Newsletter #0043 – “Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”

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The newsletter subject heading is a JFK quote. I might also add that too many people are allowed to have unchallenged opinions. I mean, I don’t know what “God’s plan” is, but children dying in school rooms sorta deserves a conversation about the roadmap.

 

 

 

  • Carl Sagan, 1995, from his book “The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”.

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or my grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.” “Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

1995.

 

 

OMG THIS IS REAL.

 

 

At the bottom of this one, I’ve a section on lighthouses, because I really like lighthouses. There’s even a video about this famous photo of the man standing in the open doorway in Brittany, almost swamped by a wave.

 

 

 

Philosophy & Art

 

  • This is so odd, but Pioneer Japan used Giger for commercials and print ads for their mid 80s “Zone” system.  What’s wild is that the stuff was all conceptual work done for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s “Dune”, one of the most spectacular failures in film production such that it splintered into multiple directions of the future of film.  One thing is that Salvador Dali introduced Giger to Jodorowsky, who then introduced him to Dan O’Bannon, who took Giger to Alien after Dune failed. The documentary “Jodorowsky’s Dune” is certainly a weigh station for the changing of the guard of the old world of art and cinema, to the new one of the 80s onward. This concept was to be Baron Harkonnen’s palace, and truly intone how frightening and evil the clan is.  But this commercial… Japanese sensibilities aside, how did they look at this and say “YUP THAT’S PERFECT FOR STEREO SPEAKERS”. Wild. A tiny bit more on his work: https://dangerousminds.net/comments/creature_feature_see_h.r._gigers_wild_japanese_ads_for_the_pioneer_corporat

But the Japanese love his work, and there’s even Giger bars you can visit in the country: https://dangerousminds.net/comments/incredible_h.r._giger_bar_puts_you_in_the_belly_of_the_xenomorph

 

  • Poverty began during the agrarian shift. Two new things post hunter gather were created: land ownership for farming, “I have this and you do not”, and money as stores of grains, “I grew this and you do not have it”. Hunter-gatherer wasn’t great but it was egalitarian to a great extent and actually it’s potential that they were not only purely egalitarian but typically maternal driven with men being brute force that could hunt and gather food while women stayed back to be politicians and arrange healthy patterns for the crew. As soon as we went agrarian, it developed property as land ownership, and money as stored equity in food. The rest is history.

Rousseau’s Second Discourse: The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race have been spared, had someone pulled up the stakes or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: “Do not listen to this imposter. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all and the earth to no one!”

 

 

  • Painting with wine. This is the artists youtube page, and I encourage you to watch other ones. The cat is adorable.

 

  • This is a supremely enjoyable read that speaks about the trend of NFTs as a void, comparing it to the chauvinism of land art. “In a rumination on the void in art, land artists, and NFT’s, artist Elisabeth Nicula (SFMOMA Open Space columnist in residence 2021)” writes a beautiful and spot-on description of NFT culture.  Thankfully, she’s not as brutal towards Andy Goldsworthy’s Wood Line or Spire as she is Heizer’s “Double Negative”. But the brutal flaying of NFTs has not been so expertly related as this article, and it’s a beautiful read. At least, to me. Some choice quotes: https://momus.ca/the-artist-is-the-void/

Supposedly, some people believe the desert is empty and others who know better reply that the desert is full of wonder. Claims of barrenness are politically useful in exploitative, extractive economies, and it’s worthwhile to examine and preempt them….

….Despite wan efforts to display them in physical, gallery-like, or escape-room-like spaces, NFTs are almost completely decontextualized. What’s new about the NFT is twofold. First, it extracts and burns carbon at a groundbreaking level of meaninglessness: the environmental cost of one NFT’s transactions—setting aside the now-ancillary acts of making, displaying, storing, or viewing the work—can be estimated in a range from a month’s to multiple decades’ worth of a household’s electricity usage, depending on whether the NFT is a single “object” or an edition sold in multiples….

….Extraction—of natural resources and of labor—is the defining American act, at home and at war. Inasmuch as art is for the statement of itself, earthworks such as Heizer’s extract for the sake of extraction. To me he is the most patriotic of artists. The effect of an earthwork is never big enough to critique its circumstances nor generative enough to counter the harmful effects of its creation. In this, the NFT producers have accomplished something great, and outdone the 1970s land artists. With minimal labor, no pretense of theory or contextualization, no aesthetic clarity, and no object to speak of, they have set off exponential extractions. It’s not new; it’s just worse.

 

  • Aside from Goldsworthy, the article mentions the surreal wheat installation in the early 1980s (just near Wall Street, which trades commodities like this as a notion of capitalism vs sustenance) which is even more prescient today with the passage of time:

Agnes Denes’s Prophetic Wheatfield Remains As Relevant As Ever In an act of protest against climate change and economic inequality, Denes planted a massive wheatfield in a landfill in downtown Manhattan. Nearly 40 years later her message reverberates with a poignant urgency “My decision to plant a wheat field in Manhattan instead of designing just another public sculpture, grew out of the longstanding concern and need to call attention to our misplaced priorities and deteriorating human values,” https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/agnes-denes-prophetic-wheatfield-remains-as-relevant-as-ever

 

 

 

  • William Morris… What an interesting dude. An intellectual about art and the natural world, the first quote is vibin’ early Marie Kondo. LOL He’s from the 20th century, and here’s some tidbits, and more if you want to learn and read about him: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Morris

If you want a golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

Simplicity of life, even the barest, is not a misery, but the very foundation of refinement

So I say, if you cannot learn to love real art; at least learn to hate sham art and reject it.

I love art, and I love history, but it is living art and living history that I love…

So long as the system of competition in the production and exchange of the means of life goes on, the degradation of the arts will go on

With the arrogance of youth, I determined to do no less than to transform the world with Beauty. If I have succeeded in some small way, if only in one small corner of the world, amongst the men and women I love, then I shall count myself blessed, and blessed, and blessed, and the work goes on.

 

 

 

  • Ethan Hawke with an interesting take on art vs superhero movies, and “turning everything into a competition” vs being able to absorb art as it means something to you.

