Le Manege Carre Senart

Labels: ride theory, video

By way of Metafilter, where there is more information on this bit of unfinished London.

Labels: trains, video

Math Midway.

From Silhouette Masterpiece Theatre.

The Aerocar - it's Fully Certificated!

Barcelona, un paseo en tranvia. Una obra de 1908 que nos muestra la ciudad condal y sus principales calles bajo la dirección de Ricardo Baños.

"To sum up: 1. The cosmos is a gigantic fly-wheel making 10,000 revolutions a minute. 2. Man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it. 3. Religion is the theory that the wheel was designed and set spinning to give him the ride." - H L Mencken, "Coda," in Smart Set (New York, Dec. 1920; repr. in A Mencken Chrestomathy, pt. 1, 1949), quoted at Positive Atheism.

Wikipedia: "The Oregon Centennial was the 100th anniversary of the statehood of the U.S. state of Oregon. The day of the anniversary was February 14, 1959, but centennial events took place throughout the year. Festivities where held all over the state, with the major attractions at the Oregon Centennial Exposition and International Trade Fair in the Kenton neighborhood of Portland, which took place from June 10 to September 17, 1959. The exposition's theme was 'Frontier of the Future.'" Of course every reader of Danny's Land (and the Journal of Ride Theory) are vitally concerned with expositions and fairs. What may be of special interest, however, is one of the last artifacts of the Oregon Centennial still standing, the statue of Paul Bunyon in the Kenton neighborhood and the crucial role your representative ride theorists have played in its history.

The oldest image I've found of our Paul...


The above may have been his original paint job, but maybe not. The below image isn't especially recent either...


... and features some pretty dramatic eyelashes, a hankie in his back pocket (see below) and checkered shirt courtesy of a repainting by a local Boy Scout troop. The eyelashes are gone now...


... but the hankie remains. In 2002 the statue was moved to make way for a new public transit train. Trevor Blake and Dan Howland were there!


We were treated to a brief presentation by the son of the man who made the statue...


... and a chance to see what was under the big man's feet...


... before the whole operation was moved dozens of feet forward...


... hankie and all. I like to think Paul has moved slightly closer to the dangerous Oregon / Washington border and is thus slightly more menacing to the Northern Aggressors.

Labels: portland

The Louisville, KY Courier-Journal reports: Seven Amish men will appeal their conviction on charges of refusing to use state-required safety emblems on their horse-drawn buggies. [...] The men are members of the Swartzentruber Amish sect, who do not believe in using the bright orange and red triangles that state law requires be placed on the back of slow-moving vehicles such as tractors and buggies [The] Swartzentrubers believe they should not trust their safety to any man-made symbol such as a triangle, and they also object to the bright colors. They have offered to use lanterns at night as well as gray reflective tape -- not in the shape of a symbol but simply outlining the backs of their buggies. They dress and furnish their homes in modest, subdued colors, and the county has even prepared grayish jumpsuits in the event that Amish might be jailed for refusing to pay their fines.