Friday, July 18, 2014

Lockheed XF V1

Sportsmanship. Mike McDade pulled Wil Hahn's bike off him at Southwick, if you get the chance to do something this cool, do it.

color slides from 1939 London honey moon found in attic

this may be in the top 10 most fun things you'll see this year

Steampunk restaurant... awesome!

the neighbors are getting upset at the neglected Porsche

Thursday, July 17, 2014

some are talented, and some are renaissance man/woman... I give you, Christine McConnell


update Oct 2018, she got a Netflix special!



the Viper collection





Challenger SRT Hellcat infographic, impressive.

Bicycle Bar, Bucharest, Romania

brilliant artist Gilbert Legrand makes anthropomorphic art from tools and hardware

in other developments, a floating trailer great for a day on the lake, or in the campsites




I recommend from my 3 years experience with an 8 ft rowboat, you get at least a 2 hp outboard that doesn't need the oil and gas mixed.

Found on http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/sealander-land-and-water-camper?context=featured

"old 79" is a "Dain" John Deere (1918) found in Minnesota, the owners weren't aware of it's historic significance




Images found on http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/viewtopic.php?t=851953

The Dain, which pre-dates John Deere’s first 2-cylinder tractor (the 1923 Model D), was put on permanent display at the John Deere Collectors Center in Moline, Ill., March 13, 2004.

Joseph Dain – a company vice president, board member and head of the patent and experimental department – began work on an “efficient, small-plow tractor” in 1914. Building on the failed attempt by C.H. Melvin, and later Max Slovsky, to develop a 3-bottom motor plow a few years before, Dain set to work on his own model.

Unfortunately, Dain died of pneumonia on Halloween 1917 after spending a wet, cold week field-testing the tractor, just before the Dain’s production began. Even as the first 100 Dain tractors were built, Deere Co. bought the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Co., which manufactured both stationary engines and tractors. Deere  Co. suddenly had no reason to continue developing the Dain, and quickly fell in love with the Waterloo Boy kerosene-burning tractor, which was more affordable, equally advanced and already successfully in production.

The Dain was well-advanced, sporting features that John Deere tractors didn’t utilize until the 1960s and some not even until the 1980s. Many of those features include a gear-driven water pump, key ignition, on-the-go shifting, shiftless speed changing and positive traction. These features, however, made the Dain too expensive for most farmers to afford its $1,500 price tag.

This particular Dain tractor’s history started like any other. Emil Obitz of Stockton, Minn., bought the tractor from a John Deere dealer in Winona, Minn., in 1918. He used it for about a decade until he traded it for a Model D in 1928. The receiving dealership’s owner, in turn, loaned the Dain to his brother, who used it for a year then parked it in the trees because of an engine malfunction.

In 1930, Morris and Erwin Timm, who lived in rural Minnesota, purchased the Dain. The Timms bought it for the tractor’s chains, with which they wanted to repair a feed mill. Evidently, the brothers never got around to using the chains, and the Dain languished outdoors until 1962 when Frank Hansen purchased it for $1,000.

Hansen had known about the tractor’s whereabouts as a boy, and after he returned from military service, he researched and confirmed the special nature of the Dain. Hansen then restored the neglected Dain tractor from pure rust and displayed it at antique tractor shows until he died about a year ago.

text from  http://www.farmcollector.com/company-history/slipping-through-the-cracks-of-history.aspx#axzz37kDHjYwx

The John Deere company has an event every even numbered year in Moline, called the Gathering of the Green


Sam Elliot on a Harley... that is mighty cool. (probably from the movie Mask)

cool image, first time I've ever seen Mustangs leaving the factory

cripes! There was even a car on Gilligan's Island!

my 2 cents worth


Above, is Gene Winfield. Legend. Awesome guy, always friendly with a handshake and a moment to chat.


Above, is Bill Hines. Legend. Cool guy I've only met once at Gene's open house, he was mobbed by admirers, I didn't get to chat. Recognized as the best to ever chop a Merc.


