South Waterfront Portland Oregon

The John Ross Building

We've been visiting medical offices down in the South Waterfront neighborhood. We've been making infrequent visits for several years, but lately it seems like we head down there every week. Getting down there is a pain, and getting out of there is a pain as well. When you only go down there once a year, it's tolerable, but with our trips becoming more frequent it's becoming a real pain, so I've started looking for alternate routes. All routes are still ridiculously annoying, but at least I have my choice of misery.

The standard route down South Kelly Avenue results in you having to make an unprotected left turn across a stream of traffic exiting the Ross Island Bridge, and that stream is nearly continuous, so you will likely be stuck, waiting to turn, for what seems like an eternity.

My next choice was taking Southwest Barbur Boulevard south to South Hamilton Street and then turning left. Barbur is a main drag, and busy, but at least there is a light at this corner. However, the one time I tried this route there was a line of cars so long that it was backing up on the main route. Made me nervous, sitting there with my ass end sticking out into traffic.

Our latest route is taking Southwest Market Street all the way down till it goes over the edge, down the hill and round the corner to South Harbor Drive. This one is the best so far, but the last half-mile involves crawling down South Moody Avenue. Here you are beset with a stream of pedestrians, bicycles and streetcars.

Now that I have a way to get down there, it's time to start thinking of how to get out of here. There isn't a good one. When we were visiting the OHSU Plaza on Southwest Whitaker Street it was a simple matter of turning right onto South Moody Avenue and retracting our steps. Turns out this is is only way to get onto Moody heading north. If you are anywhere else in South Waterfront, you still need to go by the OHSU Plaza on Whitaker, and that block can sometimes be a cluster fuck with everyone and their mother trying worm their way in. It's where people are getting dropped off or picked up, and it's also where the entrance to the parking garage is. It might be the only public parking garage in the entire area. There are plenty of parking garages, but they are all locked and gated and for residents only.

There is another way to get onto Moody, but you have to go south several blocks, then west to Macadam, which takes you up a small hill, out of the neighborhood and into the realm of high speed traffic. Then take Macadam north and then turn right on Southwest Curry Street, which takes you back down the hill to Moody.

The standard way to get out is take Macadam north, take freeway on ramp to Kelly and then get in line with a zillion over fools all crawling up the hill till you can get on the freeway and escape this nightmare.

On our latest visit, I decided to try going south on Macadam. There is only one place where you get onto Macadam going south and that is at the far south end of the area on South Bancroft Street. Head south until you get close to the Elephant Deli, and then head west up the hill one block to South Corbett Avenue. Take that north to Hamilton and thence onto Barbur. Not a bad route, but it does take you a couple of miles out of your way.

I don't know how this place got to be such a mess, but part of it is no doubt due to the way I-5 was built 60 years ago. At that time South Waterfront was an industrial area so the only reason anyone went there was to go to work. Now industry has mostly moved out and the high-rises have moved in. I've spent some time walking around down here and there are a few businesses like coffee shops, but there are also numerous unoccupied conference rooms, aka presentation rooms for condo sales. I mean, you never know when you are going to need one of those.

Anyway, I looked about a bit to see if Portland had any plans to improving access and they only thing I found was a plan that talked about bicycles and walking paths and transit. Portland is waging a war on cars, but that policy discourages anyone outside the area from going anywhere in downtown Portland.

South Waterfront Portland Oregon

The only good route into South Waterfront is to take Macadam north from Lake Oswego, which is great if you live there, but miles out of the way for me.

Update the next day. Replaced map with one that has routes highlighted. Only one color available for drawing driving routes. Also fixed half a dozen typos.

3D Printing Steel

3D Printed Replacement Part Keeps Critical Waterway Open | The Cool Parts Show
AM Media | The Cool Parts Show

I put up a post about 3D Printing of Metal back when they were first getting started with this ten years ago.  They used a different technique, using a laser to melt powdered metal. There are a number of other posts about 3D printing here. I'm surprised Lincoln Electric is involved in this, but I guess I shouldn't be.

