Giant Flying Bird Not Just a Myth

Haast's eagle try to capture it's prey the moa.

Legend about huge flying bird from native stories not just a myth. Few species of giant flying birds did exist not long ago. Even though they were not killed directly by men, but fighting with men over the same food source can be a bad thing too.

Haast’s eagle (Harpagornis moorei) is another giant birds that just extinct few hundred years ago from its native area, New Zealand. This giant bird has remained as a legend for Pouakai and Maori people until the truth was discovered.

The restoration of the skull.

Haast’s eagle became extinct around 1400 AD when their primary food resources had been hunted by the first Māori that came to the South Island of New Zealand. Compared to men that can easily change their food source, the Haast’s eagle had vanished together like their prey the moa.

The size of Haast’s eagle was even larger than the largest living vultures so it also the largest known true raptors. With the size of females were significantly larger than males, the weight of females were estimates to be in the range of 10–15 kg (22–33 lb) and males around 9–12 kg (20–26 lb).

The different in size between the size of Haast's eagle and its closest living relative, the little eagle.

The model of Haast's eagle attacking a moa at Te Papa. 

The main food sourced for the Haast’s eagle was the large flightless bird species known as moa, with body weight can reach up to fifteen times the weight of itself. The eagle was able to kill the giant bird by swooping it at the speeds up to 80 km/h (50 mph).

The Earliest Electric Cars

Porsche P1, the first car designed by Ferdinand Porsche.

Not all of us realized that the electric cars were among the earliest cars invented before petrol cars became popular in the early of 20^th century. For various reasons the electric cars had been abandoned (perhaps suppressed) to allow petrol engine cars to take over.

The electric cars were pricier, with lower speed limits and shorter range, while petrol cars become more available to the public. Perhaps its demand by the market that make electric cars became less popular in the early 40’s until late 50’s. Still the production of electric cars only in the small quantities – the must be many other factors that caused the situation.

Anyway here we are just want to look at the earliest electric cars produced back then for us to have better understanding why they should become popular again. Some in the list here were the cars produced in large quantities and many others produced in small numbers.

Baker Electric

Was the earliest electric cars produced in large quantities. The first card was a two seater and sold to Thomas Edison as his first car. The nickel-iron batteries used in this car also was invented by Thomas Edison and some of them still can be use until today. By 1907, Baker had seventeen models and the price was getting higher. Baker’s cars also became part of the White House fleet of cars. Anyway by 1913 the company was overtaken in sale by Detroit Electric and, in 1914, merged with fellow Cleveland automaker Rauch and Lang to become Baker, Rauch & Lang.

Studebaker Electric

Studebaker Omnibus one of the electric vehicle produced by Studebaker Brothers.

Studebaker Electric was produced by Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company of South Bend, Indiana. This company produced electric vehicles from 1902 to 1912. Studebaker Electrics was produced in wide variety of body styles included the Stanhope, Victoria, and Surrey. A four-passenger model was introduced in 1904. The production of Studebakers was ended by 1912 as the demand on gasoline engines had increased.

Detroit Electric

An electric car produced by the Anderson Electric Car Company in Detroit, Michigan. The cars were produced from 1907 – 1939 and revived in 2008 to produce modern electric cars by Detroit Electric Holding Ltd. of the Netherlands. There were 13,000 electric cars were produced within 1907 – 1939 by the Anderson Electric Car Company. The sales were increased by increasing price of gasoline during the World War 1. Detroit Electrics were owned by few notable people included Thomas Edison, Lizzie Borden, Charles Proteus Steinmetz, Mamie Eisenhower, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Henry Ford bought Model C coupe for her wife Clara Ford.

Porsche P1

Porsche P1 on restoration after 112 years.

The series of gears for Porsche P1.

Porsche P1 was the first car designed by Ferdinand Porsche before he and his son created the company, Porsche. The car was produced in 1898 and resembles a wooden crate or an old horse-drawn carriage even though it is actually an electric powered vehicle. It was equipped with 3 hp electric motors and 5 hp by overcharging it. The car could be driven for three to five hours with the range up to approximately 49 miles. What make Porsche P1 so different was the series of gears with 12-speed controller: six for forward gears, two for reverse and four to brake the car. It was found after 112 years in warehouse in Austria and now on display at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.

