Movies from an Alternate Universe

Classic films often get remade with new actors and sometimes modern storyline, but what would happen if it went the other way? Imagine what if movies of the present age were thrown back to the old era? Who would star? How would the posters look like.

Artist Peter Stults created some wonderfully creative posters reimagining what popular movies of today would be like should they have been made in a different time with Hollywood stars of yore.

“Awhile back a friend of mine forwarded me a site where artist Sean Hartter made posters of films that, title wise, we were familiar with, but there was a slight difference; they were remade as if they belonged to a different era or a different genre, the name of the movie was there, but the actors were different, the style was different, and I loved the concept. So I went forward with this theme; what if movies we were all familiar with were made in a different slice of time? Who would be in it? Who would direct it? So here we are…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Industrial Landscapes

Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer and artist who has achieved international recognition for his large-format photographs of industrial landscapes. Burtynsky’s most famous photographs are sweeping views of landscapes altered by industry: mine tailings, quarries, scrap piles. The grand, awe-inspiring beauty of his images is often in tension with the compromised environments they depict. He has made several excursions to China to photograph that country’s industrial emergence, and construction of one of the world’s largest engineering projects, the Three Gorges Dam. His work is housed in more than fifteen major museums including the Guggenheim Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

Freeways in Los Angeles, California

 

 

Houston, Texas

 

Scrap Auto Engines, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

 

SOCAR Oil Fields Baku, Azerbaijan

 

Oil fields, Belridge, California

 

Oxford Tire Pile, Westley, California, USA

 

 

Silver Lake Operations, Lake Lefroy, Western Australia

 

C.N. Track, Skihist Provincial Park, British Columbia

 

Active Section, E.L. Smith Quarry, Barre, Vermont

 

A Very Strange Airport

Madeira International Airport, located near Funchal, Madeira in Portugal was first opened on July 1964 with two 1,600-meter (5,249 ft) runways. The short runway made landing a tricky business for even the most experienced of pilots. The high mountains surrounding the airport and the nearby ocean only complicated matters. First the pilots has to aim their aircraft at the mountains, and then break a hard right to meet the runway. Aside to the shift of direction, the warm winds coming off the ocean meet the cooler mountain dry air, which in-turn produces massive turbulence.

 

 

On November 19, 1977, a Boeing 727 aircraft flying from Brussels tried desperately to stop after touching down 2000 feet past the threshold in heavy rain, strong winds and poor visibility, but slid off the end and plunged 200 feet into the land below killing 131 people aboard. The crash prompted officials to explore ways of extending the short runway.

Eight years after the incident a 200 meters extension was built over the ocean and again extended in 2000. But instead of using landfill, the extension was built on a series of 180 concrete columns, each being about 70 meters. The total length of the runway was almost doubled, which means that half of the runway is held up by pillars.

For the unique runway expansion project the Funchal Airport has won the Outstanding Structures Award in 2004 given by International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funny place names of Saskatchewan and Newfoundland

There are many funny place names in Canada.  Flin Flon, Optic Lake and Wampum in Manitoba; Hungerford, Pain Court and Zigzag in Ontario; Aachikaayusaakaasich Portage in Quebec, Blubber Bay in B.C., Dead Man’s Flats in Alberta, Nuttby in Nova Scotia, Poodles Corner in P.E.I. and Snafu Creek in the Yukon Territory.

But the two provinces in Canada with the nuttiest names has to be Saskatchewan and Newfoundland.  As the lists below demonstrate.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

 

SASKATCHEWAN 

Amsterdam –  Antelope – Baldwinton –  Big Beaver –  Biggar –  Blumenheim – B-Say-Tah – Buffalo Narrows  – Cadillac –  Candle Lake – Carrot River  – Ceylon – Chicken – Choiceland – Climax – Congress –  Cut Knife – Druid-  Earl Grey –  Ebenezer – Edelman Lake –  Elbow –  Endeavour –  Eyebrow  – Foam Lake  – Frontier –  Grandmother’s Bay –  Grizzly Bear’s Head & The Lean Man –  Hague –  Hitchcock –  Holdfast –  Hoosier –  Imperial –  Knee Lake –  Liberty –  Limerick –  Lipton –  Little Bone –  Loon Lake –  Love –  Lucky Lake –  Lucky Man –  Major –  Mantario- Milestone –  Moose Jaw –  Mozart –  Old Wives Lake –  Onion Lake –  Oxbow –  Pennant –  Piapot –  Poor Man –  Porcupine Plain –  Quill Lake –  Revenue –  Reward –  Sanctuary –  Semans –  Smuts –  Spy Hill –  Stockholm –  Swift Current –  Uranium City –  Urin – Xena –  Yellow Grass –  Zip Lake

 

 