Mr. Wink's Mechanical Hand

Adam Savage Shocked by This Practical Effects Prop From Hellboy!
Adam Savage's Tested

YouTube blurb:

Special effects and animatronics designer Mark Setrakian stuns Adam with the original practical effects prop for Mr. Wink's mechanical hand from Hellboy II: The Golden Army! Not only does this massive prop actually function with geared finger joins and a retracting chain, Mark and the team at Spectral Motion fabricated it almost twenty years ago with a combination of hand sculpting and early 3D printing. And it still works!

 And here's the fight scene where this prop got used:

Hellboy vs Mr. Wink - Troll Market Battle - Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2008) Movie Clip HD
Best Clips

The Newspaper Business

I've been reading A Flash of Green by John D. McDonald. I picked it up from Powell's back in January. I'm a little slow. The first half of the book was definitely slow going, talking about all the characters and their comfortable suburban life style, but the second half is starting to pick up. Or maybe I've just developed an interest in the story, not because of the first half, I only know the name of a couple of characters: Jimmy Wing, newspaper reporter, and Kat, works at a bank or something. Maybe something just changed in my head. Anyway, round about page 207, pursuant to a local political dispute over whether to dredge and fill the bay in order to build a new subdivision, Jimmy explains the newspaper business to Kat. I thought his explanation was spot on. Remember, this was back in the 1960s and local newspapers were still a thing.

"Kat, are you comfortable? Can you listen to a lecture?"

"I’m stretched out across my bed," she said, "but don't you

want to dry off?"

"I brought my towel along. Feet on my desk. Cigarettes

handy. Now listen carefully, dear. You're an intelligent woman. I

went into journalism out of a sort of idealism. I fell in love with

a glamorous gal called the newspaper game, and after I'd lived

with her a few years I found out she's a whore. She talks big,

sometimes, but she's bone-lazy, cynical, greedy and perfectly sat-

isfied with herself. Do I sound like a college sophomore?'

"Maybe . . . a little."

"So let's look at the facts. I think these figures are close. There

are seventeen hundred and sixty-one daily newspapers in this

country. Sixty-one of them are in cities with more than one

newspaper. The other seventeen hundred are monopoly- papers.

The Record Journal is a monopoly paper. Now here is the crazy

thing about a monopoly paper. It is the only form of monopoly

not subject to regulation. Regulation would be interference with

the freedom of the press. The A.N.P.A. would never let that hap-

pen. So, in seventeen hundred cities of America, including this

one, the publisher decides exactly what he will give the public.

We present the cheapest, dullest possible coverage of national and

international news, and all the bargain syndicate items. In con-

trast, our local news coverage is maybe a little better than average.

But the publishers—Ben Killian included—look on news as a

tiresome but necessary evil, and they resent the public for expect-

ing it. It's the only game in town, Kat, and its main, basic, pri-

many, unchangeable purpose is to sell advertising and make

money. Follow me?"

“Yes,” she said hesitantly.

“Actually this is a better paper than the average, because Ben

Kilhian doesn’t have any particularly strong opinions. Our politi-

cal stance is conservative Democrat on a local level, Republican

on national issues, which precisely reflects the point of view of

the advertisers. Suppose, as is true in many unhappy areas, Ben

Killian was a confirmed John Bircher, a witch-hunter, an Oppres-

sor of every variety of liberal thought and viewpoint. Then,

with no regulatory checkrein, no holds barred, he could make

happen here what has been happening in, for example, Boulder,

Colorado. He could have an outraged citizenship, indomitably

ignorant, purging their community of everything which did not

fit their standards of mediocrity. But Ben and Borklund have

merely the simple touching desire to make the maximum amount

of money with the minimum fuss. To do this, the paper must go

along with the viewpoints of the advertisers. So, if Ben showed

any sign of deviation, it is natural that the advertisers would ar-

range to move against him in the direct way of cutting their bud-

gets for newspaper advertising as much as they dare. Because they

can’t cut it completely and survive themselves, they move against

him in other ways, through the pressure they can generate

through their indirect control of the agencies of local govern-

ment. Clear?”

“It sounds so... cut and dried.”

The business about The John Birch Society in Boulder is a little curious, but Google found nothing. It could just be a stand-in for anytown where a firebrand got the local folks all fired up about something.

I quoted another passage in an earlier post.

