Saturday, February 12, 2022

way back in '68

 https://www.overdrive.fi/forum/threads/vanhoja-valokuvia-ameriikan-raitilta.267070/page-1227#post-3374378

found in a field in Pennsylvania

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/can-we-please-stop-hotlinking-pics/20411/page3596/

with big engines, comes big trailer pulling power

 

The Beatles had a Commer Van in 1967-69, for moving gear around, and on the side was the Apple Corps logo


the apple logo was designed from an idea by Paul McCartney, based on a Magritte painting he had in his house.

 The Son of Man is a 1964 self-portrait by the Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte. It is perhaps his best-known artwork. The strangest part isn't the apple obscuring the face, it's the left elbow bent backwards. 



Mercedes-Benz took 722 was transported into central London, to be driven through the streets early on Sunday morning to the famous house on Shepherd Street, where Stirling had lived


 It was transported into central London, to be driven through the streets early on Sunday morning to the famous mews house on Shepherd Street, Mayfair, in which Stirling had lived.

“We wanted to do something noisy and spectacular, and 722 had never been in London,” says Mercedes UK’s Rob Halloway, who oversaw the tribute – a short film of which is currently being produced.


To film anywhere in London is difficult. To film a multi-million-pound race car in the early hours, from both ground and air, required many permissions – from the capital’s authorities, from the Civil Aviation Authority for the helicopter, and from the Metropolitan Police. All were granted without question, and the Met even provided motorcycle outriders. 


722 was built for a single season of racing – which it completed in remarkable style, winning not just the 1955 Mille Miglia but later that year the Dundrod TT and the Targa Florio in Moss’s hands. It was also loaned to Fangio for the Le Mans 24 Hours, and was running in first place when Mercedes-Benz withdrew from the event.

65-year-old Army veteran had been pulled over for dui in Yuba City after he got into a low-speed crash. He was handcuffed, not resisting, but wasn't kissing ass and sucking up when, unreasonably, roid rage officer Joshua Jackson slammed him to the ground, breaking his neck

 the body cam footage of the other cop carefully doesn't show it, and Jackson's body cam footage isn't included in the video at https://vimeo.com/662004332/a456f489f3

way too much movement for a bridge

https://ogdaa.blogspot.com/2022/02/thursday-gifdump.html#more

The Pittsburgh Ski Club was founded on December 10, 1937

The resort dates to the mid-1930s, one of the oldest ski areas in the United States, founded by German immigrants Adolph and Helen Dupre. The couple bought 2.5 acres in 1932 and dubbed it Seven Springs Farm, so-named because of the seven springs on the property. 

The “Packard” rope tow was put into operation in 1935 with the assist of a group of people who became the Pittsburgh Ski Club, and helped Adolph Dupre install the first rope tow at “Seven Springs Farm” by obtaining an old Packard 

At one time there was a sign at the loading zone that stated that Seven Springs’ first rope tow was near that spot. The tow was powered by an old Packard. “With the car jacked up on blocks, the rear wheels drove the tow, and the front wheels guided the line.” 

The resort took off, with chairlifts, night skiing and lodging added over the years.

Herman Dupre took over the resort in 1955 after his father’s death, and became a pioneer in snow-making technology, earning dozens of patents and founding HKD Snowmakers.

In 2006, Dupre sold Seven Springs to the Nutting family, who also own the Pittsburgh Pirates and Ogden Newspapers, a chain of mostly small publications, including more than a dozen papers in Ohio.

Santa Fe Ski Basin is a major ski resort located in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, It is the southernmost major ski resort of the Rocky Mountains, and one of the oldest and highest in the nation


In 1936, the first rope tow in New Mexico, powered by a Packard sedan engine, was installed at the future site of the resort, overseen by Robert Nordhaus, father of Nobel Prize-winning economist William Nordhaus, a retired lawyer, and a businessman and skier, who also founded the Albuquerque Ski Club and La Madera Ski Area, now known as Sandia Peak Ski Area. Shortly after its installation, he installed a rope tow at La Madera.

