Month: February 2022

‘Lake Monster’ Filmed in Taiwan

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A paddle board instructor in Taiwan captured some rather remarkable footage of a sizeable ‘mystery creature’ that suddenly appeared near him in the water. According to a local media report, the wild encounter occurred earlier this month at a location known as Sun Moon Lake as Lai Yongli was teaching a pair of tourists. During the lesson, he noticed that something seemingly out of the ordinary had emerged from the depths of the water and was lurking near the surface. Intrigued by the puzzling sight, Yongli paddled over to it and was left astounded by what he saw.

Captured on video by the man, the oddity in question was a monstrous fish measuring around six-and-a-half feet long. Yongli deduced the length of the creature by observing that it was more than double the size of his three-foot-long paddle board. Thanks to the miracle of modern technology, the instructor was able to capture some fantastic footage of the wondrous sight. The video, which puts the average Nessie sighting to shame by virtue of just how close the man was able to get to the creature before it swam away, shows a long fish sporting what appear to be white fins.

An instructor at the lake for quite some time, Yongli marveled that he had never seen such a creature at the site before and promptly posted the footage to social media. Not unlike here in America, the video quickly went viral and was covered by several national news outlets in China. As for what the ‘monster’ could have been, the clarity of Yongli’s footage allowed for the mystery to be solved fairly quickly as experts were able to identify the creature as most likely being a speckled longfin eel.

Galaxy: Leviathan of the Air

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The Lockheed C-5 Galaxy is a large military transport aircraft originally designed and built by Lockheed, and now maintained and upgraded by its successor, Lockheed Martin. It provides the United States Air Force (USAF) with a heavy intercontinental-range strategic airlift capability, one that can carry outsize and oversize loads, including all air-certifiable cargo. The Galaxy has many similarities to its smaller Lockheed C-141 Starlifter predecessor, and the later Boeing C-17 Globemaster III. The C-5 is among the largest military aircraft in the world.

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Planning for air show underway

General characteristics
Crew: 7 typical (aircraft commander, pilot, two flight engineers, three loadmasters)
4 minimum (pilot, copilot, two flight engineers)
Payload: 270,000 lb (122,470 kg)
Length: 247 ft 1 in (75.31 m)
Wingspan: 222 ft 9 in (67.89 m)
Height: 65 ft 1 in (19.84 m)
Wing area: 6,200 ft2 (576 m2)
Empty weight: 380,000 lb (172,371 kg)
Useful load: 389,000 lb (176,450 kg)
Loaded weight: 769,000 lb (348,800 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 840,000 lb (381,000 kg) ; [N 2]
Powerplant: 4 × General Electric TF39-GE-1C high-bypass turbofan, 43,000 lbf (190 kN) each

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There are currently 52 C-5’s in US air force service

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Galaxy getting refueled by a KC-10 tanker, a very large aircraft itself

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The workhorse of the air force these days is the C-17 Globemaster III, there are 279 in service today

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Side by side comparison of the two

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Moose Eats Snow Off Hood Of Car

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Video below

Moose Eats Snow Off Car

A woman on a cross-country ski trip in Maine recently had a face-to-face meeting with a moose.

Margo Lukens was driving in the Caribou Bog Conservation Area when she saw lines of cars stopped on both sides of the road.

She also pulled over and then spotted a young moose which came right up to her and started eating the snow and licking the ice off the hood of her vehicle.

Englishman snaps a very close-up photo of JFK in the early summer of 1963 

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Photo below

Forest Row is one of those blink-and-you’ll-miss-it kinds of places. It’s just a dot on the map in the middle of green forests and English farmland. And in the center of town, there’s a plaque.

“This stone commemorates the visit of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States of America, to Forest Row on Sunday, the 30th of June, 1963.”

As short as Kennedy’s tenure as president was, he still managed to squeeze in over a dozen foreign visits at the height of the Cold War, and one of the last included a trip to this tiny English village in rural Sussex, just south of London, to attend Sunday Mass.

President Kennedy was en route back to Washington from visits to Germany and Ireland when he stopped in Britain for a quick meeting with then British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan at his country estate, named Birch Grove.

Old newsreels from the day report that the stopover lasted a mere 24 hours. With such a tight schedule, Kennedy’s visit to Forest Row’s only Catholic church for Sunday service would have been brief — not much longer than the Mass itself.

