Hey Jack, I wanted to share this little video of Yuki versus Liam in stock cars with you...just in case you hadn't seen it yet buddy. I figured you'd love to cheer on Yuki no matter what he's driving.
Couldn't the screen that's right behind it in the photo just do that? I plug my phone in to the car and Spotify shows up on the screen alongside Google maps and whatever else is on my phone,and the steering wheel buttons can control it. The set of people who use Spotify and don't have car play / android auto is probably pretty small. Of course getting rid of car play / AA is yet another stupid GM decision.
This is a 2014 Accord that does not have Android Auto or any particularly advanced interface. It will show you half the song's name on that lower screen and that's it.
You can call me small, but I play Spotify from my iPhone through an adaptor to the cassette player on my 1999 Lexus. Seems to work rather better than some of the new fangled hook-ups mentioned here. As does the car, btw...
NGL, I despise that companies can brick a device nowadays (for the last 15 years). I still want to give someone at FitBit a belly to belly suplex like Magnum TA just so I can watch the light go out in their eyes when they hit the earth that hard.
Related: Alfred P Sloan laid the groundwork for a lot of bullshit in the auto industry. I think Mary is a direct successor of that. Meanwhile Cord, Studebaker, and AMC tried making good cars people wanted and got buried while GM grew into the infected cyst it is now. Much like my youtube feed at night, I'm watching and waiting for it to pop and ooze out.
Oh, for sure no. I'm just saying the best car maker didn't win, which was never going to happen anyway. It's important to note GM isn't dying because they're good at cars. They're dying because they still think like Alfred P Sloan.
And it's a shame because there were great American brands that died along the way while producing fantastic forward thinking product.
Ouch, get some ice for that burn. Sadly, for the most part the people who would be hurt by that comment were not in a position to do anything about it and the people who were don't care.
It could be argued that Roger Smith effectively eliminating GM brands' differences in an attempt to cut costs by sharing just about everything had more to do with GM dying than Sloan's original model. I'm not saying that I agree with that argument but it has a point. Jack once traced GM's decline to the heavily contented Chevy Caprice of the mid 1970s, which sort of made the point of BOP redundant. Smith accelerated that process.
VW seem to have been getting away with it for a while...but British Leyland didn't. But it's a bit of a smoke and mirrors game if you ask me - and eventually people wise up.
If I remember correctly Studebaker, AMC and Packard was supposed to happen to create a 4th in the Big 3. Someone high up in the deal ended up dying like 2 weeks before fruition or something…maybe from Studebaker iiirc…I’d have to Google and it’s fuzzy but basically because of the death the entire thing fell apart and all three faded quickly.
It was more of an ego thing. George Mason at Nash tried to effect a merger of the leading independents but James Nance, who ran Packard, wanted to head the merged company but as it was Mason's idea in the first place, he didn't want to yield the position. After Mason died in '54, his successor, George Romney didn't pursue the merger. Considering how bad the finances were at Packard and Studebaker, it's not clear if a Big 4th would have survived, but the fact that AMC, Packard, and Studebaker all spent big money developing their own individual modern V8 engines instead of sharing resources on one common engine family didn't help matters.
I really should’ve remembered more considering I spent a good year building an interactive timeline for Packard. The mind gets fuzzy after a decade. The amount of engines developed and automotive “firsts” done by Packard is truly astonishing.
*I live in Warren, OH; the birthplace of both the automobile and electric companies*
I think Mason had already merged Nash and Hudson which lead to the idea. I vaguely remember financial discrepancies with Studebaker that also helped sully things.
It more or less did. When it all eventually became Delphi, they had a huge focus on all sorts of things GM, though we did develop for the Big3 in general, they was easily the largest player. I worked for Delphi briefly before another giant culling prior to the Aptive changeover. It always amazed me how many brands were actually touched by the company, up to and including Ferrari.
The museum is nice. I’m surprised it’s able to stay open. I sat on the board of directors for a bit but they hemorrhage money like nobodies business. It’s not that they don’t try but there’s only so much interest there. In all it’s a very neat yet very forgotten part of history. I’ve hosted Cars and Coffee there, have done some NCCC Corvette shows to raise funds, local automotive podcast with a cable company etc but it’s tough. They have alot of cool traveling exhibits that come through there. It would make a great entertainment / banquet venue amongst the cars but I don’t believe they will ever stray much.
For their 100th anniversary of the motorcar they had a pebble beach level show in our ‘shitty’ adjoining park. People flew in Packard from all over the world to find Mecca in Warren.
I experience a weird phenomenon when assembling Harmonicasters. I get excited about how all the parts go together like they were designed to do so, even though I'm the guy who designed them and shouldn't be surprised.
With the little experience that I have in product design and development, I figure the only way things get done on an industrial scale is that corporations can throw huge amounts of money and personnel at a product.
When I worked at DuPont I once said to my chemist, all this modern paint works very, very well, but it's very close to the edge of the envelope and a lot can go wrong. I think the same applies to a lot of modern tech.
Ronnie YOU are the person that developed the apply and peal paint on 1980’s GM products. I know a lot customers that would like to have a conversation with you about how after only a year or two.(post warranty) the paint washed right off their red Olds 98’s and LaSabers….
To begin with, I started at DuPont in 1982, so that paint was probably developed before I was hired. Also, I worked on the refinish side of things, not OEM. Besides, I was just a bench tech, my chemist formulated the paint and I mixed the recipe.
I think Chrysler had a worse time with their paint peeling.
Peeling paint is typically a primer failure. The purpose of the primer is to give the topcoat something it can adhere to. If I recall correctly, there was not sufficient UV screener in the topcoats, allowing those rays to penetrate to the primer, degrading it. That's why the paint peeled off in panel-sized sheets.
I hope those companies selling cars and parts with exposed carbon fiber weave are putting enough UV screener in the clearcoat.
The folks working on the OEM side were always complaining about automakers trying to do stuff to save time and/or money that was not in the best interest of quality. BTW, GM tolerated one serious paint defect per 100 cars. At Honda it was one per thousand.
One of the tests we ran in the lab was for "hiding", spraying a color coat over a black and white checkerboard pattern to determine if you could still see the pattern after putting down a typical thickness of paint.
White paint, as you would expect, doesn't hide very well, so the primer may have been exposed to all sorts of light, including UV.
Titanium dioxide is the pigment used to make white paint and it isn't cheap so maybe someone was cutting corners.
Perhaps not as monetarily valuable as the 100 lb sacks labeled DuPont TiO2 being shipped from South America that were seized by the DEA because they were filled with cocaine, not pigment.
I am curious as to why so many vans here in the UK are painted white if it isn't cheap - we even have the phrase "white van man" for those who feel they can be snooty about the people who do the work over here. I seem to recall that the rather dull, pale(ish) blue was cheap from a manufacturing point of view, but things may have changed with the switch to water based paints over the years.
how very convenient that this guy who had everything going for him with zero destructive tendencies just suddenly snap and go dark for three months and then just shoot a ceo but also just hang around a mcdonalds with all the evidence on him and a manifesto
really gets the noggin joggin
anyway would a hypothetical male mary barra have been given so much lenience if he made exactly the same completely retarded mistakes or would he be shitcanned far earlier
call me a retarded incel but i still think the archetype of a leader doesnt really change and that positions at the very top of the food chain like that demand a type of man that is actually capable of taking the reins of one of the worlds (or at least americas) largest companies and steering it in the right direction and i really dont think mary is cut out for it and clearly neither is mark
"The emotion in Leclerc’s voice about winning the Constructors’ Championship"
trust me, there are plenty of male execs that make equally stupid decisions. plenty. you haven't experienced fully the dark sides of large corporations.
