Scary Pranks Cafe

Pont du Gard, Provence, France
The Pont du Gard was built shortly before the Christian era
to allow the aqueduct of Nimes (which is almost 50 km long)
to cross the Gard river.
The Roman architects and hydraulic engineers who
designed this bridge, which stands almost 50 m high
and is on three levels -- the longest measuring 275 m --
created a technical as well as an artistic masterpiece.

Warning: Some Instagram links in here.

Speaking of aqueducts -- here's how the Trevi Fountain is fed.

What a beautiful spot.

Going for a little hike.

Wingsuit guy looks like he might smack into the mountain a few times but I think distances are a little distorted.

Kayaking over a falls.

Bernese paradise.

Dogs are good eggs.

Chocolate Colosseum.

Little puppy is too cute.

To be a cat is to always be "on."

Riding a mountain bike... through an abandoned mine.

At bedtime I'm going to start counting alpacas.

Whenever I see horses on the beach I can only think of Planet of the Apes.

Too much fun.

Ever wonder how -- and why -- Venice was built in the water? Apparently Venetians were fleeing the Huns and built a new settlement on marshy islands. They drove big timbers into the soft earth (which was barely cohesive enough to support a human's weight), which compressed and stabilized the ground, then leveled the timbers and covered them with planks.

I remember they showed the underwater timbers holding Venice up in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I thought, "That's stupid, that can't be true," even though, at the same time, I thought it must be true, because a movie wouldn't get something like that wrong. (I know they're dishonest and professional fantasists, but no one likes to be mocked for gross stupidity -- it's the sort of unbelievable thing that must be true, if you know what I mean.)

Venice really is just built on big wooden poles hammered into the ground.

I still think it's dumb. But then again, I don't have to worry about an invasion of hostile savages. Right?

Right?

(Update: Actually, it wasn't quite true. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, or LGX as all fans know it, showed free-standing poles in the water. But this video shows them driven into soft, boggy ground. Then again, some of the expansion of the city might have included pounding in polls into more-open water. I dunno.)

I'd say this disaster is the boss' fault, for building something so catastrophically unstable that some minor clumsy handling would bring the whole thing down, but you know these guys are getting fired anyway. (BTW, if this is just an unacknowleged clip from a movie, then I'll change my stance to say "it fits with the 'scary pranks' theme of the post.")

I don't understand anything about this.

So here's a prank. You know the family that is always dropping balloons filled with paint or milk on each other's heads? And to be honest, I mostly see the dad smashing the mom and kids with the paint balloons. I'm starting to think this is less of a playful family tradition and more of case of paternal bullying.

Whatever the case may be, the father, in all of his devious cruelty, pretends that his attempt to drop a balloon filled with milk on his wife failed. Oops! (Sound on!) But that was just a ruse to make the subsequent attack all the more devastating and psychologically scarring.

"Come out to the coast, we'll have a good time, we'll do some ice-climbing..."

Testing your dog to see if he'll eat your food if you fall asleep or die. Spoiler: Your dog is always hungry and food tastes good.

Anyone with a decent drone can now make Peter Jackson look like a chump. Or a pussy.

Mountain goat: Will you be my fren?

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:22 PM

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