The Battle that Saved Taiwan - Kinmen Island 1949
Historigraph
I didn't get much 20th century Chinese history when I was in school. Something about Japan bad, and we helped the Chinese fight against the bad Japanese, but that was about it. Only much later did I hear that the Communists abandoned the fight and marched West and hid out until the Japanese were defeated, then came back and kicked the war weary nationalists over the strait to Taiwan.
Anyway, Kinmen Island looked familiar because it's the home of the Black Dragon Howitzers.
The Rise and Fall of America’s Forgotten Railroad Empire: Altoona, Pennsylvania
Paul McAllister
I recognize the name Altoona, but I don't know why. It feels like it was the name of a town in a story I read a long time ago, and then I watched the video about Baldwin Locomotives and I got a clue. Now this video pops up and it becomes clear that Altoona was big deal for a long time and maybe the name just kind of seeped into our culture without anyone noticing.
Video paints a pretty good picture of the rise and fall of Altoona. Gets kind of long winded and repetitive towards the end, but pretty good overall.
Not all of the images shown are accurate. For example, towards the end, just after the 34 minute mark, there is shot of a big steel mill. There was never a big steel mill like this in Altoona. The image is of Bethlehem Steel located along the Lehigh River in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Hannah Fry has a short video up on YouTube expressing her love for the A4 paper size. I think she's wrong, 8 1/2 by 11 is the only correct paper size. A4 just looks wrong. This is probably due to my 70 plus years of only seeing 8 1/2 by 11. Anyway, it prompted me to ask Google about the origins of these two formats. I have arranged the answers by year:
1660s: Dutch papermakers used wooden frames to pull paper from vats by hand. The 44-inch length matched the maximum comfortable reach of a worker's arms, which quartered down to 11 inches. The 17-inch width left room for watermarks, cutting in half to 8.5 inches.
1786: German scientist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg first proposed the mathematical ratio (the square root of two) used for the A4 format.
1921 The U.S. Committee on the Simplification of Paper Sizes adopted 8.5 x 11 inches under Herbert Hoover's program to cut manufacturing waste.
1922: Dr. Walter Porstmann registered the A4 format as the DIN 476 standard in Germany, establishing the dimensions at 210 × 297 mm.
1975: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted the A4 format as ISO 216.
1977: A4 became the standard letter format in 88 of 148 countries.
1980s: President Ronald Reagan made 8.5 x 11 inches the official size for all U.S. government forms.
The Nika Riots: When Chariot Fans Burned an Empire
مركبة الجسور البرمائية: عبّارة عسكرية ذاتية الدفع تنفذ عمليات الإنزال عبر المياه - Amphibious bridge vehicle: A self-propelled military ferry that conducts landing operations across water.
When Filmmaking Gear Becomes the Visual Story 😎
How Horses Rotate Their Ears Like Radar 🐴👂
First lesson taught in Romanian schools
The Mini Dredger That Works Like a Real Ship 🚢
Meltwater Pulses and the Younger Dryas Timeline
🐈 🐈⬛ compilation - cats and birds
"Only Jackie Chan Can Do This"☠️🔥 | CZ12 | FUNK ABNORMAL ( Slowed )
Why The Baldwin Centipede Broke Every Railroad That Bought It — 91 Feet Of Failure
Cab Forward
I'm watching this video about the Baldwin Centipede locomotive, and he mentions the La Vergne 608SC diesel engine and I get distracted. He don't show a picture, or at least not a good one, so I go looking and found some passable images on The Baldwin Diesel Zone.
The 608SC shows up in 1945, but the company was around for another 20 years. So what were they building? In 1964:
The last 600 series engine was built at Eddystone. Stationary 608A #7113
Eddystone, where's that? Ask Google and the first interesting thing that pops up is the Eddystone Generating Station - Constellation Energy. Okay, a power plant is not a locomotive, but they are like brothers from different mothers, brothers under the skin, so to speak. They are both industrial power machines, which is close enough. Besides, I have a soft spot for power generating stations, so I go take a look. On Google Maps, Eddystone is a suburb of Philadelphia and the power plant looks like this:
The power plant is surrounded by a double set of railroad tracks and most of the land inside the tracks appears to be flat, bare ground, or maybe concrete. If this power plant was burning coal, both of those features would be useful, but there doesn't appear to be any coal. However, there are two big oil tanks.
Eddystone Generating Station plays a critical role in delivering reliable power through fuel diversity. Owned and operated by Constellation, this six-unit, 820-megawatt (MW) power plant is located on the Delaware River in Eddystone, Pennsylvania, just south of Philadelphia.
Eddystone Units 3 and 4, each with a capacity of 380 MW, were installed between 1967 and 1970. These subcritical steam boiler-turbine generator units can operate on either natural gas or oil, providing flexibility based on market conditions.
Units 10, 20, 30 and 40 are oil-fueled peaking units with a combined capacity of 60 MW. They are designed to run during periods of high demand and were installed in 1967 and 1970.
Construction of Eddystone began in the mid-1950s, with the now-retired Units 1 and 2 coming online in 1960. Both were supercritical steam boiler-turbine generator units that operated on coal. Unit 1 was retired in 2011, and Unit 2 followed in 2012.
