Yadda yadda yadda. I don't even own a helmet.
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What did you learn today?
- Thread starter PWRL
- Start date
Yesterday I learned that asphalt is apparently hot enough to cause first degree burns on your feet. Good thing I'm a bassist and blister maintenance can be life. Still... Eff you sun. Come back again for one of those eclipses and I'll stare you dead.
When I was a teenager, Sydney had a very hot day and the asphalt on the road I was crossing had started melting and had stuck to my thongs (flip flops for US people).
If you want superficial burns, all you need is summer sun and beach sand. Thongs do come in very handy under such conditions.
"Superficial Burns."
"… Excellent!"
Last week we spent a few days at Craftsman Farms. Areas of the asphalt walkways were melting due to the very hot weather we had all last week.
The history of
Marshall Amps
Today's Object
Do you ever wonder who first thought of Marshall Amps?
After playing music on the road for over two decades, Jim Marshall opened a music shop called Jim Marshall and Son in London. The store quickly became popular among up-and-coming musicians and was soon one of the area’s premiere sellers of guitar amplifiers. After hearing several guitarists say they couldn’t get the sound they wanted out of their amps, Marshall decided to build his own. He worked with his son Terry, who co-owned the shop, and a service engineer named Ken Bran. Interestingly, none of the men who worked on the first Marshall amplifier were guitarists, but when the first Marshall amp became available in fall 1962, it was a massive success. It was called Number One (though later renamed JTM45) and unlike amps created by other manufacturers, it was rated by RMS rather than peak power. It quickly gained popularity among musicians and in 1964, the first Marshall factory was opened to meet the growing demand. Around the same time, Pete Townshend (the guitarist for The Who) asked Jim Marshall for more power and the 8 x 12' speaker cabinet was born. This then led to the famous double 4 x 12” stack that can still be seen on stages and in studios all over the world today. In 1966, Jimi Hendrix played through a Marshall backline amp for the first time because a venue had refused to move it and replace it with the one he had brought with him. He became an instant fan and this brought Marshall amps to new heights of international notoriety. Demand increased so much that Marshall moved to a larger manufacturing site at Bletchley, where the company is still based today. Over the years, different Marshall amps have helped guitarists achieve their sound. The Marshall Bluesbreaker amp helped define the sound of 1960s blues-rock and was famously used by guitarist Eric Clapton. Today, it’s one of the most sought-after vintage amps. The Plexi, named for its plexiglass front panel, is still one of the brand’s most popular amplifiers. In the 1970s and 1980s, the JMP became popular. It offered a master volume but Marshall had also changed how the signal flowed within the amps to keep that characteristic crunch that so many guitarists loved about the brand. Guitarists Slash, Zakk Wylde, and Randy Rhoads all played using JMPs. In the early 1980s, Marshall released the JCM800, which produced more overdrive directly into distortion and fit the '80s hair-metal sound well. In 1987, Marshall released a special amp in honor of the company’s 25th year in business called the Silver Jubilee. This became a favorite of many guitarists, including Slash, who often uses it live onstage. Marshall amps that debuted in the 1990s included the DSL and JVM lines, both of which continued to make use of vacuum tubes and offered multiple channels and features, although they weren't as critically acclaimed as many of the older models. Today, Marshall amps remain legendary in the music world and have played a significant role in shaping the sound of rock music since the 1960s; vintage versions are often sought after and used by collectors and professional musicians alike
Marshall Amps
Today's Object
Do you ever wonder who first thought of Marshall Amps?
