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"The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortege left the palace, but on history's clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again."
— Barbara W. Tuchman (The Guns of August)
Postcards From London Series #1
*Samsung EX1 - 3 shot HDR (-1, 0, +1 EV)
More at A Raven Image
A fangyi was a Chinese bronze vessel in the form of a small hut or granary, per the Brittanica. The little "hat" is a knob in the form of a hipped roof, to lift the cover. Archaeologists call this sort of thing a ceremonial object, meaning "we don't really know what those people used it for." Some people argue for a wine offering, others for food. They're found as grave goods, so it's reasonable to suppose the offering was to sustain the deceased in the afterlife.
The design is an animal mask, which likely means this was southern Shang, per the Met catalog.
Fangyi were made with ceramic piece molds. The simple square shape of the fangyi with its four corners has suggested to many observers that the flanges (ridges that rise above the surface of the vessel) mask the area where the ceramic piece molds were connected.
Refs: www.britannica.com/art/fangyi
www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/asian-art-museum/aam-...
A nice old Met museum catalog of a 1997 show, mostly PRC loan stuff. I reviewed it at Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/review/show/3048354171
"Love is like a tree: it shoots of itself; it strikes it's roots deeply into our whole being, and frequently continues to put forth green leaves over a heart in ruins. And there is this unaccountable circumstance attending it, that the blinder the passion the more tenacious it is. Never is it stronger than when it is most unreasonable."
— Victor Hugo (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame)
* Pentax K20D and Samsung D-Xenon 50-200mm Lens
You can find Irene Astral (model/styling/editing) here: www.facebook.com/ireneastral
Accessories by: AstralWork Creations (www.facebook.com/AstralWorkCreations?fref=ts)
And many thanks to Jim Keith (www.facebook.com/JimKeithCosplay?fref=ts) for his assistance.
This series was featured in:
1.) Dark Beauty Magazine: www.darkbeautymag.com/2015/03/spirosk-photography-irene-a...
2.) Ladies of Steampunk Magazine (print, too): www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/901617
3.) The Greek book of Steampunk stories "Gods of Steam" (as illustrations and cover): www.goodreads.com/book/show/24293119---steampunk
Shot in an abandoned factory in Drapetsona, Greece.
"...denn ich war plötzlich den Vögeln ein Nachbar geworden, nicht indem ich sie einsperrte, sondern indem ich meinen Käfig in ihre Nähe versetzte."
H.D. Thoreau "Walden" Seite 93
© 1979 Diogenes Verlag AG, Zürich
"Walden: or, Life in the Woods", 1854.
"...for I found myself suddenly neighbor to the birds; not by having imprisoned one, but having caged myself near them.”
Rolleiflex 6008
Planar 80mm
AGFA Agfacolor Optima 100, exposed as 50 ASA,
exp. 08/2000
Induro AT 14
Novoflex ballhead
Sekonic L-758 D
Epson V 750
"Down on the lake rosy reflections of celestial vapor appeared, and I said, "God, I love you" and looked to the sky and really meant it. "I have fallen in love with you, God. Take care of us all, one way or the other." To the children and the innocent it's all the same."
— Jack Kerouac (The Dharma Bums)
Another unposted shot from the archives... there are just so many :-) This one is from Airey's Inlet on Victoria's Surf Coast in July 2010.
Painkalac Creek is a salt lake separated from the sea by a thin strip of beach and the magnificent rocks of Split Point and Eagle Rock, an amazing place!
* Pentax K20D and Pentax SMC DA-18-55mm Lens - 2 shot HDR
The days aren't discarded or collected, they are bees
that burned with sweetness or maddened
the sting: the struggle continues,
the journeys go and come between honey and pain.
No, the net of years doesn't unweave: there is no net.
They don't fall drop by drop from a river: there is no river.
Sleep doesn't divide life into halves,
or action, or silence, or honor:
life is like a stone, a single motion,
a lonesome bonfire reflected on the leaves,
an arrow, only one, slow or swift, a metal
that climbs or descends burning in your bones."
