bookofjoe

East Side Access Project: What lies beneath

Sixteen stories below midtown Manhattan, a remarkable construction project that started in 2006 is slated to be finished and open to hoi polloi this coming December.

The main concourse (top and above), five football fields (about 1/3 mile) long, eight stories high, and 70 feet wide, will have four train tunnels. 

Note the size of the construction workers building it.

Blasting and grinding through bedrock continues 24 hours a day while the people of Gotham go about their business unawares.

Originally estimated to cost $2 billion, the project's cost has ballooned to $12 billion, making it one of the world's most expensive public works.

Read more here and here.

BehindTheMedspeak: Your guess is as good as mine

He's right here in my Podunk town and ready to see you.

Perfect name for a doctor.

One of the dirty little secrets of being one is that seldom are we certain, but the art of practicing medicine is to never let patients know just how much hunch and guesswork goes into what we do.

15,000-year-old sculpture of a horse

Known as the Lourdes Horse, it was discovered between 1886 and 1889 by the scholar Léon Nelli in the Grotte [cave] des Espélugues in Lourdes, Hautes-Pyrénées, France.

It is three inches long.

The carving was done in exceptionally fine detail, and it was long assumed that, like other carvings from this time, it was made from mammoth ivory.

In November 2013, Jean-Marc Pétillon, a researcher at the  University of Toulouse-Le Mirail in France, wrote in the Journal of Human Evolution that the horse was actually carved from whale bone.

The presumption is that the bone came from a carcass found on the coast or from barter with coastal people.

Though Léon Nelli intended to publish his discovery of the horse and other art objects found in the Grottes des Espéluges, he left an unpublished treatise on these objects when he died in 1934.  

His son, René Nelli, first published his father's manuscript as Chef-d'Oeuvre de la Grotte des Espélugues (Lourdes Htes-Pyr.). Fouilles de Léon Nelli, 1889. 

This was issued in Toulouse by the Institut d'Etudes Occitanes in 1948 in an edition limited to 100 copies.

[via History of Information]

COMMENTS SECTION ➜

Just as once upon a time salt shakers were a thing here, comments seem to have established themselves as a recurring theme.

Some constant readers may recall posts earlier this month, on January 12 and 19.

Others, whose memories are more evanescent, will have a different experience.

No matter: boj is a big tent, all are welcome.

Phone Spinner

Res

ipsa

loquitur.

Black or White: $13.

Quantum Foam — Elizabeth Jacobson

'The Expanse' x Rubbermaid

I just started watching Season 6 — alas, the final one — of this wonderful series

and was gobsmacked early on in Episode 2 to espy, in the kitchen of a colonizing family on an immensely distant planet far in the future, the very Rubbermaid container (top) that has become, in a variety of sizes, my default storage medium for a variety of reasons (in no particular order):

• They seal very tightly with a wonderfully satisfying click

• I can see what's inside

• They're great looking

• They stack

Did the peeps making "The Expanse" not think I'd notice?

Or do they think that these containers are the apotheosis of same such that they will be used centuries in the future?

Regardless, you can too!

From $8.79 in a variety of shapes and sizes right here and now.

'The dog ate my magnetic insoles' — George Booth

Astronaut Karen Nyberg shows you how to wash your hair in space

What is it?

Answer here this time tomorrow.

Hint: smaller than a bread box.

Another: moving parts.

'The Rescue' — Let us now praise Jimmy Chin

A true-life thriller of the finest quality.

You may recall the story that dominated the news back in 2018, when 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach became trapped deep in an underground submerged cave and seemed doomed.

This film documents those events and their astonishing successful rescue led by a team of middle-aged amateur cave divers from around the world who succeeded where Thai Navy Seals failed.

On another note, it struck me while watching the credits and seeing

Directed by Jimmy Chin

that this is the same Jimmy Chin who has directed most of the riveting and compelling climbing and mountaineering movies that have thrilled me over the years.

Hong Kong landscape carved into packing tape

Made by Takahiro Iwasaki.

The Container Guide

From The Prepared:

I recently learned about "The Container Guide," a field manual that helps you identify shipping containers and the corporations that own them.

It is structured very much like a classic Audubon guide-style birding guide, so you can turn a visit to your local port into an enjoyable day out.

A logistics nerd's dream.

A production of the American Container Society and The Infrastructure Observatory, this book is "your rugged dockside companion to shipping containers and the companies that transport them."

It's cute, informative, and packed with information about companies like Maersk, COSCO, and Hanjin.

$29.

How to put out a grease fire

Japanese Paper Clips

From the website:

A delightful box of small brass paper clips to keep all your documents organized.

The non-skid finish and triangular shape of these clips help to keep papers in neat stacks and add a touch of polish to any desk.

Features and Details:

• 3/4" long

• Brass-plated nickel

• Approximately 70 paper clips per box

• Made in Osaka, Japan by Velos Stationary Company

About Velos

Since 1937, Velos has specialized in the research, development, and manufacture of metal office essentials.

Their exemplary products have twice earned the company the Industrial Achievement Award from the Governor of Osaka Prefecture.

$4.