Where are the boards of GM and Ford? Things are so bad it is hard to believe they could let things get this bad. Losing billions per quarter seems to be unsustainable in my humble opinion.
There's some evidence that as much as 10% of public school students are the victims of sexual misconduct by teachers, counselors, coaches, and administrators. If that's accurate that surely dwarfs anything the RCC or Boy Scouts have experienced.
Institutions protect institutions.
I was once talking about the matter to a friend who is a rabbi with a national youth religious organization and whose father was a long time administrator at a local yeshiva.
He said that as far as he knew there had only been a handful of cases over the decades.
I replied, "Even so, how come I never heard about them?"
Many of these people are the same as the inbred monarchies a century or two ago. They're born into fortunes, but they're not very smart, nor are they well educated. There are no penalties for their misadventures, because someone else will always bail them out.
The worst part of history is the occasional dark age mankind falls into. The wanton destruction of knowledge is the most egregious of crimes, for it cannot be redressed. Humans making new humans is something we're good at, though.
Keep in mind that conservatives are big on civilization's fineness because we know just how fragile it is. We seem to be forever perched on the edge of an abyss, and it doesn't take much to send the whole edifice tumbling. Archduke Ferdinand comes to mind.
At the risk of invoking some kind of "Godwin's Law" type of offense I will say this about so-called leadership: After 9/11 nobody went to jail for their myriad failures, nobody lost their job, nobody was even demoted.
To continue this somewhat tortured analogy, there is some class of lizard that seems to be immune from consequences. In the case of 9/11 and its aftermath there were people at State and Justice that should have been hung, and if you read "Ghost Wars" probably Clinton himself, although surprisingly not Tenet, who should have faced some kind of consequence. Similarly, as our host has often pointed out, the lizards who move headquarters and force the plebes to uproot their families regardless of what year their children are in school, if it is mid-year, or even the relative housing costs of the market they are moving to. Of course they move on as soon as another "opportunity" presents itself leaving a destroyed community and economically devastated families in his or her wake while pocketing a multimillion dollar fortune.
Timely & tasteful reference to the fact that both Floyd and Chauvin did private security at the same nightclub. My guess: no one has the stomach to unwind that ball of worms. (Better to use the event to fit one's priors)
Regarding another possible 'why', that is the prime age for psychotic breaks.
As for '3D printing' being a yuge problem to be fixed, 1 Million NCIS checks were made *last month* for gun sales. It is safe to assume a few of those will be lost and/or stolen. That said, this assassination could also have been performed successfully with a zip gun made after a trip to Home Depot.
"Regarding another possible 'why', that is the prime age for psychotic breaks"
^ this
Sounds like he was taking psychedelics - maybe to help deal with his spine pain? - and was also in a frat with a rec-drug reputation. The likelihood of psychosis side effects is small... but it's much higher than zero.
THC levels (and Lord knows what else) are higher than ever and the stuff is everywhere and in everything. Psychotic breaks are more frequent and this is very likely the cause. Young brains don't like it.
Haven't I posted several rants about GM? Didn't I post something about how to fix GM?
Agree - the whole Cruise thing was just stupidity.
What I can't quite understand is how someone who graduated from GMI can make such awful decisions, other than to partially blame it on the decades long group think insanity in the RenCen.
By the way, have you seen where GM wants Detroit/MI to put up $300M to help tear down part of the RenCen?
yeah, but its iconic. ha. that building was mess from the day it was built (my dad worked on the construction). I just object to tax $ going to tear it down. after more tax $ have gone to constructing a new GM HQ on the old Hudson's site.
Plenty of GMI attendees are aspiring GM management climber sociopaths. It has a reputation for graduating lots of CEOs and executives.
That being said, any woman of average weight and looks and with midwit IQ could skate through on the wings of simps.
While women have tremendous sensitivity to whatever the current social zeitgeist is, I don’t think many of them would be independent enough thinkers to predict 5-7 years ahead of time what the trends might be. As long as you are merely a reactive leader, you will be forever wasting money to come in 2nd or 3rd or last place in whatever the new thing is.
I was about to say the same but you beat me to it. I've noticed anecdotally within my cohort that of the alumni still slogging it out at GM, the women climbing the ladder far quicker than the men who started at equal levels.
There were a few genuinely smart women attending when I was there, but they were far overshadowed by Mrs. degree chasers.
Serious question for people with insider knowledge / engineers more knowledgeable:
-Wasn't the understanding that cruise would never work without someone (in South America) providing "remote driving" in a sim suite for $1/hr ? Was this not the assumption?
-Was the technology for the aforementioned "low budget colombian emergency-handler drivers" not adequate latency / reliability / something?
Oh there was and still are lots of fantasies out in Silicon Valley that fully autonomous vehicles are perfectly possible, without any remote driver hacks, with just a few more software revisions. Though they are partly naive due to living in places with very nice weather. I still want to see an autonomous vehicle navigate I75 in MI or I80 in Nebraska in a raging blizzard. (I’ve had the “pleasure” of doing both.
It seems to me that raging blizzard or not, Interstate highways are probably one application where some level of autonomy might be useful. There are far more limited events on an Interstate than when driving on urban or suburban roads.
I don't want a car that can drive me to Kroger's all by itself, but a car that keeps me from running off the road in case I fall asleep on my way back from NYC would be nice.
This is why, IMO, GM's supercruise is an underrated technology. Unless I am mistaken, years ago they took the time to actually map the roads and lanelines. It's possible that SuperCruise would work even when other autonomous or ADAS systems would brick.
yes it works well on a controlled access highway, until there is construction zone that is not in the database and/or where the lane markings have not been adequately repainted.
Did I see they want to tear down one of the phase 2 buildings off to the side of the main five? Or do they want to take one or more of the four surrounding the center building?
I Googled this abortion! That’s going to always look “off!”
I’m trying to think, or visualize, at what angle you see the complex when you crest the Rouge River bridge on NB I-75, which is the only angle on any of the inbound freeways that you can see the skyline from a distance; I would hope you could still see a “classic view” of the main tower and the two alongside. [Edit: There’s the view on WB I-94 at the Lodge as well, but you’re amongst some of the northern buildings at that point, e.g., the Fisher.] At some angles, it’s going to look like half a cake! At Belle Isle and everyplace else both up-and-downriver from the on the water, to name only a couple.
Why don’t they take down phase 2 and the lower level there, as well as the surround at the base of the main towers? Then they can have all the green space they want, and the footpath from the city to the complex can jog a little eastward once it goes over or under Jefferson. (Have they ripped out the I-675 spur yet?)
Is the People Mover still a thing? That comes right to the base of the complex now, as I recall. Used to go right through Huntington Center, which I always knew as Cobo Hall!
In honor of the GM musings, a question for my fellow degenerates:
Do I sell my S550 GT350 and AEV built Bison ZR2 to fund a CT5 V Blackwing/6spd purchase?
The mustang has enormous sentimental value, but I’ve done just about everything there is to do with it (Tracked it, Dailied it, drove it cross country, etc.). The 1 car solution + final ever performance sedan worth owning has strong appeal, but I’m worried it will be too numb, too big, and too…GM.
Good point. I did when I purchased it, but my situation has changed dramatically since then and I don’t need it anymore. It spends most of its life on road now.
True, I’m just struggling to find any opportunities, especially given I’d like to drive one with the new precision pack for 2025. I don’t think my imagination can properly fill in the gaps of the manual from driving a 10spd car either
When Jack started the 'stack I was in the process of over-reaching for one - had an Electric Blue six-speed all but ordered - but it didn't work out and subsequent price hikes really killed the whole thing for me.
