Cool China Tooling Factory images

(Posted from China Injection Mold blog)

A few nice china tooling factory images I found:

delighting “me” always

Image by Shaojin+AT

delighting "me" always

Picture: I suppose to focus my camera on the sculpture instead of on the pink lady. However, I was surprised when I got home with this result, my camera chosen to focus on pink lady! It is delighting me!!!

Canon, delighting you always…

Location: 798 Art Zone, Beijing. China

798 Art Zone (Chinese: 798艺术区; pinyin: 798 Yìshùqū), or Dashanzi Art District, is a part of Dashanzi in the Chaoyang District of Beijing that houses a thriving artistic community, among 50-year old decommissioned military factory buildings of unique architectural style. It is often compared with New York’s Greenwich Village or SoHo.

The area is often called the 798 Art District or Factory 798 although technically, Factory #798 is only one of several structures within a complex formerly known as Joint Factory 718. The buildings are located inside alleys number 2 and 4 on Jiǔxiānqiáo Lù (酒仙桥路), south of the Dàshānziqiáo flyover (大山子桥).

Construction

798 Space gallery, Jan,2009. Old Maoist slogans are visible on the ceiling arches.

The Dashanzi factory complex began as an extension of the "Socialist Unification Plan" of military-industrial cooperation between the Soviet Union and the newly formed People’s Republic of China. By 1951, 156 "joint factory" projects had been realized under that agreement, part of the Chinese government’s first Five-Year Plan. However the People’s Liberation Army still had a dire need of modern electronic components, which were produced in only two of the joint factories. The Russians were unwilling to undertake an additional project at the time, and suggested that the Chinese turn to East Germany from which much of the Soviet Union’s electronics equipment was imported. So at the request of then-Premier Zhou Enlai, scientists and engineers joined the first Chinese trade delegation to East Germany in 1951, visiting a dozen factories. The project was greenlighted in early 1952 and a Chinese preparatory group was sent to East Berlin to prepare design plans. This project, which was to be the largest by East Germany in China, was then informally known as Project #157.

The architectural plans were left to the Germans, who chose a functional Bauhaus-influenced design over the more ornamental Soviet style, triggering the first of many disputes between the German and Russian consultants on the project. The plans, where form follows function, called for large indoor spaces designed to let the maximum amount of natural light into the workplace. Arch-supported sections of the ceiling would curve upwards then fall diagonally along the high slanted banks or windows; this pattern would be repeated several times in the larger rooms, giving the roof its characteristic sawtooth-like appearance. Despite Beijing’s northern location, the windows were all to face north because the light from that direction would cast fewer shadows.

The chosen location was a 640,000 square metres area in Dashanzi, then a low-lying patch of farmland northeast of Beijing. The complex was to occupy 500,000 square metres, 370,000 of which were allocated to living quarters. It was officially named Joint Factory 718, following the Chinese government’s method of naming military factories starting with the number 7. Fully funded by the Chinese side, the initial budget was enormous for the times: 9 million rubles or approximately 140 million RMB (US million) at today’s rates; actual costs were 147 million RMB.

Ground was broken in April 1954. Construction was marked by disagreements between the Chinese, Soviet and German experts, which led at one point to a six-month postponement of the project. The Germans’ harshest critic was the Russian technology consultant in charge of Beijing’s two Soviet-built electronics factories (714 and 738), who was also head consultant of the Radio Industrial Office of the Second Ministry of Machine Building Industry. The disputes generally revolved around the Germans’ high but expensive quality standards for buildings and machines, which were called "over-engineering" by the Russians. Among such points of contention was the Germans’ insistence, historical seismic data in hand, that the buildings be built to withstand earthquakes of magnitude 8 on the Richter scale, whereas the Chinese and Russians wanted to settle for 7. Communications expert Wang Zheng, head of Communications Industry in the Chinese Ministry of National Defense and supporter the East German bid from the start, ruled in favor of the Germans for this particular factory.

At the height of the construction effort, more than 100 East German foreign experts worked on the project. The resources of as many as 22 of their factories supplied the construction; at the same time, supply delays were caused by the Soviet Red Army’s tremendous drain on East Germany’s industrial production. The equipment was transported directly through the Soviet Union via the Trans-Siberian railway, and a 15 km track of railroad between Beijing Railway Station and Dongjiao Station was built especially to service the factory. Caltech-educated scientist Dr. Luo Peilin (罗沛霖), formerly head of the preparatory group in 1951-1953, was Head Engineer of Joint Factory 718 during its construction phase. Dr. Luo, now retired in Beijing, is remembered by his former colleagues as a dedicated perfectionist whose commitment to the obstacle-strewn project was a major factor of its eventual success.

[edit]Operation

Joint Factory 718 began production in 1957, amid a grandiose opening ceremony and display of Communist brotherhood between China and East Germany, attended by high officials of both countries. The first director was Li Rui (李瑞), who had been involved in the early negotiations in Berlin.

The factory quickly established a reputation for itself as one of the best in China. Through its several danwei or "work units", it offered considerable social benefits to its 10,000-20,000 workers, especially considering the relative poverty of the country during such periods as the Great Leap Forward. The factory boasted, among others:

the best housing available to workers in Beijing, providing fully furnished rooms to whole families for less than 1/30 of the workers’ income;

diverse extracurricular activities such as social and sporting events, dancing, swimming, and training classes;

its own athletics, soccer, basketball and volleyball teams for men and women, ranked among the best in inter-factory competitions;

a brigade of German-made motorcycles, performing races and stunt demonstrations;

an orchestra that played not only revolutionary hymns, but also German-influenced classical Western music;

literary clubs and publications, and a library furnished with Chinese and foreign (German) books;

Jiuxianqiao hospital, featuring German equipment and offering the most advanced dental facilities in China.

The factory even had its own volunteer military reserves or jinweishi (近卫师), which numbered hundreds and were equipped with large-scale weapons and anti-aircraft guns.

Workers’ skills were honed by frequent personnel exchanges, internships and training in cooperation with East Germany. Different incentives kept motivation high, such as rewards systems and "model worker" distinctions. At the same time, political activities such as Maoism study workshops kept the workers in line with Communist Party of China doctrine. During the Cultural revolution, propaganda slogans for Mao Zedong Thought were painted on the ceiling arches in bright red characters (where they remain today at the latter tenants’ request).

Frequent VIP visits contributed to the festive atmosphere. Notable guests included Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, and Kim Il-Sung.

The Joint Factory produced a wide variety of military and civilian equipment. Civilian production included acoustic equipment for Beijing’s Workers’ Stadium and Great Hall of the People, as well as all the loudspeakers on Tiananmen Square and Chang’an Avenue. Military components were also exported to China’s Communist allies, and helped establish North Korea’s wireless electronics industry.

One of the old machine tools in front of some contemporary art in Dec 2005

After 10 years of operation, Joint Factory 718 was split into more manageable components, such as sub-Factories 706, 707, 751, 761, 797 and 798. The first Head of sub-Factory 798 (the largest) was Branch Party Secretary Fu Ke (傅克), who played a major role in recruiting skilled workers from southern China and among returned overseas Chinese.