At the start of the Second World War, the United States lacked specialized mountain troops like the German’s infamous “Jaeger” battalions. The value of these specialized units was proven during the Russo-Finnish Winter War, when Finns on skis with extensive knowledge of the terrain and of technique proved immeasurably superior to Russian forces. This culminated in the Finnish victory at the Battle of Suomussalmi in 1939, where two Soviet mechanized divisions (45,000 men) were defeated by 11,000 Finnish soldiers utilizing skis and sleds to maneuver material and men. Recognizing the value of these soldiers, the civilian founder of the National Ski Patrol, Charles Minot Dole, lobbied the War Department to develop specialized mountain training and regiments. This lobbying would lead, eventually, to the creation of the 10th Mountain Division.

At this time American skiing was unfocused and disparate, an activity practiced mostly by ‘upper-crust’ Eastern college students. The war effort recruited these young skiers, along with others, to form the 10th Mountain Division. When formed in early 1943, the division included men trained in a wide variety of outdoor work: lumberjacks, climbers, muleteers and horsemen, hunters, trappers, park rangers and ranchers. Brought together in service to their country and exposed to a wide range of training and education, these varied yet complimentary individualists would later help forge America’s awakening love for outdoor recreation.

Joe Juhan bought the basin in 1950 and brought legendary Ernie Blake to run the basin. Born Ernst Hermann Bloch, his family fled Nazi Germany on the eve of war due to their Jewishness. Changing his name to Ernie Blake, the champion skier (a shoo-in for the 1936 Olympics save for his religion) established himself in the American skiing community. Following the outbreak of war, Blake enlisted as an interrogator due to his valuable language skills. He would later interrogate many high ranking Nazis including Herman Goerring. After the war, Blake began developing ski basins, helping establish Santa Fe before going next to Taos to do the same.

I just read about a Packard engine powering a ski slope, and that got me out looking on the internet to see where that was... it turns out, a LOT of ski slopes in the late 30s used Packard engines!


During the 1930's, some residents of Indiana, Grand Rapids and Cadillac were participating in winter sports, and were interested in starting a local ski area. The United States Forest Service co-operated, and a winter ski area was created, (near Traverse City, and Big Bear Dunes) with a Civilian Conservation Corps building and a single ski run, known as "Number One" being built, making it the fourth oldest ski resort in the United States

The first ski lift, a rope tow, was powered by a Ford Model A car engine. This engine was later replaced by a Packard Motor car engine.

One year after the first ski area in Michigan was dedicated (January 1938) a ski club was formed with fifty-three members from 13 communities. They included Cadillac, Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Ionia, Lansing, Manistee, Midland, Muskegon, Reed City, and Saginaw.

The area, formed and built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, had toboggan slides and downhill ski trails but no up-hill transportation. The club soon installed an old Dodge engine and an engineer/member from Shakespeare Fishing Gear of Kalamazoo designed a rope tow.

Immediately the club purchased two Packard engines for $103.00 plus other necessary materials for $58.59. These were delivered to Camp Axin, the C.C.C.camp, on January 12, 1941. Oldberg Engineereing Co. donated two mufflers, two instrument panels, and one transmission for $79.46. So two more rope tows were added for uphill convenience.

The local high school kids were transported by school buses on Saturdays to ski until the area closed in March 1942 due to World War II.

With the return of veterans, many of whom served in the 10thMountain Division Ski Troops, the Club membership increased, and a ski patrol was formed under the direction of "Buck" Rogers of Manistee and the ski school was directed by Monty Montague of the 10th Mountain Troops.


