History, Technology

The Tiny Monorails That Once Carried James Bond / Tom Scott

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3 days ago
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The Roadmachines Mono-Rail may have been the only truly useful, fit-for-purpose monorail in the world. Of the hundreds that were built, most were never meant for passengers. But they did carry a couple of famous people in their time, including a certain secret agent…

Thank you to the staff and volunteers at the Amberley Museum — Harry and Gerry in particular — for running the monorail specially, and letting me film! The Amberley Museum is a massive industrial heritage museum in the South Downs, and you can find out more about them here — via Youtube

History, World

QAnon is a Nazi cult, rebranded

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12 days ago
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A secret cabal is taking over the world. They kidnap children, slaughter, and eat them to gain power from their blood. They control high positions in government, banks, international finance, the news media, and the church. They want to disarm the police. They promote homosexuality and pedophilia. They plan to mongrelize the white race so it will lose its essential power.

Does this conspiracy theory sound familiar? It is. The same narrative has been repackaged by QAnon.

I have studied and worked to prevent genocide for forty years. Genocide Watch and the Alliance Against Genocide, the first international anti-genocide coalition, see such hate-filled conspiracy theories as early warning signs of deadly genocidal violence.

The plot, described above, was the conspiracy revealed in the most influential anti-Jewish pamphlet of all time. It was called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was written by Russian anti-Jewish propagandists around 1902. It collected myths about a Jewish plot to take over the world that had existed for hundreds of years — via Just Security

Craft, History

Antikythera Fragment 08 / Clickspring

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7 November 2019
46 second read
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Antikythera Fragment #8 – Layout Line Visibility

Wine, wax, woad and yes, There Will Be Blood… all in an effort to discover the best ancient marking fluid. And Clickspring’ll let you decide how the blood supply issue might have been dealt with in the ancient shop – he’s guessing it might not have been much fun being the apprentice on the day the large dial was marked out — via Youtube

History, Wildlife

Meet the cat that guards the Hagia Sophia

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2 November 2019
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Gli is a cross-eyed adorable cat that has been living in Hagia Sophia for the past 15 years. The Hagia Sophia is more than 2,000 years old and is one of the most extraordinary structures ever built. It has been a temple, church, mosque and museum through its long history.

See the Hagia Sophia through the eyes of Gli, the cat who guides — via Youtube

Craft, History

Antikythera Mechanism 09 / Clickspring

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24 October 2019
29 second read
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Antikythera Mechanism Episode 9 – Making The Epicyclic Pin and Slot Gearing

In this video Clickspring makes what is arguably the most impressive section of the mechanism — the small pin-and-slot module that models the Ancient Greek theory of the variable motion of the #dearMoon — via Youtube

Craft, History

Antikythera Mechanism 08 / Clickspring

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10 October 2019
27 second read
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Antikythera Mechanism Episode 8 – Making The Mean Lunar Sidereal Train

In this video Clickspring makes the gearing that calculates the mean sidereal period of the #dearMoon, and has a closer look at some of the mechanical limitations of the device — via Youtube

Craft, History

Antikythera Fragment 07 / Clickspring

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22 September 2019
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Antikythera Fragment #7 – Precision Soft Soldering

Continuing on with the investigation of what it was like inside the ancient workshop, here’s a closer look at another of the demonstrated techniques: The precise joining of metal using soft solder — via Youtube

Craft, History

Antikythera Mechanism 07 / Clickspring

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12 September 2019
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The Antikythera Mechanism Episode 7 – Making The Saros & Exeligmos Train

In this video Clickspring makes the gearing that drives the eclipse prediction function of the mechanism. Be sure to check out the reference links below for more info on the Saros cycle, and other eclipse related stuff.

[EDIT: At 2:57 there is a typo – the final number in the denominator of the upper expression should be a 30 as per the sketch rather than 90 – Cheers 🙂 ] — via Youtube

Craft, History

Antikythera Fragment 06 / Clickspring

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29 August 2019
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Antikythera Fragment #6 – Making A Hand Powered Drill

The precision of the holes in the Antikythera mechanism is one of the most fascinating aspects of its construction. In this video Clickspring makes a tool that is capable of creating holes to the required standard, yet is consistent with the level of technology known to have existed in the period — via Youtube

Craft, History

Antikythera Fragment 05 / Clickspring

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15 August 2019
37 second read
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Antikythera Fragment #5 – The First Precision Drill Bit

There are a number of cutting tools implied in the wreckage of the Antikythera Mechanism, and one of the most interesting is the drill bit. In this video Clickspring explores a possible method of how an effective and precise drill bit could have been made in antiquity — via Youtube

