Saturday - July 14, 2012

muck raking american press? Simon says so.

Brit Conservative, (a real one) had a word about Romney and Obama in the paper this morning.

It was just a tiny box within his whole column which deals with affairs here in the UK.

Before I get to that, I’d like to share the headline used to describe what the govt. here has become. And he isn’t alone in that opinion.
Of course, this headline is a lot milder then it would be if LyndonB had written it.

We are no longer being governed, just patronised by self-regarding pygmies who play at politics

By SIMON HEFFER

Here’s his brief take on our coming election.

The U.S. Presidential election is heating up again, as the conventions near and the final push for votes begins. The American Press, which is almost uniformly Democrat, is muck-raking frantically about Republican Mitt Romney — their ‘muck’ consisting mainly of Mr Romney being rich, successful and understanding how business works.

Given the mess America’s economy is in under a President who knows less about economics than I do about brain surgery, it is lucky to have Mr Romney in the wings. And I suspect that the American public has a rather different view of these matters from the American media.

Posted by peiper     on 07/14/2012 at 09:35 AM   
Filed Under: • Editorials • Politics • USA •  
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   Friday - July 13, 2012

In The Inbox

Making The World A Better Place



As we get older we sometimes begin to doubt our ability to “make a difference” in the world.

It is at these times that our hopes are boosted by the remarkable achievements of other “seniors” who have found the courage to take on challenges that would make many of us wither.

Ted is such a person:

How does Ted make a difference, and make his world a better place?

Posted by Drew458     on 07/13/2012 at 07:18 PM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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FRIDAY NIGHT EYE CANDY AND GOOD NIGHT TO ALL

It’s the end of a long and exhausting day so I’ll take myself upstairs with my new book and leave you with these nice photos.

EMMA STONE as a redhead and a blonde. Whatcha think?

hard to believe it’s all the same girl.
Emma Stone as a blonde again

KELLY BROOK

Posted by peiper     on 07/13/2012 at 01:12 PM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
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BABES AND GUNS …. ISRAEL OF COURSE

I love some of the comments ppl are making at the DM. (Daily Mail)
Anyway .... there’s something so fetching about a girl and her gun.  Isn’t there.

Reading the comments which can often be more interesting then the articles, it’s apparent that some ppl just do not understand why Israel stays armed to the teeth. 

They really are dangerous curves: Heavily armed and bikini-clad female Israeli soldiers ‘mingle’ with beachgoers

Women make up almost one-third of the IDF and 50% of its officers

Almost the entire female population must spend two years in the military after reaching 18 due to compulsory military service

In a bid to promote tourism in 2007, Israel’s Foreign Ministry backed a public relations campaign showing former female soldiers in bikinis on its beaches

By JILL REILLY

Standing confidently on the beach, with a rifle casually slung over her shoulder, you would think twice about knocking over this woman’s sandcastle. 

The bikini-clad subject is thought to be a solider and a member of the highly-trained Israeli Defence Forces.

Since the surprising photo, snapped in Tel Aviv, was posted on the internet it has gone viral with many users reacted with shock at seeing such a hostile weapon on a sunny beach.

Under Israeli military regulations, if members take their weapon out from their military base they must keep them near at all times.

Punishments for losing or misplacing a weapon can include time in a military prison.

The photo, which has now been viewed hundreds of thousands of users, seems to have originated on Facebook under the title ‘Only in Israel’ and then spread across the internet, including onto the social news website Reddit.

Another user wrote: ‘The photo is taken on the beach in Tel Aviv, and it is commonplace to see such sights during the summer.’

Israel’s compulsory military service means that almost the entire female population must spend two years in the military after reaching 18.

FORGET THE ARTICLE AND READ THE COMMENTS

Posted by peiper     on 07/13/2012 at 10:16 AM   
Filed Under: • Israel •  
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ANOTHER CLASSIC ROLLS UP FOR AUCTION. ONCE OWNED BY TOM MIX

WOW-za!  Another car and what a beauty she is. Wouldn’t it be nice to own this one and the one from the other day?  Wouldn’t want to use em to go grocery shopping that’s certain.  Of course, assuming one could afford these toys, one would not do the shopping.  And not with this sort of car.

Is it just the way I imagine things or were folks a bit more careful about other people’s cars in parking lots in those bygone days?  Bet the parking spaces were bigger.  I have an image, probably fantasy, that folks were more polite in an earlier age. But maybe not.
Cars were sure pretty though.

Have to make some allowances for the writing here.  I mean after all, how could someone be a “finest” star during the silent period. And then when talkies arrived in the early years, the acting wasn’t exactly prime time.  I used to listen to the Tom Mix radio show in my day when radio was good but sadly dying.  Of course, Mix was gone by then so someone played him on radio. But the name was alive sure enough so he must have been extremely popular.  I also recall seeing one or two of his movies in later years on TV, but by then I was used to better acting.  Still, his was a name remembered by many.

Got carried away there. This is about a car.

