 |
| A lusty 1000cc V-twin from 1924, with 8 valves up top, in an Anglo-American hybrid |
 |
| The granddaddy of all 8-Valve motorcycles, the 1914 Peugeot 500M 500cc parallel-twin 8-V DOHC racer (see story here) |
 |
| 1924 McEvoy 8-V V-twin racer with Anzani engine, as seen at Vintage-Revival Montlhery in 2013 (see story here) |
 |
| One of Harry Hacker's compelling experiments adding a pair or reproduction 8-V cylinder heads to a Harley JD bottom end. (see story here) |
 |
| A Triumph Ricardo with 4-valve cylinder head, produced from 1921-28 |
 |
| A much later Triumph with 8-V cylinder heads - the prototype for the TSX model, with special Weslake cylinder heads...a parallel twin like the 1914 Peugeot, but even 60 years later, the French machine's DOHC spec was too advanced for Triumph! (read more here) |
 |
| A pair of c.1912 Indian 8-V cylinder heads, offered on eBay of all places, several years ago (read the story here). |
 |
| A 1929 Harley DAR 8-valve racer from the Wheels Thru Time Museum, seen at the Pebble Beach Concours in 2010 (read more here) |
 |
| A 'Teens or early '20s shot of an 8-Valve Indian racing engine installed in a Chief roadster chassis, complete with passenger seat and bedroll up front. The dream of many a motorcyclist - a high-tech racing engine for the road... |
In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, Japan has doubled its efforts to find a viable alternative to nuclear power. An updated proposal from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) seeks to solve the island nation's energy woes — and it's the much vaunted scifi-like idea of building an orbital farm.
A Single Note / 48″ diameter, 150″ (12.5 feet) circumference
A Single Note, detail
A Single Note, detail
A Single Note, detail
A Single Note, detail
A Single Note, detail
A Single Note, detail
With meticulous determination and a steady hand, artist Ben Sack picks up a black 0.05 Staedtler pigment liner pen and begins to draw the dense, intricate details of fictional cityscapes: buildings, roads, rivers and bridges. He draws until the ink runs out and picks up another pen. And another. And another. Sapping the ink from dozens of writing utensils until several months later a canvas is complete. His most recent piece, a vast circular drawing titled A Single Note (top), has a 12.5 foot circumference. It staggers the mind.
The architecture found in Sack’s artwork spans centuries, from gothic cathedrals to towering skyscrapers, underpinned by patterns of urban sprawl reminiscent of European cities with a healthy dose of science fiction. If you look carefully you might even recognize a familiar landmark here and there. He shares as his influence some thoughts on “western antiquity”:
Its this sort of image that I think most people, if not all of society have of western antiquity; stainless marble facades, long triumphal avenues, monuments to glory. In actuality, the cities of the past were far from idealistic by todays standards. Yes there was marble, lots of marble, and monuments galore, however these urban centers were huddled together and unless you were considerably wealthy, life in dreamy antiquity was often a heroic struggle. Though the societies of antiquity were bloody, dirty and corrupt the idea of antiquity has come to represent some resounding ideals in present society; democracy, justice, law and order, balance, symmetry. These ideals are now the foundation stones of our own civilization, a civilization that some distant future will perhaps honor as antiquity.
Sack graduated from the Virginia Commonwealth University in 2011 and has since had work numerous solo a group exhibitions, most recently at Ghostprint Gallery. And just this week he returned from a circumnavigation of the globe as part of a residence aboard the m/s Amsterdam. You can see more of his work on his website, and over on Tumblr. Prints are available here. (via Waxy.org, Laughing Squid)
The ancient tomb of Tutankhamun has been re-created in Luxor using 3D scanning and printing technology. This exact copy of the famous tomb has been built in order to protect the delicate original.
This article Egypt unveils exact replica of King Tut’s tomb made with a 3D printer is first published at 3ders.org.
When you think of Atlantic cod, you probably think of a strip of fish, battered and fried. But new research suggests that the fish might be able to use tools, and that might cause us to rethink how we evaluate tool use in other animals.
Bob Hoskins, the actor best known for his roles in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Long Good Friday, and Mona Lisa, died on Tuesday after suffering from pneumonia. He was 71.
In 1971, a woman in Kazakhstan near the Aral sea died of smallpox. How did she get it? It was harvested, weaponized, let out in a controlled test, and got out of control. Here's how the USSR saved the world from the smallpox outbreak it caused.