Notable members of the ski club were Gerald Ford, prior to becoming a Legislative House member and President, and Paul Bailey, founder of Arby's and a major investor in the Copper Mountain Ski Resort, Colorado., and Anson "Tony" Hedgecock, Jr. coach of the men's alpine team from 1975 through the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics

Caberfae moved tons of earth from the bottom of two peaks to the top, boosting its vertical drop from 270 to 485 feet. “Their vertical expansion of two central peaks was accompanied by a horizontal contraction from the far-flung borders and the closing of a dozen-plus lifts, which they could never adequately cover with snowmaking

The terrain is unique for the Midwest. The artificial hills create a sensation of above-treeline skiing that is otherwise absent between Sugarloaf and Loveland.

1949 map above, 1958 below

https://www.stormskiing.com/p/podcast-50-caberfae-peaks-michigan  does the most amazing post about this, in addition to a podcast... and included the links to the maps, took the really good large photos, etc
https://youtu.be/HJ7srsr7M9A for a live online camera feed of the skislopes

get your morning off to a weird start. Try and figure out what the hell is going on here

 

these do not seem to be fake CGI images, but the scratches are identical.... and that's not a tent, nor is that car a camper. 

Damned if I know! 

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=4819371454798366&set=pcb.2402310056570815

thank you Mel Brooks!

 

https://www.facebook.com/SciFi.Imaginarium/photos/a.560267304081204/4802213499886542/

Friday, February 11, 2022

Engineers are building pedestrian bridges with recycled wind turbine blades in County Cork, Ireland and on the Szprotawa River in Poland

 
On a former train track bed connecting the towns of Midleton and Youghal in County Cork, Ireland, workers recently excavated the rusted remains of an old railway bridge and installed a pedestrian one in its place. The bridge would have been an unremarkable milestone in the development of a new pedestrian greenway through the Irish countryside, if not for what it’s made of: recycled wind turbine blades.
 
That makes it just the second “blade bridge” in the world. The first, installed last October in a small town in western Poland, officially opened in early January. The engineers and entrepreneurs behind these bridges are hopeful they represent the beginning of a new trend: repurposing old wind turbine blades for infrastructure projects.

 
It keeps them out of landfills

Repurposing the blades in this way is said to serve as an alternative to either burying decommissioned blades or disposing of them using expensive or energy-consuming processes. This solution, Anmet says, gives blades a second life and avoids the raw material consumption and emissions related to production of new construction materials.

wind blades often have decades of life left in them after a turbine is decommissioned. And the same material properties that make blades good at harnessing wind power — strength, lightweightness, and all-weather durability — also make them attractive as engineering support structures.
 

update on the upcoming Hanks and Spielberg mini series Masters of the Air still in filming, Apple's follow-up to 'Band of Brothers' and 'The Pacific'

 
Set in the final year of World War II, this installment chronicles the lives of airmen with the 100th Bomb Group, then part of the US Army Air Forces' Eighth Air Force, and their daylight strategic bombing campaigns

After HBO passed on the series because of the expense, said to be an estimated $250 million, Apple signed on, ordering nine episodes and making it the first series Apple will own in-house

a private 1st class was in the first wave of soldiers landing at Omaha Beach (Normandy) and fought at the Battle of the Bulge, and after WW2 was cab driver, a Fred Astaire dance studio ballroom dancing teacher, then became a Tony winning, Emmy and Oscar nominated, actor with a long career



Charles Durning was 12 years old when his father, James, an Irish immigrant who had lost a leg in World War I died of the effects of mustard gas exposure. He had nine siblings and five of his sisters died of smallpox or scarlet fever - three within a two-week period, and much of his early life was spent in hardship.  His mother struggled to support her children by working in the laundry at the United States Military Academy at nearby West Point, Durning dropped out of high school at 16, and finished after WW2


Although he displayed a passion for entertaining others, a high school teacher told him that he was talentless in art, language, and math and was better suited to working in an office. He was undeterred, however, and would become one of the greatest character actors in living memory.

