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blueiskewl · 1 year

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Ingo Maurer Birdie ceiling light

Metal, goose feathers and 12 bulbs. Ingo Maurer edition. 87 x 73 cm ; 34 1/4 x 28 3/4 in. Designed in 2002.

#Ingo Maurer #Ingo Maurer Birdie ceiling light 2002 #german industrial designer #light #art #artist #art work #art world #art news

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arc-hus · 5 months

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Module House, Rocha, Uruguay - Brandl Huber

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design-is-fine · 1 year

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Reinhold Weiss passed away on December 6, 2022, from complications of Covid-19. RIP. He was a student of the HfG Ulm, the first academy for industrial design in Germany, later worked for Braun beside Dieter Rams and later moved to the States to live in Tuscon, Arizona. I love his design classics for Braun and his coffee grinder is working in our household problem-free since 1968.

#braun #designer #design history #design classic #1950s #1960s #german design #great designer #industrial design #less is more #rip

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possible-streetwear · 12 days

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KRAFTWERK - NICE AND DIRTY ART

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abrightedspace · 11 months

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Myst, G-Ohm Solid State Amplifier, 1982.

Michael Maloney founded Myst in 1981 with his partner, Mary Guillaume. They began producing the G-Ohm in 1982 – possibly named after an abbreviation of Mary's surname. This small preamplifier/power amplifier combination was finished in brown and champagne gold, and was a striking-looking ultra-minimalist product. It duly built a cult following and received a couple of good reviews, but failed to go mainstream. What was particularly noticeable was its superb build quality, with top-notch components and super-short signal paths used inside.

#industrial design #design #technology #myst #german #michael maloney #united kingdom #amplifier

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jamiesansible · 5 months

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I’m sure everyone remembers the article from 2020 where researches found three-ply cordage made by Neanderthals.^

But did you know that in the supplemental material for the article, it mentions that pine needles can be made into textiles?^^ As someone who works with textiles myself, I had come across pine needles as a dye stuff, but not as a fibre.

The source is listed as "L’acquisition des matières textiles d’origine végétale en Préhistoire" by Fabinne Médard. It talks about how other fibres, including brambles and broom could have been used prehistorically for a similar purpose, as well as flax. However, it contains only one metion of pine needles.

“Les aiguilles du pin sylvestre (Pinus sylvestris L.) fournissaient, après rouissage, une matière textile appelée « laine des forêts » qui remplaçait la ouate et l’étoupe dont on faisait également des tissus (Mathieu [1858] 1897)" * The needles of the Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) provided, after retting, a textile material called “forest wool” which replaced wadding and tow from which fabrics were also made.

So Scots pine needles were processed, spun and woven, or simply used directly after processing, potentially prehistorically.

If you follow the source for the quote above, it takes you to a book from 1860 called Flore forestière; description et histoire des végétaux ligneux qui croissent spontanément en France et des essences importantes de l'Algérie. It says:

“On fabrique depuis quelques années, avec les faisceaux fibreux, allongés, et tenaces des aiguilles, une espèce de drap grossier.” ** For several years, we have been making a kind of coarse cloth using the fibrous, elongated and stiff bundles of the needles.

So this processing of pine needles was also happening in the 1800s.

Another souce from the 1840s describes the texture of forest wool as resembling "...horsehair, and has been used for stuffing mattresses"** and that an industry sprung up in Humboldtsau, near Breslau for processing it. Manufacturies for forest wool then spread to Sweden, Holland and France, which may explain the mention in the 1860 Flore forestière.

Despite looking a bit more, but couldn't find much else on the subject expect a recent masters thesis in German (which I couldn't access) and an article on the designer Tamara Orjola.

Orjola's work investigates the modern use of pine needle fabric, showing there is still interest in it. She says:

"Forest Wool began with research on the forgotten value of plants. Valuable local materials and techniques are left behind due to the unwillingness of mass-production to adopt more sustainable practices. In the old days the pine tree was used as food, remedies, to build homes and furniture and for many other purposes. Nowadays, it is only valuable for its timber." ***

I find the line from prehistory to now facinating - that people have looked to something as mundane as a pine needle to spin, especially as researchers are discovering a lot of what they thought was linen fabric is actually ramie (from nettles).