The Earliest Cars

The earliest steam car know as Cugnot Steam Car.

This will be a very simple post just to have a glance of earliest cars produce before the modern cars were invented. Surprisingly, the earliest cars after the usage of animals such as horse, cow, buffalo, donkey and camel – or if there were many other animals that I missed, was start with power of water; that is steam engine.

Few other surprising things that we never thought are the hydrogen engine that was invented earlier and also the electric cars emerged in the early stage when the modern gasoline engine was invented. So here today, we are more on looking on some of those cars before we are able to come out with full article about it.

If you have something in mind to share so we can focus on it in the next articles.

There are still few working Baker's Electric cars in the world.

The advertising.

Basic steam car.

The bigger size steam car.

The steam car that still survive until today.

Steam car can be flashy too. 1903 White Model C steam car Demi-limousine.

Historic building, Malayan Railway Station

The uniqueness of the architecture on Kuala Lumpur Railway Station.

Malayan Railway Station’s building is one of the historic buildings in Kuala Lumpur, which is still used to this day. Built in 1910 has unique architectural features as well as other buildings built during the same time such as Sultan Abdul Samad Building. For this station Arthur Benison Hubback maintaining the Mughal architecture application in his design.

It costs RM23,000 and began operations on 1 August 1910. The station later became the main station with the demolition of the Resident Station and also the isolation of the Sultan Street’s Station. The building also includes a hotel, Station Hotel (now known as Heritage Station Hotel). The station is still operating despite Kuala Lumpur's main station has been moved to KL Sentral.

Main part of the building built over 100 years old.

KTM Administration Building, which is also very unique.

Even though it has spanned over a hundred years, the station continues to be upgraded to enable it to continue to provide services to the users of railway transport. Commuter Train services were first introduced at this station in 1995 with two main lines of Rawang - Seremban Line and Sentul - Port Klang Line.

To this day, this historic building is yet to be visited by the public and tourists not only because of its functions but also because of its unique architecture. It is one of the popular pictorial locations around Kuala Lumpur on par with other locations in the surrounding attractions such as Masjid Negara, Islamic Arts Museum and other places in Taman Tasik Perdana area.

Commuter rail service is also available at the station.

An improved platform for current demand.

Kuala Lumpur Station, past and present.

Unique location in Leshan China - Giant Buddha

Giant Buddha statue in Leshan, China.

As always proposed by MyRokan the places of interests to be visited are locations that provide values such as educational, motivation, cultures, and histories and so on. Although today we are making better progress in technology than people before us, but their determination to do something give us something to think about. That is why the remains of these monuments, still admired us to this day.

This time we will see another exciting remnant of a giant Buddha statue in Leshan, China. Sculpture that reaches a height of up to 71 meters (233 ft.) Is not built with ease but it took a very long time and have a sketched of histories. Indeed it is one of the most important places to visit and was listed as part of the "World Heritage Site" by UNESCO since 1996.

The history of its construction began in 713 led by a monk called Hai Tong, the construction of the Buddha statue that is expected to reduce the strong currents of the river flowing underneath. These jetted danger to ships using the route. His efforts, however, suffered a setback when the provision of the construction of the giant statue is not successful. Hai Tong said gouges his eyes as a sign of sacrifice to complete the statue. When he died, the construction work has been abandoned. Only 70 years later, his effort was refinanced again by jiedushi and construction projects were passed by the followers of Hai Tong in the year 803.

View from above.

Going down the stairs to the foot of the Giant Buddha.

View from the bottom.

Construction of the statue caused huge amount of rock and dirt to be thrown into the river in front of the statue which is also a clash of 3 rivers of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi makes it current calmer.

This giant statue is actually equipped with unique irrigation / drainage systems to avoid the effects of erosion from flowing rain water. The system still works to this day.

During the process of carving the statue, a 13-storey wood building built to protect it from rain and hot sun. This construction, however, destroyed by the Mongols during the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. So starting from that the statue was exposed as seen today.

Water flows in the river during the low season.

View of the Giant Buddha from the river cruise.

Picture from National Geographic.

Sure it is among some large constructions people interesting to watch. Although it may be a religious symbol for some people, but for others it became a symbol of determination, persistence, determination and confidence to do something. For those who like to visit here, the closest town to this location is Chengdu with a distance of less than 150 km.