Amusing Planet

Somewhat related, one of my favorite 'absurdities' to come from the USSR was the hydraulic computer https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/12/vladimir-lukyanovs-water-compute…

There is a 14 mile tunnel to nowhere in Ellis County which could probably house a few hundred billions worth of computers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_Super_Collider#Fate_of_t… https://www.amusingplanet.com/2010/12/abandoned-remains-of-superconduc…

Basically the difference is that the mural is bigger and probably has the building owners consent, but in terms of aesthetics it's a tossup. Most murals seem to be abstract visual noise that is scarcely better than average graffiti, and on the other hand some rare graffiti is far above average. And then there are the murals with a message, which often end up looking like Soviet propaganda posters (or in fact murals, since the Soviets were big on murals too). Huge images of some local leaders linking arms with workers to deliver symbolic world peace or some tacky saccharine sweet bs like that. If I'm being honest, a lot of these Soviet murals actually demonstrate superior technical skill and aesthetic understanding than the murals in my town (many of which aren't worthy to hang on a mother's refrigerator): https://www.amusingplanet.com/2017/10/the-forgotten-soviet-era-murals.…

My pick for a sight that sounds mundane but is actually fascinating: https://www.jetro.go.jp/en/eccj/ind_tourism/metropolican_discharge.htm… TL;DR: It's the world's biggest storm drain, hiding under greater Tokyo. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/03/g-cans-tokyos-massive-undergroun…

The Great Salt Lake in Utah is split into two lakes by a railroad causeway, creating two very different ecologies with much higher salinity in the northern lake. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2014/08/the-great-salt-lakes-railroad-ca…

Just for wonder's sake. Do you think it could be possible for a system of underground waterways to basically be pushed uphill by a natural dam breaking and the pressure of the Mediterranean sea forcing the water to sort of gush uphill? Similar to [https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/02/why-is-water-pouring-out-of-this… (just a quick Google search, maybe not the best article): > "In the Estonian village of Tuhala, there is a well that starts spouting water after a heavy downpour. The well happens to be placed just over an underground river. After rain water floods the river, water pressure builds to the point that it shoots up out of the well, sometimes up to half a meter high. This continues for a few days. During this time, more than 100 liters of water can flow out every second."

My favourite example is the Indiana Bell Telephone Company headquarters in Indianapolis. It was moved 46m while operating, and retained connection to all grid utilities including electricity, gas, and sewage... https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/10/an-incredible-move-indiana-bell.…

If you like yews and you're ever in the Chichester area on the English south coast, I strongly recommend visiting the yew forest at Kingley Vale. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/08/the-ancient-yew-forest-of-kingle… It's like the trees are alive, and reminds me of the scene in the original "Snow White" movie where she's running through the forest being grabbed by branches! Apparently, they're c. 1000 years old, planted to commemorate a Saxon victory over the Vikings. Incredibly, they were used for RAF target practice during WWII and the site still gets cleared of ordnance occasionally.

I must argue a few points. - Sites like thewirecutter.com make their money from affiliate links - To try this experiment, I need to turn adblocking off. Which I am not willing to. - Ads are not the answer. In fact, an interesting thing happened when a city banned the use of outdoor ads. http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/07/sao-paulo-city-with-no-outdoor.ht… -- people are happier since less information assaults their brains, companies are still doing what they need to do because they needed to get creative ways to convince people why their products are worthwhile.

In Moscow, the subway stations are gorgeous. Most of them are unique pieces of architecture and art, clean, and well maintained. There are coffee table books of high resolution pictures that are worth seeing; here is an online sample of a handful of stations [1]. Contrast this to nyc, where the subway is both filthy and looks like a place that, if I didn't know it was a subway station, I would not be willing to enter unless in a large group. If you're there, it's well worth spending an afternoon visiting the stations. [1] http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/05/art-and-decor-of-moscow-metro-sta…

What a fantastic video. My favourite part: BASE jumping from Verona Rupes - the tallest known cliff in the Solar System - somewhere from 5km to 20km vertical: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110404.html By comparison the tallest vertical drop on Earth is on the surreal Mount Thor at 1250m: http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/03/mount-thor-greatest-vertical-drop… [Some great details - like the Earth coastlines used in the asteroid interior (mentioned on the film's website) and the Taijitu in the crater at 1:54].

There is also this spaceship http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/10/jested-tower-hotel-in-czech-repub… best of 60s design ;)

> There is no way for a human to operate a car safely over a mid to long period of time. My observed injury rate per vehicle mile, per trip, or per time spent, in a car is much lower than the same rates on a bicycle. Incidentally, my largest injury on a bike was due to street car rails, so thanks public transit for making the roads less safe for bicycling. I can't count the number of times I've tripped while walking, resulting in mostly minor injuries, but nevertheless more injuries than I've sustained in automobiles (not counting violence from siblings). Lack of safety restraints on public transit mean more minor injuries from sudden stops as well. > Cars are too big and too heavy Autorickshaws are much smaller, lighter, and more fuel efficient. Plus they're cute! > Infrastructure demands are too great Infrastructure demands for cars scale. You can use cars if you can get fuel to enough fueling stations and have cleared trees and other obstacles from paths. Pavement is optional but encouraged. Parking lots are nice to have, but any cleared space works. You don't get a lot of speed, and probably not much fuel efficiency, but it works. Paved roads are nicer, and they get built because they're useful. Of course, busses and bicycles like paved roads too (paving for bikes requires a lot lower standard too). If you can't get fuel to fueling stations, there's things like wood gasifiers[1], although gasoline and diesel are much more scalable if the infrastructure is…