I'll probably end up with a lightly used ZL1 in the Spring, but I can only imaging how glorious the well appointed four door would have been. If you can swing it, don't let it pass you by! Unfortunately that color has been discontinued but there's a new lighter version called Drift that looks pretty good and I love the green/teal tones of the other new Typhoon paint!
I find that the one car solution is a myth at worst and near impossible at best, and that I prefer having multiple cars with different specialties. You can buy the best hammer in the world but it’ll never be great at turning screws.
That said, maybe ditch the 350 before it has an expensive failure, especially since you’ve already gotten some great driving out of it.
Other than having a SLIGHT improvement to NVH and interior fittings, I don't know what the CT5BW will do that your Mustang won't. That being said, I don't think you'd lose a lot of money on it.
I always value and appreciate your perspective Jack. The only other thing I can think of that the blackwing can do is accept a seat protector for transporting my Husky.
The 5V BW 6-speed is such a great sedan. I have a '23 model and I always have a smile on my face while driving it. There is so much instant torque with a wonderful exhaust that it's hard to imagine this even being available in today's age. And, in keeping with the article, I can't believe this came from GM. They really do have great, passionate engineers that occasionally get something past management.
I heard from one engineer that they were pressured to only offer the automatic as each transmission required a whole new series of crash testing and other validation activities. They were adamant that this thing would have a manual and finally won the argument. It was not easy, nor short but if they didn't care about their job, they would not have fought so hard. So I always give those guys credit for getting this thing made. I think it's downright American to own one as we (probably) won't be able to in the future.
And compared to the new M5, it is downright svelte at 4100 lbs (compared to 5400! lbs). It can also brake and turn (not quite as well as my S2000, but it makes up for it with acceleration). I have passed a GT350 on track with mine. (That may not mean much as experience can play large part in amateur track days).
Mary Barra…where to begin? I initially had hopes due to her engineering background. Before long, Barra developed the same competency flu that perpetually invades The General’s C-suite. The latest events reinforce my point.
I wonder if The Car Czar would have forced her out had Barra been at the helm during the post-2008 fascism push instead of Wagoner. I fail to see much difference overall. Would estrogen have saved the blessed Mary?
Don't say the word flu please. I'm starting to get an idea how people with cholera feel. Spent the last 24 hours either sweating in bed or sitting on the can.
Even worse - okay, maybe just as bad - than Barra's handling of The General is the fact that I have to subscribe to some dude's Substack to read an honest take about the whole thing because the automotive "press" has fewer balls than GM's C-Suite!
I used to subscribe to Automotive News (AN) to receive the latest news and sales stats for the industry. My frustrations grew over the years as I became aware that AN played everything safe so as to not upset their key constituents: manufacturers, suppliers, dealers, and the UAW. While I admire their tightrope walk to some degree but was nevertheless annoyed that the real story still wasn’t being reported.
Back when the Detroit auto show was truly international, Keith Crain would walk the floor at Cobo like he was some kind of Middle Eastern Pasha expecting tribute.
I was surprised that the AN folks get press cars. Good friend of my dad’s worked there (and I think still does; a very good guy so I won’t dox him) and showed up to dinner in an X5 press car. Despite not writing reviews.
The NYC shooter quickly went from being a media-proclaimed professional to being amazingly stupid, IRL, IMHO. It is disappointing, in a sense, to have this play out so underwhelmingly. I should not be disappointed to see a cold-blooded killer caught, but still ... guess he wasn't professional at all, is one conclusion. As to the rest of the mysteries surrounding why this, why that ... I guess we will hear all about it, with no real understanding at any point.
I think my question is whether Hoodie Smiling Man is the same guy who shot the CEO. And then is this Luigi fellow the same as hoodie guy? Because he doesn't really look like it, to me. Sure, they both have huge eyebrows. But the rest of his face..?
I don't know if a lot of our fellows here have had the unfortunate luck of ever having to review security camera footage. This level of distortion ain't even that bad!
Well, never underestimate what a trained and committed amateur can do. Occasionally you'll get a real circus shot from one of them, such as [REDACTED] who shot a man in the heart while [REDACTED] Ford Taurus [REDACTED] 63mph [REDACTED]
maybe [REDACTED] will at the least share the story of the genuinely, side-splittingly hilarious "government cheese prank" he played at the check-cashing joint...
OT: I bought sennheiser IE200s to complement a new mic to stop using my Sennheiser 518s with no-name chifi boom mic adapter. My wife swears the decade of constant over-the-ear headphone use has thinned my hair on the top of my skull.
The IE200s hurt my ears. What do you do to get the little ear tips to not hurt? I've tried all the sizes (rubber and memory foam) and am still struggling. There's a poor seal and no bass with most of the tips, which is disappointing. I'd expect them to sound at least as good as my trusty 280 Pros, if not as nice as the open-backed, bassy HD518s.
Today marks the completion of my 70th trip around the sun. I've worn hats almost continuously since I was a teen. I own two fedoras, four if you count my straw hats and if I'm not wearing one of them I likely have a baseball cap on. I still have a full head of hair. Pretty sure the X chromosome that I got from my mother's father has more to do with it than headwear.
As a motorcyclist, I rely on "triple mushroom" earplugs, and if I have any that aren't broken, Etymotic-style wired in-ear headphones with triple mushroom plugs, to avoid totally deafening myself with Kumamoto's *finest* music.
Two keys, 1) wearing all day they are gonna earcanalrape you. 2) you must get the right size, and the size differences (eg what comes with a set of Etymotics) is infinitesimal-seeming, 3) the only way to make in-ear headphones all day comfortable is with foam ear plugs to replace the triple-mushrooms. You will lose some sealing and you will lose some noise reduction if you choose foamies over triple mushrooms.
Sizing dependent, that was my experience yeah. But if your ear canals line up really well with a given plug size, you might be good for a 10h day. Amazon is useful here, they have hundreds of different sizes and types of tips available
Near field power transfer into your earholes vs. Midfield (if lucky). Note that I've had short term (1-2 day swelling and earache) inflammation issues (on the side of my head and inside ear) from circum-aural headphones worn for 8+ hours at a time at mid/high volumes as well.
For the over-ear stuff, to deliver the power they use larger and better quality permanent magnets, and again, you're directly exposing your ears, eyes and brain to the field generated by it. Nobody has done any kind of study to show that this is safe, and based on personal experience I don't believe it is.
My acoustics professor was absolutely against using anything nearfield for sound (so in ear stuff is rejected) for this reason.
The problem is that new products continue to get better and more affordable and produce psychoacoustic based imaging better than the equivalent speakers and room treatments. So they stay tempting..
Hmm. So you're saying there's certainly some impact from having big ol' magnets clamped on the side of your head in a big headphone (how/whether that affects health can never be proved). But your professor would say that something in your ear canal delivering the same SPL as something outside your ears still causes more impact to the cilia and tiny bones than reference speakers sitting two feet on your desk, and maybe also headphones perched on your ear?
I got these IEMs 'cause I figured they would be MORE comfortable than typical sports-styled ear buds. But I'm on the struggle bus.
i wear a pair of headphones at the lowest possible volume for the sole purpose of blocking out external sound at home with white noise and i do so for the majority of the day
I bought those Moondrop Space Travel buds that Jack recommended. Almost lost one in the toilet. Going back to the sport buds that hook over the ear.
Edit: They do sound pretty good though they could be a bit louder to these old ears. The noise suppression comes in handy when I'm spraying paint, running the compressor. Since I also wear ear muffs I'm not so worried about them falling out into the spray booth.
If anyone wants to tell me why the fourth place finisher was doing donuts at the finish line— where I’ve only ever noticed *podium cars*, often sitting quietly— I’m keen to know.