 

 

 

@incomeparent? Oceans (Hillsong United Remix) – FOA Rockout

 

 

  • In the “entertainment, smartphones, and the internet has ruined down time, connection, and empty spaces of absolute calm” category. We’re maniacs gorging ourselves at the trough of diversion, disinfo, and lies:

I think we need a substantive update to Postman’s book “Amusing Ourselves To Death”, written in response to a 1984 lecture on Orwell’s book of the same title and year. It’s an interesting notion these days, and as Karl Marx noted that “religion is the opiate of the masses”, data has suggested it’s more of a suppressant to outside groups, limiting empathy or understanding of progressive change. From the wiki hyperlinked above:

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985) is a book by educator Neil Postman. The book’s origins lay in a talk Postman gave to the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1984. He was participating in a panel on George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and the contemporary world. In the introduction to his book, Postman said that the contemporary world was better reflected by Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, whose public was oppressed by their addiction to amusement, rather than by Orwell’s work, where they were oppressed by state control.

Me again: That would mean that Postman extended Marx’s original thought on religion to entertainment as opiate, where we’re complicit in limiting our own rights.  The interesting aspect of Portman’s argument is that we’re now in an era of it being both, and it’s like a doom funnel spiral. Postman bristled at the idea of Orwell’s “‘If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever.”, and said it was more about the entertainment industry making us bury our head in the sand.  Well, the update I’d like to see? His argument has grown in concept with smartphones being a massively disruptive diversion from reality. And as fascism and political extremism take hold (it’s not hard to site “ultra-MAGA” or Russia and China), we further retreat for mental sanity into Marvel films and smartphone apps. There’s no downtime anymore, as we scroll in fear or joy.  But I am sorry to say this is a period where we seek solace and relief from Orwell’s subtext, in the loving arms of entertainment as opiate. Now, technology has enabled “hacking” our minds with deliberate attempts to amplify the “LOUD 8%” of the human race to profit off dissention and anger. Harmony makes little cash for the tech darlings or investors.  So now we’ve built-in fascism as a feature, not a bug. And the response is to further crawl into the succor of entertainment’s diversion with open arms of giddy relief from what’s happening to the world around us.  No wonder mental health is so bad right now, wellness is so important, and meditation is becoming more popular. Especially when meditation can simply be down time, staring at the horizon, and listening to a bird vs thinking about chores and work. Finding balance is more important than ever before.

If you prefer a comic’s take, George Carlin summarized this explicitly well… “I think power does what it wants.  Power does what it wants.  And now they are just more naked about it.  Now they just put it right out front and say this is what we are doing to you, folks.  This country is finished.  It has been sliding down hill a long time.  And everybody has got a cell phone that makes pancakes so they don‘t want to rock the boat.  They don‘t want to make any trouble. And nobody asks questions anymore. People have been bought off by gizmos and toys in this country.  No one questions things more.”

 

 

  • Thanks BIL John… this is an atypically measured and nuanced conversation about kids born since 1995, mental health, free speech, and the modern reactivity of society… namely not about “evil people being held accountable”, but the rest of society being too frightened to say something or have an opinion that could backfire at work, at school, on twitter, or the like.  My take is that there’s a complexity around the chilling sensation to speech with our fragile reactivity and manic desire to get “GOTCHA” moments on normal citizens (like a professor), but they don’t speak to whether you should believe so deeply in free speech, you platform evil people and give them a soapbox and megaphone (they do not speak about Trump and twitter).  They’ve an academic take that free speech is about not ignoring the “nazi in the room”, ie that not knowing someone is racist does not necessarily make you safer from racism. However, they’ve skillfully avoided the problematic aspect of “unfettered free speech” when it comes to bad faith actors or errantly or deliberately unreliable narrators.

 

 

  • On being practical, and centered, and living this short life without the weight of lost time to metaphysical ponderances… I give you the parable of the poisoned arrow.  Essentially, don’t waste your life and energy on questions that may never be answered, or that would spend your existence fruitlessly.  Being pragmatic and skeptical can recoup lost time of existence.

It’s just as if a man were wounded with an arrow thickly smeared with poison. His friends & companions, kinsmen & relatives would provide him with a surgeon, and the man would say, ‘I won’t have this arrow removed until I know whether the man who wounded me was a noble warrior, a priest, a merchant, or a worker.’ He would say, ‘I won’t have this arrow removed until I know the given name & clan name of the man who wounded me… until I know whether he was tall, medium, or short… until I know whether he was dark, ruddy-brown, or golden-colored… until I know his home village, town, or city… until I know whether the bow with which I was wounded was a long bow or a crossbow… until I know whether the bowstring with which I was wounded was fiber, bamboo threads, sinew, hemp, or bark… until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was wild or cultivated… until I know whether the feathers of the shaft with which I was wounded were those of a vulture, a stork, a hawk, a peacock, or another bird… until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was bound with the sinew of an ox, a water buffalo, a langur, or a monkey.’ He would say, ‘I won’t have this arrow removed until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was that of a common arrow, a curved arrow, a barbed, a calf-toothed, or an oleander arrow.’ The man would die and those things would still remain unknown to him.

 

 

  • A Lifeline for the Hour of Despair: James Baldwin on 4AM, the Fulcrum of Love, and Life as a Moral Obligation to the Universe

“I have always felt that a human being could only be saved by another human being. I am aware that we do not save each other very often”. https://www.themarginalian.org/2020/04/23/james-baldwin-nothing-personal-4-am/?mc_cid=837d195328&mc_eid=ef619e3582

At four AM, when one feels that one has probably become simply incapable of supporting this miracle, with all one’s wounds awake and throbbing, and all one’s ghastly inadequacy staring and shouting from the walls and the floor — the entire universe having shrunk to the prison of the self — death glows like the only light on a high, dark, mountain road, where one has, forever and forever! lost one’s way. — And many of us perish then. What then?…

…But if one can reach back, reach down — into oneself, into one’s life — and find there some witness, however unexpected or ambivalent, to one’s reality, one will be enabled, though perhaps not very spiritedly, to face another day… What one must be enabled to recognize, at four o’clock in the morning, is that one has no right, at least not for reasons of private anguish, to take one’s life. All lives are connected to other lives and when one man goes, much more goes than the man goes with him. One has to look on oneself as the custodian of a quantity and a quality — oneself — which is absolutely unique in the world because it has never been here before and will never be here again.

 

 

More explanation, info on his site: https://www.strandbeest.com/evolution

 

 

 

  • These performers are all deaf, and learned this by practicing visual cutes. It’s unbelievably beautiful. The Thousand Hand concept is from a Chinese proverb:

“If yours is one of a thousand hands that reach out to help someone in need, then when you’re in need, a thousand hands will reach out to help you.”