However, the factory came under pressure during Deng Xiaoping’s reforms of the 1980s. Deprived of governmental support like many state-owned enterprises, it underwent a gradual decline and was eventually rendered obsolete. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, most sub-factories had ceased production, 60% of the workers had been laid off, and the remains of the management were reconstituted as a real-estate operation called "Seven-Star Huadian Science and Technology Group", charged with overseeing the industrial park and finding tenants for the abandoned buildings.

[edit]

The Dashanzi factory complex was vacated at around the time when most of Beijing’s contemporary artist community was looking for a new home. Avant-garde art being frowned upon by the government, the community had traditionally existed on the fringes of the city. From 1984 to 1993, they worked in run-down houses near the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) in northwestern Beijing, until their eviction. They had then moved to the eastern Tongxian County (now Tongzhou District), more than an hour’s drive from the city center.

Then in 1995, Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), looking for cheap, ample workshop space away from downtown, set up in the now defunct Factory 706. The temporary move became permanent and in 2000 Sui Jianguo(隋建国), Dean of the Department of Sculpture, located his own studio in the area. The cluttered sculpture workshops have always remained open for visitors to peek at the dozens of workers milling about.

In 2001, Texan Robert Bernell moved his Timezone 8 Art Books bookshop and publishing office (founded in 1997) into a former factory canteen; he was the first foreigner to move in. One of Timezone 8’s early employees was fashion designer Xiao Li, who along her husband, performance artist Cang Xin, helped artists secure and rent spaces in the area.

Through word-of-mouth, artists and designers started trickling in, attracted to the vast cathedral-like spaces. Despite the lack of any conscious aesthetic in the Bauhaus-inspired style, which grounded architectural beauty in practical, industrial function, the swooping arcs and soaring chimneys had an uplifting effect on modern eyes, a sort of post-industrial chic. At the artists’ requests, workers renovating the spaces preserved the prominent Maoist slogans on the arches, adding a touch of ironic "Mao kitsch" to the place.

Later that year, Mr. Tabata Yukihito from Japan’s Tokyo Gallery set up Beijing Tokyo Art Projects (BTAP, 北京东京艺术工程) inside a 400-m² division of Factory 798’s main area; this was the first renovated space featuring the high arched ceilings that would become synonymous with the Art District. BTAP’s 2002 opening exhibition "Beijing Afloat" (curator: Feng Boyi), drew a crowd of over 1,000 people and marked the beginning of the popular infatuation with the area.

In 2002, designer artist Huang Rui (黄锐) and hutong photographer Xu Yong (徐勇) set up the 798 Space gallery (时态空间) next to BTAP. With its cavernous 1200-m² floor and multiple-arched ceilings at the center of Factory 798, it was and still is the symbolic center of the whole district. (Huang and Xu since designed at least seven spaces in the area and became the prime movers and de facto spokespersons of the District.) A glass-fronted café was set up in the former office section at the back of the 798 space, opening into a back alley now lined with studios and restaurants such as Huang’s own At Café, and Cang Xin’s #6 Sichuan restaurant, the area’s "canteen".

In 2003, Lu Jie (卢杰) set up the Long March Foundation, an ongoing project for artistic re-interpretation of the historical Long March, inside the 25,000 Li Cultural Transmission Center (二万五千里文化传播中心). Around that time, Singapore-owned China Art Seasons (北京季节画廊) opened for display for pan-Asian art, and was one of several new galleries setting up at that time.

Source from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/798_Art_Zone

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The Top 10 Ways to Improve Flickr

Image by Thomas Hawk

Recently my friend Bill Storage asked a question in DeletemeUncensored titled "What’s Wrong With Flickr." The thread wasn’t meant to complain about Flickr but to talk about how Flickr could be improved if one were starting from scratch. I wrote a couple of long responses out to Bill in the thread, but thought that some of the ideas really belonged in a longer-form blog post.

Alot of people give me crap for criticizing Flickr. They ask me why I use Flickr if "hate" it so much. The fact of the matter is that I don’t hate Flickr at all. In fact I love Flickr (even if they don’t love me anymore). I spend more time on Flickr than any other site on the web. I think Flickr represents the best place on the web for a photographer to share photos today and I think as a whole that Flickr is one of the cultural gems of our lifetime. What’s more, a lot of the stuff on Flickr works really, really well and is really really great.

That said, I’ve always viewed criticism as a positive thing. As something that helps us improve and grow. Hopefully we learn from our critics and hopefully one can view suggestions as opportunities for improvement rather than simple mindless negativity. I blog alot about Flickr because I care about Flickr. I care about photography on the web. I care about the greater Flickr community and I want to see it get better and better. So don’t see this list as a bitch list about Flickr, rather see it as some honest ways that Flickr can improve.

1. Improve the process on how account and group deletions are handled. Flickr is increasingly becoming known as a place that deletes accounts willy nilly without warning. Flickr’s "Community Guidelines" are notoriously vague (you can be deleted without warning on Flickr for being "that guy" or if Flickr feels that you are "creepy.")

Many of my friends have had their entire accounts deleted for pretty minor offenses that are not specifically prohibited in more specific language in the TOS. In some cases photos with historical significance have been permanently lost. A while back Flickr nuked a group that I administered killing thousands of permanent threads. Thousands of threads by a group with thousands of members. Threads about cameras, workflows, photographic techniques, etc. Institutional knowledge stricken from the web forever.

Flickr really only should nuke accounts or groups as a matter of absolute last resort. They should try to work with their members (especially their long-term and paying members) if they find content that they object to. They should give members opportunities to take self-corrective action before just pulling the plug on their account. If they object to a single thread or a single image, they should just delete that image rather than nuking a user’s entire account.

When Flickr nukes a group or an account it says to a user, "I don’t respect you or your data." It creates an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty is bad for community.

At Flickr when they nuke your account it is also permanent and irrevocable. There is no undo button. Even if Flickr staff mistakenly deletes an account or if a hacker maliciously deletes your account, there is no getting that data back. It’s gone forever.

Flickr could probably very easily create a system where deleted accounts are simply turned completely private and inaccessible from the web without actually removing all of the data. They could then give a user an opportunity to fix whatever they have a problem with in order to get their account turned back on. This would be a far better way of managing community than Flickr does at present.

2. Create a more robust blocking tool. Today at Flickr when you block someone, all it means is that they can’t fave or comment on your photos. This is a very weak blocking system. If someone really wants to harass you blocking them does nothing. They can still comment on photos after you do so that their comments show up in your recent activity. They can still follow you around in groups and post things that you’re forced to look at etc. Especially with cheap throw away troll accounts this creates unnecessary conflict on the site.

A few years back, over at FriendFeed, they developed a far more robust blocking system. When you block someone on FriendFeed they become entirely invisible to you. Not only can they not comment in your threads, anyplace else they post on the site is made invisible to you. They are wiped off the planet as far as you are concerned.

