A Totally Dangerous and Bizarre Line of Work

Markozen.com's avatarThe MarkoZen Blog

In electrical engineering, live-line working is the maintenance of electrical equipment, often operating at high voltage, while the equipment is energized. In the 1960s, methods were developed in the laboratory to enable field workers to come into direct contact with high voltage lines. Such methods can be applied to enable safe work at the highest transmission voltages.

Helicopter

A lineman wearing a Faraday suit can work on live, high-power lines by being transported to the lines in a helicopter. Wearing the suit, they can crawl down the wires. The strong electric field surrounding charged equipment is enough to drive a current of approximately 15 μA for each kV·m−1 through a human body. To prevent this, hot-hand workers are usually required to wear a Faraday suit. This is a set of overalls made from or woven throughout with conducting fibers. The suit is in effect a wearable Faraday cage, which equalizes the…

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Playboy Bunny and Tomcats

The first documented usage of rabbit head tail codes on military aircraft dates back to 1953 with Marine Squadron VMCJ-2 “The Playboys”. This squadron, based in MCAS Cherry Point, continues to uphold the tradition of the bunny on combat deployments to overseas location. Additionally, the US Air Force incorporated the image on the SR-71 Blackbird.

The most notable, and famous, use of the bunny image came from the Navy’s Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Four (VX-4) based out of NAS Point Mugu, CA. This squadron is charged with the operational testing of advanced aircraft systems. In this capacity, the rabbit head adorned the tail of some of the Navy’s most legendary fighter jets including the F-4 Phantom II, F-14 Tomcat, F/A-18 Hornet and the newest F-18 E/F Super Hornet. According to Navy lore the first rabbit appeared on the black F-4 Phantom II in 1969 during night testing and was referred to either as “Black Bunny” or “Vandy One”.

That same year, Playboy Enterprises bought a black Douglas DC-9 known as the  “Big Bunny”. Shortly after this, a famous picture started to circulate featuring the Navy’s “Black Bunny” at NAS Point Mugu, CA in October 1971. The squadron received a letter from Playboy Enterprises, Inc stating that the bunny head was unofficial and warned of potential legal action. However, Playboy Enterprises stated no legal action would be taken if the squadron used an official Playboy stencil to ensure authenticity and accuracy. Thereafter official stencils were delivered to the Navy to match Playboy’s own design.

F-14 Tomcat

Tomcat with the bunny.

F-14 Tomcat and F-4 Phantom

F-18 Super Hornet

SR-71 Blackbird

World’s Longest Pedestrian Suspension Bridge

Markozen.com's avatarThe MarkoZen Blog

I would need at least 4 beers in my system before I would walk on this bridge.

Arouca 516 is a suspension bridge located in the municipality of Arouca, in the North Region and the Aveiro District in Portugal. The bridge has a length of 516 m (1,693 ft). The bridge is suspended 175 m (574 ft) above the Paiva River, which it spans. Its name is a reference to its extension in meters (516) and the municipality where it is located (Arouca).

Its length exceeds by 16 m (52 ft) the Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge, opened on 29 July 2017, with a length of about 500 m (1,600 ft) and connecting Grächen and Zermatt in Switzerland.

Construction of the bridge started in May 2018. It is a hanging bridge which is supported by two V-shaped concrete towers. The bridge opened on 29 April 2021 to residents of the municipality…

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Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet

Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet are a Juno Award-winning Canadian instrumental rock band, formed in 1984. They remain best known for the track “Having an Average Weekend”, of which an alternate version was used as the theme to the Canadian sketch comedy TV show The Kids in the Hall. Although commonly classified as a surf rock band they rejected the label, going so far as to release a track called “We’re Not a Fucking Surf Band”, although they also later released a compilation box set titled Oh, I Guess We Were a Fucking Surf Band After All.

Dilbert comic strip dropped by US media over creator’s racist tirade

Scott Adams and his comic character Dilbert. File photoIMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption,

Scott Adams’s comic strip is known for its satirical office humour, where engineer Dilbert is the main character

Many US newspapers including the Washington Post have dropped the long-running Dilbert cartoon strip after its creator made racist comments.

In a video on YouTube, Scott Adams, who is white, said black Americans were part of a “hate group” and that white people should “get the hell away” from them.

Mr Adams, 65, later acknowledged that his career was destroyed.

He said most of his income would be gone by next week.

Dilbert has been a mainstay of the funny pages of America’s newspapers, and features a put-upon office worker and a talking dog, who together take aim at the fads of corporate culture.

Among those media outlets that have dropped the Dilbert cartoon strip are the USA Today network, which operates dozens of newspapers, and the Los Angeles Times.

The Washington Post said Mr Adams’ remarks promoted segregation.

His comments were made in response to a survey conducted by the firm Rasmussen Reports in which people were asked to agree or disagree with the phrase: “It’s OK to be white.”

The phrase is believed to have emerged in 2017 as a trolling campaign and has since been used by white supremacists.

According to the poll, 53% of black respondents agreed with the statement, but 26% disagreed and others were not sure.

Mr Adams said that those that disagreed were a “hate group”.

“I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from black people… because there is no fixing this,” he said.

Darrin Bell, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Black cartoonist, described Mr Adams as a disgrace.

Dilbert – which is written and illustrated by Mr Adams – was first published in 1989.

Some non-Dilbert funnies:

Photos of This and That

Japanese boy soldier prisoners on Okinawa WWII. One said he was 21 years old and the other one said he was 18.

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Greek village

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Niagara Falls

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Antarctica from space

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Fish Tank?

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Bridges in Winnipeg

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Young lady skateboarder Winnipeg. I think chick skateboarders are really cool.

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Condo in Winnipeg with a different design. Locally known as the UFO building.

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Palestinian girl shaking hands with an Israeli soldier.

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Storm brewing over Cleveland

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A museum that wants to scare the crap out of visitors?

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Canada’s Andre Degrasse and Jamaica’s Usain Bolt sharing smiles in the 200 meter semi-final as they crossed the finish line together.

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Very big trees along the Red River in Winnipeg.

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