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!