Now that’s horse power! 1927 Rolls Royce owned by legendary Hollywood cowboy Tom Mix set to fetch £130k at auction

Stunning vintage car was later owned by Warner Brothers

It appeared in films such as Inside Daisy Clover and The F.B.I. Story

Will go under the hammer at Blenheim Palace this Saturday

By DANIEL MILLER

A car which belonged to one of the biggest names in the history of Hollywood cowboy films is set to fetch more than £130,000 when it goes under the hammer in a UK auction.

With its impressive Hollywood history and a whopping a 7.7L engine, the incredible Rolls Royce Phantom I Playboy Roadster is expected to cause a stampede of interest from film buffs around the world.

Auctioneers estimate the hammer will fall in excess of £120,000 for the 1927 model once owned by Tom Mix, one of Hollywood’s finest stars during the 1920’s.

( £120,000 = 186.384 USD )

Cowboy Tom was the biggest names of the Hollywood silent film generation, appearing in a staggering 291 films between Between 1909 and 1935.

( cowboy tom? i don’t recall anyone writing about or referring to him as, “cowboy tom.” although he once was according to legend.)

He bought the car in 1933 and spruced it up with the latest features to ensure that it was special enough to be driven by a star such as himself.

Former owner: Actor Tom Mix appeared in a staggering 291 films between Between 1909 and 1935

The headlights were lowered, the wings underwent a radical updating, a fog light was added and an ultra-modern radio was built into the dash.

Despite being 85 years old, the beautiful motor still has a top speed of 90mph enough to send any bidder sailing happily into the sunset.

The lot is due to go under the hammer at Coys specialist motor auction this Saturday at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, and has been drawing lots of attention from film fans with enough cash to splash.

Potential bidders have also been impressed by the chance to own a car with such a dazzling Hollywood history outside of the US.

Tom was fatally injured in a car crash with his other classic car, a Cord L29 in 1940 but this was not the end of the Rolls’ big screen roles.

THERE’S A LOT MORE TO READ AND SEE HERE

Posted by peiper     on 07/13/2012 at 08:39 AM   
Filed Under: • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles • UK •  
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welcome to the olympic security training class. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Bungling Olympic security firm trains 3,300 teenagers to guard the Games in £284m debacle… but some of the A-Level students seem more keen to snooze and listen to their iPods

· Teen guards ‘behaving like children’ during training exercises
· Security firm G4S accused of jeopardising public safety
· Troops set to be drafted in to fill shortfall
· Theresa May said Logoc will impose penalties on the firm for the mess

By STEPHEN WRIGHT and DAVID WILLIAMS

Sitting in the back row of a classroom, a young man listens to music through bright red headphones.
Next to him a woman is slumped asleep across her desk.

This was the scene at a recent training session for Olympics security guards recruited by G4S.
It was photographed by a fellow student appalled by the poor calibre of those hired by the beleaguered security firm.
The picture will offer fresh embarrassment for Olympic chiefs coming ont he day it emerged that hundreds of A-level students have been hired as front-line security guards at the Games.
They are among 3,300 teenagers recruited from colleges around Britain to help form a ring of steel at the venues.

Security experts expressed alarm that youngsters aged 18 and 19 had been entrusted with searching spectators and bags.
And some accused G4S, the private security firm, of jeopardising public safety by recruiting the students on £8.50 an hour to cut costs.
A whistleblower told the Mail: ‘Some of the people on that course you would not hire to empty a dustbin. You are talking about really poorly educated, slovenly yobs.

SEE IT ALL HERE

Posted by peiper     on 07/13/2012 at 08:11 AM   
Filed Under: • Sports • UK • work and the workplace •  
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cwime and punishment

We have not had a day without rain since the beginning of June.
Just thought I’d mention that for no particular reason.

OK .... this morning’s starting post from peiper.  One of the many things in today’s mixed up left wing touchy feely answer to crime and crinamals.
Spelled that way because I have this vision of how a libtard would spell the word. It has a slightly less harsh sound to it then criminal. See?  That ‘n’ makes all the difference in the world.
I do not know if this sort of hair brained experiment has been done in the USA or not.  If not, please don’t try it no matter what the bed wetters on the left claim.  Of course, you will all be surprised. Right?

A number of years ago, some loony tune whose name just happens to be McNutt, thought it would be a neat idea to send a yootful offender on a world trip, expecting that he would be turned from a life of crime cwime. No surprises of course that the grand social engineering project in this case failed.  Miserably. 

I don’t know what the rate of exchange was back then, but in today’s dollars £7,000 would come to approx. $10,800.

Take a look.

Safari Boy back in court for his 112th crime
By Nick Britten, The Telegraph

When he was sent on a three-month safari to Africa 19 years ago, the plan was that seeing less privileged societies than his own, and removing him from his criminal surroundings, would act as a cure for Mark Hook’s unlawful ways.
Two decades on, it has clearly not worked.

Mark Hook – dubbed “Safari Boy” after his £7,000 foreign trip paid for by the public purse caused outrage in the early 1990s – was dubbed a “perpetual villain” by a judge who sentenced him for his 112th crime on Thursday, July 12.

Hook’s spectrum of criminality covers burglary, theft, driving offences, assault, handling stolen property, and possessing an offensive weapon.
Before Thursday he had made 32 court appearances over the last 20 years comprising 111 offences, 43 of which were thefts.