As far as I can tell, only Pinus sylvestris L. and one other variety was used. I am not sure what makes that tree more suitable than other pine trees, or if it was simply a question of availability. In terms of processing, the answer as far as I can tell is retting, presumably followed by scutching and hackling - similar to how flax is processed. However I have not done that myself and cannot speak to the specifics.

It would be something intresting to try though.

________

^ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-61839-w#MOESM1

^^ https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41598-020-61839-w/MediaObjects/41598_2020_61839_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

* https://journals.openedition.org/nda/602

** https://www.proquest.com/openview/276605d708970d416923b94e8856d20b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=41445

*** https://lampoonmagazine.com/article/2021/05/15/recycled-wood-pine-needles-byproduct/

#fabric #history #i was consumed by the spirit of academia and could not stop reading french articles #please excuse the use of Google translate #my French is okay but not academic article good #it’s just a super interesting topic #the variety of plant fibres used for textiles is always larger than I think

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yuanyuherotomolding · 2 years

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a rotomolding light furniture

High quality surface blasting finished rotational aluminum mold factory and exporter Dongguan Yuanyuhe Mould Co.,Ltd, produce rotomolding aluminum molds and rotationally-moulded products for the marine, medical, construction, leisure and sanitation industries etc. High quality molds and products LDPE HDPE XDPE plastic rotomolded products

Contact: whatsapp/wechat: +8613530293885

E-mail: [email protected]

#manufacturer #mold #rotomolding #design #industry #mould #manufacture #aluminum #rotomoldedproduct #plastic #makeup #UK #Newzealand #Australia #German

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a-substantial-trash-pile · 5 months

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Studio TV Solutions presents Half Life VR but the AI are Self-Aware (2020) [not a real movie]. A movie with a totally improv’d script starring a moltey crew who are sure to give you a rip-roarin’ good time!

anyway hi new au just dropped. i’m calling it HLVRAIM. it’s HLVRAI but it’s a blockbuster movie and the science team are played by actors. i have many thought on backstories n stuff that i will stick under a “read more” here otherwise this post will be hella long on people’s dashes. 👇👍 pls care about this i thought so hard and much

Half Life VR but the AI are Self-Aware was put out by Studio TV Solutions in 2020 and destroyed the box office with how fun it was and how well the cast played off one another. The cast was given a general outline for the script with the goal for it to be mostly improv.

Gordon Freeman: Mannie Flores (Dominican American, age 28, he/him) - Popular Youtuber/Twitch streamer (“Radi0Mann”). Got offered the role in HLVRAI thanks to the creative things he’s done in his Youtube/Twitch career. This is his first “official” acting gig. He was pretty starstruck at first, but then as he got to know everyone, he realized they’re all a bunch of dorks (affectionate). - Started off as a gaming channel, but then started branching off into various creative endeavors as he got more popular. He still plays games too though. - One of the things Mannie did in his internet career that hit the mainstream was when he wrote, directed, starred in, and filmed his own movie in just 2 weeks because he failed a bet with his audience. Except the movie was actually really good and funny and heartfelt (i want to say it was about “a man who got left behind on earth after everyone else was raptured because god literally forgot about him”, but i think the concept might’ve been done already). - Met Benji through HLVRAI. They hit it off and now they’re dating. They tried to keep it secret for a while but Mannie had a slip-up during a stream that sort of blew it out of the water.

