Abdul's official "The past is a foreign country" thread.

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Fri Jul 17, 2020 12:43 am

blowup from above

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Jul 17, 2020 12:52 am

↑ Yup, that was a long time ago.

Corner of Tremont & Park Streets, Boston, 1897.

solely · Post by **solely** » Fri Jul 17, 2020 4:43 pm

Black beauties.

Pyrrho · Post by **Pyrrho** » Fri Jul 17, 2020 6:01 pm

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Fri Jul 17, 2020 6:31 pm

Hmmmm.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sat Jul 18, 2020 4:00 am

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Sat Jul 18, 2020 10:24 am

solely wrote: ↑Fri Jul 17, 2020 4:43 pm Black beauties.

The formula is now called adderall

Pyrrho · Post by **Pyrrho** » Sun Jul 19, 2020 3:59 pm

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sun Jul 19, 2020 4:10 pm

↑ A hymn to inflation.

But you Muricans don't have basements to store your old wines, right?

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Sun Jul 19, 2020 7:38 pm

I just realized the definition of inflation, "Inflation is a quantitative measure of the rate at which the average price level of a basket of selected goods and services in an economy increases over some period of time", is a clever way of talking. In reality, the currency just becomes worth less over time. But nobody wants to hear that there money is worth less. The price of an ounce of gold is always the same. It's just that the money you are using to describe the price is always getting worth less, in that it buys less gold.

Or something to that effect

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Sun Jul 19, 2020 7:43 pm

The British penny used to be worth a significant sum. Hence the "a penny for your thoughts" actually meant something far different than using it today.

Depending on who you believe, it would be the equivalent of today saying "a twenty for your thoughts".

Inflation? Or just devaluation of currency, so that currency is literally worth less.

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Sun Jul 19, 2020 7:44 pm

Sayings of the past involving money are a foreign country, one in which it now sounds like somebody was begging for a ridiculous sum.

"Hey buddy can you spare a dime?"

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Jul 21, 2020 2:19 am

The Sphinx in the late 1800s, still covered with sand:

Taken from a hot air balloon.

ceptimus · Post by **ceptimus** » Tue Jul 21, 2020 6:04 am

Inflation is the technique used by governments to gradually rob from us all the value of our savings.

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Tue Jul 21, 2020 9:44 am

Unless your savings are in gold

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Tue Jul 21, 2020 9:45 am

Then you stay even

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed Jul 22, 2020 1:41 am

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed Jul 22, 2020 9:24 pm

Seoul, 1956.

ceptimus · Post by **ceptimus** » Thu Jul 23, 2020 1:27 pm

Slums on the Han River, a photo from Seoul, North | TrekEarth

Photographer's Note
One can hardly imagine what Seoul looked like in the years after the war. As specified in another posting I was in Korea as an officer in the Turkish Brigade in 1956-1957. There was a vast devastation and great poverty. These houses near the Han river Bank showed the immensity of this poverty, and people were suffering. It was December 1956, a very cold month and temperatures went down to a freezing -25'C. So it was no surprise to find out that the sewer water had frozen under the house. The Han river had also frozen, see the snow and the drying laundry.
The picture was taken with my Leica IIIf and a Kodachrome 64 film (sent to Hawaii lab for processing in those years).

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:14 pm

solely · Post by **solely** » Thu Jul 23, 2020 10:28 pm

That can't be Uncle Joe.

Hungary, 1955.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Jul 24, 2020 8:39 pm

Spoiler:

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Fri Jul 24, 2020 8:52 pm

Does the new tower have a restaurant at the top?

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Fri Jul 24, 2020 8:56 pm

Never you mind

I checked

It has three

Pyrrho · Post by **Pyrrho** » Sat Jul 25, 2020 2:27 pm

Link: https://twitter.com/StuartHumphryes/status/1287023363190329344

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sun Jul 26, 2020 1:48 am

Chichen Itza when it was discovered in 1892 vs. Present-day

Fid · Post by **Fid** » Sun Jul 26, 2020 2:10 am

I remember finding a tiny stone arrow head and the chill to be touching a physical piece of the past last held by its maker.
Imagine finding that in 1892.

Pyrrho · Post by **Pyrrho** » Sun Jul 26, 2020 1:03 pm

@StuartHumphryes
I've restored this original colour autochrome from 1926, taken at the proposed site of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in the Crow Indian Reservation, Montana. The chap on the right (named Curley) was one of General Custer’s scouts. (This isn't colourised).

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sun Jul 26, 2020 2:28 pm

NATO Observers watch the Boltzmann Nuclear Test, 1956

The Joker · Post by **The Joker** » Mon Jul 27, 2020 9:26 pm

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Mon Jul 27, 2020 11:57 pm

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Jul 28, 2020 12:45 am

Abdul Alhazred wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 12:43 am Brezhnev.

Who's the other guy?

Uzbek SSR leader Sharof Rashidov, 1979.

shemp · Post by **shemp** » Tue Jul 28, 2020 2:38 am

Fags.

Pyrrho · Post by **Pyrrho** » Tue Jul 28, 2020 3:25 pm

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Jul 28, 2020 11:22 pm

A lawn mower for Pyrrho:

Steam powered!

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 7:45 am

Any idea what year that is? The front wheels looked poorly thought out. The smallest mole hole would stop it dead.

solely · Post by **solely** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 10:07 am

January 1, 1903.

Pyrrho · Post by **Pyrrho** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 11:39 am

@StuartHumphryes
Has an army ever looked so ill-prepared for modern warfare? This astounding (original colour) photo from 1913 shows the 7th regiment of French armoured cavalrymen at their camp northeast of Lyon in France, only a year before they joined the insanity of the First World War.

Pyrrho · Post by **Pyrrho** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 8:37 pm

Allegedly a cartoon from the Daily Mirror, 1923

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 9:03 pm

I actually believe that one is real; prophetic, obviously.