SCIENCE: -- "observational science" vs "historical science" vs ... science.

What's this, debate by proxy?If she hasn't got the courage to debate it here - leave her to preach to her converted, you're just feeding a remote troll.

I see a a wheeled vehicle that will tip over either forward or backward if the load and counterbalance is is even slightly off balance.it's intrinsically unstable.

I think you're seeing things that aint there. The beam is single as you first thought with a pulley cut into it midline at the top. The line that I think you are seeing as the outside edge of a second beam is actually the pulley rope of the winch.If you look at the upright sprouting from the top of the crane housing, it's a shortened version of the main beam - including the midline pulley with pulley rope.All silly enough in engineering terms but the real stupidity is that the balancing load - such that it is - is outside the wheel base of the crane, making it totally unstable. If you look at the tractor crane picture earlier, you can see that its base extends beyond the counter balance keeping it's centre of balance within it's base making it much harder to tip over backwards.

I'm seeing a single beam shaped like a toothpick - similarilarly lit and shaded to the upright above the housing. The 'whited out' part of the pulley is because the pulley is hung inside a cut out in the beam in the same way it is in the post above the housing - which is pretty clearly seen.

Well, whichever way you see it, it's absurd...ps, I have a box of toothpicks that only have a point at one end. But enough, already ;-)