Thanks cheese for posting. I woke up around 0130 this morning and read about half of it then finish reading during day lite hours.
Very interesting
Rick.

Great article. Very well written. You really get a sense of how big these ships are and how dangerous this work is. This wasn't even the largest ship they rescued.
Clearly the Titan guys are well recruited.
I did read that Rich Habib, the director of this rescue died in a snowboarding accident in 2016.
Tim

The Daily Tot.

https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/z4gqge/a-brief-history-of-drunken-british-sailors

Sinkholes: When the Earth Opens Up

I think #12 from Japan is probably the most devastating while #3 from Guatemala is probably the creepiest.

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/08/sinkholes-when-the-earth-opens-up/568762/

Here's a story I just couldn't put down. It's a general background on deep-water diving in which a diver will descend 900 feet in 11 minutes (that's 1.4 feet per second) yet will have to stay in the water for 9-11 hours to fully decompress. That's a high price to pay for an 11 minute adrenalin rush.

This story however, has a twist and that's the reason I couldn't stop reading it. To say it's compelling is an understatement. 

https://www.outsideonline.com/1922711/raising-dead

With the upcoming 50 year anniversary of the moon landing, I spotted this article.

The Apollo 10 crew was given the task to do everything that the 2 month later Apollo 11 crew was tasked with except for one thing..."You can't land on the moon".

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/13/science/apollo-10-moon-nasa.html

Fair warning, this is a pretty intense video both in it's filming style and in its overall message.

From 1946 to 1992 over 14,000 US troops were exposed to nuclear radiation in over 1000 US military tests.

All the service members involved were admonished by the US military to never tell ANYONE about what they'd seen and were also instructed to never discuss it between the individual service members. If they did, a $10,000 fine and a charge of treason would be levied against them.

Lyon & Healy, located in Chicago, have been building wooden harps by hand since 1889. The neck & body are hard maple while the sound board is Sitka spruce. The string pull can exceed 2000 PSI and there are almost 2000 individual parts in a Concert Grand harp. 

The 23-karat gold leaf is applied by hand with a squirrel-hair brush thanks to static electricity.

With all of the hand work involved, a harp can cost over $100,000 and takes about a year to construct.

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/May-2019/The-Chicago-Harp-That-Rules-the-World/

Here's the Lyon & Healy website:

https://www.lyonhealy.com/lyon-healy-harps/harps-maker-company-history/

The Lego car ..................................  now that is something that could be re-purposed when you've had your fill of driving it! 

Seth

That's funny...

Now this is interesting. The simple chore of looking at a watch and determining the time is now up for grabs. This all makes sense with the proliferation of digital devices. Still, it makes one stop and think....

Interesting.  However, I note that for devices like the Apple Watch, many of the built in watch faces are ones with hands, not digital numbers.   We have come a long way from the Casio.  Some even look like a Rolex watch face :-)

Bob

I love all my chronographs, but the fact is my Casio watches are just as accurate , more reliable and a lot easier to maintain. 

Fancy analog timepieces, especially complications aren't going anywhere. People don't buy them for practicality. If they did, Casio and Seiko would have run all the Swiss makers out if business in the 70's.

And not everyone wants to receive a phone call on their wrist.

Try getting a millennial to understand the concept of "o'clock"...   

But it's so simple:

Cheese, that Casio World Time is 20+ years old(just looked it up it's from 1988). I had one but not in the brass case. Mine was black with a black band.

Found it in a drawer with a couple other old watches. A Casio Wrist Camera from ~1995 and an Old Citizen Divers watch.

Lyon & Healy, located in Chicago, have been building wooden harps by hand since 1889. The neck & body are hard maple while the sound board is Sitka spruce. The string pull can exceed 2000 PSI and there are almost 2000 individual parts in a Concert Grand harp. 

The 23-karat gold leaf is applied by hand with a squirrel-hair brush thanks to static electricity.

With all of the hand work involved, a harp can cost over $100,000 and takes about a year to construct.

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/May-2019/The-Chicago-Harp-That-Rules-the-World/

Here's the Lyon & Healy website:

https://www.lyonhealy.com/lyon-healy-harps/harps-maker-company-history/

My mom was a harpist and I grew up with a Lyon & Healy model 23 in the house. 

When I got older I got to help move it to/from rehearsal and concerts;  it isn't so heavy but it is very bulky, and naturally mom was always very nervous about it. 

She still has it, although she hasn't played in many years.

They are truly amazing instruments;  both the cosmetics of the woodwork, but also the mechanism. 

For the last several years a local artist has erected what's known in the neighborhood as an "Ice Portal". It's pretty neat considering the artist willingly absorbs all of the expenses to produce & maintain the ice sculpture. It's usually erected around the last couple of weeks of January when the temperatures will be consistently below 10ºF both day & night. It's usually dismantled by late February because of the daily temperature increase. Thus it has a very short gestation period.

It's usually a series of large ice cubes suspended with stainless cable. Sometimes there are ice encryptions and sometimes there are just various ice forms. It all depends upon the whims of the artist...as it should be.

Here's a photo of one of our dogs progressing through the Ice Portal and doing what she does best...just being a dog...ahead of the pack. 



Here's something for you light sleepers to figure out...start with the 3rd word and go forth.  I know what it says. 



And here's what it looks like tonight...preparing for tomorrow. Just a different form of kinetic art.