Update June 2, 2025. In response to an inquiry I made, Caroline Woodiel, the Archive Manager of the Boulder Public Library sent me three clips from their archives. They don't really shed any light on the subject, other than you can see that the John Birch Society was active in Boulder back then. You can see them here.

Liability

2025 Mazda Miata

Dennis was related his son's tale of woe at lunch today. His son recently (like within the last year) bought a new Mazda Miata. The car developed a problem with the headlights - they would just turn off for no reason. Not good if you are driving at night. He took it back to the dealer, as you would, and they 'fixed' it. On the way home, the headlights shut off, so no, it wasn't fixed. Took it back to the dealer. This time they replaced the headlights. Son refuses to accept the car. Replacing the headlights is not going to fix the problem. So now they are headed to arbitration.

I'm thinking that the problem here is that while your average automotive technician (that's what they call mechanics now-a-days) may be perfectly competent when it comes to basic mechanical repairs, when a computer is involved, all bets are off. There are only three people in the entire country who are familiar enough with the computer system and the diagnostic tools to be able to correctly identify the problem. Computer systems are so reliable that there are not enough problems to make it worthwhile to train enough technicians so that you can have someone on hand when a computer does flake out.

This led to speculating about why cars with seemingly minor damage are often totaled (manufacturers don't want to get hit with any future warranty claims). I asked Google about this and all the explanations are something about the value of the car and the cost of repairs. I ain't buyin' it. Now I'm thinking the problem is that insurance companies don't want to get sued by someone when this car breaks down or, god-forbid, is in an accident. The basic economic only pan out if you can get out from under any potentional future warranty or liability claims. There is small niche of Americans who like nothing better than suing someone for something. All you need is be successful one time and you can start to think that this might be good way to make a living, maybe even become prosperous.

Building Immersed Tube Tunnels

The Most Implausible Tunneling Method
Practical Engineering

These guys are insane. Look at the organization skills required, you have to get bunches of experts to cooperate on design and techniques. You need bunches of skilled people. Not every one has to be an engineer, but ever job is critical. The guy who connects the hydraulic hoses, or shoot, even the guy who checks whether the bobby pins are correctly installed in the hitch pins. 'Bobby pins' is my term, but it got us there.

Clevis with large pin installed and bobby pin inserted in the large pin

'Hitch pin' seems to be the preferred term.

Anyway, there are, I think he said, over a hundred of these things around the world. I don't think I ever heard about this technique before. Well, I probably heard it mentioned on a newscast that the project utilized immersed tubes, and that doesn't really tell you much. I like his analogy comparing installing one section of tunnel with docking a spaceship. 

These projects are always huge gambles. The results when they are successful are great, but all big projects can be derailed by unforeseen events. These events can be minor or they could result in the project being canceled and all money spent to this point is just gone. Well, it's not a complete waste, at least the workforce will be willing to go to work on another project, should you come up with one. If they didn't get paid for their work so far, they wouldn't be so likely to go to work on a new one.

Bet - Netflix Series

Bet | Official Trailer | Netflix
Netflix

Goofball show about Japanese teenager at a fancy schmantzy prep school in the USA. This school prepares students to take their positions as psychopaths in charge of running the country. To that end, all the little social games teenagers play have been turned up by a factor of a zillion. This gives the kids plenty of opportunity to release their inner psycho, and they make the most of it. Gambling is their primary means of competing and the head psycho maintains a leader board measured by winnings and losses to the tune of thousands of dollars. Our girl is looking for revenge on the psycho that killed her parents, but all we know is that they are somehow connected to this school.

The school (St. Dominic's) is like a cross between Hogwarts (of Harry Potter fame) and Nevermore (Wednesday Addams).

How goofball is it? Our girl thinks she has identified the culprit, so she constructs a bomb and places it under his assigned seat in the auditorium. Watching her assemble her bomb, it looks like a fairly ordinary pipe bomb, but she claims it is a directional bomb, like a Claymore, so it will only kill the person sitting in the seat. Me, I've never heard of a bomb with that kind of precision. While she has many skills, electronics is not one of them so, so she enlists a classmate to make a remote control for the detonator. When it comes time to set off the bomb, the classmate implores not to press the button. She presses it anyway, but the bomb doesn't go off. Classmate then informs her that deliberately disable the remote control. Makes no difference, as the target is leaving with his daughter, a bomb destroys his car, killing him, his daughter and his driver. Seems he crossed the mob and the mob wasn't happy, so boom!