While working as an usher in a burlesque theatre, he was hired to replace a drunken actor on stage. Subsequently, he performed in roughly 50 stock company productions and in various off-Broadway plays before getting into Broadway theater productions


Durning was drafted at age 20, and assigned to the 1st Infantry Division and was in the first wave of American troops on Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy, he had to jettison his weapon and gear in order to swim ashore and saw mortally wounded comrades offering themselves as human shields. He was the only survivor of his unit on D-Day due to a machine gun ambush

He was wounded twice more, was captured and was one of the few survivors of the Malmedy massacre in Belgium when German troops opened fire on dozens of American POWs.

After being wounded by a German anti-personnel mine in the Bocage, he spent six months recovering. 

Several months later, in Belgium, Durning was stabbed eight times by a bayonet-wielding teenage German soldier. That day, he survived by killing the German with a rock in hand-to-hand combat. Durning recovered from those wounds and was released from the hospital just in time to fight in the Battle of the Bulge, where he was taken prisoner.

Durning was in the 100th Infantry Division, and participated in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. 

He was discharged with the rank of Private First Class on January 30, 1946.


Durning was a fan of Jimmy Cagney and he tried singing, dancing, and stand-up comedy. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts until he was kicked out. “They basically said you have no talent and you couldn’t even buy a dime’s worth of it if it was for sale,” Durning told The New York Times.

He worked a number of make-do jobs - cab driver, dance instructor, doorman, dishwasher, telegram deliveryman, bridge painter, tourist guide, plumber’s helper, elevator operator and night watchman on the New York docks,  and was a professional ballroom dancer, teaching ballroom dancing on for about five years at the Fred Astaire Studios, and an Arthur Murray studio in New York City - all while waiting for a shot at an acting career, and despite the machine gun wounds to his right leg

He had a role in The Sting (1973) with Paul Newman and Robert Redford, and notable Durning movie roles included “Dick Tracy,” “Home for the Holidays,”  and “O Brother Where Art Thou?”

Other film credits include Dog Day Afternoon with Al Pacino; Twilight's Last Gleaming with Burt Lancaster; True Confessions with Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall, and he played a man who falls in love with Dustin Hoffman’s cross-dressing character in “Tootsie”

In 1976, he received both an Emmy and a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the television mini-series Captains and the Kings.

 In 1979, he played Doc Hopper, a man who owns a frog leg restaurant and the main antagonist in The Muppet Movie. In Tootsie, he played a suitor to Dustin Hoffman's cross-dressing lead character. The two actors worked together again in a 1985 TV production of Death of a Salesman. 

Then he showed his singing and dancing skills as the two-stepping Texas governor in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with Dolly Parton.
 
On television he played in the Burt Reynolds's TV series, Evening Shade, and appeared with Reynolds in 1981's Sharky's Machine, and had a recurring role on Everybody Loves Raymond as the Barone family's long-suffering parish priest, Father Hubley. 

He also appeared on the FX television series Rescue Me, playing Mike Gavin, the retired firefighter father of Denis Leary's character, and the Emmy-winning musical "Mrs. Santa Claus" (1996), with Angela Landsbury.

He tried to perform in at least one play a year. In 1996 he fought a courtroom duel with George C. Scott in the Broadway revival of “Inherit the Wind,” the drama by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee based on the Scopes “monkey trial” of 1925. Mr. Durning played the prosecutor, a character based on William Jennings Bryan, and Scott, in his last Broadway role, was the defense attorney, modeled on Clarence Darrow.

For his numerous roles on television, he earned nine Emmy Award nominations. He also won a Golden Globe and was nominated for 2 Academy Awards. He was honored at age 84 with a Life Achievement Award by the Screen Actors Guild.