After playing music on the road for over two decades, Jim Marshall opened a music shop called Jim Marshall and Son in London. The store quickly became popular among up-and-coming musicians and was soon one of the area’s premiere sellers of guitar amplifiers. After hearing several guitarists say they couldn’t get the sound they wanted out of their amps, Marshall decided to build his own. He worked with his son Terry, who co-owned the shop, and a service engineer named Ken Bran. Interestingly, none of the men who worked on the first Marshall amplifier were guitarists, but when the first Marshall amp became available in fall 1962, it was a massive success. It was called Number One (though later renamed JTM45) and unlike amps created by other manufacturers, it was rated by RMS rather than peak power. It quickly gained popularity among musicians and in 1964, the first Marshall factory was opened to meet the growing demand. Around the same time, Pete Townshend (the guitarist for The Who) asked Jim Marshall for more power and the 8 x 12' speaker cabinet was born. This then led to the famous double 4 x 12” stack that can still be seen on stages and in studios all over the world today. In 1966, Jimi Hendrix played through a Marshall backline amp for the first time because a venue had refused to move it and replace it with the one he had brought with him. He became an instant fan and this brought Marshall amps to new heights of international notoriety. Demand increased so much that Marshall moved to a larger manufacturing site at Bletchley, where the company is still based today. Over the years, different Marshall amps have helped guitarists achieve their sound. The Marshall Bluesbreaker amp helped define the sound of 1960s blues-rock and was famously used by guitarist Eric Clapton. Today, it’s one of the most sought-after vintage amps. The Plexi, named for its plexiglass front panel, is still one of the brand’s most popular amplifiers. In the 1970s and 1980s, the JMP became popular. It offered a master volume but Marshall had also changed how the signal flowed within the amps to keep that characteristic crunch that so many guitarists loved about the brand. Guitarists Slash, Zakk Wylde, and Randy Rhoads all played using JMPs. In the early 1980s, Marshall released the JCM800, which produced more overdrive directly into distortion and fit the '80s hair-metal sound well. In 1987, Marshall released a special amp in honor of the company’s 25th year in business called the Silver Jubilee. This became a favorite of many guitarists, including Slash, who often uses it live onstage. Marshall amps that debuted in the 1990s included the DSL and JVM lines, both of which continued to make use of vacuum tubes and offered multiple channels and features, although they weren't as critically acclaimed as many of the older models. Today, Marshall amps remain legendary in the music world and have played a significant role in shaping the sound of rock music since the 1960s; vintage versions are often sought after and used by collectors and professional musicians alike
Today I learned that I'm just as brain-dead as ever. The local power company has been doing short little blackouts here and there today to fix damage done by windstorms in the past few weeks. I thought that I felt the ceiling fan getting slower and that we were in another power outage. Then I pushed the new posts button on TB........
Copped a Spartan insight, just now. Nothing out-of-the-ordinary. Learnt a thing or two — debunking bunkum. Spartan training for war, among the non-helot, heroic types, involved little more than growing long, perfumed hair and poncing about like exhibitionists in various arenas throwing javelin, discus, running and the like. Been there. Done that. Some truly eye-opening oddities followed — myopic myth-makers bite their Spartan tongues, once the learning begins.
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Well, yesterday I learned.
I met up with a mate for lunch and on the way home I stopped off at the Cemetery that my parents are in.
I’ve been visiting occasionally since 1980 & 2005 to their side by side plot.
As I walked into the row from the pathway, a name jumped out at me from a few spots prior to my parents. I took a photo and looked them up when I got home. Yep, my Mums Uncle & Aunty are just a couple of plots over in the same row. Uncle has been there since 1966 so I’ve had plenty of opportunity to notice before now!
No clue why the name jumped out at me yesterday.
I met up with a mate for lunch and on the way home I stopped off at the Cemetery that my parents are in.
I’ve been visiting occasionally since 1980 & 2005 to their side by side plot.
As I walked into the row from the pathway, a name jumped out at me from a few spots prior to my parents. I took a photo and looked them up when I got home. Yep, my Mums Uncle & Aunty are just a couple of plots over in the same row. Uncle has been there since 1966 so I’ve had plenty of opportunity to notice before now!
No clue why the name jumped out at me yesterday.
Grave concerns
Clickety clicks. Bless 'em all. I find, coincidentally, I have a 'dead mother.' Literally, today, I have a novel way to comprehend all of this (There's a lot to it). A novel sense, indeed. Coincidence Ideal, in a way, I think. More insight — the goods (always a great gift). And time to explore all possibilities. She has no grave to speak of, my mum, but she has my love and understanding. Most important A story to tell.Another uncle's fighting for his life, today. Coincidence. Not much I can do. Flowers these days are potentially, depending, little else sometimes but a laden gift, a toxic Trojan horse, full of invisible, corrupting chemicals, and various poisons; bereft of scent, because scent causes rot and so gets in the way of profit, dumbed down daisies flown in, fallen angels from another world, an old world, enslaved. Conspicuous compassion bombs. And cards are merely murky cardboard, evidence only of destruction once the context is removed, words are cheap, canopies, emergents, are not. Love is eternal. Not today's lesson. Life's learning.
