Picture Of The Day

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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Picture of the Day

December 17, 2020 Leave a Comment

james webb space telescope

NASA is about to launch a telescope that can witness the creation of stars and planets 13.8 billion years ago

The James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled for launch in 2021. The Webb telescope will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System.

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Picture of the Day

December 16, 2020 Leave a Comment

marshall applewhite

Marshall Applewhite was the leader of the UFO religious millenarian cult Heaven’s Gate, whose members committed mass suicide in March of 1997 after drinking applesauce laced with phenobarbital, believing the oncoming Hale-Bopp comet was being trailed by a spaceship that would absorb their souls

On March 26, 1997, 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult were found dead in a mass suicide. Led by a self-described prophet named Marshall Applewhite, followers believed that a heavenly UFO was trailing the Hale–Bopp Comet — and this was their only chance to escape Earth before it was “recycled” and wiped clean. Once they hopped aboard, they would be on their way to a much better planet. And since their human bodies were merely “vehicles,” they could safely leave them at any time and ascend to the “next level.”⁠

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Picture of the Day

December 15, 2020 Leave a Comment

Vanmoof TV Box

A bicycle company struggling with damaged shipments used our tendency to scan content and make assumptions by putting a TV image on its box. Damage rates fell 80%

Since early 2016, VanMoof, a Dutch bicycle company, has been shipping its bikes in cardboard boxes with pictures of TVs on their face. VanMoof creative director Bex Rad explains how the bit of trickery was meant to reduce damage.

Bikes are generally thought of as more durable, so shipping companies might not be as careful as they would with a television.

“After a while, fragile labels — which we have tried, believe me — become like wallpaper,”

“We think our solution works better because shipping companies know that if they damage a TV, it ends up being a whole lot more work, so they treat it more delicately.”

The technique has noticeably reduce damages rates: Rad claimsthat the design change led to 70-80% fewer damaged bike products on arrival.