a great dialogue between utopian progressive dreamers, and a guy who wants to make transportation less time consuming, less expensive, and less bound up in permit red tape! thank you Mike!

the House Transportation committee hearing on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Concressman LaMalfa has been instrumental in reducing the regulatory burdens that make it harder to build American infrastructure by increasing energy production, increasing the production and processing of critical minerals, streamlining energy infrastructure and exports, permitting reform, and decreasing permitting wait times.

Two of Congressman LaMalfa’s amendments related to forestry were passed, they allow wildfire mitigation activities within 300 feet of a road on Federal lands to be carried out without regard to NEPA or ESA requirements, and the second expands the definition of "hazard trees" trees to within 50 feet of electrical lines, from 10 feet.

He is from Oroville California

https://lamalfa.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressman-lamalfa-votes-strengthen-american-energy-independence-and

It's astounding how much information is available online about everything involved with the government, especially on You Tube. 

Thank Mike for sending me this, as it supports my ideals of what govt should be doing, informing, improving bad laws, updating infrastructure, and reducing time it takes to get things done.

https://lamalfa.house.gov/

somewhere in Washington state near Cle Elum Lake

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=6373620629322991&set=gm.6506582329354158&idorvanity=1134878386524606

it's good to share tips about technology

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=557515923184453&set=a.123950463207670

too damn bad there aren't more all Mopar car shows in So Cal, at least one a month would be really nice

Family owned Bandimere Speedway's last NHRA race will be the Mile-High Nationals on July 14-16.

The race track has been open since 1958 under the ownership of the Bandimere family.

The drag racing final race, Pure Speed, is scheduled for October 28-29 and that will be the last use of the speedway, the surrounding development over the years is part of the reason 

https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-first-18-wheeler-ever-used-to-haul.html

https://kdvr.com/news/local/bandimere-speedway-closing-at-end-of-drag-racing-season/

gotta love a photo with natural lighting that adds some awesome to the captured moment

https://www.goodwood.com/grr/event-coverage/goodwood-revival/2023/4/2023-goodwood-revival-race-list

I wonder how many scumbags get elected so they can waste other people's billions, like Mexico's last president, Nieto, who wasted 200 million USD on a 727 that had a full presidential suite with a private bath, and just where does a President of Mexico fly to anyway?

the current President of Mexico has been trying to sell the damn thing for 4 years, as no one has a need for such a waste of an airplane, except the Pres of the USA, and he's already got Air Force One, so, not many nation leaders are looking to blow 100 million on a used airliner. Maybe the Phillipine pres, son of the unbelieveably corrupt ousted pres Marcos... I bet he's ready to waste a fortune on a plane like this. 

Anyway, the good news is that the Pres of Mexico, Obrador, said the government of Tajikistan paid the equivalent of about $92 million for the Boeing 787 jet.

He's going to take the money, and pay for a couple hospitals. 

Now, that, is cool. 

Why sell it at a loss? Well, you can't sell it for a profit after such an extravagant waste of money, and Mexico was eager to unload it because maintenance costs made it too expensive to keep parked

https://apnews.com/article/mexico-lopez-obrador-presidential-jet-tajikistan-03ffe5f65ba1d01378ea31f4bc064397

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Hunter Nemechek's 2nd victory of the season had a very interesting end, a celebration burnout where his sponsor, Pye-Barker fire safety equipment, were used to extinguish the flames that threatened to engulf the entire car.

By coincidence, the Martinsville circuit uses Pye-Barker fire safety equipment, and a significant amount of the company's products were put to use in extinguishing the flames

https://www.motorsportimages.com/collection/nascar-xfinity-martinsville/87822/photos/

the New York City parking garage that collapsed this week? Was designed and built nearly 100 years ago, when cars weighed a LOT LESS, and having WAY too many vehicles on it contributed to the structural failure.

Parked 3 wide between the outer rows was NEVER in the engineer's designed load bearing calculations for materials and support structure for 1925, and greed, once again, causes the problem

the Ann Street building in lower Manhattan caved in just after 4 p.m.

A preliminary investigation found that too much weight on the roof and the building's age contributed to the severity of the collapse, according to the New York City Fire Department chief of safety.

A certification was issued in 1957 that allowed for "more than five" motor vehicles on the cellar and the first three stories. It specified the roof may have "passenger-car type" vehicles only.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/deadly-garage-collapse-new-york-city-likely-due-buildings-nearly-100-y-rcna80454

https://nypost.com/2023/04/20/owners-of-collapsed-ann-street-garage-are-rich-new-yorkers-from-the-suburbs/

the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry

https://www.flickr.com/photos/76677346@N04/with/13928907371

the head of the Police Federation of England and Wales (130,000 rank-and-file officers across England and Wales) has said the Metropolitan police is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic

“There’s been clear failings in leadership … to address the very issues that should have been dealt with, and consigned to history.

“It could be argued that, yes, it manifestly has got worse because, you know, 25-30 years on, things don’t seem to improve and we’re still having these horrendous issues.

