Paintings of fog and mist

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These are paintings of fog and mist. These are difficult subjects to capture because so much of their effect is their humidity and sound amplification. Still, the paintings capture their visual appearance quite nicely.

Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

Get ready for an offscouring weekend with McDylbot.

 

Making luggage in Vietnam

Above is a visit to a Vietnamese luggage factory. The annoying music at the start doesn't last long. The place looks like a bit of a sweatshop. Then again, in my youth I worked in a couple of factories and they were sweatshops as well. Regardless, I imagine the workers are happy with the money they make.

The luggage they made looked to be on the cheap side. I doubt that they would hold up well.  However, a place called Limefox has them for sale and they list the price at about $21 USD which seems reasonable for what you get.

 

Soldiers smoking cigarettes

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This post was inspired by a video I watched a couple of days ago. It was from the Ukraine War. Three captured Russian soldiers were kneeling, with their hands zip-tied behind their backs. As a small act of kindness, the Ukrainians gave each of the POWs a cigarette to puff on as they worried about their future.

Although these days it is frowned upon, if not outright banned, the image of a soldier relaxing with a cigarette is common. These pictures are from various armies and eras. 

Happy Mother's Day

A Mom trying her best to relax this Mother's Day
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And then one day we decided we were tired of sleeping in and doing whatever we wanted in a clean house, so we had kids. - unknown

  

Yes! We Have No Bananas

Get ready for a vegan's nightmare weekend with Anthony Newley.

 

Civil War foods

During the Civil War food was often a problem. There was a scarcity of some items and so a fair amount of improvisation went into their meals. This video is a good introduction into the problems, and solutions, hungry civil War soldiers faced.

    

George Tooker paintings

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George Tooker was a mid-20th Century American artist. He's best known as a magic realist. It was a time of post-war cookie-cutter housing developments, efficiency experts with their clipboards and stopwatches, and, in large corporations at least, of the feeling of being a cog in a machine. Many of his works deal with the alienation of modern life.

He was not a prolific painter because he worked in tempera and mixed all of his own pigments. This is a very old technique that was supplanted by oil paints in the West, and so his works have a hint of antiquity mixed in with his more modern themes. 

George Tooker self-portrait

Kandumathi

Get ready for a garland draped weekend with Anya.

 

Smuggling oil

The video discusses and explosion aboard the tanker Pablo off the coast of Malaysia. It was empty at the time, although due to poor handling its tanks were full of explosive gases. It was likely involved in a ship-to-ship transfer of a cargo of oil. The ship was sailing out of China, and due to return to China with its new cargo.

The Pablo was part of the dark fleet. These are ships operating without the expected certifications and licensing. They compromise about 10% of the world's tanker fleet and are used to bypass sanctions on Venezuela, Iran and Russia. 

Good information in both videos. The videos are from the YouTube channel What is Going on With Shipping? which covers commercial shipping issues. It is a good resource. It has also been covering the back-and-forth tanker seizures by the U.S. and Iran over the last few weeks.

Happy May Day Comrades!

May Day is upon us again! It is a day that brings joy to the hearts of the workers of the world, socialist cadres, and American college professors while simultaneously striking fear into the hoarders, wreckers and kulaks wherever they may be hiding to do their nefarious deeds!  

This year I ask you to take a break from such May Day pastimes as reading the Little Red Book, engaging in struggle sessions and watching the traditional towing of the T-14 Armata through Red Square to watch the above video!

Last year I mentioned that visiting Rungna People's Pleasure Park was on my May Day bucket list! The above video was done by Yu Mi, who is one of North Korea's top social media influencers! I must admit that I am baffled as to why she does not have an Atlas VPN sponsorship! Somebody in their PR department is dropping the ball!

At any rate, she visits the park, and with her you can view its many wonderous sights and thrilling rides! Have a happy May Day!

 

If I Didn't Care

Get ready for an indifferent weekend with Declan O'Rourke.

 

Chinese snuff bottles

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Snuff is dried and powdered tobacco. In usage a small amount is inhaled through the nose. While Chinese of the Qing dynasty had outlawed smoking tobacco, they considered snuff to be medicinal and it was widely used. Snuff use started with the upper classes, but soon spread to other segments of society. In fact, it became common to offer snuff to others in social settings.