 

 

  • Something adorable, less heavy, and just happy. =) Sidewalk chalk art and using mundane things to make a little happiness around the world:

Some more on his process. 2min.

“Science is how we solve problems, but art is how we cope with them”.

 

SPACE

James Webb Space Telescope’s first full-color images will be revealed on July 12th The first spectroscopic data from the observatory will be released too. https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-space-telescope-first-full-color-images-release-date-spectroscopic-data-180056334.html

 

  • Don’t worry… it’s a gentle giant. Thanks Event Horizon (no, not the movie, the telescope):

Behold! This is the first photo of the Milky Way’s monster black hole Sagittarius A* https://www.space.com/milky-way-monster-black-hole-first-image-eht

NYT MORE: The Milky Way’s Black Hole Comes to Light The Event Horizon Telescope has once again caught sight of the “unseeable.” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/12/science/black-hole-photo.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes

 

 

  • The sound of a black hole. This is amazing, but also, now we know the universe is a Lovecraft cosmic horror. Super great.

NEWS LISTEN TO THE SOUND OF A BLACK HOLE, RECORDED BY NASA The new “sonification” has been scaled up around 57 octaves for human ears https://djmag.com/news/listen-sound-black-hole-recorded-nasa

 

 

 

  • Ed Lu is a great dude, and we’ve been charitable to B612 for years, so this exposure is a real “I liked them before it was cool” thing, for me.  But they just found 100 new asteroids we didn’t know about, and that’s scary, but better to know and solve problems:

Killer Asteroids Are Hiding in Plain Sight. A New Tool Helps Spot Them: Researchers have built an algorithm that can scan old astronomical images for unnoticed space rocks, helping to detect objects that could one day imperil Earth. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/31/science/asteroids-algorithm-planetary-defense.html?smid=tw-share

What is remarkable is that B612 did not build a new telescope or even make new observations with existing telescopes. Instead, researchers financed by B612 applied cutting-edge computational might to years-old images — 412,000 of them in the digital archives at the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, or NOIRLab — to sift asteroids out of the 68 billion dots of cosmic light captured in the images.

“This is the modern way of doing astronomy,” Dr. Lu said.

Check out their trajectories in this sorta spooky but lovely slide:

 

 

 

The paper: https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2205/2205.11618.pdf

Op-ed: John Travolta has no regrets about Battlefield Earth—and he shouldn’t

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Saturn May 22 2007 reappears after occultation by the Moon. Video was made by a18cm Astro Physics 180EDT, aMeade 5000 3x Barlow and aToUcam2. Some after-processing was done, to push the brightness of the faint Saturn to match that of the Moon. The video passes twice as fast as it was in reality.

 

 

 

  • So beautiful. Interesting how a lack of atmosphere makes it so high rez it feels impossible:

 

 

 

  • Interesting op-ed:

Mining the moon to help save life on Earth (op-ed): Moving heavy industry off Earth could help cure some of what ails our planet. https://www.space.com/mining-moon-save-life-earth-op-ed

 

  • THIS IS AWESOME! Reminds me of the lyrics of “Do You Realize” by The Flaming Lips.  “Do you realize We’re floating in space?”

Scientist Proposes Using Entire Planet as Spaceship to Different Star System: Escape… from a dying star. https://futurism.com/scientist-entire-planet-spaceship-star-system

 

 

SciTech

  • Simple tech to save the world: interrupting a flash flood of plastic in Guatemala with the first phase of testing of a trash gate / sluice. This guy in the video warms my heart, and it’s lovely to see people knit their brow to keep trying, even when it’s not perfect.  They abated likely 98% of that tsunami of trash. Brilliant work, more to do, let’s go!

 

 

  • SCIENTISTS INTRIGUED BY TREATMENT THAT PUT EVERY SINGLE PATIENT’S CANCER INTO REMISSION: 
“I BELIEVE THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THIS HAS HAPPENED IN THE HISTORY OF CANCER.” 

 

 

  • I think this 3D printed “Third Thumb” is going to easily prove precisely why people will be into functional body modification as soon as possible. Just a hunch. It’s like the Aeon Flux genetic upgrades and fixes, or like the Neuromods in the game “Prey”. This is game changing and wholly remarkable.

 

 

  • Paramedic uses jet pack to fly 3 minutes to top of a mountain, where it would otherwise take an hour and twenty to hike. This is bonkers.

 

 

 

  • A 20-year-old woman who was born with a small and misshapen right ear has received a 3-D printed ear implant made from her own cells, the manufacturer announced on Thursday. Independent experts said that the transplant, part of the first clinical trial of a successful medical application of this technology, was a stunning advance in the field of tissue engineering. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/02/health/ear-transplant-3d-printer.html

 

 

  • Fanciful thought experiment, and I’m not saying it’s incorrect, but as per the “Parable of the Poisoned Arrow”, you don’t need to spend *your* time on the “what ifs” of existence:

Could an advanced civilization change the laws of physics? Do the laws of physics place a hard limit on how far technology can advance, or can we re-write those laws? Are there limits to technology? Can a species become so advanced that it could actually re-engineer physics?

One brilliant article explored the rules of physics and asked which ones might have been rewritten by a sufficiently advanced form of life. It is wonderful to imagine the ways a civilization could move past what we know of the physical world. But it is also possible that the physics we know today severely limits life and what it can do. https://bigthink.com/13-8/advanced-civilization-change-laws-physics/

 

 

 

  • Slime Mold maps an even more efficient railway network in an older study out of Japan:

A new model based on the simple rules of the slime mold’s behavior may lead to the design of more efficient, adaptable networks, the team contends. The researchers then borrowed simple properties from the slime mold’s behavior to create a biology-inspired mathematical description of the network formation. Like the slime mold, the model first creates a fine mesh network that goes everywhere, and then continuously refines the network so that the tubes carrying the most cargo grow more robust and redundant tubes are pruned. Fricker points out that such a malleable system may be useful for creating networks that need to change over time, such as short-range wireless systems of sensors that would provide early warnings of fire or flood. Because these sensors are destroyed when disaster strikes, the network needs to efficiently re-route information quickly. Decentralized, adaptable networks would also be important for soldiers in battlefields or swarms of robots exploring hazardous environments, Fricker says. https://www.wired.com/2010/01/slime-mold-grows-network-just-like-tokyo-rail-system/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • A vehicle, sure, but it’s my newsletter so it’s sci/tech that is eminently practical and applicable to a whole host of situations.
@ev_tech #hyundairobot at #ces2022 showcasing #emobility of the Future #futuremobility #evtech ? original sound – EV Technology Learning

 

 

  • This is a very real phenomenon, but science hasn’t answered the “how” yet: The Mariko Aoki phenomenon (???????, Aoki Mariko gensh?) is a Japanese expression referring to an urge to defecate that is suddenly felt after entering bookstores. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariko_Aoki_phenomenon
@adamconover Why do I have to poop every time I enter a bookstore? #book #booktok #science ? original sound – Adam Conover

 

 

  • This is a HUGE advancement in treating chronic pain, something very, very near and dear to me. GO MEDICAL SCIENCE GO This was in mice, but next step is us!

