Saturday, March 22, 2025
A group of U.S. Marines rescued a wounded civilian stranded without food and water in the middle of the California desert, waving a green flag from a boulder below, last month
“He had been out there for almost two days, completely out of water and food,” said Young. “When we reached him, he was conscious but clearly exhausted and in pain. He told us he had been hoping someone would see him before it was too late.”
the collector car market continues to slump, and sellers have finally lowered their expectations
'02 Saleen Mustang that hit everything but the lottery!
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=9841453742534112&set=pcb.9841458002533686
road side attractions are getting more eye catching! Here's a helo on a fuel station in Europe, that rotates the blades if you put change in the machine! (Thank you Shas!) Orlen is Polish company, heli is Mi-2 designed by Mikhail Mil built on license in Poland and this gas station is in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia.
the BYD Seagull is one specific model that the CEO of Ford has admitted he’s worried about from a competitive standpoint. It sells for $9,700 in China, and is already slated to be sold in Europe, and a cheaper variant is set to launch in the UK this year, too.
Friday, March 21, 2025
Retired Amtrak conductor Brad Swartzwelter is making headlines for his proposal to use trains to reduce commercial vehicle crashes and congestion along the I-70 mountain corridor in Colorado.
Since 2015, Nissan has issued three safety recalls for the 2013-2018 Altima hood latch, after finding, "...the hood could unexpectedly open while driving, increasing the risk of a vehicle crash."
A fire at an electrical substation knocked out power to Heathrow Airport for most of Friday, forcing Europe’s busiest hub, and the world's fifth-busiest airport, to shut down for roughly 18 hours
Residents in west London described hearing a large explosion, followed by a fireball and clouds of smoke, when the blaze ripped through the substation.
The industry is now facing the prospect of a financial hit costing tens of millions of pounds, and a likely fight over who should pay.
"You would think they would have significant back-up power," one top executive from a European airline told Reuters.
Heathrow's rep said back-up systems and procedures had worked as they should.
"It is a wake-up call," he told Reuters. "There is no way that Heathrow should be taken out completely because of a failure in one power substation."
Willie Walsh, the head of the global airlines body IATA and a former head of British Airways, said Heathrow had once again let passengers down.
Heathrow said it had diesel generators and uninterruptible power supplies in place to land aircraft and evacuate passengers safely. Those systems all operated as expected. But with the airport consuming as much energy as a small city, it said it could not run all its operations safely on back-up systems.
Thursday, March 20, 2025
Space Patrol lead actor Ed Kemmer's 1950s series spawned more than 1000 episodes and introduced a generation of Saturday morning TV viewers (and often their parents) to the wonders of science fiction.
The show also inspired a NASA engineer who when meeting Kemmer, told him that the show had ignited his passion for space.
Kemmer was a war hero having served as a P 51 Mustang pilot, and was shot down on his 47th mission, in June of 1944, just a few days after D-Day, and was imprisoned at Stalag Luft 3 and spent 11 months as a POW. He briefly escaped from the camp for two weeks before being recaptured when rhe Russians got close in January, 1945 and they were marched out to a camp near Nuremberg.
A few weeks later General Patton got too close and they were marched out again and headed for Moosberg. He escaped on that march hoping to reach Switzerland .... Two weeks later he was recaptured and sent to the camp at Moosberg. Only there a few days .... Liberated by Patton's tanks on April 29th.
The camp was the same one from which a breakout occurred that was the inspiration for the Steve McQueen film The Great Escape (1963)
After Space Patrol, Kemmer was a guest star in various prime-time television series, including the classic Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", in which former space hero Kemmer co-starred with future space hero William Shatner.
He also had roles in episodes of Perry Mason, Maverick, Gunsmoke, Rawhide, All My Children, and As the World Turns and acted out the role of "Prince Phillip" in live action footage that was given to the animators to study for Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959).
HA! How quickly the worm turns
a young Sparta Tennessee teen couple disappeared in 2000 when their car missed a corner, went into a river and they died... their car (98 Grand Am) and remains were finally located in 2021, when YouTube diver Jeremy Beau Sides discovered their car
There was no guard rail when the teens went off the road
https://www.facebook.com/jeremybechtelanderinfoster
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2022/07/20/erin-foster-jeremy-bechtel-buried-after-youtube-star-finds-car/10068664002/
it's a little-known fact that there's been a glitch in the tolling system on Washington State Route 167
It seems drivers who have no transponder and use the HOT lanes are getting free rides
Indeed, SR 167 is the only toll road that does not have the technology to read license plates. So, drivers who don’t have a Good to Go! transponder can and do ride in the HOT lanes for free.
WSDOT plans to install those license plate reading cameras, but the system won’t be up and running until December 2025.
Following two days of sometimes violent protests, with blockades that had forced schools and some businesses to close, the Guatemalan President has withdrawn a decree which would have made car insurance compulsory
Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, the president said he had been elected to bring about necessary changes in the country, some of which could be difficult.
"I remain convinced that a new general transport law is the right way forward for the wellbeing of our country," he said, adding that traffic accidents were the main cause of death in Guatemala.
He said that after talks with representatives of the protesters, the two sides had agreed to set up a technical committee to come up with a plan on how to introduce compulsory insurance within a year.
Eagle Field, the WW2 airstrip, and recent annual dragstrip, was sold by it's owner Joe Davis because his health was failing. It's been bought by a flying car company CEO
the drag racing moved to Mendota Raceway Park. The new owner asked for too much money, the drag racing organizers talked to the new owner, but said he wouldn't come to terms with the racers.
Trinity Bridge in Crowland, Lincolnshire, about 650 years old!