Now this would accomplish a few things at flickr. First it would give users far more control over eliminating anything that they found personally offensive or negative on the site. You don’t like my paintings of nudes from a museum and don’t like seeing them when you search for the de Young Museum? Fine. Then block me and you never see any of my content again. You don’t like someone who uses language that you find offensive in a group post? Fine, block them as well.

Second though, this sort of tool would encourage more civil interaction between users. If a user creates a troll account and starts behaving badly. They are quickly blocked and become irrelevant. This encourages them not to troll creating a more positive experience for the rest of us.

Many of the personality clashes that occur on Flickr could be avoided if Flickr simply empowered the user to block more robustly.

3. SmartSets. Having to manually construct sets is an incredibly inefficient way to build and maintain your sets. That’s why I use Jeremy Brooks’ SuprSetr. It’s probably the best third-party app ever built for Flickr. Flickr should hire Jeremy in fact as he’s doing groundbreaking work here, but that’s another topic.

Flickr should consider building SuprSetr technology directly into their Organize section. Let users build sets by keywords. It makes it much easier for users to build and maintain their sets. If I build a Las Vegas set for instance. In the future every single photo of mine keyworded Las Vegas, automatically gets added to this set when I run SuprSetr. Very slick.

4. Better Group thread management. At present Flickr has a very strong and robust Groups section. Here users can create groups (and there are probably literally millions of groups at this point) and talk about whatever they want and post photos into a pool. Games have been created around groups. Businesses have set up groups. Local communities have created their own groups. There are niche groups about anything and everything — from graffiti in South Florida to a specific neon sign in San Jose. Some groups have more robust discussion threads than others, but all offer this feature.

One of the problems with group threads on Flickr though is that you are constantly losing track of conversations that you are having because you have to manually go to each and every group to check the threads. If I post something in a group, but then don’t remember to go back to that specific group and that specific thread, I have no way of knowing if someone has answered my question or commented after my thoughts or whatever.

Flickr should create a page that aggregates all of the group threads that you are participating in or have chosen to follow. This page would encompass all threads from all group in a nice aggregated section. This way if you posted a really important question in a group three months ago that someone has finally got around to answering, you will actually see it, the moment it is bumped to the top of your aggregator.

Flickr should also allow you to hide group threads. Both in your aggregator as well as in the more general group view. If I don’t care about the latest Pentax camera (because I’m a Canon 5D M2 owner) I should be able to mute that thread in the group and never see it again. This would also help decrease negative trolling and bumping of threads on the site as offensive threads could just be hidden by a user if they didn’t want to see it.

5. Kill explore and replace it with a recommendation system based on your contact’s/friends photos. Flickr blacklisted me from Explore a while back after I wrote a negative blog post about actions that someone on their community management team had taken. They capped my photos in it at 666 (cute huh?). But this isn’t why I don’t like Explore. There’s a whole thread called "So I Accidentally Clicked on Explore" in DMU devoted to crappy photos that end up in Explore. The problem with Explore is that it largely shows you photos that you are less interested in. Broad general popular photos of cliches. Sunsets and kittens as the saying goes.

If I choose to follow people on Flickr, I’m probably much more interested in their style of photography or them personally than I am images in Explore. Maybe I’m a graffiti writer and am most interested in graffiti photos. Maybe my thing is mannequins. Maybe I want to see photos of classic cars. Whatever. Instead of presenting the community what Flickr feels is the best of the whole community, show each member the best of their contacts each, day, week, month. I would be far more interested in the photos of people that I actually follow, like, know, etc. Maybe Aunt Edna’s photo of her dog will never hit Flickr’s explore. But it just might hit my own personalized explore and because I know Aunt Edna and she is my contact, it might be a much more rewarding experience for me to see than say another random dog shot from a user that I don’t even know.

Flickr does have a page that shows your contacts most recent uploads, but this page is very limited and only shows the most recent 1 or 5 photos. There is also no way to filter it so that you see the photos that are faved/commented on the most and are likely to be the more interesting photos.

Get rid of Explore and replace it with something that is focused much more on your contacts than people you don’t even know. A personalized Explore would be a far more interesting page.

6. Improve Group Search. I have no idea why Group Search sucks so badly on Flickr but it does. Frequently you will search for terms that you’ve posted in group thread conversations and Flickr will not return the thread where the word exists. I would think that Yahoo! should know a few things about search and am surprised that searching for threads in groups has been so spotty for so many years. I have no idea why this is so bad, but it shouldn’t be.

7. Improve Data Portability. Flickr gives lipservice to data portability, but is not serious about it. As long as 99% of Flickr users can’t or won’t figure out how to move their photos easily to another site they are just fine with things. Functional lock in. The data that we put on Flickr is our data. It belongs to us. We are paying Flickr to hold it for us, but it belongs to us.

Recently my friend Adam wrote up a post on a help forum post about the language Flickr uses for encouraging people to buy Pro accounts. They said that they felt that Flickr is holding your photos hostage (beyond the 200 photo free limit) if you don’t upgrade to Pro. Only Pro accounts have access to original images on Flickr.

Flickr should let any member get their photos out of Flickr at any time. Further they should offer competitors API keys to allow them to build service to service direct transfer applications to move your photos to another service if you want. If I don’t want to renew my Pro account on Flickr and want to move my photos to Picasa, this should be as easy as me pressing a single button and having all of my photos transfer over.

Today it is very difficult and clunky to get your photos off of flickr. A few third party apps are available, but there are lots of problems with them. They fail if you have too many photos. They are only Windows based, etc. etc. Flickr has functional lock in and holds photos in a silo while talking about how they allow you to get your photos out of Flickr. Flickr should follow the lead of Google here and publicly both state and help make our data more portable. This ought to be part of being a good web citizen today.

8. Uncensor Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Germany and Maktoob.com. At present Flickr censors content to these places. It’s still mind boggling to me that a photo of a painting that I took in the Art Institute of Chicago can’t be seen by people in India. Trying to censor the world’s web is messy business. Flickr/Yahoo should take a stand for freedom and uncensor these locations. Google last year took a bold step of choosing to walk about from China rather than censor results there. Yahoo should stand for freedom and stop censoring in these places.

9. Let people sell their photos for stock photography. Flickr missed the boat by giving away stock photography to Getty Images. Stock photography is probably the single easiest way for Yahoo to dramatically increase the profitability of Flickr. Getty Images represents a tiny fraction of the images available on Flickr. The Flickr/Getty deal was probably done as a defensive move by Getty more than anything to keep Yahoo out of the multi billion dollar market that is stock photography today. What resulted is that users get a paltry 20% payout for a very small number of their images that can be sold.

Flickr could be a far more formidable competitor to Getty. Flickr has the size and market share to dramatically disrupt this market. The stock photography marketplace is *far* more complicated than this. But oversimplifying things, Flickr should offer two collections for sale (if a user chooses to offer their photos for sale). Cleared photos and uncleared photos. Uncleared photos should pay more to the photographer than cleared photos. Cleared photos would be reviewed by a team of stock photography experts (Yahoo could even buy one of the smaller stock agencies that already has experience clearing images) and result in a lower payout to the photographer. By turning Flickr into the world’s largest stock photography agency Yahoo could receive significant revenue from Flickr and Flickr photographers personally could benefit much more from posting their work there.