Gene Therapy Successfully Treats Spinal Cord Injuries Without Side Effects https://scitechdaily.com/gene-therapy-successfully-treats-spinal-cord-injuries-without-side-effects/

 

 

  • A guy made a roller coaster in Excel:

 

 

More on the autonomous fleet of various trucks and 3D printers using AI alone:

China’s robot-built 3D-printed dam ready in 2 years say scientists: Artificial intelligence at the heart of the project on the Tibetan Plateau will build the structure slice by slice, with no human workers. When completed the Yangqu hydropower plant will deliver nearly 5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity each year to Henan province https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3176777/chinas-robot-built-3d-printed-dam-ready-2-years-scientists

 

 

  • Artificial General Intelligence is AI that can learn and think and exchange symbols naturally. It’s sort of a holy grail that many are skeptical of, but after some real insiders have piped up that they’ve beaten some of the more esoteric challenges and thinks it’s solely about scale, at this point:

DeepMind researcher claims new ‘Gato’ AI could lead to AGI, says ‘the game is over!’ https://thenextweb.com/news/deepmind-researcher-claims-new-gato-ai-could-lead-to-agi-says-game-is-over

 

 

  • The world’s fastest supercomputer just broke the exascale barrier The milestone will allow for complex calculations that benefit a wide range of research areas – The world’s fastest supercomputer performed more than a quintillion calculations per second, entering the realm of exascale computing. That’s according to a ranking of the world’s speediest supercomputers called the TOP500, announced on May 30. The computer, known as Frontier, is the first exascale computer to be included on the biannual list. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/supercomputer-exascale-frontier-speed-record-computing-calculations

 

 

 

 

  • Don’t try this at home, but this guy is always hilarious. I could put this under vehicles, but it’s also a weird rocket. Next stop, Tour de France!

 

 

You can try it, with limitations, on the bottom of this page based on specific phrases. https://imagen.research.google/

Here’s my racoon photo of it playing a guitar on the beach in a black leather jacket.

 

NATURE YOU SCARY

 

  • Last moments before Mount St. Helens eruption caught on camera Just miles from the rapidly-deteriorating summit of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, a geologist transmitted his famous last words while a photographer snapped iconic images. https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/last-moments-before-mount-st-helens-eruption-caught-on-camera/738277

The entire north side of the mountain “sluiced” off prior to the full eruption. Insane power:

 

 

  • Humans are scary interacting with nature, too! This is the “Wind Pass” in Vietnam, and one of the most dangerous drives in the world. NOPE NOPE NOPE.

 

 

 

COMEDY FUNNY

  • Comedy history: Lenny Bruce under arrest for indecency (his act) with a boy faced George Carlin under arrest from refusing to show police his ID at the same gig:

 

 

  • This is the funniest 2 minutes for bartenders of ALL TIME. Ever. I am DED. “3 ozs of Bourbon” I AM DYING. “ICE CUP” and there were no bitters. Long story short, the production company screwed over this bartender and she was hamming it up with what she had, after getting off a shift at 4am and having to film this at 8am.

 

 

  • This story is one of the funniest stories I’ve heard in 360 episodes of 2-hour long Harmontown. nb: he has a terrible relationship with his mom, dad, brother, and he’s really insecure about it. This is a story about him, almost, repairing his relationship with his father.

 

 

 

  • This is hilariously cute.
@thedarcymichaelThe proud dance at the end ????? original sound – Darcy and Jer

 

 

  • A message to why wine country needs to expand beyond wine, in a light hearted joking way:
@letsgoatsuko nobody told me a #vineyard is the same #plant over and over ???? I should’ve known #tourist #comedy #husbandwife #winecountry #winecomedy #atsukookatsuka #fy #fyp ? original sound – Atsuko Okatsuka

 

 

  • Norm Macdonald, March 13 2020 at the LA Improv. The first comedian to do jokes about Coronavirus, pre-lockdown by a few days. This set KILLS. 6m + 3m = approx 10 minutes and you’ll relate, have nostalgia of sorts for the start of the pandemic, and all the chaos and fears made funny:

 

 

 

 

Image

 

 

  • How to pick up a duck, including consent!

 

  • A wonderful anecdote from Pete Holmes about life before the internet. I saw this so long ago, and think about it all the time, and had no recollection he was the comedian! =)
@peteholmesLife before Google.? original sound – peteholmes

 

 

 

@revolt Leave it to #JamieFoxx to make light of the situation ???????? #comedians #chappelle #jokes ? original sound – REVOLT

 

 

 

@jklove78910 #funny #talkshow ? Dj Jalan Pargoy X Goyang Jaypong – DJ MIFTAH

 

 

 

  • People complain about retail investors, but they don’t get bailed out or get called smart for “precision banking”, etc.

 

 

  • The Vangelis stuff below reminded me of this Orson Welles gem of a commercial. Not funny, but funny:

 

 

  • The culture has come full circle: America’s Funniest Home Videos pre-internet, and now the internet is American’s Funniest Home Videos:
@jamielaing The more times I watch it the better it gets ???? #genius ? original sound – jamie

 

 

 

Movies/TV

  • It’s intellectual property vs “sequels” I guess, but the amount of stuff coming is truly insane. 4 Avatar films. Gremlins 3. Twins 2. The Exorcist prequel? It’s pretty amazing, and the list never ends. I wonder how many will end up in Dev hell.

https://www.looper.com/51901/everything-sequels-didnt-know-made/

 

 

 

 

  • I would, personally, take conversation like this from David Lynch, all day.
@drefireceo This is me ???? #filmdirector ? original sound – DRE FIRE

 

 

  • In the vein of visionary auteurs with strong opinions, I give you Tim Burton:

You complain about me, I’m too weird, I’m too dark, and then you put nipples on the costume? Go fuck yourself.’ Seriously. So yeah, I think that’s why I didn’t end up [doing a third film]…” https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/tim-burton-on-batman-forever-nipple-suit-go-f-yourself/

 

 

  • In honor of Ray Liotta, the steadicam shot from Goodfellas. This is a metaphor for the entire film… they have everything they could ever want, but they still have to enter through the rear to get it.