— Pablo Neruda (Still Another Day (Kage-an Books))
* Pentax K20D and Samsung D-Xenon 50-200mm Lens
"You sit at the edge of the world,
I am in a crater that's no more.
Words without letters
Standing in the shadow of the door.
The moon shines down on a sleeping lizard,
Little fish rain from the sky.
Outside the window there are soldiers,
steeling themselves to die.
~
The drowning girl's fingers
Search for the entrance stone, and more.
Lifting the hem of her azure dress,
She gazes --
at Kafka on the shore"
— Haruki Murakami (Kafka on the Shore)
Nothing but endless blue sky and azure ocean...
Wide Open Series #2
A starlet comes to Reno to start a new life—and end her old one forever
Sylvia Shoreham’s Hollywood dreams came true long ago. Critically beloved for her beauty, talent, and style, she was on her way to international stardom when a bad contract committed her to seven years of trashy comedies and half-baked melodramas. Her marriage to her producer husband has become a rotten, loveless sham, so Sylvia’s silver screen life verges on a nightmare. To escape her celluloid hell, she’s got only one option: Forget Hollywood. It’s time for a Reno vacation.
She comes to Nevada hoping for a divorce from her husband, Vicki, and an end to her contract, but the ugly side of the business follows her. To protect herself from Vicki, she enlists Nevada’s biggest Sylvia Shoreham fan. He’s six feet tall, strong as a mule, and just happens to be Reno’s sheriff. When her divorce turns into a war, this Hollywood icon will be glad to have him on her side.
"In dreams you don't need to make any distinctions between things. Not at all. Boundaries don't exist. So in dreams there are hardly ever collisions. Even if there are, they don't hurt. Reality is different. Reality bites. Reality, reality."
— Haruki Murakami (Sputnik Sweetheart)
HDR Trees Series #1
* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - 3 Shot HDR
Ending
Each day is born with a sunrise and ends in a sunset, the same way we open our eyes to see the light and close them to hear the dark. You have no control over how your story begins or ends. But by now, you should know that all things have an ending. Every spark returns to darkness. Every sound returns to silence. And every flower returns to sleep with the earth. The journey of the sun and moon is predictable. But yours is your ultimate ART.” ― Suzy Kassem
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The photo was taken during June 2014 at Umhlanga Rocks, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Info source: www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/sunset
Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was a prolific British crime writer, journalist and playwright, who wrote 175 novels, 24 plays, and countless articles in newspapers and journals.
Over 160 films have been made of his novels, more than any other author.
In the 1920s, one of Wallace's publishers claimed that a quarter of all books read in England were written by him.
He is most famous today as the co-creator of "King Kong", writing the early screenplay and story for the movie, as well as a short story "King Kong" (1933) credited to him and Draycott Dell. He was known for the J. G. Reeder detective stories, The Four Just Men, the Ringer, and for creating the Green Archer character during his lifetime. [Source: the Goodreads website at www.goodreads.com/book/show/1363197.The_Traitor_s_Gate]
it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperatrice_nuda
www.ilgiardinodeilibri.it/libri/__imperatrice_nuda.php#
www.goodreads.com/book/show/57222.Naked_Empress_Or_The_Gr...
Imperatrice Nuda, libro di Hans Ruesch del 1976, è la Scienza Medica, che chiede e ottiene dalla Politica soldi a profusione per la ricerca su animali: la vivisezione. Ricerche inutili, crudeli, ripetute più volte: la lettura di questo testo è una discesa all'inferno. Compii questa discesa, cioè lessi questo libro, che ero una adolescente, e cambiò la mia vita, il mio occhio sulla medicina, sui dottori, sull'avidità e il sadismo degli esseri umani.
Naked Empress, a 1976 book by Hans Ruesch, is medical science, which asks for and receives profuse money from politics for research on animals: vivisection. Useless, cruel searches, repeated several times: reading this text is a descent into hell. I made this descent, that is, I read this book, when I was a teenager, and it changed my life, my eye on medicine, on doctors, on the greed and sadism of human beings.
