basement and multi-story parking structures, where regular fire trucks cannot enter, is where a lot of electric cars are going to cause incredible fires that burn for hours and can't be easily extinguished.... but someone in the Czech Republic has figured out that they needed to make a fire truck small enough to access parking garages

battery fires requiring up to 8000 gallons of water, in instances when first responders actually decided to put the fire out, in multi-level garage structures or basement garages is something that has to be figured out. 

it looks like this truck is up to the challenge.

The truck offers a payload of 6613 pounds, which is about triple that of a standard Hilux, and features a 12,346-pound gross vehicle weight rating. What's more, the truck is far more nimble off-road than most others and can travel easily over unpaved surfaces, while being light enough to not get bogged down on farmland due to its weight. With a height of 72.8 inches, it's also short enough to enter most garage structures. And it's just as effective for fighting internal-combustion vehicle fires, the company says, even though it is intended primarily for EV fires. 

The truck features the Coldcut Cobra system for fighting EV battery fires, which uses an abrasive suspended in water that can cut through the floor pan of an EV and inject water at a pressure of 300 bar (that's over 100 times the pressure of air in a car tire) into the battery module in case of a thermal runaway. This has the effect of cooling the battery inside the module and preventing the spread of a battery fire.

 The truck is currently undergoing testing in the Czech Republic, 

https://www.autoweek.com/news/green-cars/a43708757/toyota-fire-truck-ev-battery-fires

Standing ovation for the heroes of the day! Locomotive Engineers William Kennedy and Shawn Loughran, plus assistant Conductor Marcus Higgins, rescued an autistic 3 yr old kid near Tarrytown, who got onto the train tracks (where there is an electrified 3rd rail)

On Thursday, April 6, at approximately 3:15 p.m., Locomotive Engineer William Kennedy was operating a southbound Hudson Line train north of Tarrytown when he noticed an object and soon realized a young child was on the northbound track, so he sent out an emergency radio communication to all nearby train crews. 

 Locomotive Engineer Shawn Loughran and an engineer trainee who were aboard northbound Train 737 approaching the scene proceeded at slow speed until the child was spotted on a track near — and then on top of — an electrified third rail. Once the train came to a stop, Assistant Conductor Marcus Higgins jumped down to the track, ran 40 yards in front of the train, picked up the child and brought him onboard the train. The crew then traveled back to Tarrytown Station

At the same time, Signal Maintainers Max Chong and Christopher Fraina were heading to the area to help and came upon the child’s mother and sister who were observed sobbing on a street corner, who explained the three-year-old was missing. When a Sleepy Hollow police officer pulled up and mentioned a missing child report, the group realized they were all looking for the same child. Meanwhile, the Metro-North signal maintainers heard a report on their radios of a found child at Tarrytown station. They group drove to Tarrytown, where the railroad employees and police officers took the family to the platform, where mother and son were reunited. The boy’s mother says her son has autism.

https://new.mta.info/press-release/metro-north-employees-receive-commendations-rescuing-child-who-fell-train-tracks

https://nypost.com/2023/04/25/3-year-old-autistic-boy-rescued-from-metro-north-train-tracks-video/
 

Yay teamwork! 

I haven't heard about the protest group in Europe, Just Stop Oil, in a long while, but they didn't quit

https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2023/04/that-should-make-them-think-long-and.html

in the USA, "Pop Goes the Weasel" announced the ice cream van's entry into your neighborhood... in Sri Lanka, Beethoven's Bagatelle No. 25 In A Minor (Für Elise) announced the Tuk Tuk bakery van. Both are only memories now

every morning in Sri Lanka, Beethoven’s classic was heard floating over paddy fields in the countryside, or competing with the sound of the traffic in the cities. 

The music from three-wheeled tuk-tuks, "choon paan" Sri Lanka’s musical, mobile bakeries, fitted with glass cabinets and a rooftop speaker system.

The higher cost of imported flour, inflation, and the government quota of four liters of fuel per week has killed the small business operator of the mobile bakery. 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/sri-lankas-musical-mobile-bakeries

Music and popular songs come and go, but one sound has been consistent since 1929 – the music and sound of the ice cream truck.