Benrey: Benji Song (Japanese/Chinese, age 30, he/they) - Started off as a film sound designer in the industry, then through a series of silly willy little events—possibly even shenanigans—got roped into a role in a passion indie film that became wildly acclaimed and flung him into the spotlight. Been an actor ever since, but isn’t the most proactive in taking jobs much to their agent’s annoyance. People never know where he’ll pop up next. Sometimes Benji will sneak in sound designer work behind their agent’s back. - Honestly likes background work more because everyone’s got these expectations of them as an actor that they feel pressured to meet. But he’s also afraid of disappointing people. He’s working on it. - Met their partner Mannie through HLVRAI. Totally was a fan of his streams/videos beforehand though. When they mention that, Mannie gets flustered. - Does music as a hobby. Electronic stuff mostly—enjoys mashing together all sorts of sounds and trying to make them work. After HLVRAI, Mannie’s streams gets cool new music that’s made by somebody going by “johnwicklover1994.” wink

Harold Coomer: Hau’oli “Hau” Kaleo-Kirchhoff (Hawaiian/Samoan, age 66, he/him) - Old musician who’s supposed to be retired but once in a while will release a song or even do a concert (but nothing crazy). - Hau’oli is pronounced [hh-ow-oh-lee], but he also goes by “Hau” for the haoles’ sake. :) Kaleo is [kah-leh-oh]. also Hau’oli sounds a little bit like the name Holly so that’s a fun coincidence i didn’t realize until later. - Most of his music is chill island tunes but he has been known to dabble in rock and jazz. - Married to Mose (been together for 30 years and counting).

Bubby: Mose Kaleo-Kirchhoff (German, age 69 [nice], xe/him) - Veteran actor—been in the acting industry for a long time. One of his more well-known roles was in a popular sci-fi series. - Married to Hau’oli (they got married the moment it was legal). - i went with a name that started with “M” cuz when Gordon first asks Bubby for his name, xe’s like, “mmm Bubby.” and i headcanon it’s because Mose was about to say xir own name and had to swerve last minute and the thing his brain resorted to was Bubby lol.

Tommy Coolatta: Luis Tanglao (Filipino, age 37, he/they) - Child star who dropped out of the industry when he hit his teens and then came back years later as a comedian. He has material about how fucked up being a child star was. Will only take acting roles if it interests them. - They don’t care about how the public/media sees him. He’ll speak his mind and call out BS when he sees it. Interviewing them can be a war zone. - Hosts a popular podcast with some buds they discuss things like video games, their lives, news, etc. Just shooting the shit. - Sunkist is their actual dog and she modeled for the png photo that was used. Her name is actually Biko. She is a very good girl. <3

Darnold Pepper: Sage Haven (African American, age 40, he/her/they) - Famous cooking show host who gets offered roles in movies. Got popular by how unconventional her meals and cooking methods are and how funny he is. - Has had multiple food/cooking/baking shows over the years. Every competition-based one they’ve had focused more on good vibes, fun, and encouraging one another rather than drama. One show involved people competing to see who could make the best full course meal with the catch being they could only cook everything in a microwave. Many microwaves perished. - Changed their name to Sage Haven during their transition. They chose it because it reflects his passion and also is a play on the phrase “safe haven”, which is what she wants to be to others. - He has an adoptive daughter named Kit. She helped them think up bits and jokes. She also had to help explain what Half-Life was.

haven’t gotten to gman and forzen’s actors yet unfortunately. thinking gman’s actor could be a talk show host? because that would be funny. anyway thanks for humoring me on my shenanigans. bye

#hlvrai #frenrey #gordon feetman #benrey #tommy coolatta #dr coomer #dr bubby #darnold pepper #hlvrai boomer #hlvrai au #hlvraim

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txttletale · 7 months

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niceys positive anon!! i don't agree with you on everything but you are so clearly like well read and well rounded that you've helped me think through a lot of my own inconsistencies and hypocrises in my own political and social thought, even if i do have slightly different conclusions at times then u (mainly because i believe there's more of a place for idealism and 'mind politics' than u do). anyway this is a preamble to ask if you have recommended reading in the past and if not if you had any recommended reading? there's some obvious like Read Marx but beyond that im always a little lost wading through theory and given you seem well read and i always admire your takes, i wondered about your recs

it's been a while since i've done a big reading list post so--bearing in mind that my specific areas of 'expertise' (i say that in huge quotation marks obvsies i'm just a girlblogger) are imperialism and media studies, here are some books and essays/pamphlets i recommend. the bolded ones are ones that i consider foundational to my politics

BASICS OF MARXISM

friedrich engels, principles of commmunism

friedrich engels, socialism: utopian & scientific

karl marx, the german ideology

karl marx, wage labour & capital

mao zedong, on contradiction

nikolai bukharin, anarchy and scientific communism

rosa luxemburg, reform or revolution?

v.i lenin, left-wing communism: an infantile disorder

v.i. lenin, the state & revolution

v.i. lenin, what is to be done?

