Motorized Ox

[Martin Hash]

Ox Cart.JPG

Those countries that evolved a millennium in 50 years are clinically schizophrenic: one half live like any resident of the 21st century, and the other is an anthropologist's wetdream. In Myanmar, for example, the 3 stages of evolution pass by on the roadway like one of those Darwinian monkey-to-man graphics: oxen pulling carts, primitive engines pulling carts, and modern trucks blasting by both of them. It's bizarre and somewhat sad: how can people who live like the Middle Ages hope to make a living? But apparently they do, though their houses in the countryside are little more than bamboo stilts covered by palm-leafs & woven grass walls, with the ox living underneath. We saw countless examples, and there was no outward sign of degradation, and far less trash.

Motorized Ox 1.JPG

The weird motorized carts are ubiquitous, loud, and haul people as often as products. They move around the cities & roads doing all the things carts have always done except they don't have to whip the oxen. Their design is the essence of simplicity, just the basics, no allotment for safety. Every time I saw one, the engineer in me couldn't help but be impressed: these desperately poor people had modernity dropped upon them without any sort of preparation, and the harsh transition sparked the development of a very unique but highly serviceable transportation solution. In fact, I got the feeling those motorized oxen were a status symbol.

Motorized Ox 2.JPG

11/18/16

[SuburbanFarmer]

Some noble capitalist should build a massive labor-intensive factory, to employ all of those millions getting wiped out by new tech.

[Martin Hash]

Some noble capitalist should build a massive labor-intensive factory, to employ all of those millions getting wiped out by new tech.

I need to do a MM about the villages who did nothing except provide Likes to Facebook, etc. You pay $5 to Facebook to get your post Liked 800 times, 800 peasants in Laos get a buzz, take their smartphones out of their pockets, click Like on the link provided, then go back to eating rice & singing karaoke.

[Speaker to Animals]

Damn. Are those lawnmowers mounted where there used to be an engine block? That's genius.

That belongs in the prepper thread.

[C-Mag]

Damn. Are those lawnmowers mounted where there used to be an engine block? That's genius.

That belongs in the prepper thread.

I think rotor tillers, but small distinction. Pretty cool.