10. Build a better mobile app. The Yahoo built mobile app for Flickr sucks ass (sorry). As I understand it, it wasn’t even developed by the Flickr team. Over at Quora former Flickr Engineer Kellan Elliott-McCrea answers the question, "Why did Flickr miss the mobile photo opportunity that Instagram and picplz are pursuing?" There is no compelling mobile Flickr experience today.

Recently, one of my favorite Flickr photographers, Michael Wilbur, deleted his entire Flickr account and is now one of the most popular photographers on Instagram. Flickr needs to develop a more compelling mobile experience. Part of this should be a very easy way to view group threads via mobile.

There you go. Food for thought. And keep on flickering.

Climatic Civilization Decline

Image by Jeffrey Sullivan

The Grand Gulch / Cedar Mesa area in Southeastern Utah is littered with old ruins of Ancient Pueblan dwellings and granaries. Many ancient cultures such as the Mayans and Ancient Pueblans succumbed to droughts, as we’re seeing spread in Africa, China, and the Western U.S.. Some leading scientists are forecasting a crash in global human population to 500 million by the end of this century. We’re seeing clear changes and acceleration now in places like Antarctica, the Arctic, and Greenland, and many of us will live to see them affect global economies and societies. The survival of our children, and their children, are the stakes.

Global scientific collaboration is starting to gain an understanding of how natural (climate) and human (deforestation. topsoil erosion, population) forces have shaped human history. This will help us more completely understand, and hopefully influence, our future.

Projects such as the Integrated History of People on Earth (IHOPE), International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), and the American Quaternary Association (AMQUA, devoted to studying all aspects of the Quaternary Period, the last 2 million years of Earth history) promise to give us the knowledge and tools to make more informed decisions about our future.

After 20+ years of largely ignoring the evidence (such as presented in the watered-down government-reviewed IPCC reports), we may no longer have the luxury of being able to wait and see what happens before our fate will be decided for us.

the perfect bridge

Image by springm / Markus Spring

Definitely worth to be seen Large On Black

See where the photo was taken at maps.yuan.cc/.

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Nice Tooling Factory photos

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Some cool tooling factory images:

SLS Core Stage Production Continues for Rocket’s First Flight

Image by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

Throughout NASA’s 43-acre rocket factory, the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, engineers are building all five parts of the Space Launch System’s core stage. For the first SLS flight for deep space exploration with NASA’s Orion spacecraft, major structural manufacturing is complete on three parts: the forward skirt, the intertank and the engine section. Test articles, which are structurally similar to flight hardware, and are used to qualify the core stage for flight, are in various stages of production and testing.

“One of the most challenging parts of building the world’s most powerful rocket has been making the largest rocket stage ever manufactured for the first time,” said Steve Doering, the SLS stages manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “The 212-foot-tall core stage is a new design made with innovative welding tools and techniques.”

To build the rocket’s fuel tanks, Boeing, the prime contractor for the SLS core stage, is joining some of the thickest parts ever built with self-reacting friction stir welding. NASA and Boeing engineers and materials scientists have scrutinized the weld confidence articles and developed new weld parameters for making the liquid oxygen and hydrogen tanks for the first SLS mission.

Image Credit: NASA/MSFC Michoud image: Judy Guidry

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Crystal Mill

Image by Road Fun

Definitely a shot from the archive, this was originally a color slide taken when I was a child using a very simple camera. It may have been a Brownie. This and a couple of other slides were found amongst my mom’s belongings and I had them scanned to a CD. Originally in color, I feel this shot works better processed into sepia. At the time I felt the Mill was a very precarious structure but it seems it still stands today. This was not an easy place to visit and required some off roading in a rented Jeep. My father died when I was young and the fishing trip we took to Colorado one summer was the only major father-son event we got to enjoy together. A treasured memory forever.

According to Wikipedia:
The Crystal Mill, or the Old Mill in Crystal, Colorado in the United States, was actually not a mill in the sense of being a factory, but was instead a power generating station.

It did not generate electrical power, but rather used a water turbine to drive an air compressor. The compressed air was then used to power other machinery or tools.

Today it stands as a Colorado icon, and is reputed to be the most photographed site in the state.

Thanks as always for your visits, faves and more! Hope you all have a great Thursday. BTW, today is the Princess’s first day at her new preschool so there is excitement in the air 🙂

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Nice Tooling Factory photos

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A few nice tooling factory images I found:

Factory

Image by marcovdz

Fralib Elephant tea Factory, Gémenos, France.

Swarovski Crystal Worlds – Kristallwelten Swarovski

Image by Cost3l
Facebook Costel Photography

Daniel Swarovski (October 24, 1862 – January 23, 1956), formerly Daniel Swartz, was born in northern Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). His father was a glass cutter who owned a small glass factory. It was there that a young Swarovski served an apprenticeship, becoming skilled in the art of glass-cutting. In 1892 he patented an electric cutting machine that facilitated the production of crystal glass.

In 1895, Swarovski financier Armand Kosman and Franz Weis founded the Swarovski company, originally known as A. Kosmann, Daniel Swartz & Co., which was later shortened to K.S. & Co. The company established a crystal cutting factory in Wattens, Tyrol (Austria), to take advantage of local hydroelectricity for the energy-intensive grinding processes Daniel Swarovski patented. The Swarovski Crystal range includes crystal glass sculptures and miniatures, jewelry and couture, home decor, and chandeliers.

All sculptures are marked with a logo. The original Swarovski logo was an edelweiss flower, which was replaced by an S.A.L. logo, which was finally replaced with the current swan logo in 1988. To create crystal glass that lets light refract in a rainbow spectrum, Swarovski coats some of its products with special metallic chemical coatings. For example, Aurora Borealis, or "AB", gives the surface a rainbow appearance.[8] Other coatings are named by the company, including Crystal Transmission, Volcano, Aurum, and Dorado. Coatings may be applied to only part of an object; others are coated twice, and thus are designated AB 2X, Dorado 2X etc.

In 2004 Swarovski released Xilion, a copyrighted cut designed to optimise the brilliance of Roses (components with flat backs) and Chatons (diamond cut). The Swarovski Group also includes Tyrolit (makers of abrasive and cutting tools); Swareflex (reflective and luminous road markings); Signity (synthetic and natural gemstones); and Swarovski Optik (optical instruments such as binoculars and rifle scopes).

