#limestone quarry

[a-gnosis]

My friend took me to the Kalkbro nature reserve. There was once a limestone quarry there, which looked really cool. I've heard that parts of the movie Ronia the Robber's Daughter from 1984 was filmed here.

[dbaydenny]

The limestone quarry

has no horizon, it falls

beneath the surface

of an eaten away edge,

a white hole somewhere in space.

.

D W Eldred

[scavengedluxury]

Fertőrákos quarry, 1976. From the Budapest Municipal Photography Company archive.

[crumb]

HT Campbell Limestone Quarry, Texas, Maryland (1967)

[iamthepulta]

That post with a bunch of open pit mines and "your culture" has me losing my mind at 8am lol.

This is what not teaching history, metallurgy, and resource management in school does to a society. Everyone is getting a lesson on Indian diamonds, Nigerian iron, SW turquoise, and Cyprus copper tonight.

[fromthedust]

Bruce Barnbaum (American, b.1943)

Les Baux Limestone Quarry - France

[superman86to99]

Action Comics #697 (March 1994)

Bizarro's World, Part 3! Superman not only gets to fight Bizarro for the first time in this storyline, but he also finally gets to rough up Lex Luthor for the first time in... this entire continuity, maybe?

Superman bursts into Lex Luthor Jr.'s personal sauna and demands to know what he has to do with that "Bizarre-o" creature who seems to have his same powers and kidnapped Lois Lane recently. Supes is so angry that he doesn't even notice Lex is clearly very sick until Lex's "mum," Dr. Kelley, points it out. Superman apologizes for getting carried away, but then Lex admits that he does know where Bizarro came from: his overzealous employee Sydney Happersen created him while trying to find a cure for his boss' mystery illness (which is actually the Clone Plague going around Metropolis lately, but Superman doesn't know Lex is in the risk group for that).

When Superman hears Bizarro is in Midway City, he speeds there and finds the monster trying to "fix" a drawbridge by fusing it together with his heat vision. The poor brute doesn't understand why the cops are shooting at him after that, or why someone who looks like him shows up out of nowhere and punches him across several city blocks.

Superman manages to gain the upper hand on Bizarro, but unfortunately he punches him harder than intended (courtesy of his expanded powers, as seen in recent months) and almost causes a building to collapse. Superman throws Bizarro into orbit to get rid of him while he deals with the collapsing building situation, thus continuing one of the most long-running traditions in this era: Superman throwing crap into space when he doesn't know what to do with it.

As he floats over Earth, Bizarro's warped memories remind him of Smallville and he's like "You know who never dropped a giant globe on me or threw me into space? Lana Lang. She was nice." He stops by Smallville to visit Lana, who is supremely freaked out by the sight of an ugly backwards version of her childhood crush.

Seeing Lana in danger makes Superman double-angry and he finally punches Bizarro so hard that he stops moving. What's more, Superman seems relieved that can't detect any signs of life in the creature (he won't be going into space for six months to atone for this one). After making sure Lana is relatively okay, Superman takes Bizarro's "corpse" back to Metropolis for study... but, of course, we see on that last panel that he opens his eyes, because there are still two more issues left in this storyline. CONTINUED!

Plotline-Watch:

Lex Luthor is now officially as bald as, well... Lex Luthor.

After that, the most significant event this issue is that Lana's run-in with Bizarro convinces her that she definitely doesn't yearn to be Superman's girlfriend anymore and she literally runs off to tell her boyfriend Pete Ross she wants to marry him ASAP (meaning "in three issues," or Action #700).

Superman thinks that he hasn't been this angry since Lex Sr. kidnapped Lana Lang (way back in Superman #2), right before Bizarro kidnaps Lana Lang. Coincidence or psychic link?

Also, Bizarro takes Lana to Smallville's old Simonson Limestone Quarry, which is Superman's official spot for fighting duplicates: that's where he fought the Pocket Universe Superboy in Superman #8, the Eradicator-controlled Matrix/Supergirl in Action #644 (as Lana points out), and now this. Superman '86 to '99: still the internet's foremost authority on Smallville's old Simonson Limestone Quarry after all these years.

When Superman apologizes for manhandling Lex, he says: "If someone were ripping up the city in *my* name, I'd be pretty upset too." More Action #700 foreshadowing!

Lex tells Superman he probably got sick after being exposed to the toxic junk in Coast City when he went snooping there right before it fell into the water (Superman #83). This is a pretty good cover story, because Lex WAS a big dumbass for going there without any protection whatsoever.

Patreon-Watch:

Don Sparrow’s section below was read a week ago by our patrons Aaron, Murray Qualie, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, and Bol (who also motivated me to finish this my part above right before the end of the month). You can join at: https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99

And now I leave you in Don’s capable hands for art commentary and, as usual, all the interesting details I missed despite owning these issues for decades...