Remember (the few that are over ~~600 years old might??:) ) Gutenberg invented movable type and a publication explosion followed. Heretofore books were hand copied, with errors etc. A medieval ~Xerox room was full of scribes - hard at work. A Xerox salesman who promised to double the speed of your copying - he walked in a hulking slave with a whip - all the monks visibly and hurriedly sped up. Back to Gutenberg, https://www.livescience.com/2569-gutenberg-changed-world.html the Authors fought printing presses, they fought even lending libraries. Books were often chained to the shelves to limit access as well as theft. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2015/04/the-last-surviving-chained-libra… So here we are now. Progress is hampered by the old farts, the author's guilds, the Enslaviers,(intentional typo on Elsevier) who want us to be in permanent economic thralldom to them. They are mere pebbls in the rivers of progress, so we pay them to go away, or break them up. MIT has the right idea. I wish the Nobel Committee would announce that they will only consider openly published knowledge for future prizes. I wish all governmental other funders of research would mandate open publication. I wish all past published work was declared open NOW!!

Here's a couple of articles: https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/04/people-once-downloaded-games-fro… https://interestingengineering.com/science/you-could-download-video-ga…

Keep in mind that this is a major metropolitan area in a state that has a history of earthquakes. You can expect state level response (and federal as well) within the same day. Their main priority will be water, and elements exposure. Guidance varies. California list here https://earthquake.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/02/OES_Earth… You should have water, food, medical supplies, and cash. btw you might find this interesting https://www.amusingplanet.com/2021/01/san-franciscos-hidden-cisterns.h…

In the subset of possible physical objects, it reminds me of Halfbakery and Chindōgu. https://www.halfbakery.com/category/Product https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/10/chindogu-japanese-art-of-unusele… This of course leaves out impossible products and services like: - Tardis - Unlawful goods and services sales platform, now with physical vending machines for assassination contracts

Why should I have to look the other way? It's the billboard that's an imposition, an intrusion, and a nuisance. (Especially when there are multiple) https://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/07/sao-paulo-city-with-no-outdoor.h…

Seeing the comments here I just searched for an alternative article. This has a nice picture of the dormant volcanic cone called El Cono: https://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/01/sierra-del-divisor-national-park…

> understanding of various areas increased due to the stopping of this practice Yes, this absolutely. You can't study something after altering it. The "treatments" for people with any kind of neurodivergence (real, or imagined) in the past were often interventions that destroyed enough of their brain or body to prevent them from exhibiting any neurodivergent symptoms (e.g. lobotomy, EST/ECT, teeth-pulling[1], etc). [1]: https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/01/henry-cotton-psychiatrist-who-tr…

Another fun fact: useless buildings were commissioned as a form of charity to the starving poor under the guise of gainful employment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conolly%27s_Folly https://www.amusingplanet.com/2017/10/irelands-famine-follies.html Blindboy did an interesting podcast on this: https://shows.acast.com/blindboy/episodes/pineapplefolly

Or this can be adapted to mechanized crops where it makes sense. Greenhouses where small fragile minihouses of 4x3 meters, made of wood and glass 100 years ago, used only in countries with harsh winters. Nobody in their right mind would use a tractor to work on them. Today they can be seen from the space and are mechanized... where it makes sense to do it. They turned a desert into a huge production of fresh vegetables: https://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/08/the-greenhouses-of-almeria.html . Agrivoltaics could be something or nothing. But don't dismiss it because it today isn't already perfect for everything. Ten years ago the cost of the panels alone would make this projects 100% infeasible.

The heartwarming part was too much for Forbes https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/07/how-single-cat-hunted-to-extinct… >Nine months later, he proudly reported that he had shot more than 100 feral cats.

In the linked article (https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/06/the-galloping-horse-problem-and-… there are some examples of "wrong" galloping horses. The first two examples look like the "rotary gallop", which is how a dog or a cat, not a horse, would run. The third example is plainly wrong, because the horses are mid-air but seemly ready to land in one leg.

I thought this was going to be about Edison Houses the invention of Thomas Edison meant to be affordable to help the poor (and he just bought a cement company). His idea of an all concrete house made using a single pour of concrete. Even the cabinets, beds, toilet were supposedly part of design and created during the concrete pour. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/06/thomas-edisons-forgotten-passion…

Tokyo's G-CANS, whose main tank is 25x177x78m, also shows up on HN regularly. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/03/g-cans-tokyos-massive-undergroun…

I remember reading about an early hotel or some such. Passenger elevators weren't a thing but they knew they were coming so they designed in round elevator shafts. Which later they needed to make a custom elevator for. Because round. Google comes through for once. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2020/04/the-elevator-shaft-that-came-bef… tl;dr: Cooper Union's Foundation Building built 1853. Otis demonstrated his invention at the Crystal Palace in 1854, first installed Haughwout Building in 1857 Also freight elevators existed for a long time before but were unsafe for passengers.

> In the United States, vehicles with tires carry twice as much freight as vehicles without them. Tires have an outsized role in individual transportation: The vast majority of Americans commute on tires, outweighing all other modes by about fourteen to one. Another way to look at this is to see the pitiful state of the rail network on the continent: the most efficient way to move goods and people over land, severely underused. The article's author is very excited about tires, but it would be good to balance the stoke with the health and environmental impacts such mass usage of tires has. Rubber dust and microplastics polution in urban centers and along transport corridors contribute to a range of negative health impacts. Not to mention, where do discarded tires end up: https://www.amusingplanet.com/2015/01/worlds-biggest-tire-graveyard-in…

Immediately reminded me of Chindōgu [1]. But truly, I want one of these. [1] https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/10/chindogu-japanese-art-of-unusele…

Never mind that a lot of Volga boats were very single-threaded. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2021/12/belyana-russias-giant-wooden-boa…