Machine Shop Monday

In following yesterday blathering about the bridge, I present this picture of people making things.

The Bay Bridge

I don't know if you heard but we have been having a bit of trouble with the Bay Bridge, lately.

They found a crack in a rather important thingy which holds the bridge together during some other project Labor Day weekend.

And they did a quick fix job then, which has since broken - dropping a couple tons worth metal on the road deck in the process.




So a second round of repair stuff is ongoing.
A bit more stress modeling is being applied to the repair components needed to truss up this icon of the industrial revolution.
Since the intellectual revolution, nobody seems to know how to make the parts to fix the bridge, I guess.


That really wracks my head a bit.

The parts for the last "fix" were fabricated in Arizona.

Really?
Here in this international port city there is not some shop that could make a big steel thingy?
I mean there are two national laboratories doing crazy atomic science stuff close by. There is a f'n NASA lab down the road. There are big oil refineries all over the place.
And they had to have a giant metal bit fabricated in Arizona and ship it in?

Yes, I suppose this is another rambling diatribe about how we don't make anything anymore.


We don't have an app for fixing the infrastructure which carries a half million cars a day.
We do have access to a million app's for the Iphone, but at best they will only allow us to make fart noises in the general direction of the bridge.


If the Chinese had built a knock off bridge, we could probably get the part from them.

History

Drive Too Fast Today

Yes, you should get out there and drive the wheels off your car, do wheelies on a dirt bike or some such thing.

Then, maybe have a bit of a drink and a smoke.















And think about how you are not ever going to be as cool as Steve McQueen.

It just won't happen...




Steve died on this date, some 29 years ago.


We're all a little bit wussier for the loss.

Sudden Weather Change

Killgore Trout III

Old WW2 Footage

Harley Davidson is trying to revive some association with efforts during WW2 in their latest advertising.
Which only makes me sigh again, considering their recent offing of Buell.
Which doesn't have anything to do with this post.


The whole nostalgia thing has Harley posting up some wartime footage with their motorcycles from their archives.

This clip from North Africa, for example...


The only reason I even mention it is 'cause when I was a kid learning about building model airplanes, one kindly old guy taught me the ways of balsa wood and tissue paper.

He also happened to have been a photojournalist for Stars&Stripes during WW2.
His first stint, he told me while we glued fragile airplane bits together, was covering the North African efforts of the allies.
One of just a handful of guys tasked with that assignment.

So, he may have not shot this footage, but he probably knew the guy who did.
Probably shot some of the stuff you can link to from this clip...


Kinda neat, to me at least.

Fishscale Tank Friday

Help Me

Wall of Death Wednesday

Good clean family fun, the old wall of death.

Excitement for every generation.

Under the Weather

Nine

Asimo turned nine today.


Nine can be an awkward age for a moon-man looking robot.

It can be hard to make friends.