The theme for today is: “Things That I Found Oddly Compelling”.
Techmoan fixes an old dual cassette deck. But it’s not just any cassette deck: it was taken off a decommissioned British warship. And this one isn’t designed for disco parties: this is a highly specialized cassette deck designed for the aftermath of disco parties, when someone is interrogating you about how that dead body ended up in your bed surrounded by enough cocaine to fuel a sequel to “Popeye”.
Bonus video: by way of the Northwest New Jersey Beekeepers Association, a beekeeper shows how he investigates a very aggressive hive, makes the decision to destroy it, and then carries out that decision.
I don’t much like any insect that is capable of stinging me, including bees (though I acknowledge the need for bees, which is more than I’m willing to say about wasps, yellow jackets, or hornets – murder or otherwise). But when this guy – someone who knows about bees – says “This is an aggressive and dangerous hive” and “I can’t just take it out into a field somewhere and leave it”, and then backs that up with video of hot bee action…well.
No grand unifying theme today, just some things that popped up in my recommendations that I thought were interesting.
“The Penetrating Eye”. From 1970, a documentary about the scanning electron microscope produced by Eli Lilly.
Bonus: “Nuclear Propulsion In Space”, a 1968 joint production of NASA and the old Atomic Energy Commission about experimental nuclear reactors for space propulsion.
There’s a lot of “The Future We Could Have Had” in this video, including discussion of how a manned Mars mission would work. It also includes some nifty reactor test footage.
You know, the history of aviation wasn’t all Pan Am and Boeing. There were other companies involved.
Like Delta. And Convair, a division of General Dynamics (as of 1953).
“Introduction to a Champion”, a Delta/Convair promotional film for the then-new Convair 880 jet. The 880, in theory, was supposed to be a competitor to the 707 and DC-8 by being smaller and faster.
The film certainly makes the 880 look comfortable, in that sort of idealized vintage 1960s air travel kind of way. They even manage to make airline food look almost appetizing. It also places great emphasis on the alleged speed of the 880.
Unfortunately, it was not entirely successful. Convair made 65 of them from 1959 to 1962. Delta ran 17 of them between 1960 and 1974. As far as I can tell, there are no currently operational 880s, though there is one in storage somewhere in California. Most of the others have been chopped up and parts put on display (or, in one case, used in a lodge in South Africa).
There is one surviving intact (but not airworthy) example that I know of that is on display. You may even have seen it, which leads me to…
Bonus video: this is a little below my usual standards of quality, but short. “Lisa Marie: The History Tour 1960 – 2015”. You see, Elvis bought one of Delta’s retired Convair 880s in 1975 for $250,000. He then spent a truckload of money having it extensively customized:
(Probably true story, at least according to a couple of sources: Elvis originally wanted to buy a 707, and had even put down a deposit on one. He probably would have been happier long term with that plane – or at least it would have been easier to find parts, I suspect – but the 707 he put money down on was Robert Vesco‘s, and when the fecal matter of Vesco’s empire impacted the rotating blades of the Federal impeller, that deal fell apart. I don’t know if Elvis got his money back or not: I suspect the IRS or the SEC immediately confiscated it from Vesco’s people, and they didn’t have it to give back. But I digress.)
There’s some good shots in here of the “Lisa Marie”‘s interior, which I guess is pretty much what you’d expect from a plane owned by Elvis.
This actually came up in my recommendations, and isn’t something I went searching for – but it is how I found out about the Tank Museum’s YouTube channel.
“Tiger 131: A Twist in the Tale”, a recent short documentary about some new evidence dealing with Tiger 131.
This is of particular interest to me because, as Lawrence noted a while back, we recently watched “Fury”. Tiger 131 has a fairly large part in that movie.
I’m not including a bonus video today: instead, why don’t you just pick a random one from the Tank Museum channel and watch it? I’m kind of interested in Curator Q&A #9 myself, and might watch that before I turn in for the night. What’s not to like about armor and gin?
“Tobacco Valley”, a promotional film from “The Shade Tobacco Growers Agricultural Association, Inc.” about tobacco growing in the Connecticut River Valley.
Why am I posting this? I think it’d be hard to find something more politically incorrect on YouTube. If you think otherwise, surprise me.
Bonus video: “Call Us Penn Central”, a promotional film for the Penn Central Transportation Company.
Why this one? The film was made in 1968: Penn Central filed for bankruptcy on June 21, 1970.
There’s a picture of that buffalo carving in the obit, and I have to give the man credit: it’s well done. I wanted to post this obit so I could work this in:
Delbert Africa, one of the MOVE members. He wasn’t present at the 1985 MOVE headquarters bombing: he was serving time in prison after being convicted of third-degree murder (along with eight other MOVE members) for killing police officer James Ramp in 1978.
Unlike those books, this is not fiction: this is a how-to/things I wish I had known/lessons learned book from someone who abandoned suburban life, moved to a farm in the country, and maintains an active coding career while raising his own food and living as close to a self-sustained lifestyle as he can get.
I have personal reasons for backing this book. But even if you don’t plan on moving to a farm, there’s almost certainly something in it that will justify the $20 you spend on the e-book: stuff about meat and meat processing, recipes, workshops and workshop tools…well, there’s a table of contents on the Kickstarter page.
Mr. Corcoran probably doesn’t need my help, though I’m happy to provide it: we’ve had friendly correspondence in the past. The Kickstarter is already at $25,000+ out of an initial $2,000 goal. But I’d like to make sure that everyone who can get any sort of benefit from it has a chance to kick in and get early access.
He was 34 years old. The family did not specify a cause of death, but the paper of record reports that the Mumbai police were investigating it as a suicide.
I feel like I’m coming to this story a little late. It seems like it just broke today, but I was busy at work all day and only just found out about it.
There is a couple in Natick, Massachusetts that publishes an online e-commerce newsletter. I don’t know the name of the newsletter or where to find it, but some of their articles were critical of eBay.
Six “former” employees have been indicted on federal charges. (eBay says they were all fired in September of last year.) I won’t name them here (they are entitled to a presumption of innocence), but their titles were:
“director of safety and security”
“director of global resiliency”
“senior manager of global intelligence”
“manager of global intelligence center (GIC)”
a contractor “who worked as an intelligence analyst within the GIC”
“senior manager of special operations for eBay’s global security team”. (This individual was, according to the articles, a former police captain.)
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a sucker for nukes. Not just nuclear weapons, but civilian use of nuclear energy, the whole Project Plowshare/early reactors type of thing.
“Pioneering with Power”, a promo film for the Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts.
Bonus: by way of “Cruise Ships Info” (really?), a tour of the NS Savannah. NS Savannah was the first nuclear powered merchant ship (hence the “NS”, for “Nuclear Ship”).
I have personal reasons for wanting to link to this, but the narration is horrible text-to-speech. You’d do better muting it and turning on captions.