Recent US warship side launching
more rope more rope boss

that was probably a bit to close for comfort

 

Actually, they did make contact.
The tug was upset;
NOT ON A FIRST DATE!!

 

who else has a big shit-eating smile on their dial..??

why of course.. it’s

​

 

When Edward Lee Howard was on his way to Moscow, he met Lee Marvin on a bus, and they discussed the book that Howard was reading "The Hunt for Red October" which as a twist also featured a story about defection.

 

Recently saw the doco on Team NZ breaking the sail land speed record.
Quite impressive.

a test run on an airfield before leaving for Aussie.

The weather didn't cooperate , with rain turning the salt flat into a shallow lake etc
and they only had very few chances at speed attempts


It takes about a seven mile run to get up to record speeds ,
so it has to be dry

Finally near out of time they got conditions to give it a go

and got several runs in

Bingo , they got it , 222 (138mph)

But what we didn't know ,
is that they got an unexpected break , and took the chance to have another crack at it.
Not revealed untill the program aired last week ,
They broke their own record , so it now stands at just over 225kph. (ratified)




is about 14m long


Looking forward to when they can get back , and hopefully get a better run if weather.
I think it's a safe bet they want to get over 250kph , which there's little doubt is possible , so long as they can handle it up there.
It's a very tricky thing to pilot.
note: the land sail record was 209kph

Now watch for their water speed record attempts .
Can they crack 100 knots ?

the comparable nautical mile record is currently about 55 knots (102mph)
the short course ,
500 meter record about 65 knots

 

Bears don't really love Honey. When hungry bears tear into a beehive, they are actually looking for tasty bee pupae, larvae, and eggs, which provides them with fat and protein instead of the honey which is primarily sugar

 

Kiwi record breaking rock climber has retired.
I'd heard some about here , but never just how much she achieved.
I think anyone would have to be impressed.

***


Mayan Smith-Gobat climbing the route 'Place of Happiness' on Brazil's highest monolith called Pedra Riscada.

* * *
More than a kilometre above ground, profusely bleeding fingers jammed against ice and no sensation in her hands or feet, and yet she feels peace.

Mayan Smith-Gobat and her climbing partner Ines Papert became the fifth known team to ever reach the summit of Riders on the Storm, a historic, notoriously challenging climbing route in Torres del Paine National Park, Chile, in February 2016.

* * *


Mayan Smith-Gobat climbing in Qingfeng Valley, China.

,***
She looked to gain international sponsors and pursue her goals in outdoor climbing on big-wall challenges and in 2011, she became the second female climber to ascend the Salathé Wall – one of the longest routes up El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, California.
**
The following year, Smith-Gobat and her climbing partner set a new record for women speed climbing The Nose, another popular climb up El Capitan in 7 hours and 26 minutes,
breaking the previous record by about five hours
*
They then became the first all-female team to complete the linked climb with Half Dome, also in Yosemite National Park, in under 24 hours.

Smith-Gobat set a new women’s record for The Nose at 4 hours and 43 minutes as well as a mixed-gender record at 3 hours and 29 minutes

** * **



RIDERS ON THE STORM
Route: Riders on the storm
Location: Torre Central, east face, 2800m
Torres del Paine national park, Patagonia, chile
38 pitches – with the new free variant, 1300m route length.
Grade 7c+, 2 pitches which haven’t been free climbed yet
Ines and Mayan free climbed all but 4 pitches of the entire route.
Ines Papert, Mayan Smith-Gobat and Thomas Senf there from 16 Jan – 20 February
Climbing days: 15
Summited at 12:48 on the February 6th 2016
Fifth known ascent of Riders On The Storm



Our goal was to free this route and due to weather, we didn’t complete our mission. We did, however, make significant progress towards this goal. We succeeded in free climbing the upper two pitches, which had previously not been freed, and we found a new 5 pitch “free variant” to avoid the other section of aid.

We had to be creative and use several innovative techniques and combine our individual strengths to succeed as a team.

** * **

2017, she returned to Riders on the Storm with a different partner, Brette Harrington, for a second attempt, this time to free climb the entire route.
When the pair realised it would not be possible, they set a goal to free climb the two hardest pitches.
But brutal storms persisted,
turning sweat into ice,
and of the six weeks spent in the unforgiving weather conditions the pair only managed three days of tackling the pitches.
Smith-Gobat reflected on the climb saying: “All I wanted to do was leave and never come back.”

She didn’t return and it was her last big expedition.

