Saturday, December 13, 2025
Friday, December 12, 2025
the Critérium des Porteurs de Journaux (Criterium of Newspaper Carriers) race in Paris. The event featured real newspaper couriers, known as porteurs de presse, who delivered newspapers across Paris.
Long before the current courier competitions and other Bike Messengers World Championships, Parisians had organised bicycle delivery races, such as the "Brassard des Estafettes" in 1897, the Criterium des Messageries Hachette or the Paris-Versailles races in tricycles.
But the most popular is the the Newspaper Carriers' Criterium which began in 1926, and the Tour de Paris or the Cyclo-Porters' Criterium in 1937
These races were organized with the help of newspaper publishing houses and courier companies
Each print media outlet assembled its own team by mixing their couriers with some former professional road champions and Belgian riders.
Each print media outlet assembled its own team by mixing their couriers with some former professional road champions and Belgian riders.
Many porters were amateur or semi-professional racers who used their jobs for training, so it was natural to organize a race of the porters every year.
Porters were paid per trip, and they rode so fast that they made more money than the board members of the newspapers for which they worked.
The race was a big deal, with the main roads of Paris closed off for the event. The newspapers reported in great detail, as they would of a Tour de France stage.
The course started in the newspaper quarter of Paris, on rue Montmartre, went around the Boulevards Extérieurs, passing through eight checkpoints, delivery and exchange of the 33 lb load of newspapers, before climbing the hill of Montmartre, and arrival at the top of rue Lepic.
At the half-way point, they had to exchange their load for another pack of newspapers. Much of the course went over cobblestones, and not all were as smooth as the ones in the photo above.
These races took place in the middle of winter - sometimes in the snow - in February, and later in November. Three main categories: Men, Women and Disabled, but also Veterans and also a team ranking.
These still exist in messenger circles although with fake packages.
Cycle Messenger World Champs, North American Cycle Courier Champs, European Cycle Messenger Champs, and the Cargobike Alleycat in Paris
One cool movie was made that touched on this, Premium Rush https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2012/12/premium-rush-is-great-bike-chase-movie.html
1/2 million acres destroyed, 1000 homes and everything in them, because a trucker's trailer was sparking
the Carr Fire could have been stopped by two actions:
The fire was started when a flat tire on a vehicle caused the wheel's rim to scrape against the asphalt, creating sparks.
A powerful fire whirl with winds estimated in excess of 143 mph — equivalent to an EF3 tornado —developed within the Carr Fire in Redding.
The trailer with the sparking wheel pulled into a wide turn out, but CHOSE to continue.
A contractor with a big bulldozer on a lowboy pulled over, unloaded and started to work on the small fire. A Federal person from the Whiskeytown Federal Area stopped and forced the man to stop working on Government land; Federal crews must do the work.
The Carr fire was in the last week of July 2018 started at the intersection of the 299 at Whsikeytown.
At the time it was the sixth-most destructive fire in California history (now the ninth-most destructive fire)as well as the seventh-largest wildfire in recorded California history (now the fourteenth-largest)
he Carr Fire cost over $1.659 billion (2018 USD), including $1.5 billion in insured losses and more than $158.7 million in suppression costs.
At its height, the fire engaged as many as 4,766 personnel from multiple agencies.
One of the tires on the trailer blew out, causing the steel rim to scrape along the pavement, generating sparks that ignited dry vegetation along the edge of the highway. Wind caused the fire to spread quickly. Hot conditions and steep, inaccessible terrain presented challenges for fire crews
Remaining on the ground from 7:30–8:00 p.m., the fire whirl reached an estimated height of 18,000 ft and caused extensive tornado-like damage while spreading the fire.
And none of that would have happened if the trucker had just pulled over when he noticed the blow out, or the sparks.
Blackhorse Jones was a fascinating guy in California who raised black Morgan horses for use by mortuaries to bring materials for his grave to the Grangeville Cemetery
A tragic accident had robbed him of his one-and-only true love and he chose to seek a secluded spot away from family, friends and society. Taking a break from running a threshing machine, he enjoyed a drink of water that his sweetheart had brought for him. As she turned to leave, her skirts were caught in the tumbling rod of the machine and she was crushed to death before his eyes.
Once he came to the Garza's Creek area he gave up his former ventures in teaming and in the sheep business and turned his attentions to the breeding of fine black horses, that were sought by mortuaries and other discerning buyers.