In 1960, Mister Softee, the largest mobile cream franchisor with over 600 trucks, introduced the Mister Softee Theme

Top Ten Ice Cream Truck Themes

10. Turkey in the Straw – Originally based on an Irish folk song called The Old Rose Tree, it was adapted into minstrel music shows in the 1820s, even though the 1910’s. 

9. Camptown Races (1850) and Oh! Suzanna (1848) were written by America’s first professional songwriter, Stephen Foster. 

8. Dixie (1861) Dixie was about Antebellum (the wealthy southern lifestyle) prior to the civil war

7. Jimmy Crack Corn (1840s) was a song about a slave’s lament after his master’s death. 

6. La Cucaracha (1800s Mexican folk song) probably the most popular song about a cockroach who cannot walk

5. Pop Goes The Weasel (1852) began as a social dance in England. The ambiguous phrase has been used in many pop culture mediums – books, film and television. In the 1930s, it became the tune for Jack-in-the-Box windup toys. 

4. I’m a Little Teapot (1939) Probably the last Nursery Rhyme to be a radio hit.

3. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star – the lyrics were written by Jane Taylor in 1806 (England), and the melody came from Ah! vous dirai-je, maman, (1761, France).

2. It’s a Small World, written by brothers Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman in 1962, and inspired by the Cuban Missile Crisis. It is probably the only popular ice cream truck music that needs a royalty payment. Why? Because it may be the second most well-known song in the Western World, behind Happy Birthday. 

1. The Entertainer (1902) written by Scott Joplin, is one of the most famous instrumentals of the recorded sound era. It was the biggest ragtime hit, and brings the perfect ‘nostalgia’ feeling for both children and adults when it comes to ice cream.

https://popculturemadness.com/PCM/the-sounds-of-the-american-summer-ice-cream-trucks/

Michelin rarely missteps, but they tested their tires wrong, and now have to recall a 1/2 million snow tires

Nearly 550,000 light truck Michelin tires have been recalled. The Agilis CrossClimate C-Metric tires with DOT numbers 0117 through 1423 have been affected. 

The affected tires feature the Alpine Symbol, marking them as snow tires—however, these do not fit the classification for the symbol. The company clarifies that “the Alpine Symbol is depicted by a snowflake inside a three peaked mountain outline.”

The reason why is due to initial tire testing done with the wrong tire pressure. Only after further testing was the issue revealed.

In their voluntary recall, Michelin states that the recalled products “do not meet the traction requirements for snow tires” and, thus, “fail to comply” with federal regulations.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also explains that “the tires are labeled as snow tires, but do not have sufficient traction to perform in all snow weather conditions.”

The tires are typically found on Ford Transit, RAM ProMaster, Volkswagen Crafter, Nissan NV200, Chevrolet City Express and Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vehicles.

All Michelin recalls can be found at https://www.michelinman.com/auto/why-michelin/michelin-safety-recalls

https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/michelin-snow-tire-recall/

https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/recall-alert/michelin-recalls-tires-that-dont-have-enough-snow-traction-for-us-safety-standards/3017696/

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2023/RMISC-23T002-8710.pdf

the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa (never even heard of it) went bankrupt, and is auctioning everything off in the Parham collection (most of the museum is his stuff)

a headlining piece in the art collection is the Von Dutch helmet, which shows the history of all the brands of Von Dutch’s bikes that he owned. Later the baby bottle nipple was added as a comment on the California helmet law.

John and Jill Parham, the founders of J&P Cycles, initially established the museum in Sturgis, where it lived the first 12 years of its life. 

In 2001, the couple moved the museum to Anamosa, which was also the home of J&P Cycles.