Ray Gun

Ray Gun

Somebody took an old impact wrench and repurposed it as a very cool movie prop. You may recognize the logo as Ingersoll Rand, maker of high quality, industrial strength tools and equipment. Google identifies the tool that formed the basis for this most excellent movie prop as a 5/8" drive, electric impact wrench, likely from the mid-20th century. Back in 1970s when I was getting started in the mechanic business, Ingersoll Rand tools were like from another planet. You couldn't just walk into your local hardware store or auto parts store and buy one, you had to go, shoot, I don't actually know where you could get one. Probably from an industrial supplier, and you probably needed an big business account there to even talk to someone about buying one.

This was likely due to the price. More from Google:

A new, high-quality impact wrench from a reputable brand like Ingersoll Rand likely cost between $100 and $300 in 1950.

It's important to consider the value of the dollar in 1950. An average annual salary was around $3,000. Therefore, a $100-$300 tool represented a significant investment for many people. 

The value of the dollar has fallen so far it is now worth the equivalent of about one cent from 1950, so buying a wrench like that back then would mean forking out like $20,000 now. But then Nixon opened China and 20 years later I could buy an air driven impact wrench out of my spare change. I still have it, but it's dang near useless. It might be able to take the lug nuts off of a car as long as they aren't too tight.

I found one of these Ingersoll Rand electric impact wrenches on Ebay for $135:

Ingersoll Rand 5/8" Square Drive Universal Impact Tool Wrench Corded Electric

5/8" square drive seems to have gone away, I didn't see any. I did find a couple of battery powered 3/4" drive wrenches:

Dovaman X9 3/4'' Cordless Impact Wrench 1650 FT-LBS Torque

You can buy this beast from Amazon for $270. I never heard of Dovaman, probably made in China.

Ingersoll Rand 3/4" Cordless Impact Wrench 2000 ft-lb Torque

Ingersoll Rand is apparently still making hand tools, I kind of thought they were only making big stuff like diesel powered air compressors. You can buy this one from Amazon for $640. Ingersoll Rand still makes some tools in the USA, but some are imported.

I wonder what kind of movie props these current tools will be repurposed for in 2100.

Quote of the Day

From ZeroHedge: Breeauna Sagdal - Senior Policy Fellow at The Beef Initiative - interviews investment banker Catherine Austin Fitts:

Fitts recounted what we all know; just because you're rich doesn't mean you have two brain cells to rub together - noting that when she was an investment advisor, clients with $10–15 million brokerage accounts claimed they "couldn't afford" biodynamic or organic food.

Never mind what you think about 'biodynamic or organic food', it sounds like advertising bullshit to me, the part about brain cells is what's important.

Today's Short Videos

10 Short YouTube Videos

Get Fuzzy

Get Fuzzy

British Moto GP

Aprilia Racing team’s Marco Bezzecchi leads during the MotoGP British Grand Prix [Adrian Dennis/AFP]

The UK may be going down the tubes, but motorcycle racing endures. Aljazeera has the story.

Silverstone

The race was held at Silverstone, which is northwest of London, about halfway to Birmingham.

Snake Dream

This one wasn't much of a dream in that it wasn't long and complicated, but it was entertaining. Iowa man and I were down in Texas and was driving some kind of truck, like a big pickup truck, and he found a snake under the hood. He managed to get the snake out of the truck. When I asked him what became of the snake he told me that some guys from some government animal control agency had come out and dealt with the snake. Anyway, I woke up about this time and now I'm thinking about all the words that have the same ending as snake, and there are a bunch of them:

• bake
• cake
• fake
• jake
• lake
• make
• rake
• sake (Japanese rice wine)
• take
• wake

Sake isn't pronounced like all the others. Jake could be a name but is commonly used slang that means things are okay.

More YouTube Shorts

Today's batch of ten short videos.

Beep Beep!

The Insane Story of La Brute, a Renault Dauphine Gone Mad
Chris VS Cars

I like this guys patter. His accent makes it a little difficult but it's a good story. Only shortfall is he doesn't show the engine, so I looked around and found this one on Motorious.