Jones is probably best known for his crumbling burial site at the Grangeville Cemetery in Armona, on which he labored for a third of a century. The theme of the plot is “From The Cradle to the Grave.” Going into the hills near his home, he quarried seashell-filled sandstone that he fashioned into a vault to hold his coffin. He also carved a stone cradle and a small rowboat complete with oars. These represented his belief in the life beyond earth. He portrayed his lifeboat anchored to solid rock after crossing the river of life. The site is decorated with petrified wood.
From the butt of a cottonwood tree, which he planted and watched grow for nearly forty years, he formed his own coffin, which was placed in the vault. The casket, except for the lid, was carved from a single piece of wood and used no nails. Even the screws that secured the lid were carved from wood. Only the handles on the sides of the casket were made from metal.
As his fifty-mile trips to the burial site required several days, Jones outfitted a rig that would provide for all his basic needs. Jersey cows, that were turned loose at night to graze, were trained to pull the large converted spring wagon. Chicken coops, placed under the running gears, were outfitted with canvas chutes to gently deliver the eggs to padded boxes so that they would not be broken. The chickens were also released to forage at each stop. Thus were his needs for meat, milk, eggs, butter and cream met, but that’s not all. He also carried boxes of soil and cans of water so that he could raise his own vegetables while on his trips.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/230190890340133/posts/4903209979704844/
this is mentioned in The San Joaquin Valley
By Richard Hammond, but, Google Books doesn't have more than a couple sentences
straight out of Final Destination... wouldn't you think anyone working for the Forest Dept would be familiar enough with logging to KNOW not to be so damn close you could get killed by one?
A USFS truck was at the front of a two-vehicle convoy traveling west on Highway 101.
This vehicle was driving at or near the speed limit (55 mph) with the cruise control set.
At 10:48 a.m., the lead USFS vehicle driver noticed a log truck turning into the eastbound lane onto the highway from the south side of the road.
The log truck did not complete the turn as expected.
The USFS vehicle driver applied the brakes and steered right (north) to create as much distance as possible.
The trailer with its load of logs detached from its tow vehicle and rolled perpendicularly across both lanes of the highway—directly into the path of the USFS vehicle—leaving no chance for avoidance.
The log truck’s loaded trailer and USFS vehicle struck each other in the ditch on the highway’s north side. The airbags deployed and logs from the trailer entered through the windshield. The driver’s side door was crumpled. Both the driver and the passenger hit the deployed airbags.
Over the past 11 years, ANA painted four jets in various Star Wars-themed liveries, "jets also featured customized cabin audio, safety briefings, with seats, cups, literature and other items to match the respective liveries." Thank you Doug!
ANA has opened up a lottery to allow up to 80 people (40 ANA Mileage Club members and one accompanying guest each) to have the chance to view the C-3PO skinned aircraft one last time at its Haneda maintenance hangar.
Once a street was named after Chuck Norris, but after a minute it got its original name back, because no one crosses Chuck Norris.
"When Chuck Norris went to college he told his dad, 'You're the man of the house now.'"
"One day Chuck Norris told a woman to calm down, and she calmed down."
"Chuck Norris once gave a horse an uppercut and now we have giraffes."
“When dawn is coming, the sun puts on sunglasses so Chuck Norris doesn’t hurt its eyes.”
"I heard Chuck Norris lost his virginity before his father."
"Chuck once made a bet with Superman, the loser had to wear his underpants on the outside."
"Chuck Norris can gargle peanut butter."
"Chuck Norris threw a grenade and killed 21 people...then the grenade exploded."
"Chuck Norris goes to McDonald's. He orders a Whopper. He gets it."
"Chuck Norris is so tough he can slam a revolving door."
"Ghosts sit around camp fires and tell Chuck Norris stories."
"When Chuck Norris’s parents had nightmares, they would come to his bedroom."
"Jesus can walk on water but Chuck Norris can swim through land."
"When Chuck Norris was a child at school, his teachers raised their hands in order to talk to him."
Sign painting, Chicago Style, brief history (I love the signpainters, pinstripers, race car letterers)
These are just notebook covers from a notebook company that makes a variety of covers to appeal to a wider variety of customers
The Beverly Sign Co. put Chicago at the center of the mid-century sign-painting map with its “panelized” compositions, novel typographic treatments, and bold colors. This style came to be known as “The Chicago Look.”