In 2017 John died, and the attendance since Covid dropped off so much they haven't been able to kept he museum going

https://www.rideapart.com/news/664103/national-motorcycle-museum-collection-auction

https://www.rideapart.com/news/640892/national-motorcycle-museum-closing-2023

https://nationalmcmuseum.org/2017/03/24/the-famous-engraved-helmet-of-von-dutch/

comparison of Duesenberg headlights

Last October I learned of (and posted) the Castle Duesenberg, and this weekend I got to see it in person and get some good photos

that step on the side of the car? Made stronger than any shovel I've ever used.

https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2022/10/1921-duesenberg-model-the-first.html  for the history of it

the 1959 prototype Maserati 3500 GT Vignale

I've never heard of a New Map motorcycle until now

When the A-10 finally retires, you can use it as an air defense turret

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=588089776750176&set=a.446750360884119

a couple of cool unusual trophys coming to auction

https://www.bonhams.com/auction/28770/lot/43/an-unusual-motoring-trophy-by-derby-silver-co/

https://www.bonhams.com/auction/28770/lot/54/the-rhode-island-automobile-club-hill-climb-trophy-1907/

https://www.bonhams.com/auction/28770/lot/27/a-large-pewter-motoring-trophy-circa-1908/

proving to the military that a Model T could get around, and those balloon tires helped a bit

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=6250686831636689&set=pcb.10167400017915548

"Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Expo", Seattle, June, 1909

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=6250685234970182&set=pcb.10167400017915548

NEOM is the 26,500 square kilometer Saudi Arabia construction site with a $500 Billion budget, with a sustainable utopian notion. It's that 100 mile long wall shaped city you've heard of, plus, a new port for international trade, and a mountain resort. And it's being built with about 10,000 Caterpillar construction vehicles

NEOM is made up of three core projects. Trojena is a destination resort built around a lake in Saudi Arabia’s snowy mountain range. Oxagon will be the world’s largest floating structure and an industry hub that will service 13% of the world’s trade. And The Line, perhaps the most impressive of all. A totally unique city that stretches over 170 kilometres (110 miles) long and yet is just 200 meters (660ft) wide.

Once built, The Line’s mirrored city walls will be home to 9 million people. Residents lucky enough to live here will be supported by a futuristic infrastructure that will give them access to all their basic amenities within a 5-minute walk. While a high-speed rail link will run the whole length of The Line in as little as 20 minutes.

With neither roads nor cars and 95% of its land preserved for nature, The Line will also be carbon neutral, with a 0% carbon footprint.

As you would expect, with sustainability at its core, there is a strong emphasis on renewable energy, water conservation and reuse, and a circular waste management system that promises zero waste to landfill. While the city itself will be powered by wind and solar panels.

Zahid Tractor has supplied many of the 5,000 tractors, excavators, loaders, graders, and trucks currently on-site, and that number is expected to double over the coming year. All of these will be kept very busy as just the preparation for the foundations alone will involve moving approximately 500 million cubic meters of soil.

https://www.neom.com/en-us/about

https://www.cat.com/en_US/blog/neom-future-city.html

https://luxurylaunches.com/tag/neom-city/

Electric cars, in Car and Driver Magazine testing, failed to match the hyped numbers of the EPA guesstimates

A new paper published by SAE International uses Car and Driver's real-world highway test data to show that electric vehicles underperform on real-world efficiency and range relative to the EPA figures by a much greater margin than internal-combustion vehicles.

On Car and Driver's 75-mph highway test, more than 350 internal-combustion vehicles averaged 4.0 percent better fuel economy than what was stated on their labels. But the average range for an EV was 12.5 percent worse than the price sticker numbers.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a43657072/evs-fall-short-epa-estimates-sae-article

https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/2023-01-0349/

season 2 of Perry Mason (HBO Max) has vehicles that are all older than 1950, most seem to be from the 30s. If you want to see nothing but classics in great condition, this show has a lot of them, though maybe not the utterly wide variety that existed back then

it's a very amazing tv show, I recommend it for it's incredible drama, suspense, legal tactics, private investigations, complex story and great story and plot. 

