Caffeine is Very, Very Strange...
vlogbrothers
I've encountered most of the pieces of this video but I never connected them all together.
Wednesday, May 27, 2026
De Havilland Mosquito
 |
| Mosquito Pathfinders by Philip West |
Groundcrew busy themselves readying their de Havilland Mosquito as the aircrew head out towards the aeroplane for yet another mission to a high value target over occupied Europe during WW2. Their dangerous job as Pathfinders is to accurately mark and bomb the target for the main heavy bomber force. It required great skill in navigation, airmanship and courage. The Mosquito proved to be a real thoroughbred and ideal for many varied combat sorties so earning the nick-name The Wooden Wonder.
De Havilland Mosquito | In-Flight & Walk Around | Planes of Fame
Planes of Fame
10 Short Videos #6145
F&T steam trap
Beer in a bucket
Typing without a keyboard? Operating this century-old antique is like playing a matching game!
Pay Attention To See The Answer
Cops Kick Hotel Guest Out!
Insane power numbers from a Mercedes Diesel
This Tractor Cleans Itself While Working
Railcar Tippler Unloading System
Manufacturing Braided Metal Hose
S.S. Badger Boiler Lighting!
Tuesday, May 26, 2026
Riding in Cars
This story popped into my head while I was driving home after lunch today. This was back around 1970 and I was living in Columbus, Ohio, just off the OHSU main campus. I'd been hanging out with this guy, I think his name was Stuart. He had thick dark hair and a moustache. Anyway, he's got a tooth that's bothering him and around about midnight he decides he needs to do something about it, and that something he needs to do is to drive out to the all-night super Rx and get a bottle of mouthwash. So we pile in his old beater, a sedan of some sort with a broken rear leaf spring, and drive out to the super Rx and he buys a bottle of mouthwash. He comes back, gets in the car and starts driving home. But now his tooth is really bugging him, so he cracks open the mouthwash and gets a big mouthful and immediately he wants to spit it out. He's flipping out, making horrible noises but trying to keep from spitting mouthwash all over his shirt and pants. I think he must of cracked open the door and leaned over to spit on the ground. Of course we're going 30 miles an hour while he's doing this.
 |
| 1970 Ford Torino Cobra |
One story leads to another. I was riding around in a car with Mike Morrow drinking beer, as we were wont. Mike was a Vietnam veteran and he had picked up some kind of injury, I think maybe his shoulder didn't work quite right. I don't remember exactly what the deal was. Anyway, we're out riding around in his car, which, as I recall, was a Ford Torino with a healthy V8 engine and broken power steering, and Mike decides he needs to take a piss. So are we stopping? No we're riding, we ain't stoppin' for no bullshit. He cracks open his door, turns up on his side and pees out the door. I offered to steer for him while he was occupied, but no, he don't need no help. Two lane, winding, rural blacktop.
Here's a story I overheard, maybe while I was on the ski lift up on Mt. Hood. Bunch of kids are heading home from the slopes and one kid in the back seat needs to take a whiz. The driver isn't stopping, he tells him to piss in bottle. Annoying, but do-able. But then when the kid starts peeing, the driver keeps goosing the gas so the kid is constantly missing. Don't think I want to get in that car.
Tehran - Apple TV Series - Season 1 of 4
Tehran — Official Trailer | Apple TV
Apple TV
Unlike James Bond, the operation does not go smoothly. When the op collapses, our girl has an opportunity to leave (extraction in military parlance), but she refuses. She is determined to fulfill her mission. Her bosses are totally willing to let her go ahead with her hairbrained scheme, not like there is much they can about it, other than sending in a hit team to execute her, which they are totally capable of doing. This is real hot-war espionage shit.
Our girl is talented, but she isn't James Bond. The show basically rocks from one coincidence to another, sometimes in favor of our girl, and sometimes in favor of the Iranian secret police. Numerous people get sacrificed on the altar of operational security.
I am beginning to understand the problem with dictatorships - they are stupid and brutal - but they work in that the people in charge stay in charge.
Early on we have an old man lamenting that they didn't realize how powerful Khomeini had become until it was too late. The way I see it is that the upper class were so impressed with themselves and their great success is that they didn't realize how much resentment was growing in the lower classes. If you are in the upper class, you need to insure that the lower classes are getting what they need, and what they need is:
- a share of the benefits that the upper class is creating,
- something to do (a job for instance), and
- something to believe in (a religion).
Failure to address these three issues is how you get your revolutions.
Photo-shoot
 |
| Photo-shoot - painting by Graham Turner |
From Studio 88:
A BE2e flies over the Western Front on a photo-reconnaissance mission, the pilot operating the lever that would change the glass negative plates in externally mounted C-type camera, while the observer struggles to aim his Lewis gun.The BE2 was designed as a stable observation platform before the role of the aeroplane in warfare had been properly understood, so was originally completely unarmed. Various rather ‘Heath-Robinson’ gun-mounting brackets were adopted to try to remedy this, but the basic problem of the observer’s very restricted position among the struts and wires can clearly be seen. (Note the alternative gun mounting attached to one of the forward struts. Countless BE2 crews were shot down and killed whilst bravely flying over enemy lines to bring back vital photographs of troop movements, trenches, artillery positions, and other crucial information.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