The company runs a crystal-themed museum, Swarovski Kristallwelten (Crystal Worlds) at its original Wattens site (near Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria). The Crystal Worlds centre is fronted by a glass-covered head, the mouth of which is a fountain. The glass-covered Crystal Worlds houses exhibitions related to, or inspired by, the crystals – but do not include explanations of how the famous designs are made, produced or finished. Swarovski work was recently exhibited at Asia’s Fashion Jewellery & Accessories Fair based on the concept of a single continuous beam of fragmented light travelling through a crystal. (Wikipedia)

factory tools

Image by bloomgal

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The reason of "small shrinkage hole" on the surface of cast iron and the method of tooling

(Posted from www.injectionmouldchina.com)

by dcmaster

Cast Iron itself has the hard points: one is the cast iron material after heat processing, organizational structure change, the composition of hard small, hard points to the cutting surface density changes occur, the hard point for cutting has certain influence. But when this small changes in the cutting process encountered outside of knife edge sharp and passivation in the shearing process appears directly difference; two is better than that of high hardness particle or lump in iron castings, the casting defects called inclusion”. The reasons are mixed with the precipitate or alloy than the base metal hard metal or non metal compound particles, such as three two aluminum oxide, three aluminum, titanium etc.. Cast iron material according to the different grades of Aluminum Alloy, the differences of tissue components caused by differences in surface density, decrease the adhesion of hard points and the matrix, thus the density difference of cast iron point often in sharp edge processing under the condition of hard point is “empty pound” and formed “small shrinkage”.

In the process of nonferrous metal casting. The metal casting is widely used by many enterprises because of its many advantages, because of its high mechanical properties than the sand casting. The same alloy cast iron, the average tensile strength can be increased by about 25%, the yield strength increased about 20%, the corrosion resistance and hardness also increased significantly; secondly the accuracy and surface finish of the aluminum casting sand casting is high, and the quality and size stability; also the casting process yield from. Liquid metal consumption is reduced, can save 15 to 30% more or less; no sand sand, can save the other materials from 80 to 100%; in addition, the metal mold casting production and high efficiency: the reason of reducing casting defects; the process is simple, easy to realize mechanization and automation. Although many advantages but has its shortcomings, the thick section Aluminum Alloy casting precision or to reach the ideal level, so users are required to set aside some processing capacity of processing procedure, if mass production, the economic loss is enormous. Over the years, I have been determined to improve the accuracy of the metal casting to do some articles, how to make the thick broken blood aluminum alloy casting accuracy and improve the level of improvement.

First I in tooling, equipment gradually increase investment, it is a good article, manufacturing technology of casting model is also gradually upgrade, there are hundreds of sets: size model and equipment model corresponding to only a very simple mold machine to have a number of automatic and tiltable casting die casting machine. With a good horse, with a good saddle, the operator of the quality of training and the use of scientific and rational operation of the process, will eventually enable me to achieve the dream of improving the accuracy of large-scale non-ferrous metal castings.

This is steve fay from parfect casting foundry with 10 years experience in the industry . our casting factory specizlized in lost wax casting ,sand casting , welding parts and so on . welcome to visit our website www.casting-forgings.com to know more

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Nice China Plastic Tooling Design photos

(Posted from www.injectionmouldchina.com)
A few nice china plastic tooling design images I found:

The Portable Atelier, Nyc.

Image by atelier-ying

This is my camera bag that follows me everywhere, even inside my own home. I also toss it into the baby stroller.

Let’s take a tour starting clockwise from the upper left, shall we?

1. Turano iPad bag with 4 compartments and some dividers. I wish they made this in red or army green or clear smoky plastic.

2. metal drafting triangle, I did forget to include my elliptical and circle templates which I use.

I have a miniature engineer’s scale but there’s no real reason to use it for what I’m doing, my cameras designs stand without toppling over and there’s no standardized dimension of camera building materials to concern myself over. Actually, glue, tape, and architectural modeling supplies are my materials for the most part.

3. the Ricoh GRD3 is tuned for taking only baby photos. I treat it like a film camera; I don’t use the LCD at all, it’s got two settings for color or b&w, and I toss the used chips into a small plastic box. I will have to spend a week on the computer downloading and editing, maybe when my kids turn two years of age.

4. old-fashioned fan. I really use this. it feels so good in the hand, very practical. And good for fanning a restless baby in the stroller. I’d like to get a sandalwood one from HK.

5. Moleskine notebooks. The largest one fits in the Turano, amazingly. I have many sizes of these black notebooks. Actually, I have a red suitcase from my childhood full of nothing but notebooks.

6. Name seals and red ink paste.

7. Office date stamp

8. Muji measuring tape, in millimeters, you never know when you need to measure camera dimensions and distances.

9. Yellow tape, pencil sharpener (sandpaper works best, I find)

10. Coromega (the best Omega supplement and this brand causes no heartburn)

11. my quasi-conductor’s watch made from a complimentary Michael Kors sample attached to a 70’s key strap.

12. iphone and cover and 5mm kaweco lead holder, both in white and brass, my favorite color combo. I want a white and brass kit. Drawing with the Kaweco is a real pleasure. I upload all my drawings with the iphone, from anywhere.

13. Swiss Villiger Cigar box filled with clay scratchboard papers for drawings. I’d like to store an old-world gambling dice game, or a golf game in here too. Like the old Howzat game. I’m working on it.

14. Davidoff Primeros, the best small cigars I have ever had. There is a relic of St. Therese de Lisieux on top of the box. It’s a piece of her habit. It blesses all my efforts.

15. Micron Pen set (.005, .01, .08 sizes)

16. Muji ink refill in gel blue, wonderful scriber’s tool.

17. Namiki Fountain Pen with red ink cartridges. I wish they’d make a vermillion red ink. I can do all my drawings in red, I love the impact and color.

18. Delta La Dolce Vita Fountain pen with Fine nib. The opposite of the ink refill pen in size and feel.

19. HB lead holder

20. Promecha Super Pencil. A work of art in itself.

21. Macanudo Portofino tube with sandpaper for sharpening leads

22. Derwent Electric Eraser, one of my favorite tools, I cannot live without this when I am drawing.

23. Baby’s Rattle. This is one of the best baby pacifiers I know of. Always handy to quiet the little ones.


Read more on http://www.injectionmouldchina.com/nice-china-plastic-tooling-design-photos/

Nice Household Tooling Made In China photos

(Posted from www.injectionmouldchina.com)
A few nice household tooling made in china images I found:

An Excerpt ~ ‘Beard Trimming Scissors are Nitroglycerin’

Image by Viewminder

You know what else is weird?

The term ‘Duvet Cover.’

I only learned about ‘Duvet’s’ when I got myself into a long term mutually beneficial semi-monagamous relationship that was both emotionally and sexually satisfying to me and the woman that was my life partner.

A couple of life partners ago.

None of my genius buddies have a clue as to what a ‘duvet’ is.

I Love women.

If I didn’t I would never spend so much time trying to understand them and to so selflessly help them to understand that the quest for ‘hot freaky’ can bring them and their man rewards and pleasures that they’ve never considered.

Sharing ‘hot freaky’ can bring a man and a woman closer together than they’d ever thought.

Women are the most beautiful things on earth.

They’re soft and they smell good too.

Personally I’m always amazed at how good that their hair smells.

They also have unique capabilities and they can create a spectacularly color coordinated home that actually feels like it’s full of warmth and love and lots of throw pillows and organize it and run it as a dictatorship with a military like precision.

