NYC is experiencing a supertall building construction boom that it hasn’t seen since the 1930’s. Currently there are 9 buildings under construction over a thousand feet tall, with another 5 over 900 feet. A skyscraper steel workers paradise.
Meanwhile, back in my humble Winnipeg
Chewie’s Family Christmas get together
A werewolf (Old English: werwulf, “man-wolf”) or occasionally lycanthrope is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolflike creature), either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction (often a bite or scratch from another werewolf). Early sources for belief in this ability or affliction, called lycanthropy, are Petronius (27–66) and Gervase of Tilbury (1150–1228).
Fly Geyser, also known as Fly Ranch Geyser or the Green Geyser is a man-made small geothermal geyser located in Washoe County, Nevada approximately 20 miles (32 km) north of Gerlach. Fly Geyser is located near the edge of Fly Reservoir and is only about 5 feet (1.5 m) high, by 12 feet (3.7 m) wide, counting the mound on which it sits.
Fly Geyser is located on the private Fly Ranch in Hualapai Flat, about 0.3 miles (0.48 km) from State Route 34. The ranch is currently owned by Todd Jaksick. There is a high fence and a locked gate topped with spikes to exclude trespassers. The only access is a dirt road, but it is large enough to be seen from the road.
Looks like something from a science fiction movie set
Fly Geyser is not an entirely natural phenomenon; it was accidentally created by well drilling in 1964 exploring for sources of geothermal energy. The well may not have been capped correctly, or left unplugged, but either way dissolved minerals started rising and accumulating, creating the travertine mound on which the geyser sits and continues growing. Water is constantly released, reaching 5 feet (1.5 m) in the air. The geyser contains several terraces discharging water into 30 to 40 pools over an area of 74 acres (30 ha). The geyser is made up of a series of different minerals, but its brilliant colors are due to thermophilic algae.
The geyser in 1975
Location
A new image from NASA’s Cassini probe is raising eyebrows among sci fi fans for its eerie resemblance to the infamous Death Star from the Star Wars films.
The unsettling celestial body, dubbed ‘Tethys,’ is one of Saturn’s icy moons and measures about 660 miles across.
With its enormous crater positioned in just the right spot when photographed by the spacecraft, the moon looks remarkably similar to the monstrous weapon at the center of the epic space opera.
While it is almost certainly not a fabricated space ship designed to destroy planets and wreak havoc across the universe, who knows what creatures could lurk in the deep deep depths of the moon?
Popsci.com
Happy Family
MARINE BARRACKS WASHINGTON, D.C. — Cpl. Chesty XIV, also known as Chesty The Bulldog, has been removed from his primary duties as the official Marine Corps mascot following multiple charges of sexual misconduct, sources confirmed today.
There were several cases involving accusations of leg humping, unsolicited face licking, and one claim of lewd sexting.
“I always suspected Chesty was letting his fame go to his head,” said Pfc. David Trimbull, a member of the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon. “We all heard rumors, but the command made it perfectly clear they wanted us to keep quiet.”
In 2016, a story emerged about Chesty when a server witnessed him cornering two Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders at the USO Gala in Washington, D.C.
“I was in absolute shock, just like them,” said the witness, whose name is withheld out of fear of reprisal. “I couldn’t move I was so scared, and when it was all over, all I could do was comfort them and offer some clean napkins.”
The two cheerleaders never pressed charges and refused to comment on the incident.
The Duffel Blog
CBS News
Blue Origin engineers check out a New Shepard crew capsule after a successful unpiloted test flight on December 12, 2017, the company’s sixth successful launch in a row; it was the first flight of an upgraded capsule featuring the large windows designed to give future space tourists panoramic views
Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, launched a reusable New Shepard sub-orbital rocket from the company’s west Texas launch site Tuesday, boosting an unpiloted crew capsule out of the dense lower atmosphere for a brief foray into space before a parachuted descent to Earth.
The booster, meanwhile, plunged back to the launch site tail first, re-starting its hydrogen-fueled BE-3 main engine to slow down, deploying four legs and settling to a picture-perfect touchdown on a circular landing pad.
The launching, the first using an upgraded booster and a crew capsule equipped with the large windows that will offer space tourists spectacular panoramic views, was carried out in secrecy, and Blue Origin did not acknowledge the flight until around 11 p.m. EST.
“Successful first flight of #NewShepard today with the largest windows in space and commercial payloads on board,” Blue Origin tweeted. “Wholly successful mission.”
Added Bezos: “#NewShepard had a successful first flight of Crew Capsule 2.0 today. Complete with windows and our instrumented test dummy. He had a great ride.”
The New Shepard rocket returns to Earth with a rocket-powered touchdown on December 12, 2017
The crew capsule was released after the booster’s engine shut down, soaring to an altitude of 322,000 feet — about 61 miles — before arcing back toward Earth. Small drogue chutes deployed to stabilize the spacecraft followed by three large chutes that slowed the ship for a gentle 1-mph touchdown near the launch site.
It was Blue Origin’s seventh New Shepard flight overall and it’s sixth success in a row. It was the company’s first test flight since a dramatic launch Oct. 5, 2016, that simulated an in-flight abort and its first using a new, upgraded booster and a crew capsule equipped with windows.
The New Shepard crew capsule descends to Earth under parachutes after reaching the edge of space in a sub-orbital test flight on December 12, 2017
“Crew Capsule 2.0 features large windows, measuring 2.4 feet wide, 3.6 feet tall,” the company said in a caption to its YouTube video. “(It) also included 12 commercial, research and education payloads onboard.”