In 2007 the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the school that he said had long ago rejected him, created a scholarship in honor of him and two other alumni, Anne Bancroft and Gena Rowlands.


https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-charles-durning-20121226-story.html

This summation of the above articles took 2 hours, and was so satisfying, as I strive to outdo all the sources I find by creating a better article than any one of them, but because such extensively researched, carefully crafted, and often re-edited posts take so long, I rarely can make time for them. They are something I really love to do, and it's from respect for the person the post is about. 

meanwhile in Australia:

https://www.facebook.com/MeanwhileInAustralia/photos/a.620294048043205/7233771436695400/

what you see here is train tracks to the San Diego brewery. They didn't screw around back then, maybe because Wyatt Earp owned 4 saloons in town

is it really possible for some guy to be so frustrated and spun up that he cuts up his car because no one will buy it for what he thinks it's worth? I guess so. After all, that one idiot used dynamite to blow up his Tesla

 

good looking Camaro, without an engine... and it seems to me that this moron decided it was never going to move under it's own power, and no one was every going to pay him a fair amount for a project car... so he took a sawzall to it. 


Stupider things have happened. 

If you look inside, you can see the interior was garbage, there's no back seat, and I bet it's simply a case of resale paintjob. He probably screwed up the gears too, and no one wanted anything to do with what little was left to work with

Thanks Marc for the story link!

what do you do with a farm truck? Buy it cheap and pay a detailer to clean it! How do you promote your car detailing business and products? You clean the filthy thing!

 

I was looking through something, and they posted a Vega, and an Aspen.

 I haven't seen a Dodge Aspen (late 70s mediocrity) since the 80s unless you count an Aspen station Wagon in Mira Mesa, and I don't. 

I haven't seen a Chevy Vega since the 80s

Kalamazoo... might be a strange sounding name to a lot of you, but I think anyone from Southern Michigan might think it instantly reminds them of a cool hometown city that doesn't have the bad reputation of Detroit, or the political stink of Lansing. Ka-zoo means cereal to most, but it once boasted the largest sled company in the world

 
The Kalamazoo Sled Company has its earliest roots in the 1870s. From its headquarters on the corner of Third and Sheldon near the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad, the Page Manufacturing Company made wooden components for buggies until 1894.

It reorganized under the name of the Kalamazoo Sled Company and by 1905 the company had absorbed a smaller competitor, the Columbia Sled Company, employed over 100 people, and was the largest manufacturer of children’s sleds in the world.



and they made those damn snow sledding flying saucer discs


during World War II they made a arctic sleds for use by military troops.

https://www.kpl.gov/local-history/kalamazoo-history/business/kalamazoo-sled-company/

Kalamazoo was also home to Checker Cabs, and Gibson guitars - as well as the cereal companies.

The Michigan Buggy Company, took a loss on every car, and only stayed in business from it's financial support from the horse carriages department. An odd contrast to the typical automobile wiping out the horse carriage industry


unusual business practices that were uncovered, and one of the more sensational discoveries was dubbed “the velvet payroll.”

As the financial situation of Michigan Buggy became dim, the officers proceeded to pad their compensation at the expense of the creditors. This included additional cash payments as well as cars. Frank Lay Jr., for example, had four Mighty Michigans. Owning four cars in 1913 was an inconceivable extravagance.

However, for the most part Victor Palmer was found evasive, he responded with vague answers or claims not to remember details. This behavior ultimately did not help his case, nor did his attempt to flee Kalamazoo in the midst of the proceedings. 

The escape was foiled thanks to Palmer having sent his baggage to the Michigan Central Station early. Court officials were thus alerted of his planned flight and were waiting for him at the station.

in 1990, the city of Seattle was fed up with the typical problem of paying for the clean up of mattresses, bottles, and crack pipes found under the Fremont bridge, a genius realized (outside of the box thinking) that maybe a piece of public art could help deal with that problem.

So they sponsored a competition.

“They” is the Fremont Arts Council. The troll design went up against several others, including a giant chair, and won the public vote at the Fremont Fair. The design was, in fact, based on the children’s story of the three Billy goats gruff and the troll under the bridge"

It only took a few months to build the troll, who is clutching an actual VW Beetle, and it was installed on Halloween

“Black Duck Motors had a VW that had been in a front end wreck, and we got the idea of making it into a time capsule and school kids from all over Seattle came and brought stuff to put in there. 