Craft, History

Antikythera Fragment 04 / Clickspring

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1 August 2019
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Antikythera Fragment #4 – Ancient Tool Technology – The First Hardened Steel

One of the key tool technologies that needs to be explored around the Antikythera mechanism is the simple hand held file. So this is the second of two Fragment videos relating to the making and hardening of a set of custom files, using materials and processes consistent with the period — via Youtube

Craft, History

Antikythera Mechanism 06 / Clickspring

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18 July 2019
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The Antikythera Mechanism Episode 6 – Making The Metonic Calendar Train

In this video, the gearing that drives the Metonic, Callippic and Olympiad pointers is made. Clickspring recommends an article on the Athenian calendars for further detail on the ancient Greek approach to calendars — via Youtube

Craft, History

Antikythera Fragment 03 / Clickspring

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6 June 2019
33 second read
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Antikythera Fragment #3 – Ancient Tool Technology – Hand Cut Precision Files

There are quite a few very interesting tools still to come in this Fragment series, but Clickspring has to admit he has been super excited about these: A set of hand cut files suitable for constructing the Antikythera Mechanism — via Youtube

Craft, History

Antikythera Fragment 02 / Clickspring

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23 May 2019
58 second read
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Antikythera Fragment #2 – Ancient Tool Technology – The Original Dividing Plate?

One thing about this machine that is truly surprising, is just how small the teeth are.

There’s a well established theory as to how the tooth divisions were marked out, but employing that process to mark out multiple wheels has forced Clickspring to question whether it can reasonably be applied to the Antikythera Mechanism.

So in this video Clickspring proposes an alternative process of wheel division, using only the non precision tools of the period — via Youtube

Craft, History

Antikythera Mechanism 03 / Clickspring

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9 May 2019
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The Antikythera Mechanism Episode 3 – The Plates And Main Bearing, by Clickspring.

In this episode the basic structure of the mechanism comes together, and Clickspring puts forward a theory on a simple method for achieving the extremely close clearances observed in the original device — via Youtube

Craft, History

Antikythera Mechanism 01 / Clickspring

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28 March 2019
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The Antikythera Mechanism Episode 1 – Greeks, Clocks and Rockets, by Clickspring.

In this first episode of the Antikythera Mechanism project, Clickspring lays out the plan for how he intend to proceed with the reproduction — via Youtube

History
Gilbert Hugh headstone / Red WolfGilbert Hugh headstone / Red WolfGilbert Hugh headstone / Red Wolf

Gilbert Hugh headstone / Red Wolf

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9 March 2019
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— originally uploaded by Red Wolf

Design, History

Chrysler Building / William Van Alen

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7 February 2019
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New York City’s famed Chrysler Building is up for sale for the first time in over 20 years. According to the Wall Street Journal, the art deco office tower’s current owners officially placed it on the market, though the building’s value has yet to be released. Designed by William Van Alen, the building was bought by Tishman Speyer in 1997. As an iconic part of the New York skyline, the building is admired for its distinctive ornamentation based on Chrysler automobiles — via ArchDaily

History

Evolution of the Alphabet / UsefulCharts

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28 January 2019
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From Matt Baker of UsefulCharts, this chart traces the evolution of our familiar alphabet from its Proto-Sinaitic roots circa 1850-1550 BC. It’s tough to see how the pictographic forms of the original script evolved into our letters; aside from the T and maybe M & O, there’s little resemblance — via Jason Kottke

History

How to fight in full 14th century harness / Ola Onsrud

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29 October 2018
36 second read
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This video is made as an attempt to answer some of the many questions about the use of harness (armour) received after the publication of our video dressing in 14th century armour. This is therefore not a video showing harnischfechten techniques, but a video showing the weakness of a 14th century harness — via Youtube

History

How Black Flag, Bad Brains, and More Took Back Their Scene from White Supremacists

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6 February 2018
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Every hardcore band you loved in the ’80s and beyond, from Black Flag to Minutemen to Fugazi, had one unfortunate thing in common: Nazi skinheads occasionally stormed their concerts, stomped their fans, gave Hitler salutes in lieu of applauding, and generally turned a communal experience into one full of hatred and conflict. Punk rockers had flirted with fascist imagery for shock value, with the Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious and Siouxsie Sioux wearing swastikas in public, but, as early San Francisco scenester Howie Klein, later president of Reprise Records, recalls: Suddenly, you had people who were part of the scene who didn’t understand fascist bad.

