Month: September 2020

The Rogers Ruin of Mercer County

J + R R: The John and Rachel Rogers Stabilized Ruin, with Radmini. Source: TCM

The Rogers House is a fine example of 18th century pattern brick architecture that unfortunately was neglected long enough that by the time funding was acquired, the only option was to preserve it as a stabilized ruin. Mercer County acquired the house in 1970; the preservation project was not completed until 2019. Still, a stabilized ruin is better than a collapsed house.

“Pattern brick” means that letters and numbers are built into the walls using glazed brick ends inset among unglazed brick stretchers. On one end is “1751” commemorating when the house was built (although there has been debate about whether the third digit is a “5” or “6”). On the opposite side are the letters “J + R R” for John and Rachel Rogers, the original homeowners. The rest of the walls are built a Flemish bond with alternating brick headers and stretchers.

The Rogers Ruin, Mercer County Park, NJ. Source: TCM
J + R R Gable End. Source: TCM
Continue reading The Rogers Ruin of Mercer County

Does a Radmini fit in a Jeep Cherokee?

Yes, although not that easily. One of the selling points of folding fatbikes is their enhanced portability. Folding them potentially makes it easier to carry them in a car without a bike rack. But the ebikes are still heavy, bulky, and take up a lot of space.

On the new (2014+) Jeep Cherokees, the hatch opening is narrow, compared to similar-sized SUVs, and the cargo floor is only 36.1 inches wide between the wheelwells. Even when it’s folded in half, it’s nearly impossible to fit the Radpower Radmini in without putting down the back seats. On its side, the bike takes up most of the cargo area. The low ceiling means you risk scratching the headliner if you put it in upright, although once it’s in, you could probably squeeze a second folded e-bike alongside it. Most of the scratches on my Radmini – and all the scratches in the back of the Jeep – are from loading and unloading the bike.

  • Upright
  • On its side

The official dimensions of the 2019 Jeep Cherokee cargo area are 25.8 cubic feet behind the rear seats and 54.7 cu ft with the second row folded down. That’s less than the otherwise similar-sized Subaru Forester, which has 28.9 and 70.9 cu ft of space, respectively, behind the second row and first row seats.

Dimensions of a folded 2019 Radmini. Source: Radpower

E-Biking the Forbidden Drive

As in, you are forbidden to drive a car on it, but you can bike, walk, or ride a horse on it. The former Wissahickon Turnpike, the main drag through Wissahickon Valley Park in Philadelphia, was built in the 1820s and got its current name in the 1920s when it was closed to vehicles.

Wissahickon Creek. Source: TCM

On a pleasantly cool weekend morning there were a lot of people in the park, meaning we had to drive around a bit before finding a parking spot. The gravel path is wide and the people spread out so it was a leisurely 8 mile ride.

Some nice Parkitecture in Wissahickon. Source: TCM
Philly’s first public drinking fountain, built 1854 and shut down in 1957 due to water pollution. Source: TCM

Visiting the Historic Site of Woodstock and the Bindy Bazaar

As the plaque above clearly shows, the 1969 Woodstock Concert is legitimately a site of historical importance. While the rule of thumb is that only sites at least 50 years old are considered for listing on the National Register of Historical Places, Woodstock was placed on the Register in 2017, only 48 years after the three day festival of music took place on Max Yasgur’s farm near Bethel, New York.

The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts and the Museum at Bethel Woods maintain the Woodstock site with the goal of preserving the historic landscape. The actual stage and seating area are now open grassed areas. Across the road there is a small wooded area known as Bindy Woods or Bindy Bazaar. In 1969, trails were cut through the woods and rocks were gathered and stacked to create simple foundations where vendors at the “Aquarian Crafts Bazaar” could set up makeshift stalls to sell goods to the concert goers.

Continue reading Visiting the Historic Site of Woodstock and the Bindy Bazaar

It’s Official: Honda Trail 125

2021 Honda Trail 125

After showing a concept vehicle and releasing it as the Hunter Cub in Japan, Honda is now officially releasing their on- and off-road-ready minibike as the Trail 125 in the United States. It has a list price of $3,899, semiautomatic transmission, antilock brake system, a pretty wide-looking rear luggage rack, and you can get it in any color you want so long as it’s Glowing Red.

