Helium

Gazprom Helium Service

The first road bridge between Russia and China just opened. They built a railroad bridge a few years ago, but this is the first road bridge. The new road bridge is just over a thousand meters long. I suspect the big trick was making a bridge that is strong enough to withstand the ice in the winter and during the spring thaw when the ice starts to break up and big chunks start careening downstream, smashing everything in their path. 

Cool bridge, but what caught my eye was this line:

On Friday, the first eight China-bound Russian trucks from the Gazprom Helium Service fleet, powered by liquefied natural gas, crossed the bridge via the Kani-Kurgan-Heihe checkpoint.

Helium use in the USA used to be controlled by the Federal government, but that was a while back. Evidently there is plenty available now, baring industrial accidents and political wrangling.

Smokin'

Ukrainian service members in the Donetsk region prepare shells for an M777 howitzer near a front line on June 6 [File: Stringer/Reuters]

Funny how the story on Ukraine suddenly changed from 'Ve vill defeet ze Russians' to 'Ukraine is getting their ass kicked'. Ukraine must not be doing too badly, after all they still have cigarettes.

Coffee

Luigi Bezzera and his Espresso Machine circa 1900

Today's Google Doodle got me started and I found this cool old photo. Everybody seems to have this image, but nobody has any information about it. I think it's a photo of Luigi, but who knows? It might be his cousin Bob.

More Stone Age

See the 1,000-Year-Old Windmills Still in Use Today | National Geographic
National Geographic
Stu visited some old windmills and posted some photos.

Driven shaft and exposed gearbox in Salzkotten

This picture shows the bevel gears being used to drive the grindstone, which makes me wonder how they accomplished this before iron gears were something a farmer could afford. I mean, if the ancients could build the Antikythera mechanism they would surely have had the ability to make big bevel gears. But after that, nobody mentions gears until Leonardo starts putting them in his designs around 1500 and it wasn't until the 19th Century that we got the hobbing machine which automatically cuts metal gears. So I'm thinking the probably started casting gears around 1700. For a large, crude mechanism such as this mill casting should have been adequate.

We've been grinding wheat for thousands of years, so what did they do before 1700 to drive the grindstone? 

Wooden cogwheel driving a lantern pinion or cage gear

You could use wooden gears.

Cast iron mortise wheel with wooden cogs meshing with a cast iron gear wheel

This one kind of confuses the issue, as we have an iron wheel with wooden teeth engaging an iron gear.

Or just use a windmill with a vertical axis so you don't need gears at all. That's what we have in the video above.

Medication - Tune

Queens Of The Stone Age - 08 - Medication (Live Detroit 2005)
Kyussist
This tune came on while I was driving home this evening. First time I think I have ever heard it. It's fantastic, I turned the volume way up. Can't remember the last time I did that. 30 years ago maybe when I was on a Aerosmith kick and I was drunk.

I've been aware of the Queens of The Stone Age for a while, but apparently none of their songs made an impression on me until now.

It didn't come on the radio, I've got YouTube Music on my phone, I plug the phone into the jack in my truck and presto, tunes!

Hot Rod

Hot Rod
99 piece jigsaw puzzle

Here's a palate cleanser to get the bad taste of the last post out of your mouth. The paint job on this hot rod is insane, but compared to the insanity of the US government, it is like a breath of fresh air.

I read the news today, oh boy.

Dumpster Fire

Surprise, surprise! Daily lease rates for LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) tankers have gone up due to the demand from Europe. Biden is allowing Venezuela to export oil, and is talking about getting oil from Iran. Somebody in the US government is saying that Ukraine should negotiate a settlement with Russia. Do we have clowns running the US government? Oh, that's right, we do. Stupid, murderous, barbarian clowns.

Normally I would link to all these stories, but who needs it?