There are ashes of a friend in there. A friend of ours who died during the construction. We got a little piece of her and we put it in there. Sandy Smith, she loved the project, she didn’t get to see the end of it."

The eye is a hub cap, and the bug had a California license plate to humorously imply that Californians weren't welcome in Seattle

Michael Falcone made a documentary called Hall of Giants about it. 


Thursday, February 10, 2022

fighting over the parking spot with the shortest walk to the store can get deadly serious

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/can-we-please-stop-hotlinking-pics/20411/page3603/

they race a LOT rougher when they're in cheap hatchbacks instead of expensive sports cars, here's an interesting look at the same rough lap from each of the 4 cars perspectives

I bet it just ruins the day to wake up to find you left the top down and it snowed all night

https://www.overdrive.fi/forum/threads/vanhoja-valokuvia-ameriikan-raitilta.267070/page-1237#post-3386066

my mom dated a guy with a 74 Dart Sport like this, way back in about 1976. His name was Ed Sylvester, anyone remember him from Plainwell, Michigan? His car was brownish or maroon though

that would be about 45 years ago, if he's still alive, he'd be in his late 70s I suppose. 

sweet

https://mostuffsthlm.tumblr.com/image/79044018935

When Triberg, Germany, unveiled a new parking garage in 2012, it included 12 parking spaces designated for women’s use, as has been required by German law since the 1990s. But you might not realize why it's a good idea

The spaces are located near the mall entrance, to reduce the possibility of sexual assault.

 https://www.futilitycloset.com/2017/08/09/his-and-hers-4/

today was another long day

 time at work, followed by time at the hospital to get educated on my suddenly onset diabetes, then time at 3 grocery stores for what can only be described as nothing with sugar, or carbs.... then an hour to watch tv while enjoying a big ol salad because they certainly aren't filling or satisfying in that way that thick sugar laden yummy food does. 

But it turns out peanut butter is the closest to candy and junk food I can have now, so, celery sticks and peanut butter by the gobload. 

Then a days amount of emails, correspondence, comment moderation, etc, and now it's 9pm. 

Time to enjoy a bit of looking for cool car stuff to post

In January 1962, Ford Argentina launched the first Falcon assembled in the local market. Its launch was a milestone in the history of motorsports and Argentine advertising. (thanks Gaucho Man!)


The company presented the car in Plaza Italia (Buenos Aires), building a giant structure to represent its slogan: “A piece of precision”. It was a gigantic micrometer with a life-size Falcon inside it that rotated 360º

Later this model of car will become an icon of illegal repression due to the use made by the task forces of the Argentine dictatorship at the time of kidnapping and disappearing citizens.

Wednesday, February 09, 2022

interesting design

https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2022/02/cool.html

another example of the military getting hysterical over nothing... no bridges have been struck by jet jocks that I ever heard of. And this was only a $2 million aircraft beneath a $100 million bridge.


There are 155 feet between the deck of the Mackinac Bridge and the Straits of Mackinac below. Affectionately known as the “Mighty Mac” or “Big Mac,” this 5-mile long suspension bridge is the primary artery connecting the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan. 12,000 vehicles go over this modern engineering marvel each day. But one fine spring day in 1959, one man decided to go under it.

Captain John Lappo shuttled troops overseas in both the Pacific and European Theaters during World War II. He flew 28 successful bombing runs during the Korean War (and his bomber took down four Soviet-made fighters while doing it), and won the Distinguished Flying Cross during his stint as a pilot for the Strategic Air Command.

It should surprise no one that Captain Lappo decided to finally give in to this daring bridge-buzzing impulse on an April afternoon in 1959. The previous night’s mission—a mock bombing run and celestial navigation—had passed as smooth as a chocolate laxative. It had been a long, dull evening. Like any good pilot, Lappo was bored and like any good pilot, he had excelled in his career precisely because he was a risk-taker. These training missions were no fun at all.

