For comparison, big wheels were advertised 4 - 9, so quite a bit younger range. But there was also a little wheel for 2 1/2 - 4, and a mini wheel for tots 1 1/2 - 3.

For bikes, pediatric groups have fuzzy ranges and say most children learn some time between 3-9. Random web site claims ahead -> The fraction of children who learn to ride a bike is 75% (UK numbers) where their parents were at 95%. The US was on a similar trend, but since 2018 it has reversed, and there is a surge of children (and adults!) riding bikes.

As it turns out…

I am imagining many shins getting thwacked by madly spinning pedals as it barrels down a steep hill. No ability to coast (right?) So if it goes too fast on a steep hill, you’d have to remove your feet from the pedals and try not to get beat up by it.

From each, according to his ability to pedal!

And if I may…

To each, according to his need for speed!

Woah!!

For sure. Especially because those penny farthings were not exactly safe machines, and he survived his whole bicycle career. It was very easy to be pitched over the front and sustain a head injury. Severe injuries and fatalities were common.

In the postcard, it looks a little like a colossal jellyfish, with the lit up parachutes. That is sort of eerie!

Yes, but the ride is not. Hence, it (the parachute ride) was…

I included recent photos of the structure, and info about modern lighting, so I know the tower structure is still there!

For sure. It seems like a solid idea. Well not the tophat part, but the rest. Much better than just your arms.

I never knew of them either. But I don’t know if that’s because they never caught on, or because I don’t know shit about 1800’s lumberjacking. I wonder if maybe steam power destroyed the market for these. But feels like it could’ve had a niche. A water or steam powered sawmill beats it, but you have to get the logs there. You could set up one of these on-prem to segment logs too big to easily move to a mill. But I’m speculating. Maybe it was too narrow a niche, or came too late, to find a market?

Good spot, I didn’t even notice the logo line!

The little building off to the side, in the photo above, is a mini McD’s museum that the company built. Seems like this store wasn’t financially worth keeping open, but restored it for history reasons.

With low sales, damage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and the lack of a drive-up window and indoor seating, the restaurant was closed, and McDonald’s planned to demolish it and incorporate some of its features in a modern “retro” restaurant nearby. … With both the public and preservationists demanding the restaurant be saved, McDonald’s spent two years restoring the restaurant and reopened it. The restaurant now features an adjacent museum and gift shop housed in a replica of the original McDonald’s location in San Bernardino.

I wonder how the ratio of McD’s wage, to burger price, compares to today.

I have no idea how much they paid back then.

Good detective work! I’ll update.

Sinus nanobots

I do not want to be the first human test subject for the sinus nanobots.

Haha yeah. I get where they were coming from though. The 1st half the century saw an incredible explosion of scientific and technological progress. Intercontinental airplane flights instead of weeks on a ship. Electrification of homes. Television broadcasts. Eradication of entire terrible diseases. Massive progress on so many fronts.

It seems natural to think the same rate of progress will continue. So… sure, maybe another decade before we get cars that both have radar and fly and float? And that’s a thing we could have done by 1964, on a one-off highly impractical basis. It just couldn’t be economic or practical at scale.

Instead, we got flatscreens replacing tactile knobs, and logging of our GPS locations for sale to the highest bidder.

The retro-future was better than the actual one we got!

The past is stranger than I am even capable of imagining.

The decline of this practice and the recognition of the harmful effects of tobacco led to the figure of speech “blowing smoke up one’s ass”, which means lying to someone to flatter them.

TIL.

You are welcome. I also found this, after I made the main post. Kodak Girl has got a pretty comprehensive wikipedia page -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_Girl

Lots of talk about the cultural impacts, even the impact it had on real life fashion where her striped dress style was in for a while.

Haha yeah that got me too. “Might be 4 plus a half cigarette remainder. Might be 5 and 2/3. But around 5 somewhere, we are pretty sure.”

is code for you wanna do it right now

Different times I guess. Hard for me to imagine anything less sexy than getting, or for that matter giving, a snoot full of cigarette smoke at close range.

Maybe it’s something that makes sense if you’re a smoker?

Haha yeah I thought just after I hit post, she probably got WAY less than $1000. Even inflation adjusted, probably still not.