This asshole cheated on Sondra Bullock

Point to ponder, Harley Davidson has some tough customers to please, but I don't think they've realized they ought to capitalize on that

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

the seven car Dodge Scat Pack on the road in the San Francisco area

two terrific vintage transporters

adding to the variety of odd and unusual postal delivery vehicles, an AMC Ambassador

International protest of Uber by cabbies last month, London,Paris, Madrid, Berlin... and in San Fransisco, a taxi cab president predicts cabs will be out of business by 2016

More than 30,000 drivers from London, Paris, Madrid, and Berlin blocked access to airports, shopping districts, and tourist centers, in hopes that the demonstrations would convince regulators to apply stricter rules to Uber. The biggest turnout is in London, with an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 drivers of black cabs and private hire cars converging on Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square, snarling traffic in a "go-slow protest."

On the other side of the globe, taxi drivers in Rio de Janeiro also disrupted traffic to protest Uber ahead of the World Cup.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3031779/most-innovative-companies/on-two-continents-cabbies-protest-uber-by-bringing-traffic-to-a-st

But why are they protesting, what are Uber and Lyft if not just other taxi services? (answer...honest)

.... San Francisco's taxi system is notoriously horrible, with too few cabs on the road, too many cabbies who lie about having broken credit card machines so customers will pay cash, and problematic drivers.

A look at 1,700 customer complaints by the Bay Citizen reveals all sorts of issues, including cabbies smoking, texting while driving, falling asleep at the wheel, and just being rude.

 In some cities, ridesharing services like Lyft, Sidecar, and Uber are just starting to take hold. But in San Francisco, they're already clobbering the taxi industry. The president of DeSoto Cab Co., one of the biggest cab companies in the city, said in a recent interview that he would be surprised if San Francisco's cab industry survives another 18 months.

It's not that ridesharing services are perfect, but when getting a cab is nearly impossible, apps promise quick rider pick-ups, online payments, and these new rideshare companies have two-way driver/rider rating systems.... and taxis? Don't.

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3031448/heres-an-idea/head-of-san-francisco-cab-company-predicts-lyft-and-uber-will-put-the-industry


“Just as broadband served as rocket fuel for Google, smartphones and the always-on mobile Internet are powering Uber.”

Uber, like Google, is taking a highly disorganized business--in its case, private transportation such as taxicabs and private limousines--and ordering it neatly. Just as broadband served as rocket fuel for Google, smartphones and the always-on mobile Internet are powering Uber. CEO Travis Kalanick is playing the speed game as well: Uber has expanded rapidly into more than 90 cities in 34 countries worldwide, adding drivers (and cars) by the thousands because more cars means getting one to pick you up more quickly. The faster that happens, the less likely you are to look elsewhere. As a result, both Google and Uber are hated by those who fear the repercussions of the more efficient worlds they're creating.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3029457/technovore/uber-is-the-new-google

the DeSoto Cab Company of San Francisco... has zero connection to anything named DeSoto, the car, explorer, etc. But does have some cool claims

2nd largest fleet of wheelchair accessible taxis in California
Oldest and largest taxi company in San Fran


Why did I post this? I was curious why they are named DeSoto, and if they had any cool old DeSoto cars. Among their cars in the 50's, they had hemis. 

the lemon law

I was curious after having had my Veloster repaired a couple times...  what is the lemon law, does it apply, can I get them to replace my car with one that isn't as problematical?

Well, if in the first 18000 miles, you have one problem that needs repaired 4 times, you might be in luck, if all the rest of the fine print doesn't exempt you

http://oag.ca.gov/consumers/general/lemon

If you're looking for a new vehicle, you might want to know about complaints on that make and model, maybe even the year http://www.carcomplaints.com/

with one little sentence, a car review is just worthless

The powerful roof lights, operated by an instrument panel switch, are very bright and quickly turn day into night.

Found on http://www.allpar.com/model/jeep/liberty-renegade.html

Well, the sci fi dark lords of the Sith might go for that sort of thing... but the rest of us will wonder of any other simple slips occurred when you praised something you meant to critique

Close calls, when it's not your time, and don't be in such a damn hurry to cross the road in traffic!

car transport company damages new jeeps in delivery, cleverly showed up after the receiving inspector left for the day, had some sales man sign for the Jeeps





funny bus commercial

this is pretty well controlled rage, I hope everyone can control their rage at someone causing a collision because they were texting. But don't smash the phone, it's evidence they were guilty