 

 

  • If you didn’t like eXistenZ and The Fly and Videodrome and even History of Violence and Eastern Promises… don’t watch this red-band trailer of David Cronenberg returning full circle to body horror form. This looks like madness. He basically guarantees people at Cannes will walk out in the first 5 minutes. And he’s excited about it.

 

 

 

 

  • I love Willem Dafoe.

 

 

 

  • The Directors and cast of “Everything Everywhere All at Once”. I adore all of these people so much.

 

 

  • This is fascinating… nearly 2000 extras and about 1400 cars to film the traffic jam in Deep Impact. I’d always assumed it was CGI. Nope… practical effects at the level of Gone with the Wind. But even that film doesn’t come close… Attenborough got 300,000 (!!!!!!) for Gandhi, and here’s a list of other huge extra shots from older films (it’s all CGI now, but surprised about Dark Knight Rises!): https://www.ranker.com/list/movie-scenes-with-thousands-of-extras/williamsbrianjake

 

 

  • 2016 dollars, so adjusting for inflation would mean this is wildly more expensive now: The 11 Most Expensive Deleted Scenes Ever Filmed Sometimes studios spend tens of millions of dollars, just to realize that they need to keep those scenes on the cutting room floor. https://screenrant.com/most-expensive-deleted-scenes/

 

 

gothmog from Lord of the Rings twinned with Harvey Weinstein (lt) Credit: AP/New Line Cinema

 

 

  • The special effects of Karol Zemen from my people’s homeland, Czechoslovakia. Then Bohemia? Now Czechia!

Here is a 17min mini-doc if that minute intrigued you:

 

 

 

The Fifth Element in Cannes

 

 

 

  • Cronenberg has never gotten “His Due” at Cannes, per Viggo Mortensen:

The ‘Crimes of the Future’ star discusses his four-film collaborative partnership with Cronenberg, getting back behind the camera after his directorial debut ‘Falling’ and asks enough questions about Amazon’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ prequel to make it clear he hasn’t really been paying attention. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/viggo-mortensen-interview-cannes-2022-david-cronenberg-lord-of-the-rings-1235147001/

 

 

 

  • A GREAT transition from movies to music:

Hans Zimmer Was in the First-Ever Video Aired on MTV, The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” https://www.openculture.com/2022/05/hans-zimmer-was-in-the-first-ever-video-aired-on-mtv-the-buggles-video-killed-the-radio-star.html

 

SOME RECOMMENDATIONS AS OF EARLY JUNE 2022:

A Tim Roth film called Sundown was phenomenal if you like slow burn drama mysteries.  Less mystery vs “as to be revealed unknowns”, I guess. I am extremely excited about the director, Michael Franco.

The Joel Edgerton directed/written/acted film with Patrick Bateman “THE GIFT” is a real slow burn suburban mystery about accountability and relationships. It’s also with Rebecca Hall who has had a terrific run as of late, inclusive of the unsettling horror mystery “The Night House“. Real psychological drama with real scares and horror.

Channing Tatum in “Dog” is less comedy than it looks, and details PTSD in a really competent and strong way. He directed it too, it’s a phenomenal road movie.
Lost City with Tatum and Bullock was pretty damned fun, and it’s sort of like a buddy road love story in the vein of Romancing the Stone, or a less male Indiana Jones.

Buy / Rent “The Northman“. If you like GoT, Vikings, or any of that shit. It’s a really fucking superb film.

“X” (A24, 2022) is astonishingly well written modern take on the Texas Chainsaw “kids in a van in a remote place with weird people”, but the foreshadowing and unfolding, metaphor, etc… if you can handle bloody slashers, this is a treat of a wild film.

“All my friends hate me” is an interesting and fun film, cringe comedy cum horror, I guess. It’s actually sort of an experiment, as who you are in the real world will color how you perceive the film.

Nightmare Alley was fine, I guess. You really need to want to watch a period drama, tho.

I’ve fallen asleep during “The Batman” about 5 times and haven’t finished it. And it’s good.

Rewatched Evil Dead 2, Lauren had never seen it. Same with From Dusk Til Dawn w/ Quentin and Clooney, and also rewatched The Faculty which aged REALLY WELL. So wild to see the actors in those films.

Rewatched Deep Impact, a movie I hated to the core of my being, and something softened me up because I was fine with it as a schlocky B-Movie with bad writing. It was fun. It’s no Armageddon, but still.

The new Norm MacDonald is just fascinating and wonderful, and highly rec’d. 55m one take set, then 25 min interview with Conan, Letterman, Molly Shannon, Chappelle, David Spade, Adam Sandler. It’s very nice.

Watched the new Ricky Gervais. It’s fine. He’s not funny, but also not as edgy as the media machine wants to makes these people. I dunno. We laughed.

Also rewatched some Sébastien Maniscalco who is always a treat. Also, Bill Burr and Letterman have new Netflix specials where they platform talent, and it’s a treat. You’ll know a few of the comics, for sure, and it’s just a joy to see talent helping all the boats rise with the tide.

There’s a new film that is noir, approx 90m, and super indie with a “okay” script but really decent acting an cinematography about wine country, and the disconnect of rich and poor and workers vs ruling class. It’s called “Brut Force“, and it’s worth a watch if you like wine or indie pics.

 

tv? I just found out my wife had never watched Seinfeld.

BARRY. Mark my words, Bill Hader is going to direct an award winning film. It’s hard to describe what he is doing on this show, but he gets more pathos, tension, and drama in 30 minutes than most 2 hour films. Unreal work, Bill.

For kids / teens, it’s possibly too “nature show dramatic”, but a show called “Wild Babies” on Netflix is pretty decent and cute, while not shying away from nature being pretty brutal. BUT, the main baby proganists are fine and not eaten.

 

Macgruber is really funny. Also enjoying Better Call Saul’s final season.

Started “Outer Range” on Amazon Prime with Josh Brolin. It’s good weird and intriguing, but slow so far. Also Reacher which is better than I thought, but there’s too much content out there.