You’ll never hear a cross word from me about donuts. 4th place finisher out-celebrating a bunch of people who out-drove him is tickyTack, like wearing next year’s colors to and from this year’s race.
I seem to recall hearing on the Sky Sports broadcast that the FIA, or maybe Liberty, set that up - it wasn't Lewis just deciding to do it. someone high up sanctioned it
Which is true and only goes to show that Mercedes-Benz really is the FIA's team. It would be one thing if Hamilton were retiring, but he's just changing teams. They didn't invite Bottas to do donuts, and he was ending a long and reasonably successful career.
Mary’s loss will be truly impressive when you add in whatever the EV business ends up losing too.
Surpassing even Doug Oberhelman’s complete write down of the $7.6 billion purchase of Bucyrus in 2010. In 2013 it was worth zero. To add insult to injury there was also the purchase of a $500 million scam Chinese company, maybe it was a bribe, who knows.
If you live in city, in which most of your driving is urban, than an EV makes tons of sense. I wouldn't poo poo them that way. Even I'd own one and I hate them.
my point was GM can't seem to sell them in a market area where there are a lot of EV sales. agree that EVs work best when you can charge at home. We have one for that very purpose, along with two other plug-in hybrids.
Hey Jack, I wanted to share this little video of Yuki versus Liam in stock cars with you...just in case you hadn't seen it yet buddy. I figured you'd love to cheer on Yuki no matter what he's driving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0UYl3Qh6Is
I WATCHED IT THE DAY IT CAME OUT! ARE YOU CRAZY!
Thank you, I'm still gonna pin this.
I wasn't sure if I was supposed to enjoy watching it, but I did! (i watched it Tuesday afternoon to try to forget my daughter's choir concert)
That’s great stuff!
Yuki in NASCAR would be a thing to behold, I would watch every race. Nobody would be complaining about his temper over there.
sushi tunoda makes it look easy
Couldn't the screen that's right behind it in the photo just do that? I plug my phone in to the car and Spotify shows up on the screen alongside Google maps and whatever else is on my phone,and the steering wheel buttons can control it. The set of people who use Spotify and don't have car play / android auto is probably pretty small. Of course getting rid of car play / AA is yet another stupid GM decision.
Yeah, but then your CarPlay in a 2016 Honda Accord just freezes for no reason when you’re running the GPS for maps and Plexamp.
It’s annoying.
Would rather have a device that has one job. You have just one job!
This is a 2014 Accord that does not have Android Auto or any particularly advanced interface. It will show you half the song's name on that lower screen and that's it.
I’ll bet there’s an aftermarket Android Auto module that plugs into the AUX input on the head unit somewhere.
There is but it is pretty janky with the dual screen setup in the high end trim Accord our esteemed author pilots.
I didn't think car play and android auto were common until 2016? Avg age of the US fleet is over 12 years.
You can call me small, but I play Spotify from my iPhone through an adaptor to the cassette player on my 1999 Lexus. Seems to work rather better than some of the new fangled hook-ups mentioned here. As does the car, btw...
NGL, I despise that companies can brick a device nowadays (for the last 15 years). I still want to give someone at FitBit a belly to belly suplex like Magnum TA just so I can watch the light go out in their eyes when they hit the earth that hard.
Related: Alfred P Sloan laid the groundwork for a lot of bullshit in the auto industry. I think Mary is a direct successor of that. Meanwhile Cord, Studebaker, and AMC tried making good cars people wanted and got buried while GM grew into the infected cyst it is now. Much like my youtube feed at night, I'm watching and waiting for it to pop and ooze out.
interesting comment about those companies
do you think it was ever going to be possible for them to exist selling cars all at the same time forever
that era of auto manufacturing really does seem overcrowded but that could be me looking at it with modern eyes
Oh, for sure no. I'm just saying the best car maker didn't win, which was never going to happen anyway. It's important to note GM isn't dying because they're good at cars. They're dying because they still think like Alfred P Sloan.
And it's a shame because there were great American brands that died along the way while producing fantastic forward thinking product.
In GM's case in particular they always did their best work after everything else failed and it was too late, see Olds Alero, Solstice GXP, etc.
These efforts, by and large, still weren't great
Ouch, get some ice for that burn. Sadly, for the most part the people who would be hurt by that comment were not in a position to do anything about it and the people who were don't care.
As an Ex-GM employee, I am far too well acquainted with how dysfunctional that place is.
It could be argued that Roger Smith effectively eliminating GM brands' differences in an attempt to cut costs by sharing just about everything had more to do with GM dying than Sloan's original model. I'm not saying that I agree with that argument but it has a point. Jack once traced GM's decline to the heavily contented Chevy Caprice of the mid 1970s, which sort of made the point of BOP redundant. Smith accelerated that process.
I think the root of this would be in the corporate common platforms or components that John DeLorean complained about
VW seem to have been getting away with it for a while...but British Leyland didn't. But it's a bit of a smoke and mirrors game if you ask me - and eventually people wise up.
It's not that the idea is necessarily bad, it the execution is critical.
If I remember correctly Studebaker, AMC and Packard was supposed to happen to create a 4th in the Big 3. Someone high up in the deal ended up dying like 2 weeks before fruition or something…maybe from Studebaker iiirc…I’d have to Google and it’s fuzzy but basically because of the death the entire thing fell apart and all three faded quickly.
that sounds familiar
i do recall the studebaker packard merger though
It was more of an ego thing. George Mason at Nash tried to effect a merger of the leading independents but James Nance, who ran Packard, wanted to head the merged company but as it was Mason's idea in the first place, he didn't want to yield the position. After Mason died in '54, his successor, George Romney didn't pursue the merger. Considering how bad the finances were at Packard and Studebaker, it's not clear if a Big 4th would have survived, but the fact that AMC, Packard, and Studebaker all spent big money developing their own individual modern V8 engines instead of sharing resources on one common engine family didn't help matters.
I really should’ve remembered more considering I spent a good year building an interactive timeline for Packard. The mind gets fuzzy after a decade. The amount of engines developed and automotive “firsts” done by Packard is truly astonishing.
*I live in Warren, OH; the birthplace of both the automobile and electric companies*
I think Mason had already merged Nash and Hudson which lead to the idea. I vaguely remember financial discrepancies with Studebaker that also helped sully things.
I’ve been to the Packard museum in Warren. If I’m not mistaken, the electric company became part of GM.
It more or less did. When it all eventually became Delphi, they had a huge focus on all sorts of things GM, though we did develop for the Big3 in general, they was easily the largest player. I worked for Delphi briefly before another giant culling prior to the Aptive changeover. It always amazed me how many brands were actually touched by the company, up to and including Ferrari.
The museum is nice. I’m surprised it’s able to stay open. I sat on the board of directors for a bit but they hemorrhage money like nobodies business. It’s not that they don’t try but there’s only so much interest there. In all it’s a very neat yet very forgotten part of history. I’ve hosted Cars and Coffee there, have done some NCCC Corvette shows to raise funds, local automotive podcast with a cable company etc but it’s tough. They have alot of cool traveling exhibits that come through there. It would make a great entertainment / banquet venue amongst the cars but I don’t believe they will ever stray much.
For their 100th anniversary of the motorcar they had a pebble beach level show in our ‘shitty’ adjoining park. People flew in Packard from all over the world to find Mecca in Warren.
I'd prefer a spinebuster done by Arn Anderson, gives it wider area for maximum impact.
A fellow man of quality in the comments. Nice.
Woooo!
+1 for Magnum TA.
In honor of your opinion of Alfred, I propose the Sloan Museum in Flint for the next First Principles meeting!
wait that sounds dangerously like a good idea
We could casually shift it to the "No Principles Meeting."
But I like it. I'll bring bottled water.
