Today we have an opportunity to reflect nostalgically on the Trans-Siberian railroad, and also practice our past tense! So…. Russia had a rail line that cut through the remote Siberian wilderness. A true marvel of engineering, at one point it had a 9.5 mile tunnel (the Severomuysky Tunnel). Since this was a critical piece of […]
Category: Destinations
[thanks to UC#1 for today’s topic] Another space-faring nation finally has a ground station. https://www.iybssd2022.org/en/burkina-faso-reaches-a-milestone-in-the-conquest-of-space/ Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) might have done better with a bit lower volta. I expect their space exploration development programs were hindered by the lack of regulated voltas. I don’t think these stamps represent actual activities by this small […]
UC#3, the celebrated WLBOTT Poet Laureate, offers his reflections on his good will tour of Japan. In Kyoto- nice crisp weather, leaves in color, 17,000 well behaved Japanese students on field trips, our son [redacted] is tolerating us in a pleasant way. I am inspired to produce a haiku- Golden pagodaLeaves turning dark crimsonTime for […]
The Severomuysky Tunnel (Russian: Северому́йский тонне́ль) is a railroad tunnel on the Baikal Amur Mainline (BAM), in northwestern Buryatia, Russia. It is named after the Northern Muya Range it cuts through. The tunnel is 15.34 kilometres (9.53 mi) long, the longest in Russia (excluding metro lines).– Wikipedia Anna From Ukraine Says Hello Anna from Ukraine […]
I enjoy watching Korean movies and series on Netflix, mostly because the dramas are so way, way over the top (in a good way). Plus it’s fun to get a glimpse inside another culture, and their social structure seems much different from the US. So while watching episode 5 of The Glory last night, I […]
[Thanks to UC#1-SU for today’s topic!] That video was really fun! I loved how he started out by dumping out 1000s of grains of rice on the table. What was he thinking??? And using a felt-tipped pen probably was both an advantage (since he might be used to such writing implements) and a disadvantage, because […]
[Thanks to UC#1-SU for pointing us towards today’s topic!] Rice Writing is a thing…. Rice writing is the art and skill of being able to write small enough to write on a grain of rice. HistoryRice writing originated in ancient Anatolia in Turkey and India. Many rituals and rites use rice as a medium, but […]
The book Ministry of the Future is still rattling around in our collective WLBOTT heads. How can people not see the undeniable? Author Kim Stanley had to place himself in a very dark place to understand the “burn it all down” attitude. He understands Our Republican Friends’ response to climate change: “The Götterdämmerung Syndrome, as […]
Courchevel Altiport (French: Altiport de Courchevel) (IATA: CVF, ICAO: LFLJ) is an altiport serving Courchevel, a ski resort in the French Alps. The airfield has a very short runway of only 537 metres (1,762 ft) with a gradient of 18.6%. There is no go-around procedure for landings at Courchevel due to the surrounding mountainous terrain. […]
An extremely strange and disturbing 2015 event at the Tomball hospital raises questions about the ethics, morality, and legal issues. [ed-note: Tomball is part of the Houston metropolitan area, northeast of Houston proper. It has its own HEB.] HOUSTON – Eleven months ago George Pickering II was in a very different place in his life. […]