La Brute engine - V6 from Volkswagen GTI

If you are like me, you might remember the beep, beep for the TV commercials back in the day.

Renault Dauphine Commercial (1960)
Throwback

Airplane Headset

Bose A30 Aviation Headset

Marc brought his very expensive and recently repaired Bose headset for show & tell last week. The headset cost like $1500. The reason they can charge so much is because of the noise canceling. Small airplanes, like Cessnas, are very noisy, so you want your headset to be noise canceling. Evidently the noise in small planes has a low frequency component that ordinary noise canceling headsets can't cope with. This one does, hence the price.

Thunder

The lunch bunch was jabbering away about the new Pope and Trump and the discussion devolved into how could the church possibly change policy? I mean, the Pope talks to God, so he's getting the straight dope, so how is that burning heretics used to be the thing to do, but now it's not? Hearing this, it occurred  to me that listening to God might be much like listening to a thunderstorm. I mean, even if you've been listening to clouds all your life, could you be certain that you are receiving the message correctly? I'm not saying God is in the clouds, I'm saying God isn't speaking English, he's speaking directly to your brain, so how you turn that message into words to pass on to others is entirely up to you. Hopefully, the message was clear and you were able to translate it accurately, but people are funny, their thoughts don't always match their words, and their words don't always match their actions. We're just lucky that sometimes what people say makes sense.

Smoke Compartment

Smoke Compartment

Came across this sign while I was idling in hall of the Providence Medical Center this morning. For the life of me, I cannot fathom why this sign is there.

Update 3 days later. Dennis found a page that explains this. Excerpts follow.

What Is a Smoke Compartment? By Valerie Ziavras 18-Jul-2024

Compartmentation is a passive fire protection feature intended to minimize the area impacted by an incident. There are two different types of compartments: smoke compartments and fire compartments.

Smoke compartmentation may be required by a building code, fire code, life safety code, or some other code.

A smoke compartment is defined in NFPA 101 as “a space within a building enclosed by smoke barriers on all sides, including top and bottom.” Smoke compartments are intended to restrict the spread of smoke from one area of a building to another. Fire compartments, on the other hand, are formed by fire barriers on all sides and are intended to restrict the spread of fire from one area of a building to another. 

Certain occupancies require buildings to be subdivided into separate smoke compartments.

Examples of occupancies that require buildings to be subdivided using smoke barriers include new and existing health care occupancies (like hospitals), new and existing ambulatory health care occupancies (like day surgery centers), and new and existing detention and correctional occupancies. One factor these occupancies have in common is that a defend-in place strategy is typically used. This makes compartmentation even more important than in other occupancies that use a total evacuation strategy, since the first step during an emergency is to relocate building occupants.

Screw You, Screwworm

Screwworm Fly

The Village Hemorrhoid is talking about the screwworm making inroads into Mexico. Wasn't supposed to get this far north. Something needs to be done. I expect the gummint is doing something. Let's hope it's effective.

Mexico seems to be a bit of a mess. I was thinking we could solve that problem by making them the 52nd state, after we annex Canada. We do that and the USA would cover the entire North American continent. Wait, isn't that common thing in science fiction novels? The Noram Complex? Maybe, I'm pretty sure I remember reading it somewhere, but Google isn't helping.

Of course, since Mexico is such a mess maybe we don't want it as a state, but it might work well as a colony. Of course any number of people would object, but even if we treated Mexico like white men have always treated colonies of colored people, could it be any worse than it is now? Besides, in this 'enlightened' age we might treat them considerably better. I don't see much chance of the USA taking over Mexico in the next ten years or so, but who knows? There could be some major upheaval next week in lower Elbonia that will turn the world on it's head.

Previous post on the subject here.

Wandering

Big Fella by Hamish Frater

More Hamish Frater here.

P-38 Airshow

P-38 & F-35

Went for a walk this afternoon while the airshow was going on and saw a P-38 & F-35 flying together. Pretty cool, don't know that I've every seen a P-38 in person before.

Erickson P-38

This is the airplane I saw.