IMPERIALISM

aijaz ahmed, iraq, afghanistan, and the imperialism of our time

albert memmi, the colonizer and the colonized

che guevara, on socialism and internationalism (ed. aijaz ahmad)

eduardo galeano, the open veins of latin america

edward said, orientalism

fernando cardoso, dependency and development in latin america

frantz fanon, black skin, white masks

frantz fanon, the wretched of the earth

greg grandin, empire's workshop

kwame nkrumah, neocolonialism, the last stage of imperialism

michael parenti, against empire

naomi klein, the shock doctrine

ruy mauro marini, the dialectics of dependency

v.i. lenin, imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism

vijay prashad, red star over the third world

vincent bevins, the jakarta method

walter rodney, how europe underdeveloped africa

william blum, killing hope

zak cope, divided world divided class

zak cope, the wealth of (some) nations

MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES

antonio gramsci, the prison notebooks

ed. mick gidley, representing others: white views of indigenous peoples

ed. stuart hall, representation: cultural representations and signifying pratices

gilles deleuze & felix guattari, capitalism & schizophrenia

jacques derrida, margins of philosophy

jacques derrida, speech and phenomena

michael parenti, inventing reality

michel foucault, disicipline and punish

michel foucault, the archeology of knowledge

natasha schull, addiction by design

nick snricek, platform capitalism

noam chomsky and edward herman, manufacturing consent

regis tove stella, imagining the other

richard sennett and jonathan cobb, the hidden injuries of class

safiya umoja noble, algoriths of oppression

stuart hall, cultural studies 1983: a theoretical history

theodor adorno and max horkheimer, the culture industry

walter benjamin, the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction

OTHER

angela davis, women, race, and class

anna louise strong, cash and violence in laos and vietnam

anna louise strong, the soviets expected it

anna louise strong, when serfs stood up in tibet

carrie hamilton, sexual revolutions in cuba

chris chitty, sexual hegemony

christian fuchs, theorizing and analysing digital labor

eds. jules joanne gleeson and elle o'rourke, transgender marxism

elaine scarry, the body in pain

jules joanne gleeson, this infamous proposal

michael parenti, blackshirts & reds

paulo freire, pedagogy of the oppressed

peter drucker, warped: gay normality and queer anticapitalism

rosemary hennessy, profit and pleasure

sophie lewis, abolish the family

suzy kim, everyday life in the north korean revolution

walter rodney, the russian revolution: a view from the third world

#ask #avowed inframaterialist reading group #i obviously do not 100% agree with all the points made by and conclusions reached by these works #but i think they are valuable and useful to read

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astrobiscuits · 3 months

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Unknown asteroids #2

@m1nd-r0t here is part 2, enjoyyy!!

🌷Elodie (10726) – French form of Elodia, which has a Spanish origin; means “foreign riches” as in old money/inheritances, denoting the nature of both Capricorn and Scorpio; if prominent in composite, it can indicate a couple that becomes rich together under mysterious circumstances

🌷Epicles (23549) – of Greek origin; denotes an Ancient Greek medical writer who lived in 1st or 2nd century BC; prominent in medical staff and medicine students

🌷Epimetheus (1810) – of Greek origin; denotes the Titan god of afterthought and excuses; it shows which area we tend to come up with excuses (if it aspects Mars – excuses as to why we can’t start something, why we don't exercise; if it aspects Venus – excuses as to why we can’t get in a relationship, why we’re unlovable)

🌷Epikourus (5954) – of Greek origin; denotes an Ancient Greek philosopher, who founded a renowned philosophy school centered around Epicureanism; prominent in philosophers and those who think deeply

