ok, technically this is laser, but not really the same kind of laser.
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That was entertaining, scary, and stupid. And I enjoyed it more than I care to admit.
It was not at all what I was expecting form the thumbnail.
(“Don’t let the tree fall on the laser, push it onto the house instead!”)
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safety third!
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A very interesting lecture on solving that issue, that also lays out the points I was making.
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About as far from lasers as you get but still cool. Making stone rice cookers in Korea.
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What an enormous investment in time and effort - and water. There are so many machines that could break down on any given day with belts and bits to replace.
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Yeah and the manual stone splitting wedges and whatnot, it was all pretty cool. I kept thinking “that waste rock would make excellent artificial reef material.”
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A video for cat lovers:
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The world’s largest wave pool,
If you are short of time, watch the sequence starting 9:30 where the pool is drained and new equipment is installed.
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Lovely photo! I read that as a “maritime oops” and was looking for the splash.
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Hah, no oops in my ops!
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Very cool photo!
Is that a fishing vessel? The arms coming out the sides looks like it is for nets.
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Yeah. Can’t say for sure but this area is popular with shrimpers. The booms seem to be dragging nets.
Huh with some googling I found this which is wild:
And this, which identifies them as trawlers:
https://towndock.net/on-the-cover/jimmy-andy-johnny-jr
A tiny bit of googling about the boats used for shrimping yields this:
So the Jimmy and Andy jr is a trawler, trawlers are frequently used to fish for shrimp (via quite destructive drag netting), this area is popular for shrimp fishing… sooooo looks like we have a pretty good working theory. 
It’s really amazing what you can find out with 2 minutes and google. I mean I know that all the time but still examples like this make me realize it all over again.
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We are the last generation to know what life was like before Google - you know, people with encyclopedias and dictionaries that got used frequently.
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Sometimes change is good. My parents bought me the entire set of Encyclopedia Britanica at no small expense (in Africa), and I remember how frustrating it was to have to go to the public library (by bus, and walking - took well over an hour each way) if I needed to research something it didn’t have or cover sufficiently…
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I don’t lament that things are easier to know, I lament the fact that we can’t ever really get lost or expect true privacy anymore. It’s astounding how much we are constantly tracked and advertised to, and how it’s very difficult to get real quiet or disconnection.
The psychological effects of the way we’re doing things now with constant-on data connections and social media will take decades to truly understand, but to me the high incidence of mental health problems seems so directly related to those things.
I’m far from a Luddite boomer type, but I do seriously question the direction this is taking us.
(He says from his iphone)
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You kids get off my LAN!
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When I was still able (physically - major health issues now), I would regularly hike or ride without any maps/gps and away from civilization, and often with no cell/internet. I also stayed in cabins up in the mountains.
Working in high-tech and traveling typically at least once per week, often globally, really took a toll on me and my health.
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like every other major change, there are good and bad sides of it. i still think overall the improvements are more on the good side. but human nature means there are still plenty of #%@#%s out there who will find a way to use those improvements for nefarious purposes.
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