Came across this on The Feral Irishmanand my first reaction was that it is some AI* fantasy, but it's not, it's a real place, though it doesn't seem to be much of a building. The tower is hollow with a spiral staircase in one of the corner protrusions. Wikipedia calls it a 'folly', which I surmise just means it has no practical purpose. Also from Wikipedia:
As a master mariner with over 20 years exp at Sea, this is something I would never want to exp. in my life. There was some medical issue with some crew and the fight onboard led to damage to the engine/electrical controls while the vessel was on a SW course of Mauritius towards Atlantic Ocean. Resultant was thst all engine power was lost and vessel drifted towards the island and aground. 94 Miles off aftsr her salvage she sunk to 4400m to the bed of Indian Ocean. The Salvage Video is exceptional, the hard work that goes into this is remarkable esp removal of fuel oil fm Engine room and working machinery and bunker tanks. Kudos to the salvors.
Russia claims that this nuclear powered missle made a 9,000 mile test flight. That's a very good trick. I don't know how it works, but the only way I can think of is that it operates like a ramjet. In that case they would use a conventional rocket to boost it up to cruising velocity where there is enough air coming in. The air is heated in the reactor and then it escapes out the back. If they can do that without spreading radiation far and wide, that would be a VERY good trick.
NATO's designation is Skyfall, which you may remember was the name of a James Bond movie from 2012.
In season 3 of the Netflix show The Diplomat, our players got themselves twisted in knots over a Russian submarine that was carrying a Poseidon drone that sank off the coast of England.
While these weapons are fearsome, I don't think it is worth worrying about them. I mean, we already have enough nuclear armed conventional missiles to destroy the world should someone get a burr up their ass.
On the plus side, they might prompt our nuclear engineers to develop our own miniature nuclear reactor, assuming they haven't already done so and are just keeping it under wraps. Miniature nuclear reactors could be very handy for just about anything people want to do. Assuming they can figure out how to deal with the radioactive byproducts.
Title translates as 'Not for the easy roads... Film 1, 1963'. You can turn on the subtitles and engage the autotranslation, but it doesn't tell you much. It was an experimental vehicle and it worked better than most others, but did it ever make it to production? I suspect not. Fuel economy wasn't that great. 900 liters of gas gas it a range of 600 kilometers, which works out to 3.5 miles per gallon.
P. S. The comments on YouTube make for some interesting reading.
P. S. I wonder what they could see if they all pointed their telescopes at the same place. Could all the images be combined into one with higher resolution? Jack wonders if any of these telescopes would be available for rent. Might be a business opportunity here. Also, I zoomed in on the Google satellite map and there was nothing to see. I suspect things don't change much in the middle of nowhere, so the satellite image probably hasn't been updated lately.
Ecstatic Vibrations Totally Transcendent | Disco Elysium • ost
Heisenbaka
I have no idea what this is, but it's great! Heisenbaka says he's using AI to generate his videos. I think this one is just a mash up of other people's stuff.
The Original Sin of Computing...that no one can fix
LaurieWired
Boy she talks fast, and long, but pretty clear. I suspect the basic idea for writing a Quin is to have a block of text that contains all the code in the program. The program writes this block out twice, once as code, and once as a block of text in the middle of the code, so the program actually contains two copies of this block of text.
Iowa Man has been training with the Bingen Volunteer Fire Department. There was a forest fire not far from Bingen this summer. If a forest fire ever reached the town, the whole town would go up in smoke. Hence, training with the VFD.
Pumper Controls
Stream
Spray
Wedge-It
Wedge-It is a door stop for firefighters. I guess it is easier to block a door open than to rip it off its hinges, and this thing can be used six ways from Sunday to accomplish that. Amazon sells them.
Kolobok is the main character of an East Slavic fairy-tale with the same name, represented as a small yellow spherical bread-like being. The story is often called "Little Round Bun" and sometimes "The Runaway Bun." - Wikipedia
AI Slop: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight
I used to watch John Oliver and he is pretty funny. I don't watch him anymore, I'm busy playing solitaire, but he's got an issue here. The issue is how gullible people are, but that hasn't really changed. There have always been people who are gullible and there have always been people who are ready and willing to take advantage of them. It might be that people just want something to believe in, and if they aren't too smart they might not care just what they believe in.
So most of this AI Slop is entertainment and entertainment might be the biggest industry in the world.
It's use in propaganda is a little worrying, but propaganda has always been a problem, now it's just a little glitzier.
In the middle of the story about all the criminals and their criminal activity, there is this description that sounds like something out of a Mission: Impossible movie:
According to the FBI, the alleged fraud included self-shuffling machines that had "been secretly altered in order to read the cards on the deck, predict which player on the table had the best poker hand, and relay the information to an offsite operator," said Nocella, adding "The offsite operator sent the information via cell phone back to a co-conspirator at the table and that person at the table was known as the 'quarterback.' The 'quarterback' then signaled secretly the information he had received to others at the table and together they used that information in order to win their games and to cheat the victims."
