770 replies to this topic

[wjfox]

Carbonated water vending machines, USSR, 1970s

 

 

[Zaphod]

35 year old who lives in 1946 - BBC News

[wjfox]

Severn bridges: Final day of at least 800 years of tolls

 

BBC Wales News

 

Sunday marks the final day of a centuries' old tax of paying to cross between south Wales and south-west England before the toll is removed.

Charges on both the M4 and M48 Severn bridges are being abolished - saving commuters as much as £1,400 a year.

Passengers have had to pay to cross the Severn Estuary, with its treacherous tides, since Roman times and the first recorded ferry crossing was in 1775.

"Monday will be a very historic day," said historian Anne Rainsbury.

"It'll be the first time you can cross the Severn Estuary for free."

The charge is being scrapped after the bridges returned to public ownership last year.

 

https://www.bbc.co.u...-wales-46539168

 

 

[wjfox]

30 years ago today – the worst ever terrorist attack on British soil:

 

https://youtu.be/wJaHzuS0rRg

 

https://en.wikipedia...n_Am_Flight_103

[wjfox]

A WWII bunker:

 

 

[Yuli Ban]

The world's first true automobile. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot created this steam-powered contraption back in 1769.

[Yuli Ban]

A Japanese depiction of a Victorian-era couple.

Utagawa Kunihisa II - Russian Couple Holding Hands, 1861

[wjfox]

[SkittleBlu]

Percent of US Hourly Workers At or Below Federal Minimum Wage Since 2001

 

 

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

 

To add: the last time the federal minimum wage rose was in 2009, and when combined with the effects of the 2008 recession, could explain the rise in 2009-2010.

[wjfox]

The Old Cincinnati Library, 1874-1955

 

 

[SkittleBlu]

As the immigration debate rages on in the United States, a look at which states hold the largest shares of foreign-born population:

 

 

Data is from 2017

[SkittleBlu]

Spread of the Zika Virus

 

https://external-pre...8190892027aad49

[SkittleBlu]

An incredibly detailed map of Medieval trade routes

 

 

Even before modern times the Afro-Eurasian world was already well connected. This map depicts the main trading arteries of the high middle ages, just after the decline of the Vikings and before the rise of the Mongols, the Hansa and well before the Portuguese rounded the Cape of Good Hope.

 

The map also depicts the general topography, rivers, mountain passes and named routes. All of which contributed to why cities came to be, and still are, up until modern times.

 

https://merchantmach...l-trade-routes/

[rennerpetey]

100 Years of Breed “Improvement”

 

 

It seems incredible that at one time the Bull Terrier was a handsome, athletic dog. Somewhere along its journey to a mutated skull and thick abdomen the bull terrier also picked up a number of other maladies like supernumerary teeth and compulsive tail-chasing.

 

 

The English bulldog has come to symbolize all that is wrong with the dog fancy and not without good reason; they suffer from almost every possible disease. A 2004 survey by the Kennel Club found that they die at the median age of 6.25 years (n=180). There really is no such thing as a healthy bulldog. The bulldog’s monstrous proportions make them virtually incapable of mating or birthing without medical intervention.

 

I recommend checking out the whole article.  It really is horrible what we've done to these dogs.

[Yuli Ban]

"Evening on the trail". Montana, 1911

[Yuli Ban]

Cowboys drinking at a saloon in Tascosa, Texas 1907

[Yuli Ban]

Eureka Colorado, ca 1900

[SkittleBlu]

Downtown Tokyo, 1897:

 

https://youtu.be/lvnfmY5kZhc

 

Filmed in the Nihonbashi district, close to the Imperial Palace.

 

What the neighbourhood looks like today:

 

 

More info: https://japantoday.c...tal-has-changed

[Yuli Ban]

Romanian peasant from Vrancea, sitting on the coffin he made for himself - 1937

TheDeadWhale
Due to the humble clothing, woodworking and surroundings, this scene could be from anytime in history from the bronze age onward. We have been living relatively the same way for a very long time, but it is sad to say that our viewpoint on death seems to be the most divergent thing between our lives and this man's

[Yuli Ban]

And now I'm fascinated by the rural peasantry of the pre-War period.
Here are some more Romanian peasants, a family from 1930:

 
Same year, some boys sawing wood:

 
From 1934: Three men use scythes to work in the hayfield:

Besides the modern-looking hats (which may still be traditionally made), this could've been taken in 934 AD if they somehow had photography.
 
But to be perfectly honest, I've been fascinated by these types for years now. It's a hard feeling to put into words, but I can't help but look at such images and feel a small sense of pity that these people lived in a time before the present. It's that sense you get from images more than 70 years ago: "everyone you see in this photo is dead". Believe what you will about the possibility and progress of anti-aging and artificial intelligence, but you can't deny that there's an increasing sense it *is* possible. If not in our lifetimes, then "soon". 
You could not say the same for them. They lived in a time when their deaths were absolutely certain. You were born, you lived, and you died. This is why we created so many immortality myths. We don't want to die. We understand the necessity of death, but only the tired and suicidal actively wish for death— and when they're faced with the opportunity, they immediately find misgivings. 
In the past, you were doomed to die at some point. But some dreamers still wished to extend their lives. As a result, you find myths about Fountains of Youth and Shangri-Las. Alchemical wizards sought to find immortality elixirs from mercury and elephant tusks. Others made some level of peace with physical death by speaking of an immortal spirit— how weak it is to fear the perishing of your fleshy body when there's an eternal afterlife ahead of us all! 
 
But it all comes from the same root: fear of death and an inability to prevent it. 
 
In modern times, there genuinely is a sense that we might be able to defeat death itself. It's through processes just as esoteric as our ancestors imagined it would be, but that doesn't make them illegitimate. 
 
We're not yet there, and we don't know when we'll be there. But the fact we can even say "it's possible" is unprecedented in human history and pre-history. 
 
And so I can only look at these images and feel sorry for those who never got to know such a concept, who died expecting immortality only through a religious hope and nothing else save perhaps arcane magic from exotic lands. You could fear it, but you had to accept it. Hence why you would build your own coffin. You really had to.
 
 
And then I can also see their clothes and lifestyles and know that they existed in a state relatively unchanged for thousands of years. They were simple, agrarian folk. They toiled in fields and earned their bread and believed in God, and life seemed unchanging for generations. This was less than a century ago. 
We're very likely less than a century away from a state of being so exotic to anything humans of the past could ever have fathomed, even we have a difficult time imagining it. It can be scary to consider the idea of sharing this planet with another sapient intelligence entirely different from and superior to ourselves. It's also strange to consider the idea of leaving this planet to settle on another. But as long as we don't destroy ourselves, this is our destiny.