Eddystone has been in business for 70 years, and for most of that time they were burning coal. It's only been in the last 15 years that they've fully changed over to gas and oil. I wonder how much it would cost to replicate that railroad track today. Google says one to five million a mile, for straight lines on level ground. I'm gonna say 10 to 20 million for this industrial location. Is there any other commodity that could use such a setup? A grain terminal maybe? Probably not while the power plant is operating.
There seems to be some disagreement over whether Eddystone should be operating or not. There's too many competing interests and it's too far away, I'm not gonna stick my nose in there, though maybe I should. Data Centers are one of the competing interests, and there are a bunch of them being built around here. I suspect they are piggy-backing on the electrical power distribution system that was installed to support Intel's Giant Ronler Acres Microchip Foundry. They might be piggy-backing as well on the tax deal Intel got when they set up shop in Hillsboro.
An aside: While I was writing this post I tried to copy the phrase
Eddystone Generating Station - Constellation Energy
from Google's search page, but when I pasted it I got:
Eddystone Generating Station - Constellation Energy
Curious as how this was being done, I used Blogger's html mode and found that pasting that line came with 3KB of html fluff. A little poking around reveals that including this little bit of text:
The narrator in this video repeats some of his stuff a little excessively. I don't know whether he is just filling time, hoping to pound these phrases into the listener's brain, or whether he just likes the sound of his own voice. Is that even a real thing? Liking the sound of your own voice? I don't even know what I sound like, I guess my voice is acceptable. Anyway, I suspect the phrase 'liking the sound of your own voice' is just something some wag made up to describe someone who talked a lot.
The point I was trying to make is that I have seen several videos like this, and I guess I got to give these guys credit for putting together a polished video. Not everybody can do that, but I suspect some of these, especially the ones where the narrator never appears, are just having an AI read a script.
When society collapses, the collapse will likely take the internet with it and all that old printed matter, printed on paper, will become valuable again. It will become so valuable you might think that all the old booksellers and hoarders are working together to ensure the collapse of civilization, as they are the only ones who will profit from it. But that would be unfair, because everyone is working very hard on the collapse. I say that because everyone is sure the collapse is coming (probably not for ten years, and maybe not even for 100), everyone can see we are headed for the cliff, but it's not a sharp drop off, at least not right away. We've gone over the peak and now we are just past level and starting on a downhill slope, but there is no danger, at least in the immediate view, and we are cruising, going 60, top down, sun shining, things couldn't be better. But the collapse is coming, but nobody knows what to do to stop it. Wait, that's not right, everybody knows what to do, but nobody can get enough people together to actually do anything about it. A detailed view of the economic situation might be the place to start.
The diagram got me here, it shows up at the 12:12 mark and Arpit goes thru the diagram bit by tedious bit, and there's a more than a few bits. He's a little hard to understand, but he repeats himself and uses a pointer effectively. I dunno what the rest of the video is about.
Torque Converter – How Does It Work? (3D Animation)
CARinfo3d (En)
Nice, simplified explanation of how torque convertors work. I still wonder who came up with this idea, how they made the prototypes, and how they make them now. Probably won't be satisfied until I see the equations for fluid flow and that's probably pointless because I probably wouldn't understand them. Well, I probably could if I spent a couple months studying up. It would take me at least that long because I only get about an hour's worth of actual work done a day. Anyway, here's some Turboglide pictures.
Normally I wouldn't post this, but I think the length and detail of this story is what triggered me. Somebody is going to make a movie about this guy, if they haven't already. I mean he fits the profile of the villain in every action movie ever made.
Wei Hsueh-Kang—an ethnic Han Chinese warlord and commander in the United Wa State Army (UWSA)—informally controls the quasi-sovereign Southern Wa State in Myanmar and has transformed it into a major hub for synthetic drugs.
He acts as the financial mastermind for the UWSA by using vast narcotics profits to fund armed operations, laundering these illicit earnings through large business conglomerates, infrastructure projects, and illegal jade mining.
Despite facing a $2 million U.S. bounty and strict international sanctions, he remains an elusive and influential figure. He evades capture through his fortified military protection, strategic bribery, and deep political connections with Chinese intelligence.
I'm reading Idoru by William Gibson (a great story) and on page 260 I come across this passage. Laney and Yamazaki are in a van that Arleigh is driving:
"I guess it must be capable of it," Laney said, as something under her seat began to clang, loudly and insistently. "But I don't think that means it'll necessarily happen. What the hell is that?"
"I'm exceeding the speed limit," she said. "Every vehicle in Japan is legally required to be equipped with one of these devices. You speed, it dings."
Laney turned to Yamazaki. "Is that true?"
"Of course," Yamazaki said, over the steady clanging.
"And people don't just disconnect them?"
"No,” Yamazaki said, looking puzzled. "Why would they?"
I came up with a way to factor numbers without dividing. I use a table and by chaining through the table I can factor any number. Problem is - for big numbers I need a really big table. The amount of memory the table would require would be equal to 100 times the number you want to factor, and that only works up to the quadrillions. But then I got to thinking that much of table is going to be repetitive, and you might be able to just record the differences from the base table and so generate any portion of the table you need. Going to run some experiments, see how they work out.