His latest brush with the law involved him mugging a woman shopper last September and handling credit cards stolen from another woman, and at aged 35 the fear is that there’s plenty still to come.

Hook’s latest crimes were exactly the same as when he was last jailed – for two years – in 2009 for mugging a frail 80-year-old man in the street.

In 1993, aged 17 but already transgressing the law, Gloucestershire County Council sent him to Bryn Melyn, a North Wales therapy centre for troubled youths.

The principal, Brendan McNutt, had not long before hit upon the idea of taking persistent offenders out of their criminal environment and abroad; where they would not know the culture, money or geography; where they could build a relationship with their guide and crucially, where they would be unable to run away.

Funded by the money the centre was receiving from social services, Hook went on an 88-day visit to Egypt and Kenya to visit places where people were worse off than him.

Whatever the immediate outcome was meant to be, it did not work. Hook began offending again as soon as he returned, continuing on an almost non-stop crime spree which has never stopped.

A descendant of Private Henry Hook, the Rorke’s Drift VC hero of the Zulu Wars, Hook is not the only youngster to be sent abroad, but is certainly the most notorious.

When word got out about his safari, it caused such a national outcry that John Major, then Prime Minister, put an end to such foreign trips.
His Home Secretary Michael Howard, accused the authorities of having “more money than sense” whilst Virginia Bottomley, then Health Secretary, waded in, saying that “children involved in wrongdoing should not feel rewarded for their actions”.

Brendan McNutt, the former Bryn Melvyn manager and the man who dreamt up the idea of foreign trips, accused ministers of “attacking a myth”.
He said: “We organise a very intensive therapeutic programme in places throughout the world. We are not sending children on holiday. One member of staff is with the youngster for 24 hours a day, re-parenting every aspect of their behaviour.”

complete story here

What?  Re-parenting?  Uh huh. We can all see how well that has worked out.  What’s with libtards and these new fangled words and expressions they come up with to justify soft approaches to crime?

Now that’s out of the way we can concentrate on another similar article going back to more recent times.

I originally posted this back in ‘09.  Good gosh.  How long have I been with BMEWS now?  Time flies.

Now a reasonable person, usually a conservative although from time to time you might run over oops, run into, oops. You might meet a reasonable liberal.  I’m sure they exist someplace. Anyway, a person could assume it’s hoped, that based on prior experience, the authorities would have avoided this blunder.  But no.  Being hand wringing, bed wetting, weepy eyed, bleeding hearts, their answer to this cwiminal was, another twip.
Remember this one?

‘Canal Boy’ who was treated to boating holiday jailed for new wave of burglaries

7:30AM GMT 17 Dec 2009

A serial criminal who earned the nickname “Canal Boy” after social services paid for him to go on a boating holiday in the hope of turning him away from crime has been jailed for a string of burglaries.

Clinton Bowen, who was 15 when he was treated to the three-month trip in 1997, appears not to have benefited from the attempted rehabilitation.
The 28-year-old is now starting a now starting a five year jail term after stealing family heirlooms from elderly victims in a string of raids.

Bowen was on parole from an earlier jail term when he committed 22 burglaries between March and July this year to fuel his drug addiction, Gloucester Crown Court was told.

In the late 1990s Bowen was one of a number of young offenders who appeared to be rewarded for their crimes by being taken on holiday at public expense or given excessive pocket money in a bid to steer them away from crime.

Safari Boy Mark Hook, who was taken to Africa and Egypt for 88 days, and Pocket Money Boy Casey Bowen, who was given £60 a week by social services, have both also been jailed this year for their latest crimes.

complete article to refresh the memory

I’m pretty certain they aren’t doing that these days with “austerity” being preached from the rooftops. That’s austerity with a capital ‘A’ folks but it only applies to the peasant class.

Posted by peiper     on 07/13/2012 at 05:34 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Daily Life • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • UK •  
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   Thursday - July 12, 2012

Yeah, they want to dig him up

“Jesus was a Palestinian too!”

“Right of return! Right of return!!”

Aww, shuddup. Actually, the loonies are about to exhume old Yes Sir Arafish because a rumor was going around he was poisoned with Polonium, just like that defected Soviet spy the KGB knocked off in London.

Because polonium poisoning can’t be told apart from full blown AIDS, right? And since there is no such thing as homosexuality over there ...

WTH, they blame the Jews for his death already, so it can’t get any worse. I hope.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/12/2012 at 12:04 PM   
Filed Under: • Humor • Paleswine • RoPMA •  
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benefit claims are a human right and mcdees corners the fries market at olympics

I must go out before more rain and clip hedges. Again.  I can’t believe how fast things grow in the rain forest called England.

OK about this post.
I have nothing against charity or lending a helping hand when I can.  I should put that in past tense as many things have changed since the wife and I were a part of the everyday American workforce.  When we were both young and gainfully employed, the wife gave 10% to charity.  So I have no cheapskate problem with help for those in need.  Hey, once upon a time I was there but had the good fortune to have family support (paid back every single dime) and worked more then one job.  Once I felt the humiliation of actually collecting unemployment for a short period.  And btw, back then they really did check on you.  So I drove a taxi (hated it) and when I wasn’t doing that I worked in a metal scrap yard. Early day in yard and late plus evenings on the taxi. Tiring.
It never, ever would have dawned on me in those far away years, that being on the dole (never was) or even unemployment was some sort of divine right.  Certainly never thought in terms of a human and civil “right.”