🌷Ercol (155784) – of British orign; denotes a British furniture manufacture; prominent in the charts of successful interior designers, usually by sextile or trine

🌷Fado (541741) – of Portugese origin; denotes a type of Portugese folk music which centers around death, mourning and loss; based on my research, it does show up in the charts of metalheads who are into doom metal (this asteroid usually aspects their moon), but not in the charts of goths

🌷FAIR (204873) – of English origin; well, it’s self-explanatory

🌷Fairbank (67235) – of English origin; denotes someone who gets charity money for the right cause/someone who easily attracts scolarships and sponsorships

🌷Fiammetta (50729) – of Italian origin; means “little fiery one”; denotes someone who becomes cute when angry; in the charts of very spiritual/religious people, it can show the faith that burns inside and guides them

🌷Huma (3988) – of Persian origin; denotes a bird similar to the phoenix, which is supposed to bring luck and fortune; luck that comes after a transformation

🌷Hus (1840) – of Swedish origin; means house; in synastry, if there’s double whammy aspects (person A’s Hus aspects person B’s Hus and vice versa), it’s very possible that you might live together

🌷Icke (7508) – of (old) Swedish origin; means nobody, no one; if it conjuncts Sun, it indicates a loner or someone who isn’t taken into consideration by others; a second meaning: what we find disgusting

🌷Ida (243) – of Greek and German origins; means industrious, laborious, hardworking

🌷Indulgentia (90703) – of Latin origin; means lenience, concession; in synastry, it denotes someone prone to give a second chance to their ex; if this asteroid squares the other person’s Venus and the Venus person cheats on the Indulgentia asteroid person, the asteroid person is very likely to forgive them and continue the relationship

🌷Isolda (211) – of Welsh and German origin; means “she who is gazed at”; denotes a woman who attracts the attention of both men and women due to her beauty; if it conjuncts MC, it can point out to a career as a model

🌷Jaffe (9696) – of Hebrew origin; means beautiful, pleasant

🌷Jamila (1843) – of Arabic origin; same meaning as asteroid Jaffe

🌷Lioba (974) – of German origin; means dear, beloved one

🌷Lippens (9640) – of Scottish origin; means trust, to rely on someone; a second meaning: lips

🌷Lipschutz (2641) – of German origin; means lip protection (it might be prominent in those who use lip balm frequently); in synastry, it denotes a thoughtful, caring lover, who kisses softly

🌷Meesters (10647) – of Dutch origin, means master (of something), boss

🌷Megaira (464) – of Greek origin; she is one of the 3 Furies/Erinyes in Greek mythology; denotes jealousy and envy, similar to Klythia (73) and Irsha (216451)

🌷Meiden (2881) – of German origin; mean to avoid, to shun

🌷Vieuxtemps (40007) – of French origin; means “old times”, but it can also show nostalgia; in synastry, it can show connections that last decades; the friends and lover/spouse we will have during seniorhood

🌷Vetter (18377) – of German origin; means cousin

(10726, 23549, 1810, 5954, 155784, 541741, 204873, 67235, 50729, 3988, 1840, 7508, 243, 90703, 211, 9696, 1843, 974, 9640, 2641, 10647, 464, 2881, 40007, 18377)

#astro #astro community #astrology #astro placements #astro observations #astro posts #astroblr #astro blog #astro notes #asteroids

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hotvintagepoll · 3 months

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Propaganda

Colleen Moore (Flaming Youth, Ella Cinders)— One of the highest paid, most in-demand actresses of the silent film era, Colleen Moore defied genre and kept herself one step ahead of the competition (and although Moore was the OG flapper, her longtime rival Clara Bow would become more famous for the image) as well as invested her earnings to ensure her financial security after she retired. She even wrote a book all about investing in the stock market! Moore also nurtured a passion for dollhouses throughout her life and helped design and curate The Colleen Moore Dollhouse, which has been a featured exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago since the early 1950s.

