Take a dip in the world’s largest gold tub
If you’re ever in Sasebo, Japan (outside Nagasaki), you might want to stop into Huis Ten Bosch theme park for a unique experience. (1-1 Huis Ten Bosch Machi, Sasebo, Nagasaki 859-3243, Japan)
Besides enjoying the strangely anachronistic Dutch themed amusement park, for about $50 you can spend an hour in the world’s largest solid gold tub.
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Magical Tokyo Cocktails
The bartender at Bar Centifolia (Japan, 〒106-0045 Tokyo, Minato City, Azabujuban, 1 Chome−6−5 ラミュウーズ十番ビル ラミューズ麻布十番ビル6F) located near Azabujuban Station in Tokyo definitely puts on a great show while making his coctails. Reservations recommended.
Animating characters 100x faster with AI
Game development is currently on a race to the bottom. It’s an industry of brutal competition – which creates some of the most innovative ways to bring ideas to the market faster and cheaper.
A new method of using low-poly meshes to generate higher quality facial and character animation is looking to replace standard character modelers and animators.
Free RV camping with utilities in Portland
City of Portland just announced the opening of it’s 10th alternative shelter site – this one provides free parking for RV/campers. It’s located at 10505 N Portland Road. It has 90 tiny home pods and 70 RV parking spaces for individuals living in their RV/campers. It provides free onsite laundry, showers, and food.
Articles:
- https://www.portland.gov/wheeler/locations-city-shelters-and-culturally-specific-villages/n-portland-rd-10505-n-portland
- https://www.portland.gov/wheeler/news/2024/10/28/mayor-wheeler-announces-opening-tenth-city-shelter-new-north-portland-0
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/1i9ztuf/nopo_rv_and_tiny_home_site/
Rent Transparency with RentZed
Want to know how much the unit you’re looking at has gone up in price? Want to know if the rental company that owns where you’re moving likes to raise rents every year, check out RentZed to see the rental history of an address or apartment.
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Survival Research Laboratories
Before Battlebots, in the 80’s, there was a group called Survival Research Laboratories (wiki). I remember seeing a video clip of them back in the 80’s on an episode of Ripley’s Believe It or Not hosted by Jack Palance (long before YouTube kids). It showed clips of frightening, dangerous machines that destroyed and ambled around with the most disturbing movements.
The mechanical creations made horrendously loud noises, shot things, exploded, emitted huge flame plumes, electricity, and projectiles. They played disturbing music with screams and dialog from horror movies. The machines had huge metal arms, gears, and blades that smashed and sliced everything as they destroyed each other and everything in their paths.
It was kind of like watching the mechanical version of death metal – or Einstürzende Neubauten. None of it looked safe for the bystanders. Many onlookers appeared to be genuinely afraid. Injuries to the crew and bystanders did occur.
This group was (and is) called Survival Research Laboratories – a mechanical performance art group. They have a YouTube channel and still seem to be doing shows.
Here’s a pseudo-documentary about the group:
Turns out – they’re not gone. I just recently saw this video from Greg E. Leyh at Lightning on Demand who resurrected his old Plasma Cannon.
Great little retro adventure game
UFO 50 is a great little collection of 50 old-style computer games of standard genres (platformers, puzzle, adventure, survival horror), but modernized with a bit better mechanics and gameplay. It’s gotten quite popular and some of the games are really good.
I particularly like Night Manor. It has interesting mechanics like a flashlight that follows your cursor and a cursor that wiggles and jiggles in fear when the killer is on the screen. Neat!
Palm Sunday procession in Jerusalem
Lent is now half over, and we are rapidly approaching the events of Holy Week. In Jerusalem, Christians will start walking the paths Jesus trod in those last hours. They start with the Palm Sunday procession into the city. Pilgrims re-enact the triumphant entrance to the city – singing as they go.
There are videos online that follow the annual procession – such as the ones on Zahi Shaked‘s channel. They are definitely worth watching because physically seeing the locations gives you much more information about what was going on. All the happenings make more sense when you see the places along his path and see the vistas as sights as they did 2000 years ago.
Mark 11
1As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”4 They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5 some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
Today, the procession starts at Bethphage and then they go up the Mount of Olives past Pater Noster church. They then proceed down the Mount of Olives to cross the Kidron Valley. They stop at Dominus Flevit church where Jesus, with full view of Jerusalem, wept over their lack of faith and predicted the destruction of the city (which did occur only 35 years later after Passover in 70AD).
They pass the the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus would spend the last few hours of freedom before his arrest, and head up from the Kidron Valley to the Golden/Mercy Gate.
The processions today have to go slightly south to the Lion Gate because the Golden Gate is sealed closed with a large cemetery blocking the way. The Golden Gate/Gate of Mercy was long predicted to be the gate at which the messiah would enter they city. It has been sealed/unsealed many times during the centuries.
I found it interesting that the gate has two entrance passages. The two bays of the gate contain the Door of Mercy and the Door of Repentance. I think it’s no mistake that through mercy and repentance, you will enter the new kingdom of God into the heavenly Jerusalem.
When Christ comes in his glory at the end of time, he will come from the east. The Kidron valley was supposed to be where the nations will be judged outside the walls of the new Jerusalem.
Give the video a watch – and many others he has. There are videos from other years after covid restrictions were lifted.
Nuclear Tourism in New Mexico
A lot of nuclear world firsts happened in New Mexico. The difficulty is that due to the nuclear and secretive nature of the events, they can be hard to visit. It is possible – here’s how.
First, there is all the activities that happened at Los Alamos – a military site that didn’t even exist at first. It has since become Los Alamos National Laboratories – a government research site that continued the early nuclear work. Believe it or not, some of the original buildings are still on the site, and you can even visit them.
Dubbed “Behind the Fence” tours, you can actually visit some of the original buildings in which the first bombs were assembled and tested. You have to be lucky though. You need to be one of the 30 people picked for one of the 6 annual tours.
Next up, there is Trinity site itself – where the first nuclear bomb was detonated. You can visit it twice a year when the site is opened up on the first Saturday in April and third Saturday in October.