Adult Cozy Coupe- Getting off of the sidewalk

John Bitmead has built himself a car.  Roadworthy and capable of 70mph it looks to be a fun cruiser.

Read the story and see more about the build here, and view an additional video here.

Tired

Beware the Spindle Ermines

Spindle ermine larvae in Rotterdam, Holland, mistook this Honda as a food source.  They had already begun to strip a nearby tree of it leaves and decided the Honda was a logical move.  The silk webs protect the larvae from birds and wasps for six weeks before they transform into butterflies.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1188650/Thousands-marauding-caterpillars-trap-car-silky-web.html

Icebergs

Michael J. Quinn is a photographer based in Fort Collins, Colorado.  He traveled to Scoresby Sund in Eastern Greenland to capture images of icebergs- some the size of 15 story buildings.  Some have acquired unique shapes while being formed over the course of hundreds of years.

Additional images can be seen here.

Bespoken

Johnnyrandom is a composer that makes music by turning everyday items into instruments.  His first single release is called Bespoken and all the sounds are made by a bicycle.  Additional information available here.

Bacon

The bacon is hanging outside over the windows of a third floor apartment in Wuhan- the capital of China's Hubei Province.

Bobby working the Square

The Telegraph UK recently ran a photo of the "Naked Cowboy" working in Times Square.  Robert Burck is from Cincinnati, Ohio.  I used to work with his mother.  In 2004 my son and I were on a job assignment and ran into Bobby in Times Square.  We took a few minutes to catch up and then we all went back to work. Rock on Naked Cowboy.

Dangerous beach

Weather extremes featuring wind and water

 Senj, Croatia

Leucadia, California

Temples of Kahurajo

Carved from sandstone the columns of these 1000 year old buildings near Chhatarpur, India contain mostly deities and normal people doing mundane things such as farming, playing musical instruments and making pottery, however, about 10% of the carvings are erotic in nature.  For a closer look go to:
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/temples-of-kahurajo.

The embrace

Gunbus 410

It tips the scales at 1,433 lbs and measures 11.6 feet long.  It carries a 6.7 liter twin cylinder that pushes out 350hp and 523ftlb of torque.  They are handmade in Germany.  Visit the company's website at http://www.leonhardtweb.de/en/gunbus/technology.htm

World's largest salt mines museum

 The old Salina Turda Salt Mines are in Transylvania, Romania.  They have been converted into the world's largest salt mines museum.  The mines were established in the 17th century and were formed without the use of explosives.  Today's visitors can descend almost 400 feet into the museum.

An amphitheater with 180 seats is located at a depth of 140 feet down along with a carousel, ping-pong tables, basketball hoops, mini-golf and bowling.  The museum has a temperature that averages about 55 degrees while the humidity is around 80%.  Some of the old machinery is used to lead people on tours.

Theresa Mine is at the 370 foot level and contains a small lake where boats are available for rental.  There is a rotating wheel that provides the opportunity to see the stalagmites that have formed.

In the Gisela Mine the museum offers health treatments based on the old mine's climate.

Additional images from the Salina Turda Salt mines can be seen here.

Heavy duty

Michelin tire costumes early 1900's

San Diego International Airport traffic

This video records all of the planes landing at San Diego International Airport in a five hour period and compresses it to 30 seconds.  Cy Kuckenbaker shot the individual landings against a clear blue sky and used chroma key to make the sky transparent before finally layering the resulting video with another of just clouds.

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/12/five-hours-of-plane-landings-in-30-seconds-at-san-diego-international-airport/

Mangalitsa swine

The Mangalitsa is a hardy variety of hog that developed from a cross of wild boars and domestic Hungarian pigs.  Described as" large and round" they render copious amounts of lard.  Since the demand for lard has fallen their popularity has declined.

Their unusual fleece can be used for clothing as is shown in this image from the Mangalitsa (Paleo) Festival in Budapest in 2013.  To read more about these unusual animals go to Wikipedia.