Lilian Harvey (Die Drei von der Tankstelle, Der Kongreß Tanzt, Glückskinder)— Lilian Harvey was one of the most popular German film stars of her time, appearing alongside frequent co-star Willy Fritsch like a European version of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. She had it all: she could act, she could dance, she could sing, she was hot, and she wasn't afraid to stick it to the Nazis. During the 1930s, she remained in contact with her Jewish friends and colleagues, which earned her the scrutiny of the Gestapo. When choreographer Jens Keith was arrested for having a sexual relationship with another man, Lilian posted his bail, allowing him to escape to France. She was eventually forced to flee Germany herself, and her film career never recovered. She is perhaps best known to American filmgoers from her brief mention in "Inglourious Basterds," when Joseph Goebbels insists that her name not be mentioned in his presence.

This is round 1 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut]

Lilian Harvey:

Colleen Moore:

Colleen is charming and funny, she was one of the starlets to popularize the iconic 1920s bob!

She's like the deep cut version of Louise Brooks, with majority silent films, and a large percentage of them lost-- BUT 'Why Be Good?' is such a fun movie and she wears really cute dresses and has all the best parts of Pre-Code leading lady fun!

#lilian harvey #colleen moore #hotvintagepoll #ladies 1 #fuck that old woman

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qsycomplainsalot · 1 year

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Re: Pervertin or how German Supersoldiers High on Crack travelled through Space and Time Buy my Book

I came across a post on the bird site yesterday calling into attention the use of pervitin, more or less adderall, among German troops during WW2. For context pervitin tablets were indeed issued to a lot of military personnel back in those days, specifically to aircraft pilot and sometimes tank crews on long missions. The drug as some of you may have heard keeps you awake and alert, along with a slew of side effects and a non negligible chance of addiction. In a discussion that brought to view just how willing people are to buy into Nazi propaganda in the year of our f*cking lord 2023, I pointed out a few things, uphill and having to indulge a lot of sidetracking. The use of pervitin has always been a little overstated ever since it came to the internet's attention, and I certainly would never call it a key component of the Blitzkrieg when, in the theaters of war where actual Blitzkrieg was employed, its success was more due to a combination of innovative doctrines, intact fuel supplies and a big fat helping of dumb luck. It was a bold move highly relying on capturing enemy fuel depots with fast, surprise deep strikes supported by a lot of armored and air forces, and it was only sustainable in neighboring, industrialized countries. One can argue if the USSR was industrialized at the time, but it stopped mattering when the Russians removed their entire industry from the West to beyond the Ural mountains. The Blitz stalled there.

"But if it didn't work, then why did the Nazis do it so often ?" Well the answer to that is twofold. The first, longer answer is that Nazis were a bunch of f*cking morons. Maybe not one by one, but as a government in charge of military procurement, they were one bunch of goofy motherf*ckers. Gaggle of functional shit-for-brains really. The Nazis gave every one of their tanks in the middle of the war two coats of anti-magnetic paint, which took almost a full day to cure, despite being the only major nation to use magnetic antitank mines. The Nazis kept using slave labor drawn from their prisoners of war, including in the manufacturing of their overengineered armored vehicles, resulting in poor quality products or, you know, a few rivets in your magnificent Tiger tank being replaced by a cigarette butt. The Nazis spent more than half the cost of a strategic bomber on every V2 rocket, not including design costs, for less than half the payload. It ended up killing more Germans and slave workers than British people in London, for literally no strategic or tactical result with 0.4 person killed per every rocket. The second, shorter answer is that pervitin was not used that much. A lot of the arguments trying to boost its importance come from a single book, "Blitzed" by Norman Ohler, now available in twenty languages apparently, where grand claims are made by a historian who was probably more than a little tired of seeing Buzzfeed rack in the big bucks instead of him.

End note; I was called out by a bird siter after the conversation that inspired this post for even beginning to fact-check this, which they considered, and I quote, "fangirling over nazi stats". I cannot stress this enough, learning the 'bad' parts of history does not make you bad person, it is how you interact with the resulting knowledge. Unlike what they implied, I had to look for those supporting evidence. I had a hunch that such a grabbing headline about super-drugs would be fake, I knew offhand that V2 rockets killed more blues than reds, but when I had to research all that jazz about Nazis and their superweapons it was to dunk on them, not make another History Channel documentary about a time-travelling bell. Stay critical, fascists can eat shit.

