Saturday, January 29, 2022

the train in High Noon


To film the dramatic approach of the train in High Noon, director Fred Zinnemann and cinematographer Floyd Crosby put their camera flat on the ground between the rails a few hundred yards ahead of the station. Zinneman wanted the train to appear as a dot that grew larger as it approached.

When the signal was given to start, “It looked beautiful, moving rapidly with white smoke, which looked even better,” Zinneman wrote later. “Then it let out black smoke, which looked even better. What we didn’t know was that this was the signal that the engine’s brakes were failing.”

When Zinnemann and Crosby realized that the train wasn’t going to stop, Crosby grabbed the camera, but one of its tripod hooks caught on a rail and he lost his grip. The camera fell in front of the engine as it roared past the men. It was badly damaged, but the magazine was intact, and the footage of the train’s approach is in the final film.

(From Michael Francis Blake, Code of Honor, 2003.)


Whoopi Goldberg and Bobcat Goldthwait, so very 80s. They were in a fun comedy together, Burgler

Whoopi rode a big motorcycle in this movie as I recall, her character hotwires a cops motorcycle, and keeps it in the apartment, with a door that led to an alleyway. She was a lot of fun to watch in the 80s

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092710/

Senna going around the Monaco hairpin on his bicycle, 1991

https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/

Alan Hale Jr. in his 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350 outside his restaurant, “The Lobster Barrel” on La Cienega.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/n28fcy/alan_hale_jr_the_skipper_in_his_65_shelby_mustang/

by the way, the GT 350 Cobra Mustang debuted in 1965, on January 27th. I missed learning that by 2 days. 

you probably haven't seen a dragster like this

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=150136680709521&set=gm.667672367841926

here's a bizarre news story... the GM and CEO of the Atlanta metro trains, suicided by train on Jan. 14, 2022. He was married, and had daughters. I can't find any news that mentions what would cause him to suicide

Parker was a nationally recognized transportation leader. On its website, MARTA said Parker had more than 35 years of experience in the transportation industry. During his career he served as commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation and held leadership posts during his 20-year tenure at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. 

Parker was consistently recognized as one of Atlanta’s most influential leaders, most recently named among Atlanta Magazine’s Most Powerful People of 2020 and Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Power 100: Most Influential Atlantans of 2020. Parker was also recognized in 2019 by the Atlanta Chapter of Women’s Transportation Seminar as its “Man of the Year” for his strong record of hiring and promoting women in the transportation industry.

Go Pro's best of 2021

 

great balance

 

unbelieveable coincidence, I just posted that new photo and video link to Burt a couple days ago, and today I stumble across this

this was the last video Digital Light Studios put out, they were in Belarus and it's fantastic. In the past 7 years they've been making kids cartoons on You Tube

if you've never seen this, you're in for a treat. If you have seen it, you know what I mean. I posted it years ago when it was a new release, and normally I don't waste time reposting anything, but I came across this this morning and realized it wouldn't hurt to run this by all the new readers 

the first video in this compilation is what it's like to get your first car

https://www.youtube.com/c/SunnyBunnies/videos



imagine how nice gas stations would look, it they weren't built to be as ugly as the ones we are familiar with

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=4855526157823527&set=gm.4755149751233677

Friday, January 28, 2022

clever

 

odd coincidence, yesterday I posted about a couple bridges that fell apart, and today the Fern Hollow Bridge collapsed just before 7 a.m. in Pittsburgh on the same day the president was "talking" (not accomplishing anything meaningful) about the infrastructure (thanks Kim! Thanks Gary!)



The Pittsburgh bridge that collapsed was not known to be compromised and was not scheduled for maintenance via the federal infrastructure bill, according to government records.



here is a support of that bridge, 3 years ago

The steel bridge was built in 1970, and a September 2019 inspection of the city-owned bridge revealed the deck and superstructure to be in poor condition, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Bridge Inventory.