My, my how times have changed.  Take a look.

The human right to claim benefits: Jobless could sue for better payments under controversial plan
· Experts are considering whether Labour’s Human Rights Act should include socio-economic rights
· Job-seekers could take the Government to court if ministers failed to provide minimum standard of living
By JAMES SLACK

Human rights law will be extended to include the right to claim benefits and enjoy a comfortable standard of living courtesy of the taxpayer under plans unveiled last night.

A Government panel of experts is considering whether Labour’s Human Rights Act – which is already hugely controversial – should be extended to include so-called ‘socio-economic rights’.

This would allow the jobless to take the Government to court if ministers did not provide a minimum standard of living.
Earlier this week, a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggested a family of four needed an income of almost £37,000 ($54,109.89) to have a satisfactory lifestyle.

Originally, the Prime Minister had pledged to scrap Labour’s Act and replace it with a UK Bill of Rights, which would stop the system being abused by criminals and those who refuse to work.

But, after being forced into a coalition with the Liberal Democrats he had to downgrade his pledge. Instead, he established the commission to decide the best way forward. Yesterday, despite deliberating for 15 months, the panel said it had not decided whether to recommend any change to the Act.

But it said that, if it did decide to opt for a Bill of Rights, it wanted to consider suggestions from the public and pro-human rights groups on whether to add on yet more ‘human rights’ which must be respected by Parliament and the courts.

READ MORE

For the fun side of things I have this to offer.

For those who do not know.

* Americans:  French Fries

* Brits:  Crisps

There will be no testing.

The Brits love their chips, but even my wife gags with dismay at the thought of chips served with lasagne.  I can not imagine that. Quick, get the Rolaids.

McDonald’s force Olympics bosses to ban all other restaurants from selling chips… unless they’re served with fish

· Hundreds of restaurants and food retailers expected to be affected
· Memo about the change said retailers don’t back the decision
· All British favourites must be served without chips - except for fish
By EMMA CLARK

Hundreds of food outlets at Olympic venues have been forced to take chips off the menu, because of a demand from sponsor McDonald’s.

Olympic chiefs have banned all 800 food retailers at the 40 Games venues across Britain from dishing up chips because of ‘sponsorship obligations.’

The only loophole in the agreement, announced in a memo to staff, is that chips can be served with fish - safeguarding Britain’s most famous dish.

But is seems the bosses have predicted an outrage about the decision, emphasising that the move was not backed by the food retailers.

The memo reads: ‘Due to sponsorship obligations with McDonalds, Locog have instructed the catering team they are no longer allowed to serve chips on their own anywhere within the Olympic park.

‘The only loophole to this is if it is served with fish.’
‘Please understand this is not the decision of the staff serving up your meals, who given the choice would gladly give it you however they are not allowed to.

‘This is being escalated through to the directors of L2012C and Locog and the IOC.
‘Please do not give the staff grief; this will only lead to us removing fish and chips completely.

‘Everyone has a right to work in a none abusive environment.’
Commercial partners Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Cadbury, Nature Valley and Heineken will be the only branded products sold at the games.

more

And here’s pretty much what touched off a bit of bother on the subject.

OH WHOOPS, WRONG PHOTO. LOL

Posted by peiper     on 07/12/2012 at 05:56 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • UK • work and the workplace •  
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   Wednesday - July 11, 2012

A Target Rich Environment

I am very fortunate to live in an area positively saturated with historic bridges. They’re everywhere, but you’ll never see one if you only stick to the major roads. You have to go a few blocks back, at which point almost all of the county becomes really rural and the calendar seems to rewind about a century or so. I figured out why these old chunks of metal have lived so long too: they are all in a pocket neighborhood, a north-south rectangle that has always had bypass routes on either side. You can get between Clinton and Interstate Route 78 (just north of this map) and Flemington and Route 202/206 by taking the back when down the west side of this zone on county roads and, or you can make the trip using local highway Route 31 to the east. So there is no real reason to go into that neighborhood unless you live there. And if you do live there, heavy trucks can get in and out using both those paths; they never have to pass over any of these antique ironworks.

I’ve written about a few of the bridges around here before, and with the “House” bridge post the other day you were reminded that it’s one of my interests. Well, the weather has been bearable the past two days, and I really, really needed to get away for a bit. So I did. And I really enjoyed the fresh air and the absolute silence you get in the country. I stood in the middle of the road on nearly a dozen bridges, taking loads of pictures, and only twice had to step aside to let any kind of vehicle come past. For a suburbanite, that’s some kind of ideal. Only thing better would be being 16 and spending the day lazily tubing down the river with friends, like I saw a few kids doing. What an excellent way to spend a day in July.

