Home » Open thread 8/23/2025

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Open thread 8/23/2025 — 19 Comments

  1. great video. Friend of a friend creates miniatures.
    Other than that amazing talent, she is as normal as anybody.

  2. This video reminded me of the wife of a man I worked with years ago.
    Vivian Haustle made dolls, using a process with fabric and lace dipped in porcelain slip and fired. Her husband, Dean, photographed and published books of her work and the processes involved.
    I’ve searched several used bookstores, looking for these books to no avail.
    It makes me wonder what one of her exquisite dolls would be worth today.

  3. I fell down the miniaturization rabbit hole for several years in my 30s. I suppose you have to be a bit OCD.

  4. I had a friend who was a big Elvis Presley fan, and was even born on his birthday, who made miniature dioramas and included Preslyian articles in some of them. Although she was not up to the expert level shown in this video, she was nonetheless quite skilled and had a good time

  5. tallowpot … This and more at ‘AI’: Yes, Vivian Haustle appears to be associated with doll-making through a brand called Viviandolls.

  6. Long ago when my boys were quite small, I’d take them to the Children’s Museum on a rainy weekend afternoon. One of the exhibits was of very elaborate doll houses from the eighteen hundreds. The detail and number of items inside them always impressed me. Naturally, I only got a microsecond or two to look before the circus moved on to more interesting stuff.

  7. My little five house neighborhood is a bit spooked by Bambi getting eaten by Simba. She got picked off walking down the road towards my place. Simba got her in two bounds. Judging by her poop piles in my new landscaping she had found a salad bar. Poor thing but the cat has to eat too.

  8. In the jungle, the mighty jungle the lion lurks tonight….

    My dog is afraid. She didn’t want to do her usual check of the yard before bed. She stood in the doorway sniffing the air and then nope, wouldn’t be prudent, not going out in the dark. Smart girl.

  9. Chases Eagles, sounds like Bambi got too comfortable being out in the open like that. The salad can rejoice at being spared!

    As to the miniatures, there was a handful of decent examples at the Albany Institute recently. I don’t know if they were part of the permanent exhibition. Seeing as the video segment is from WGN in Chicago, naturally they would have had to give some time to the Colleen Moore house at the MSI, which was gratifying. It’s interesting to see that there are stores and whole conventions concentrating on the art form.

  10. I follow some guy on Facebook who makes miniatures and another woman who makes food for miniatures. Their work fascinates me. I had a set design instructor who was really into the Thorne Miniatures at the Art Institute. I have the OCD, but not the steady hand, eyesight, or patience. Building set models for class almost killed me.

  11. Very good – long – article on Europe in the Review section of the WSJ.

    Europe Is Losing
    https://archive.md/hvqHP

    Europe’s economies just can’t keep up, and the wealth gap with the U.S. is getting worse. As Italian Prime Minister Meloni succinctly put it, America innovates, China imitates, and Europe regulates.

    Red tape in Britain is so bad that it took electricity firm Scottish Power 12 years to get permits for a high-voltage transmission line across Scotland. A project to build a new tunnel under the Thames river outside London has so far spent $340 million just on planning permits—documents that total 359,000 pages. Games Workshop, a fast-growing gaming company, is facing delays to build a new parking lot on its headquarters because a single bat lives there.

    Energy is another problem. In Germany, industrial electricity costs three times as much as in the U.S.; in the U.K., four times as much.

  12. @cb Thank You for the information. I looked at their offerings but it’s not exactly what Vivian Haustle produced. Her work might be best described as porcelain sculptures of elaborately costumed persons. Think of a Flamenco Dancer in a dancing pose, complete with manton, peineta, and lace. Or perhaps a Prima Ballerina on pointe, in a tutu. To get the delicate lace and fabric fired successfully must have been very difficult.

  13. Open Thread Sunday, Russia’s war on Ukraine

    The Long-Term Costs of War – The Price of Life, Economics of Casualties & Russia’s War – Perun

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJzE6YRrZFQ&t=15s

    For a military in the middle of a major war, using more infantry might seem like a relatively cheap, quick way to add more combat power to a force – but how cheap is it really?

    The answer depends on how you value human life and the long term impacts of losses on the economy. And so today, courtesy of a Patreon vote, that’s what we’re going to try and do.

    Timestamps:
    00:00:00 — Opening
    00:00:55 — What Am I Talking About?
    00:03:28 — “Cheap” Manpower
    00:06:46 — The Cost Base
    00:08:54 — Retention
    00:24:27 — the Cost Tail
    00:38:45 — Wider Costs
    00:41:04 — Demographics
    00:54:07 — Capital-intensive Warfare
    00:58:37 — Preparation is Paramount
    00:59:50 — Training and Service
    01:01:41 — Channel Update

  14. Philip Sells: “The salad can rejoice at being spared!”
    Bambi is the salad, one step removed.

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