 A spreadsheet on the state Department of Transportation website listed the bridge’s overall condition as poor, which, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, means “deterioration of primary structural elements has advanced.”

allegedly, congress passed a 1 trillion dollar infrastructure bill last year. Seems they did nothing quickly with that. Ironically a republican senator from Pennsylvania voted against the spending bill, and city govt democrats spent funds on speedhumps, instead of bridge inspections https://twitter.com/JonInPGH/status/1487122669585809412 . So, politicians, just not very easy to respect for anything

they simply can't be honest, or factual. For example, Pres Biden states that there are 43000 bridges, and they are all going to get money to get fixed. 

If you do the math, 1.5 trillion dollars spending budget, and 43000 bridges? Now figure out how much it costs to fix bridges on average.
Your math result on that might vary, but it's billion or more per big bridge. There are 1500 billions in 1.5 trillion. 
Unless he's talking about inspection costs alone, and maybe paint, that's only 1000 bridges fixes and the rest inspected

https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-pittsburgh-bridge-collapses-b91476e4d1dc1c7839bd0c39e7be186e

I wonder why no one made an IROC or Pro Am racing series for the Hellcat Charger

 seems to me that it would be a good race car, from the factory.

Just put a big number on the roof, and better tires for the track, and have fun

They raced Neons way back in the 90s this way. 

BRM is going to build three V16-powered continuation cars to celebrate its 70th birthday (thanks Robert K!)


Only one original Type 15 remains, according to the company, and we're told it's too valuable to race. Luckily, BRM's archives department contains nearly 20,000 original drawings that will be used to remanufacture the parts needed to build the car. And, as luck would have it, the firm is sitting on three unused chassis numbers.

It sounds like the modern-day BRM will be an exact replica of the model that began its racing career in 1950, so power will come from a 1.5-liter V16 engine tuned to develop over 600 horsepower at about 12,000 rpm thanks in part to a pair of superchargers related to the units developed by Rolls-Royce for its Merlin plane engines.

factory tool kits from Ferrari



in context of the focus on electric cars, this makes no sense: Ford is returning to factory-backed GT3 racing with an all-new Mustang GT3 IMSA race car


 Why? When Ford quit making cars (other than the Mustang) and is pushing for electric vehicles, as well as the rest of the industry switching to electric.... why start making race cars? 

I'm all for it, don't mistake my criticism, but in view of Ford getting away from making cars, and making internal combustion engines.... I don't see how an R&D program on race cars is in tune with everything else that Ford is doing. 

https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2022/01/28/ford-performance-mustang-gt3-race-car.html

Thursday, January 27, 2022

a Kelly truck, with Goodyear rubber over solid rims - 1923

https://www.overdrive.fi/forum/threads/vanhoja-valokuvia-ameriikan-raitilta.267070/page-1276#post-3444690

not going to have trouble getting through snow bound roads, or icy roads.

I know I rarely post high wheelers here, but there is not much online that pops up where I'm looking  for good car content. 

But look at the cleats on that back tire! 

the side curtains on the old brass era stuff, before hardtops were made, is something that also rarely shows up in photos

https://www.overdrive.fi/forum/threads/vanhoja-valokuvia-ameriikan-raitilta.267070/page-1278#post-3446292

a glimpse at how dangerous early nascar racing was

 I love the instrument cluster

https://www.overdrive.fi/forum/threads/vanhoja-valokuvia-ameriikan-raitilta.267070/page-1278#post-3446184

the car industry collapsing resulted in business icon talents leaving Michigan,

the founders of Photoshop, Hewlett Packard, Twitter, Google, all would have made a Silicon Valley of southern Michigan

https://armchairexpertpod.com/pods/michael-moore

If you recall the 2019 bridge collapse in Genoa Italy, and wondered what the cause was and if it was investigated and discovered, well, so did I. So I looked into it


The authorities in Genoa handed down warrants for the arrest of several top managers at the company tasked with overseeing a bridge that collapsed in the city in 2018 killing 43 people, the clearest attempt yet to hold the company’s leadership accountable for the tragedy.

Prosecutors issued warrants for the former chief executive officer and other officials at the motorway operator, Autostrade per l’Italia, which managed the Morandi Bridge, in an investigation into highway neglect.