I like old truss bridges because they are science and architecture that I can understand. You can see how they work just by looking at them, and most of them are so light and minimalist that you can actually watch them working when a car drives by. Put a load here and this piece gets stretched, and that piece over there gets compressed. Which means that the load had to have been carried to it by that one over there. Just try doing that with a modern circuit board. I understand nuts and bolts the size of my hands, and rivets big enough to use as hammer heads. But when bridges get too big and too strong, then you can’t see them working, and that’s a shame. Today’s modern spans are so strong, so tight, and so generic that their magic is hidden. And I think that’s a shame. Granted, put me in a big heavy truck, or out in a hurricane on a bridge, and I’ll choose a modern over-built job any day of the week and be thankful. But I just don’t see the grace in them, which is why I appreciate all the flyweight “fairy bridges” we have on the back roads here in Hunterdon County.  Art you can drive on, physics you can see working. All is right with the world.

I took a ton of photos. Maybe I’ll make a bridges section in the Gallery and upload them. But every last one is already online, usually with better photographs than I could take. But I’ll share some anyway.

The entire northern half of New Jersey, except for the western escarpment just a few miles wide along the Delaware River border with Pennsylvania, drains into the Atlantic Ocean at Raritan Bay, just south of Staten Island. Geologists call the land the Newark Basin. And every little stream flows there eventually, joining up with other streams along the way, forming rivers of decent size. One of our rivers is the South Branch of the Raritan River, usually locally just called the South Branch. It’s everywhere it seems. Hunterdon has been populated since the Dutch held New Amsterdam, and most of the roads were laid down long before the revolution. So we had hundreds of little wooden bridges once upon a time, and as they wore out they got replaced with something made from iron or steel. But the population was stable for ages, so the bridges never really got worn out. So they’re still standing. And they get maintained; the county long ago figured out that these old iron works add to the local charm, and help bring in the tourist dollars. Yummy delicious tourist dollars. So very few have been left to rot or replaced with modern ones unless the old ones got destroyed.

Lower Landsdowne Road, iron Pratt truss, 1885
My 2nd most favorite fairy bridge. It’s made from cast and wrought iron, not steel. Pinned sections of course. It uses cast quarter round sections riveted together into tubes for the uprights and top chords, called Phoenix columns. This single lane bridge is only about 3 car lengths long, and it’s so lightly built that you can hardly even see it from the wrong angle. And it’s been in constant use since 1885. Like the Main Street bridge in downtown Clinton, the other Phoenix column bridges here, and a couple other ones, the metal came from the Cowin iron works in Lambertville NJ, just a couple towns to the south. It’s 4 section Phoenix columns are REALLY small. The modern barrier protects the bridge as much as it protects the drivers, but it kind of hurts the aesthetics. And no, that’s not the hand of God. That’s the hand of Drew. This bridge is skewed, which means that one end is longer than the other. All bridges are built on the cheap and they always have been. A skewed bridge shows that, because nobody was willing to spend the extra money on an unnecessary extra end post. They don’t add much strength, so they often get cut from the budget.


Lots more on the overleaf, if you aren’t already yawning. All of these pictures are now linked, so click on any of them to see them in their original 4000x3000 12MP format.

The Lower Landsdowne bridge is off on a side creek in a boggy area, about a half mile from the South Branch proper. If you wanted to go on an unhurried bridge spotting odyssey, you couldn’t go wrong by starting out with the Main Street bridge in Clinton (not covered in this post) and putting your canoes, kayaks, or inner tubes in the river just below the dam by our famous Red Mill. Then you can just float along, and see all these bridges plus at least half a dozen semi-interesting railroad bridges, in the space of a few hours. I don’t know how fast the river flows, not too fast, but all of these bridges are within a 3 mile water journey, start to finish. Have somebody pick you up at Stanton Station Road, or opt to laze your afternoon away some more and go another couple of miles downstream to see the Rockafellows Mill bridge and then the double bridges at Higginsville Road (also not covered in this post). Visit the Landsowne and Payne Road bridges on your drive back up to Clinton. If you do that, you are sure to have your bridge spotting desires satiated by nearly two dozen old bridges in a day. And you’ll hardly even have to paddle. Then have a great meal in one of our top rated local restaurants, while you recount your adventure with your friends. The Duck Chu Chee at Pru Thai is awesome, and just a block from the river.



Upper Hamden Road modern steel half-subdivided Warren two span pony truss, 1995
Go down Landsdown and turn left on Hamden. A quarter mile up the road is this modern monster. There had been a great little old fairy bridge there until 1995, but it got washed away in a storm. So some engineer - who thinks like me I gather - came in and put in a bridge that ain’t never EVER going to wash out, break down, or be over burdened. You could run tanks across this thing. Holy cow. It’s a double Warren Truss [ my error: this is NOT a double Warren, it is a half reinforced (subdivided) Warren Truss (notice that a vertical bisects only every other “V” and “/\”,)], and because the sections aren’t connected across the top it’s called a pony. But these things are too big to be ponies, so I’m calling them horses just for fun.



Lower Hamden Road’s ghost: the Fink truss that once was. 1858 iron through truss
Turn around and go back down Hamden, and the road suddenly has a barrier across it. Dead end. It used to go through. It used to go over the Fink. But no more. The Fink is dead. Gone. A ghost. Somebody killed him with a Chevy, in 1978.

This nice little Pratt truss foot bridge crosses the South Branch where the Fink once stood, and now cars have to take the long way around. The neighbors like it like that. No through traffic at all. Not that Hamden Road is that busy a street.