I think Alfas have always been my favorite cars, at least after I realized that the twelve cylinder Ferrari I lusted over was out of reach. I mean, I should have able to buy an Alfa, but people grow and change and it never happened.
Right now I could buy one, but I don't really have any time to spend on it. I'm busy blogging and anytime I need to go anywhere, I want a modern car suitable for the rugby scrum that is modern traffic. Don't worry, some people have the time:
The California Mille is open to any car that could have participated in the original Mille Miglia. We are seeking a variety of makes and types. Foreign and domestic manufacturers are welcome, but all cars must have been made prior to January 1, 1958.
The event is limited to approximately 65-70 cars based on the availability of hotel reservations. To maintain the spirit of the Mille Miglia, we carefully choose cars that fit our requirements and specifications from each year’s group of applicants.
The California Mille is an annual historic and classic car tour inspired by the Mille Miglia, a former Italian open-road endurance race covering roughly 1000 miles from Brescia-to-Rome-to-Brescia and ran twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957.
Entry fee is $17 grand. Yeah, no thanks, I'm good.
They Laughed At His "Impossible" Tube — Then It Killed Every German Bomber Over The Convoys !
Darkest Docs and war docs
I don't know how much trouble German airplanes caused Allied cargo ships, the I suspect the main threat was from the German submarines. However, it would nice to have something if you had a German airplane bearing down on you. I wonder that pilots would even be able to see something as small as a gernade, but evidently the thing did least stave off a few attacks.
The is the 1961 version of the Lagos Palm. It was the second ship of that name working for the Palm Line:
The Palm Line was a UK-owned shipping line that was engaged in the West African trade from 1949, primarily servicing the ports along 5,000 miles of coastline from Morocco in the north to Angola in the far south. It ceased trading in 1986.
Navigating the Niger Delta required certain accommodations:
It is notable that all Palm Line ships, with the exception of Kano Palm and Katsina Palm, built before 1970, had to be less than 500 feet long in order to navigate the creeks of Nigeria. Draught is another important feature. The coast of West Africa is extremely flat, and the slow-moving rivers and tidal currents have combined to build up long sand bars a mile or two off the coast. To enter most of the rivers, ships must pass over these bars; 27 feet being the maximum draught to serve all ports. Even so, to enter many rivers, - for example the Escravos River which leads to Sapele - ships cannot carry more than 4,000 tons since the maximum draught to successfully make it over the Escravos Bar is limited to 17 feet (5.2 m), so vessels would often cross over the bar at the entrance to the adjacent Forcados River, then take the connecting creek to the Escravos River.
Here are some maps of the Niger Delta. I'm not real happy with any of them:
the space shot doesn't have a scale,
the one labeled estuaries doesn't name any of the rivers,
the admiralty chart is too zoomed in, so much so that I don't know what I am looking at,
the last one is pretty good, it has a scale anyway, it has a bunch of names but leaves out the names of the big rivers.
Oh well, they're free, I should be happy with what I've got. It's not like I'm going on a voyage to Nigeria any time soon.
100 years seems like a perfect time to compare the old and new, even if I am three years late. I'm slowly getting adjusted to the idea of an electric car, but I'm still gonna wait until they come up with a better battery, one that doesn't weigh a thousand pounds and catch fire when it's unhappy.
I love Adam Savage for his enthusiasm and his energy. He probably makes more stuff in a day than I make in a year. This 'playset' is just glorious. It sounds like Factory Entertainment is planning on building these for sale, how many they are going to make is yet to be determined. I suspect the price is going to be something like a car, maybe ten grand, maybe twenty-five. Who knows? With the way inflation is going it might be a hundred. Whatever, this thing is beyond cool.
There's something most people don't understand about what's happening in California, something I didn't understand until a month or two ago. I wrote this in a previous blog post, but it was an epiphany for me that bears retelling.
The high speed choo-choo was never intended to run. There was never any intent to actually build the trains, build the bridges or lay the tracks. It was all a grift from the start, a grift to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.
Think about the size of that con for a second. Bernie Madoff pocketed around a billion when all was said and done. Yes, investors lost more than that, but Bernie himself only got a 10-figure payout. The high speed choo choo is an order of magnitude larger and no one is risking jail.
When that project was started, I knew in my bones you could never do it. I've built houses and remodeled houses in California. It is almost impossible to get anything of consequence done. A house is one thing, but a railroad running for more than a 100 miles? No chance.
Still, until some Internet wag said it, I hadn't put two and two together, It was all a fraud from the start.
The homeless are the same thing. I said before that the encampments in our cities are just feed lots for the non-profits. Read San Fran-sicko. Seriously. Until you read that, you don't have a sense of the depth of the corruption.
The water situation in California is similar, but I don't think it's a grift. I think it's just simple ideological blockheadedness.
Okay, typical government corruption. But then he brings up Muslim Rape Gangs and I'm not going to even think about that because If I do I'll start foaming at the mouth and my carefully cultivated façade of an educated gentleman will crumble and I will be cast out into the darkness.
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