You can’t even organize the garage.

In short…

women are everything that you are not.

And you could never be no matter how hard you tried.

That’s one of the reasons that you love them and you’re willing to risk the explosive and painful soul crushing ramifications of relating to them in an intimate way.

Because they are ultimately your partner in the quest for ‘hot freaky’ that has consumed most of your thoughts for your entire life, both sleeping and awake.

Why they put up with your shit is another story entirely.

She might never be your ‘buddy’ but you’ve still got a few of those left that she doesn’t know about.

You can’t do it without them man.

Women.

Not your buddies… they’ll never get you anywhere near the promised land.

At best they’re someone that you go to to drink beers with after your progress towards your lifelong goal of entering the gates of ‘Shangri-freaky-la’ has been derailed by some stupid shit thing you’ve said to your woman at the worst possible time.

Because you’ve got a big habit of doing that.

Women are absolutely essential in the quest that will be the journey to the promised land.

Unless you like hairy guy ass.

And that’s entirely your call.

You know I love you and I’d support you even if that was your choice.

Or your genetics.

But after knowing you for as long as I have you’re pretty much hetero.

I mean…

you think maybe being gay would be easier than actualy having to think about all of this shit… particularly after one of your legendary and spectacular blowups resulting from your gahdawful ability to say the most stupid shit you possibly can to a woman at the most critical time…

But you just can’t decide all of the sudden that you’re gay.

Or at least that’s what conventional wisdom dictates.

And just because you’ve come to love and admire duvet covers doesn’t mean you’re gay.

Ask your therapist next time.

The sexy one that you sit there and tell all about your obsession with ‘hot freaky’ and you secretly wonder if one day she’ll just crack, give in and take you up on your repeated subtle offers.

You would have never discovered duvet covers if a woman didn’t bring them into your life.

Until she showed you, you had no idea that you could actually buy a cover to shove your old dirty ink stained comforter in to and that it would look like it’s brand new.

I just don’t understand whay people call them ‘duvet covers.’

I mean… a ‘duvet’ is a cover for your ugly ass comforter right?

So what’s a ‘duvet cover?’

Either it’s a redundant term…

or it’s a cover for a cover.

Maybe I’m missing something here.

That’s some brilliance right there… duvets… a product that had to be invented by a man… simply because it hides your dirty nasty old thing and makes it look new… but better than the most skillful application of duct tape ever could… at the same time given a french name and embraced by women as their own because they go for things with french names… and forgotten about by men because it was given that same french name.

‘My girl’s coming over tonight and my comforter looks like crap… I need a duvet cover quick.’

If you only had a clue as to where you could buy one.

I gotta admit that at first I thought when Snuggle Bums said that she needed to go and pick up a ‘duvet’ that it was some kind of mysterious feminine hygene product that I had no business knowing anything about.

I started to get a little nervous and wonder why in the world she would possibly be telling me this.

I remember fearing that her next move was going to be asking me to go to the store and pick one up for her.

It sounded suspiciously ‘french.’

So I was relieved when I found out what it really was.

Women think of some pretty cool stuff sometimes.

Because they’re not thinking of ‘hot freaky’ all of the time.

One of these days I’m gonna come up with a list of the top ten inventions by women that would make single guy’s lives more worth living.

But since I’m a guy I’m gonna put it off until a woman who loves me asks me over and over again to do it.

And when she gives me an ultimatum I will make it a goal.

Then I’m gonna write that list on duct tape that I’ve fashioned into a piece of paper because I can’t find the paper… but I knew that the duct tape was right in the garage where I left it last time I decided to try and fix something a couple of years ago.

Bedskirts would be on that list if I ever wrote it.

Right on top.

Has any single guy ever gone out and purchased a bedskirt?

What an amazing invention those are!

It’s like a device that conceals all of the shit that you either throw under your bed or that just ends up there.

Like all of those socks you’ve been missing forever.

The kind of shit you usually only find after your lease expires.

Like that stuff under your dresser when you move it.

Women just do that kind of thing when they’re bored.

Looking under furniture.

It must be the female equivalent of fishing.

‘I think I’ll pull some furniture out of its place and see what’s underneath it today’ they must think ‘I don’t have anything else to do… and the paint store is closed on Sundays.’

That’s how women get their super powers of knowing where everything is.

That and the fact that they actually put it away.

But it’s not just because men are slobs… even though we obviously are… it’s easy for women to put stuff away because they’re the ones who know where to put it.

Because they unilaterally determine where stuff should go in the female dominated houshold.

Which is any household where a woman lives.

Even if a guy’s put something away you know he’s not outta the water.

He’s gotta put it in ‘the right place’ too.

You know she’s just trying to provoke you when she says ‘Honey… did you put the adjustable wrench in the china cabinet?’

You remember the first time you took your chick to your crib?

You thought she was checkin’ out your CD collection and admiring your fantastic taste in little known independently produced music?

While you were workin’ out the details of your carefully choreographed plan to show her your duvet cover…

She was really looking at all of your prized personal possessions and hoping that one day the two of you would have a fairy tale wedding and a garage big enough for all of that shit to fit into.

Guys just hide shit.

Especially from women.

It’s in our genetic programming.

It’s so that we can cope with women.

The problem is that we hide it and we forget where we hid it and then we need to ask our girl… who then tells us that we’d know where it was if we actually put it away in the right place.

The place she determined that it should go.

Without telling us.

Or more likely with us not remembering that she told us.

Of course… if she said to us ‘honey… I want to talk to you about your need for ‘hot freaky’ and those things that you’ve been asking me to try doing… I know that ‘hot freaky’ is something that you think about a lot and I want to be supportive towards you that way… and I would… I mean more… if you put your beard scissors away in the basket that I’ve purchased for all of your male grooming products that I’ve found the perfect place for in the bathroom… and since I can’t relate to chopping that much hair off of my face every day I wish you’d also be sure to clean every last whisker off of the vanity after you’re done shaving… she might see you start to fade when you ask yourself what a ‘vanity’ is because you shave at the sink… but she could snap you right back if she turns to ‘hot freaky’ and says… ‘you know if you did that for me baby I might be more inclined to actually think about doing that twisted shit you’re always trying to get me to do under the duvet cover.’

When I look back on the conversation I remember it something like this…

‘Hot freaky’… put beard trimming scissors away… ‘hot freaky’… cleaning up whiskers off sink will bring me closer to the promised land of ‘hot freaky’… women want to want ‘hot freaky’ as much as men… just clean up after yourself and you are by default one step closer to ‘hot freaky.’

Beard trimming scissors are a funny thing.

They are a ‘relationship flashpoint.’

Beard trimming scissors are ‘nitroglycerin.’

That’s because she will never use them.

She plucks her faint almost invisible whiskers off of her face with tweezers.

And she always puts them back in the first aid kit so you never even know they were gone.

Because she doesn’t want you to know that she has whiskers to pluck anyway.

And in the female mind the next logical thing to do after seeing the tweezers left out would be to ask ‘what were you doing with the tweezers.’