We were saddened to learn that Who Framed Roger Rabbit? star Bob Hoskins passed away last night , and this video shows just how game an actor Hoskins was—turning himself into a human cartoon as he acted against a blue screen.
i want to take a moment to talk about the movie ‘khumba' because i just noticed its been added to netflix
EVERYONE NEEDS TO CHECK OUT THIS MOVIE!! i watched it a few months ago and i loved it, here’s the synopsis
Rejected by his superstitious herd, a half-striped zebra embarks on a daring quest to earn his stripes but finds the courage and self-acceptance to save all the animals of the Great Karoo
some cool stuff about this movie
- the studio behind this movie is triggerfish animation, based in cape town south africa. it’s a pretty new studio, they did that movie ‘adventures in zambezia’ in 2012 (the one with the birds) i think it’s awesome to see a movie made in the same place it’s set
- it’s BEAUTIFULLY animated and the art direction is pretty good too especially considering it wasn’t made by any big name studios. the character designs are more interesting and varied than a lot of cgi animated stuff disney has put out i’ll say that
- the movie was inspired by and dedicated to the quagga project, which was an effort to save the quagga (which looks kinda like a half striped zebra) from extinction
the cast is really impressive for a 20 million budget movie too btw
CHECK KHUMBA OUT ON NETFLIX!!! REALLY WORTH A WATCH
OMG LOOK AT THE SECOND PICTURE
HE’S STANDING IN THE SHADOWS SO IT LOOKS LIKE HE HAS STRIPES ON HIS BUTT
THAT’S REALLY ADORABLE AND KIND OF SAD HHH
And is that a fucking African Wild Dog in the first? Omg they’re like the coolest canine ever I’m gonna watch this it looks hella cute
as someone who works in animation I am both confused and mortified that I haven’t heard of this before now
hmmmm
step 3 and 4 are the most important, repeat as neccessary
Over at Symmetry Magazine, DOE Office of High Energy Physics scientist Glen Crawford remembers how the original Cosmos show affected him as a college student. His comments are fascinating in light of the new show.
Using the Cosmic Web Imager, astronomers from Caltech have captured the first three-dimensional images of the intergalactic medium (IGM) — the diffuse gas that connects galaxies throughout the universe.
Cool pics from Maker Faire Shenzhen including this inventive headdress punctuated with LEDs!
Tony Stark had to tinker with his Iron Man armor repeatedly to get it just right. He should have just hired Honus. The builder is skilled when it comes to animatronics, and he helped his friend Greg add all kinds of fancy functions to his Mark III fiberglass suit. They had to brainstorm and figure out how to handle effects that weren’t done practically in the film, so they broke down the suit into three areas: left side, right side, and the boots. From there, it gets complicated and also amazing.
As an example, here’s what they did for rigging the helmet so it would open wirelessly:
Figuring out how to make the helmet work was pretty tricky. We definitely wanted it to be wireless so it could be easily taken off but there’s barely any room in the helmet for servos, let alone electronics. The first system that was implemented used two identical high voltage digital mini servos with a rod system that moved the faceplate and chin at the same time. As the servo pulled the rod the arm raised the faceplate and a second pivoting rod pushed the chin section open. The top of the faceplate had two small pivoting links that slid in tracks in the top of the helmet. While this system worked really well it was eventually scrapped as it took up too much space around the sides of the helmet, especially in the temple area where the arm pivots were located.
Get all the details at Instructables.
Thanks for the tip, Jerome!
Jen Yates of Epbot has been impressing me with her how-tos and crafty skills for a couple of years. She not only comes up with creative ways to approach cosplay, she makes it look simple. Jen is especially skilled when it comes to designing steampunk apparel and accessories.
Her detailed tutorials always make me sit back and think, hey, I can do that too – or at least I can try. Her encouraging nature is the kind of attitude that inspires others to dive into cosplay and see what happens. She was kind enough to spend time answering some of our questions about her cosplay history.
Adafruit: How long have you been cosplaying and what inspired you to start?
Jen: My first non-Halloween costume was in late 2011, when I wore a cobbled-together steampunk outfit to Dragon Con. The next year I got serious with Lady Vadore, though, which I consider my first “real” cosplay. I was inspired by steampunk, of course, but also by the challenge of re-inventing a familiar character (Darth Vader).
Adafruit: Now that you’ve been doing it for a few years, what’s the most rewarding part about cosplaying?
Jen: I actually enjoy the process the most: brainstorming, problem-solving, tinkering with common objects to see how you might re-purpose them – that’s the stuff i really relish. Of course seeing it all come together in the end can’t be beat, either, and watching other fans see it for the first time? Well, that’s a million cherries on top.
Adafruit: What’s the coolest technique you’ve learned along the way?
Jen: I’m still learning, but for the most “wow” factor I love the things you can do with dry-brushing and metallic waxes. You can make anything – anything! – look like weathered metal, and for very little cost. I’m in awe of the cosplayers out there who use just craft foam & paint to make these AMAZING full suits of armor.
Adafruit: Tell me about one of your most frustrating cosplay challenges and how you did or didn’t overcome it.