“If it’s institutional failings of racism, sexism, homophobia, that has to sit at levels of senior leadership throughout the organization.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/19/police-federation-chair-accepts-met-is-institutionally-racist-sexist-and-homophobic

Shelby stuff is coming to auction, 395 pieces of various things associated with Carroll or Shelby cars

 

https://ontime.mecum.com/auction/celebrating-100-years-of-carroll-shelby-performance-parts-memorabilia-collection-249/bidgallery/page_OQ 

I love a sense of humor

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10161032773798846&set=gm.3422666398049367&idorvanity=2842956932686986

Ryan Gosling in a Porsche making a fun advertising film for a rally stopwatch company, Tag Heuer

Produced by David Leitch’s 87 North – responsible for some of the most iconic action films of the last decade, from John Wick to Deadpool 2 to last year’s Bullet Train – and directed by Nash Edgerton (Mr Inbetween), Gosling shot The Chase for Carrera while working with Leitch on feature The Fall Guy in Australia.

teenagers in Mississippi were so nuts about the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1982, they remade it, found a submarine, built an ark and shot for shot remade the movie, (except the airplane scene) over 6 years finishing in 1988

skip the first 29 seconds, then see a side by side of the fan film, and the original (it's really great!)

the homage to the original film was unexpectedly discovered, praised by Spielberg, and pronounced by critics as the greatest fan film ever made.

So they had an airplane built so they could get that one critical scene right in 2014. Guy Klender even made a rubber monkey wrench.

A precise replica of the fictional Flying Wing airplane (inspired by history but not from it), moveable around an arc, with a 75” wingspan.

 Airplane construction chief Mark Spain, singlehandedly constructed the landing gear and did all the structural welding on the entire plane.

IT was taken apart, transported to the filming location, the scenes were recorded, then they blew it up, along with the fuel depot, and the air control tower

They had a documentary about it on Netflix, but it's not there anymore, the above screen grab is all I could get. It's not even in Netflix DVD, nor listed as a movie that was in stock, because it was only there 6 years ago

https://www.moviemaker.com/remaking-the-airplane-scene-from-raiders/

https://www.theraiderskids.com/press

https://www.raidersguys.com/

Raiders of the Lost Art: The Adaptation, was filmed in Vancleave, MS

You can hear an interview of one of the crew at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/raiders-of-the-lost-ark/id1381507437?i=1000422071103 at minute 51:26

Russians are desperately short of ball-bearings, and they have the choice to keep the trains moving, or repair tanks to continue the war in Ukraine. Since the trains are what moves the tanks to the battles, it's a catch 22

“In 2020 Russia imported over $419 million worth of ball bearings, around 55 percent of which originated in Europe and North America"

Since the invasion of Ukraine, and related sanctions, there is a shortage of a lot of things, one is ball bearings. The other is optics, which used to come from France, for the new production of 72 and 90 Russian tanks.

It’s for that reason that Russia has struggled to make good the 2,000 or more tanks it has lost in 14 months of hard fighting in Ukraine. Russian forces need at least 150 new or restored tanks a month just to maintain their front-line strength.

Yes, there were small stockpiles of ball-bearings but Russian rail-operators needed those bearings, as their 13,000 locomotives moved more and more replacement men and equipment to the Ukraine front.

Which is why the Russians are reactivating 1960s tanks that have been in storage since the 1980s.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/04/19/whats-perfectly-round-made-of-metal-and-keeping-russia-from-replacing-the-2000-tanks-its-lost-in-ukraine/?sh=70ca0ccf23f2

Cadillac and Kate Moss in Beverly Hills, photographed for Glamour Magazine of France in the 90s

https://64.media.tumblr.com/9f15d822516906b81f5cfbb95d63f85c/tumblr_opm5smiVtn1w8i449o1_500.jpg

I just learned of a Mopars with Sunroof registry

https://moparsunroofregistry.com/

maybe it's nice to drive a BMW, but could you survive losing half your IQ points and logical ability to use the turn signals

https://ogdaa.blogspot.com/2023/04/if-only-there-were-easier-way.html

the art on the Baker Coupling Company, Vernon California, has a full spectrum of mechanized transportation of the day- an airplane, a steam locomotive, a steam shovel, a delivery truck, a steam ship, and a blimp.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/76677346@N04/39499721222/in/album-72177720299902571

the former Hyde Park Chevrolet Showroom of Chicago was built in 1929 on the southwest corner of 55th Street and Lake Park Avenue, is now known as the Deco Arts Bldg

stop lights above the columns, camshaft and rockers between windows, timing chain, gears, generator and sprockets above the windows

 

https://look-up-chicago.tumblr.com/post/88410350544/deco-arts-building-55th-street-and-lake-park
https://www.flickr.com/photos/76677346@N04/13952256255/in/photostream/

Chicago Tunnel Company locomotive and rolling stock at the Illinois Railway Museum survived the scrapping of the Chicago Tunnel Company system because they had gotten isolated on a spur

 When the tunnel was exposed years later by a roadway project, the museum was able to retrieve them.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/76677346@N04/13952391613/in/photostream/

Burlington painting in Illinois Railway Museum steam shop

https://www.flickr.com/photos/76677346@N04/13929188691/in/photostream/

looks like a car heater, probably kills by CO2 and CO in enclosed spaces

 https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=6851629384852263&set=pcb.10167382865960548

the Hand-Y Signal for Model Ts

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10167384644435084&set=pcb.10167380001395548