There he was, flying over Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, piloting the B-47, “the World’s Fastest Bomber”

“I’m taking her under!” Lappo announced then asked if any of the crew wanted to voice their objection. They cheered their captain on.

But the new navigator didn’t cheer. He recommended the captain maintain the legal minimum altitude. Lappo acknowledged this and promptly ignored it. The Air Force had transferred Lappo’s old navigator and installed this green one. The seasoned captain understood a young airmen usually met an anxious airmen. He’d loosen up.

In mere seconds, Captain Lappo earned his place among other Air Force legends. The B-47 plunged to the deck (the water’s surface) and then leveled out 75-feet above it.

This navigator’s father happened to be a high-ranking general, who would be informed of the flight the moment the B-47 landed. He ratted out his crew mate. That resulted in a court martial.

here's the testimonials. 


Still, Captain Lappo had pled and was found guilty. He readily accepted the judgment of the court. $300 dollar fine. 

 While he acknowledged his actions as unorthodox and reckless, he wasn’t contrite. 

And the assholes took away his flight certification permanently.

Captain Lappo spent 13 more years in the Air Force. He first served as a maintenance officer in Vietnam, then as the Executive Officer of Elmendorf Air Force Base in southern Alaska. He retired to private life in 1972, now a prestigious and grey-haired Lt. Colonel John Lappo. He remained in Alaska the rest of his life, starting a trucking business and raising his children and grandchildren.

https://orangebeanindiana.com/2022/02/08/the-bomber-under-the-mackinac-bridge

I wish this fit the banner shape better

https://www.overdrive.fi/forum/threads/vanhoja-valokuvia-ameriikan-raitilta.267070/page-1248#post-3397627

back when you could get a cool paintjob for less than a paycheck

 https://www.overdrive.fi/forum/threads/vanhoja-valokuvia-ameriikan-raitilta.267070/page-1249#post-3398914

not pretty, but quite interesting, racing

 https://www.vwvortex.com/threads/tcl-hot-shizz-post-your-pics.3438832/post-85933823

good news, Jeremy Renner has gotten a a 4-part non-scripted show approved for production, the docuseries will be called Rennervations

  and, according to Deadline, will focus on Renner’s “lifelong passion for giving back to communities  by reimagining unique purpose-built vehicles to meet a community’s needs.”

since quarantine began 2 years ago, he turned ambulances into mobile veterinary units and buses into tiny homes, glamping units, or mobile gyms and barbershops.

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/jeremy-renner-will-show-off-his-200-custom-vehicle-fleet-in-rennervations-docuseries-181176.html#

The show involves customizing large, decommissioned service vehicles like buses and fire trucks for adaptive reuse by other organizations. Renner, notable actor and Nevada resident, is producing the show. His team, along with a collection of old trucks and buses, are on-site in the Sparks Nevada district known as Oddie, and production is underway.

Oddie is a boulevard, and Sparks is basically the East side of Reno. It's about 30 miles north of Lake Tahoe, on the border with California

The Generator, an inclusive maker space in the Reno-Sparks art community, has leased 20,000 square feet of its space in the Oddie District to Disney+. Disney will also be using 2,000 square feet of office space in the maker space provided by Oddie District developers Foothill. Production of the show will take place at The Oddie District for six months.

https://mynews4.com/news/local/jeremy-renner-producing-docuseries-based-around-sparks-oddie-district

Keep in mind, he's been fixing houses for a long time, and he's probably going to have one of the episodes about that too. 

so much better than last weeks dud flop clinker "teaser" commercial for BMW... this ones good, and a bit funny

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/bmw-s-big-game-ad-gets-zeus-and-hera-in-a-car-brings-arnold-and-salma-together-181206.html#

not much got posted today

 Why?

Well, I came across stuff that made the archives better

So?

It made the blog better. 