Home of Bill Mitchell's last hurrah, the Phantom.
I'd be down for a Flint FP, it has been a few years since I have been back.
Flint? Bring your gun.
Odds are if I’m wearing pants, I’m also carrying a gun.
Sloan's model worked very well for half a century.
Cord was a statistically insignificant automaker. Historically and technologically significant but more of a footnote than a major player.
Studebaker had big quality control issues in the '50s.
AMC was always trying to make silk purses out of sow's ears.
What probably hurt the independents more than anything else was GM & Ford's price war in the early '50s as Henry Ford II tried to overtake GM.
I am amazed when anything works, companies or devices.
Sad, isn't it? I have the same reaction
Indeed, sir. The world is broken.
The Machine Stops.
Forester is correct!
https://x.com/paprbckparadise/status/1811086763571695970
From the OP replies:
"I have been writing woke skeleton sex scenes for 20 years"
backbone of modern american lit
Gives new meaning to the term “boner!”
"The kids they dance, and shake their bones."
https://www.linflux.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/wohlgemuth-578x700.jpg
The carmugeons call this “the shitification” of everything.
"Beshittening" is the word, according to Jack...
i thought it was enshittification
Guys, guys, it's all those things and more!
I experience a weird phenomenon when assembling Harmonicasters. I get excited about how all the parts go together like they were designed to do so, even though I'm the guy who designed them and shouldn't be surprised.
With the little experience that I have in product design and development, I figure the only way things get done on an industrial scale is that corporations can throw huge amounts of money and personnel at a product.
When I worked at DuPont I once said to my chemist, all this modern paint works very, very well, but it's very close to the edge of the envelope and a lot can go wrong. I think the same applies to a lot of modern tech.
Ronnie YOU are the person that developed the apply and peal paint on 1980’s GM products. I know a lot customers that would like to have a conversation with you about how after only a year or two.(post warranty) the paint washed right off their red Olds 98’s and LaSabers….
To begin with, I started at DuPont in 1982, so that paint was probably developed before I was hired. Also, I worked on the refinish side of things, not OEM. Besides, I was just a bench tech, my chemist formulated the paint and I mixed the recipe.
I think Chrysler had a worse time with their paint peeling.
Peeling paint is typically a primer failure. The purpose of the primer is to give the topcoat something it can adhere to. If I recall correctly, there was not sufficient UV screener in the topcoats, allowing those rays to penetrate to the primer, degrading it. That's why the paint peeled off in panel-sized sheets.
I hope those companies selling cars and parts with exposed carbon fiber weave are putting enough UV screener in the clearcoat.
The folks working on the OEM side were always complaining about automakers trying to do stuff to save time and/or money that was not in the best interest of quality. BTW, GM tolerated one serious paint defect per 100 cars. At Honda it was one per thousand.
early white miatas were terrible for paint peeling
https://www.reddit.com/r/Miata/comments/2xxo63/paint_peeling_on_white_92_miata_what_kind_of_fix/
the other colours didnt fare much better for other reasons
One of the tests we ran in the lab was for "hiding", spraying a color coat over a black and white checkerboard pattern to determine if you could still see the pattern after putting down a typical thickness of paint.
White paint, as you would expect, doesn't hide very well, so the primer may have been exposed to all sorts of light, including UV.
Titanium dioxide is the pigment used to make white paint and it isn't cheap so maybe someone was cutting corners.
Perhaps not as monetarily valuable as the 100 lb sacks labeled DuPont TiO2 being shipped from South America that were seized by the DEA because they were filled with cocaine, not pigment.
that comment went from interesting to incredibly interesting very quick
I am curious as to why so many vans here in the UK are painted white if it isn't cheap - we even have the phrase "white van man" for those who feel they can be snooty about the people who do the work over here. I seem to recall that the rather dull, pale(ish) blue was cheap from a manufacturing point of view, but things may have changed with the switch to water based paints over the years.
"I hope those companies selling cars and parts with exposed carbon fiber weave are putting enough UV screener in the clearcoat."
Based on the condition of most carbon roof equipped BMW M cars >5-6 yrs old I can tell you the boys in Bavaria have not
how very convenient that this guy who had everything going for him with zero destructive tendencies just suddenly snap and go dark for three months and then just shoot a ceo but also just hang around a mcdonalds with all the evidence on him and a manifesto
really gets the noggin joggin
anyway would a hypothetical male mary barra have been given so much lenience if he made exactly the same completely retarded mistakes or would he be shitcanned far earlier
call me a retarded incel but i still think the archetype of a leader doesnt really change and that positions at the very top of the food chain like that demand a type of man that is actually capable of taking the reins of one of the worlds (or at least americas) largest companies and steering it in the right direction and i really dont think mary is cut out for it and clearly neither is mark
"The emotion in Leclerc’s voice about winning the Constructors’ Championship"
did i miss something or did mclaren win that
trust me, there are plenty of male execs that make equally stupid decisions. plenty. you haven't experienced fully the dark sides of large corporations.
i have every reason to believe you and i do
i am desperately grasping for some contrived explanation as to why she can still be employed there after everything thats transpired
the board would have to admit there is a problem. denial is rampant at that level.
Where are the boards of GM and Ford? Things are so bad it is hard to believe they could let things get this bad. Losing billions per quarter seems to be unsustainable in my humble opinion.
As Mr. Farago once put it, it's a board of bystanders
They hired her. It's like rooting out pedophiles from ecclesiastical institutions. Nobody wants to admit they hired a loser.
or the public school system for that matter
wonder what else is hidden for fear of a scandal
There's some evidence that as much as 10% of public school students are the victims of sexual misconduct by teachers, counselors, coaches, and administrators. If that's accurate that surely dwarfs anything the RCC or Boy Scouts have experienced.
Institutions protect institutions.
I was once talking about the matter to a friend who is a rabbi with a national youth religious organization and whose father was a long time administrator at a local yeshiva.
He said that as far as he knew there had only been a handful of cases over the decades.
I replied, "Even so, how come I never heard about them?"
If stock suffers though, heads eventually have to roll.
I mean, it takes someone with just a handful of shares to sue a board, right? (Only if you are suing the right board and the right CEO)
Many of these people are the same as the inbred monarchies a century or two ago. They're born into fortunes, but they're not very smart, nor are they well educated. There are no penalties for their misadventures, because someone else will always bail them out.
except this time we cant revolt and force them under a guillotine
super
Sooner or later it will happen.
It always comes around again.
That's why they don't want people studying history - they might notice how often it repeats.
anxious to see what will happen in canada with that in mind
been a while since weve had a proper revolution and the powder keg keeps getting bigger
The worst part of history is the occasional dark age mankind falls into. The wanton destruction of knowledge is the most egregious of crimes, for it cannot be redressed. Humans making new humans is something we're good at, though.
Keep in mind that conservatives are big on civilization's fineness because we know just how fragile it is. We seem to be forever perched on the edge of an abyss, and it doesn't take much to send the whole edifice tumbling. Archduke Ferdinand comes to mind.
yup
they also dont want to be the ones that are in power when everything goes to hell
At the risk of invoking some kind of "Godwin's Law" type of offense I will say this about so-called leadership: After 9/11 nobody went to jail for their myriad failures, nobody lost their job, nobody was even demoted.
But plenty of people have been downsized due to corporate bad decisions.
Need some accountability…
To continue this somewhat tortured analogy, there is some class of lizard that seems to be immune from consequences. In the case of 9/11 and its aftermath there were people at State and Justice that should have been hung, and if you read "Ghost Wars" probably Clinton himself, although surprisingly not Tenet, who should have faced some kind of consequence. Similarly, as our host has often pointed out, the lizards who move headquarters and force the plebes to uproot their families regardless of what year their children are in school, if it is mid-year, or even the relative housing costs of the market they are moving to. Of course they move on as soon as another "opportunity" presents itself leaving a destroyed community and economically devastated families in his or her wake while pocketing a multimillion dollar fortune.