The scheme also allegedly used poker chip tray analyzers, special contact lenses or glasses that can read pre-marked cards, and an X-ray table that can read face down cards on the table.
I guess all those Netflix shows about murder investigations that end up pointing to corruption at the highest levels of society are actually true stories, they've just changed the names to protect the guilty.
Let's Build a Locomotive! Pennsylvania A3 Switcher, Part 1
Blondihacks
Jack recommended Blondihacks to my attention a couple of months ago and I finally got around to looking her up. I picked this video because I posted about a live steam model train not too long ago. In this one she spends a lot of time laying out the ground work, including sourcing materials, which turns out to be a bigger problem than I imagined. Very entertaining, if you like obscure technical info.
I was putting a plate in the microwave oven and I was a bit careless and the edge of the plate collided with the glass plate inside the microwave and a biggish chip got knocked out of the plate.
The apparently undamaged plate
Yes, I know you can see the crack at the top, but in real life the crack is invisible. This is actually the broken plate, I have just slid the two halves together.
The plate seemed undamaged, so when I was done eating the plate went in the dishwasher.
Plate when it came out of the dishwasher
We have several identical plates. I can't be sure it was the same plate that collided with the plate in the microwave, but you know it is.
Chip off the microwave plate
I kept the chip off the microwave plate thinking I might be able to glue it back on, but what kind of glue can survive being microwaved?
So I left the chip of glass sitting on my desk. The next morning I come downstairs and I see what looks like a cellophane candy wrapper on my desk so I pick it up to throw it away and the stupid thing cut me and caused me to bleed all over my electric bill. Stupid piece of glass. Can't be my fault, could it?
WTF happened in 1971? Once we fully ended the gold standard, a LOT of things have went off the rails
jake explains
Joy - o - joy. One of my favorite topics to harp on: gold, inflation and Nixon. Don't know why I bother, it's not like anything substantive is going to change.
This Is CRAZY! AI Reality Generation on Quest 3 IN REAL TIME!
DiscoVR Tetiana
A Meta Quest 3 Virtual Reality Headset came to me from a friend who didn't want it. Some things have happened and now it's time to put up a post, so I'm looking for a video that will demonstrate just what this thing can do. This is the shortest one I found.
I had no interest in it, so I decided to put it up for sale on Ebay. I've got a a bunch of stuff that I would like to get rid of, and if I could sell it on Ebay, that would be great, and I thought selling this headset would be a good way to get my feet wet in the Ebay world.
My post wasn't up for long before I started getting offers. One offer came in that looked pretty good, but by the time I got around to looking at it, it had already expired. Evidently timed offers are now a thing. Whatever. Eventually, like after a week, or so, the headset sold for $300. Cool!
Pago Pago
Now I have to ship it, so I print the labels, take it to UPS to get it boxed up. They take it and pass it to the post office. Somewhere along the way I look at the address. The buyer is in Pago Pago which is half a world away in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. However, since Pago Pago is in American Samoa, you can mail packages there. Cost of shipping was like $13. I think the cost of boxing it up was like $20.
The idea that you could mail this box halfway around the world for a pittance struck me as miraculous. I was so blown away that I neglected to insure the package. But now it's packaged, labeled and on its way.
It's going take a week to get there, but that's okay. However, a month goes by and it still hasn't shown up, so I file a lost mail report with the Post Office. A week later I get a notice that the buyer wants their money back. So maybe it was all an illusion and you can't really send mail to Pago Pago.
I go around and around with Ebay trying to get this deal sorted out. A couple of day later I get a notice that Ebay has refunded the buyer of out of their own pocket. The next day I get a notice that the package has finally arrived and Ebay sends me my money. Kind of weird, but it seems to have worked out.
Crystal clear and very detailed. I haven't had a dream this clear and detailed in a long time.
I was called out to do a minor bit of work. I needed to connect a couple of wires to a circuit breaker and plug in a 110 VAC plug, nothing too complicated, but it was on some machine at some remote location. I did the job and went home.
The next morning I had some other work to do, but when I was done, I thought I better check with the customer and see if everything was okay. Don't want unhappy customers, so I go to the job site. It's a commercial construction project and there are several people there. I hear some guy talking to 'Kim', and then I hear him talking to 'Kim' again. I walk a little way and I come across a skinny teenage girl with limp blond hair. This is 'Kim' and she is happy that her dad, the guy who was talking to her, is happy with her. He's a middle aged bald man wearing a very nice brown suit. Anyway, he has given 'Kim' some treats which she proudly shows me. She's holding one of those little Tootsie-Rolls and a couple of small packages of Rolaids. She gives me the Rolaids.
Now she asks me if I know that we are related. I had no idea, I have never seen or heard of her before. She tells me she is one of a set of triplets that were born to Mia Farrow who died when she was in a car crash when she was three years old. I thought that was a bit curious, so I thought I ought to check out her story on Google, so I started formulating what I was going to put in the Google query bar.
McLaren Engineering Group engineered the award-winning (2009 Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement) Kinetic Atrium at the Wynn Casino in Macau, China. At the center of the entertainment complex, the Golden Atrium’s architectural elements transform the indoor piazza with a spectacular multi-media performance of kinetic sculpture, video, light, and music.
