Tired

Thor24

24 cylinders and 12 superchargers along with nitrous injection produces 4000 horsepower.  It tips the scales at 32,000 pounds and pops four drag chutes to bring it back down from the 125 mph top speed.  There are a number of videos on YouTube- none of which I liked enough to post here.  You pick one.

Removing the top layer

You probably missed this...

I sometimes have drafts of posts that I want to make.  As time rolls on occasionally one of those drafts gets lost in the process of moving ahead. 

I can normally bring those missed posts back to the top and publish them.  However, today I was unable to move a draft to the top of the blog.  It contains two videos that I like a lot.  So I thought I would go ahead and publish it even though it shows as being from May 14.

It you would like to see that post you can click here.

2 Minis

Meat Clown

Compressed

Remembering the reason for the day

Thank a soldier

Core sample

A core sample of the 108 year old Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Windsock woman

Mudflops

Working with nature

A foot bridge in Meghalaya, India formed from the root system of a living tree.  Perhaps safe to assume it is greatly appreciated when the water level prevents walking across the rocks.

Doo-Whop bathroom

Group effort

This was a Volvo 740 in a previous life

Rice straw sculptures

In Japan after the rice harvest the straw is sometimes used to make large sculptures.  In a society where little is wasted one has to believe that these are later taken down and the straw is used for animal bedding and mulching.  Additional examples are here.

Arkansas traveler

Stackables

Brothers of different mothers

Kermit evidently evolved from the Glass Frog.

Presto chango

Like riding on air

Synchronized swimming

Brondby Garden City, Denmark

Cottage allotments set aside for people who want to get away from the city and get some air...

1959 Aermacchi Chimera

I'm a butterfly... no, I'm a leaf... no

Stay in school, kids...

No truck needed

RIP Little Richard 1932-2020

Rolling Stone has a nice write-up on Little Richard here.

Clever execution

Minimalistic biking

Cowgirl

Happy times

Low Rider

Cinco de Mayo

Remembering Kent State: May 4, 1970

Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder were killed by the Ohio National Guard on the campus of Kent State University 50 years ago today.

I was not on the Kent State campus on Monday, May 4, 1970.  I had graduated in December the previous year.  I was still living with friends on Kent's Main Street while teaching in a nearby community.

The unrest had started the previous week and there was an anti-war demonstration on the campus commons at noon on Friday.  There was another protest scheduled for Monday at noon.  Downtown on Friday evening the Kent police became involved with individuals who were still protesting the invasion of Cambodia by the United States.  Several bonfires were started, bottles were thrown and windows in the downtown businesses were broken.

Kent Mayor Satrom declared a state of emergency and called in all members of the Kent police force as well as those from surrounding areas.  They closed the bars and as the people filled the streets they used tear gas to force them back to campus.

The mayor contacted Governor Rhodes and asked for his help.  Rhodes called up the National Guard.  By the time the Guard arrived on campus Saturday night an ROTC building was ablaze. Tensions on campus were high.

Sunday was a beautiful spring day and foot traffic was heavy on the Kent campus.  The Guard had taken up positions around campus but everything was calm.  People were curious about the Guard being on campus, but there was no angry exchanges between them and the people enjoying the beautiful spring day.

That night a very large crowd of students tried to make their way downtown, but they were stopped by a large contingency of police and Guardsmen who were supported by tear gas, armored personnel carriers and a helicopter.  The crowd was pushed back onto campus and eventually they dispersed.

I went to work Monday morning.  Monday afternoon the news of the shootings was circulating in my school.  By the time I left school the university had been closed and everyone was ordered to leave campus.  Of course not everyone had the transportation that was needed to comply with the order.  There were hundreds of people walking along the roads away from Kent as I was making my way back to my place of residence.  I will always remember driving back and being stopped at a roadblock.  I was questioned about who I was, where I was going and why I was going there.  I think the fact that I was wearing a shirt, tie, and dress slacks reinforced the fact that I was a teacher and that I was going home.  They informed me there was a 7:00 PM curfew and let me go.

I was to learn that four students had been killed in the gunfire that erupted that afternoon while nine others were wounded.  I was acquainted with two of those students.  Sandy Scheuer was 400 feet away when she was killed while walking to her next class.  Douglas (Scott) Mackenzie was wounded while 750 feet away.

Kent State University has wavered on how it chooses to recognize the events of that day.  At one point it seemed as though they simply wanted to forget it.  When May 4th rolled around there seemed to be little acknowledgement or accommodation in remembering what had happened.  This year a large commemorative event was planned , but of course COVID-19 has required that it now be a virtual event.  The center piece of that event begins at noon today.  Information is available at https://www.kent.edu/may4kentstate50.  Like all pivotal events in history they are apt to be recorded with varying amounts of misinformation and political spin.  To the university's credit they have made an effort to offer up an accurate reporting of the events leading up to and including May 4, 1970.  You can read that at https://www.kent.edu/may-4-historical-accuracy

The question of why did the National Guard open fire on a crowd of unarmed students will never be answered to everyone's satisfaction.  There is plenty of blame to offer up as to how we arrived at that awful moment.  One thing we know for sure is that it was a very dark day in our history.

Rollin'

Home built

Safe