February 2007 -- January 2007 -- Dec, 2006
November 2006 -- October 2006 -- Link Lattes




CATEGORIES:
airplanes | animals | architecture | art | auto | boats | books | cool ads | funny pics | famous | futurism | food
gadgets | health | history | humour | japan | internet | link latte | military | music | nature | photo | russia | steampunk
sci-fi & fantasy | signs | space | sports | technology | trains | travel | vintage | weird



Discretion Advised! These cartoons contain some extreme animated violence!






Airplanes
Animals
Architecture
Art
Auto
Boats
Computers
Cool Ads
Extreme Weather
Food
Funny Pics
Futurism
Gadgets
History
Humour
Link Latte
Military
Music
Nature
Oops Accidents
Photography
Robots
Science
Science Fiction

Space
Sports
Technology
Trains
Travel
UE Abandoned
Vintage
Weird




Avi Abrams
Rachel Abrams
M. Christian
James Golbey
Simon Rose
Paul Schilperoord
Scott Seegert
Constantine vonHoffman
Steve Levenstein

- Join Our Team -
Guidelines








  • Any of these available in higher resolution? Would love to print some out and hang them...
    Read more

  • I saw "Our Hitler" in the early 80's.
    It was 5 or 6 hours long with an hour intermission.

    No kidding.

    It was part of the Toronto Film Festival in the first few years of it's start.
    Read more

  • Not sure if you know this site, but it has a gallery of polish movie posters really interesting:

    http://www.agrayspace.com/posters/

    Some of them are really disturbing :D
    Read more

  • The "Tobor" poster is a funny rip-off of the famous "Forbidden Planet" poster:

    http://tinyurl.com/r5net2
    Read more

  • Oh, I think I own the book of "The Venetian Affair", bought mostly because it's the most awfully written thing ever making it the best thing to read.

    Some gorgeous posters here!
    Read more

  • I want that Russian Star Wars poster!
    Read more

  • The Russian poster actualy says: "Star Wars - a Cosmic Western"
    Read more

  • The Russian poster. Unfortunately it's not an official poster. it`s fake. A joke.
    Read more

  • some of these i found on Art's Not Dead artsnotdead.com
    Read more

  • http://www.wrongsideoftheart.com/ has hundreds of different movie poster scans. There are some really cool sci-fi, horror, and sexploitation posters in full-size scans.
    Read more

  • Does anyone have any more info on those fantastic delivery vehicles? Are they a certain make of car?

    ...I MUST HAVE ONE!
    Read more

  • "If you consider yourself a beer connoisseur and feel like splashing out a little, take a trip to a bar called the Bierdrome in London, the only place in the world where you can buy Vielle Bon Secours. The world’s most expensive beer, a bottle of this will cost you around £500 or $1000."

    Ahahahahahahah hahaha hahahaha ... gasp hahahah hahahaha...

    We had two identical bottles of that exact stuff for my dad's birthday. Yes, we were being ridiculously lavish - they cost about €10 each from a Belgian supermarket. Beer was surprisingly drinkable for the price, too...
    Read more

  • The "Gösser-Radler" is actually not a beer brewed with lemon juice.

    A "Radler" is a mix of beer and soda,
    mostly lemon or orange soda. There is also a "sour Radler" with soda water.
    Very refreshing in summer!
    In Bavaria and Austria it's called "Radler!"
    The french call it "Panaché"
    In the UK it's called "shandy" as i learned from google.
    Read more

  • You failed to mention DeuS (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/202/7661), a very nice champagne like beer.

    And, my personal favourite because of the very special glass and exquisite taste (the shape of the glass has a very nice and true story behind it): kwak
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauwel_Kwak)

    Nice post however :)
    Read more

  • "Despite the unusual and at times downright odd flavours mentioned earlier in this article, the simple recipe for beer, based on the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516, has remained largely unchanged over the centuries. However, if all beers are generally similar"

    You are definitely wrong about that. There are many many many many beer styles and they taste very different.
    You need no "odd" ingredients to brew "special" beers.
    besides this, beer styles like "kriek lambic", "cream", "Champagne" and "radler" are not even strange. they are tranditional and very old beer styles.

    also only german beers (not even all of them) are brewed following the the Bavarian Purity Law.
    Read more

  • [...] which determined the only ingredients permissible in beer were water, barley, wheat and hops.

