"The man is 45 years old and he drove a tractor into the points. If he had Hamilton’s seat he would be 13 points behind Antonelli and the heavy favorite going into the second half."
Wherein I repeat my plea to Toto Wolf, whom we all know faithfully reads ACF under a nom de guerre:
Trade Princess George for Alonso and let him and Kimi race with no team orders and full parity of equipment. that will give Kimi a worthy mentor, Fernando one more shot at a WDC, and Mercedes no end of positive press and goodwill among fans. Even Sky Sports would stop it's 24/7 fellating of Hamilton and give the Silver Arrow some love.
Toto, this is a no-brainer. He has driven in one-third of _all F1 races in history_ and has a long history of dragging dogs to a better finish than they deserve. he's hardworking, loyal, and doesn't air dirty laundry or bitch and moan unless the team does something epically stupid. (Alonso whines less in an entire season than George does in a single race weekend.) He also has zero fucks left to give and nothing left to prove, so there'd be no ego and no bullshit.
What's your itinerary so far? In Portland the food and drink is pretty good, but you do need reservations at good places. Old Port is good for a night, then move up the coast. If you like hiking it's everywhere. Sebago Lake about 40 minutes northwest is really nice along with the towns around.
If you like beaches, Higgins Beach south of Portland is fantastic and it's open to the public. Popham Beach about 40 minutes north is great and parking is easy. There are some shark scares.
If you like a tacky but beautiful area, Old Orchard Beach has a pier and lots of fried dough and bad pizza places, but a great beach. There will be a Jeep beach fest and pig roast on September 11 -12.
Avoid Lewiston/Augusta or Bangor. The drive up the coast and all the little places with lobsters and seafood are fun.
Mid bay and all that are rich tourist areas but worth a trip through. There is going to be a balloon festival in Presque Isle next week, it's about 4 hours north of Portland.
Then there is always a trip to the LLBean mother ship in Freeport. They are rebuilding the main store but have a huge tent store set up for the past year behind the store.
"Avoid Lewiston/Augusta or Bangor. The drive up the coast and all the little places with lobsters and seafood are fun."
That's good advice. Here's my bad advice:
Yes, take all the slow roads -- slower roads than US 1 where you can. Keep the ocean on your right. Stop in every hamlet to look at the lobster boats floating in the harbors. Make a goal to find the cheapest lobster roll you can -- try them all. Watch out for vampires, with or without balloons.
Honestly we’re kinda going up there with zero plan but to figure it out when we arrive.
There’s a few breweries and restaurants I wanna hit. Would like to see sunrise on Cadillac mountain and thunder hole too, but outside of that? Nada.
Your call to avoid 95 is for sure one I’m gonna try to do. Just depends on traffic up RT. 1 and the like as we don’t have all the time in the world unfortunately.
We went to Abel's Lobster on Bar Harbour last year, we enjoyed it a lot. Great beer, too. Can't do much wrong in Bar Harbour. It's just "bad" when the cruise ships land and the city is flooded with tourists.
Other than that, I like Camden a lot. Quiet, beautiful little town. Great view from Mt. Battie behind it.
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens were beautiful, and huge.
There is a ferry that will take you from the harbor in Portland out to Peaks island, I enjoyed riding a bicycle around the island and exploring the WWII Battery Steele there. Blyth and Burrows makes a decent drink. In my travels thus far, Maine has been a real favorite. I'd like to ride my Sportster up the coast from Portland to Bar Harbor when I'm not as busy with the care and feeding of a race car.
Depending on what you’re after, I’d probably skip Portland next time. Suuuuuper cool, charming little city with a bunch to do, but the little coastal towns dotting the road would be my preference for a night or two I think.
Acadia is one of the prettiest places I have ever seen, though. Bar Harbor is a little bit tourist-trappy, but it is pleasant and the scenery is awe-inspiring.
Favorite for top gun will be the American Ethanol 50’ Mystic. They ran 221mph last year and for the first time are running on 4x2500hp Mercury QCV4s with centrifugal superchargers. They previously ran 2 of those and 2 big block chevys. They even got the thing ready in time to test.
2nd favorite for top gun is the Dirty Duck 438 Skater. 2x Carson Brummet 2000+ hp twin turbo big block chevys with nitrous. Ran 215mph last year. They burned a cylinder head testing but will have it back together in time. It also appeared to be on the edge of blowing over last year.
The all time top gun Darana Hybrid former Qatar 50’ Mystic 2x 4000-5500hp T55 turbines, will not be attending. Last year it ran 242mph on the 3/4 mile course, on the old 1-mile course it ran 244mph in 2014. It’s owned by that IHRA clown that went broke because Elon didn’t pay him for data centers.