Sometimes bug eyed monsters love to read YA and that diversity is what we stand for here at the SL Book Club!!! Have you read "The Forever War"? NO? Get it now >>> www.goodreads.com/book/show/21611.The_Forever_War
It's so nice to see my book at 4.6/5 on goodreads! I'm glad people are enjoying it. Still no reviews on Amazon though! I know it's a weird book that is probably hard to review, but if you're enjoying it please consider throwing up a quick rating. It would be greatly appreciated! ❤️ amzn.to/1NTMGmq
Television is fine, but books are better.
Prima Dolly Cassis appears to have an extensive reading list. I love to read, too; in fact, on Goodreads.com I've challeneged myself to read 100 books in 2019. I've finished 34 of them so far.
Just like the spacemen of Classic Space, the explorers of Mars Mission commissioned several vehicles from Llwyngwril Systems. A perfect example of Hegel's assertion that, “What experience and history teaches us is that people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.”.
The rocky surface of Mars was causing severe tyre wear to 4x4 vehicles. Various design teams were asked to come up with a solution. Llwyngwril Systems simply removed a wheel, thereby reducing tyre wear by 25% (in theory). The MT-32 Trike was the result.
“The stupendous fantasy of the Aztec hounds turned loose on the modern world.”
“The stories of Francis Stevens are unique in the records of great Fantasy. There is in them a power to evoke the very essence of all that is strange and weird and at the same time make live both the real and supernatural characters. You will find in this marvelous, colorful adventure qualities possessed only by the most famous fantastic mysteries of all time.”
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Two adventurers, an American and an Irishman, discover a lost city in the Mexican jungle. One is taken over by an evil god while the other falls in love with a woman from Tlapallan in the wilds of Mexico. Back in the states, the possessed man begins to use magic to mutate civilians. The other walks away, but the pair must duel in the end.
Originally published in 1918, “The Citadel of Fear” is a fun pulp novel that weaves elements of various genres, from Aztec mythology and lost world adventure to gothic horror. The author, Francis Stevens (pen name of Gertrude Barrows) has been called “the most gifted woman writer of science fiction and science fantasy between Mary Shelley and C. L. Moore.”
[Source: Goodreads at www.goodreads.com/book/show/957430.The_Citadel_of_Fear]
Kamera: Nikon FE2
Linse: Nikkor-O Auto 35mm f2 (1970)
Film: Kodak 5222 @ ISO 250
Kjemi: Rodinal (1:50 / 9 min. @ 20°C)
Wikipedia: UN Security Council Resolution 2803 (17 Nov. 2025)
The Electronic Intifada: Arab states betray Palestine as UN hands Gaza to Trump with Craig Mokhiber (b. 1960) (Publ. 21 Nov. 2025)
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The association of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair (b. 1953) with the Gaza Trusteeship builds on the tradition of Western humanitarians who sought to humanize colonialism by grafting onto it a duty of care.
Trusteeship assumes a world divided between childlike people deemed incapable of looking after themselves; a characterization now applied to the Palestinian people of Gaza - and the supposed adults; Donald Trump (b. 1946), Tony Blair, and others.
At the heart of this model is racism.
My name is Ralph Wilde.
I am professor of International Law at the Faculty of Laws of University College London; part of the University of London.
Yesterday; the 17th of November 2025 - United Nations Security Council passed Security Council resolution 2803 purporting to authorize a 2-year trusteeship over Gaza.
Today; I will explain how this shameful act follows a long tradition in international diplomacy.
I'm speaking in Ramallah, Palestine in a personal capacity only.
The Gaza trusteeship would replace the more than half-century long occupation by Israel which has involved serious violations of fundamental rules of international law in its conduct:
Racial discrimination, apartheid, torture, grave breaches of the laws of war, crimes against humanity and genocide.
At the heart of these rules of international law is the duty of trusteeship. Dominion by the trustee - Israel - should be exercised selflessly in the interests of the ostensible beneficiary; the Palestinians of Gaza - not selfishly. There should be protection; not abuse.
Befitting his role as an icon of Western liberal interventionism, the association of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair with the Gaza Trusteeship builds on the tradition of Western humanitarians who sought to humanize colonialism by grafting onto it a duty of care.