It was originally built between 1360 and 1390 to replace earlier wooden bridges spanning the junction of the River Welland and a distributary.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122185047836269902&set=a.122108168822269902
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Whoa! I don't think I've ever seen a Jensen built up for Bonneville land speed racing from an autocross car... but then, I've never heard of one autocrossing either!
Doug's car in high school was this 1937 Packard 120CD. It was his daily driver, plus made for great road trips. He bought it at age 15 for $240 from a barn in PA. He owned it from 1964-1992.
The stuffed animal that went viral on local social media channels has been removed from its perch over I-5 just south of Bellingham Washington
https://mybellinghamnow.com/news/297792-wsdot-crew-removes-large-sloth-stuffed-animal-from-i-5-roadside-near-bellingham/
Funniest thing I read today, from Bam Bam the Trucker
I looked at that high-tech monstrosity and thought, Let’s fuck myself up today. So I did. French vanilla. Seven shots of espresso. Because moderation is for cowards.
First sip? Brilliant mistake. Only idiots and truckers put this much espresso in their coffee, and lucky for me, I qualify as both. The Yeti mug was a necessity because my hands are shaking so bad, the coffee would've just launched itself into orbit. Pretty sure the cream in the fridge turned to butter just from being near me.
Most people in the office just sighed and accepted their fate. But the new hire? She’s clutching her phone, ready to call 911. I gave her a thumbs-up, but I think it came off more like a distress signal.
Effects so far:
✅ Can hear WiFi signals
✅ Can see the future, but only 30 seconds ahead
✅ Floating slightly above the ground—contact is optional now
✅ Office plugged me into the power grid, and I’m currently running half the building
✅ CB radio? Don’t need it. I am the frequency now.
Regrets? None. Next time: 10 shots. Let’s see if I can break the sound barrier before my shift starts.
But this time, it wasn’t just coffee. It was some new shit that broke the laws of physics. My neighbor (who I now suspect is a Vietnamese coffee dealer of destruction) handed me a pack with a smile that basically said, "This… wake you… up."
Well, mission accomplished, buddy.
See, I didn’t know how many packs to use, so I did what any rational person would do: I guessed. Turns out, five was not the right number. Five was the number that rewrote my DNA.
Current status:
I can see new colors. Specifically, the color of sound.
Time is actually going backward. I think I just high-fived my past self.
I can now thread a needle on a running sewing machine.
My coffee mug self-stirs because I am vibrating faster than molecular cohesion allows.
Sleep? Irrelevant. I’ve got five marathons to run today.
My truck is too scared to start out of respect for my newfound speed.
I have officially met every god from every religion. Buddha, Odin, Zeus—we’re all besties now.
Final rating? I have become Death, destroyer of caffeine tolerance.
If you need me, I’ll be somewhere between the astral plane and the finish line of my fifth marathon, contemplating why this coffee tastes a little too good.... suspiciously good
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May will appear on tv once again, despite announcing the end last year... but it's sounding like a "best of series"
The Not Very Grand Tour is set to be released next month (18 April 2025), according to an announcement by Prime Video.
Described as “a motoring comedy documentary series”, one episode titled “The Glory and The Power” is listed on the site. “In this episode, the team celebrate the combustion engine, with a look back at footage from past adventures and test drives,” reads a description.
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) goes even further, suggesting this will be a series with multiple episodes.
Ethel Lee.... simply remarkable! She owned a Cafe in South L.A. and she said it was always her destiny to send a man to the moon... so when she found out about NASA/Rockwell was hiring in Downey, she got a job with them! Next year, is her 99th birthday!
the last surviving pilot who flew during the Battle of Britain, has died at the age of 105. (thanks for the news tip Stephen!)
You probably already heard about this "self driving car" test... finding out if the car can tell the difference between a real road, and a picture of a road, in the middle of an actual road... just a flat surface it can not drive through. It's called the Wile E. Coyote Test
Lexus RX-based prototype uses a lidar.
lidars scans the road ahead and detects the wall.
Autopilot’s cameras, on the other hand, rely on what they see, and in this case that’s a road.
Fresno police recently busted a chop shop ring specializing in Dodge Charger and Challenger Hellcat and Jeep Trackhawk parts. Including 75 vehicles and parts of dozens more there was about 3 million dollars worth
it turns out, a cyclorama has nothing to do with bikes, or wheeled vehicles... (thank you George!)
and here's how I learned that
I was looking up Albert Champion (spark plug fame of course) and learned:
a building in Boston was commissioned by Charles F. Willoughby's Boston Cyclorama Company to house the Cyclorama of the Battle of Gettysburg, a 400-by-50 foot cyclorama painting of the Battle of Gettysburg. https://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/exhibitions/cyclorama/
The central space is a 127'-diameter steel-trussed dome which, when it was built, was the largest dome in the country after that on the United States Capitol building.
In 1889, a new cyclorama painting, Custer's Last Fight, was installed, but by 1890, the fashion for cycloramas had ended, and the new owner of the building, John Gardner converted it to a venue for popular entertainment, including a carousel, roller skating, boxing tournaments (including an 1894 fight of John L. Sullivan), horseback riding, bicycling, and so on.
By the 1890s, it had become an industrial space, used by the Albert Champion Company. In 1907, Albert Champion developed the Champion spark plug thereMonday, March 17, 2025
Dan is a dude with a dream!
an engineer with the N.C. Department of Transportation” pleaded guilty Monday to importing thousands of counterfeit car airbags into the Raleigh area and selling them both locally and online.
The steering wheel airbags were then sold “to unsuspecting customers using Facebook Marketplace.” using the profile names of “Matt AutoParts” or “Medo Smith” on Facebook Marketplace to advertise and sell the items.