Roll up! Roll up! The pollies here have just stuck their necks out, bless 'em, and committed themselves to a new era of sound support for live music and good sense in this gloomy old night-lifeless state of disrepair. Ripping yarn. And about time too. Buckle up.
Beaucoup funding, for soundproofing and other equipment for existing venues, and money for supporting the development of new venues, in order to accommodate more live music, is now on the table. And the introduction of new legislation, designed to nobble the gaggle of gormless geese who have clearly been making a heartless habit lately of buying up properties adjacent to traditional venues before launching into a withering campaign of endless whining until the poor old venues are forced to close their doors.
Now, without fear or favor, if you were there first, you have dibs. The gov's got your back. Blow-ins no longer get a look in. Fair enough too
So, now, you know how it goes — we, as a consequence, will rock you. That's a promise
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That this is a volcano in NJ!
It's called the Beemerville Volcano, or as it's more commonly referred to, Rutan Hill, located in Colesville in Sussex County.
Read More: New Jersey's Oldest Tourist Attraction
And, yes, we're talking about a volcano with lava and all the trimmings. Well, at least at one point in the Earth's history. According to New Jersey Digest, our volcano has been dormant for a while. That's of course if you consider 440 million years a while.
Read More: New Jersey's Volcano | Do You Know Where New Jersey's Volcano Is?
It's called the Beemerville Volcano, or as it's more commonly referred to, Rutan Hill, located in Colesville in Sussex County.
Read More: New Jersey's Oldest Tourist Attraction
And, yes, we're talking about a volcano with lava and all the trimmings. Well, at least at one point in the Earth's history. According to New Jersey Digest, our volcano has been dormant for a while. That's of course if you consider 440 million years a while.
Read More: New Jersey's Volcano | Do You Know Where New Jersey's Volcano Is?
Today I learned I've been awarded a "10-Year Member" award here on TalkBass!
Problem is I joined in November 2009, so I'm actually closing in on 15-Year membership, but hey, I'll take any recognition I can get these days.
Problem is I joined in November 2009, so I'm actually closing in on 15-Year membership, but hey, I'll take any recognition I can get these days.
Do you ever wonder who first thought of Duct Tape? |
Duct tape was created during World War II by a woman named Vesta Stoudt. She was working at the Green River Ordnance Plant near Amboy, Illinois (and had two sons serving in the U.S. Navy) when she noticed that the ammunition boxes she was tasked with packing and inspecting had a flaw. The boxes were sealed with paper tape and then the whole package was dipped in wax to make it waterproof. Although a tab was included to make the paper tape easy to open, it often tore off, so soldiers often struggled to pick away the wax to unseal the ammunition boxes while under fire. Stoudt was concerned, so she came up with the idea of creating a waterproof fabric tape and suggested it to her supervisors, but was unable to get support. So on February 10, 1943, she wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt detailing the problem and her solution — she even included diagrams! President Roosevelt was impressed with her idea and passed the letter over to the War Production Board. The Board then mailed Stoudt a letter confirming that her idea had been approved. The Board tasked the Industrial Tape Corporation (Permacel) — then a Johnson & Johnson company — with manufacturing the product. According to Montreal’s The Gazette, the tape was made using a layer of tightly woven fabric called cotton duck sandwiched between a rubber-based adhesive and a coating of polyethylene, which had been invented a decade prior. Soldiers soon began calling the product “100-mile-per-hour tape” because not only was it an effective fix for the ammunition box problem, but it could also be used to fix nearly anything, from boots to fenders. Some historians assert that soldiers also called the adhesive “duck tape” because it shed water like a duck, but there is little evidence to support this theory. After the war ended, the tape was used to seal parts of ventilation ducts together and the name “duct tape” is often attributed to this use. (Notably, it was later discovered that the tape was not well-suited to this purpose and it is no longer used in this capacity.) The tape also changed from military green to the ubiquitous silver color we are familiar with today during the postwar period. Duck Tape, a brand of duct tape, was introduced in 1980 and the branded name soon became synonymous with the product. Today, duct tape is considered an essential tool in many homes as well as in the military due to its reliability, portability, and extreme versatility. |