The Fink that was. This was the oldest metal bridge in the USA, being built just 4 years after Herr Fink came up with the design and patented it. It was in continuous service from 1858 - 1978. There is only one other Fink Truss left in the country, perhaps in the world. And while that one, the Zoarville bridge is prettier, and once was much bigger, ours was 10 years older and in actual use for much longer. Looks a lot like a Bollman truss, doesn’t it? Um, a what???

Fink vs. Bollman. Similar very early truss designs, though the Fink uses less metal - and cheaper always wins in bridge designs of equal ability. The problem with both bridges is that the end posts carry the entire load of the bridge. And neither designer had a full size 70s Chevy in mind when they came up with these cast iron designs before the Civil War even began.

Chevy vs. Cast Iron Kingpost: both lose. The death of the Hamden Road Fink Truss, 1978

But Hunterdon can still claim the title of “oldest metal bridge in America”, because after the accident they gathered up the pieces and put them in a warehouse. For someday, when they could find someone to recast the kingpost. And afford it. Fink bridges were a kind of Phoenix column bridge too, but it’s hard to hunt what isn’t there. So call the score so far 1 Phoenix, 2 horses, and 1 ghost. If you follow the above links to the Zoarville bridge, notice how much heavier Fink made his kingposts on that one, after only 10 years of practice. You live, you learn. Understanding old truss bridges is a kind of evolution in iron and steel. It took about 70 years for the truss to fully evolve. The very early ones seemed to be iron versions of “jungle” wooden plank bridges suspended by ropes. The later ones were marvels of strength and simplicity. Then pre-stressed concrete came along, and that was pretty much the end of the truss bridge era.

Footprints of greatness, and the only remaining piece of the original. I think I should rename this the “Ozymandius Bridge”.



Moving right along; a collection of miniature ponies. Bridge history sites exclaim in wonder about Hunterdon County’s use of double and triple pony trusses where other towns would simply build a larger single section bridge. But those were newer pony bridges, the pieces brought in by truck. Ours came in by horse drawn wagon. And around tight corners, and up and down steep little forested hills. I think that explains why we have so many itty bitty old pony bridges here. Plenty of open space in Oklahoma. Nice and flat in most parts of Kansas.


Payne Road Bridge, steel Pratt pony truss, 1900

The Payne Road bridge. It’s as small as it gets: two ends and a middle section. 45 feet? Thereabouts. A bit longer than two pickup trucks, but it seems shorter. This 1899ish bridge (the abutment is marked 05-30-03) started out as a pinned section mini-truss. Later on strengthening bits were bolted on, and later on after that more strengthening bits were welded on. Outriggers got added at some point ... but underneath all the additions is still a wood floored pinned Warren truss of the most flyweight design. Payne Road is mostly farm, and has been since forever. The bridge was built to carry a single haywain from the fields to the main road, or maybe to drive a few cows across.

It wasn’t made of I beams or angle iron sections. This one was put together out of straps. Outside of a Tinker Toy set, this is the most lightly built metal bridge I’ve ever seen ... which is why it needed so much strengthening over the years.

We interrupt this post for a word about deer. Take some, they’re free. Please. As many as you want. PLEASE. We try to hunt them but it just doesn’t make a difference. We’re infested. Two deer free with every purchase over $10. This coupon may be doubled; you can take four if you want to, or even six if you ask nicely.





And now back to our regularly scheduled blogging.

Pine Hill Road / Camp Buck Road, pinned double Pratt pony truss, 1900

Coming back to the river from our little excursion down Payne Road, the next bridge we come to is the first of our old multi-ponies. It’s one of those “you can’t get there from here” kind of places, down the hill, through the forest, around the sharp corners on a semi-paved road, and up to a dead end. The road ends at what once was the Boy Scout’s Camp Buck, but is now park of the county park system and is a YMCA day camp called Camp Carr. This bridge is about twice the size of the Payne Road bridge - duh, it’s a DOUBLE pony - and is just as lightly made. Lucky for bridge spotters that this one hasn’t received so much reinforcing over the years. You can still see how it was made from thin flat stock - sheet metal nearly - bolted together. The angle sections are built up from flat bits riveted together, and then the whole affair was pinned and bolted in place. A few triangular outriggers got welded on at some later date, and the original wooden decking was replaced with corrugated steel plate, but otherwise this one is all original. Most of the kids get picked up from the other end of the camp, so the only traffic this bridge sees is a few moms in minivans during the summer. We’re about 1000 yards downstream of the Hamden Road footbridge and the flood control pond that’s next to it, so the South Branch is very shallow and placid here. If it weren’t for all the noisy kids having fun, it would be a great place to park the canoes or the inner tubes and have lunch.



Lower Hamdon Road, pinned iron Phoenix column Pratt truss double pony, 1885

My absolute favorite bridge anywhere. This beautiful old iron angel sits just downstream and around the bend from the Camp Buck bridge but it’s from a whole ‘nother world. You’ll immediately notice that one half of the bridge is level and the other half goes up hill. You’ll spot the Phoenix columns, since nothing else in the world looks like them, and you’ll wonder why this isn’t a through truss, since each of the two spans is just as long as the Landsdowne bridge. I have no idea, but I do know that this is the only Phoenix double pony in the state, and if there are 3 others like it in the whole country I’d be shocked.