My argument to those who've been downsized: start your own business.
Well, that's because [COMMENTER BANNED FROM FORUM]
We love our Federal law enforcement professionals, don't we folks?
They're the best at killing unarmed women while said women hold their infant child in their arms!
constable floyd on the case
Constable horuchi
Timely & tasteful reference to the fact that both Floyd and Chauvin did private security at the same nightclub. My guess: no one has the stomach to unwind that ball of worms. (Better to use the event to fit one's priors)
Of course! Actual desperadoes shoot back, and that's just NOT FAIR!
I will add two minor points:
Regarding another possible 'why', that is the prime age for psychotic breaks.
As for '3D printing' being a yuge problem to be fixed, 1 Million NCIS checks were made *last month* for gun sales. It is safe to assume a few of those will be lost and/or stolen. That said, this assassination could also have been performed successfully with a zip gun made after a trip to Home Depot.
good old saturday night specials making a comeback
I am pretty sure the plans for the Sten gun were part of one of those Poor Man's Armorer books.
They were, yeah. Making the barrel is the only thing for which you really need a machine tool -- a Shopsmith Mark V would do it, I think.
Paladin Press, publishers of the renown author Boston T. Party.
"Regarding another possible 'why', that is the prime age for psychotic breaks"
^ this
Sounds like he was taking psychedelics - maybe to help deal with his spine pain? - and was also in a frat with a rec-drug reputation. The likelihood of psychosis side effects is small... but it's much higher than zero.
26 is also the age you are no longer on your parents insurance plan i think
Not enough is being said about the influence THC has on developing minds.
why bother making anyone aware of the danger when you can just profit from ignorance
now where did i put my vape (ive never touched one nor will i ever)
You mean like the Pharma companies?
Whoever is peddling THC to young people isn't any worse in my mind than the medical industry peddling all sorts of legalized antidepressants.
Tobacco doesn't warp and degrade minds the way weed does. Any wonder the Left wants to ban the former but promote the latter?
After all, Cheech & Chong can't curb-stomp your police state the way Wyatt Earp, Major Reisman and Jules Winnfield can.
Stoners don't make good storm-troopers, to paraphrase someone or other.
So you literally go to pot!
We're reading the same stuff. If the un-deleted tweets where he describes taking ayahuasca are true, Thompson got off *easy*
THC levels (and Lord knows what else) are higher than ever and the stuff is everywhere and in everything. Psychotic breaks are more frequent and this is very likely the cause. Young brains don't like it.
I smoked way more weed than I care to admit from about 1997-2007. I can barely take a half a hit of the shit they're passing these days.
Haven't I posted several rants about GM? Didn't I post something about how to fix GM?
Agree - the whole Cruise thing was just stupidity.
What I can't quite understand is how someone who graduated from GMI can make such awful decisions, other than to partially blame it on the decades long group think insanity in the RenCen.
By the way, have you seen where GM wants Detroit/MI to put up $300M to help tear down part of the RenCen?
I love my tax dollars going to prop up stupid real estate investments of a company who pissed away billions on vanity projects.
I could not care less about the Rencen. Tear it down. It’s just a building.
yeah, but its iconic. ha. that building was mess from the day it was built (my dad worked on the construction). I just object to tax $ going to tear it down. after more tax $ have gone to constructing a new GM HQ on the old Hudson's site.
Plenty of GMI attendees are aspiring GM management climber sociopaths. It has a reputation for graduating lots of CEOs and executives.
That being said, any woman of average weight and looks and with midwit IQ could skate through on the wings of simps.
While women have tremendous sensitivity to whatever the current social zeitgeist is, I don’t think many of them would be independent enough thinkers to predict 5-7 years ahead of time what the trends might be. As long as you are merely a reactive leader, you will be forever wasting money to come in 2nd or 3rd or last place in whatever the new thing is.
yes, but in the time frame Mary graduated from GMI she would have had to be pretty top IQ.
if she did its gone dormant
Were they smarter back then?
its just that the number of women in engineering school was very small at that time, and so they tended to be on the upper end of the distribution.
Men doing the homework of unqualified women isnt new
Tru dat ^
Was around 20%, not sure about now.
I was about to say the same but you beat me to it. I've noticed anecdotally within my cohort that of the alumni still slogging it out at GM, the women climbing the ladder far quicker than the men who started at equal levels.
There were a few genuinely smart women attending when I was there, but they were far overshadowed by Mrs. degree chasers.
Serious question for people with insider knowledge / engineers more knowledgeable:
-Wasn't the understanding that cruise would never work without someone (in South America) providing "remote driving" in a sim suite for $1/hr ? Was this not the assumption?
-Was the technology for the aforementioned "low budget colombian emergency-handler drivers" not adequate latency / reliability / something?
Oh there was and still are lots of fantasies out in Silicon Valley that fully autonomous vehicles are perfectly possible, without any remote driver hacks, with just a few more software revisions. Though they are partly naive due to living in places with very nice weather. I still want to see an autonomous vehicle navigate I75 in MI or I80 in Nebraska in a raging blizzard. (I’ve had the “pleasure” of doing both.
Nevermind a blizzard, I can barely see the lane markers on some MA highways on dry nights.
So true!
It seems to me that raging blizzard or not, Interstate highways are probably one application where some level of autonomy might be useful. There are far more limited events on an Interstate than when driving on urban or suburban roads.
I don't want a car that can drive me to Kroger's all by itself, but a car that keeps me from running off the road in case I fall asleep on my way back from NYC would be nice.
+100.
This is why, IMO, GM's supercruise is an underrated technology. Unless I am mistaken, years ago they took the time to actually map the roads and lanelines. It's possible that SuperCruise would work even when other autonomous or ADAS systems would brick.
yes it works well on a controlled access highway, until there is construction zone that is not in the database and/or where the lane markings have not been adequately repainted.
Or when the freeway is rebuilt!
The north/south part of I-475 in Toledo is finally done this weekend after two years of misery!
Or an English country lane...
https://theonion.com/detroit-sold-for-scrap-1819568384/
Did I see they want to tear down one of the phase 2 buildings off to the side of the main five? Or do they want to take one or more of the four surrounding the center building?
They want to take down the two on the river side surrounding the center building.
I Googled this abortion! That’s going to always look “off!”
I’m trying to think, or visualize, at what angle you see the complex when you crest the Rouge River bridge on NB I-75, which is the only angle on any of the inbound freeways that you can see the skyline from a distance; I would hope you could still see a “classic view” of the main tower and the two alongside. [Edit: There’s the view on WB I-94 at the Lodge as well, but you’re amongst some of the northern buildings at that point, e.g., the Fisher.] At some angles, it’s going to look like half a cake! At Belle Isle and everyplace else both up-and-downriver from the on the water, to name only a couple.
Why don’t they take down phase 2 and the lower level there, as well as the surround at the base of the main towers? Then they can have all the green space they want, and the footpath from the city to the complex can jog a little eastward once it goes over or under Jefferson. (Have they ripped out the I-675 spur yet?)
Is the People Mover still a thing? That comes right to the base of the complex now, as I recall. Used to go right through Huntington Center, which I always knew as Cobo Hall!
Anyone else notice that the icons for any "ai feature" are romboid? Is there a convention behind this, or is it just parroting?
Didn't see it.
Can't unsee it now.
It's 'cos they want to fool you into thinking it's not going round in a circle...