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow​):

We begin with the cover, and it’s such a unique composition that it rang a bell.  I went into my old copy of The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told and found the very first Bizarro story, in Superboy #68.  It’s maybe the best Bizarro story, and of course, the closest to the Frankenstein novel, right down to befriending a blind girl.  I digress—anyway, at one point, Superboy, trying to get rid of the Bizarro menace, attempts to hurl him like a discus into outer space. But Bizarro being Bizarro, he boomerangs back at Superboy, and smashes into Superboy.  The pose isn’t identical, but I thought it was close enough to be a potential homage.  What do you think?  Do I have too many Superman comics on the brain or is there something here? [Max: I see it! I also have the Greatest Stories book and read it a million times and never noticed the reference, very cool!]

Inside we are greeted with a fairly action-packed splash, of Superman smashing through a glass wall into Lex Junior’s steam bath.

It’s a great image, with lots of motion, and Superman’s carelessness with the flying glass lets the reader know he’s not messing around (later in the book, Superman even thinks to himself he hasn’t been that angry since Superman #2, and there’s definitely a visual callback now that I think of it!). [Max: ANOTHER thing I never noticed! I am astonished.] Page 4’s chiaroscuro Superman is a great look, and I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t somewhat influenced by the shadowy renderings of Superman by Immonen a few weeks back.

There’s still more uncharacteristic Superman destructiveness as he flies away to confront Bizarro on that same page—I wonder if this is disregard, or a signal that Superman’s powers are out of whack.

Page 5 gives us a new look at Lex Junior’s deterioration, and it’s interesting, looking at this from an era when Lex Luthor has been fit/thin for decades—Junior is very much looking like the Lex we now know.

Superman is pretty brutal to Bizarro in the story, and it’s interesting to me that even though we’ve seen that Superman’s mass and power level have increased, he’s unable to shatter this Bizarro as easily as he did in their first meeting. It’s a bit comical how many times Superman believes he has destroyed Bizarro in this issue, only for Bizarro to bounce back and counter-attack.

Then later in the issue, we get another hint of a call-back to the boomerang idea from the original Superboy story, where Superman hammer-throws Bizarro off-world.

Later in the story, I’m wondering if Jackson Guice had recently watched Terminator 2, as Lana looks for all the world like Linda Hamilton (which wouldn’t be bad casting for that part, back in the day!) and on the same page, Bizarro definitely has an Ah-nold vibe. [Max: Add this to the ever-growing “I really should have noticed this years ago” pile, please.]

On the whole, this is another slugfest issue, where besides a pretty good duke-out, not a ton happens.

STRAY OBSERVATIONS:

It occurs to me that it must be quite an act for Lex to keep up the accent and Australianisms all the time.  On top of all the other ways he’s an evil genius, he’s also a master thespian, it seems.

Bizarro “fixing” a drawbridge is exactly the sort of danger he should be causing—not intentionally evil, but misguided in a child-like way.

Interesting that Lana calls the character who brought her out to the quarries “Supergirl” even though her previous identity looked nothing of the kind. [Max: Remember she did first meet Matrix in her Supergirl form back in Adventures #442, Don!]

Clark’s uncool treatment of Lana continues, calling her efforts to protect him a “foolhardy stunt”.  You’re welcome, buddy.

The characterization of Lana craving normalcy is one that echoed in  portrayals of her in Lois & Clark, and later on, Smallville—she certainly loved Clark, but would have been happier without the powers.  I’m sure Pete Ross is glad for her phone call, whatever the reasoning.

[galswintha]

My Mesozoic trips - Triassic

[euroskum]

Contemporary Exterior - Wood An illustration of a medium-sized, modern, one-story, wood home with a shed roof

[richardalperts]

Retaining Walls Landscape Austin a picture of a spacious, contemporary front yard with stone landscaping in the spring.

[sunflowers-and-sims]

Austin Modern Landscape Design ideas for a large modern drought-tolerant and full sun front yard stone retaining wall landscape in spring.

[architectureofdoom]

Former limestone quarry on Furilden, Sweden.

[railwayhistorical]

Joliet This image shows a Rock Island outbound commuter train clacking over the ATSF/GM&O tracks at Joliet, Illinois. This has always been a great spot for rail enthusiasts.

The wonderful station here is made from Indiana limestone, of which I'm a fan, growing up amongst the quarries of southern Indiana. The locomotive is an EMD E8A built for the Union Pacific in 1953.

Image by Richard Koenig; taken in 1976.

[beautiful-basque-country]

This location that could easily be featured in some videogame like Uncharted or Tomb Raider is the Andrabide quarry in Ereño (Bizkaia).

It was exploited by Romans 2,000 years ago, and it's been producing red marble until 1989. This marble - known as Ereño red or Bilbao red - is a very special one, in fact: actually it isn't marble, but recrystallized reef limestone rock, which means that its the fossilized remains of a prehistoric reef, and as such, it's easily recognisable by its molluscs:

This marble has travelled since Roman times throughout Euskal Herria, Spain, France, America, and even The Vatican.

