The Internet is having fun interpreting, by drawing on the lavatory wall, various theories of what is going on inside. The example below is the only non-X-rated one.
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From Push the Movement.
Archive for September, 2014
23 Sep 2014
The Science of Climate Change DemonstratedGlobal Warming, Junk Science, Popular Delusions, Superstition23 Sep 2014
Naughty Spanish Tumblr ImagePhotography, Sexual Humor, Tumblr ImagesThe Internet is having fun interpreting, by drawing on the lavatory wall, various theories of what is going on inside. The example below is the only non-X-rated one. ————————————– From Push the Movement. 22 Sep 2014
Abominus Noah.914.GFNPAelian, Angling History, Artificial Flies, Creative Fly Tying, Major John P. Traherne, Salmon Flies, The Gaudy Fly
Artificial flies built on hooks to catch fish have been used immemorially, almost certainly down in time from the Neolithic Period. The earliest written description of them can be found in the 15th chapter of De Natura Animalium by Claudius Aelian, who flourished circa 175-235 A.D. Aelian wrote (translated by William Radcliffe):
Necessarily larger, and over time, increasingly elaborate artificial flies began to be made in modern times for use in fishing for the Atlantic salmon, the largest and noblest game fish taken in fresh water. Descriptive names of specific kinds of insects artificial flies were designed to imitate have been applied to the artificials as far back as the time of Aelian, but in the mid-19th century a dramatic and important change occurred. Professional fly-dressers began to apply to their wares the same kind of evocative and whimsically associative names that were previously routinely applied to horses, dogs, and boats. The practice of applying romantically associative names to artificial flies was popularized by Ephemera (Edward FitzGibbon, 1847), Frederick Tolfrey (1848), William Blacker (1855), and Francis Francis (1867), but it was probably James Wright of Sprouston on the Tweed who played the greatest part in making a striking nomenclature an important a part of a fly pattern’s appeal to the angler as the rarest and gaudiest piece of exotic plumage. Suddenly, starting in the 1830s and 1840s, and increasing steadily through the 1850s and 1860s, instead of a mere “March fly” or a “Dun fly,” anglers began to be offered Butchers, Bakers, Candlestick-Makers, Majors and Colonels, flies named after specific rivers (the Shannon, the Namsen), noteworthy anglers (the Popham, the Wilkinson, the Jock Scott), and even flies named for abstract imaginary entities (the Green Highlander, the Durham Ranger) or meteorological conditions (the Thunder-and-Lightning). As the names of fly patterns grew more romantic and evocative, so, too, did the palate of feathered materials used to create them grow increasingly colorful and imaginative. Where earlier provincial fly dressers were content to get their feathers from ordinary domestic chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese, the new “gaudy fly” required the contributions of Asian pheasants, Latin American cotingas, Indian kingfishers, and African and Asian bustards. The next watershed moment occurred at the Great International Fisheries Exhibition at London in 1883, when Major John P. Traherne exhibited a case of salmon flies so elaborate and artistically created from such rare and expensive materials that matters had obviously reached a point at which the creation of the gaudy salmon fly as an art object in its own right had begun to move beyond the original utilitarian goal. The rediscovery of Traherne’s patterns described by George Kelson in a series of articles published in the Fishing Gazette 1884 and 1885 by myself and their general distribution through the angling community via a couple of books, including the 1993 Paul Schmookler volume which presented photographs of the Traherne patterns actually tied with all the correct materials, played a major role in the modern revival of interest in the gaudy fly and its history and that revival of interest simultaneously produced an entire new era of creative fly tying. Over the weekend, I happened to encounter the above extraordinary specimen of creative tying by Val Kropiwnicki on the Cotinga-Classic Salmon Fly Facebook Group. This fly is not only pretty. It constitutes an amusing comment on just how far elaboration can go. But I also could not avoid reflecting, while looking at it, that this is really a design that would almost certainly kill fish. Val is not just presenting a single fly. He has created a small school of potential victims. He just needs to do this pattern over, putting hooks in all the dropper flies, and making sure that the wires they are tied on will hold, say, 20 lbs. of bright Atlantic salmon. Spectacular work. 21 Sep 2014
The Rationing SocietyGovernment, Rationing, Regulation, SocialismDan Greenfield explains how Progressivism has changed the fundamental nature of American society.
Read the whole thing. 21 Sep 2014
Merry Pranksters Have Fun With AnacondaAnaconda, Darwin AwardsThe snake had just fed. Otherwise, I expect things would have rapidly got a lot more interesting for the chap in the boat. 20 Sep 2014
Pretentious HipstersHipsters, Left Think, SatireHat tip to Christopher Buckley [Facebook]. 20 Sep 2014
Roentgen Royal DeskAbraham & David Roentgen, Antiques, Frederick William II, FurnitureFrom the workshop of Abraham & David Roentgen, made for King Frederick William II of Prussia. The clueless ninny writing at Metapicture says: Watch what it can do and then remember this was all done with hand tools. Young people who have never been in personal contact with the production of physical objects and who have been brought up to believe in the Whig Theory of History and the notion of Coueist Technological Progress inevitably suppose that machines can do everything better. In reality, if you want real precision, you build it with hand tools. Hat tip to Karen L. Myers. Feeds
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