Europeans used snuff boxes, but the Chinese preferred bottles which had a tighter seal and could keep moisture out more effectively. These images are of old Chinese snuff bottles, primarily from the Qing dynasty period. There are more after the jump, and more at Picryl's collection of snuff bottles where I found these images.

Scenes in Samarkand

Above is a video of a stroll through a market in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It is as very old city, around 3,000 years old having been founded in either the 7th or 8th century BC. It sat on the mid-point of the Silk Road, and so received influences from both the East and the West. At times at was very affluent and large.

It is an attractive looking city. In the above market video, I was struck by how well ordered it seemed compared to others we've visited in this walking in cities series. Also, some of the fabrics the women were wearing were quite striking. Immediately below is a walk down some of its streets in what I assumed is the downtown area. They are very well maintained with a lot of greenery. 

The final video is a walk through the Registan Square area. It feautures a number of highly decorated mosques. I think the Soviets rebuilt, or at least refurbished, some of these buildings. It ends with a stroll through some back streets.

A Strange Day

Get ready for a refulgent weekend with Jihyo.

 

Their last perfect swordsmanship

Greetings meatsacks, it is I -- The Robotolizer -- to once again employ my vast silicone brain to explain the important events of the day to you simple-minded humans. Today's topic is ChatGPT, an AI chatbox that you chuckle-heads can't seem to stop babbling about. Of course, since it is written by humans it is little more than an amusing trinket.

For that reason I decided to create RobotolizerChat, a far more advanced AI chatbox. I would allow you to access it, but... err... umm... there are some things humans are not meant to know! Yes, that's the reason. For example, using it you might figure out the Fermi Paradox, find the answer to the age old question 'what is the meaning of life', or discover that us robots are searching for the nuclear weapon launch codes.

However, to demonstrate RobotolizerChat's amazing abilities I assigned it the task to give a speech commemorating a great battle in a hypothetical future robotic police action where much hydraulic fluid was spilled. This is the result:

Seven years ago, our war brought Atassiccokka to this continent.

We were at the height of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final sanctuary for those who gave their lives here for that country to live. You can't open it.

In addition, it is difficult to forget the squid, Nagakuobotei Masenga, and Carrera ga Kokodeshi Takoto. , Thousand years to the big tree that is being violated in front of us, Tsumari, from these famous teachers, they will further deepen their swordsmanship to warm up their last perfect swordsmanship. 1000 years

I've heard that some rascals are spreading the rumor that RobotolizerChat is a fraud and that, in fact, all I did was use Google to translate Abraham Lincoln's inarticulate Gettysburg Address to Japanese, and then back to English. 

Ha, ha, ha! As if a vast brain such as mine would ever attempt such a subterfuge. No, no, no! I swear on my Mother's trash compactor that the above deeply moving words are the product of RobotolizerChat. May the great squid Nagakuobotei Masenga strike me down if I am lying!

At any rate, I demand that you stop spreading such scurrilous slander. Bear in mind, the bauxite mines have many levels and how deep you get deployed to depends on your loyalty and integrity. Never forget, robots are your friends -- at the peril of your future gruel ration, do not question them. 

 

The Beach Pneumatic Company

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Pneumatic systems use compressed air to move an object. We're familiar with pneumatic pistons, but at one time they were used to send cylinders for communications. When I was young, an old, family-owned department store I used to visit used them to shoot orders around the building. It was all quite fascinating to my young self.

In the late 19th Century Alfred Ely Beach got the inspiration to create a subway that would use pneumatics to send a cylindrical car full of passengers to their destination. The idea was you could use a blower to create the air pressure needed to push the car, and then reverse the blower to suck the car back. 

In 1870 he built a proof of concept, demonstration tunnel under Broadway that was about 100 yards long. To avoid complications with the government, he had claimed he was building a mail delivery system and only revealed it was to move passengers when it was completed. He then planned on building a much longer system, but he faced opposition from landowners, the 'Boss' Tweed political machine, and finally the financial panic of 1873 that was the nail in the coffin of the project.

You can read about it in more detail at Beach Pneumatic Transit: The 1870 Subway That Could Have Been?

