Mildly interesting

[Mik]

Motorcycle chariots at New South Wales Police Carnival, 1936.

@Aqua-Letifer

[jon-nyc]

@Mik Hard nope on that.

[Mik]

Yeah, me too, but I bet Aqua would do it. It's fuckin' awesome. The origin of Steam Punk.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Mik said in Mildly interesting:

Yeah, me too, but I bet Aqua would do it. It's fuckin' awesome. The origin of Steam Punk.

Holy shit Sign. Me. UP.

[Catseye3]

@Aqua-Letifer said in Mildly interesting:

Holy shit Sign. Me. UP.

Me, too. And being lighter than you I'd beat you like a brass drum.

If I didn't kill my damn self first.

[Mik]

I’d love to meet the guy who sold that idea. That boy could sell sand to Arabs.

[George K]

@Mik said in Mildly interesting:

Motorcycle chariots

Motorcycle chariot racing is a motor sport that combines motorcycle racing and chariot racing.

The first competition of the sport was held in the U.S. as early as 1922, and gained popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, further inspired by the 1925 film Ben-Hur. It went largely (although not entirely) extinct after that, although exhibition rigs are still made and driven.

One early event was held on June 4, 1922, at Idora Park in Oakland, California:

A novel feature of the day and one that excited roars of laughter from the spectators in the grandstand, consisted of motorcycle chariot races, said to be the first of their kind ever pulled off in the history of motorcycle racing.

Races might also have been held during the 1920s at the old speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina (the old speedway at 35°5′52.8″N 80°52′52.51″W, not the modern Charlotte Motor Speedway). After the early events, the sport was further developed in Australia and quickly spread to Europe. In 1925, Pathé News filmed an exhibition race at Crystal Palace Park, London.

A typical early vehicle configuration was a rider on a motorcycle pulling a chariot and charioteer who were essentially ornamental. A 1922 short piece in Popular Mechanics describes this configuration. This soon developed into a configuration with two riderless motorcycles steered by a single charioteer using reins. Steering was sometimes done with reins attached to the throttles (the charioteer steered by controlling the relative speed of the two motorcycles), and sometimes with rigid extensions attached to the handlebars. Modern rigs may have foot pedals for speed control, the reins used for steering the front wheels.

Link to video

Link to video

[Mik]

That’s so badass. I would definitely go see it but only if they dressed and rode in Roman style chariots.

[jon-nyc]

[Catseye3]

@jon-nyc Extremely interesting. Thanks for posting.

[taiwan_girl]

@George-K said in Mildly interesting:

Searching around, some are saying BS. I dunno...

Maybe possible. I used to have a Ecosphere, which was a self contained eco system in a completely sealed glass ball. Water, plants and miniature shrimp. Had it for a few years, and then one time I was moving it from a cold apt. (due to A/C) and brought into the hot outdoors and it cracked!

EDIT: I was going to link to their website, but it seems that the company went out of business.

[George K]

[George K]

[Catseye3]

So what's with Portugal?

[Doctor Phibes]

[Doctor Phibes]

@Catseye3 said in Mildly interesting:

So what's with Portugal?

Apparently, it's partly caused by the very low numbers of marriages. The actual number of divorces aren't that high

https://www.quora.com/Why-are-divorce-rates-so-high-in-Spain-and-Portugal-compared-to-Italy-and-Greece

[George K]

@Catseye3 in the US, almost half of all marriages end in divorce.

The other half end in death.

[Mik]

So marriage is to be avoided. It never ends well. Now you tell me.

[George K]

[George K]

1921

Left to right:

Thomas Edison
Henry Ford
Warren Harding
Harvey Firestone.