Jen: I’ve only done two complex cosplays, but both designs changed a LOT over the process. One huge challenge was fitting the green LEDs into my Vader mask, since neither John (my husband) nor I knew much about electronics. We managed to get the first light strip glued and wired into the mask… but then two of the LEDs went out! We later learned the lights only functioned in sets of 3, so we had to rip the whole thing out and start over with two extra lights added. Arg! That meant cutting the mask tusks to make room, so next I had to make new metal tusks to cover the mess. It was a huge pain, but eventually I got it together.
Adafruit: What has been your favorite material you’ve worked with and why?
Jen: I like hard materials like plastics or leather, because they stay put and aren’t nearly as temperamental as fabric. And also because I am TERRIBLE at sewing. Ha!
Adafruit: Any tips or tricks to offer other cosplayers, especially newbies?
Jen: One thing I’ve learned – but I’m still struggling to put into practice – is to think BIG. Don’t get so caught up in smaller details that you neglect the overall silhouette and the parts people will see first. Start with your character’s most essential pieces, and then as you have time you can go back and add in the details and fun fiddly bits.
Also remember that everything you make looks ten times better from a few feet away – which is how most people will be seeing it – so don’t get too critical! Some of the best costumes I’ve seen were held on with duct tape and detailed with hot glue – but until you got right up on it, you’d never have known!
Be sure to keep up with Jen’s latest costumes and crafts over at Epbot.
How the trailblazing female journalist got her start at speaking truth to power.
At the age of twenty-five, Nellie Bly did the unthinkable for a Victorian woman — a successful and fierce journalist in New York’s media boys’ club, she raced around the world in a quest to outpace Jules Verne’s fictional eighty-day itinerary. When she eventually got married at the age of thirty — an old maid by the era’s standards — she helmed the management of her husband’s factory and built within it a gymnasium, library, and recreation center for the workers. She even made a cameo in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most famous novel, where the character of Ella Kaye, a tough newspaperwoman, is based on Bly. It’s unsurprising, then, that Bly’s trailblazing, era-defying career in journalism began at the tender age of twenty, when she responded to a patronizing letter from the father of five girls published in her hometown newspaper, the Pittsburg Dispatch, under the headline “What Girls Are Good For” (the unsubtly implied answer being birthing babies and tending households). The man even evoked China’s then-policy of killing female babies, intimating that such an act would allegedly save girls from the drudgery of their destiny.
Bly’s anonymous letter to the editor, written in 1885 and found in the absolutely fantastic new Penguin Classics anthology Around the World in Seventy-Two Days and Other Writings (public library), was at once so fierce and so thoughtful that it prompted the editor to print a notice asking the author of the letter to identify herself. Once Bly did, she was hired as a reporter for the paper.
Illustration by Wendy MacNaughton based on 'Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World.' Click image for details.
In the letter, titled “The Girl Puzzle,” Bly considers the value of women — not society women and wealthy matrons, “but those without talent, without beauty, without money” — and calls for a sort of empathy rarely afforded those in such circumstances:
Can they that have full and plenty of this world’s goods realize what it is to be a poor working woman, abiding in one or two bare rooms, without fire enough to keep warm, while her threadbare clothes refuse to protect her from the wind and cold, and denying herself necessary food that her little ones may not go hungry; fearing the landlord’s frown and threat to cast her out and sell what little she has, begging for employment of any kind that she may earn enough to pay for the bare rooms she calls home, no one to speak kindly to or encourage her, nothing to make life worth the living?
Bly argues that society’s “solution” to the problem — employing these poor young women at the factory — is more of a punishment than a help:
The pay may in some instances be better, but from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m., except for 30 minutes at noon, she is shut up in a noisy, unwholesome place. When duties are over for the day, with tired limbs and aching head, she hastens sadly to a cheerless home. How eagerly she looks forward to pay day, for that little mite means so much at home. Thus day after day, week after week, sick or well, she labors on that she may live. What think you of this, butterflies of fashions, ladies of leisure? This poor girl does not win fame by running off with a coachman; she does not hug and kiss a pug dog nor judge people by their clothes and grammar; and some of them are ladies, perfect ladies, more so than many who have had every advantage.