In the background when it’s not music playing: Joe Pera talks to you, Nathan for You, Bob’s Burgers, old game shows, Seinfeld, there’s a netflix “pick your answer” trivia show “Trivia Quest” that can steal your attention for a few minutes. Just thought I’d ramble off our Covid lockdown sequestered experience.

 

 

Music

 

  • Great entry for America’s Got Talent! So beautiful!
@johnsabry5 ???? ??? @mayabdelltif #foryoupage #fyp? #fyp ? Love You So – The King Khan & BBQ Show

 

 

  • “When you love lo-fi hip-hop but only have 14 strings on your guitar”

 

  • Vangelis passed away at 79. Although the score for Bladerunner is incomparable, and one of my favorite things ever, the sadness of his passing created a catharsis in me. I remember growing up with my parent’s music, mainly my Mom who loved Barbara Streisand and Barry Manilow. That wasn’t my music, but it was something in the background. They liked “oldies” as well, whatever that term might mean. But I was wondering where I entered into my DJ and cratedigging career. I remember my sister got Olivia Newton John’s “Let’s Get Physical” single, and I was like “this is very nice”. But I think the first band I like was The Monkees, which is ironic both because of my love of punk rock, and that they weren’t even playing music at the start. The first boy band!?!? And later than this moment was my love of classical and opera at a young age, and especially Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. It’s so famous, you’d know it you heard it, but I recorded it off a car commercial on a tiny hand held tape recorder when I was a kid, and carried it around and played it for people like a human shazam, hoping someone would recognize it. Thankfully, a super creepy music professor from Stanford knew it, and tried to get me into a “class”, and my mom was like “no, he’s 8, this is weird”. Also, the store “The Nature Company” got me into both Ennio Morricone because they played “The Mission” score, one of the most beautiful OST ever made. They also got me into electronic music (more or less) with “Deep Forest”, a mix of tribal African sounds and electronic synth.

BUT, it was Vangelis’ “Chariots of Fire” that woke the spirit of music (and man, my library music collection would suggest he woke up the synth gene in me too), and his passing made me realize… Chariots of Fire was my first song, and my first 45rpm, that *I* personally sought out to buy and own. I don’t have that 45 anymore, so it’s time to up the ante, but Bladerunner will be playing all day. Please enjoy the memories:

 

 

  • This is *so* weird, but good:

We’ve Got Company is a talkshow inside a sitcom with all your favorite musical artists. Host Marc Rebillet and guests stream live on Twitch Wednesdays at 6pm PT. On this episode, Erykah Badu is in the house!

 

 

 

 

pink floyd concert venice photos

 

 

  • Sounds like Miles Davis: Khruangbin’s Mark Speer – “Don’t be afraid of space. You can spend your time either filling up every section of the sonic void, or you can embrace that space”

Speer tells us how chords, repetition and a healthy serving of reverb helps the eclectic, hypnotic and brilliant Texan trio open up pathways to transcendence “In our early stuff, it was pretty much just bass on the bottom, a cracking drum break then me playing on the top, and nothing in the middle. And that’s kind of counterintuitive to a lot of people – ‘You should get a keyboard player to fill up that middle!’ No – because then we’re gonna sound like everybody else! It was that space that made us sound like us. “The three of you can go into the studio and layer everything, but then what’s gonna happen when you play live? Embrace what you can’t do – work with those limitations…” https://www.guitarworld.com/features/khruangbin-mark-speer-texas-moon

Texas Sun | Khruangbin & Leon Bridges | Khruangbin

 

 

This song was so important on my discovery path of electronic music. Front 242. Interestingly enough, I used to fish in B.C. with one of the band member’s brothers.

 

 

  • Rave footage and a house mix from the mid 1990s. I wish some of you youngins’ could have experienced it. As one comment on the youtube states, it was when people still had happiness, optimism, and the rave scene was insanely inclusive, and it was all prior to technology ruining everything vs being developed and seeming like a net win and gain for the human race. It was a wonderful time, and I get the 80s and 90s nostalgia from younger generations who grew up with 9/11, lies to never-ending wars, corruption and bald face bullshit, a new pregnant and dangerous racism and illogic, then Trump, pandemic, climate change, forest firest. We were blissfully children, happily naive in our lack of awareness of what was coming down the pike.  I always joke that the last great era was when phones were attached to the wall with cords.

ALSO, HERE IS A LINK TO A PRE-HELMET DAFT PUNK VIDEO SET FROM THE LATE 90s in LA: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qAt01ipLlEzVtzKq0qcItwkxEvV43Ml4/view?usp=sharing

 

  • Random: 1999’s iconic “Flat Beat” video from Mr Oizo. For legit zero reason.

 

 

@sbsaustralia “Green Day didn’t sell out. None of those bands did. They’re playing their style of music, and it finally got popular.” #punk ? original sound – SBS

 

 

  • The original drummer for the Beatles was a guy named Pete Best. He was fired in 1962 because he wasn’t good enough for albums, and they would need a session drummer. There’s also theories he was too attractive, but it’s his drumming that led to Ringo Starr. https://ultimateclassicrock.com/beatles-fire-pete-best/

So, when he was fired after a few years of touring with the Beatles, he released an album called “Best of the Beatles”, before forming his own band. https://www.discogs.com/master/758351-Peter-Best-Best-Of-The-Beatles

 

 

  • This is just brilliantly funny as a prank, if no one keels over due to James Brown.

 

 

  • Derek Trucks makes his guitar gently weep in front of John Mayer and B.B. King:

 

 

 

TRACK!

????

 

 

  • I miss my Dog. Lyrics = correct

 

 

  • I remember this from a Dr. Demento show. A Dungeon Master who is awesome has a great beard, and on a podcast they were talking about his beard, and I remembered this song for the first time in 30 years!

 

 

  • Spirit animal.
@skinandbonetone Party for one #dance ? Universal Nation – Original Mix – Push

 

 

  • Some modern and fresh upbeat or chill vibes. Not just for Hawaii anymore! Fat Freddy’s Drop, Liam Bailey, Jordan Rakei, Khruangbin, Maribou State, and Sofi Tukker.

Some modern musical collaborations… what are some of your favorites of recent memory (or all time)?

 

 

  • Give me some recommendations for your favorite musical collaborations of all time.

Some modern musical collaborations… what are some of your favorites of recent memory (or all time)?

 

Society, People, & Culture

Shopping dogs in Japan.

