A Crummy Commercial

The Questor Tapes popped up - I really can't remember if I ever saw it before or not.  It was a TV movie, essentially a pilot for a TV series which didn't sell ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Questor_Tapes The tape on Archive is from January 23, 1974 - a Wednesday night ?  So maybe I was hard at work studying for my freshman electrical engineering classes ?  (yeah, right :) https://archive.org/details/questor-tapes-1-23-74 The video quality is strictly Beta or VHS although watchable.  But it reminded me of the Demon With a Glass Hand episode of The Outer Limits , mentioned previously here: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/11/youtube-stuck-in-its-thumb-and-drew.html Both shows featured robots who didn't quite understand what their purpose was, at least at the start.   "Through all the legends of ancient peoples – Assyrian, Babylonian, Sumerican [sic], Semitic – runs the saga of the Eternal Man, the one who never dies, called by various names in various...

I saw this on Pinterest: no viewfinder => to me this means it's a view camera It might be a fake ?  It looks like a wooden body view camera with a Hasselblad film back and possibly the lens and bellows are from an old roll film camera ? But there was this question: How do you know when it is in focus? If it's like my old B&J press camera you do the following: 1) put in the slide for the film back, this prevents the film from being exposed 2) take off the film back  3) put on the ground glass back  4) frame and focus the shot with the shutter open.  Then reverse the process to take a picture 5) close the shutter 6) set the aperture / shutter speed for the correct exposure 7) take off the ground glass back   8) put on the film back 9) take out the slide 10) take the picture View camera users tend to be very deliberate people who use tripods :) This got me thinking about my B&J camera.  It was made in Chicago !  It had a wooden body, 2 1/4 x 3 ...

I saw this ad for a Mattel bike, never knew that Mattel sold a bicycle !: how did I miss this ? Here's another ad for the noise maker accessory only: source: https://corporate.mattel.com/brand-portfolio/v-rroom So I was wondering about the sound, how was it, how loud ? Looking on Youtube I found some videos: Bill Conrad providing the voiceover ! source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-y8mG8cRv4 source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzGqY2zHuSo source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-EGZwAdHJo source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZMkQ-JTPjU How did I live without one of these ?  Basically with playing cards clothes-pinned to the spokes - also I probably aged out ?  9 years old in 1964, too big for that kid stuff :) How did it make the sounds ?  It was patented (always a good place to check): https://patents.google.com/patent/US3160984A/en%C2%A0 It was mechanical NOT electronic: I don't quite understand it - I'm an EE not a mechanical engineer :)  But i...

This is an interesting video about the deepest part of Lake Superior: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtjexAeh4C4 With that little boat they are on, I'm not surprised that they skip the days with choppy waves.  That landing craft type ramp doesn't seem like a good match for a lake that can sink the Edmund Fitzgerald ! a perfect day to go diving Superior What is this a new sequel in the Alien franchise ?  Yikes ! invasive ? alien ?  sea lamprey ! It's dark and cold so not a lot of fish down there: But (of course) they did find a Busch can :( get thee back to St. Louis ! I guess the subs built in Manitowoc during the war could only go to 300 to 400 feet safely, so that submersible must have been pretty tough.  Here's a comparison chart on the depths of the Great Lakes: The video was more of an intro to the project, hopefully there will be some followup videos. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

source:  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/wendell-berry-kentucky-born-author-advocated-simpler-life-died-92-rcna595476 I mentioned him before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/07/is-this-cheating.html   Making it Home was my intro to Mr. Berry: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApRLCXCB80E   Now Wendell Berry is gone but Arthur Roundberry lives on in this story. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

It's the end of the tourist season on the island -so I was surprised to find out that a local store owner was interested in buying books.  I got in touch by email and was able to deliver and get immediate payment for a very nice wholesale order of books, nice ! AND coincidentally I got an email question from a customer on whether I accepted credit cards for book purchases and was able to refer the buyer to the local island store, Fair Isle: https://www.fairisleshop.com/ So if anyone is interested in books with electronic payment (no kits) please contact Fair Isle. And if ordering with check or cash by USPS is still OK, please see the Jackson Harbor Press books page: http://wb9kzy.com/books.htm Thank You   and  Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

The Magnetic Monster is a 1953 movie:  https://archive.org/details/magnetic-monster The Wiki:      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magnetic_Monster I'm not crazy about colorized movies but this one is kookie and fun.  The characters are so serious !  There are many actors everyone has seen before in small roles but in this one they get bumped up to more important roles.  Also, a brief appearance by Strother Martin as an airline pilot !!: what we have here is fictional communication  :) Richard Carlson is the hero, Dr. Jeffrey Stewart.  King Donovan (aka Mr. Imogene Coca) was the assistant, Dr. Dan Forbes.  The producer was Ivan Tors who later became known for many 1960s shows on TV like Flipper , Daktari and Gentle Ben (I watched them all). Richard Carlson also played the writer in three of Frank Capra's science films with Dr. Frank Baxter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_System_Science_Series There was a brief blog mention o...