Lifelong resident Harold Waters, who was 23 years old then, says it was a big deal for the village. He and his wife grabbed the new color camera they’d bought for their honeymoon and went out to watch the president’s motorcade arrive.

Kennedy come through,” says Waters from the same corner he stood on fifty years ago. “My wife was five months pregnant at the time with our first daughter. So we came down here and waited and, eventually, we saw the cars coming down the road — an unmarked police car at the front, and two security cars and Kennedy’s limousine. He came down the road [and] very slowly went around the corner.”

So Waters was well positioned to see the president. He holds up a rare, crystal clear, color photograph taken so close you can see the reflection of the crowd in the side of the car as Kennedy waves from inside.

“I nipped across to the traffic island that’s just over there, had a word with the policeman and the security man, and said, ‘Can I take a picture of President Kennedy from here? Is that alright?’ And they said, ‘Yes.’ So I stood there and I got the picture I wanted,” recalls Waters. “It wasn’t until he was assassinated that I realized that he’d only been three or four feet from me with no bulletproof glass or anything between us.”

Indeed, the car was the same Lincoln Continental Kennedy rode in when he was assassinated less than five months later.

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The Big Glorious Steamers

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I heard the sounds of locomotion
and a whistle’s plaintive cry
of weakness, but the wheels were turning.
Steel on steel the sole reply.

The sounds of force accelerating
rhythmically as drums would play
recalled a light and tender time,
though made of steel the permanent way,

when near a depot long abandoned,
waiting for a passing train,
a child would sit alone for hours
just to hear the steel refrain.

I heard the sounds of locomotion
carrying a longing man
with freight and cargo to a place that
rails of steel alone could span.

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“I looked out of the train,
And I suddenly saw the empty station
As we hurtled through, with a hollow roar . . .
‘Harviston End’ . . . It was dark and dead”

A quiet hymn to all that we’ve lost. It’s all here, the sights, sounds and smells of a country station about…

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The Legend of Rob Ford

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Robert Bruce Ford (May 28, 1969 – March 22, 2016) was a Canadian politician and businessman who served as the 64th mayor of Toronto from 2010 to 2014. Before and after his term as mayor, Ford was a city councillor representing Ward 2 Etobicoke North. He was first elected to Toronto City Council in the 2000 Toronto municipal election, and was re-elected to his council seat twice.

His political career, particularly his mayoralty, saw a number of personal and work-related controversies and legal proceedings. In 2013, he became embroiled in a substance abuse scandal, which was widely reported in national and foreign media. Following his admission, Ford refused to resign, but city council voted to hand over certain mayoral powers and office staff to Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly for the remainder of Ford’s term.

Ford took a sabbatical and received treatment for his alcohol and drug addiction. Despite the scandal, Ford initially contested the next mayoral election, scheduled for October 2014, but after being hospitalized and diagnosed with an abdominal tumour in September 2014, Ford withdrew from the mayoral race and registered instead to run for his old city council seat. John Tory succeeded him as mayor on December 1, 2014, while Ford regained his former seat. Ford received treatment for the cancer, and was able to return briefly to council, but died in March 2016 after chemotherapy was ineffective.

Ford suffered from alcohol and drug addiction for many years. After the death of his father in 2006, Ford’s abuse grew and led to public episodes of intoxication, followed by public denials. His episodes were symptomatic of alcohol and drug addiction. His episodes were reported in the media widely and attracted much condemnation. Ford’s abuse led to him being stripped of much of his powers as Toronto mayor and he later entered drug rehabilitation.

On April 15, 2006, Ford attended a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game at the Air Canada Centre. According to a couple nearby, Ford was intoxicated, using profanity, and insulting people. The couple then sent a detailed complaint to the City of Toronto.[80] When confronted about the episode three days later by a National Post reporter, Ford initially denied having been at the game, but later admitted it. “I’m going through a few personal problems, but it doesn’t justify, you know, getting drunk in public and pretty well acting like an idiot if you ask me.”

The death of Rob Ford’s father, Doug Ford Sr., in September 2006 due to cancer has been pinpointed as the time period when Ford transitioned to crack cocaine in addition to alcohol.[83] A convicted heroin dealer who used to supply Ford’s sister Kathy recalled a party with Ford around that time. According to reporter Robyn Doolittle, Ford would come home at night and drink heavily, use hard drugs or prescription pills.