I rank it right up there with SOA, Breaking Bad, Penny Dreadful, Game Of Thrones, Foundation, etc. We are in a marvelous time of incredible tv shows, it's a shame it takes so damn long between "seasons" and that there are only 8 to 10 episodes for these new series. But they make up in quality, what they are short on length of

There may only be the most popular, and nothing of the early brass era, but Hollywood must find it very difficult to get this many period correct vehicle for a tv series

I think it's great that you can put almost anything on a license plate

I found that the original "Fall Guy" (it's being remade right now with Ryan Gosling) had a crossover episode, well, a cameo - of Magnum PI, because the same producer was running and funding both shows.

about 7 or 8 decades before computers could control brakes and adapt them for different traction conditions, Duesenberg had this little switch for setting the brakes to slippery conditions

I guess they thought the trains would last forever, like the buildings and terra cotta art that celebrated/memorialized the trains.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/76677346@N04/10505114595/

I wondered what it was about this McKeen photo I liked... maybe it's simply that the rivets are showing.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/76677346@N04/12737445615/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/76677346@N04/page106

Ever heard of Squadron 201? Also known as the Aztec Eagles, who were 33 hand picked Mexican pilots and 270 support personnel who arrived in Manila Bay in April 1945, 4 months before VJ day

the Aztec Eagles flew P47 missions alongside the U.S. Air Force during the liberation of the Philippines in 1945.

https://lonestarflight.org/events/aztec-eagles-hangar-talk/ and  https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/117449/museum-remembers-aztec-eagles says 795 combat sorties, and 2000 hours combat air time, and dropped 1,457 bombs on the Japanese

In early July 1945, 58th Fighter Group members deployed to Okinawa, Japan, and Escuadron 201 members assumed responsibility for air operations in their area. The airmen provided close-in-ground support to the advancing U.S. 25th "Tropic Lightning" Division and Philippine Army units on Luzon, and seven-hour long-range fighter strikes on strategic Japanese targets on the island of Taiwan.

The following report of Missions completed by the 201st Mexican Fighter Squadron was supplied by MEAF pilot E. Alfonso Velasco Jr.: 53 ground support missions flown in support of American troops in Luzon from 4 June to 4 July 1945; 37 training missions from 14-21 July 1945 (including missions of transporting new aircraft from Biak Island, New Guinea); 4 fighter sweeps to the island of Formosa, 6-9 July 1945; 1 dive bombing mission against the Port of Karenko, Formosa, 8 August1945; 1 convoy escort mission in the Sea North of the Philippines, 26 August 1945.

Though that was not more than a note in a history book, compared to most other countries involved in the European or Pacific theaters of war defending the European countries, and Pacific islands, and preventing the Germans and Japanese from conquering neighboring countries and expanding their empires, Mexico provided more strategic resources to the United States than any other Latin American nation, including vital minerals such as copper, zinc, mercury, cadmium, graphite and lead. To do this, it underwent a period of industrial and economic development during and after the conflict that became known as the “Mexican Miracle.”

I'm unaware of what the central and South American countries did during WW2, or how any of them assisted in the effort or maybe even stayed out of the war, I know that for the longest time the USA was staying out of it on the European front, and provoked Japan into attacking Pearl Harbor (by depriving them of international trade/natural resources is the way I heard it, oil, steel, the sorts of things a country needs to begin an offensive war on it's neighbors, Korea and Manchuria I think it was)

It remains Mexico's only official military unit in the history of Mexico to engage in combat outside of its national borders. Pancho Villa's raids into Arizona were not sponsored by the govt of Mexico, and the helicopter incursion in 2014 that shot at USA Border Patrol was officially ignored https://www.businessinsider.com/mexican-helicopter-fires-border-patrol-arizona-2014-6 because neither govt wanted that shit show kicked off into a battle over the USA Mexico border. https://time.com/2933940/mexico-us-border-patrol-helicopter/

https://news.va.gov/49746/mexicos-aztec-eagles-allied-america-fight-war-pacific-wwii/

https://ontheroadin.com/mexican-air-force-aztec-eagles/

https://www.ww2incolor.com/gallery/mexican-forces

https://www.history.com/news/mexico-world-war-ii-surprising-involvement

https://www.dailychela.com/the-201st-squadron-mexicos-greatest-generation/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/magazine/world-war-ii-mexican-air-force.html