Picture Of The Day

Picture of the Day

January 4, 2021 Leave a Comment

This system was designed to combat car jacking by shooting a jet of flames at anyone standing next to either side of the car.

When this foot switch is pressed, two things happen. One, a 14-thousand volt spark would appear here in this nozzle, and then you have these four jets here shooting out gas. Liquid gas from the gas bottle in the boot. Liquid gas, as soon as it exits over the spark here, will ignite and a ball of flame will shoot out of both side of the vehicle. Incapacitating the hijackers immediately.”
Amazingly perhaps, the system’s legal in South Africa – provided the driver is acting in self defence as depicted in this mock-up.

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Picture of the Day

December 31, 2020 Leave a Comment

emma schols

“If I birthed 6 kids, I’m gonna get 6 kids out”. Super-Mom Emma Schols saved all of her 6 kids from their burning home, running room to room, floor to floor. Even tho she was bleeding and losing skin, hair burnt like coal, she kept going. Emma got 93% burn injuries, yet still survived.

It was in September 2019 that the worst possible thing happened. Mother of six Emma Schols, 31, slept alone at home with the children. Suddenly she heard a fire in the downstairs of the villa, where two of her younger sons were.

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Picture of the Day

December 30, 2020 Leave a Comment

oldest tree in the world

(photo: “Methuselah, White Mountain, California” by Desires Photo)

Methuselah, the Great Basin bristlecone tree located high up in the White Mountains in California is recognized as the oldest non-clonal tree in the world and is 4,852 years old.

Named after the Biblical figure that lived for 969 years, the Methuselah Tree grows in the Methuselah Grove, which is in Inyo National Forest’s “Forest of Ancients,” where it is surrounded by other ancient trees. The exact location of the tree, though, is kept secret to protect it against vandalism.

It is estimated that the tree germinated in 2832 BCE, making Methuselah one of the oldest known living trees and non-clonal organism in the entire world. A germination date of 2832 BCE makes Methuselah older even than the Egyptian Pyramids.

Picture of the Day

December 29, 2020 Leave a Comment

chief hatuey

(photo: "Hatuey monument” by Michal Zalewski)

Before being burned alive by the Spaniards, Chief Hatuey was asked if he wanted to accept Christianity and go to heaven. Hatuey asked if Spaniards go to heaven, to which the priest said that they do. Hatuey then stated that he’d rather go to hell where he wouldn’t see such cruel people.

Here is the God [pointing to a basket of gold and jewels] the Spaniards worship. For these they fight and kill; for these they persecute us and that is why we have to throw them into the sea… They tell us, these tyrants, that they adore a God of peace and equality, and yet they usurp our land and make us their slaves. They speak to us of an immortal soul and of their eternal rewards and punishments, and yet they rob our belongings, seduce our women, violate our daughters. Incapable of matching us in valor, these cowards cover themselves with iron that our weapons cannot break…

Picture of the Day

December 28, 2020 Leave a Comment

kaiten submarine

(photo: Nick-D)

A “Kaiten”, Japanese suicide torpedo. A soldier would enter and direct the weapon to its target, sacrificing his life.

Kaiten (回天, literal translation: “Turn the Heaven”, commonly rendered as “turn of the Heaven’s will”, “the heaven shaker”) were manned torpedoes and suicide craft, used by the Imperial Japanese Navy in the final stages of World War II.

Kaiten pilots were all men aged between 17 and 28. Initial training consisted of sailing fast surface boats by periscope and instrument readings alone.

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Picture of the Day

December 24, 2020 Leave a Comment

Daallo-Airlines-Flight-159

In 2016, a suicide bomber with explosives in his laptop boarded a Daallo Airlines flight, intending to destroy the aircraft. Twenty minutes after takeoff, the explosives detonated, blasting a hole in the plane, and instantly sucking the bomber out. He was the only fatality.

The explosive device was built into a laptop computer and blew a hole in the skin of the Daallo Airlines plane on February 2 but did not down the aircraft, because it detonated 20 minutes into the flight, before it reached cruising altitude. The suspected bomber was blown out of the plane, and his body was recovered on the ground near Mogadishu. The plane returned to the airport. Two people aboard were injured.

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Picture of the Day

December 23, 2020 Leave a Comment

american airline stewardess

Portrait of an American Airlines stewardess posing in uniform on an airplane in 1967, part of an ad campaign for the airline.

The post-WWII America changed drastically and millions of Americans started to travel on airplanes and the stewardess profession expanded further.

Now, young working women did not have to change bedpans or take dictation; they could travel the world, meet important people, and lead exciting lives. The stewardess position was well paid, prestigious, and adventurous – and it quickly became the nation’s most coveted job for women.

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Picture of the Day

December 22, 2020 Leave a Comment

A Soviet propaganda poster from 1944 depicting legions of German soldiers destined to die in the Russian winter thanks to Hitler’s orders.

If you read the journal entries from Wilhelm Hoffman who was fought and died in Stalingrad, this poster hits even harder. When they showed up they thought it would be a quick fight and they would be home by Christmas. As time went on the entries go from arrogant to impressed with the “Russian spirit” to disheartened at how long its taking to sack the city and the lack or reinforcements to despair once they are resigned to their fate that they will either freeze/starve to death or be killed by the Russians.

“The street is no longer measured by meters but by corpses … Stalingrad is no longer a town. By day it is an enormous cloud of burning, blinding smoke; it is a vast furnace lit by the reflection of the flames. And when night arrives, one of those scorching howling bleeding nights, the dogs plunge into the Volga and swim desperately to gain the other bank. The nights of Stalingrad are a terror for them. Animals flee this hell; the hardest stones cannot bear it for long; only men endure.“

Picture of the Day

December 21, 2020 Leave a Comment

ryugu asteroid

This photograph was taken on the surface of asteroid Ryugu by the Hayabusa 2 mission. The rocky boulders resemble a rare type of meteorite — carbonaceous chondrites — that we find here on Earth after they fall from the sky.

The Hayabusa 2 mission’s return to Earth earlier this month completed a six-year round-trip mission to asteroid Ryugu. The craft launched in December 2014 aboard a Japanese H-2A rocket, and arrived near Ryugu in 2018 to begin several months of surveys before attempting the first landing.

The spacecraft dropped a fleet of landers and rovers to the explore the asteroid’s surface in late 2018, including a hopping robot developed by engineers in Germany and France.

Scientists are eager to analyse the specimens, which they expect may contain organic molecules. Researchers believe asteroids like Ryugu, or a larger body like the one from which Ryugu split off, could have seeded Earth with the ingredients necessary for life.

Hayabusa 2 departed Ryugu in November 2019 to begin the year-long trip back to Earth.

Picture of the Day

December 18, 2020 Leave a Comment

stuart bee

Filipino seafarers saved 62 year old American, who was reported missing, and was found in the Atlantic Ocean clinging to the bow of his capsized boat.

A boater who was found Sunday clinging to his sinking vessel far off Florida’s Atlantic coastline told U.S. Coast Guard officials he didn’t think he would make it back to shore alive.

“I didn’t see anybody, I thought, this is it!” Stuart Bee said in a call with the Coast Guard released Monday night.

Bee, 62, had been reported missing on Friday after he departed from Cape Marina on his 32-foot boat.

Bee described having mechanical problems on the boat Saturday night, saying the engine was making squealing noises. He went to sleep and was woken up by water coming into the boat.

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