Briggs Outdoor Adv. Co. was the company that Jack Briggs began, as a painter in the 1930s and he became the owner of Beverly Sign Co. in 1938 ( see some of their real signs at https://ghostsigns.co.uk/2022/08/chicago-ghost-signs-and-the-beverly-sign-co/ )
Beverly’s artistic significance was underscored by Chicago sign painter Pat Finley: “Beverly garnered national attention for their development of the avant-garde ‘Chicago Look,’ a combination of pastel colors and panelization,” as Finley explains.
‘You take a color-filled geometric shape and insert type into it, and then that breaks down the design into a few different signs, depending on size. That was unheard of before Beverly — those people were pioneers, and with everything they did, the world followed.’ It attracted flocks of aspiring sign artists.”
https://www.instagram.com/beverlysignsco to see some more of the strike throughs that were in the drawer in the video
Getting to car lettering and cool stuff... check this out, from Kelsey and Andrew McClellan, (Heart & Bone Signs, and Heavy Pages Press)
this book collects around 140 sketches, design drawings, complete with notes, color specs, and other instructions, from Chicago’s prolific Beverly Sign Co.
Bob Behounek, a sign painter, owns the vast collection of the original design drawings, instructions, and strike throughs
The pictures themselves, dating from 1957 into the 1980s, were preserved by just the kind of fluke that is often required to save things treated in their own time as debris rather than art.
Behounek had received the drawings from a one-time journeyman artist at Beverly, Dan Colyer “When I was working at Beverly, the foreman asked me to clean out the sketches and told me to throw them out. I asked if I could keep them and he said he didn’t care what happened to them as long as I got them out of the shop. So, I kept them.”
https://sca-roadside.org/the-golden-era-of-sign-design-the-rediscovered-sketches-of-beverly-sign-co/
Oh hell, out of my price range, and there are none on Ebay or Amazon so click through to
https://heavypagespress.com/store-2 to order yours 
for some great sign painting images, see
Over half of London's roads now have a 20mph speed limit, according to Transport for London.
Figures from the Department for Transport show that in 2024, while 43% of cars exceeded the 30mph limit (and 44% exceeded 70mph on motorways), on 20mph roads, it was 76%. Yes, three-quarters of drivers break the 20mph speed limit.
So, to no one's surprise, people who aren't walking in the middle of the roads, but instead, DRIVING on the roads, are not in favor of the overly conservative restricted speed limits.
People who are NOT driving on the roads, but instead, getting in the way of the intended users of the roads, the CARS, TRUCKS, and MOTORCYCLES, want the speeds lowered so they can walk la de da loitering in the way, or let their kids PLAY on the streets.
The BBC In Depth, needed to consult the following experts to state unequivocally that lower speed limits result in fewer people getting hit by cars:
Chief Scientist at the Transport Research Laboratory the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents Queen's University Belfast the National Technical University of AthensI am certain we could ask anyone who has graduated 4th grade, if slower cars mean slower fewer collisions, and less people going to the hospital, and they would agree. No university or Royal Society really needs to chime in on such an obvious reality.
Of course, no one asked why the hell there are so many damn people on the roads getting hit, by cars that actually belong no where else, not on sidewalks, not on grass, not on the beaches. Not a single university or Royal Society bothered to point out that with all their degrees, graduations, stupid square hats decorated with drape tassels, mentioned that streets and roads would be SO MUCH more SAFE if cyclists and pedestrians had elevated paths, and parents kept their kids in the damn yards, parks, and courtyards. Dogs too.
File this under "no DUH", waste of studies, and funds, and govt meetings. Get slow people off the streets. Make the speed limit have a reasonable minimum, and give out speeding tickets to the jackasses that camp in the fast lane
File this under "no DUH", waste of studies, and funds, and govt meetings. Get slow people off the streets. Make the speed limit have a reasonable minimum, and give out speeding tickets to the jackasses that camp in the fast lane
the British Education Authority has written to drivers asking them to reduce their rates for driving school kids to school (I have never heard of such a thing) by 10% to bring down the budget allotted to the social service
The EA said its projected funding shortfall was in the region of £300m and that "renegotiating payments to taxi operators" was one of the savings measures it announced last month in an attempt to address the shortfall.
More than 4,600 Special Educational Needs children use a taxi to get to and from school and many schools are far away from their homes, contributes to the cost of transport.
There are not enough special schools, so some children have to travel far and this does come at a cost.
A taxi driver, Mr Scott, said he felt "let down" by the letter from the EA. "That bond that taxi drivers had with the EA where we signed a contract and we thought we were going to service that contract for the foreseeable future, that is now broken," he said.