She doesn’t want you to ask her that.

That’s why she puts them away.

SHE knows how to hide shit from you buddy.

Your male brain wants to leave the beard scissors right next to the faucet on the thing that she calls a ‘vanity.’

Because that’s where you’ll use them next.

And you hate looking for shit.

Almost as much as asking her where it is.

NEVER ask your woman where your beard trimming scissors are.

Ask her where she got that amazing top… or where she picked up those jeans that looked like their creation was inspired by her ass and her ass alone… or those incredible shoes.

Just never ask her where your beard trimming scissors are.

You can get away scott free asking where a lot of other stuff is if you do it right and approach it with a lot of thought and incredible foresight…

especially if you use romance or your consideration of her in your quest to find your lost treasure…

‘Honey Baby Sugar Sparkles… I was thinking that one day I would like to take you on a romantic camping trip and you know… I realized that I have no idea where I put the camping stove.’

But never ask her where your beard trimming scissors are because you were supposed to put them away you slob.

It’s like telling her ‘Honey… you’re always cleaning up after me… I just don’t know how I could live without you.’

You’d be about to get whatchoo deserve smart guy.

If you have some deep need to set the lobe off and be the beneficiary of a brutal smackdown… then you can ask where your beard trimming scissors are.

They’re the one thing that you’re always leaving out that she knows she will never ever be guilty of using.

If you’ve got kids… particularly daughters… this is where they can really mess things up for you.

I love my daughters more than anything in the world.

And I’ll be the first to admit that they’ve taught me so much about women.

When they’re giving their pink glittery plastic pony its daily bubble bath in the sink they’ll sure as day spot those scissors.

And then they’ll decide that pony needs a haircut.

Because pony just realized that pony’s boyfriend doesn’t take anything in life seriously he never puts shit away and pony’s decided to dump that asshole because life would be so much better without him and pony needs a new haircut to symbolize this turning point in pony’s life.

Knowing that cutting the hair of anything results in a long lecture by mom…

Princess’ll take your beautiful stainless steel beard trimming scissors to a more secret location to give pony a radical new hairstyle.

Meanwhile, you’re safely at work without a clue as to the fact that the fuse has been lit.

You have gotta deal with this situation rather delicately.

It’s pretty much ‘two against one now.’

And that four times as much feminine power as you’ve ever proven you can handle.

The only thing you’ve ever proven is that indeed a man can live for a week eating nothing but american cheese slices.

You need to get Princess Pony Hairstyles back on your side.

If your beard trimming scissors aren’t where you left them or in the basket in the bathroom closet your woman purchased to organize your male grooming products…

you know the kid’s got them somewhere else.

And when you ask the kid she’s gonna visualize cutting ‘My Little Ponies’ hair and know that if she tells you where your beard trimming scissors are is like admitting that she’s been cutting said pony’s hair.

Even though she might only be five or six she’s already so much smarter than that.

Remember…

You’re still dealing with a woman… just a smaller version… who’s just like a regular woman except she’ll probably never fantacize about dousing you with gasoline while you sleep and burning you alive.

Because she’s your ‘Little Glitter Princess.’

And princess’ don’t do that.

Chicks who watch the Lifetime Network do.

But you gotta get those beard trimming scissors back.

You can’t just say ‘Princess… listen… my beard trimming scissors aren’t on the sink… and they’re not in the basket that mommy purchased so lovingly for me to oraganize all of my male grooming products in… and that generally means that you have them… because you’ve been cutting ponys hair with them… and if you don’t fork them over… I’ll be forced to ask your mom where they are… and then she’ll blow her freakin’ lobe and I ain’t not only not gonna get a little of the ‘hot freaky’… the pursuit of which led to the birth of my Beautiful Little Princess… but there’s a chance that not finding those beard trimming scissors might result in my life becoming a living hell for two weeks or so and we don’t want daddy to live a life of misery and hell for two weeks now do we Sweet Glitter Pony Princess?’

Besides she already knows that the ‘sink’ is that thing in the kitchen or the laundry room.

And that’s not where she stole your beard trimming scissors from anyway.

She’s already studying you dad.

Probing you with her superior feminine mind…

identifying the weakness’ and the vulnerabilities of men.

She looks to you to leave your beard trimming scissors on the vanity so she can remember her deep almost instinctive need to cut stuff with them.

Like pony’s hair.

Or construction paper.

To make you beautiful and touching greeting cards with.

You’re not thinkin’ here man.

Because you’re pretty good at doing that.

Always ask yourself… everytime you’re looking at a woman… even a mini version… ask yourself what it is that they ‘want.’

It’s the only thing that matters really.

To them.

And therefore to you… the ‘modern sensitive man’ who is actually trying to understand ‘them’ in order to coexist in peace and love and the quest for ‘freaky hot.’

Because ultimately they are going to get what they want so you might as well just identify it as soon as possible and capitulate you dufus.

And Princess wants another pony… and some glitter… and some smelly markers.

That have glittery ink.

So she can draw ponies prancing around fairy tale castles overlooked by dominant all knowing unicorns who symbolize the superiority of womanhood.

Work with her man.

Work with her.

It is the only way.

She can teach you a lot about women.

Your little Princess wants to give daddy what he wants.

But daddy’s gotta remember the genetics at work.

Because even at this point Princess’ little genetic deck is all stacked up against daddy.

You gotta do the right thing Daddy.

‘I’ll tell you what sweet little Princess Glitter Rainbow… I’m going to go up to my room and lay in bed and stare wide eyed at the ceiling and think of the ramifications of asking mommy where my beard trimming scissors are… and when I do that I just want you to know that if you find my beard trimming scissors and return them to me without letting mommy know that they were ever out of my possession… I will not only not even ask you where they were when you found them… I will reward you for helping daddy out by buying you that purple plastic pony you’ve been really wanting… with the long hair… the one that comes with the brush.’

This is where your panicked ass just sold out the entire male race.

Yes… you’ll get your beard trimming scissors back… probably within five minutes… but now you’ve just reinforced in that girl that knowing where shit is gives her power and dominion over the entire male species.

Because it gets her exactly what she wants.

That purple plastic pony with a hairbrush.

The one mom wouldn’t get her.

Because you’ve already bought her thirty of them and she keeps cutting all of their hair off.

Not to mention your beard scissors will be kidnapped and held for ransom time and time again dude.

You should at least ‘try’ to find shit yourself sometimes and not just ‘wonder’ where it might be.

That’s why when I’m missing something I always start my search in the garage.

I really enjoy tooling around in the garage looking for stuff.

Every box and plastic bin I open is like a time capsule of my life.

Sometimes it brings me to tears… the nostalgia I find in there.

The emotions I get when I realize… there he is… my ‘Talking Billy Bass!’

I always loved that talking bass.

What a revolutionary invention.

He looked so real and happy when he sang that song.

‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ by Bobby McFerrin.

I’m so amazed that the battery is even still good after all these years.

And from the contents of the box… the newspaper packing and stuff… I can tell that he’s been buiried alive in there for almost seven years!