In honor of the GM musings, a question for my fellow degenerates:
Do I sell my S550 GT350 and AEV built Bison ZR2 to fund a CT5 V Blackwing/6spd purchase?
The mustang has enormous sentimental value, but I’ve done just about everything there is to do with it (Tracked it, Dailied it, drove it cross country, etc.). The 1 car solution + final ever performance sedan worth owning has strong appeal, but I’m worried it will be too numb, too big, and too…GM.
well, do you need the ZR2 for certain activities? the CT5 won't replace that capability.
Good point. I did when I purchased it, but my situation has changed dramatically since then and I don’t need it anymore. It spends most of its life on road now.
id try to find some way to test drive it first in some capacity before you sell something so sentimental
if you buy it and hate it youre not going to be thrilled
True, I’m just struggling to find any opportunities, especially given I’d like to drive one with the new precision pack for 2025. I don’t think my imagination can properly fill in the gaps of the manual from driving a 10spd car either
Yes to the 5V BW!
Is that yours in your profile pic? You chose the best color. How has your experience been?
He did choose the best color!
When Jack started the 'stack I was in the process of over-reaching for one - had an Electric Blue six-speed all but ordered - but it didn't work out and subsequent price hikes really killed the whole thing for me.
I'll probably end up with a lightly used ZL1 in the Spring, but I can only imaging how glorious the well appointed four door would have been. If you can swing it, don't let it pass you by! Unfortunately that color has been discontinued but there's a new lighter version called Drift that looks pretty good and I love the green/teal tones of the other new Typhoon paint!
Absolutely yes. CT5V.
Yes! Sell both and don’t look back. Time for a new automotive adventure!
I find that the one car solution is a myth at worst and near impossible at best, and that I prefer having multiple cars with different specialties. You can buy the best hammer in the world but it’ll never be great at turning screws.
That said, maybe ditch the 350 before it has an expensive failure, especially since you’ve already gotten some great driving out of it.
Agreed, if you've the room and bandwidth to deal with them. Horses for courses.
I tend to agree, but there is an allure to the do it all car. My biggest fear of keeping the 350 is a possible failure for sure
Other than having a SLIGHT improvement to NVH and interior fittings, I don't know what the CT5BW will do that your Mustang won't. That being said, I don't think you'd lose a lot of money on it.
I always value and appreciate your perspective Jack. The only other thing I can think of that the blackwing can do is accept a seat protector for transporting my Husky.
Dog is my co-pilot.
Exceptional taste.
May God bless you with a decision that feels right a year after the fact
That is the true test of any car decision!
That and looking back at it as you walk away from it.
Did I pay too much for my Mustang GT?
YES.
Do I care?
NO.
The 5V BW 6-speed is such a great sedan. I have a '23 model and I always have a smile on my face while driving it. There is so much instant torque with a wonderful exhaust that it's hard to imagine this even being available in today's age. And, in keeping with the article, I can't believe this came from GM. They really do have great, passionate engineers that occasionally get something past management.
I heard from one engineer that they were pressured to only offer the automatic as each transmission required a whole new series of crash testing and other validation activities. They were adamant that this thing would have a manual and finally won the argument. It was not easy, nor short but if they didn't care about their job, they would not have fought so hard. So I always give those guys credit for getting this thing made. I think it's downright American to own one as we (probably) won't be able to in the future.
And compared to the new M5, it is downright svelte at 4100 lbs (compared to 5400! lbs). It can also brake and turn (not quite as well as my S2000, but it makes up for it with acceleration). I have passed a GT350 on track with mine. (That may not mean much as experience can play large part in amateur track days).
You will not regret it!!
You’re very persuasive! I’m convinced I need to drive one now
Heck, at 4100 lb the 5bw is svelte even compared to the E39 M5 from 25 years ago. That car was EPA classified as a compact, and weighed 4000 lb.
Mary Barra…where to begin? I initially had hopes due to her engineering background. Before long, Barra developed the same competency flu that perpetually invades The General’s C-suite. The latest events reinforce my point.
I wonder if The Car Czar would have forced her out had Barra been at the helm during the post-2008 fascism push instead of Wagoner. I fail to see much difference overall. Would estrogen have saved the blessed Mary?
Was Bob Lutz forced out of GM? I've got the books but have not opened
Don't say the word flu please. I'm starting to get an idea how people with cholera feel. Spent the last 24 hours either sweating in bed or sitting on the can.
look on the bright side
your pants probably fit better now
Beer, out nose, meet phone!!
He wouldn't know yet.
Even worse - okay, maybe just as bad - than Barra's handling of The General is the fact that I have to subscribe to some dude's Substack to read an honest take about the whole thing because the automotive "press" has fewer balls than GM's C-Suite!
I used to subscribe to Automotive News (AN) to receive the latest news and sales stats for the industry. My frustrations grew over the years as I became aware that AN played everything safe so as to not upset their key constituents: manufacturers, suppliers, dealers, and the UAW. While I admire their tightrope walk to some degree but was nevertheless annoyed that the real story still wasn’t being reported.
Archive.today will get you any Crain’s article sans paywall. It’s not worth paying for.
Back when the Detroit auto show was truly international, Keith Crain would walk the floor at Cobo like he was some kind of Middle Eastern Pasha expecting tribute.
I was surprised that the AN folks get press cars. Good friend of my dad’s worked there (and I think still does; a very good guy so I won’t dox him) and showed up to dinner in an X5 press car. Despite not writing reviews.
Sir, that is a FEATURE not a BUG, thank you many times over!
The NYC shooter quickly went from being a media-proclaimed professional to being amazingly stupid, IRL, IMHO. It is disappointing, in a sense, to have this play out so underwhelmingly. I should not be disappointed to see a cold-blooded killer caught, but still ... guess he wasn't professional at all, is one conclusion. As to the rest of the mysteries surrounding why this, why that ... I guess we will hear all about it, with no real understanding at any point.
I think my question is whether Hoodie Smiling Man is the same guy who shot the CEO. And then is this Luigi fellow the same as hoodie guy? Because he doesn't really look like it, to me. Sure, they both have huge eyebrows. But the rest of his face..?
classic italian american discrimination
Maybe the return of Sacco and Vanzetti?
glad i looked that one up
was trying to figure out what the hell the designer of the r129 had to do with anything
I'm amazed I remembered them.
Justine Sacco is back?
THANK YOU, Lord!
Still AIDS-free
They smell like garlic
we all look the same to Northern Europeans
I didn't think it was the same guy either. Hoodie guy had a narrower nose and seemed like the brows were thinner or lighter
It’s the angle of the photo from the side and above slightly distorting his face.
I don't know if a lot of our fellows here have had the unfortunate luck of ever having to review security camera footage. This level of distortion ain't even that bad!
He was proclaimed as a “pro” by the gun “experts” on ACF, as well.
The same “experts” who confidently asserted that all of the investors had departed NYC!
maybe a pro in the sense that he had a degree of proficiency with firearms and didnt immediately shit himself uncontrollably
We have search engines so we’re experts.
Ataraxis, G.D.S.
(Google Diagnostic Specialist)
Well, never underestimate what a trained and committed amateur can do. Occasionally you'll get a real circus shot from one of them, such as [REDACTED] who shot a man in the heart while [REDACTED] Ford Taurus [REDACTED] 63mph [REDACTED]
I keep asking [REDACTED] to tell that tale, and he keeps saying "not yet, my friend, not yet."
If you ever speak to [REDACTED], PLEASE at least have him put the story (and a few other stories) on a Deadman's switch
maybe [REDACTED] will at the least share the story of the genuinely, side-splittingly hilarious "government cheese prank" he played at the check-cashing joint...
Yes! He just has to find where he put the paperwork from it.
