Because.
Raedthinn chillin’ in one of his favorite spots, backed up by Fingers.
Fingers gazes with disdain down upon her subjects.
Buttons looks with dismay upon the unwelcome scene of the vet clinic
Speedbump looks up in befuddlement at, well, everything. He’s not that smart.
A little while ago there was a commercial for a childrens charity that deals with kids who need hospitalization. As is traditional for such things, many scenes of injured & sick lil’ adorable moppets were shown, but one of them CREEPED ME THE HELL OUT. The first time I saw it I had my glasses off, so I saw the screen burrily and wasn’t able to quite make out what I was seeing. What they were showing on screen was a little girl who was missing her left leg and learning to walk on a prosthetic. Ain’t nuthin’ wrong with that. But… the prosthetic leg is a simple “stick,”and, for reasons that effectively evade me, they painted it BLOOD RED.
Behold:
Ye Gods.
Seen out of focus and for just a split second, it sure looked to me like a little girl who had just been attacked by a swarm of piranha. Or maybe she was the undead. In any event, it just wasn’t a good look.
BLAAAARRRRGH
Get ready to kiss productivity goodbye. Giggity:
Archive.org has most of the issues.
They also have:
and…
and…
And moving beyond magazines, they have this:
A Belarus (Belarusian?) Mig-29 having a spot of trouble on takeoff. Looks like the landing gear starts to retract just a little early.
Quake off the coast of Kamchatka:
Some recent panoramas, stitched together from cameraphone photos:
The “Belt of Venus” looking southeast towards Brigham City at sunset.
A late afternoon summer storm. The rain didn’t quite make it to the surface; it evaporated en route.
Sunset
Sunset
Sunset
UPDATE: books have sold.
I’m selling some books. The usual approach is ebay, but I figured I’d start here with y’all. This first group I will try to sell separately *if* nobody wants the lot of them. If you buy the whole lot, it’ll be cheaper than individually. The individual prices are based on what they seem to be going for online.
If you want the whole lot, I’m selling it for $100 (sum of the individual books, $133), plus postage. If you’re in the US, it’ll be media mail, so it shouldn’t cost too much. If you want the lot, let me know via email or comment; first come, first served.
For right now, trying to sell these books as a lot. If nobody wants the whole lot within a day or so, I’ll make them available individually.
“The High Frontier” by O’Neill, larger paperback, 1982. $15
“Colonies in space,” by Heppenheimer, larger paperback, $3.50
“The Future of Flight” by Myrabo, paperback, 1985. $3.50
“Colonizing other Worlds” by Macvey, hardbound, 1984. $7
“The Exploration of Space,” by Clarke. Hardbound, dust jacket is torn, otherwise good, 1951. $3
“The high Frontier,” by O’Neill, trade paperback, 1978, $3.50
“Colonies in space,” Heppenheimer, trade paperback, 1977. $3.50
“Space Trek,” by Glenn, paperback, 1978. $5
“Moving Into Space,” paperback, 1978. $4
“The Third industrial Revolution, by Stine, paperback, 1975. $5
“Space Shuttle,” by Kaplan, hardback, 1978. $4
“Dark Sun” by Rhodes, 1996, paperback, $4
“Fallout Prediction,” US Army FM3-22, 1973. $12
“The Constructive Uses of Nuclear Explosives” by Teller, 1968. Hardcover, no dust jacket. $60
Here’s a propaganda cartoon from 1956, put out to benefit the American petroleum industry. I’m at a loss as to who this was meant to be shown to… school kids, perhaps? In any event, it uses reasonably good (for the time) animation to extol the virtues not only of petroleum, but of the competitive capitalist economic model. In other words… pretty much exactly what you would not expect to see today.
It’s interesting to see what American society put out to promote itself when the US was in undeniable ascendancy, compared to the self-flagellating barf that tends to get promoted now that the US is seemingly in self-imposed decline.
Oldman is one of those actors who pops up all over the place, often under heavy makeup, and never seems like the same character – or even the same physical body – twice. He played Commissioner Gordon, Dracula, Zorg, Sid Vicious, Dr. Smith, Beethoven… everyone.
And now, he’s taking a turn as Churchill:
