Top of a hill, high stone walls, looks fairly secure, if you're a turtle. Was there a way to range fire down on the enemy? Needs battlements, IMO.
Cool History Stuff
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Top of a hill, high stone walls, looks fairly secure, if you're a turtle. Was there a way to range fire down on the enemy? Needs battlements, IMO.
Far beyond the planets, more than 15 billion miles from home, Voyager 1 still sails through the cosmic dark — a lone messenger from 1977.
Launched when disco ruled the radio, it carries less memory than a single smartphone photo, stores data on an 8-track tape system, and runs on FORTRAN code written before most of today's engineers were born.
Its endurance comes from tough, radiation-hardened parts, a minimalist design with fewer failure points, and redundant systems ready to take over when one falters. The spacecraft also holds the famous Golden Record a time capsule of Earth's music, greetings, and sounds, meant for any distant civilization that might find it.
Keeping it alive isn't easy: every signal takes 22 hours to arrive, so engineers must solve problems without instant feedback, often referencing 50-year-old blueprints and hand-drawn schematics.
Voyager 1 isn't just a machine it's a reminder of what happens when we build for durability, think creatively, and dream beyond our own lifetimes.
It's our postcard to the universe, still in delivery.
You counted your fingers wrong MG, that's boomer tech...
I caught this video too. Great little video.
Sorry, I must have missed my toes.
Ok, who beats T-Rex?
Composition toy in the shape of a globe
Locality: Nuremberg
Date: c. 1860
Material: Wood, paper
Dimensions: H. 26 cm
From the mid 19th-century, small-format globes began to enter the children's playrooms of wealthy families as educational toys. Knowledge of non-European geography developed from the specialised knowledge of tradesmen and travellers into common educational content. Made up of 38 parts, the individual continents of this globe can be studied in detail. Maps of the continents are attached to the tops of the six discs. On the bottom of each disc, are explanatory texts and illustrations that introduce the typical flora and fauna and the human inhabitants of each continent.
Locality: Nuremberg
Date: c. 1860
Material: Wood, paper
Dimensions: H. 26 cm
From the mid 19th-century, small-format globes began to enter the children's playrooms of wealthy families as educational toys. Knowledge of non-European geography developed from the specialised knowledge of tradesmen and travellers into common educational content. Made up of 38 parts, the individual continents of this globe can be studied in detail. Maps of the continents are attached to the tops of the six discs. On the bottom of each disc, are explanatory texts and illustrations that introduce the typical flora and fauna and the human inhabitants of each continent.
Astronaut Frank Culbertson was the only American to witness the 9/11 attacks from space. His historic picture, taken from the ISS, shows a visible smoke plume rising over Manhattan.
"Following the September 11 attacks in New York City, many people were unable to leave Lower Manhattan due to the closure of bridges and tunnels and mass transportation. Within minutes of the first plane hitting the first tower, multiple fireboats from the New York City Fire Department rushed to the scene. The United States Coast Guard coordinated a large convoy of merchant ships, tugboats, and ferries to evacuate the stranded and injured victims.
More than 150 different vessels and 600 sailors helped evacuate victims and delivered supplies in the days following the attacks. According to commandant of the Coast Guard James Loy, the mass evacuation of more than 500,000 civilians following the attacks "moved more people from the island than the 1940 evacuation of Allied troops from France." "
More than 150 different vessels and 600 sailors helped evacuate victims and delivered supplies in the days following the attacks. According to commandant of the Coast Guard James Loy, the mass evacuation of more than 500,000 civilians following the attacks "moved more people from the island than the 1940 evacuation of Allied troops from France." "
Very cool. Education is a wonderful thing.
I love the Charlie Brown music.
The McDonnell XF-85 Goblin was a tiny jet fighter built in the late 1940s to serve as a “parasite fighter” for the giant B-36 aircraft. Stored in the bomber’s bomb bay, it would be dropped into combat, however reconnecting proved virtually impossible and the project ended.
A prototype drone?
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McDonnell XF-85 Goblin
The McDonnell XF-85 Goblin, the smallest jet-propelled fighter ever built, was a "parasite" designed to be dropped from a bomber, perform its mission and return to the mother ship. The Goblin was egg shaped and its wings -- swept back 37 degrees -- could fold upward. It had no landing gear, but...
www.thefewgoodmen.com
In 1932, a young German named Oskar Speck set off from Hamburg with a folding kayak and a modest goal: to reach Cyprus for work in the copper mines. But what began as a practical journey turned into an epic seven-year odyssey spanning over 50,000 kilometers. Speck paddled through rivers and seas across Europe, the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia, surviving malaria, theft, storms, and isolation. Locals were stunned by the sight of a lone man in a collapsible kayak, fueled by sheer determination and the occasional coconut or sardine.
In 1939, he finally reached Australian shores — exhausted, triumphant, and unaware that World War II had just begun. To the authorities, he wasn’t a hero but a German national, and he was arrested on arrival. Speck spent the next seven years interned in camps, only gaining freedom in 1946. Choosing not to return to Germany, he settled in Lightning Ridge, mining opals and living quietly. He never sought fame, simply saying, “I am satisfied. I know what I’ve done.” Oskar Speck died in 1993 at age 86, his unmatched journey still standing as one of the greatest feats in kayaking history.
www.abc.net.au
In 1939, he finally reached Australian shores — exhausted, triumphant, and unaware that World War II had just begun. To the authorities, he wasn’t a hero but a German national, and he was arrested on arrival. Speck spent the next seven years interned in camps, only gaining freedom in 1946. Choosing not to return to Germany, he settled in Lightning Ridge, mining opals and living quietly. He never sought fame, simply saying, “I am satisfied. I know what I’ve done.” Oskar Speck died in 1993 at age 86, his unmatched journey still standing as one of the greatest feats in kayaking history.
After paddling 50,000km, Australian police arrested this German kayaker
Unemployed and seeking a better life, Oscar Speck pushed his kayak into the water of the Danube and began paddling downriver. He didn't stop until he reached Australia.
www.abc.net.au