Training Day

New York City police officers, including members of the Emergency Services Unit, training by walking up the main suspension cables of the Brooklyn Bridge - Ramin Talaie/Corbis via Getty Images

Sum dood was climbing on the cables and the cops were sent to get him down. Just another day in the big city, but we get this cool pic from a no crazy-people-involved event. I mean, other than walking up those cables in the first place. It might have been exciting when I was younger, but not now.

10 Short Videos #6245

10 Short Videos #6245

1. Hey buddy 🤗 some of my favorite fungi ✨🍄 - Mushroom girl
2. Operator Skill🚜
3. The military spends 14 billion on drones and someone did the same for 50 dollars - Robot dog & drone firecracker war
4. Metaldetecting for Michigan Copper.
5. Military camera systems have always been insanely impressive
6. "The Impossible Kill" - Wesley Gibson - Movie clip from Wanted (2008)
7. A True Monster of a Machine Built Like a Tank! - Leather embossing
8. The Lionfish is a MENACE
9. Right on the Launch Line | DJI Avata 360 - Rocket launch
10. Patrick von Känel PARAGLIDING PRO - Landwasser Viaduct

Funnies

Tall Tales

Ancient Corinth, Greece

JMSmith tells us a story. It begins like this:

Saving Stories that Save

“You know, I said, that we begin by telling children stories which, though not wholly destitute of truth, are in the main fictitious . . .” - Plato, The Republic (c. 375 B.C.)*

“When I became a man, I put away childish things.” - Paul, 1 Corinthians (A.D. 53-57)

A nation is in large part a creature of its stories, be they stories of its ancestors, of its heroes, of its villains, of its gods.  To be a member of a nation is in large part to know its stories, not as a folklorist but as one of the folk who live, and move, and have their being in that lore.  It is to read or hear, but certainly to remember, these stories as a bible and not as mere artifacts or divertissements.

Plato makes clear in his Republic that a nation with a bad bible is lost.  By bad bible I mean its folklore stunts life, cramps movement, and sings the deadly Siren song of nonbeing.  I mean stories that make men begin to believe they are devils, or cyphers, or beasts.  Also, stories, as Plato emphasizes, that celebrate rascals, snigger at virtue, or describe heaven as the abode of a boastful mafia don or a gaggle of lecherous drunks.

There are many ways the bible of a nation can go bad.  It may be contaminated by addition of new and unwholesome stories that by design or carelessness spread perversion, despair and malaise.  It can also go bad because it is already stuffed with cringeworthy “childish things” that must be refurbished for a mature audience or somehow, as Paul says, “put away.”

By Plato’s time, enlightened Greeks were embarrassed by their national bible, while they at the same time clung to that bible because it was theirs.  Indeed, without Homer and the gods of Olympus, it was not clear what it meant to be Greek.  Enlightened Greeks had therefore arrived at the fateful point where they must cease to be Greeks or allegorize their old stories.  

Bonus word of the day. Farther down in his post he uses the word hermeneutic which, according to Google, means ' the theory and study of interpretation, especially regarding written texts, verbal communication, and human behavior'.

Funnies

10 Short Videos #6244

10 Short Videos #6244

1. Two Engines Apparently Weren't Enough - Motorcycle
2. I'm not coming back - fantasy
3. Mallard flying boat!
4. Roller coaster ride
5. High Voltage vs. Glass
6. Vom Niederhorn zum Eiger! - paragliding
7. The proper way to play Rubik's Cube
8. ❤️Finn name sand art ✨ personalized sand writing request done
9. The Most Expensive Filmstock - Infrared
10. Before Something Comes Flying - Wear your safety glasses

Popeye Village

Popeye Village, Malta

Popeye Village is a purpose-built film set that has been converted into a small attraction fun park. It is located at Prajjet Bay/Anchor Bay, two miles from Mellieħa, Malta.

It was built as a film set for the production of the 1980 live-action musical feature film Popeye starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall. It is open to the public as an open-air museum and seaside resort.

Popeye Village, Malta