St. James Infirmary (Gambler's Blues)

Get ready for a dissolute weekend with Dave Van Ronk.

 

Pythagoras transcends space and time

The genesis of this post was muons. They are created when cosmic rays strike particles in the outer atmosphere. They are extremely short lived (~2 microseconds) and so logic would tell you they should not last long enough to travel the distance from their creation to the Earth's surface. However, since they are traveling at near the speed of light the time dilation and length contraction predicted by relativity comes into play and they can make the journey.

So, what's this traveling at the speed of light business and the relativistic effects that so effect the muons? The above video, inspired by Lewis Carroll Epstein's book Relatively Visualized, gives a nice and simple explanation of it. I did like the enthusiasm of the presenter. 

 

In Remembrance

The Peleliu Invasion by Tom Lea

Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it.

It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.

— anonymous —

  

Gustave Caillebotte

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Gustave Caillebotte was a 19th century French impressionist painter. He came from a wealthy family and so he did not need to paint to support himself. In fact, he retired from painting in his mid-30s to pursue his other interests. Along with his works, one of his major contributions to the impressionist movement was financially supporting a number of other painters including Monet, Degas, Renoir and others. 

Gustave Caillebotte self-portrait

Manana (Is Soon Enough for Me)

Get ready for a quiescent weekend with The Harden Trio.

 

Walking in Bandung

This is a walk in Bandung, a provincial capital on the island of Java in Indonesia. The walk is though the downtown commercial area which is clean and well maintained. I think it is a bit of a local tourist destination. At one point you see a lot of people in costumes, mostly ghosts. I'm not sure what that was all about.

 

Harems

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The Western world did not employ the harem system. The Moors and Turks did have harems, and they exerted a significant influence of the imaginations of Europeans. Of course, Europeans could never actually enter a harem, so what they painted was a pure fantasy of licentious oriental opulence. When harems were considered, Western women lived out a 19th Century version of the Hand Maiden's Tale, while the men... well, you know what was on their minds.

India and China also had harems. The Chinese were structured, rather than just grabbing pretty girls off of the streets, Chinese concubines would be the carefully vetted daughters of influential families sent to the crown for social and political purposes. 

There are a number of Chinese and Korean dramas set in harems. The dramas, which are entertaining, frequently feature a lowly girl who, although she tries to flunk the concubine selection process, passes it and ends up on the bottom rung of the concubine hierarchy. The harem is populated a bunch of other maids and concubines busily backstabbing each other to climb the social ladder of the palace. She'll have to use her wits and guile to survive. It gets more complicated when, since she's such a fetching vixen, she captures the Emperor's eye and has the Emperess (his wife) and the Empress Dowager (his mother) as well as eunuchs and advisors out to foil her as well.     

Seň Bilen Başga

Get ready for a lovey-dovey weekend with Myahri.

 

Atomic steam engines

Cashing in on the 1950s fascination with atomic energy Louis Marx and Company released the Linemar Atomic Reactor. It was actually a steam engine, with its boiler disguised as the reactor dome and a battery powered cooling tower that had moving lights in it. I guess the moving lights simulated the atomic power surging within the plant.

The German company Wilesco with their R200 Nuclear Reactor steam engine (in the above video) was another steam powered nuclear power plant facsimile. It was released in the 1960s and its high price, coupled with a growing stigma attached to nuclear power, led it not being successful in the toy steam engine market.

Finally, above is an actual radioactive toy from the 1950s. It is the Gilbert Radioactive Atomic Energy Lab Kit with Uranium. I'm sure I would have lusted after it in my boyhood and happily irradiated myself conducting experiments and what-not.

 

Corn (maize)

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Corn, also called maize, is a grain that is by weight the most produced in the world. It will not propagate naturally, it needs humans to raise it. It has many varieties and is used for both livestock feed and human consumption. These are paintings of corn cobs, corn fields, and corn being eaten.  

Southern Cross

Get ready for an antipodalized weekend with Dave Pallett. 

 

The ouija board

This video discusses the ouija board the well-known toy, er... I mean mystical device for communicating with spirits. It is an interesting discussion of its evolution from Victorian era spiritual quackery to its current state.

For those interested in receiving ghostly wisdom from a ouija board, but don't have one handy, I found an online ouija board you can use. It doesn't seem the same as having the planchette magically moving under your fingertips, but hey -- snake oil is snake oil so it will do in a pinch.

   

Jim Beckner's art

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Jim Beckner is a contemporary American artist based out of Colorado. His major subject is cityscapes. As he says he is less interested in the drawing aspects of painting -- form and outline -- and is instead more interested in the color and movement of his subject matter, hence his rich palette and heavy brushwork.  

All The News Is Bad

Get ready for a bitter pilled weekend with The Stray Birds.

 

Happy May Day comrades!

A young comrade keeping a sharp eye out
for counter-revolutionaries and/or Kulaks

Yes, it is the most wonderful day of the year -- May Day! I hope you will all have a fine time celebrating the wonders of the proletariat! I'll be spending my time looking for a bread line to stand in, snacking on tree bark, keeping an eye out for hoarders and wreckers, and of course studying my Little Red Book! Granted that last is a bit difficult because it is written in Chinese, and I don't read Chinese, but a little thing like that never stops us Soviet men!

So, enjoy your struggle sessions and have a good May Day comrade! Remember, you'll own nothing and enjoy it!