Giovanni Castellucci, the forme chief executive of Atlantia, of which Autostrade per l’Italia is a subsidiary, Michele Donferri Mitelli, the former general director of maintenance for the company, and Paolo Berti, its chief operations and maintenance officer, were all placed under house arrest.

Investigators found “grave criminal conduct, linked to entrepreneurial policies aimed at maximizing profits deriving from the contract with the state, through the reduction and the delay of the expenses needed to maintain the motorways, at the expense of public safety,” the judge who ordered the arrest warrants wrote in a court document
 

The bridge — which spanned more than a half a mile over a riverbed, residential buildings and warehouses, connecting western and eastern Genoa — abruptly collapsed one foggy morning in the summer of 2018

Morandi Bridge construction resulted in cables were difficult to inspect, and it was unclear how they were coping with increased traffic loads since the opening of the bridge in 1967

“When I visited the bridge in the early 1990s for a documentary on Morandi’s work, I was [surprised] to see fissures and corrosion just 20 years after its completion,” says Giuseppe Imbesi, an architect who worked with Morandi on a bridge proposal for the Strait of Messina.

Morandi himself was surprised to see the structure age faster than he had anticipated. In 1979 he issued a report detailing a number of interventions to protect the structure against pollution from nearby factories and the salty sea air.

Little, however, was done, and by 1992 the trademark concrete cables were heavily corroded.
 
The deck was entirely made of reinforced concrete, and it had only four cables per tower, instead of the usual dozens. Crucially, the cables were covered in pre-stressed concrete – a type of treated concrete invented by the French engineer Eugène Freyssinet. Unlike normal reinforced concrete, which is generally best suited to resisting compression, the new pre-stressed concrete was specifically designed to resist traction.

As a result, Morandi Bridge was stronger and lighter, with minimal use of steel, than any other bridge of its era – and boasted a clean, distinct design that quickly became a symbol of Italian engineering, tangible proof of the country’s technical abilities.

“The bridge’s concrete structure won’t need any maintenance,” boasted an article in La Stampa newspaper ahead of the bridge’s opening. “Neither will its stayed cables, which are protected from atmospheric agents by their concrete vest.”

The material was perfectly suited to postwar Italy. The country couldn’t afford the amount of steel necessary to build something like the Brooklyn Bridge: steel was in short supply because of international sanctions that had been placed against the fascist government, and Italy lacked the resources to produce steel domestically. It was, however, rich in the clays and river sediments necessary for concrete production. Led by Morandi, the country’s engineers learned how to achieve the same results with concrete that they would with steel.


In a document on the probe's findings seen by Reuters, prosecutors said the collapse was triggered by the rupture of the load-bearing cables inside the stay of the bridge's ninth pillar, which were eaten away by a highly corrosive atmosphere over the 51 years of the bridge's life.

Managers at Atlantia units Autostrade per l'Italia and SPEA allegedly avoided proper checks of the state of the infrastructure and did not correct serious issues that started to emerge only a few years after the viaduct opened in 1967, the document showed.


a look back at the failure of the I 35 bridge over the Mississippi river in August of 2007



smuggling people past the Berlin Wall, in a Trojan Cow - was successfully accomplished twice before the guards got suspicious of the taxi-dermy cow (see what I did there? Dad pun!)



let the kids have a bit of fun as long as they can't hurt anything but themselves. It's called freedom.

 

For some reason, the owner of this rare Daytona isn't fixing, storing, or selling. This one is going to continue to rust in place





the yellow Ontario, Canada 1969 440 Magnum Daytona Charger SE rotter (VIN#: XX29L9B414644). The original color of the car is V2 Hemi Orange, with a black interior and a black wing/Daytona tail stripe, from what I was told. It was a really nice car many years ago. Been sitting outside for a long time now. Really really rusty, but still worth a ton of money. Chrysler only produced a few A47 SE 440 Magnum 1969 Daytona SE's. I think under 10 cars are currently known. This one is a very odd column shift automatic car, with factory P31 power windows.

the California governor finally had to do something about the Los Angeles train robberies. It's only going to cost the California taxpayers millions of dollars. Why isn't Union Pacific guarding, and securing, their own damn cargo?

