Nearest thing to a time machine

[fragger]

Shot from the front of a streetcar in San Francisco 1906, this clip appears to demonstrate one of the earliest known uses of 35mm film. It's a fascinating street scene from the past, marked by an apparent complete lack of road rules. And you thought traffic today was chaotic! Mind you, nobody in the scene is going anywhere very quickly :-()

Air - La Femme D'Argent

[PZ]

lol, reminds me of driving in Paris.  ^+-+

I actually loved driving in France - the people on the road were so much more courteous than here in the States.  The people in my area are the rudest I have ever encountered anywhere in the world.  The people will pull out in front of you hoping that you'll hit them so they have an excuse to sue you.  :D

[mandru]

An interesting clip fragger.  You can spot the yahoos that are intentionally stepping out in front of the streetcar to see what the camera man hanging off the front of it is doing.  Surprisingly the concept seems to be "walk out into the middle of the road to board a passing streetcar going either direction" and someone thought that was a good idea as that is how it's designed to function.   ???

PZ, the comment on your local driving conditions cracked me up.  I've long quite vocally expressed an opinion that Idaho has the worst surface roads ( highway and lower ) I've ever driven but Utah has the worst drivers and if you get a Utahan driver (spell checker insists on this though I'd spell it Utahn) on Idahoan roads...    ???

Well, it's been a while since I've driven up North and things may have changed but I'd still give them plenty of lead time and hug what there is of the shoulder.  :-D

[PZ]

... but Utah has the worst drivers and if you get a Utahan driver (spell checker insists on this though I'd spell it Utahn) on Idahoan roads...    ???

Well, it's been a while since I've driven up North and things may have changed but I'd still give them plenty of lead time and hug what there is of the shoulder.  :-D

^+-+

[Art Blade]

Excellent find, fragger :)  :-X

It actually shows 1905 "before an earthquake/fire of 1906 destroyed the area" ;)

Man, I could watch it 100 times and still enjoy it  ^+-+

[PZ]

It is fascinating to realize that everyone in that video is dead by now, and we're viewing a glimpse into the past.  Imagine how marvelous it would be to have a video like this of how the pyramids were being built, or how the Aztecs lived - how about viewing the actual battle of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae  - the list is endless.

[Art Blade]

Hehe, funny idea :) I imagine a series of "The greatest and bloodiest fights live from Circus Maximus, Rome"  :-D

[JRD]

Imagine a gladiator about to chop another gladiator`s head off:

- It`ll be on youtube this afternoon, mate! SLASH

:-D

[Art Blade]

 ;D

[fragger]

Glad you guys liked it! I thought it was a genuine blast from the past. It wouldn't have occurred to any of those people in the film that folks 104 years later would be watching them going about their daily business.

PZ's idea reminded me of a sci-fi short story I read many years ago. I can't remember the title or who wrote it, but it was about a scientist with a passion for history who invents a device which can "see" into the remote past, allowing ancient historical events to be viewed. Unfortunately he fails to foresee that the device can be recalibrated to look not just centuries into the past, but mere milliseconds - effectively allowing anyone with one of these devices to be able to spy on anybody, anywhere, practically in real time, with implied future detrimental effects on society. The story stopped short of detailing what those effects would be, leaving it up to the reader to imagine them (it was a short story, after all).

A more recent and scientifically informed treatment of this idea is contained in the novel "The Light Of Other Days" by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter, published in 2000, which does detail those effects quite chillingly.

Now I'm straying into "Book Discussion" territory :-\


@PZ and mandru: Lousy drivers are certainly not restricted to parts of the US. The level of driver proficiency in Australia is generally pretty abominable. Mainly it's the prevailing attitude to driving that stinks - many drivers here are impatient, careless, and in such a blazing rush to get everywhere that they'll willingly put their lives, and those of other people, at risk just to gain a car's length or shave a few seconds off their travel time. Utter morons >:((

[Art Blade]

When it starts to rain, people in my city always cause traffic jams. As if "rain" equals "don't go any faster than you could walk"  :D

[JRD]

Tell me about it... in Rio they have the "Mad Max`s school for taxi drivers", the "Gladiators academy of bus drivers", the year round "Blind old lady at night symposium for blind old lady drivers" and their moto is

- Traffic regulations are just a suggestion  :'(

[deadman1]

I once saw a video on youtube about chinese drivers, compared to them your drivers are perfect rolemodels for how to behave in traffic.  ;D I have tried to find that video again but I haven´t be able to do so.

[mandru]

I caused some pretty hard feelings about a week back on another forum I'm involved in after one of the female members commented she like SUVs because they kept her family safe and several other women agreed.  One of them flat out stated "I really enjoy the intimidation factor it gives me."

I posted my thought that there was another side to that coin.  Many SUV drivers voicing similar opinions to those they'd expressed displayed an active willingness to kill my family in a small car if it insured that their families would remain safe.