All my shit’s seemed to migrate to the garage slowly over time.

I used to think a garage was a place for putting a car away.

But that’s only for single guys.

Little did we know that ‘garage’ is french for ‘a place to dump all of a guys shit.’

‘Un lieu de jeter tout de merde d’un homme est dans le garage.’

You see that dipshit?

I got that right from google translate.

I typed in ‘a place to put all of a man’s shit is the garage.’

Then I hit ‘translate’ and ‘to french.’

The word garage is in there.

Just like we say it.

Only the french say it differently.

With contempt.

Like they say everything.

While stomping out a cigarette on the floor.

In a cafe.

Before they demand more strong black coffee.

And another ‘kwaaaaaaasant.’

In a black and white film.

That you only took your woman to see so you could impress her.

So she’d tell her friends all about it so you could secure their all important vote in the matter.

‘He’s amazing and sensitive and he loves french cinema!’

Now she knows damn well that the only thing ‘french’ you like are french fries.

Back to ‘le garage’ you idiot… if I can’t find it in the garage, then and only then will I consider even going and asking her if she knows where ‘it’ is… and we both know full well that she knows exactly where it is… and therefor risk blowing the lobe when she gets all over my ass about it.

Because I’ve come to see this as the ‘third oldest woman trap’ that there is.

Asking your woman where something is.

She knows where that camping stove is.

She knew it from the day you left it on the counter in the kitchen hoping that she’d do the loving and supportive thing with some miracle product she purchased from gahd knows where and clean it for you.

She did.

She cleaned it for your sorry ‘helpless in all things domestic’ ass and she put it away in the garage where she has determined that it belongs.

And then she mentally photographed it sitting there on the counter in her otherwise dream kitchen.

Just to store it in the lobe for use against you one day.

When you say the stupid thing that you’re destined to say that will set her off.

The reason you couldn’t find it in the garage is because she put it in the bag that it’s supposed to be stored in.

Three years later when you ask her if she knows where it is the day before you are supposed to go on a family camping trip and incidentally the day after you went out until three in the morning with your buddies when she assumed that your understanding and supportive self would be available to help her pack…

You ignorantly asked her ‘baby… have you seen the camping stove?’

Depending on her volatility at the moment and her propensity to want to make your life miserable you might get away with it.

But odds are, since you’ll be leaving tommorow you are in for it.

Especially if you add ‘you know the one I left out on the counter for you to clean last time we went camping three years ago?’

You just did it again.

You should visualize that ‘plunger box’ with the big ‘T’ shaped handle that they use to set off dynamite with on cartoons.

You know the one.

It’s in the garage.

Because your dumb guy brain just put both hands on that handle and pushed it down with everything you’ve got.

You’ve admitted to her that you have ‘a memory.’

And that’s gonna set her off a million ways to Sunday you watch.

Because you been tryin’ to convince her that with all the pot you’ve smoked in college that she’s right… you can’t remember shit.’

She’s always known you could remember SOME things… like the names of car parts or esoteric and rare, little known and used ‘species secific’ types of fishing gear… but not things that matter to her…

like anniversaries and stuff…

She’s accepted your ‘memory problems’ at times and coped with it.

It’s gotten you out of quite a few jambs in the past.

But now the gig is up dude.

If she actually lets the primitive lobe come to dominate her in this moment… and why wouldn’t she… and she ‘visualizes’ that camping stove on the counter three years ago… after recalling her perfect mental photograph of it that’s been quietly tucked away in the lobe for all this time just waiting for you to set it off like some kind of progressive slot machine in Las Vegas…

That’s guaranteed to make her blow unless you took her to the ‘Valley of Love’ within’ the last twenty four hours.

And I hope to gahd for your sake that you did.

A recent ‘religious experience’ in the Valley of Love is the only thing that’ll save you right now.

Because havin’ the lobe erupt before a long road trip is the fucking very worst time you can set it off Asshole.

You are gonna be sittin’ in a car in tight proximity to her for hours, pointing out historical landmark plaques and their interest and significance while she says absolutely nothing and fiddles with the climate controls incessantly.

And pissed off women fiddle with the climate control knobs and buttons in the car like nothing I’ve ever seen.

I know because I’ve seen a lot of pissed off women try to micromanage the climate controls.

Talk about brutal.

Why can’t you just be freakin’ considerate for once in your miserable life?

If not of your girl, then maybe just every other guy in the world?

Now your relationship junk is gonna be spillin’ all of its black death mojo vibes on innocent guys in towns hundreds or even thousands of miles away.

They didn’t ask for that.

Thanks a lot dickhead.

I’ve learned something about women that’s as close to a ‘universal truth’ as it comes.

Their ‘volatility’ grows to near epic and catastrophic proportions the closer that you get to departure for any trip for which ‘packing’ is required.

You’ve gotta be on your best game right before going on vacation.

Screwing it all up on vacation is disasterous because you won’t have work to shield you from the ramifications of being your guy self.

You’ve got to be on top of your game man.

Go the extra mile and help your woman pack to the greatest extent of your ability.

And don’t do that thing where you fuck it up intentionally just to make sure that she never asks you to do it again.

You really want this to be a nice vacation don’t you?

Then don’t fuck it all up idiot.

You have been warned.

Repeat: You HAVE been WARNED.

Made in Italy!

Image by Canadian Pacific

When I first launched the "things NOT made in China" photo group, I was hoping to see household items not made in China. Needless to say, not too many things are not made in China these days.

Of the things still made outside of China, they’re mostly processed foods, heavy machinery like automobiles and airplanes.

I was quite delighted the other day, when I bought my first ever shave brush, to find out that it’s made in Italy!


Read more on http://www.injectionmouldchina.com/nice-household-tooling-made-in-china-photos/

Cool Plastic Tooling China images

(Posted from www.injectionmouldchina.com)
A couple of nice plastic tooling china pictures I found:
Image from web page 285 of “Priced catalogue of artists’ materials : supplies for oil painting, water color painting, china painting … and drawing supplies for architects and engineers, manual coaching schools and...
Read more on http://www.injectionmouldchina.com/cool-plastic-tooling-china-images/

Nice Plastic Tooling China photos

(Posted from www.injectionmouldchina.com)
Verify out these plastic tooling china photos:
Thursday, August 2011

Image by Make It Old
Managed to get the complete month into a single shot, for the initial time in a although.

Read more on http://www.injectionmouldchina.com/nice-plastic-tooling-china-photos/

Good Plastic Tooling China photos

(Posted from www.injectionmouldchina.com)
Check out these plastic tooling china pictures:
Thursday, August 2011

Image by Make It Old
Managed to get the whole month into a single shot, for the very first time in a while.

Read more on http://www.injectionmouldchina.com/good-plastic-tooling-china-photos/

Tooling Factory Shenzhen China

(Posted from www.injectionmouldchina.com)
Check out these injection moulding in china images:
Tooling Factory Shenzhen China

Image by dcmaster

Read more on http://www.injectionmouldchina.com/tooling-factory-shenzhen-china-3/