 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the site of a series of much-publicized thefts from Union Pacific intermodal trains on Thursday, Jan 20, 2022, promising the state would provide $255 million over three years to help combat the problem.

To tackle the massive amount of litter created by the thefts, California is taking immediate action to support cleanup efforts – doing here what the Clean California program has done throughout the state. Since its launch in 2021, the Governor’s $1.1 billion Clean California initiative has expanded state and local litter abatement efforts and engaged communities in projects to create beautiful, safe public spaces. Clean California is generating new jobs for working Californians with an emphasis on hiring people exiting homelessness, at-risk youth, veterans, those reentering society from incarceration, local artists and students. Within the past 6 months, Caltrans collected more than 5,666 tons of litter.

https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/01/20/governor-newsom-brings-in-state-support-for-rail-theft-in-los-angeles-highlights-state-efforts-to-fight-and-prevent-crime/

https://ogdaa.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-shit-i-post-on-facebook_02020764464.html

TIL that Paul Newman wanted to be a US Navy pilot, but was rejected because of his colorblindness. He served as an aviation radioman in the Pacific theater during WWII aboard USS Hollandia, he also served on the USS Bunker Hill


James E. Wise Jr. , author of “Stars in Blue, Movie Actors in the Sea Services” (1997), found the right hand group photo in the Photo Section Collection of the Naval Historical Center (NHC) in Washington DC.

 It was the only photo from USS Hollandia (CVE-97) in the collection, and it had no caption. Jim sent a copy of the photo to Newman anyway with that note. Newman immediately called him back to tell him he was in the photo and remembered it being taken.

 After Newman graduated from Shaker Heights High School in 1943, he joined the Navy's V-12 program at Yale University in the hopes of becoming a pilot. His hopes were dashed, however, when it was discovered that he was color blind.

 Instead of completing the program, Newman was shipped to the Navy's boot camp at Newport, R.I. Graduating three days after Christmas, Newman was selected to train as an aviation radioman and reported to the Naval Air Technical Training Center in Jacksonville, Fla., and Naval Air Station Miami where he qualified to be a rear-seat radioman and gunner for torpedo bombers. 

In 1944, Aviation Radioman third class Newman was sent to Barber's Point where he operated in torpedo bomber squadrons designed to train replacement pilots.

He was subsequently assigned to Pacific-based replacement torpedo squadrons VT-98, VT-99, and VT-100, responsible primarily for training replacement combat pilots and aircrewmen, with special emphasis on carrier landings

One of Newman's later posts was aboard the USS Bunker Hill which fought in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. In a stroke of fate, his pilot developed an ear infection and they were held back from flying in the Okinawa campaign. Because of this, he and his pilot avoided the destruction of their ship, and the deaths of the sailors aboard.

After the Japanese surrender, he spent the last few months of his active duty service with Carrier Aircraft Service Unit 7 in Seattle, as part of a land-based support unit, and was discharged from the Navy in 1946.

Newman’s Own launched in 1982, with Paul declaring that 100% of the profits would go to charity. Today, the mission continues, and more than $570 million has been donated to thousands of organizations, helping millions of people around the world.


Beginning in February, used vehicles sold under the Ford Blue Advantage platform will include a 14-day/1,000-mile money-back guarantee.

 https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2022/01/27/money-back-guarantee-used-vehicle-marketplace.html


I don't think we'll see any company do better for a used car satisfaction guarantee

never before seen photos/videos of Burt just posted


Rare footage of New Zealand motorcycle legend Burt Munro has been unearthed amongst a family film collection from the 1950s and 1960s.

While planning for Invercargill department store E Hayes and Sons’ 90-year anniversary celebrations Judy Crooks (née Hayes) advised that there was some old film footage stored away that might be of use.

When E Hayes and Sons marketing manager Nick Hawes started to look at the film footage he was stunned to discover clips of Munro amongst it.

