Huge Typewriter Really Works
SO HUGE that its keys must be operated with the feet, a mammoth typewriter has been placed on exhibition at Atlantic City, N. J. One of its giant type bars is seen about to strike, above, as a champion typist dictates a challenge to rivals.

TEST NEW PARACHUTE FOR THE DOGS OF WAR
Foreseeing that troops may be dropped with parachutes from speeding planes, in future wars, Soviet experimenters are trying out a similar means of landing the dogs used in army service. A recent invention is a cylindrical coop for the dog, provided with a parachute that opens automatically when it is tossed from a plane. The shell of the coop, locked closed during the descent, springs open of its own accord when the device strikes the ground. The photographs reproduced here show the device in action during recent successful tests by Soviet aviators.

SACRED CITIES TO BE LINKED BY RAIL AND WIRE

Mecca and Lhasa, the sacred cities of the Moslems and the Buddhists, may soon break through the isolation of centuries, a native syndicate having been formed to finance a railway between Medina, the burial place of the prophet, Mohammed, and Mecca, the city of his birth. There are, of course, other so-called sacred cities, such as Kerbela in Mesopotamia, and Meshed, in Persia. While it was possible for a Christian to enter the last named, and even to penetrate into Kerbela, provided he was accompanied by a Moslem guide, until comparatively recently on no consideration were they allowed to approach Mecca or Medina, while, up to the present, Lhasa has also been, in reality, a closed city. Read the rest of this entry »

ARMADILLOS BRED ON TEXAS RANCH
One of the most curious industries in existence is conducted by a rancher near Comfort, Texas, who breeds armadillos and from their shells and bony tails makes lamp shades and armadillo baskets. Starting with a few of the creatures and a small plot of ground, he now has a ranch that extends over many acres. The thousands of armadillos bred by him furnish a great part of the shells used in the manufacture of ornaments in this country. Since the animals leave their burrows only at night, their capture is limited to the hours after dark. As many as 250 of the shell producing creatures have been taken in a single night.

Thank god the border guards were able to stem the massive tide of contraband shoes and serapes (see the picture on page 3). Who knows where we would be without their vigilant efforts.

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Border Guard Wages War on Smugglers
Daring Patrolmen in an Endless Fight To Halt the Traffic in Aliens and Contraband

By Andrew R. Boone

CROUCHED beside a squat tum-bleweed not fifty feet from the rusting monument that marks the boundary between California and Baja California hard by the sea, the border patrolman scanned near-by hills with his powerful glasses. He was V. E. Williams, one of Uncle Sam’s mounted border officers, and he was keeping vigil on a lonely section of the border awaiting the coming of a smuggler whose habits he had been observing for several days and nights.
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Posting is going to be light this weekend because I’m in San Francisco for Maker Faire. If you live in the bay area you should check it out.

BOWLING Succumbs to Miniature Craze

THERE has recently been developed a new game which combines the principles of putting and bowling. The alley, which is constructed of reinforced fibre-hide board, is six feet long and 13 inches wide. With the folding backstop, the game weighs only 12-1/2 pounds.

Another bowling game is played on a table with marbles instead of bowling balls. Although designed as a game for the whole family, it will no doubt be monopolized by small boys of all ages.

“Kurv-A-Shot” is the name of still another game recently invented in which only marbles and a specially designed playing board are needed. The trick is to gauge the speed so that the marble will drop into the desired hole.

The holes on the spiral ramp are numbered from five to twenty-five and the low score wins the game.