Because of its unique twin boom design, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning was the most easily recognized U.S. Army Air Force fighter in use during the Second World War. It accounted for more Japanese aircraft losses than any other American warplane and was nicknamed "the Fork-Tailed Devil" by the German Luftwaffe in the North Africa Theater. The Lightning was ideal as both a gunnery platform and a photo-reconnaissance airship because everything could be consolidated in the nose. With counter-rotating propellers and no torque, centrally concentrated firepower, twin-engine safety, hydraulically boosted ailerons and range, the P-38 was America’s first truly modern military aircraft. - Erickson Collection

The Standard Reference Company

Listening to the kids tell me about their futile efforts to locate employment gave me an idea. Seems that many of the jobs being offered want ten years of experience for an entry level position or something equally ludicrous. So I'm thinking, let's give them what they want. We'll start The Standard Reference Company which will be in the business of providing whatever kind of references you need to satisfy these absurd requirements. Ten years experience at an entry level job? Sure. 25 years managing a global empire? No problem.

It would be difficult to make such a business operate profitably for more than a week or two before the whole thing collapsed, but then I got to thinking. While it might not be a good idea for an actual business, it could make a framework for a show about such a business. You could write it as a comedy, ala The Office, or you could write it as good guys scamming evil corporations, like The Sting, or you could write it as psychopaths subverting well intentioned businesses. The possibilities are endless.

Funnies

Next Year's Fighter

Future Fighter

Google was unable to identify the artist, but it did find a large number of similar images. There are some talented artists out there.

Teflon

How One Company Secretly Poisoned The Planet
Veritasium

What does one part per trillion look like? Well, how may molecules of water in an Olympic sized swimming pool? Google tells us:

An Olympic-sized swimming pool contains approximately 2.5 million liters of water. This translates to roughly 660,000 gallons. Since 1 liter of water contains about 3.3 x 10^27 water molecules, an Olympic-sized pool would contain approximately 8.25 x 10^33 water molecules. 

One trillion is 10^12 (10 to the twelfth power), so one-trillionth of an Olympic size swimming pool would be 0.03 cc of water, or 30 cubic millimeters. Not very friggin' much.

 

Here There Be Dragons

DRY RUN
Felix Colgrave

Goofy story about a sea monster buying snacks.

The Good Detective

THE GOOD DETECTIVE (NETFLIX) TRAILER
ME GUSTA CHANNEL

This is a pretty standard 2nd world detective show. I say second world because much like Behzat C (set in Turkey), whenever the murder crew goes out on a call they all go in one car. Detectives on Law & Order work in pairs. I suspect this reflects the relative cost of transportation versus manpower. Countries where fuel taxes are the primary source of revenue are going to very sparing of doling out cars to their minions.

Much like Behzat Ç., in every episode we have an ordinary murder that needs to be solved, but we also have the giant, convoluted, case of corruption that continues through the whole series. Naturally, it involves people in the upper levels of business and the government.

There are several paths that can lead to success. You can be diligent, work hard, and earn a living. With a certain amount of luck, you might become successful. Or, you can be a psychopath and just murder everyone who stands in your way. Shoot, since you are unconcerned about other people, you can murder anyone who annoys you. However, if your killings become too blatant, you may need to spread some money around so your killings don't get the attention they deserve, so now you are dealing with corrupt minions of the government's industrial justice complex.

As I recall, there were 32 episodes divided into two seasons, but now Netflix is only showing one season with 16 episodes. WTF the Netflix? Each episode is just over an hour long, in Korean with English subtitles on Netflix.

Beware, spoilers follow.

The story starts with the government's decision to execute a dozen people from death row. The 'good detective' investigated one of these cases five years ago and now evidence comes to light that maybe this guy isn't guilty after all. Naturally, raised on a steady diet of American fairy tales, we expect that our heroes will fight desperately to clear this wrongfully convicted man and at the last second the governor will issue a reprieve. Not here. In fatalistic Asia, he dies. 

While the retrial is going on, the pretty girl reporter comes across a piece of video that pretty conclusively demonstrates the condemned mans innocence, but for reasons, she keeps it to herself. After the man is executed she regrets that she didn't share it with the court. In the standard fairy tale, she would be so overcome with remorse that she becomes so deranged that bad things happen. Not here. Here, the handsome young male detective tells her it would not have made any difference. The powers that be wanted the convict executed, and they were going to execute him regardless of whatever evidence was shown in court. Goll durn it, that sounds just like the law. You misspelled 'this' on your appeal, off with your head.