 

 

  • This Quebec highway collapsed in 2009 when a mine compromised the cliff side. They rebuilt it elsewhere, but the footage of the landslide damage is something else. The drone footage is from “Optique Video”. Yes, it looks like a Roland Emmerich film sequence. Also, drones are redefining film making, feature or doc alike.

Collapse Of Route 112 https://collectiveingenuity.norda.com/collapse-of-route-112

 

 

  • This interesting tidbit in a 1989 article where Guiness dropped “gluttony records”

The record holder is Frenchman Michel Lotito, whose diet since 1966 has included 10 bicycles, a supermarket cart, seven television sets, six chandeliers, a coffin, and a Cessna light aircraft. https://apnews.com/article/70f238e617e728163a0c23f0f0ee4291

 

  • I always think about our access to data, awareness of health, and how limiting it can be with all of us trying to be healthy and live as long as possible… vs living the time allotted to us.  Like these nutjobs taking a Metz22 Speedster to the Grand Canyon. 1914. Nutty folks throughout history.

 

 

  • THE ARCTIC EXPLORER WHO FREED HIMSELF FROM AN AVALANCHE WITH A DAGGER MADE FROM HIS OWN SHIT Peter Freuchen lived the life of a hundred men — winning ‘The $64,000 Question,’ evading a Nazi death sentence and hobnobbing with movie stars. But none of it ever would have happened had he never fashioned that DIY ice poop pick https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/arctic-adventure-peter-freuchen

 

 

  • A cute break:
@melissaksims Reply to @kowhorsefarm #babygirl #LENOVOJUSTBEYOU #jrt #jacklife #alsetehome #summer2022 #southernillinois #fyp? #fyp ? original sound – The BabyGirl

 

 

 

  • Do you guys remember VHS Video dating from the 1970s through 1990s?

How 1970s VCR dating paved the way for Tinder and Hinge Great Expectations, which existed into the ’90s, was the original dating technology. https://www.vox.com/22262353/great-expectations-history-video-dating-vcr-apps

Before Tinder, There Was Video Dating The precursor to online dating was video dating. https://daily.jstor.org/tinder-video-dating/

 

 

 

  • Japanese team to excavate 12,000-year-old sites in Turkey (older than the pyramids! Sapiens (book) was correct that it all revolved around wealth and church enslaving people by telling them favourable stories to get the to build things, that is if they weren’t actual slaves. But that religion led to science, architecture, math, etc. Interesting course, this human world: “A Japanese research team will join an excavation project in Turkey of what are believed to be the world’s oldest structures of worship that have raised new questions about the rise of civilization”. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/photo/41213262

 

 

  • Why should a grumpy magical space pixie with a weird 2000 year old book have any say about modern day complex problems? PREACH SISTER!

 

 

  • This is fascinating to see a ex-military cold war era General speak truth about the war in Ukraine, while the *moderator* (yes, moderator, not opposing viewpoint) speaks all the Russian talking points. My curiosity here is that this is STUNNING, and with how tightly controlled Russia disinfo is… is this manufactured, or real? Is this a guy who plainly speaks his mind (he was said to have predicted how the war would go, and has been right on all counts).  Or is this the Kremlin staging this to walk back their original bluster and prepare the public for the real bad news, etc?

On a Russian talk show, a retired colonel stuns his colleagues by pointing out that the invasion isn’t going well. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/world/europe/russian-state-tv-ukraine-invasion.html

 

 

 

  • You said it, brother. Who gives a damn about whether it’s mental illness (it is) or guns (it is)… it’s that it feels like people don’t want this resolved, at this point, and sadly that might be correct. In reference to the white supremacist in Buffalo:
@therecount Repeat after us: This isn’t normal. #fyp #buffalo #buffalony #cnn #news ? original sound – therecount

 

 

  • The 2015 Tianjin Explosion at their port. Ammonium Nitrate, Sodium Cyanide, and more were the culprit here. This looks like a Michael Bay Fever Dream, and the student is actually composed. Good camera work at what seems like the end of time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Tianjin_explosions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • WARNING possibly triggering re: wartime atrocities and evil behavior: Meet Hugh Thompson, The Hero Who Stopped The My Lai Massacre And Was Branded A Traitor For It- An American helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War, Hugh Thompson Jr. threatened his fellow soldiers at My Lai that he would shoot them if they didn’t stop killing civilians.

The Photographer Who Showed the World What Really Happened at My Lai https://time.com/longform/my-lai-massacre-ron-haeberle-photographs/

He was finally recognized for his bravery and heroism, and given the highest honor by the Army, but not after a lifetime of PTSD and damage from the reaction. It’s amazing how close any war can bring people to brutal savagery and Nazi tactics.

“American helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson, gunner Lawrence Colburn, and crew chief Glenn Andreotta, who arrived in the midst of the massacre, were each awarded the Soldier’s Medal for heroism on the 30th anniversary of My Lai, in recognition of their attempts to intervene and save villagers’ lives, while risking their own.”

Hugh Thompson

 

 

  • Old Settlers’ Cemetery in Charlotte, North Carolina, projection art by Craig Walsh:

“Challenging traditional expectations of public monuments and the selective history represented in our public spaces. Built for the great outdoors, Monuments celebrates selected individuals through large-scale, nighttime projected portraits onto live trees in public spaces for stunning effect. Monuments represents a haunting synergy between the human form, nature, and the act of viewing. Enormous night-time projections transform trees into sculptural monuments.” https://www.charlotteshout.com/events/detail/craig-walshs-monuments

 

Vehicles

“While that all may seem jaw-dropping, the Sahara II’s wildest party trick is its famed glowing tires. From 1962 through 1966, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company used the vehicle to promote tires made of Neothane, a translucent rubber compound. To further draw attention, twelve, 12-volt incandescent bulbs (the same impact-resistant type used in elevators and aircraft) were fitted into a metal band around each rim and could be lit up on command or blink with the turn signals.”

 

 

 

 

  • Regenerative braking almost creates an impossible reality:

How Electric ‘Infinity Trains’ Could Run Forever on One Initial Charge They’re being developed by the specialty engineering spinoff of an F1 team. https://www.thedrive.com/news/how-electric-infinity-trains-could-run-forever-on-one-initial-charge

 

  • We have made good use of understanding the jack in the box build of Russian vs US tanks. The design flaw with how the ammunition is stored means a direct hit is catastrophic and will pop the turret off from an explosion. The amount of kids that have been killed due to this design flaw is unbelievable, but Ukraine is just killing it, literally, with their MANPADS and Stingers. Remarkable work. Now?

