ued some 420,000 matchsticks to create the piece, which also includes 24,000 small wooden blocks for the supporting mount and features gates, tunnels, ramps, steps, and passageways along its seven levels. He began the project in 2007 and completed it in February 2010.
Patrick Acton, Minas Tirith, 2010
Matchsticks, Wooden Blocks, Wood Glue
Click on image to enlarge view. For additional images of this marvel, go here.
Matchstick Marvels Tourist Center, Gladbrook, Iowa, showcases Acton's work, which has been purchased for Ripley's Believe It or Not museums around the world. Among Acton's other creations are matchstick models of the U.S. Capitol, The Crooked House, and the Cutty Sark clipper ship.
An Iowa Public Television interview with Action in May 2010 is here.
An Iowa Public Television interview with Action in May 2010 is here.
✦ Not everything found in our "nation's attic" is a treasure or a gem. As this interesting post documents, staff at Smithsonian Institution Archives have found in archival boxes dirt, flooring samples, whiteout, gum wrappers, a frisbee, and bugs, bird droppings, and shedded snake skin. The day they examined those boxes, they also opened up their storage space by filling a few circular files.
✦ The remains of Two Brothers, the whaling ship skippered by Captain George Pollard, who inspired Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, were discovered recently by marine archaeologists in shallow waters off Hawaii.
✦ Those of us who are over 40 and also farsighted may soon be charging our eyeglasses overnight. PixelOptics of Roanoke, Virginia, has created emPower electronic spectacles that allow their wearers to dial up or decrease reading power simply by touching the side of the frames.
✦ You might enjoy your local theatre's popcorn but the Center for Science in the Public Interest wants you to know that the largest movie theatre chain in the United States, Regal, serves up a whopping 1,610 calories, plus 60 grams of saturated fat, with every "medium combo" it sells for $12. According to CSPI, it won't help to switch your choice of snack to an eight-ounce bag of Reese's Pieces, which make for a heart-stopping 1,160 calories and 35 grams of saturated fat — the equivalent of a 16-ounce t-bone steak and buttered baked potato. For a more graphic depiction of CSPI's findings, go here.
9 comments:
I love that Minas Tirith recreation. Wow!
I could use those glasses to read The High School Reader!
And wow -- re Minas Tirith! is right -- Wow!
thanks for all these facts Maureen -- gotta find a place to drop these gems into a dinner conversation :)!
Hugs
Oh my goodness. I was AT the Iowa State Fair. How did I miss the matchstick Minas Tirith? That's just wrong.
I wanted to comment on the other cool oddities, but then I got to the last item in the list. EWWWWWW. Hideous. That is horrifying.
I'd love to see that ship! The matchstick link was awesome. Great finds/shares. :)
The matchstick construction is amazing.
I'm never buying popcorn at the movies again!!
I'm with the "Minas Tirith" comments... incredible!
i like the mound of matchsticks.
and i want those glasses!
So Moby Dick was a prototype for Law and Order, Ben Franklin and I are both yearning for some emPower eye glasses, and thank you for ruining my next movie munch.- Anuradhapura- The Kuttam Pokuna, or twin bathing-ponds, to the east of the Jéta-wanáráma Dágoba. General view.
Lawton, Joseph
- Enlarge image
Anuradhapura- The Kuttam Pokuna, or twin bathing-ponds, to the east of the Jéta-wanáráma Dágoba. General view.
- Object:
Photograph
- Place of origin:
Sri Lanka (photographed)
- Date:
1870s (photographed)
- Artist/Maker:
Lawton, Joseph (photographer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Albumen print
- Museum number:
82736
- Gallery location:
In Storage
The kuttam pokuna, or twin bathing pools, were 8th and 9th century ritual baths, used by Buddhist monks. Water was transferred through underground ducts, a system that is regarded as an outstanding example of hydrological engineering.