    Wheat is not metioned in the purity law. Only water, barley and hops are allowed ingredients.

    cf.:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot
    http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/4.html
    Read more

  • Love this site! Being Canadian and a lover of beer this feature was especially interesting.
    A little Candian beer trivia for you. Canada produced 4 major world class breweries. Molson's and Labatts of course but 2 others that started in the same home town as Labatts. Can you name them? You'll be surprised!
    Read more

  • [QUOTE]- Moose Drool from Montana’s Big Sky Brewing Company tastes nothing like the drool of a moose. [/QUOTE]
    How do you know that?
    Read more

  • I am sorry to tell you that your mention of Bon Vieille Secours is utterly wrong. It's a belgian beer that can be bought in every supermarket with an extended range of beers, for only a few euros, same as the other special beers, just a bit more expensive than the "normal" beers.
    Read more

  • I tried Moose Drool at the Oregon Brew festival and it's the only beer I have ever spit back out.
    Read more

  • re: Vielle Bon Secours

    Even though you can get normal versions of this beer, the price in the article must be for the super-magnum bottle, around $75 a pint.
    Read more

  • You left out Canada's Greatest Beer! UNIBROUE!

    They have the best Belgian style beers, huge Alcohol content and are in the Top Ten Breweries on the Planet! They also have the best names, too; 'La Fin du Monde', 'Maudite', etc.

    For shame!
    Read more

  • Stone, indeed UNIBROUE is exceptional... And it was in the original draft of this article - got it back now!
    Read more

  • Hey,
    I think you totally missed the Czech beers, maybe because they are not that strange but rather they taste conservatively. Think of where 'pilsen' beer got its name - in Pilsen, the Czech Republic. Now the original is called Pilsner Urquel, and you could find a lot of vintage posters about it. Btw, Czechs drink the most per person- check official statistics, but it is around 160 liters per person per year.
    Read more

  • For a fun beer song, go here:
    http://www.tomsmithonline.com/music/dsr0a9d1i0o/index.html

    and play song #148
    Read more

  • I have had the Pizza Beer (very tasty, spicy and oregano-accented ale) and that Sea Dog Blueberry (best fruit-inspired beer in my recent memory excepting Dogfish Head's Aprihop). I think maybe you want to add Three Floyd's "Dark Lord" to this list. Incredibly tasty, and incredibly hard to come by (only sold one day a year at their brewery in Munster, IN)
    http://www.darklordday.com/
    Read more

  • Can I disagree with your choices of weird names? I don't think that La Fin du Monde should be in there cause it's called like that because it's one of the strongest beer that Unibroue makes. I really think that there are weirder names.

    And in the weirds flavours, you should've add Folie Douce [Sweet Madness] (Les Brasseurs de l'Anse, Canada) wich is a blueberry beer that tastes like muffin or La Carotte du Lièvre [The Hare's Carrot] (from Microbrasserie du Lièvre, Québec, Canada) that really taste like carrot... really weird taste trust me!
    Read more

  • perhaps you should add Bionade here cause it is "brewed" like normal beer but is a totally different drink (tasts like icetea but with less sugar)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bionade
    Read more

  • Wells Banana Bread beer is really really good. You wouldn't think that would work, but it totally does.
    Read more

  • They should have added l'alsacienne sans culotte (the girl from alsace with no panties)
    http://randoloup.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/als2.jpg
    Read more

  • There seems to be some confusion here about the German Beer Purity Law. The 4 allowed ingredients are water, barley malt, hops, and yeast.
    Read more

  • Might need to add "Westvleteren" to it, it's not really a beer, but costs a lot, it's brewed by monks and only sold limited once a year.

    "Mort Subite" is also a nice name for a beer, it translates to "soon be dead".

    Also the "Lindemans kriek", you put 3 pictures up of different brands, none of them is "Lindemans".
    The one you posted, "Bellevue" is a bit more bitter than the very sweet "Lindemans".