Hawes said they will release film clips throughout the year as part of the store’s anniversary celebrations, and included would be the various footage of Munro.

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

on this day in history, the Dukes of Hazzard tv show began


enjoy this freshly made '55 gasser! Thanks Brendon!


the new Corvette Z06 got a really nice 30 minute promo video... so if you have some coffee and donuts? Enjoy a good look at the latest/best Corvette GM can make

 

how and where would you guess the fast food drive through originated? (thanks Lescarp!)

According to https://www.delightedcooking.com/when-was-the-first-drive-thru-restaurant-created.htm it was created in 1947 by Sheldon "Red" Chaney, operator of Red's Giant Hamburg in Springfield, Missouri.

According to  https://www.rvtravel.com/how-it-happened-drive-window-1036/  it was because enlisted military couldn't be allowed to be seen in public in their work uniforms.... so a McDonalds in Arizona near Fort Huachuca realized in 1975 they could increase sales by cutting a window into a wall, and letting the nearby Army base soldiers buy food without getting out of their cars. 

a 1959 Dodge airplane fuel delivery truck is up for sale on Ebay for the next 3 weeks

 

interesting business franchise idea.... a collaboration between a mobile home company, and a electric mountain bike company, to sell franchises in rental bikes


This tiny home manufacturer goes through great lengths to create a year-round mobile home, but seeing how this unit is mainly used to transport bikes, furnished with 12 bikes, spare parts for a year, and hardware and software to run an entire business on 139 sq ft of floor space

would you watch a movie with Jamie Foxx playing a tow truck driver? Of course. How about if Robert Downey was in it? Certainly. Driving a 1968 Firebird? Damn right

What if RD was playing a Mexican? During a July 2017 podcast interview on The Joe Rogan Experience (yup), Foxx revealed that Downey would be playing ‘a Mexican’ in the film. He reiterated this detail the next year during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

October 2016, Deadline reported that Eva Longoria and Jeremy Piven had signed on to star in All-Star Weekend

This is the first report of the film on the site. The article noted that production began on the day the piece was published — October 26 — and that the movie would feature cameos from Snoop Dogg, The Game, DJ Khaled, and Floyd Mayweather Jr. 

The comedy centers on two tow-truck drivers, Malik (Foxx), and Danny (Piven), who are basketball fanatics and would take a bullet for their respective favorite players, LeBron James and Steph Curry. Danny’s girlfriend Abby (Szohr) is reconsidering the relationship as she does not want to take a back seat to his obsession. The two drivers finally get a break from their dead-end job when they win tickets to the NBA All-Star Game. En route to the big game, Malik and Danny meet the beautiful and mysterious Asia (Longoria), who might have her own hidden agenda. After many twists and turns, the guys find themselves and their heroes in a precarious life-or-death situation.

The cast only got more impressive, with the likes of Gerard Butler, Benicio del Toro, French Montana, DJ Khaled, and The Game being added. 

Oh, Foxx also told Rogan that he would be playing two extra characters, one of whom is a ‘white racist cop’ and the other who is the fictional twin brother of ESPN host Stephen A. Smith. Also, Gerard Butler is apparently playing a gymnastics-obsessed Russian

https://www.pajiba.com/film_reviews/whats-going-on-with-allstar-weekend-the-unreleased-bro-comedy-where-robert-downey-jr-plays-a-mexican.php

there is this https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2461172/ on IMDB, and I expect the movie was scrapped because of cancel culture. I think that's a mistake. I bet people would love to see a movie with all these stars. 

Studebaker Commander Deluxe Conestoga Ultra Vista Station Wagon - possibly the longest car name I've come across

 https://www.engadget.com/junkyard-gem-1955-studebaker-commander-201700110.html

the UAW at the Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green Ky, has made 4 demands - or they go on strike.

After another session of negotiations fell through, the UAW voted on January 10th with 98% of the plant’s production workers and 97% of skilled trades workers voting to reject the latest offer from the plant’s management, and with that also came the strike authorization vote.