By 1980, a more violent strain of punk fans was infecting punk shows. Pogoing became slam-dancing, now known as moshing, and some of ’em didn’t seem like they were there to enjoy the music, as much as they were there to beat up on people — sometimes in a really chickenshit way, says Jello Biafra, whose band, Dead Kennedys, put out a classic song about it in 1981: Nazi Punks Fuck Off — via GQ

History

Found: the real Bullitt Mustang that Steve McQueen tried (and failed) to buy

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4 February 2018
3 min read
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Steve McQueen made one last effort to buy his favourite Mustang in 1977. He sent a letter, typed on a single piece of heavy off-white vellum, to the car’s owner in New Jersey. The logo for his movie company, Solar Productions, was embossed in the upper left corner and opposite that resided the date, 14 December 1977. The letter is just four sentences.

Again, it begins, I would like to appeal to you to get back my ’68 Mustang. McQueen offered no specifics as to why this particular Ford was important to him, except to say that he wanted to keep it unrestored and that it was simply personal with me.

McQueen’s star may have dimmed by 1977, but he remained an icon, a rare actor loved by both genders. McQueen was also one of us, an aficionado and a racer, someone who understood the instinctual joy of automobiles and motorcycles and indulged in both. And with that ’68 Mustang, McQueen gave us a gift, one of the greatest car chases ever filmed, a duel with a Dodge Charger up, down, and around San Francisco. The Bullitt chase is coveted for the usual crashes and jumps, but it had something more: Unlike most cinematic chases that feature cars performing impossible feats, the one from Bullitt was every bit as exciting, but the driving was obviously real. Those who know cars knew. It’s 10 minutes of film nirvana. McQueen wanted the Bullitt Mustang back.

The rich and famous are often allergic to the word no, and so was McQueen. His impatience over being rebuked in his quest emerged in the last sentence: I would be happy to try to find you another Mustang similar to the one you have, he wrote, if there is not too much monies involved in it. Otherwise, we had better forget it.

The owner was just fine with forgetting it, and then the Bullitt Mustang made an exit, stage left, from recorded history — via Hagerty

Design, History

Paul Newman’s Rolex Daytona Becomes The World’s Most Expensive Wristwatch

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27 October 2017
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Well, it happened. The hammer has fallen on Paul Newman’s very own Paul Newman Daytona, and it has become the most expensive watch ever sold at auction, fetching $17,752,500 (including buyer’s premium) at Phillips in New York City. While many people thought the iconic watch would surely break records, likely beating the most expensive Daytona ever sold and the most expensive Rolex ever sold, it is still a surprise to see the iconic chronograph break the record for most expensive wristwatch — via Hodinkee

Australian huskies on Mawson expedition immortalised in Antarctic place names

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2 August 2017
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The man who wrote the Australian Antarctic manual for husky team training has welcomed the commemoration of the dogs’ critical roles on maps.

The Antarctic Place Names Committee is naming 26 islands, rocks and reefs after the beloved dogs, that were depended on during Australia’s heroic era of ice exploration a century ago, and had a role into the 1990s.

The dogs were all on Douglas Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) of 1911-14, but the naming is a tribute to all the huskies that underpinned Australian exploration in the icy continent — via ABC News

History, Technology

Scrap dealer finds Apollo-era NASA computers in dead engineer’s basement

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15 July 2017
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A pair of Apollo-era NASA computers and hundreds of mysterious tape reels have been discovered in a deceased engineer’s basement in Pittsburgh, according to a NASA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Most of the tapes are unmarked, but the majority of the rest appear to be instrumentation reels for Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, NASA’s fly-by missions to Jupiter and Saturn.

The two computers are so heavy that a crane was likely used to move the machines, the report concluded.

At some point in the early 1970s, an IBM engineer working for NASA at the height of the Space Race took home the computers — and the mysterious tape reels. A scrap dealer, invited to clean out the deceased’s electronics-filled basement, discovered the computers. The devices were clearly labelled NASA PROPERTY, so the dealer called NASA to report the find.

Please tell NASA these items were not stolen, the engineer’s heir told the scrap dealer, according to the report. They belonged to IBM Allegheny Center Pittsburgh, PA 15212. During the 1968-1972 timeframe, IBM was getting rid of the items so [redacted engineer] asked if he could have them and was told he could have them.

You can read the entire report; the engineer’s identity has been redacted — Ars Technica UK

History, Science

Scientists uncover Ancient Roman recipe for world’s most durable concrete

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5 July 2017
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Ancient Roman concrete marine structures built thousands of years ago are stronger now than when they were first built.

So how has Roman concrete outlasted the empire, while modern concrete mixtures erode within decades of being exposed to seawater?

Scientists have uncovered the chemistry behind how Roman sea walls and harbour piers resisted the elements, and what modern engineers could learn from it.

Romans built their sea walls from a mixture of lime (calcium oxide), volcanic rocks and volcanic ash, a study, published in the journal American Mineralogist, found.

Elements within the volcanic material reacted with sea water to strengthen the concrete structure and prevent cracks from growing over time.