    PS: Yes, I'm Belgian lol
    Read more

  • Arrogant Bastard Ale is horrible...i should have listened to the disclaimer on the bottle stating that I "probably would not like it."
    Read more

  • delirium tremens
    (pink elephants included)

    and yes, belgian too :)
    Read more

  • Ohh I could go for a couple of Krieks right now ... delicious!

    (of course Belgian too..) DOe maar een Duveltje erbij ;)
    Read more

  • Polish Karmi has also beer with coffee flavour, it's very tasty, but I'd rather name it cold drink which tastes a little like a beer :)
    Read more

  • The Japanese are not the only ones to have (or have had)a beer made for children. When I was a kid my family lived in Germany (Koblens and just outside Munchen) and I remember drinking a product called "Kinderbier" ("Kid's Beer"). This was in the early to mid 1970s and I was just a youngster.
    I presume it was non-alcoholic.
    Read more

  • Do milk stouts count as bilk?
    Moloko Stout (another 3 Floyd's beer) = DELICIOUS
    Read more

  • For me, Taster´s Choice is comprised of the eight most popular brews from World´s Best Beers Tasting Sessions conducted over the past 10 years. It is the perfect mixed case for entertaining and makes the world´s best gift.

    Luis
    Read more

  • On the odd names front, Robinson's brewery in Stockport, England produce a beer called Old Tom, which has a picture of a tomcat on it, taken from a doodle in the original brewer's recipe book. It's an 8.5% dark winter ale (like alcoholic treacle, basically) and has won many an award.

    http://www.frederic-robinson.co.uk/beers/oldtombottled.html

    (and yes, I'm from Stockport and yes, I drink it...hic)
    Read more

  • @Pieter-Jan: Westvleteren is not really a beer? And you're Belgian? Don't they put you in prison for saying something like that?

    It is brewed all year round, but can only be bought at the gate of the monastery. Although I did pay 10 euros for a glass once in Amsterdam. Worth it.
    Read more

  • If you browse around the world of modelling shows, you'll find plenty of displays comparable to that "incredibly detailed" model. And it won't include vehicles that didn't yet exist, which this one does.
    Read more

  • don't click on the "Intriguing fantasy film is in the works" link. it will give you a virus!
    Read more

  • I love the photos, but don't get the Sara Palin/Obama Reference. Yes she was for/against the bridge, but the project was stopped long before Obama was President. She wanted and got the money for her state, did not want the bridge, he was in Chicago... It's liek the he didn't vote for the war thing. No but neither did I. He and I (and most americans) were not in the senate at the time.
    Read more

  • Excellent Pictures Posted here.
    Thanks for showing these
    Read more

  • "Wow...!"
    "Awesome...!"
    Read more

  • One famous bridge is missing in your List: The "pont d'Avigion" in Avigion, France. It's just half a bridge and there is a famous song about it.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_Saint-B%C3%A9nezet
    Read more

  • Not Portland, Dunaújváros, Hungary

    http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentele-híd
    Read more

  • To support what Frank B said, your reference to the Bridge to Nowhere is not just inaccurate, but flat out wrong. At one point Sarah Palin did support the bridge, but then came out against its construction. See http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/10/opinion/main4435937.shtml:
    "While it may be unfair to say that Sarah Palin always treated the Bridge as Milton Friedman might have, she quickly grasped the project’s folly and ultimately put it out of the nation’s misery. In a country where politicians endlessly make demands until weary taxpayers capitulate, Palin scrapped the bridge soon after she was empowered to do so. "

    More significantly, Obama did not end the bridge's construction; to the contrary, both Obama and Biden specifically voted to keep funding in place for the bridge instead of transferring those funds to replace a bridge destroyed by Hurrican Katrina.
    Read more

  • "really a "Bridge to Nowhere", a bizarre project endorsed by Sara Palin and mercifully put to rest by President Obama."


    Your facts are incorrect on this one. Palin opposed it and Obama had nothing to do with killing the project.
    Read more

  • Laszlo is correct!