The tail end of Hamdon Road closely follows the river and is heavily wooded. Visiting by car, looking out through the trees you can’t see the bridge at all until you’re very close to it. Then you get a couple of little tease views, you come right up to the last bend in the road and there it is. In your face, in all it’s fairy beauty. From the river you can see it from a quarter mile upstream, so you lose this sweet surprise. This bridge is no toy even if it looks like it was made from Tinker Toys. It only has a 4 ton weight limit, so a knowledgeable observer can watch the bridge flex and stiffen in all the right places when an SUV drives over. That’s really neat. Physics at work. You can’t feel the bridge moving if you drive over it, but the pieces do move ever so slightly. 

Each pony is about 75-80 feet long, so the whole bridge is around 160 feet. Both abutments are on street corners, so the bridge is quite abrupt. No lead in. Road, bridge, and away we go. The uphill section goes up about a foot and a half. This has to be one of the three crown jewel bridges in the county and it’s in magnificent condition. Notice that this one was built with “regular” laced verticals in the middle, but with Phoenix columns on the end and across the top. Did the builder run out? Was this a transitional thing, or just another way to save a buck? We’ll never know, but that mix makes this bridge unique in all the world.

Like all the Phoenix column bridges in the area, this one has been strengthened with some triangular outriders and protected with some ugly modern crash barrier. I’m sure it was originally built with the flat lattice railings seen on the Camp Buck and Payne Road bridges, and on the “House” bridge I posted on the other day. And now you can see why I figured that the “House” bridge was around here somewhere; it just fits in. Right color, right age, right landscape, right railings, right pins, right size. But it’s not. It’s probably in California. Somewhere. My hunt continues.

******

I have another 4 bridges to post on, but all this uploading, creating thumbnails, making links, cross referencing, and figuring out what to write is taking forever. Come on down for a visit because it only gets better. I can even show you an 1880 through truss that was built with secret trusses on the underside. But you’ll need to bring your inner tube to see that.

I’ve been thinking about the Fink bridge and what happened to it. I’ve concluded that all of these old river princesses really ought to be in museums. (there really are bridge museums!) They survive here in Hunterdon County only because they are unknown, off the beaten track and thus only driven on by 100 local cars or so a day, and exceptionally well maintained. But even with all their reinforcements and crash barriers, it’s really only a matter of time until somebody smashes into them with a vehicle. And then these bridges will die. Very sad. But perhaps that’s as it should be, and when they go they’ll be gone. It really isn’t safe letting the public use them. We live in an idiot-proofed world, but the world keeps breeding better idiots. And the odds are that someday one of them will be driving along, sun glare or icy road conditions, talking on the cell phone, watching an in-car DVD, and having a snack all at once ... 

GET ME OUT OF HERE ...

Posted by Drew458     on 07/11/2012 at 03:28 PM   
Filed Under: • Bridges •  
• Comments (9) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - July 10, 2012

I’m in love , I’m in love with a beautiful car …..

That’s what’s the matter with me.
(with acknowledgment, Hank Williams)

As all know by now, I LOVE these cars. I know ours are better today. Much better. But hey, many of em also look alike.  There’s hardly any individuality.
I wish I could own this car beside the look. It was Big Al’s car. Hey, that counts for something.
Capone was probably my first boyhood hero before I discovered Jazz of that era.

He had some nifty quotes too.  Like the following.

My rackets are run on strictly American lines and they’re going to stay that way.

I don’t even know what street Canada is on.

When I sell liquor, it’s called bootlegging; when my patrons serve it on Lake Shore Drive, it’s called hospitality.

You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.

“Public service is my motto. Ninety percent of the people of Cook County drink and gamble and my offense has been to furnish them with those amusements. My booze has been good and my games on the square.”

“If the United States government thinks it can clean up Chicago by sending me to jail, well, it’s all right with me. I guess maybe I owe the government this stretch in jail, anyway.”

Capone’s Cadillac complete with steel armour, bulletproof glass and painted like an old Chicago police car go on sale for $500,000

Steel armour weighing 3,000lbs and bulletproof windows to protect prohibition mob king
1928 Cadillac painted to mirror those driven by contemporary Chicago police and the city’s official
Windows especially designed for exchanging fire with pursuers and protects it’s precious cargo

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

The bulletproof armoured car that kept Al Capone safe from his enemies is up for auction.

The U.S, gangster’s 1928 Cadillac V-8 Town Sedan was fitted with 3,000lb of steel armour and painted green with black fenders to mimic a police car, with flashing lights, a siren and police-band radio receiver.

The bulletproof windows could be raised to reveal holes through which machine guns could be fired, while the rear window could be dropped to let his henchman fire on those chasing them.

(I don’t think that last ever happened. But not an altogether bad idea.)

Capone was eventually jailed for tax evasion, and ironically his 84-year-old car is classed as a classic and is therefore tax exempt.

Latterly owned by a U.S. car collector, it will be sold at RM Auctions in California on August 20.

The car even had a flashing light, siren and the first police-band radio receiver in private hands.

