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There are lots of black bears around Lake Arrowhead where they staged this.

Pretty sure she is on a petrol one - there is a fuel tank above the front wheel, and you can see the fuel line going into the throttle body above the single piston engine. You can also see the exhaust and muffler below and behind the piston.

Also looking into it more, I don't think the Autoped was ever offered with an electric motor. Apparently the confusion comes from the fact that the company was bought out by the battery manufacturer Eveready, and sold as Eveready Autoped. Eveready modified the Autoped by adding a battery and ignition coil, replacing the original magneto system, but propulsion was always by means of a petrol engine.

I don't think the one in the photo has the battery and coil however - the coil can be seen here in front of the gas tank, but is missing in the OP photo.

Edit: looks like the batteries and coil might have been separate - here is an article from 1917 that describes the Autoped as having a magneto ignition system (no coil) and also a battery box to operate the front and rear lights. And here is an example with an ignition coil powered from the wheel, but no battery box and no lights (which were probably optional) The one in the OP does appear to have the battery box and lights, but uses the magneto ignition, so it's the same model as described in the article.

Fast film (you can see how grainy it is when you zoom in a little) and shooting in full bright sun = you can shoot very short exposure and freeze motion. There were already cameras in the 1930s with mechanical shutters that could do 1/500th and even 1/1000th of a second exposure, which is plenty fast for this type of shot.

The lens looks pretty fast too - depth of field is very shallow, although part of that is also due to possible use of medium or large format - faster lens (lower f stop) and larger film both allow more light capture, and therefore faster exposure as well, but at the cost of less depth of field.

Edit: here is a good print of the full frame - looks like ~1.50 ratio, so probably 35mm film (not medium or large format) - I can't find a lot of information about what cameras Max Alpert used in the 30s, although he did use a 35mm Leica on at least some photos from that era. A Leica III could do 1/1000 in 1935 for example. The early Soviet cameras from the 1930s were also basically direct copies of Leicas. The frame also looks a bit underexposed, which could be due to pushing the exposure for more speed.

I think those might actually be frosted glass cups.

Here is the best copy I could find, and the flared edges do not look like plastic cups - also the shiny inside and matte outside looks more like glass frosted on the outside.

PP was not in commercial use until 1957 (not sure when it was first used for cups), PET disposable cups weren't a thing until the 70s. Disposable cups in the 50s would have been wax paper.

They wore masks, had negative pressure ventilation suits on

I hope those were positive pressure suits, positive pressure helps to keep dust out of the suit. Negative pressure ventilation is used to help sick people breathe easier, like the iron lung for example.

Not true, I am a naturalized US citizen, and don't have a middle name - it was never an issue and I was never asked to come up with one. My son was born in the US and also doesn't have a middle name.

The word average is often used to mean mean, however it can be used less specifically - median is a type of average as well.

From Merriam-Webster definition of average:

1a) a single value (such as a mean, mode, or median) that summarizes or represents the general significance of a set of unequal values

Also, things like testosterone levels in a population usually follow a normal distribution, where both mean and median are the same, so the distinction is often meaningless for practical purposes

The dots are counties - the largest red one above LA is Kern county - Tulare county is the smaller red dot above it to the right

This is a clearer version of that map. The other two much smaller red dots above LA are Kings and Inyo counties - this map is based on 2016 presidential results, as Inyo went blue in 2020 (by only 14 votes though)

Mozzarella/loam is ~20-50 sand, ~30-50 silt and ~10-30 clay - pay attention to the angle of the numbers and follow the diagonal lines. The center of the triangle has to be 33/33/33

You have to realize that popular culture was very tightly controlled and restricted by the Polish communist government at this time. This photo was taken at the Jarocin festival, which was a rare chance to see many bands play that otherwise had no radio play or record contracts and often played styles of music that were viewed with great suspicion by the establishment. Recording these live performances and trading tapes was often the only way people got to hear many of these bands.

I grew up in a neighboring country during this time, but I wasn't much into the rock scene then - I was into folk music, which had a similar scene in my country - many folk artists were straight up banned by the government, so it was impossible to hear them on the radio or buy their records, but tape recordings of live performances existed and were traded among the fans. Same of my favorite music from this period only existed in this form. There were even recordings of shows that got shut down by the police mid-set.

The 80s were a period of economic stagnation in eastern Europe, resulting in a lot of pent up anger and angst in the youth, and at the same time, the establishment was slowly losing its grip on the population. As a result artists were getting increasingly bold in channeling this anger and dissatisfaction, of pushing the boundaries of what was allowed, sometimes crossing them and getting slapped down - but you never knew what could happen at a large gathering of the youth back then - taping was an important tool to document and spread this to the wider population.

Most Polish people would disagree. Poland got pretty fucked in ww2, from all sides, but at least they managed to hold on to some of their sovereignty and not be forced to join USSR as a Soviet Republic.

This partially allowed the democratization movement to form in Poland in the 80s (with Solidarność) and eventually for Poland to get out from under Russia's boot and join the EU and NATO, and avoid the fate of former Soviet Republics like Belarus and Ukraine.

Looks like a JVC RC-660

The guys in the back both have some kind of Grundig - probably C260 or similar.

Here are a bunch of Grundigs as well, also in Poland.

Even more here

Edit: found the same guy as well