This concept of trusteeship over people was adopted by Europeans for colonial rule over Africa at the Berlin conference (1884-1885) in the late 19th century; by the League of Nations after the First World War for the mandate territories - including the mandate here; in Palestine [i.e. Mandatory Palestine] - and by the United Nations after the Second World War for the trust territories and all other non-settler colonies.
Trusteeship assumes a world divided between childlike people deemed incapable of looking after themselves - a characterization now applied to the Palestinian people of Gaza - and the supposed adults; Donald Trump, Tony Blair, and others who are deemed able to rule over not only their own people, but also others.
Falling into the child category is the rationale for being subjected to trusteeship.
In the League of Nations covenant (1919), the people of the mandates were, and I quote;
"not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world."
End of quote.
The child / adult relationship is the rationale for the duty of care.
The adult is in charge, but must act in the interest of the ward.
The adult's responsibility is to bring up the child so that it will eventually attain maturity to conduct tutelage enabling development.
The Gaza trusteeship will thus be temporary because it is transitional.
The adults will build up local capacities for self-administration.
The children will consequentially mature and attain adulthood - and the need for trusteeship will then end.
At the heart of this model is racism.
In the colonial era, a racist global standard of civilization adopted within a system; dominated by Europeans, determined who the adults and children were.
No prizes for guessing who conceived themselves as the adults.
Trusteeship was a self-serving sham invoked in bad faith serving as an alibi to rationalize colonial rule which could now be justified as a civilizing mission.
But the consequence of colonial liberation-struggles after the Second World War - the end of formal colonization for non-settler colonies - was the adoption in international law of the right of self-determination.
This was a repudiation of trusteeship. There were no more childlike and adult-like people in the world.
The racist child / adult distinction between peoples was supposedly abolished:
All peoples were equal and deserved freedom as adults.
As the United Nations General Assembly stated 65 years ago next month on the 14th of December 1960; and I quote:
"Inadequacy of political, economic, social, or educational preparedness should never serve as a pretext for delaying independence."
End of quote.
Despite this; trusteeships continued, mostly conducted by international organizations - as in Bosnia and Herzegovina ...
[i.e. the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995 ->> )]
[See also: Dayton Agreement (1995)]
... and East Timor / Timor-Leste.
Global human rights rules were invoked as a seemingly non-racist standard of civilization that could determine, supposedly legitimately, where trusteeship was needed.
International organizations were seen as capable of acting selflessly and thus performing the duty of trustee in good faith.
In contrast, the states:
- The US-led occupation of Iraq (2003-2011): BAD
- The UN in East Timor (1999-2002): GOOD
and temporary arrangements when actually followed -
- YES, East Timor
- NO, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- were seen as genuine trusteeships in that they didn't endlessly defer independence as the sham colonial versions had.
I wrote a book on these arrangements and their antecedance in the colonial era.
I am told that this book is being used as the manual for the Gaza trusteeship.
This horrifies me.
At the ICJ advisory opinion case [on the legality of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories] last year, I had the privilege to argue for the League of Arab States based on my academic research that the Palestinian people had a legal entitlement to be free of the Israeli occupation without preconditions - and simply because of their right to self-rule, not because they were being treated abusively.
In its landmark ruling last year (2024), the court agreed.
This was a conclusion about the right to self-determination pure and simple in and of itself. It would therefore apply equally to any form of foreign administration, however ostensibly humanitarian and time limited.
Replacing an abusive trustee with another form of trusteeship is not self-determination and would be illegal.
We might be told that somehow this arrangement has been rendered lawful because the representatives of the Palestinian people have somehow agreed to it - just as, supposedly, [the Oslo Accords] (1993) legitimated the continuation of certain elements of the occupation here in the West Bank.
But agreements brought about through an unlawful use of force as this one has been and contrary to peremptory or jus cogens norms of international law norms covering fundamental subject matter which for this reason can't be limited by any other norms of international law as this one is. The right of self-determination is a permptory norm.
Such agreements are void.
As I argued for the Arab League before the International Court of Justice, and also the International Criminal Court also last year, the best approach in such situations is to say that such agreements may be in force in so far as they are compatible with the peremptory legal rights of the Palestinian people.