“The arrogance really is frustrating because the demands that we haven’t satisfactorily settled are not egregious in nature, especially during economic good times,” said Jason Watson, shop chairman of UAW Local 2164, which represents the Bowling Green Assembly hourly workforce. “We’re not in a recession.”

The four outstanding issues that the local 2164 UAW shop wants to settle include:

To commit to using UAW members for contracted jobs such as 3D printing, maintenance work, and striping of cars, all currently done by outside companies.
To commit to build future Corvettes, including a possible electric version, at Bowling Green.
To commit to using Local 2164 skilled trade workers in the Performance Build Center, the department in the plant where GM makes performance motors for the Corvette Z06, the Cadillac Blackwing series for the CT4 and CT5 sports sedans, and performance Camaro muscle cars.
To commit to a higher pay rate for certain job classifications in the plant that require additional knowledge and skill to perform.

Kevin Hart, now is driving a cool Road Runner, roll cage equipped

 


https://www.facebook.com/hartkevin/posts/489123859236837

https://www.driven.co.nz/news/watch-kevin-hart-s-new-ride-is-a-1969-plymouth-roadrunner-restomod/

Antonio Parkway crosses Avenida de las Banderas in Rancho Santa Margarita, California.

State Farm Insurance has listed the intersection as one of thetop five funniest named intersections in the country.

Another humorous intersection is Hickory, Dickory and Dock streets in Harahan, La. Nearby is Mouse Street

The location of an inconvenient roadway prevented an architect in 1477 from making a church in Milan as grand as he’d hoped — so he painted one of the earliest examples of trompe l’oeil in the history of art in a shallow niche that’s only a few feet deep.

 

Why he didn't instead use a smaller footprint for the church, and then have a nice deep cove behind the priests? 



trompe l’oeil is one of my favorite art forms

Tuesday, January 25, 2022

I don't think it's trick photography that makes these guys seem so small compared to the cars ( thank you Marc B! !)


Emperor Nicholas II inspecting the Packard with the Kegress unit


Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, owned by V. Lenin



I'm obviously not a Porsche freak, but the 1969 Porsche 917 PA certainly makes me pause to look it up and learn what is was/is


In 1969 Can-Am racing was popular in the United States; America was Porsche’s best export market; a Porsche Can-Am car followed naturally. Group 7 – a class constrained by almost no rules, neither a maximum engine capacity nor a minimum car weight being specified – was a playground at the time for the two mega-horsepower ultra-light Chevy-powered Team McLarens. Porsche’s first entry in this new venture would race as an underdog, a role the firm knew well.

The decision to enter the Can-Am series was made mid-season 1969. Porsche would provide the car, driver Jo Siffert and a full support crew; the new Porsche & Audi Division of Volkswagen of America would sponsor the entry. The contract signed, the only problem remaining was making a Group 7 racer out of the Group 5 917, and doing it fast. Work began after LeMans in June; the 917 PA (for Porsche/Audi) arrived in the States in August.

A makeshift solution, the PA was a 917 shorn of its coupe top and fitted with a body inspired by the 908/2 Flounder prototype. The 100 or so pounds saved were offset by the 56 gallons of fuel required to run these sprint races nonstop. The engine was strictly stock, all 4.5 liters of it. At the starting line of its first race at Mid-Ohio, the 917 PA gave away three liters, 200 pounds and 250 horsepower to the McLarens.

Five races had already been missed. In the six that remained, thanks to its endurance racing reliability, the 917 PA finished in all but one, took second once – and placed fourth overall in the Can-Am Championship. Naturally Porsche was encouraged.

Nineteen sixty-nine did not end the display car’s Can-Am competition. Acquired by Vasek Polak and gradually converted into a full 917/10 fitted with an 1100 hp turbo motor from the 917/30, the 917 PA raced in more Can-Ams than any other Group 7 car and remained competitive until its retirement.

looks like a Kodachrome memory

 https://www.overdrive.fi/forum/threads/vanhoja-valokuvia-ameriikan-raitilta.267070/page-1281#post-3450583