There were some pieces to the plot that make you wonder whether the writers had backed themselves into a corner and needed to pull a rabbit out their hat in order to tie things together at the end. We have one unsolved murder that has been hanging out forever. Resolving this case involves creating this whole backstory that takes several episodes to reveal. I think this is what the whole second season was about. 

The cute reporter's boss's brother is a new minister of justice. The two brothers had a sister who committed suicide after being sexually assaulted by a policeman who subsequently disappeared. That happened a while back, maybe as much as ten years ago. Five years ago, around the same time as the original murder that got the convict convicted, the editor eventually tracks down the cop who assaulted his sister and discovers he is posing as a pastor at a church under an assumed name. He confronts the guy at night, in an open area near the church. He asks for, nay, demands an apology. The guy pushes him away and turns to get back in his car. The editor falls down, but then he picks up a convenient rock and wacks his nemesis on the head. Ah, revenge! How sweet it is.

Meanwhile, a hundred yards away, around the corner, a couple of detectives are arguing about a bribe one of them has received. The bribed one (Nam) gets a phone call. While he is occupied the other detective (Jang) hears the editor and the priest fighting and runs to see what's going on. The editor has loaded the dead priest into the back of his car. He plays it cool when Jang appears, but when Jang looks in the back of the car and sees the dead body, the editor wacks him on the head and he falls down. Now Nam is coming around the corner and the editor jumps in the priests car and drives off.

Now Nam has decided that he wants to keep the money. Jang has been stunned by the editor so Nam decides to take advantage of the situation and kill him. He can blame the death on the editor. This whole episode, the fight and the two murders, was recorded by a dashboard camera in car that just happened to have a perfect view of the scene. Nam, naturally, pulls the recording from the camera. Bits of this recording come to light whenever the script writers want to stir the pot.

Nam, being the slimy SOB that he is, having this video gives him the confidence to worm his way into the presence of the major scumbag who actually killed the girl the convict was blamed for killing. 

Indian Rope Man - 66 Meters

Indian Rope Man - 66 Meters [Official Video]
Skint Records

New York

World Trade Center, New York City

Cool picture, but what is that skyscraper in the center? Google's image search delivers me to 124 Fulton Street where we find this Streetview:

133 Fulton Street, New York City

It took some fiddling to get the One World Trade Center to line up. Using the 3D View, the OWTC appears as a black obelisk. It's only when you get down to street level and get positioned exactly do you get this view.

Blue Boy - Remember Me (Official Video)

Blue Boy - Remember Me (Official Video)
Altra Moda Music

This tune popped into my head today. I remembered how it sounded, but that was all. I racked my brain and after going down several rat holes (jing jing a ling - no, ching ching a ling - no)  ging ging ging finally got me the tune.

Word of the Day

Flyball Governor
Chris Boden

This guy packs his videos with a convoluted spiel that can be hard to comprehend. He's rattling along and out comes 'ferroequinologist'. What the heck is that? Google knows:

A ferroequinologist is a person who is interested in trains and rail transport systems, also known as a railfan, train fan, or trainspotter. The term "ferroequinologist" combines the Latin words "ferrus" (iron) and "equinus" (equine, relating to horses), referring to the "iron horse" or locomotive. They are passionate about trains, their history, and their operation. 

 

Learn Chinese

Chinese slang lesson 101
ChineseTrump

Today's Chuckle.

1969 Vinyl LPs

Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride (Version 1969)
DiscoBar80

Hoo boy, ain't heard this one in a while. I was a senior in high school when this came out. From Wikipedia:

Steppenwolf were a Canadian-American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1967. The group was founded by singer/rhythm guitarist John Kay, keyboardist Goldy McJohn and drummer Jerry Edmonton, all formerly of the Canadian band the Sparrows. Guitarist Michael Monarch and bassist Rushton Moreve were recruited via notices placed in Los Angeles–area record and musical instrument stores.

