Friday, 2 May 2008

Corkscrewing With Style and Panache:- Zil Offroad Vehicle and Vityaz Tracked Articulated Juggernaut




I wonder if anyone out there can tell me more? I know it's a Zil, from Russia. Zil made some pretty amazing things over the years.

The vast area of Russia, the terrain, the weather, all pose special problems. Roads that could not be relied on all year round, snow and ice, boggy tundra, the country needed solutions. And those ranged from huge multi-axled trucks, to tracked vehicles... to this: screw propulsion. all I can find elsewhere on the web is information and pictures of a smaller vehicle, a prototype.
so this one, pictured above, was it ever put into production?





This one isn't a Zil, it's a Vityaz.
"«Machine-building Company «Vityaz» is one of the most modern machine-building enterprises in Bashkortostan."


This one's a seismic survey vehicle, for surveying, for example, proposed oil pipeline, or railway routes.


Passenger transport.


For carrying... Um... Big things.

If you want to buy one, go here.
I suspect they're out of my price bracket.





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Friday, 25 April 2008

Wednesday, 23 April 2008

Spokesman said "No Comment"



It gets worse.



The ferry "Riverdance" was struck by a freak wave on the night of January 31st, 2008, in the Irish sea. Her cargo shifted as she rolled, and was unable to recover from a 60 degree list. The vessel lost power, and, broadside to the waves, drifted some 16 miles. Rescue helicopters fought the storm to lift crew and passengers off.
Eventually she ran aground off the town of Cleveleys, north of Blackpool on the NW coast of England. Salvage attempts were hampered by several further severe storms.
Just scrap metal now.
Sinking into the sands.

Pictures via Cargolaw.com
Cargolaw's site is a source of many of the internet's ships in trouble pics. It's huge, and well worth a visit. If you're involved in any way with ships or cargo, it should be compulsory to regularly visit this site...

Betty Boop- Betty for President-1932

Betty Boop:-Snow White, featuring Cab Calloway 1933

In the number St James' Infirmary, Koko the Clown/the Ghost were really Cab Calloway. The animator, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Crandall, used the tecnique called 'rotoscoping' to trace around film of Calloway, and synchronise the characters with Calloway's dance moves. By the way. If you think Michael Jackson invented the 'moonwalk', you might think differently in a couple of minutes.

Dynosphere.

A very aged uncle once gave me a tinful of old cigarette cards, from maybe the nineteen twenties.
I've still got them- somewhere. One of them had a picture of The Dynosphere. Picture my glee: by chance, here it is on the internet!