The remains of the tank consist of large, deep rectangular pit with stone slabs on the walls and stone steps leading down into it. Another set of stone steps, half buried, appears to the left of the pit and a male figure stands at the furthermost corner on the left. Standing and fallen trees surround the tank.
Place of Origin
Sri Lanka (photographed)
Date
1870s (photographed)
Artist/maker
Lawton, Joseph (photographer)
Materials and Techniques
Albumen print
Marks and inscriptions
LAWTON
Written on negative and appears in the bottom right hand corner of the print.
BFK Rives No.7
Shallow imprint on the photographic paper. Words are partially cut off and appear in the top right hand corner of the print.
Dimensions
Width: 270 mm photographic print, Height: 215 mm photographic print, Width: 330 mm mount, Height: 263 title is handwritten on the bottom left hand corner of the mount. The museum number is written in the bottom right hand corner.
Historical significance: The Kuttam Pokuna, or twin bathing-ponds, are 8th and 9th century ritual baths. They were for the use of the monastery and the embankments were constructed to enable monks to bathe. The steps that descend into the water and the bottoms of the pools consist of cut granite slabs. A wall was built around the pool to enclose the compound and steps on either end of the pool are decorated with punkalas (pots of prosperity) and scroll designs. Water for the pools was transferred as well as filtered through underground ducts and they are regarded as an outstanding example of hydrological engineering. Kuttam Pokuna,.
Labels and date
The Kuttam Pokuna
Anuradhapura, 700–900
By Joseph Lawton (died 1872)
The kuttam pokuna, or twin bathing pools, were ritual baths used by Buddhist monks. Water was transferred through underground ducts, a system that is regarded as an outstanding example of hydrological engineering.
Albumen print, 1870–1
Museum no. 82,736 []Very nice. Both airplanes delivered new from Boeing.
Did they come with collector cards?
Nice addition for fleet builders!
I, admittedly, know almost nothing about that airline.
That said, do they remind anyone else of the old Western Pacific from the 90's?? How each of the liveries shared only a few commonalities, with each plane carrying different advertising of some sort.
They’re a Canadian charter outfit. See their birds in FL during the winter season.
I ordered them both last week and also have the Orange livery mentioned by the OP.
JagT747, what are the other 3 Exclusive Threshold models?
Not sure about the sixth?
The orange Sunwing Max was released last year for Canada Day too. Only about 150-160 pieces made. Quite rare now.
Look like Panda models.
All made by aeroclassics.
NG should render this hot garbage a moot point. Personally, I would wait for the fine folks at NG to start going after Aeroklasseicks a with a predatory vigor that will be quite fun to watch.
NG has indicated no desire to do that. Quite the opposite, really.
But, facts seldom stand in the way of fantasy and nonsense. Where small hobby companies valiantly fight on an imaginary battlefield, with such “predatory vigor”!!!
As for the alter-ego account.... I’m guessing either Ribeye or Washer&Dryer.22 JAN 1935 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
At some unknown time, George Nickle, a custom shoemaker, moved from Ontario to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to establish a business. In 1896 the family moved to Detroit. A decade later, in 1906, they moved to Winnipeg. In 1917, they moved to Calgary, where George Nickle and his sons, Samuel Clarence Nickle and Stanton Nickle entered the retail shoe business in what was then a farm and ranching centre of some 50,000 population.
1st letter I have is dated November 1, 1904, mailed from George in Winnipeg Manitoba to Mattie at 98 Adams Avenue West, Detroit, Michigan. George was working to open a store; perhaps also looking for work in a bakery; speaks of pay levels of from $9 to $25 per week. Speaks of his three children, Sam, Stanton and Agnes.
On March 6th, 1924, a notice in the Thamesville Herald, quoted from the Calgary Morning Albertan, states that Mr. and Mrs. George Nickle celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary on February 26th, 1924 at their "beautiful home" on 13th Avenue South West. More than 200 guests attended during the afternoon