Steppenwolf sold over 25 million records worldwide, released seven gold albums and one platinum album, and had 13 Billboard Hot 100 singles, of which seven were Top 40 hits, including three top 10 successes: "Born to Be Wild", "Magic Carpet Ride" and "Rock Me". Steppenwolf enjoyed worldwide success from 1968 to 1972, but clashing personalities led to the end of the core lineup. From 1980 to 2018, John Kay was the only original member involved, having been the lead singer since 1967. The band was called John Kay & Steppenwolf from 1980 to 2018. In Canada, they had four top 10 songs, 12 top 40 and 14 in the top 100.

LP Storage

Reminds me that a friend of mine and I went to visit another friend. We were in a room and along one wall were cabinets full of vinyl records. It was maybe half as tall as the cabinet in the picture, but is was at least as long, maybe longer. Whatever, it was big. I don't think I have ever seen such a large collection all concentrated in one place. I don't think there was any purpose to our visit. We were just stopping by to say hello. It didn't occur to me till much later, like ten years ago, that that pile of records represented a small fortune. Say there's 30 disks in each cube, times six cubes long by four cubes high by $4 per disk is like $700. And this was back when gold was $35 an ounce and used car cost $100. Scale that $700 up to today's value and it comes to $70 grand. I suspect that the reason I didn't attach any significance to this is that such a large concentration of money was an alien concept (beware! here there be monsters!).  I didn't attach any significance to it at the time, but I squirreled that memory away and kept it, and 50 years later I pulled it out and realized what it was.

Via The Village Hemorrhoid

Update a week later. Corrected the price of an LP.

WW2 High Altitude Photo Reconnaissance

Germany's U-2 - WW2s Highest Air Combat
Mark Felton Productions

The Junkers Ju 86R could reach 52,500 feet of altitude, which is nearly 10 miles, and is higher than commercial airliners fly.

Junkers Jumo 207 D-V2 In-line 6 Diesel Engine

Hit the Road Jack!

Ray Charles & ZZ Top & Norman Greenbaum - Hit the Road Jack! (Music - La Grange & Spirit In The Sky)
BluesMen Channel - Blues Rock Music

Near as I can make out, someone just went wild with audio and video editing. Pretty cool. Made me think about ZZ Top's cars. I've see pictures of a couple, but how many are there? Billy Gibbons has a web site with some pictures of his cars.

Wild Coast. South Africa

Coffee Bay, South Africa

I liked the look of this picture, peaceful, calm, tropical paradise, sunshine, blue skies, the whole kit and caboodle. Google image search* comes back with a long list of places that use this image, for some unknown value of long. I mean, I hardly ever go beyond the first page of Google's search results, and if I do I really have to be in a digging frame of mine. Every once in a blue moon, something on the second page will pay off. 

Google search results all pointed to Hole in the Wall, Coffee Bay, Wild Coast, South Africa.

Hole in the Wall

Looking on Google Maps, I could not find this place. Finally figured out that while all the search results pointed to Hole in the Wall and Coffee Bay, the two places are six miles apart. Looking at the map, I wondered if there were any street view images. I was expecting any, but Google has sent cars down the roads. Pull up a street view image, swing around and boom! There we are.

MTS Oceanos

In 1991 MTS Oceanos sunk five miles off the coast of Coffee Bay. The South African Air Force sent 16 (!) helicopters to rescue passengers. All 571 passengers were rescued, no thanks to the Captain and the crew who were among the first people to abandon ship.

* Google image search - Google's search page looks like this:

Google

Notice that there are two icons at the right end of the data entry line. The first is a microphone and the I believe the second is a camera. Click on the camera icon and you can upload an image, or enter the URL of image, if it's on the net.

Is including explanations like this a good thing? I've been pointing and clicking for 40 odd years and I have probably picked up a few tricks to make my keyboard battles a little easier. I tend to assume that all of these little tricks are common knowledge, but I really have no idea. I am sure there are other methods of doing this, especially if you are using a smart phone, but I am not keen on my smart phone. To me, it's like a wrench. I use it when I need it and then I put it away. I don't spend hours cuddled up it. I have my desktop machine for that. It has a much bigger screen. Looking at pictures on a smartphone is stupid. I don't care how high your resolution is, the image is just too friggin' small. Bring it close enough so that it occupies the same field of view as a desktop display and you are going to be cross-eyed.