I’m a Marxist.
But talking about flywheels…”F–k Everything, We’re Doing Five Blades“. Or in this case, five flywheels.
A flywheel trebuchet? Why not!
Okay, one more, sort of related to things that spin fast: “The Story of Hoover Dam”. Some nice turbine footage in this one.
I was thinking about insurance.
This is a short film from the 1980s about Lloyd’s of London and how it works.
Something that I find kind of interesting is the Lloyd’s Open Form (LOF). The basic idea is: if something comes up at sea that requires a salvage operation, the two parties (the one being salvaged and the one doing the salvaging) sign a LOF.
One of the key aspects of the LOF is: “No Cure, No Pay.”
Back in 1978, an oil tanker, the Amoco Cadiz, ran into some problems: it encountered a storm that damaged the rudder and caused a hydraulic fluid leak. The captain called for assistance: the responding salvor wanted the captain to agree to a LOF.
One of the books I’ve read on the subject states that the captain was resistant to signing a LOF, as he felt he’d be signing an open-ended commitment, while the salvors were reluctant to proceed without a LOF. Ultimately, the captain agreed, but the situation had deteriorated…
…and the Amoco Cadiz ran aground off the coast of Brittany and dumped over 220,000 tons (metric) of oil into the sea.
Semi-related, because we’re talking about oil: “Fires of Kuwait”. For once, something in high-res.
Travel Thursday!
I’ve been neglecting the United States. Technically, I still am, as today’s presentation is a place that isn’t a state: the place that my sister and her family refer to as “WashingtonDCOurNation’sCapital” (all one word).
From 1945, “The District of Columbia”, part of the “This Land Of Ours” series.
Bonus: and if you liked that one, here’s another one from 1954 and Esso (aka “Standard Oil Company of New Jersey”). “Welcome to Washington”.
James Levine, “one of the world’s most influential and admired conductors”, according to the other paper of record.
Nicola Pagett, British actress. She was “Elizabeth Bellamy” on “Upstairs, Downstairs”.
Barbara Rickles, Don’s wife.
By many accounts, the Rickleses had one of the happiest marriages in show business. They socialized often with another enduring Hollywood couple, Bob and Ginny Newhart. Don Rickles died at 90 in 2017.
Barbara Rickles helped produce the Emmy-winning documentary “Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project” (2007) and the 2020 release “Don Rickles Live in Concert.” Don Rickles, in serious moments, would note that he was nearly 40 on his wedding day and had struggled for years to find someone.
“I advise any young person that gets married, really, work at it. If you work at it, it’s delightful,” he said in 1986, during one of his many appearances on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, whom he would tease endlessly about his multiple marriages.
Burning in Hell watch: Ronald DeFeo.
Mr. DeFeo was convicted in 1975 on six counts of second-degree murder after he confessed to using a rifle to shoot and kill his father, Ronald DeFeo Sr.; his mother, Louise; his sisters, Dawn and Allison; and his brothers, Mark and John Matthew.
The victims were found in their beds with gunshot wounds on Nov. 13, 1974. Mr. DeFeo, the oldest of the siblings, was 23 at the time.
The historical significance of this is: the DeFeo’s old house in Amityville was sold to another couple a year later.
Yeah, that house.
Today, some real history.
A while back, when Morlock Publishing’s Twitter feed was public, he retweeted a fascinating quote from someone’s book.
“The meteorite itself was so massive that it didn’t notice any atmosphere whatsoever,” said Rebolledo. “It was traveling 20 to 40 kilometers per second, 10 kilometers — probably 14 kilometers — wide, pushing the atmosphere and building such incredible pressure that the ocean in front of it just went away.”
These numbers are precise without usefully conveying the scale of the calamity. What they mean is that a rock larger than Mount Everest hit planet Earth traveling twenty times faster than a bullet. This is so fast that it would have traversed the distance from the cruising altitude of a 747 to the ground in 0.3 seconds. The asteroid itself was so large that, even at the moment of impact, the top of it might have still towered more than a mile above the cruising altitude of a 747. In its nearly instantaneous descent, it compressed the air below it so violently that it briefly became several times hotter than the surface of the sun.