For example; if they are concerned with providing the resumption of urgently needed humanitarian aid, but those provisions which are not; such as permitting the trusteeship, are void.
We might also be told that these illegalities have been somehow cured by UN Security Council 2803, which was passed yesterday.
Indeed, a commonplace description of that resolution is that it has legalized the trusteeship.
The council did in the past purport to provide legal authority for those other trusteeships - in Bosnia and Herzegovina and East Timor.
Moreover, the Security Council does have the power in the United Nations Charter to provide legal authority for something that would otherwise be illegal and for this to be binding on all member states of the UN who have accepted this by being parties to the UN charter.
The State of Palestine is not of course a UN member state because the security council itself cannot agree due to the threat of a US veto to admit it.
Moreover, in any case, the council's power is limited. It can only act in a way that is compatible with the purposes and principles of the UN charter (1945).
Those purposes and principles stipulate that the adjustment or settlement of disputes must take place, and I quote:
"in conformity with the principles of justice and international law"
- end of quote.
As the trusteeship is not in conformity with the international legal rule of self-determination and this legal rule has peremptory status - In purporting to authorize the trusteeship, the council is acting beyond its lawful powers ultra vires.
As such, the authorization is legally void.
This is the same problem the Palestinian people faced over a century ago when the Council of the League of Nations, very roughly speaking, equivalent to the UN Security Council, purported to vary the provisions of article 22 of the League Covenant, which stipulated that Palestine was in a class of mandated territories that should be provisionally recognized as independent states, to instead instead permit the UK to retain control as trustee to implement the Balfour Declaration (1917) commitment to establishing a Jewish state here in Palestine.
As I argued in my academic publications and before the International Court of Justice last year for the League of Arab States, the council had no legal authority to bypass the covenant in this way, and, therefore acted ultra vires and so the authority it therefore attempted to give to the UK to implement the Balfour Declaration (1917) was void.
Just as then trusteeship is back here in Palestine and again with a British character to it in the form of Tony Blair.
So too again the executive organ of the global organization is attempting to legalize this by acting beyond the lawful limits of its constituent instrument.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose..
I will end by quoting from parts of the statement issued by the representatives of Hamas today in response to Security Council resolution 2803 adopted yesterday - quotations of which accurately encapsulate what international law requires.
And I quote;
"This resolution does not meet the level of our Palestinian people's political and humanitarian demands and rights.
The resolution imposes an international guardianship mechanism on the Gaza Strip which our people and their factions reject.
We call on the international community and the security council to uphold the international law and humanitarian values and to adopt resolutions that achieve justice for Gaza and the Palestinian cause through the actual cessation of the brutal genocidal war on Gaza; reconstruction, ending the occupation, and enabling our people to self-determination and establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital."
End of quote.
Source: Professor Ralph Wilde: UN resolution imposes illegal trusteeship over Palestinians (Publ. 19. November 2025 - Middle East Eye]
After the 1979 revolution, Tomcats continued to serve with the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force. The fleet suffered from parts shortages, but saw combat in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. According to unofficial accounts, such as Iranian F-14 Tomcat Units in Combat, by Tom Cooper and Farzad Bishop, they shot down dozens of Iraqi aircraft, often using AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air missiles.
Don't distract me honey, I'm having a good read!
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The Dilbert Principle is one of the funniest books ever written for people working at the office, and sadly enough it's all true.
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I started reading this classic back in 2009... and because I wanted to extend the joy of this book, I decided not to finish reading it directly, and put it on a shelve instead.
So now, 10 years later, I can continue enjoying the rest of the book.
Some books are not worth to consume in just one weekend, it doesn't do any harm to take your time for pleasure.
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Day 3 of #timewillwaitchallenge to spoil yourself with something exclusively for yourself.