It’s the most durable building material in human history, and I say that as an engineer not prone to hyperbole, Roman monument expert Phillip Brune told the Washington Post — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Art, History, Science

History’s deadliest colours / JV Maranto

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22 June 2017
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When radium was first discovered, its luminous green colour inspired people to add it into beauty products and jewelry. It wasn’t until much later that we realized that radium’s harmful effects outweighed its visual benefits. Unfortunately, radium isn’t the only pigment that historically seemed harmless or useful but turned out to be deadly. JV Maranto details history’s deadliest colours — via Youtube

Design, History, Wildlife
St John’s + Raven / Red WolfSt John’s + Raven / Red WolfSt John’s + Raven / Red WolfSt John’s + Raven / Red Wolf

St John’s + Raven / Red Wolf

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9 May 2017
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St John’s Pipe Organ, St John’s Saint Paul Window, St John’s Door Hinge and Raven originally uploaded by Red Wolf

Mediaeval Yorkshirefolk mutilated, burned t’dead to prevent reanimation

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4 April 2017
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Archaeologists investigating human bones excavated from the deserted mediaeval village of Wharram Percy in North Yorkshire have suggested that the villagers burned and mutilated corpses to prevent the dead from rising from their graves to terrorise the living.

Although starvation cannibalism often accounts for the mutilation of corpses during the Middle Ages, when famines were common, researchers from Historic England and the University of Southampton have found that the ways in which the Wharram Perry remains had been dismembered suggested actions more significant of folk beliefs about preventing the dead from going walkabout.

Their paper, titled A multidisciplinary study of a burnt and mutilated assemblage of human remains from a deserted mediaeval village in England, is published today in the Journal of Archaeological Science — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Entertainment, History

Blue Monday / Orkestra Obsolete

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27 March 2017
48 second read
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New Order’s Blue Monday was released on 7 March 1983, and its cutting-edge electronic groove changed pop music forever. But what would it have sounded like if it had been made 50 years earlier? In a special film, using only instruments available in the 1930s — from the theremin and musical saw to the harmonium and prepared piano — the mysterious Orkestra Obsolete present this classic track as you’ve never heard it before — via Youtube

History

Discovery of Rare Bronze Age Weapon Hoard

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8 March 2017
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GUARD Archaeologists have recently recovered a very rare and internationally significant hoard of metalwork that is a major addition to Scottish Late Bronze Age archaeology.

A bronze spearhead decorated with gold was found alongside a bronze sword, pin and scabbard fittings in a pit close to a Bronze Age settlement excavated by a team of GUARD Archaeologists led by Alan Hunter Blair, on behalf of Angus Council in advance of their development of two football pitches at Carnoustie.

Each individual object in the hoard is significant but the presence of gold ornament on the spearhead makes this an exceptional group. Within Britain and Ireland, only a handful of such spearheads are known — among them a weapon hoard found in 1963 at Pyotdykes Farm to the west of Dundee. These two weapon hoards from Angus — found only a few kilometres apart — hint at the wealth of the local warrior society during the centuries around 1000-800 BC — via redwolf.newsvine.com

History, Politics

Against Normalisation: The Lesson of the “Munich Post”

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7 February 2017
2 min read
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The Trump-Hitler comparison. Is there any comparison? Between the way the campaigns of Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler should have been treated by the media and the culture? The way the media should act now? The problem of normalisation?

Because I’d written a book called Explaining Hitler several editors had asked me, during the campaign, to see what could be said on the subject.

Until the morning after the election I had declined them. While Trump’s crusade had at times been malign, as had his vociferous supporters, he and they did not seem bent on genocide. He did not seem bent on anything but hideous, hurtful simple-mindedness — a childishly vindictive buffoon trailing racist followers whose existence he had main-streamed. When I say followers I’m thinking about the perpetrators of violence against women outlined by New York Magazine who punched women in the face and shouted racist slurs at them. Those supporters. These are the people Trump has dragged into the mainstream, and as my friend Michael Hirschorn pointed out, their hatefulness will no longer find the Obama Justice Department standing in their way.

Bad enough, but genocide is almost by definition beyond comparison with normal politics and everyday thuggish behaviour, and to compare Trump’s feckless racism and compulsive lying was inevitably to trivialize Hitler’s crime and the victims of genocide — via redwolf.newsvine.com

History

Unravelling the Chimney Map / Trina Mckendrick

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18 December 2016
34 second read
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The continuing story of a huge 17th century map found stuffed up a chimney is told by a conservator, a map curator, a historian and an explorer. As the map is painstakingly conserved at the National Library of Scotland, it unfolds stories of exploration, battles, slavery, kingship and knowledge — via Youtube

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