"Given these kids have SEN, to get them used to another taxi driver, a new car, takes a long number of weeks. This is not done overnight."
The EA letter gave taxi operators until 17 December to "voluntarily agree" to reduce their invoiced rates by 10% or the EA "will be minded to consider alternative arrangements for pupils' transport which may include using a break clause to terminate the contract(s) and re-tendering the run(s)".
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp84je1n5kgo.amp
Japanese police have suspended the car driving licenses of nearly 900 cyclists after they were caught riding bicycles under the influence of alcohol
The number of suspended car driving licenses from January to September rose sharply compared to last year, as Japan imposed new traffic laws that imposed stricter penalties on cyclists.
Under the new rules introduced in November last year, those who cycle while under the influence of alcohol can face up to three years in jail or a maximum fine of 500,000 yen ($3,200).
More than 4,500 people across Japan were caught riding bicycles while tipsy between November 2024 and June this year, the Mainichi newspaper reported, citing police figures.
Authorities are ramping up regulations for bicycles, a form of transport that grew in popularity during the pandemic - but also led to more accidents involving cyclists.
Under the new rules introduced in November last year, those who cycle while under the influence of alcohol can face up to three years in jail or a maximum fine of 500,000 yen ($3,200).
According to more new rules taking effect next April, cyclists will also be fined for minor offences including riding a bicycle while holding an umbrella, using their phones on the bike, ignoring traffic lights and riding without lights at night.
The threshold for punishing tipsy cyclists was also lowered. Cyclists can be penalized if a breath alcohol test detects 0.15 milligrams per litre or higher.
Authorities are ramping up regulations for bicycles, a form of transport that grew in popularity during the pandemic - but also led to more accidents involving cyclists.
More than 72,000 bicycle accidents were recorded in Japan in 2023, accounting for over 20% of all traffic accidents in the country, local media reported.
Alcohol has long been seen as a social lubricant for thousands of years in Japan, where business deals and difficult issues are discussed over bottles of beer and sake. It is believed that drinking alcohol creates a more relaxed environment for such discussions.
A woman with more than 100 arrests and dozens of traffic violations in Rhode Island was still behind the wheel, and was driving recklessly, when she left her lane and struck two telephone poles, and one 70 yr old
The 41 year old was driving "in possession of numerous illegal narcotics and packaging materials commonly associated with drug distribution," police said.
She was charged with driving as to endanger, resulting in death, and possession of narcotics with intent to distribute. (Probably not for the firs time, so, what's the point of doing it again?)
She ahs been arrested eight times prior to this (so, three strikes must no longer be the norm?) and she has received 40 traffic citations, in addition to the 82 court warrants. (What is the minimum before they put some effort into jailing someone, and getting them in front of a judge?)
Thursday, December 11, 2025
Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing has officially settled its antitrust lawsuit with NASCAR after more than 15 months of courtroom battles. The agreement restores charters to both 23XI and Front Row Motorsports,
Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing has officially settled its antitrust lawsuit with NASCAR after more than 15 months of courtroom battles. The agreement restores charters to both 23XI and Front Row Motorsports, who had previously surrendered them to pursue the case, and introduces new “evergreen” charter language that teams have pushed for in negotiations. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Had the case gone to a jury, NASCAR faced potential damages exceeding 300 million dollars and possible structural changes to the sport.
Anyone else see that “Amazing Stories” episode from 1985 about the ball-turret gunner stuck in a B-17 with a jammed up landing gear that has to make a belly landing?
this is one dedicated Radiator Springs fan... he's ridden it 15,000 times. But what it took to get to ride it the first time is just as amazing as how many times he rode it after that
He had to lose 150 lbs before he could have the knee surgery, and he did it, he lost 150 lbs, had the knee surgery and when he recovered the first thing he did was went to Disneyland to ride Radiator Springs, and he loved it so much that he never stopped.
It has taken him 13 years to reach 15000. He uses the single rider line he averages about 13 rides per every time he goes. It makes him happy, it brings joy to his life and that's all that really matters.
Cliff Burton and his 1972 Volkswagen Station Wagon 411, which he nicknamed “Grasshopper.”
According to the photographer, this photo was taken in the parking lot of Big O Tires, located across from Ruthie’s Inn, the infamous “Bezerkeley” nightclub. Cliff “beat in the steering wheel so much that there was barely any of it left,” and toward the end “he had to steer with a pair of pliers.”
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