#history #ww2 #rambling #rant

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arc-hus · 5 months

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Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw - Diener Diener

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sheetz · 11 months

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i keep seeing that picture of the Chinese railway employee (Han Junjia I believe, if the People's Dailt article I found is the same as the post I'm thinking of) posed in front of a steam locomotive in the 80s when he first started work on the railway side by side side a more modern picture of him in front of a high speed train. i don't think the post is that complicated- it like illustrates the development of china and the rapid transformation of the network and the country. from the 1980s to the current day -but the "before" picture - in the 1980s - is like. not the place where the Chinese state railways started and is worth discussing because it is an impressive development which I'd imagine a lot of the people who see it take for granted.

the locomotive is a JF class. the class of locomotive which would become the JF was originally designed and built in America and sent to Manchuria to work on the Japanese colonial railways and designated "Mika" or 'Mikako". After World War I, Japan assumed operation of the Sifang locomotive shops built by the Germans during their occupation of China, which was then used by Japan to produce Mikas of the same design as those orders from the United States. After China was liberated by the PLA the railways were recategorized and standardized and the Mika was renamed JF standing for - Jie Fang (Liberation). Spare parts leftover at the Sifang Locomotive Works from the Japanese Occupation at the Sifang Locomotive works were used to produce the first locomotive produced in the People's Republic and the first truly indigenous locomotive - JF no 2101 - which would enter service on railroads run for the benefit of the country and its people rather than colonial powers. The JF would be the backbone of the Chinese railway in the early years of the People's Republic as the railway network grew and the country rapidly industrialized. it was a reliable design examples of which lasted in service for at least 86 years. by 1980 the entire railway network had undergone a drasric transformation compared to just 40 years previously- from one with locomotives built by colonial powers to work on colonial railways to domestically produced locomotives to work on railways which were for the benefit of the country itself and not a colonial power.

even at the time the "before" picture in the aforementioned post had been taken, there had been people who had witnessed a massive and almost unimaginable transformation within the Chinese railway network. who started as employees in Japanese colonial railways or German colonial locomotive works who ended their careers building locomotives in not only a newly liberated country but a worker's state. and i think that's as impressive if not more impressive than the high speed rail construction.

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thekingofwinterblog · 4 months

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Tolkien's crowns.

You know something that really annoys me about the Tolkien movie adaptions?

Crowns.

Like a lot of things Jackson did, he basically crafted something completely new out of the bare bones we get from some descriptions, for better or worse, but the Crowns are another matter, because not only did Tolkien give very clear descriptions, and even drew the two most notable ones(the crowns of the dwarves and gondor)that appeared over the course of Lotr and the Hobbit, both had very, very clear cut meanings and symbolism behind them, that tied them to their real life origins.

The crowns of the dwarves of Erebor and Moria look like someone took their helmets and filed down the sides so only the skeleton remained, to varying degrees of success.

But you know what tolkien used?

In the books, Tolkien's dwarves uses crowns speciffically modeled after the crown of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.

Why?

Well if you know anything about said empire, and the actual inspiration for Tolkien's dwarves, the picture is a bit clearer.

See Tolkien specifically modeled his dwarfs, their history of losing a homeland, desire for a new one, and their proud, industrious culture of craftsmen and skills of making money on a mixture between the Norse mythical dwarves, and the Jews in the long centuries after the Romans kicked them out of their original homeland.

Now with this in mind, Tolkien choosing to model the Dwarves crown on the Austrian one is him specifficaly choosing a real, Germanic crown as the inspiration... As well as a nod to the fact that the Austria-Hungarian empire was legendary for his time(The time Tolkien grew up in) as a progressive haven for jews, probably the best in Europe.

An empire, that was also destroyed by fires of war, just Moria and Erebor.