That someone turned out to Peter Brannen, and his book is The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions (affiliate link).
Here’s a talk at Google from 2017. He does go off into climate change about 25 minutes in, so you could maybe punch out when you’ve had enough. I think his discussion of things like Chicxulub make this worth it. (I was actually not aware that there was a controversy over whether that killed the dinosaurs: I thought the science was settled.)
Bonus: since the Ides of March have just passed, how about an episode of “Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall Of An Empire” on Caesar?
Bonus #2: while I guess this is semi-thematically appropriate for St. Patrick’s Day, I’m bookmarking this here because of my interest in crime, law, and prison breaks.
“Unlocking the Maze”, about the escape of 38 IRA prisoners from the maximum security Long Kesh prison on September 25, 1983. Again, I am not making a political statement here: I just find prison breaks fascinating.
I’m a little behind on this, but I have to note it here anyway: after a little more than four years on the job, Art Acevedo is leaving as chief of the Houston PD…
…to take over as chief of the Miami PD.
(“The Tom Brady of police chiefs”? Fark that.)
My personal feeling? He decided to leave town before he got run out on a rail behind the narcotics scandal. But that’s just my opinion: I could be wrong.
More interesting question that someone asked me last night: could Flint Ironstag Brian Manley be headed to Houston?
Well, it is close to home, and it is a larger department, and he does have a proven track record, and it seems Houston is slightly more reasonable (and less hostile to the police) than the current Austin city council. But: 30 years in at APD, 97+% of his salary in retirement…what incentive does he have to take another police job in the current environment?
Other than the challenge, I guess.
Edited to add 3/17: Ha!
Farewell to Art Acevedo, the LeBron James of performative self-promotion
I got dragged into a meeting that took a lot longer than I expected. Which means I’m starting my lunch a lot later than I expected. Which means I’m queuing up this post a lot later than I expected. Which means a handful of random today.
First off, you know I had to include this, even if it does draw a little too much on random gun crankery: Lena Miculek shoots her mom’s “Space Gun”. Which is actually a custom Remington XP-100 chambered in 6mm BR.
Bonus: here’s something for Lawrence, and for other “Simpsons” fans: “Worker and Parasite” exists. No, really. And I’m not talking about this:
This is something called “The Millionaire”, an animated Soviet propaganda cartoon.
What the Hell was that?
Bonus #2: “Inside The F1 Medical Car”. This is fairly recent, and also fairly short.
Bonus #3: I’m not a real big car guy, but I found this video weirdly compelling. I think there’s actually something compelling in general (well, at least for me, but it seems like I hear this from other folks, too) about watching people do teardowns. In this case, the presenter is tearing down a Corvette LS7 engine that is totally locked up: it won’t even turn. But why?
Bonus #4: “C’est un Nagra. C’est suisse, et tres, tres precis.”
Man, what a career. “Alien”, “Live and Let Die”, “Raid on Entebbe” (he was Idi Amin), and tons of TV work. Including the good “Hawaii 5-0″…
…and “Mannix” (“Death in a Minor Key”, season 2, episode 18. He plays a jazz musician who is dating Peggy, and gets arrested and extradited to a Southern town. Mannix goes down to help him out. We watched this episode recently, and while I haven’t seen all of “Mannix”, I think I’d put this one in the top ten. Without going into spoilers, it goes in some surprising directions.)
…and, of course, one of my favorite roles: Lt. Al Giardello on “Homicide: Life on the Street”. (He also crossed over to “Law and Order”. And he made an unaccredited appearance on “The Wire” as a different character.)
Thing I did not know: that there were two TV movies based on Edna Buchanan’s true crime books (affiliate link), in which he apparently has a starring role.
I hear good things about “Badge of the Assassin”, a TV movie that you can find (for the moment) on the ‘Tube, in which he co-stars with Jimmy Woods.