Bly’s most important point, however, is about the social advantages afforded to boys but not girls — about how this early discrepancy in starting points echoes out to shape entire lives and entire classes of citizens, and how fostering an entrepreneurial spirit in girls is the best way to mend the imbalance:
If girls were boys quickly would it be said: start them where they will, they can, if ambitious, win a name and fortune. How many wealthy and great men could be pointed out who started in the depths; but where are the many women? Let a youth start as errand boy and he will work his way up until he is one of the firm. Girls are just as smart, a great deal quicker to learn; why, then, can they not do the same? As all occupations for women are filled why not start some new ones. Instead of putting the little girls in factories let them be employed in the capacity of messenger boys or office boys. It would be healthier. They would have a chance to learn; their ideas would become broader and they would make as good, if not better, women in the end. It is asserted by storekeepers that women make the best clerks. Why not send them out as merchant travelers? They can talk as well as men — at least men claim that it is a noted fact that they talk a great deal more and faster. If their ability at home for selling exceeds a man’s why would it not abroad? Their lives would be brighter, their health better, their pocketbooks fuller, unless their employers would do as now — give them half wages because they are women.
She offers an illustrative example from the town itself:
A girl was engaged to fill a position that had always been occupied by men, who, for the same, received $2.00 a day. Her employer stated that he never had anyone in the same position that was as accurate, speedy and gave the same satisfaction; however, as she was “just a girl” he gave her $5.00 a week. Some call this equality.
Portrait by Lisa Congdon. Click image for details.
It may be tempting to think that such failures of equality and human rights are behind us — this was, after all, the Victorian era. They are not — their ghosts are alive and well, unconsciously shaping even our best-intentioned behaviors today. In world where women still make significantly less than men in the same occupations and girls are still encouraged to do “girl things,” and a media landscape where men still receive 63% of bylines and women are honored in a mere 23% of obituaries, Bly’s lament, even 120 years later, is a far cry from outdated and irrelevant.
Bly concludes the letter with a reflection remarkably timely in our “lean in” era:
Here would be a good field for believers in women’s rights. Let them forego their lecturing and writing and go to work; more work and less talk. Take some girls that have the ability, procure for them situations, start them on their way, and by so doing accomplish more than by years of talking. Instead of gathering up the “real smart young men” gather up the real smart girls, pull them out of the mire, give them a shove up the ladder of life, and be amply repaid both by their success and unforgetfulness of those that held out the helping hand.
However visionary this may sound, those who are interested in humankind and wonder what to do with the girls might try it.
And yet, despite Bly’s consistently intelligent and fearless journalism — she went on to write an exposé on the horrific working conditions for factory girls and an op-ed on the gender inequality embedded in divorce laws — her editor at the Pittsburg Dispatch routinely assigned her subjects deemed appropriate for women, from flower shows to ladies’ lunches. Never one to succumb to the pressures of the establishment, Bly quit and set her eyes on greater horizons — but not without leaving her bigoted editor a farewell note with a piece of her mind:
Dear Q.O., I’m off for New York. Look out for me. Bly.
And look out the world did. In New York, Bly broke into journalism despite the extreme male bias of the field and went on to write such pioneering pieces as her exposé on the abuses that take place in state institutions for the mentally ill, for which she embedded herself in an insane asylum for ten days and endured the very mistreatment on which she reported. In the preface to Around the World in Seventy-Two Days and Other Writings, NPR Fresh Air book critic Maureen Corrigan reflects on the many letters from girls and young women she receives every year, inquiring about various aspects of Bly’s life:
I suspect these young women want to know something else, too. I know I sure do. I want to know how a poor, skimpily educated teenager named Elizabeth Cochran found the guts to transform herself into a reporter named Nellie Bly who helped change the world by writing about it.
For more of how she changed the world, see Around the World in Seventy-Two Days and Other Writings, which is superb in its entirety. Complement it with the illustrated story of how Bly raced around the world and some thoughts on feminism from George Orwell.
Donating = Loving
Bringing you (ad-free) Brain Pickings takes hundreds of hours each month. If you find any joy and stimulation here, please consider becoming a Supporting Member with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, between a cup of tea and a good dinner.
| ♥ $7 / month♥ $3 / month♥ $10 / month♥ $25 / month |
You can also become a one-time patron with a single donation in any amount.
Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week’s best articles. Here’s what to expect. Like? Sign up.
Brain Pickings takes 450+ hours a month to curate and edit across the different platforms, and remains banner-free. If it brings you any joy and inspiration, please consider a modest donation – it lets me know I'm doing something right.
A radical new theory by a well-respected scientist suggests that consciousness is a state of matter, like a liquid or gas. According to MIT's Max Tegmark, "perceptronium" gives rise to various types of consciousness when certain mathematical and physical conditions are met.
“Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904) was an English photographer important for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion and in motion-picture projection. Muybridge is known for his pioneering work on animal locomotion in 1877 and 1878, which used multiple cameras to capture motion in stop-action photographs, and his zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the flexible perforated film strip used in cinematography.
“In 1874 he shot and killed Major Harry Larkyns, his wife’s lover, and was acquitted in a jury trial on the grounds of justifiable homicide.”
All images released under a CC-BY-NC license (Wellcome Library, London)
Bunker.jordanI wonder if they jump when something flies out of the screen at them too.