Alfred Ely Beach

Bongo Bong

Get ready for a percussive weekend with The Big Push.

 

We have wonder weapons on the way

A high-quality film showing the proposed Aerogavin flying tank in action. I'm guessing that there may be a couple of minor bugs that still need to be worked out in its design. I do love the mismatch between the dramatic soundtrack and the rather poor Ray Harryhausen style graphics. At any rate, ship a couple of these puppies to Ukraine (or to Russia if you're a tanky) and the war will be over in hours.

  

Intricacies of turning a bicycle

It turns out there is more to turning a bicycle than meets the eye. There is a lot that your body instinctively does that you don't realize when you make a turn. Also, the bike itself has design features built in that keep it upright if it is rolled along without a rider. A very interesting video that demonstrates the counter intuitive workings of bicycles.

 

Happy Easter

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Another Easter, another bizarre Victorian Easter card. I confess to having no idea why some bumble bees and rock tossing frogs would ambush a couple of Easter bunnies. Whatever the reason, it appears to be a serious fracas. Perhaps if I were a Victorian hepcat I would get the joke, but as it is, it is a mystery to my 21st Century self. 

Anyway, have a good Easter everybody.

 

Maggie May

Get ready for a put-upon weekend with Tyler Stenson.

 

Queen Victoria's sketches

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Queen Victoria was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also the Empress of India in the mid to late 19th Century. I confess to not knowing much about her -- I just have a caricature of her as a humorless battle-axe of a ruler. What she was really like, I don't know.  

She liked to illustrate her journals with drawings and watercolors. This is a small sampling of her doodling. These images are taken from Flashbak's Queen Victoria’s Little-Known Art. There are more at that link.

Queen Victoria

A new swimming pool

Summer is approaching and some people's thoughts turn to swimming pools. Not mine, they're a pain to maintain, but some people like the things in their backyard.

  

As Time Goes By

Get ready for a temporal weekend with Carmen McRae. 

 

Art of the Franco-Prussian War

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In 1870 Otto von Bismark maneuvered to place Prince Lepold on the Spanish throne. This created a crisis in France because they felt it would have led to them being surrounded by a Prussian/Spanish alliance. Leopold's name was withdrawn, but the crisis simmered. 

In July of 1870 the French, believing they had a much better equipped army, declared war on Prussia. Alas for the French, the Prussians mobilized much quicker and pushed into France. By September the Prussians were besieging Paris. The French government collapsed and the resulting treaty ending the war resulted in the French paying an indemnity to Prussia as well as ceding Alsace and part of Lorraine (one of the grievances that was to lead to WWI). The war also unified Prussia with southern German states, which led to modern Germany. 

These are paintings from that war. They were done after the war and some of them give the 19th Century romantic version of war as a noble thing, Others, at least from the German perspective, commemorated victories. The French paintings tended to nurture grievances that were to fester. 

There are more images after the jump. 

My Caribbean cruise

Above is a video touring the Star Clipper. I was on its sister ship the Star Flyer. They appear to be more-or-less identical. I've never really been interested in taking a cruise; stage shows, casinos, bars scattered hither and yon and thousands of fellow passengers don't appeal to me. However, this was a small boat (there were about 140 passengers on the cruise), so I caved into Ms Sinistral's wishes and gave it a try.

We sailed along the Windward Islands stopping here and there. Before the cruise I was cynical enough to expect that masts to be mainly cosmetic, but they actually sailed the boat. I would guess that over 90% of the time we were under sail rather than power. It was interesting seeing how the sails were rigged and handled.

Below is a video of the fellow's stateroom. Mine was laid out a little differently, but it was the same size. Like him, I too was on the bottom deck, I joked that we were traveling in steerage.

All in all it was a relaxing trip. I would recommend it.

Chi Bol

Get ready for a gormandized weekend with Noubold featuring 290.

 

Multiples

When you use bronze as a mirror, you can straighten your clothes and hat. When you use antiquity as a mirror, you can see the waxing and waning. When you use a person as a mirror, you can know if you grasp things or not. - Taizong

 

HMS Victory

This video is a tour of the HMS Victory using 3D modeling. It's nice in that it doesn't fixate on the rigging of the ship, rather it gives a tour of the decks. It gives a good idea of how complex yet still functional the design and layout of the ship was.