In other words, there is so much symbolism here that is completely and totally stripped away by the helmet crowns the movies gave them.

Hell, even the original hobbit animated movie got this right, while Jackson did not, as they basically just made the crown the austrian one, just a bit more exagerated.

Meanwhile, there is the crown of gondor, which completely missed absolutely everything tolkien tried to do with the Gondor crown.

It's a crown that fits perfectly with the rest of the city, this is truly a crown of the Gondor that the movies portrayed.

Meanwhile, Tolkiens Winged silver crown... Does not.

Even within the context of the fact that the books gondor is an early medieval(as it does not have plate armor at all) styled kingdom in terms of armor and clothing design, the crown does NOT fit in the slightest.

And that's the point.

The original crown of Gondor was a simple war Helm of the day that Elendil wore, and the later one that Aragorn wore was a more fancy replica of that helmet.

It is outdated by thousands of years, a relic of an elder time that was long lost even when Gondor's lost it's Kings in the first place. It's not supposed to fit in.

Also the fact that Elendil wore this, and it was considered just fine, tells us a lot about Gondor's fashion and style of arms during the closing days of the second age.

However, then we get into the deeper meaning behind the crown and where it was inspired from.

Gondor's winged crown was very deliberately inspired and based on the crowns of ancienct egypt, which was one of the main inspirations for Gondor and(to a lesser extent) arnor.

Just like Egyot there were two kingdom, an upper and a lower one, though in middle earth it was instead called the northern and southern ones.

Just like egypt, Gondor's entire socity and political and economic strength was based around their massive river that ran through the realm.

Just like Egypt, one of the biggest problems the gondorian elites had was their obsession with grand mousoleums and graves for their elites, focusing far more on the dead rather than their living children, and wasting who knows how much coin, manpower, energy and resources on such rather than just burying them in thr ground.

Basically the same problem egypt had building stupidly expensive superstructures for their dead in the form of pyramids, rather than something actually useful.

Then there is the fact that just like how lower and upper egypt combined their regalia together(as in they fused the two crowns into one, bigger one), Aragorn very deliberately made the royal regalia of the reunited Kingship BOTH his ancient and out of place winged crown, and the Silver scepter of Annuminas, the royal symbol of Arnor, combining the two of them together into one office.

#j r r tolkien #tolkien's legendarium #peter jackson #lord of the rings #the hobbit #crowns #meta #austria hungary #egypt #symbolism #gondor #arnor #khazad dum

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sprintingowl · 1 year

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Flying Circus

Flying Circus is a game that looks extremely normal on the surface.

Okay, sure, there are biplanes and dragons. But the overall cover aesthetic evokes red box D&D, and there's barely a hint of the wild design choices lurking beneath.

Flying Circus is also a pbta game. This means Powered By The Apocalypse---broadly, a group of ttrpgs that are more narrative-y and story-game-y and collaborative in play.

So the last thing you'd expect here would be pages and pages of highly detailed biplane aviation physics and moves that model the affect of G-strain on the pilot and fuel burning at different rates at different altitudes.

Right?

Flying Circus is a game about running a biplane company in a post-WWI Hayao Miyazaki aesthetic german countryside. And like a Miyazaki movie, it's not non-violent. There's conflict and dragons and and ancient technology and horrifying things beyond comprehension---but there's also rolling hills and swaying grain fields and the overbearing beauty of a world un-industrialized.

Every player plays a pilot, builds their own plane (out of a *lot* of different component parts,) manages their stress levels between sorties, and engages in highly technical, heavily researched biplane combat where altitude is a currency and there's a million ways your plane can stall out, crash, and explode.

To say that Flying Circus is audacious is underselling it.

This is a high crunch game wearing the shell of a zero crunch game like an octopus in a coconut.

But it's tightly built, *very* comprehensive in what it lets you do while flying a plane, and tricky to learn but fun to try and master.

I am not smart enough for it, but I think it might be one of my favorite games I've read this year.

#flying circus #biplanes #ttrpg #ttrpgs #ttrpg design #indie ttrpg #pbta

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