So if you ever see this weird red marble with molluscs in it, you know where it came from!

[fatehbaz]

[The British imperial imaginary conceives] of Bermuda as a tiny paradise in the North Atlantic. But long before cruise ships moored up, prison ships carried hundreds of convicts to the island, first docking in 1824 and remaining there for decades. [...] [T]he use of Bermuda as a prison destination is less well known. For 40 years, British prisoners worked backbreaking days labouring in Bermuda’s dockyards and died in their thousands. [...]

[T]he notorious floating prisons known as hulks. [...] [I]n addition to locations across the Thames Estuary, Portsmouth and Plymouth, the British government used these ships as emergency detention centres in colonial outposts across the 19th century, detaining convicts in Bermuda between 1824 and 1863 and Gibraltar between 1842 and 1875. England has a long history of banishing its criminal population. In the 18th century, criminals were typically sentenced to seven years overseas in America. Many worked as plantation labourers in Maryland and Virginia [...]. Britain [...] turned to hulks to cope with rising [prison housing] numbers. Each could hold between 300 and 500 men, and they were nicknamed “floating hells” for their unsanitary and dangerous conditions.

---

[T]he government felt that convict labour could be put to use in other colonies [in addition to Australia], and so began an experiment in 1824 to send men to Bermuda. [...] Though only 20 miles long, the island was already extremely important to naval strategy. It was used as a refuelling station for British ships travelling to colonial outposts such as Halifax, Nova Scotia and the Caribbean. But the naval dockyard needed modernisation, and rather than employ local workers, convicts - a cheap and easily mobilised workforce - filled the labour gap. [...]

[M]en lived on board the ships they had sailed on (seven in total). [...] Many were injured in the dockyards, others went blind from the reflected glare of the sun as they quarried white limestone. [...] They were burnt by scorching temperatures and suffered sunstroke [...]. Bermuda also received people convicted in other British colonies, including Canada and the Caribbean. During the years of the great famine in Ireland (1845 to 1852), thousands of Irish convicts arrived on the island, many suffering from malnourishment. [...] The experiment ended after 40 years, in 1863, when dockyard repairs were completed. The remaining hulks were scuttled or broken up for scrap, and convicts were transported to Australia and Tasmania, or home to England [...].

---

Bermuda’s history as a prison island has been largely forgotten, but this story shares parallels with today. Prisons are suffering from overcrowding, and governments still detain prisoners and others on islands and modified ships. In Dorset, the Bibby Stockholm ship is housing asylum seekers [...].

The convicts who lived, worked and died in Bermuda are part of a larger global story of coercion and empire.

The product of their labour was imperial strength, but for those sent thousands of miles from home and buried in unmarked graves, the brutalities of their experience should also be remembered.

---

All text above by: Anna McKay. "Britain's forgotten prison island: remembering the thousands of convicts who died working in Bermuda's dockyards". The Conversation. 27 March 2024. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[libraryofmoths]

Moth of the Week

Mint Moth

Pyrausta aurata

[Right | Left]

The mint moth is a part of the family Crambidae, the grass moth family. It was first described in 1763 by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (sometimes Latinized to Johannes Antonius Scopolius).

Description This moth has purple-brown forewings with yellow marks. The marks on the wings varies but is usually one yellow spot near the middle of the wing but leaning closer to the costa (top edge/vein of the wing). It is also common to have smaller yellow marks with the larger spot. It is possible for the forewing to be blank. It is also possible to have yellow markings that look like a wavy band on the forewings. The hindwings are a dark brown or black with a yellow band in the center.

Wingspan: 1.8 - 2 cm (0.71 - 0.79 in).

The caterpillar of this moth ranges from light green, dark green, light brown, black gray and reddish with a darker back line. They also have a dark brown head.

Length: 13 cm (≈0.512)

Diet and Habitat This species most often eats mint (Mentha spicata and Mentha rotundifolia) but also eats plants like marjoram, Salvia pratensis, Melissa officinalis, Nepeta cataria and Calamintha species.

This species is widely distributed in Europe, North Africa, and North Asia. It reaches to Siberia, North China, Korea, and Japan in the east and to Asia Minor, the Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan, Middle Asia and Mongolia in the south. They inhabit chalk and limestone grassland, woodland, marshland, quarries, places with waterside vegetation, and gardens

Mating This moth has two generations a year in north-west Europe. It flies from April until the end of September. Specifically in the UK, it breeds from May to June then from July to August.

Predators This species flies during the day and at night. No listed protections or specific predators.

Fun Fact The mint moth (Pyrausta aurata) can be mistaken for Pyrausta purpuralis as they are related. However, Pyrausta purpuralis is larger and has a more distinct band on the forewing. This band is usually divided in 3.

(Source: Wikipedia [1][2], Butterfly Conservation)