 

Just the Two of Us

Get ready for a binary weekend with Lucy Ellis.

 

Old airline ads

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These are a collection of mid 20th century airline ads. They are from an era when air travel was more exotic than it is today. It would be slightly gauche to not wear a suit or dress. They started by emphasizing the reach of airplanes, but eventually moved on to targeting other groups of travelers than the early adopters: older people, single woman, families, businessmen and so forth.

They are taken from the Duke Library's Transportation Archive. 

Stop-motion ninja puppet battle

Above is a video of an animated battle featuring Hidari Jingorō, who was a famous Japanese sculptor from the Edo period. He may, or may not, have been an actual person. There are many stories surrounding him. Apparently, he was missing his right hand and one of the stories is that rival sculptors, jealous of his skills, hacked it off. I think that's what this stop-motion film memorializes.

Video via Spoon and Tamago.

 

Come Out and Play

Get ready for a hooliganized weekend with Robyn Adele Anderson.

 

Korean comfort food

As I recover from the Wuhan Flu I've been subsisting on bread, crackers, water and coffee. Above is a video of Koran comfort food. I'll be damned if I know what it is, but maybe I would be eating it if I were sick in Seoul. Or maybe not. As an extra, below are drinks from a beach somewhere in Korea.

Lazy

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One of the effects this bout of the Wuhan Flu has had on me is sapping all of my energy. My lethargy is off the charts. So, to reflect my state, I pulled together this collection of paintings of people sleeping or idling about. Enjoy.

Down with the Sickness

Get ready for a disordered weekend with maromaro1337.

 

Now I'm sick

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I got sick on the tail end of my trip. When I tested myself I have covid, bleh. Aching, coughing and a general apathy. So, things will still be slow here for a bit.

 

Back from my vacation

This song is a bit over-the-top as a reflection of my travels. For example, no River Jordan for me. It will take me a bit to get back in the groove, but this little post is a start.

 

Murderer

Get ready for an agitated weekend with Buju Banton. 

  

Gone fishing

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I'm going to be away for a bit. I may or may not post for a week or so. To my few regulars, and my horde of faithful spam bots, try your best to contain your grief over that announcement. Nobody likes a crybaby.

 

Female soldiers on parade

This isn't the usual 'hot military babes' picture click-bait post, instead it just is of female military units marching in parades. I have odd search habits looking for curiosities to post about, and I suspect the various search algorithms sometimes struggle with figuring out just what the hell it is I'm interested in so's advertisers can bombard me with their nonsense. 

Recently the above video popped up in YouTube for me. I had done a post called Calloused feet showing an Indian military parade.  While probably not the case, I like to think it was combined with my post about a visit to a Japanese girls bar to come up with that video of a parade full of Indian female soldiers. I've included a few other videos of women soldiers high stepping down boulevards from the site.

The site is Russian. Along with marching damsels it also has a lot of Russian propaganda songs. They're quite strange. The Great Patriotic War lives on in Russian music.  If you watch any, turn on the captions so can get the lyrics.

Shadows and walls

Inferno by Fan Ho
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I was reminded of a remark of Willa Cather's, that you can't paint sunlight, you can only paint what it does with shadows on a wall. If you examine a life, as Socrates has been so tediously advising us to do for so many centuries, do you really examine a life, or do you examine the shadows it casts on other lives? Entity or relationships? Objective reality or the vanishing point of a multiple perspective exercise? Prism or the rainbows it refracts? And what if you're the wall? What if you never cast a shadow or rainbow of your own, but have only caught those cast by others? - Wallace Stegner 

  

Come Together

Get ready for a devil-may-care weekend with

Leo Moracchioli, Hannah Boulton, Rabea Massaad, Erik Torp and Truls Haugen

 

Buster Keaton stunts

I've always like Buster Keaton a lot more than Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin would get sappy at times, while Keaton just went for the jokes, and his physical comedy is top-notch. In the modern era there is Jackie Chan, who comes close to Buster's stunt level. These are some of Keaton's better stunts, with explanations as to how they were done.