Just A Car Guy

I have always had an interest in cars/trucks/motorcycles/machines and the wealth of information/connections on the internet can make for spending way too much time exploring that passion.  One site's posting can lead to a wide array of sources of material.

Case in point... Jesse, in San Diego, maintains several blogs including justacarguy.blogspot.com/.  I go to that blog several times a day in an effort to keep up with his prolific posting efforts.  Seldom am I disappointed by his offerings.   I have been guilty of grabbing something there and reposting it here without giving him credit or providing the link back to his blog.

Jesse on the other hand is very good about providing the link to the source of his posts.  Last week he reblogged the image of the Schmidt motorcycle I posted on December 27th and included the link to my original posting.  It was a nice gesture to include the link and as a result visits to Vector's World increased dramatically.  They were most likely looking for additional information or images of the Schmidt (which I was unable to provide).  However, it is possible that some of those people set a bookmark and will come back occasionally to check out my offerings.

So thank you , Jesse, and I will make more of an effort to give credit where credit is due.  As in the following image from Just a Car Guy today - which is a good example of him not being just a car guy after all.

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2014/01/firehose-bike.html

Springsteen and Fallon

iPad users click here to view the video

Walmart growth

Beginning with one store in 1962 Walmart grew to 3,176 stores by 2006

Relaxing in Indonesia

A Javan Leopard at the Bali Safari Park

World's largest cave

Hang Son Doong is the world's largest cave.  Located in central Vietnam it wasn't discovered until 1991 and then finally explored in 2009.  3 kilometers from the entrance the roof has collapsed and the rainforest has invaded- untouched until now.  There are commercial tours taking people into the cave system at this point. 

It is, of course, a worry as to how the commercialization will be monitored to insure the fragile environment is not damaged.  Have you seen any reports on the damage that commercial enterprise has inflicted on Mt. Everest?

Additional information on Son Doong here as well as on Wikipedia.  There are also numerous videos on YouTube.

iPad users click here to view the video

Pacers

Morning chill

Dan Arkle climbed atop Crib Goch near Snowdon, North Wales to embrace the dawn.

Donald Duck Wet Paint 1946

Saturday Morning Cartoon!!

iPad users click here to watch the video

Winter

I won't complain about summer's heat or mosquitoes, anymore.  I will remind myself that mowing the grass is better than shoveling snow.  I'm going to work on increasing my wood supply.  I'm going to throw some energy at fixing up my place by chaulking around the windows and putting in more insulation.  I'm going to look into getting a better generator.  Next winter is going to be different......

Pitbull Katydid

Happy Birthday, Jimmy

Jimmy Page is 70 today. Considered by many to be one of the greatest guitar players of all times, probably most recognized as the lead guitarist in Led Zepplin.

Led Zepplin was honored with a lifetime achievement award last year at the Kennedy Center as I reported here.

You prak here, we toe 'da kar

Body modification

Victor Hugo Peralta and his wife, Gabriela Peralta are the holders of the Guinness record as the married couple with the most body modifications.

Early chopper- 1910

Zumaia, Spain

Always good advice

Cardrona Bra Fence

It all started in 1999 when four bras appeared on a fence in central Otago (New Zealand).  In a few months there were 60 (bras) flapping in the wind.  The number has now grown to thousands.  Occasionally there are thefts- including more than 1500 in 2006, but the collection continues to grow.

Hiro Yamagata art it's not.....

On December 14 I made a posting concerning Hiro Yamagata's high end Mercedes art piece.  At that time it was available for $295,000

This colorful motorhome has a great fun factor going for it. The "bluewall" tires are stand alone statements but the red wheels and white hubs remove the last shred of doubt that it might be driven by someone who is not your typical American family.

I find the motorhome to be a whole lot more interesting than Yamagata's Mercedes.

Gimme shelter

Contorsion archery artist

Happy New Year