 

J. Fred Muggs was a chimpanzee who co-hosted NBC’s Today Show from 1953 to 1957. It has been estimated that he brought the network over $100 million in revenue (and what did he get - an extra banana?).

Considering the on-air 'talent' they have now, maybe a new monkey is in order. It couldn't be any worse...





View attachment

 

The following is an aviation weather forecast for Cleveland International airport.

KCLE 24130Z 25005KT 5SM - SNRA BR FEW004 BKN021 OVC034 02/00

It means it's cold, cloudy, and a mix of snow and rain.

I chose Cleveland for YOU, @speakeasy

 

The word "perfume" means Of Smoke.
Back in the (very) early days, ancient people discovered different plants gave off different scented smoke and if you stood too close to the fire, or down wind from it, the smoke would pass over you, leaving the scent behind.

 

When Shooter first started running rivers again he was a cop.
They called him "weekend warrior" cause he only ran part time, usually on weekends.

Anyway, on most trips we could expect passengers to bring this special funny smelling tobacco.
And sometimes the other guides would have some of the same "special" tobacco.
For reasons Shooter never fully understood, the ammo cans they carried their special tobacco in were called "whammo cans".

Now often Shooter could smell that special smoke from the special tobacco, especially when he stood down wind from the campfire.
And if he stood down wind long enough, and the scent was strong enough, the flames from the campfire would show some amazingly bright colors.
Once, when the funny tobacco gave off a particularly strong scent, a tree told Shooter that he could fly. Shooter believed the tree, but as it turned out, the tree lied. The other guides luckily were able to pull Shooter out of the river before he got into real trouble, because it never occurred to him to put on a life jacket before he tried to fly.

The other guides were always good about getting Shooter to his sleeping bag, and making sure that if the special scent was in his clothes or his gear, they'd clean it up before Shooter's cop friends came around the house.

Shooter liked his river friends. And he always thought the special tobacco smelled really good.

 

Cheese and rice, I learned some interesting info today.

Apparently one of my students from last year, who is now a 6th grader, was at outside our school recently showing off his ANKLE MONITOR to other students. He is the second student I've had from last year who's been arrested. The other one was arrested for vandalizing his neighbor's car over the summer. And to top that off, another 6th grader who was in the other class was caught giving head to another student at school. What is up with kids these days???

I swear, I have PTSD from my class last year. I'm not even kidding.

Teachers are so undervalued and underpaid.

 

Do you think that MySpace is over? While this (at the time) iconoclastic site has been far overshadowed by Facebook, it still gets more than eight million visitors per month.

I've never been on it, but given Facebook's underhanded dealings, maybe there will be a comeback.

Meh... I still don't care. XNXX is my social media.

 

In Salt Lake City, Utah, it is illegal to walk on the streets carrying a violin in a paper bag.

 

Came across this and Shooter thinks it just might be one of the sexiest non military planes ever.
These all-new high-tech ‘seaplanes’ have something that other airplanes don’t — and they could change travel forever (msn.com)



Switzerland may have been riled by recent banking turmoil, but at least one of the country’s industries is still thriving: electric seaplanes.

In March, Swiss startup Jekta Switzerland SA received its first order to sell 10 zero-emission seaplanes to Dubai-based travel company Gayo Aviation and Tourism. Gayo’s chairman, Gisle Dueland, told Reuters that his company intends to use the planes “for sustainable luxury travel and transport to remote areas.”

The model that Jekta agreed to sell to Gayo, the PHA-ZE 100, can transport 19 passengers and three crew members up to 100 miles on a single charge. Jekta says the plane can charge in just 45 minutes.

Gayo plans to add the planes to its worldwide fleet of 30,000 aircraft. The company has been focused on improving the sustainability of its so-called “experiential travel” offerings, which include multiday excursions on seaplanes and airships.

Both types of expeditions, which are offered in partnership with OceanSky Cruises, take travelers to remote locales in Sweden and the Arctic Circle and are billed as “bespoke itineraries” that offer “a unique and eco-friendly travel experience.”

Though electrifying seaplanes may not seem like an urgent climate priority (as travel booking website Alternative Airlines lists fewer than 50 companies worldwide currently offering seaplane flights), the development of electric seaplanes would have multiple environmental benefits.

 

I may be late to the party here, but I discovered by playing about that if you do a copy-paste of the extremely useful "Blue tags" in the gallery section, then you can paste them into a regular forum post and they still work. Obviously really useful if you want to see every pic of eg
hot4lexi [x] or like me you find pleasure in using very exact tags both for yourself and those who will come across your pics later.

Invaluable for the Pic and Movie forum where there is no obvious add tags option.