Interchangeable Kinetic Atrium
The aesthetic combines astrological symbols from east and west with universal symbols of good fortune including the Chinese zodiac and western zodiacs, a golden tree, and a glittering crystal chandelier. The kinetic elements are driven by several large custom mechanical assemblies and morph several times each day.
The stars of the show, are two interchangeable kinetic displays, each on their own slip-stage. They load onto the lift in the basement below the atrium before rising into place to dazzle patrons with an immersive experience.
First, Golden “Tree” revolves as it rises from the ground as a cultural symbol of good luck. Next, an animated Dragon emerges adorned with a lotus flower and exhibiting smoking nostrils and a bobbing head.
Each element is unveiled through a partial dome in the atrium’s floor. As the elements dance into place, the floor breaks into six parts, creating an opening for a mechanical lift to elevate them into full view.
The show also features a 65-foot diameter sculpted dome ceiling featuring the Chinese zodiac that opens into a 12-section iris. When open, the iris uncovers an overhead LED screen, that later splits into two halves to reveal a black void filled with a massive chandelier. The 30-foot diameter chandelier changes shape vertically as it lowers and contains 15,000 crystals each embedded with an LED for dynamic illumination.
The Brutality of Tillamook Rock Lighthouse - Terrible Tilly
Big Old Boats
The pacing on this video is a little slow, but given the hardships the builders went through to construct this thing, I'm willing to cut him a little slack.
The lighthouse is just off the coast of northwest Oregon. Highway 26 (near the bottom of the map) runs by my house on its way to Portland. The Columbia River is at the top of the map. It runs by Astoria on its way to Portland. Area shown is about 30 miles square.
“In the Sermon on the Mount, the Divine Moralist instructed his hearers to forgive those who had injured them; but He knew too well the malice of the human heart to expect them to forgive those whom they had injured.” - Richard Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction: Personal Experiences of the Late War (1879).
Google translation of the YouTube blurb (the original is in Italian):
Hertz's Experiments with Electromagnetic Waves
The experimental setup consists of two metal parabolic mirrors. At the focus of the transmitter mirror is a spark oscillator connected to an induction coil.
In the receiver is a metal filings coherer connected to a Grenet battery and an electric bell.
The oscillator's spark plug is filled with Vaseline oil, which allows for higher-energy discharges.
The trains of electromagnetic waves produced by the oscillating sparks are focused on the coherer. Its resistance suddenly decreases, and the battery current activates the bell. A light tap on the coherer restores its non-conductive state, and the bell stops ringing.
A copper plate is inserted between the oscillator and the receiver to reflect the electromagnetic waves. The coherer, shielded by the plate, remains in its high-resistance state, and the bell does not ring.
The transmitter and receiver are oriented so that the electromagnetic waves produced by the former are reflected back to the latter by the copper plate. The coherer responds to the waves, its resistance decreases, and the bell rings.
I understand the parabolic mirrors, but what is a coherer? YouTube knows:
The Triumph of America (1933) | Chevrolet’s Legacy 🇺🇸 – Part 1
TheCarScene
This video was made almost 100 years ago and automation had already made great strides. At 4:19 the narrator lays out the how much raw material goes into building automobiles. It's a surprisingly large fraction of all production. People wanted cars and were willing to pay for them. This video came out in the midst of the Great Depression. This is a new upload, Part 2 hasn't been posted yet.
P. S. Jam Handy (1886-1983) was an Olympic swimmer as well as a prolific film maker.
I saw this movie in a theater back when it came out. I remember being impressed with the sets and scenery, not so impressed with the plot. I do remember the unexpected windstorm that caused some trouble for our intrepid crew.
Google- Prometheus is a 2012 science-fiction film exploring themes of humanity's origins and purpose, serving as a prequel to the Alien franchise. The story follows a crew who discover ancient beings called Engineers, seeking to understand their creators and find answers to life's fundamental questions.
The New Force - Official Clip (as Trailer) | Netflix
The New Force (Original title Skiftet, translates to 'The Shift' in English). Stockholm gets their first female police officers circa 1958. Our hero, Carin manages to get herself into hot (nay, boiling) water in the first episode and stays there for the duration. We get to see the other cop's attitudes are along with society's attitudes about women coppers. We get to see a bit of what life and typical police work were like in the fifties. As a special bonus we get to listen to modern rap 'music'. Mostly we were busy following the story (shit's happenin' man) and the music was just background noise so we didn't notice it. There were a couple of instances when I did notice it enough that it became annoying. Complicated characters, very entertaining.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M Yaghi for their work in the development of metal organic frameworks (MOF).
The three scientists, who won the award on Wednesday, come from the universities of Kyoto in Japan, Melbourne in Australia and Berkeley in the United States, respectively.
The trio have created “molecular constructions with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow”, read a statement from the Nobel Prize. Such constructions can be used to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases or break down traces of pharmaceuticals in the environment.
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