The Freedom One Skater is out. I’m not sure if it’s been completely redone since they flipped it in a shootout at havasu. You can google the video in peace, no one died. It has 2 blown alcohol drag race style engines and multi speed transmissions, so it could be a contender if they can get it sorted out. But trying for top gun trophies in Skaters takes a bit of a death wish IMO.
Team Factory Billet 51’ Outerlimits V-bottom, the all time V bottom top gun at 186mph, is out this year. 2x 2200hp turbo big blocks and multi speed transmissions.
But Team ACM is bringing a 42 Fountain with Merc 1550s that has done 171mph before with unlimited distance. So it’s the easy favorite for V-bottom top gun.
Tyler Crocket swapped the blown alcohol Proline drag race engine out of the 26’ joker he had it in, that was an absolute death machine that almost went over. It’s now in a 32’ canopy Phantom, so that’s a lot better. But attempting 140+ runs in any single engine boat, V or Cat, also requires a death wish IMO.
A bunch of outboard catamarans with Merc 450/500s will be duking it out again. The motors have had a tunable MoTeC ecu available for 2 years now and some of them will be over 700hp. I don’t know if the madman Warren Duke will be back with his 28’ skater that went 151mph.
The world’s fastest center console is a 36’ Avanti that ran 128mph last year with 4x I6 40 verados tuned with nitrous. The boat now has 450/500 based engines, but no word on if he’s coming back.
Will Smith ran 128mph last with 2 Merc 450 based outboards on a 32’ V bottom. This year he the motors on his 32’ “speed skiff” which is technically a center console. So we’ll see if challenges the “center console” record.
centrifugal supercharging is interesting. i guess if you dont need the low end torque of a roots blower and want the higher efficiency impeller then it makes a lot of sense. procharger and the like have some pretty huge units out now thanks to the drag and drive crowd
i like centrifugals but ive always been curious about them in big power road race applications. either the cogged belt cant keep up with rapid rpm changes (can it? probably) or a crank driven unit is in a poor spot for packaging
either way procharged foxbodies are rad (and apparently you can build pretty stout 347 blown foxes that are totally smog legal in california)
Power delivery isn’t linear enough for that application. Boost builds at the same rate as RPM. Screw and TVS roots superchargers seem to be preferable. Gotta manage the inlet air temp though.
There's a LOT of wear and tear on crank snouts with rapid rpm change and you can wring it right off trying to power a supercharger with an appropriately toothed and tensioned belt. For a while there were custom crankshafts with very beefy snouts used in drag stuff. Then turbos became very cheap. I suspect the illustrious minds in Siam determined they could not knock off superchargers very well, but turbos were a cake walk.
once i saw a lycoming or continential crank i realized a dedicated blower engine would probably need a super beefy front main bearing.
i think someone had a kind of tension rod with bearings at either end to go from the crank pulley to the blower pulley to prevent them from deflecting when you pile on the tension. unsure how well that went
Yep. The shootout is exciting because it’s unlimited. All of the racing series got turned in to spec power classes or bracket racing. So there isn’t an unlimited class any more that I’m aware of. There are couple of cool endurance races, a couple around England and one in the Caribbean. The Caribbean one got switched to bracket classes though.
" know it’s an anti-gun play, but if only they/them were a little less enthusiastic about the right to bare arms..."
I, for one, will be very happy when the fad of unattractive, pasty pale white women with prison-caliber randomly placed petroglyphic monochromatic tats is over.
Lowbrow vs highbrow art: Art was a major luxury good in the past because you had to have money to have the supplies and the time to make it. Mass production let a lot more people dabble in it, and now we're almost all able to access or even make beautiful things. This is a good thing.
Current highbrow art will be forgotten because it's all meaningless bullshit, no matter how much word salad they throw at it. There's historical precedent: The most memorable art made in Japan during the Edo Period is ukiyo-e: lowbrow, mass-produced woodblock flyers that advertised sumo matches or kabuki plays or just looked cool in some way. Nobody's going to give a shit about a banana taped to a wall in 200 years, but there's something we all like looking at right now that will still have value (I don't know what it is but in my biased opinion it could be something as silly but cool-looking as Jim Lee-penciled comic books).
Having known some "artists" (Artistes?) there's also a degree of "Emperor's New Clothes" at work in the world of fine and haute art. Like Duchamp's urinal or Koons' absurd balloon animals, I think there's a lot of people who enjoy preying on the gullibility and self-regard of the wealthy. Taking their money while simultaneously taking the piss, if you will.