But no one's looking at the rest of the blog, how about just adding new stuff so there's something to see when I stop by?

I am always on the look out for new stuff, but that doesn't mean I'll find it. Somedays, I come across a little, some days a lot, some days just great banner material (I have about 200 banners waiting their turn) and some days I only find stuff that improves the archives. 

Who's interested in looking through the archives? 

Me. One day, I'm going to sit back and look through over 15 years, and over 50,000 posts of material picked by the one person that knows what I like most, and I'll have forgotten nearly all of what I have on my blog. It's gonna be pretty damn cool. No garbage, no new car reviews, no bullshit about boring sales hype from writers making the car parts companies happy to donate various upgrade stuff for tech articles (Hot Rod magazine has sucked for the last couple years as they don't have a focus on cool cars, half the magazine is tech articles every year that result in upgrades to the writers vehicles) 

So, what about the readers of the blog?

I hope that tomorrow's search for cool stuff has much better results. But there's no way to guarantee even satisfaction, much less excitement. 

In 1941, the German infantry found that its 3.7 cm Pak 36 anti-tank gun was practically useless against Soviet T-34 tanks

 the Pak could only announce its presence by bouncing rounds harmlessly off the tank’s rugged armor.  Accordingly the Germans nicknamed it Heeresanklopfgerät — literally, “army door-knocking device.”

https://www.futilitycloset.com/2017/08/18/welcome-wagon/

Tuesday, February 08, 2022

potentially, the result of a single gravel road, that happens to only serve one family home, in Minnesota, could affect 55,000 miles of township lanes

The Crisman family and the township have been battling over Hornet Street for nearly five years, culminating in a proclamation by the township last summer that the road no longer legally exists.

The latest fight is over whether township voters can choose to maintain only the first quarter-mile of the half-mile road to the Crisman home. In an opinion filed last month, Kanabec County District Judge Stoney Hiljus ruled that Minnesota law doesn't allow township voters to selectively maintain only portions of their roads.

"The ruling in the Hillman Township case has statewide impact, and MAT will seek permission to file a friend of the court brief in the appeal," the association said in a statement. "Hundreds of townships have short sections of road that have been unused and abandoned for decades.  The ruling in the Hillman Township case fails to follow established precedent and strips voters of that power, compelling the town to open a road even though there is not public interest in doing so. It amounts to the taxpayers providing some landowners with a new driveway."

The Crismans bought their 120-acre property in 2013 and moved there from the Twin Cities in 2017. The land had long been unoccupied, and the township hadn't been plowing or grading the road all the way to the Crismans' land.

After they moved in, the Crismans came to a town meeting and asked the township to maintain the road all the way to their place. Residents at the meeting voted it down. But a township supervisor told the Crismans that if they spent their own money to repair the road, they could come back for another vote and perhaps get a different outcome.

The second vote never happened. Instead, the Crismans sued, leading to the decision the township is now fighting.

As things stand now, the judge's decision applies only to Hillman Township, Jewel added. By appealing the decision, the township risks an unfavorable ruling that would apply statewide.

"By filing an appeal, the township is running the risk that the appellate courts may very well side with … the Crisman family, who have been unfairly targeted by this board," she said. "They would be better off simply obeying Judge Hiljus' order so that it is just narrowly limited to Hillman Township."

An earlier ruling by Hiljus had gone against the Crismans, but they asked the judge to reconsider based on a legal point that hadn't been clearly decided. He then reversed himself, ruling in their favor.

I often ponder, what was the owner thinking about, the day they parked a car and walked away from it that last time. Did they intend to return, or were they abandoning a car they didn't think they could sell?


 location unknown, commentors at the source of this photo say it's an Austin A40 Somerset

https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2022/02/whats-brand.html

10th Anniversary of Women in the Armed Forces, May 1952 during the third annual Armed Forces Day parade in Portland

https://www.oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/10th-anniversary-of-women-in-the-armed-forces/#.YgM6Lv7MKUk