READ AND SEE MORE

Posted by peiper     on 07/10/2012 at 05:20 AM   
Filed Under: • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles • USA •  
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   Monday - July 09, 2012

John Galt Leftists?

Golly, what a coincidence. The Mighty Obama makes a big speech today about raising taxes on the “rich” - people with a gross income over $250,000, which means most somewhat successful small business owners - and today in the news we see a leftist billionairess taking her cash and splitting.

Denise Rich, songwriter, socialite and the former wife of a pardoned billionaire, has given up her U.S. citizenship, and will reportedly thus save millions in U.S. taxes as well.

Rich appeared under her maiden name, Denise Eisenberg, in a quarterly listing of Americans who renounced their U.S. citizenship, Reuters reports.

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin made headlines when gave up his U.S. passport and became a citizen of Singapore, just before the social networks’s May I.P.O.

Rich wrote songs for Aretha Franklin and Jessica Simpson, but she’s best known as the ex-wife of Marc Rich, who fled the country in 1983 after being indicted for tax evasion, racketeering and trading oil with Iran.

President Clinton pardoned Rich, a big Democratic donor, on his last day in office in 2001.

A House of Representatives committee concluded that Denise Rich helped bring about her ex-husband’s pardon through donations to the Clinton library and campaign.

The Riches had divorced in 1996.

Denise Rich was born in Worcester, Massachusetts but has Austrian citizenship through her deceased father ... she was making the move “so that she can be closer to her family and to Peter Cervinka, her long-time partner.” Cervinka is an Austrian national, but his main residence is London.

Austria gives tax breaks to citizens who spend half the year abroad, Reuters reports.

You can’t tax the rich if they flee the country and take their riches with them. Those super wealthy Citizens Of The World have no nationalism anyway. They’re only citizens of their own exclusive nation of godlike privilege. The rest of us working stiffs can’t afford such a graceful exit, so we’re stuck here paying the bills.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/09/2012 at 05:07 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration • Taxes •  
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Bean Bags

The Justice Department on Monday unsealed an indictment charging five individuals allegedly involved in Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s death, and announced a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the arrest of those suspects still at large
...
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, praised the department Monday for its announcement but questioned the timing.

“I applaud what they’re doing, but I condemn the timing. It’s very clear that the timing has everything to do with the House of Representatives holding Eric Holder in contempt,” Issa told Fox News.

Issa, who led the contempt push, said Justice could have been doing more to find the suspects all along—he called the timing of the FBI reward money “another example of using politics over good policy.”
...
The 11-count indictment, originally handed up by a grand jury in November 2011, implicates five defendants in the killing. A sixth suspect has also been charged in a related incident.

The two men in custody are Manuel Osario Arellanes—who was wounded in the foot the night of the firefight—and his brother Rito. Rito, who was arrested two nights before the Terry shooting, allegedly helped provide weapons to the criminal gang used in the shooting. All six men named in the indictment are either related or friends.

The other four are believed to be hiding out in Mexico, and the U.S. is now offering a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to their arrest. They are: Jesus Rosario Favela-Astorga; Ivan Soto-Barraza; Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes; and Lionel Portillo-Meza.

According to the indictment, the five defendants are charged with crimes including first-degree murder, second-degree murder and assault on a federal officer. The indictment alleges that the five defendants also assaulted three other Border Patrol agents who were with Terry at the time.

For the first time, federal officials also revealed that Terry and an elite squad of federal agents initially fired bean bags—not bullets—at a heavily armed drug cartel crew in the mountains south of Tucson in December 2010. During the exchange, Terry was shot and killed.

Say what??

Wait, you mean while the President talks about politically bringing a gun to a knife fight, Border Agents going up against the most vicious and hardened criminals invading our nation have to use BEAN BAGS in an actual gun fight??? What the flippity fluke? Ok, some Rules of Engagement are necessary. And sometimes PC and spineless politicians make those rules a bit more constraining. But BEAN BAGS? Against killers with machine guns and hand grenades? That’s insane. That’s some form of forced suicide. Or it’s a ploy to either get our Border Agents killed on purpose, or to pretty much force them to NEVER try to make an arrest. Is this how the Obama Regime gets around enforcing another law they don’t want to enforce?

Posted by Drew458     on 07/09/2012 at 04:39 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

some white folks are way beyond stupid. jeesh, he be voting soon? omg

There just ain’t hardly nothin’ that looks more stupid, then a white kid trying to ape oh, whoops, figure of speech. As I was saying, nothing dumber then a stupid white kid wanna make hisself look like a brutha.

There just isn’t anything for me to add to that.
I’m posting it simply because he is so dumb or else his handlers are.  Maybe both. I’m not even posting the article. Just the pix as an example.

Bieber toughens up: Justin attempts to step away from his clean-cut teenybopper image by copying late rapper Tupac’s ‘thug lovin’ style
By CECILE METCALF

It seems now he has turned 18, he is determined to shake off any connection with his Disney tween star roots, and is looking to rap’s most controversial characters for inspiration.

Daily Mail

Posted by peiper     on 07/09/2012 at 12:37 PM   
Filed Under: • Stoopid-People •  
• Comments (8) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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