There are, of course, exceptions. I know a woman who hails from a very wealthy family who owns and operates a gallery where she sells her "art". Her work is quite earnestly meant and technically competent, but also obscurantist and non-representational and almost entirely devoid of meaning, to my eyes. Much like the three-year-old child who brings a parent a crayoned scrawl stating "I drew this for you, mummy", I believe her most reliable paying client for her works is her mother.
Some don’t call it art. We collected pre 19th century botanical and bird engravings. It’s something to think about all the hard labor done completely by hand from making copper plates and paper as well as the ink by candlelight. Here’s an example. Prices vary widely by subject matter. Most were colored in at a later date.
"she wrote “If you haven’t had your balls all the way in someone’s mouth, I feel sorry for you"
this is a horrid pickup line because it comes from someone that looks like her
"if only they/them were a little less enthusiastic about the right to bare arms"
theyre forced to show 24sq ft of skin becuase when youre double a normal weight you run hotter than a gr corolla on track
"It truly had something for everyone except, ya know, the 300,000 Dutch people who came to see Max finish a whole race"
really does suck seeing max not win
"some people read the books and still see it that way"
i thought it was an origami crane
"the Celica is coming back as a 2.4-liter turbocharged AWD coupe, possibly with hybrid power"
oh my god who cares
"Thai immigrants are 78% female, while 65% of Afghan immigrants are men. Huh. 163,000 people were let in during 2015; approximately 500 of them were arriving to work a pre-arranged job."
utterly unbelievable and all of them need to go back
"In the second quarter of 2026, LiveWire captured a robust 76% of the adult e-motorcycle market by selling 267 motorcycles, losing nearly $19 million in the process"
No shit. I've managed to lose about 70 lbs in the last three years (23 in the last 12 months alone) , and this is the first summer that I've definitely noticed that I'm not sweating profusely in this confounded heat all the time, even when not engaged in physical activity.
It's rather a nice change to be approaching "normal" weight again after all these years as a disgusting fatbody.
I can say that they pass it down from generation to generation, or at least a young lady I knew was very excited to practice on me when I met her because her aunt had just given her a lesson on how. I took her heritage as irrelevant at the time.
She has lost her fastball but her elder millennial skit was very good. Most comedians lose their fastball after 1-2 specials. It's a hard gig to keep up.
you had one of the great ones and as such you shouldnt be forced to buy a exceptionally lame vehicle and instead have the choice of something fun like your gts
Speed you cant “back in my day!” cars made before you were born.
I’m actually keen on Toyota’s performance products. Let’s wait and see what this one actually looks like before judgement. If it’s an eCVT only hybrid Prelude competitor, then yes fire away.
29 Gs for a mcycle? Not fricken worth it! I rode a BICYCLE from Seattle to Boston, and I'm thinking of doing it again even though I'm now in my 70s! I took 45 days and very much enjoyed the trip! Went over the Cascades, slept on the shore of Lake Pend Oreille (Idaho), and lots of other fun stuff.
I did that ride probably summer of 1975. Seattle to San Fran sounds very nice, and nine days sounds quick! I don't remember the distance between San Fran and Seattle, but I'm thinking it's probably around 1000 miles. I once did the middle of the Oregon coast to SF. Can't remember exactly when--maybe the '80s. Very pretty!
I thinkI did Seattle to Boston summer of 1975. I've written an account of that trip and I'm going to post in on Substack in the near future.
It was something like 950 miles. We stayed in motels, so travelled light. And in summer the wind is typically from the north/northwest, so we had a lot of tail winds. There is a lot of climbing, even on the coast road.
I've lived the E-Moto adventure as a parent. My oldest (now 15) did a bunch of odd jobs all summer two years ago and just showed up with a Surron LBX he bought from someone at the gas station (I helped him build a Bafang conversion that planted the seed). He fixed it up, got it powder coated, put it all back together himself, and rode it everywhere. We took it to a few MX tracks, too.
Alas, many other kids got e-motos, there was lots of property damage, a few crashes and terrifying videos of kids going 40+ next to little children walking on sidewalks, and mini-takeovers, which led to a police crack down this summer, starting with PSAs, warnings and calls to parents, then impounds and tickets if caught riding dirty again. He fortunately sold early on, but prices for the e-motos completely cratered around us, particularly for the non-brand Universal Chinese E-Moto.
At least Harley isn't looking for government handouts and taxpayer dollars to finance its sacrifice to the death cult.