If I have a dangerous intruder that is regularly breaking into my home and I purchase and install a device that kills them after many repeated forced entries I would be arrested for mantrap which carries the onus and charge of premeditated murder.   SUV drivers that depend on vehicle size and intimidation factor to clear small cars out of their way are doing the same thing and all they  get are traffic violations and higher insurance rates.

I also voiced that I preferred a system where mutual safety on the road for all families was attained by all drivers properly exercising defensive driving skills and avoiding trouble to start with rather than a system where we are involved in a rolling arms race where the winners are determined by wheel size.

The way they came back after me you would have thought that I'd called their children stupid and ugly.

I just like to stir things up sometimes.   ;D



*heh heh @ deadman's sig "I´m not as think as you drunk I am *hick*"   It reminds me of the line "But ossifer, none of us were driving!  We were all in the back sing'in."

[Art Blade]

Excellent  ;D But rest assured.. they deserved you.  ^+-+

as to deadman's sig: reminds me of "I'm not too drunk to drive. My car finds its own way home." Or "I wouldn't know how to drive when sober."  ;D

[mmosu]

Oh, where to begin!
First off, nice find fragger, I love old films like this.

It is fascinating to realize that everyone in that video is dead by now, and we're viewing a glimpse into the past... 

PZ, this is exactly what I was thinking when I watched it - none of these people are alive anymore!  Even beyond that, none of them could have begun to imagine the world we live in today - a world in which this small group of guys physically located on three seperate continents would be having a discussion about them!!

When it starts to rain, people in my city always cause traffic jams. As if "rain" equals "don't go any faster than you could walk"  :D

Art, you just perfectly described the biggest complaint about drivers in Ohio  :-()  PS - it's raining here right now >:((

[PZ]

...Even beyond that, none of them could have begun to imagine the world we live in today - a world in which this small group of guys physically located on three seperate continents would be having a discussion about them!!

They'd find it difficult to believe that we could all communicate so fast - in the blink of an eye - they'd probably think that we're aliens visiting planet Earth.

[Art Blade]

PS - it's raining here right now >:((

^+-+

[fragger]

I once saw a video on youtube about chinese drivers, compared to them your drivers are perfect rolemodels for how to behave in traffic.  ;D I have tried to find that video again but I haven´t be able to do so.

I think I've seen that video deadman, or if not that one, something much like it. Scary stuff :o

When it starts to rain, people in my city always cause traffic jams. As if "rain" equals "don't go any faster than you could walk"  :D

:-D

If only drivers were like that here! Instead, rain seems to make them want to go even faster, often with predictable results. The accident rate in this country nearly always jumps in wet conditions, and it's not because of the conditions themselves. Drivers just won't adapt their driving to suit those conditions. I think I'd prefer to deal with a traffic jam than dopey ratbags hurtling past me in blurring geysers of spray :D

[Art Blade]

hehe, reminds me of our bumper sticker collection..

"Keep honking, I'm reloading"

;D

[fragger]

 :-() :-()

[fragger]

I know that like me some of you enjoy looking at "old" stuff, so I thought you might get a kick out of this:

http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/

[JRD]

Great find, fragger!  :-X

[Art Blade]

Hehehe  :-()

From there:
http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/jewelry-and-watches-ads-1970s/8
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[fragger]

Hehe, cool :-D

I found this on a similar site (and now I can't find it again :D) which also dealt with vintage advertisements, under their "computers" category. Apparently there is something of an online debate going on about whether the DHARMA Initiative featured in the TV show LOST was based on a real research establishment, and it was claimed by some that this vintage ad from the 70s confirmed it ("©1978 Dharma Initiative" in the upper right corner). It's a nice try by someone and looks quite authentic until you study the backdrop - it's the inside of the dome in The Swan (below the first hatch) in LOST.

The block of text in the ad didn't come out too well here, so I reproduced it below the picture.

[smg id=3879 align=center width=450]

Keeping the Dharma Initiative connected.
No matter what Station you've been assigned to, the Dharma computer network will
always keep you connected. And accessing that network has never been easier than
through a Dharma Initiative Computer - log on today and find out everything you need
about our research or speak to someone you haven't heard from in a while*.

*Please read the rules regarding communication before logging on.


It's a good attempt by someone, looks like an authentic vintage ad that's been scanned from an old magazine. I'd been reading about the "DHARMA is real/not real" debate elsewhere and followed a link to this "ad". Apparently whoever administers the ad site was never a LOST viewer and was blissfully unaware that it's a clever fake as it was included along with other real vintage computer ads :-D

Incidentally, I don't for a second believe that DHARMA is real. It's a very craftily and deliberately concocted online urban myth, perpetrated by the producers of LOST. DHARMA pops up in some other J. J. Abrams stuff, such as in the movie Cloverfield - there's a DHARMA logo in the corner of the screen right at the beginning, during the opening sequence.

I love stuff like that :-X