NEWFOUNDLAND
Ass Hill –  Ass Rock –  Back Cove –  Bacon Cove –  Badger –  Bar Haven –  Bareneed –  Bay Bulls –  Billy Butts Pond –  Blow Me Down –  Bottle Cove –  Butter Cove –  Cape Onion –  Catalina –  Change Islands –  Chapel Arm –  Coffee Cove –  Come-By-Chance –  Comfort Cove –  Conception Bay –  Cow Head –  Cupids –  Curling –  Deadman’s Bay –  Deadman’s Cove –  Diamond Cove –  Dildo –  Exploits River –  Ferryland –  Fleur de Lys –  Flowers Cove –  Fortune –  Fox Roost –  Foxtrap –  Frenchman’s Cove –  Funk Lake –  Furby’s Cove –  Gander –  Gin Cove –  Goblin –  Goobies –  Halfway Point –  Happy Adventure –  Happy Valley – Goose Bay –  Hare Bay –  Hatchet Cove –  Hearts Content –  Hearts Delight –  Heart’s Desire –  Jerrys Nose –  Lawn –  Leading Tickles West –  Little Seldom –  Low Point –  Mosquito –  Mouse Island –  Nameless Cove –  New World Island –  Nippers Harbour –  Noggin Cove –  Old Man’s Head –  Old Room –  Paradise –  Pasadena –  Penetanguishene –  Petty Harbour –  Poor Boy Island –  Quidi Vidi Harbour –  Red Indian Lake –  River of Ponds –  Salvage –  Seldom –  Small Point –  St. Jones Within –  St. Jones Without –  Stag Harbour –  Tickle Cove –  Toogood Arm –  Virgin Arm –  Wild Bight –  Wreck Cove

Just for the record, I forgot Skookumchuck in B.C. and Whycocomagh in Nova Scotia.

Lakes Among Sand Dunes in Brazil

 

The Lençóis Maranhenses National Park located in Maranhão state, in northeastern Brazil, is one of the most marvelous and unique places in the world. An area encompassing about 1000 square kilometers of white silky sands intercepted at regular intervals by endless cool oases of turquoise lakes.

At first glance Lençóis Maranhenses looks like an archetypal desert. In fact it isn’t actually a desert just like the Tottori Sand Dunes aren’t. Lying just outside the Amazon basin, the region is subject to a regular rain season during the beginning of the year. The rain water accumulates in the valleys in between sand dunes and forms clear blue and green lagoons that reach their fullest between July and September. The area is also surprisingly home to a variety of fish which, despite the almost complete disappearance of the lagoons during the dry season, have their eggs brought from the sea by birds. Mangroves, deserted beaches, buritis – a graceful kind of palm tree – and the Preguiças River help compose the park’s diversity.

 

 

Lençóis Maranhenses has been formed over thousands of years, as the sand from riverbeds is deposited at the mouth of the rivers and brought back to the continent by winds and sea currents.

The dunes advance as far as 31 miles into the continent and stretch along 27 miles of coastline, mostly deserted beaches. Some of the lagoons at Lençóis Maranhenses National Park are huge. Lagoa Bonita and Lagoa Azul are near the town of Barreirinhas. Lagoa Tropical, also worth a visit, is closer to the village of Atins. Lagoa da Gaivota (Seagull Lagoon), one of the park’s largest and most beautiful, is near Santo Amaro do Maranhão, a village located about 60 miles from Barreirinhas.

 

 

The best time to visit the park is roughly from May to September, when it’s sunny, yet the lagoons are still full.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chewbacca’s Family Reunion

Tribute to Peter Mayhew: Peter William Mayhew (19 May 1944 – 30 April 2019) was an English-American actor, best known for portraying Chewbacca in the Star Wars film series. He played the character in all of his live action appearances from the 1977 original to 2015’s The Force Awakens before his retirement from the role.

Chewbacca, a 200-year-old Wookiee. Wookiees are a species of intelligent bipeds from the planet Kashyyyk in the Star Wars universe.  Standing at 8 feet tall, Chewbacca is covered with long hair, and wears only a bandolier. His weapon of choice is the Wookiee bowcaster (a crossbow-shaped directed-energy weapon).

Chewbacca’s family had the chance to come together as their paths were crossing for the first time in decades. The most convenient location was Crawford, Texas, as the Wookiee family members would all be travelling within close range of that Texas town. Many members of the family arrived in Crawford on various ships from the far reaches of the galaxy. The family reunion was a great success. 

Reunion Photos

 

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Portrait of a group of cousins

 

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Chewie enjoying beverages with Hans Solo’s great-great granddaughter.

 

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Painted portrait of Chewie, the wife and kids, and cat.

 

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Chewie with some family elders.

 

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Cousin Hoolacca arrives at the Crawford spaceport.

 

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Chewing the fat with his step-brother Leroy the Sasquatch.

 

Chewie throwing out the first pitch at a Crawford Rattlers baseball game.

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