2021 Honda Trail 125
2021 Honda Trail 125

the Trail 125 pays tribute to the original CT line while embracing the convenience and performance of modern technology, making it a great tool for riding around town or exploring the wilderness.

Honda Press Release

Outside/In on the Darién Gap

Here’s a podcast about the Darién Gap that’s NOT about somebody trying to drive through it (but also, tell me more about that drive north of Montreal) .

There are places on the map where roads end.

The Darién Gap, or el Tapon del Darién, is one of them. It’s a stretch of rainforest in southern Panama, right on the edge of Central and South America. From a globetrotter’s perspective, the Darién Gap might seem to exist mostly as an obstacle to tourists dreaming of a truly epic road trip from Alaska to Tierra Del Fuego.

But, while a road is one way for movement, it’s not the only way to get somewhere. What happens, or does not happen, in a place without roads?

Outside/In produced by Sam Evans-Brown with Justine Paradis and Taylor Quimby.

The Passenger Pigeon Memorial at the Cincinnati Zoo

Detail of wood door at passenger pigeon memorial, Cincinnati Zoo. Source: TCM

If you know anything about passenger pigeons, you know the last passenger pigeon was named Martha. She died 106 years ago today, on September 1st, 1914.

In 1977 the Cincinnati Zoo, where Martha lived and died, created a memorial to the extinct passenger pigeon in one of the few surviving original animal houses. The photo above shows part of the large wooden door covered with carvings of passenger pigeons at the entrance.

The pagoda-style building was built as an aviary to display many types of birds. It and two other animal houses that also date back to the zoo’s opening in 1875 have been designated a National Historic Landmark.

The aviary buildings in 1878. Source: Cincinnativiews.net.

The creation of the memorial was due in large part to the efforts of Richard Fluke who, as a child, frequently visited Martha at the zoo.

“The world lost a great bird,” said Fluke, his voice still emotional at the memory, even after 74 years. “She was just magnificent. When [she died], I felt that I had lost a pal, because I always went around to see her.” Perhaps this is the greatest value of Richard Fluke’s testimony. Others mourned Martha’s loss — and still mourn it — in the abstract, as the point final in the tragic history of a species wasted through human greed. But the little boy who sat in the yellow pagoda, talking to her, stroking her feathers, feeding her tiny bits of food, mourned the passing of his friend.

T. F. Pawlick, Martha: The Last of Her Kind. 2018
Passenger pigeons inside the memorial at the Cincinnati Zoo. Source: TCM

Paleontology Headline: Caiman Bites Sloth

Predation of the giant Miocene caiman Purussaurus on a mylodontid ground sloth 2020. Figure 2:Life reconstruction of the putative attack of a young to sub-adult Purussaurus on the ground sloth Pseudoprepotherium in a swamp of proto-Amazonia. Art: Jorge A. González.

It only took one 13-million-year-old bone for two paleontologists to reconstruct the dramatic encounter pictured above. That bone is a tibia, or lower leg bone, from an extinct ground sloth (not a giant ground sloth, just a 170 pound medium-sized one). The tibia has 46 tooth marks on it, made by the extinct caiman (a close relative of alligators) Purussaurus.

Read the paper by Pujos and Salas-Gismondi to see how, through a detailed taphonomic analysis of a single bone, they were able to infer not only what animal did the biting, but also how old it was. Unresolved: whether the caiman got the whole sloth or just the leg.

Detail of Figure 1: Left tibia of Pseudoprepotherium sp. (MUSM 1587) and mapping of the bite marks, from Pujos and Salas-Gismondi 2020.

Reference:

Predation of the giant Miocene caiman Purussaurus on a mylodontid ground sloth in the wetlands of proto-Amazonia

Pujos F, Salas-Gismondi R. 2020 Predation of the giant Miocene caiman Purussaurus on a mylodontid ground sloth in the wetlands of proto-Amazonia. Biology Letters 16: 20200239. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0239

Featured image: Detail of Figure 2 from Pujos and Salas-Gismondi. Artwork by Jorge A. González.