A nature documentary parody:

 

  • The NY to CA Cannonball Run record was SMASHED in 2020 due to lockdown and low traffic, in an Audi s6 that was outfitted to look like a unmarked cop car. 25+ hours is insane. The entire trunk was a retrofitted gas tank. It’s said they got out of Manhattan in 4m45s or so. I know it’s insane, but I have always wanted to do this.

CURRENT CANNONBALL RUN RECORD HOLDER AUDI S6 https://www.arnesantics.com/projects/current-cannonball-run-record-holder-audi-s6/

 

 

  • Ahhhh yes… from the era where people could afford a house with a huge lawn, *&* keep it watered? What is this madness!? It does strike me as an ant under a looking glass. Maybe it helps allergies. But a little umbrella hat on top would be functionally cute.

The Simplicity “Air-Conditioned Lawnmower” 1957 https://www.wackyexplorer.com/the-simplicity-air-conditioned-lawnmower-1957/

 

  • A car vending machine just was built and opened near me. The nostalgia goofy cool is so strong, I’d imagine it causes people to look at cars to buy JUST TO USE THE VENDING MACHINE.

 

 

  • As an embarrassed Jeep Wrangler owner of nearly 30 years, especially about the next article and the new Bronco, I really hope they can reboot and reimagine the brand again. It’s so iconic…. and this is ICONIC.

Futuristic Jeep Wrangler Render Looks Like It Came From Another Planet https://www.carscoops.com/2022/05/this-futuristic-jeep-wrangler-looks-like-it-has-come-from-another-planet/

IT LOOKS LIKE A ROMPER STOMPER AND I WANT IT.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • You think VW wanted to rival the Rivian and Bronco much?

VW Reviving Scout Name for Electric Off-Road Truck, SUV Soon enough, there will be an all-new Scout to rival the Ford Bronco. https://www.thedrive.com/news/vw-reviving-scout-name-for-electric-off-road-truck-suv

 

 

Audi Has an Entire Team of People Who Just Smell Things That new-car smell doesn’t just magically happen. https://www.thedrive.com/news/33439/audi-has-an-entire-team-of-people-who-just-smell-things

 

 

@yachtmogul Maltese Falcon???? #sailing #yacht ? original sound – yachtmogul

 

 

  • This is a hilarious video about what happened after the 1950s and 1960s heyday of car design, into the 1970s oil crisis and years of automakers being on cruise control and unprepared for the need for smaller, more fuel efficient cars… which ended up really ugly with quality control issues. This is superb. It’s four parts, so basically an hour long documentary to some extent, but well worth your car-fandom time.

 

 

 

  • An amazing look at a strong chassis and wild suspension and brutal trip to get eggs at the store:
@baja_1000_score? sonido original – Baja_Score

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • From the guy with the worst lyrics in history, a pretty cool little luxury modded Mercedes:

Will.I.Am Understands What Luxury Cars Should Be His custom AMG build represents human aspiration instead of stat-sheet justification, just as classic luxury cars once did. https://www.thedrive.com/news/will-i-am-understands-what-luxury-cars-should-be

 

 

  • It’s all in Dutch, so I am not sure the practical applications, but it’s certainly interesting. They almost feel alive.
@bakschik_martirosian Hoe cool is dit dan? #amazing #robotics #funday ? origineel geluid – Bakschik Martirosian

@bakschik_martirosian One more ???? #flying #tech #rc ? origineel geluid – Bakschik Martirosian

@bakschik_martirosian Flying octopus ???? #octopus #how #cool #future ? origineel geluid – Bakschik Martirosian

 

LIGHTHOUSES ARE AWESOME STILL, MY PEOPLE

I’m a few miles from this one, at our new hotel. I’ve a Tik Tok that showcase some of the natural beauty I am lucky enough to be around. This one is really cool, and the coastline here in Sonoma / Mendocino Coast is so awesome! But it’s the French ones I want to showcase, below.

 

 

  • Lighthouse of “la Jument” and the guard Theodore Malgorne, in the storm. Erected on a stone called la Jument, “Ar-Gazec” in breton. Route of Fromveur near the island of Ouessant, Sea of Iroise, west Brittany. The keeper has survived to the wave.

 

 

  • Located just off Brittany, France’s Iroise Sea has the largest concentration of lighthouses in the world. Almost all have been classified as historic monuments. These silhouettes of stones were nicknamed “lighthouses of hell” by their guardians because of the strong currents surrounding them. Built more than a century ago, they are no longer inhabited, but continue to fascinate locals and visitors alike. FRANCE 24 takes you on a tour of this maritime heritage.

 

SHIFT CHANGE AT A FRENCH LIGHTHOUSE lol

 

Cool shorts:

 

 

the way these survive the waves, and how they are built, is REALLY interesting:

Comment
byu/bmowaq from discussion
ingifs

I wrote this over in r/heavyseas

It depends on the lighthouse but in this case they create a jigsaw pattern on the underside of the stone they are placing. This matches the pattern on the topside of the piece bellow it. They slot together which makes them very, very strong and also takes pressure off any moartar which at the point is a water sealent rather than structural nessecity.

Picture of top down view of construction. https://trinityhousehistory.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/smeatons-eddystone-lighthouse.jpg

Depending on the period it was build in they generally wait to low tide and calm weather to build the bottom portion and then they generally stay for a period of time once a sufficient amount has been built to speed up the process.

Not all lighthouses are done like this but old ones that are semi submerged or not on cliffs tended to be built like that.

As to how they stand the force.

Waves carry a certain amount of energy. The hidden dangers lighthouses protect against usually lowers the waves energy before it hits the lighthouse, through the wave breaking. Once a wave has broken its energy is lowered, still enormous but lowered. The shape of the lighthouse is also a factor. Being a circle it spreads the force evenly. When the waves are huge it relies on its weight, shape and construction techniques like foundation depth.

Edit: it’s probably to late to add this but here is a YouTube channel from a man called Peter Halil. He was a lighthouse keeper from 1974 – 1997. His mission was to video lighthouses before automation in the 90s. Most are in working order or are about to be automated. Videos are long but man are they informative. Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/c/PeterHalil/videos?view=0&sort=p&flow=grid

 

 

 

Some jokes:

 

About Uncle Fishbits

I'm.. just this guy, you know?