Blue Origin is developing the reusable New Shepard rocket and spacecraft to carry up to six space tourists, researchers and/or experiments on brief sub-orbital flights above the discernible atmosphere more than 62 miles up, or 100 kilometers. That’s the somewhat arbitrary but widely recognized “boundary” of space.
Once released from the booster, passengers in the relatively spacious crew cabin will experience four to five minutes of weightlessness as the spacecraft arcs over and begins falling back to Earth, enjoying a spectacular panoramic view through the largest windows ever designed for spaceflight.
Plunging back into the dense lower atmosphere, passengers will experience up to five times the pull of gravity at sea level before the parachutes deploy for landing.
Assuming continued testing goes well, Blue Origin hopes to being launching passengers within the next year-and-a-half or so. No word yet on how much a ticket might cost.
I have watched True Lies many times, I’m not sure exactly how many times. It’s a crazy action movie. I’ve often thought how may people get terminated in that movie, and I don’t mean fired from a job. The flick is a killfest from start to finish. So I looked it up and the details are below.
(previously done by luvmetender)
Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger): 66
Helen Tasker (Jamie Lee Curtis): 12
Faisil (Grant Heslov): 3
Salim Abu Aziz (Art Malik): 1
Juno Skinner (Tia Carrere): 1
“Here’s my invitation”: 5
-Harry blows up hut, killing 5 embassy guards in the blast
Ski Chase: 12
-Harry shoots 12 guards during chase
Toilet Shootout: 2
-Harry shoots Mahmoud
-Salim shoots Yusif
Ride: 1
-Harry smashes Simon’s face in his imagination
Escape: 10
-Harry throws a scalpel into 1 terrorist’s eye
-Harry breaks Samir’s neck
-Harry stabs 1 terrorist in the stomache with a meat hook
-Harry breaks 1 terrorist’s neck using an AK-47’s strap
-Harry forces 2 terrorists to stab each other
-Harry shoots 3 terrorists
-Harry shoots the terrorist holding Helen
Crashing the Party: 22
-Harry breaks 2 terrorists’ necks
-Harry blows up some explosive barrels with a grenade, killing 4 terrorists in the explosion and setting 1 terrorist on fire
-Harry shoots 2 terrorists
-Helen accidentally drops an Uzi down a flight of stairs and it fires continuously, killing 11 terrorists
-Harry shoots 2 more terrorists
Compound: 9
-Harry breaks 1 terrorist’s neck
-Harry guns down 6 terrorists with dual Uzis
-Harry blows up 2 terrorists with makeshift flamethrower
Bridge: 9
-Marine fighter jets blow up the first truck, killing the driver
-1 terrorist is accidentally hit and killed by the backblast of an RPG by one of his buddies, and is subsequently blown out the front of the truck and run over
-Marine fighter jets blow up the second truck with missiles, killing the 2 terrorists inside
-The third truck (thanks to a bird landing on it) falls off the destroyed bridge and explodes, killing the 3 terrorists inside
-Helen and Juno struggle over pistol and accidentally shoot Ackbar (shared)
-The limo crashes into the water with Juno still inside
Office Building: 15
-Faisil shoots 3 terrorists
-Harry mows down 12 terrorists with jet’s twin machine guns
“You’re fired!”: 5
-Harry ejects jet’s sidewinder missile with Salim still dangling onto it into helicopter carrying 4 terrorists, blowing it up and killing all 5 of them in the explosion
(NOTE: Simon’s kill in Harry’s imagination is counted because both Arnie and Paxton acted out the scene.)
It is somewhat sad that such violence permeates Hollywood movies. But it is all about making the money, isn’t it?
The town of Churchill will be getting an early Christmas present this year.
A winter road link has been completed between Gillam and the northern community that lost its rail line in the spring due to severe flooding.
The distance from Gillam to Churchill is 300 kms or 175 miles.
The ice road was a joint project between Polar Industries, Fox Lake Cree Nation and Churchill’s Remote Area Services.
“The guys finished up late [Thursday] night and they’re on their way back out to Gillam so we can start our actual journey with freight on Sunday,” explained Polar Industries president Mark Kohaykewych. Polar Industries is featured on the popular TV series ‘Ice Road Truckers’.
“We’re doing a spiritual, traditional ceremony since we are crossing Fox Lake traditional land. We’ve been accepting a lot of freight the last week and the trucks are leaving to head up to Gillam for Sunday afternoon.”
Since making the announcement that the ice road would be built, Kohaykewych has continually stated he hoped the road would be ready for Christmas. Thanks to no huge snow dumps and cold conditions, the road is ready, though not for huge truckloads.
“We’re just starting off with two, we don’t want to go too heavy on this first journey. We definitely want the ground to harden up and we don’t want to be busting through any rivers or damaging any ice bridges that we’ve created,” Kohaykewych said. “We’re splitting the load between three cat trains, 20,000 pounds a piece.”
Cat Trains
The ice road was necessitated by the loss of the rail line, which is still nowhere near ready to be used again. The very public battle between OmniTrax, which owns the line, and the federal government has been taken to court.
In the meantime, the ice road will be used to take much needed supplies to the remote northern town through the winter months.
“We’re cross-docking off of the transport trucks onto sleighs that we’ve manufactured and then pulling them with what the general public would know as dozers or cat trains,” Kohaykewych said. “I’m figuring we should be on the road between 30-36 hours.”
Cat train in Alaska below
Churchill is known as the Polar Bear Capital of the World. It also has its own trains associated with Polar Bear tourism. The Tundra Buggy trains.
The MarkoZen Blog 