I thought it was the other side of his chest.
Court testimony was 'dug out of the pericardium'.
Yes, I am chuffed about my own speculation , thank you for reminding me.
Not a gun expert, sadly, having only ever fired airsoft.
It never made sense that he got starbucks and showed face. Would a pro show skintone? Much less face, retina
Mangione's multifaceted background, and his extensive internet presence prior to the shooting, lends itself to any number of interpretations.
[cracks whippet] [inhales] "the most likely interpretations, of course, are whichever ones confirm my priors"
I really thought the hitman used a Welrod pistol, and almost bought into the theory that it was a professional hit.
Turns out Luigi just used a standard Glock that ended up jamming a few times.
OT: I bought sennheiser IE200s to complement a new mic to stop using my Sennheiser 518s with no-name chifi boom mic adapter. My wife swears the decade of constant over-the-ear headphone use has thinned my hair on the top of my skull.
The IE200s hurt my ears. What do you do to get the little ear tips to not hurt? I've tried all the sizes (rubber and memory foam) and am still struggling. There's a poor seal and no bass with most of the tips, which is disappointing. I'd expect them to sound at least as good as my trusty 280 Pros, if not as nice as the open-backed, bassy HD518s.
“ChiFi”
Genuine lol
Someone here recently posited that frequent hat wearing led to accelerated hairloss.
I never wear hats, just in case!
But you peddle them to us...
The balder all of you are, the better I look!
Bwahahahaha!! 😂😂
One of the reasons I finally grew my hair out was to get around an embarrassing thin spot up top! It’s working well enough.
have you seen the domes on most F1 drivers?
Today marks the completion of my 70th trip around the sun. I've worn hats almost continuously since I was a teen. I own two fedoras, four if you count my straw hats and if I'm not wearing one of them I likely have a baseball cap on. I still have a full head of hair. Pretty sure the X chromosome that I got from my mother's father has more to do with it than headwear.
happy birthday in that case
Happy birthday Ronnie. And happy bad hair day, whenever you are blessed with one.
Happy birthday. Hats off to you!
har har
Nicely played! 🧢🎩😂😂
hope it doesnt actually thin hair otherwise im in trouble
Try Comply ear tips.
I've been wearing over the ear senns for north of two decades and I still have plenty of hair.
Skull shape is weird though
As a motorcyclist, I rely on "triple mushroom" earplugs, and if I have any that aren't broken, Etymotic-style wired in-ear headphones with triple mushroom plugs, to avoid totally deafening myself with Kumamoto's *finest* music.
Two keys, 1) wearing all day they are gonna earcanalrape you. 2) you must get the right size, and the size differences (eg what comes with a set of Etymotics) is infinitesimal-seeming, 3) the only way to make in-ear headphones all day comfortable is with foam ear plugs to replace the triple-mushrooms. You will lose some sealing and you will lose some noise reduction if you choose foamies over triple mushrooms.
Good luck!
Depressing. Are you saying your ear canal's going to reject the intrusion after 6 hours, no matter what?
Sizing dependent, that was my experience yeah. But if your ear canals line up really well with a given plug size, you might be good for a 10h day. Amazon is useful here, they have hundreds of different sizes and types of tips available
I would strongly advise against using in-ears for such long periods, unless at VERY low volumes.
The ear was not designed for near field sound delivery like that, and definitely not for extended periods.
Source: hearing damage.
Noted. My question would be what the difference is from wearing circumaural headphones for 8 hours a day vs in-ears for 8 hours?
very curious to know the answer as well
Near field power transfer into your earholes vs. Midfield (if lucky). Note that I've had short term (1-2 day swelling and earache) inflammation issues (on the side of my head and inside ear) from circum-aural headphones worn for 8+ hours at a time at mid/high volumes as well.
For the over-ear stuff, to deliver the power they use larger and better quality permanent magnets, and again, you're directly exposing your ears, eyes and brain to the field generated by it. Nobody has done any kind of study to show that this is safe, and based on personal experience I don't believe it is.
My acoustics professor was absolutely against using anything nearfield for sound (so in ear stuff is rejected) for this reason.
The problem is that new products continue to get better and more affordable and produce psychoacoustic based imaging better than the equivalent speakers and room treatments. So they stay tempting..
Hmm. So you're saying there's certainly some impact from having big ol' magnets clamped on the side of your head in a big headphone (how/whether that affects health can never be proved). But your professor would say that something in your ear canal delivering the same SPL as something outside your ears still causes more impact to the cilia and tiny bones than reference speakers sitting two feet on your desk, and maybe also headphones perched on your ear?
I got these IEMs 'cause I figured they would be MORE comfortable than typical sports-styled ear buds. But I'm on the struggle bus.
uh oh
i wear a pair of headphones at the lowest possible volume for the sole purpose of blocking out external sound at home with white noise and i do so for the majority of the day
will second the endorsement of Etymotic earphones and the triple-mushroom earpieces
I bought those Moondrop Space Travel buds that Jack recommended. Almost lost one in the toilet. Going back to the sport buds that hook over the ear.
Edit: They do sound pretty good though they could be a bit louder to these old ears. The noise suppression comes in handy when I'm spraying paint, running the compressor. Since I also wear ear muffs I'm not so worried about them falling out into the spray booth.
This is fear mongering. IEMS are for traveling or noise reduction. This is clearly just an excuse to buy nicer over ears.
I've spent an embarressing amount of time wearing overears over the past 20 or so years. albiet mostly in HD580s or HD600s, which are fairly light
Well, seeing as how I can't get the IE200s to sound anywhere near as nice as my HD518s or 280 Pros...
If anyone wants to tell me why the fourth place finisher was doing donuts at the finish line— where I’ve only ever noticed *podium cars*, often sitting quietly— I’m keen to know.
What a fucking dillweed.
There was a staged photo area for Hamilton in his last race with Mercedes.
Donuts are cool and F1 cars should do them more often.
Don’t you ruin my ire.
You’ll never hear a cross word from me about donuts. 4th place finisher out-celebrating a bunch of people who out-drove him is tickyTack, like wearing next year’s colors to and from this year’s race.
The fact that he out-celebrated people who out-drove him is the latters’ fault. Lando SHOULD have done donuts!
He's always been the most special of snowflakes. Never has anyone with less genuine talent accomplished more.
I seem to recall hearing on the Sky Sports broadcast that the FIA, or maybe Liberty, set that up - it wasn't Lewis just deciding to do it. someone high up sanctioned it
Which is true and only goes to show that Mercedes-Benz really is the FIA's team. It would be one thing if Hamilton were retiring, but he's just changing teams. They didn't invite Bottas to do donuts, and he was ending a long and reasonably successful career.
Seemed he was supposed to get a special interview after Nico was done with the podium, but thankfully buggered off and it didn’t happen.
A bit like doing a sack dance when your team is down by three touchdowns. My guess is that the Mercedes team is glad he's gone.
Mary’s loss will be truly impressive when you add in whatever the EV business ends up losing too.
Surpassing even Doug Oberhelman’s complete write down of the $7.6 billion purchase of Bucyrus in 2010. In 2013 it was worth zero. To add insult to injury there was also the purchase of a $500 million scam Chinese company, maybe it was a bribe, who knows.
Here in SoCal there are EVs everywhere. Except I see very few Equinox and Blazer EVs. And maybe slightly more Lyriqs. Pathetic.
If you live in city, in which most of your driving is urban, than an EV makes tons of sense. I wouldn't poo poo them that way. Even I'd own one and I hate them.
my point was GM can't seem to sell them in a market area where there are a lot of EV sales. agree that EVs work best when you can charge at home. We have one for that very purpose, along with two other plug-in hybrids.