Edited to add: NYT obit, which was not up when I originally posted.
Military History Monday!
I have a long one today, but let’s start off with something that’s a little shorter.
We’re pretty much right in the middle of the anniversary of the Battle of Khe Sanh, so please to enjoy this Marine Corps documentary (“in color!”). I’m not totally happy with the quality of this, but I feel like it is appropriate to post something in remembrance of the battle.
Long bonus, so you’re only getting two today: I’ve got to save something for next week. “The Foreign Legion : Men Without a Past”, about the current (as of 2005 or thereabouts) French Foreign Legion.
Marvin Hagler, middleweight champion.
…
Leon Gast, director of “When We Were Kings”, which I have heard is a swell documentary. (Amazon affiliate link: I actually did not know there was a Criterion edition of this.)
This is another one of those cases where the story behind the documentary is almost as interesting (if not more) than the documentary itself, but I will leave that for the obit. One tidbit:
Science Sunday! And Happy Pi Day!
I was hoping to find some good Pi related videos on YouTube. Instead, I turned up a lot of crap about something called “Pi Coin”, which sounds to me like a scam cryptocurrency. (Is “scam cryptocurrency” redundant? In any case, I’m putting my money into DogeCoin.)
I thought about posting some pie related videos, but I can’t quite stretch my definition of science that far.
So maybe a grab bag of science randomness?
“I Make Guncotton (Nitrocellulose) With Hardware Store Ingredients, Again.” Never know when this might come in handy.
Bonus #1: “The Rocket: Solid and Liquid Propellant Motors”. Vintage 1947, and a nice explanation of how solid and liquid propellant rockets work.
Bonus #2: This is a little on the darker side, but I feel like there’s at least one person (besides me) who might find it interesting: “A History of Nerve Agents” with Dan Kaszeta, the author of Toxic: A History of Nerve Agents, from Nazi Germany to Putin’s Russia (affiliate link, but since this is from Oxford University Press, it’s a bit on the pricy side).
Talk, talk, it’s only talk. Elephant talk.
But seriously, folks: from our pals at the National Security Agency, “The Last Elephant Cage”, a short documentary on the FLR-9 antenna in Alaska.
Bonus #1: in keeping with today’s radio theme, and crossing over with some other folks, from the OH8STN Ham Radio channel, “Grid Down Comms Ham Radio & Texas”.
Bonus #2: and along the same lines, but longer: “Mike Glover Talks Ham Radio and Preparedness” with Josh from the Ham Radio Crash Course channel.
Noted: the Ham Radio Crash Course channel has a video coming up on “Building A Communications Go Bag or Get Home Bag“. Might be of interest to some folks in my audience.
Today’s videos go out to FotB Andrew, because.
“The Original Mackinac Bridge Story”, about the history and construction of the bridge.
Bonus #1: because one bridge documentary isn’t enough. “Building the Mighty Mac”. This one is a little better quality, I believe.
To the best of my recollection, I have never been on the Mackinac Bridge. I wouldn’t mind making that drive someday, but the last time I was in Michigan, I wasn’t anywhere near the bridge.
Bonus #2: “Challenge at Glen Canyon”. Back in 1983, the Glen Canyon Dam had a problem. There’d been a heavier than expected snowfall that winter, which in turn led to more runoff as the snow melted. This in turn required the dam operators to open the spillways.
While some people might have enjoyed seeing the dam fail, it would have caused a lot of problems downstream. So the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation had to fix the spillway issue. But how?
Travel Thursday!
Have you ever considered exotic Pakistan as a destination? No? Let’s change that!
“New Horizons: Pakistan” from our friends at Pan Am sometime in the 1960s.
I bet it was a lot easier to bring home a little souvenir from the Khyber Pass back then, too.
Bonus: “Flying with the KLM from Amsterdam to Paris in 1929 in color!” As I understand it from the YouTube description, this is originally from 1929, but the poster (Rick88888888) has done a lot of work: “motion-stabilized, speed-corrected, A.I. enhanced and A.I. colorized”.