    If you look at the picture in here and the picture behind the link, you even see the different cabeling and colour
    Read more

  • Both Alaskan and Hungarian bridge entries are adjusted now, thank you.
    Read more

  • Thank You! :)
    Read more

  • Awsome pictures, I would like to visit all this bridges and takes lots of pictures :-)
    Read more

  • Absolutely amazing and interesting as hell. When's DRB coming out with a book deal, btw? =)
    Read more

  • I am not reel good at video games,but i did enjoy the ones you posted a month or so back. Can you please bring them back. Thankyou.
    Read more

  • I'm surprised the Kylesku bridge in Scotland has not been featured. A couple of pics here ...

    http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/53877

    http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/596653
    Read more

  • I don't care what anybody else thinks... Sarah Palin is hot!
    Read more

  • The two top ones in the "street art" paragraph are from the studio Ghibli museum in Mitaka outside Tokyo in japan: http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/
    Read more

  • Spock-Obama is from the New York Times, I belive. http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/05/10/opinion/10dowd_ready.html
    Read more

  • that Elephant picture is from WW2
    i thinking from Germany
    where zoo or circus elephants are used as working animals

    Michel Van
    Read more

  • The watch with evolution is an old SWATCH.
    Read more

  • The surviving elephants of Hamburg Zoo (Hagenbeck's Tierpark) helped clean up the rubble in the destroyed city after WW2. Don't know whether this picture shows Hamburg, but it's not implausible.
    Read more

  • Yup, here are my own photos of the same places at the Ghibli museum:

    "Manhole" coverSoot sprites in a windowThe entire museum is itself a work of art.
    Read more

  • Oops, should have used preview. Oh well, each link is still clickable.
    Read more

  • I think that the mistery pic is from Berlin, not Hamburg, after the downfall of the German Reich, in 1945. Immediate post-war. Sad, sad times, those, even for the poor animals...
    Read more

  • The elephant picture definately shows one of two elephants who helped cleaned up the destroyed city of Hamburg. http://orchifant.de/50.html
    Read more

  • the Voronoi-Knauss cell cluster looks like the coat hangers in the bottom of my closet.
    Read more

  • I have open-source plans for a Jansen Walker up on my site, if anyone wants to build their own check out http://4volt.com/projects/jansen/
    Read more

  • If you want to make a sequel, i strongly suggest a post about a guy named Jean Tinguély. Friend and lover of Niki de St Phalle.
    Read more

  • This is utterly brilliant! I am very fond of gadgets myself and wrote a fiction blog for two years about a boy who was very keen on them and he went to the James Bond exhibition at the Science Museum.
    Addy
    Read more

  • Amazingly, my brother is called Simon Rose but I suspect you are not him.
    Read more

  • No I am not him, I am this guy at http://www.simon-rose.com/ and at http://simon-rose.blogspot.com/
    Feel free to visit me there as well.
    Read more

  • Surely some of the video cams offer wireless streaming.
    Read more

  • This is amazing! Have you checked out the Spy Museum in DC? It's full of things like this ranging from the beginning of spying all the way up to what they're doing today and things that may be available in the future. Well worth the money.
    Read more

  • Thank you. It was a fascinating to research and write as well.
    Read more

  • There's a spy shop near where I live. I went in there recently expecting to see awesome gadgets like this but all they carried were nanny cams and the hidden safe versions of a bunch of household items. Thanks for giving me my spy gear fix!
    Read more

  • Great post! Thanks for sharing!!
    Read more

  • Anything by Tim Powers is a worthwhile read, he is my favorite author by far. Anubis Gate does stand out, as does Earthquake Weather and Expiration Date.
    Read more

  • Thanks for the link!

    WannaSmile.com
    Read more

  • whatever that moth is, he's probably related to this one:

    http://ok-cleek.com/blogs/?p=727
    Read more

  • Um...don't moths have faceted eyes? It looks like a photoshopped rodent/moth to me.
    Read more

  • that moth is Insectosaurus!

    http://entertainment.sympatico.msn.ca/movies/galleries/MovieGallery.aspx?cp-documentid=18790297&imageindex=5

    (Monsters vs. Aliens)
    Read more


Send us your topic ideas, site suggestions, rants or sweet unpublished poetry. We love to hear from you.



Misc.:
Compare Prices
Samsung LED TV






Blu