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I'm a month behind on my 52-week project so expect a lot of simple uploads from me in the near future. I probably won't be doing photomanips for a while, at least not until I've managed to catch up. But I actually really like how this turned out. It was a lucky shot too. I was setting up my softbox and practicing how to pose when this was taken. Just this one shot. Then afterwards I changed into something nicer and started trying to pose more seriously. But after reviewing my photos, this was the one I liked the most so I decided to just go with it. It's a bit dark and a little emo but I'm happy with it :D
I think this was inspired by all the book covers I've been seeing on Goodreads lately. Most of the covers that's been popping up on my newsfeed/recommendations seem to have a similar theme - muted tones, gloomy aura and a girl who's not looking at the camera (Reason to Breathe, Edge of Never, Captive in the Dark, On Dublin Street, Such a Rush, etc ...). I haven't actually read all those books (just Edge of Never and On Dublin Street) but I am fascinated with the covers. They say you should never judge a book by its cover, but there's no point denying that it's one of the first things we notice about them.
The title came from a quote in the book Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma. I picked it up because it appeared in my recommendations and it had really high ratings. It's about a brother and a sister who fall in love with each other, and I didn't like it at all. I found it a bit disturbing to be honest. But it did have some nice quotes XD
بعد عمليات الشد والجذب اأنا ووأدومه
وعمليات العصر الذهني لإيجاد فكرة صورة :P
وبعد تصوير مليون ألف وسبع وستين صورة
توصلنا إلى هذه الصوره الهادفه الراقية في معناها << تحاول تهون على نفسها
على أنها بعيدة كل البعد عن أفكار الصور الي قبل بس سبحان الله يقولك دايم الشي اللي شسمه كذا
الزبده أنا قلت خل أصير هادفة اليوم :D
هذا رابط موقع حلو يساعد عالقراءه وتقدرون تدعون أصدقاءكم له
فكرة الموقع تعتمد على إنك تضيف قائمة بالكتب(بعد التسجيل) الي قد قريتها والكتب واللي ناوي تقرآها والكتب الي حالياً تقراها
هو يساعد عالقراءه والتذكر في كثير من الأحيان ، وبدال ما تروح مكتبه تدور لك كتاب تقدر من خلال هالموقع انك تتفرج عالكتب وكل كتاب فيه له سمري عشان تتعرف عليه
موفقين
Oh yes.
School's back in, pimp-o-holics.
Guess who's back?
HERE COMES THE hammer PIMP...
OH OH OH. OH OH OH. Here comes the hammer pimp... yeah.
news and pimpnotes
I made the minipimp do this.
I know you are salivating over the "Wall Of Fedoras" back there! I actually masturbate while looking at that wall when I'm alone regularly.
I know you had one too. Sorry for the unexpected orgasm. Those fedora's are tricky.
I'm going to post a real picture coming soon. Oh yeah. We're on it. Don't you worry.
Here comes the pimp. (just to remind you). Pimp's back bitches.
Oh by the way, I think I'm going to start calling myself MC Pimp. Ever notice if you throw "MC" before any name it just becomes better? Let's try it!
Barrak Obama = liar, changed nothing, more war, blah blah blah
MC Obama = fuck all that stuff above, he now RULES!
Joel Osteen = um. how about...(let me pray).. um. No?
MC Joel Osteen = Yes. Oh. Fuck brothers and sisters!
Joe Buck = suck a duck, B O R I N G and L A M E
MC Joe Buck = turn the volume UP, less Troy Aikman, more MC Joe Buck!
Tom Brady = nah nah nah nah you just got beat by Eli Manning again LOSER! :-P
MC Tom Brady = oh lookie someone just got cool again! Eli who?
David Hasselhoff = um. Knight Rider anyone?
MC Hasselhoff = now we can't hassle the hoff anymore! Even The Hoff becomes cool with MC thrown in!
Tony3 = father of flickr
MC Tony = father of instagram
Just like the spacemen of Classic Space, the explorers of Mars Mission commissioned several vehicles from Llwyngwril Systems. A perfect example of Hegel's assertion that, “What experience and history teaches us is that people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.”.
The rocky surface of Mars was causing severe tyre wear to 4x4 vehicles. Various design teams were asked to come up with a solution. Llwyngwril Systems simply removed a wheel, thereby reducing tyre wear by 25% (in theory). The MT-32 Trike was the result.