Too bad we couldn't have sane energy policy that would allow us to retain leadership of civilian nuclear technology. Of course, we sold it all to China and got Taylor Sheridan and Yellowstone-branded steak seasoning instead.
They must have cracked down here as well, there is an elementary school at the entrance to my neighborhood with two entrances about 250'-300' apart, and turnign onto the street used to be like driving onto the video shoot for DMX's Ruff Ryders Anthem music video every day when I'd get home from work. All the kids would do stunt laps between the two entrances, mostly when traffic was clear. I haven't seen any of that since before the summer. Part of me loved that they were outside being dumb kids again, but the other part of me was thinking the serious injury was a when not an if scenario. It always seemed like to more serious the hardware the less gear the rider had on as well.
"I find it absolutely wonderful that we are having these “lowbrow” events in DC. Newsflash: America is lowbrow. It is a country that, prior to its recent forcible reimagination as a dumping ground for the worst people the rest of the world has to offer, was resolutely middle-class, plain-spoken, and uncultured."
America might have been middle-class and lowbrow but back when families gathered on Sunday nights to watch Ed Sullivan, the middle class was regularly exposed to high culture. A lot of middle-class pop culture was slightly watered down high culture, as opposed to today when a lot of pop culture comes from ghetto and prison culture. Sullivan had ballet dancers (my mother was deeply offended by Nureyev's codpiece) and opera singers. Longines Symphonette sold LP collections of great operatic arias and famous symphonic overtures. Arthur Fiedler made a pretty good career out of selling high culture to the masses.
That was when highbrow stuff was still good. Now it's just meaningless trash. "Symphonies" that try to find the beauty in the space between discordant "chords". Today's lowbrow stuff is better. I'd rather listen to Drake than Philip Glass.
There's still a market for good highbrow stuff, but that stuff's all a hundred years old now.
Roy Clark could masterfully play just about any musical instrument with strings. I would have loved to hear him play with David Grisman and Andy Statman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQUAbQnNGuk
As I recall, she implied it had long been a go-to move for her with everyone. It would have to be. She is painfully ugly, a real monster in human flesh, kind of like a female Christopher Lloyd. I'm also painfully ugly so I'm allowed to say that.
Having at least one memory of a hook up with an uggo, I can confidently say even that lady's best balls in mouth move is never going to be enough. They somehow get uglier when they decide "my best move is to thoroughly debase myself and turn this into masturbatory sex with a chance of STD and child support for you."
Of course it didnt jam, it “misfired” if it jammed, she’d be dead after the gun went off. In my thousands of rounds of ammunition i have had one misfire.
Fun story: there's a hole in the wall in my garage that was a result of the same incident that made the guy I bought my house from give up handloading. The cylinder of a .44 Magnum revolver missed his head by inches....
I had to check, and not taking into account the cost of reloading supplies, the cheapest 44 Mag is around 80 cents per right now, ranging up to 3 bucks per for the boutique shotshell stuff. JFC
Thats steep, but youre not shooting too many rounds of 44 anyway. .
I think i paid 50-60cents for 5.56 and less for 9mm, the 308 gets pricey.
Moste expensive ammo i shot was .50 cal, I think that was &5 per round, then I see ww2 or vietnaam clips and theyre firing thousands of rounds of that stuff in single mssion..
I was handloading .44 Mag to save money back when it was still $12 for 50 rounds; you could do it for an eight cent bullet from National Bullet, a 2.5 cent Federal primer, and about six to eight cents' worth of Hornady #8.
depends what youre shooting and how much shooting you do. , we shoot 250-500 rds in a session.
These days 5.56 is ok, 9 mm is pretty inexpesive, 45 can be reasonable but the Vepr takes 308 and that adds up fast in 30 rd clips. Still buy ammo off the rack though, just prob shoot less as a result.
Its not just the $, cleaning 3-5 guns each time can be a chore, apparently some dont.
I've experienced one misfire, which was to be expected; I was running cheap wadcutter 9mm through a rental CZ Scorpion I was trying to talk myself out of purchasing.
I had an EAA revolver that misfired something fierce. I had to re-shim the cylinder to get the head space to where it needed to be and so I'd stop getting light hits.
Word to the wise: EAA doesn't make good pistols, especially not revolvers.
"There should be events like the Freedom 250 continuously. If nothing else, holding such events might accidentally and/or occasionally expose our legislature to their constituencies."
Perhaps it's too much to expect folks running for major offices to shop at Walmart, but at least I'd like them to know where the nearest Walmart is to their official domicile.
I long held all the usual upper-middle, liberal-left prejudices about Wal-Mart. A sharp change of class has altered my perspective.
I started shopping at my neighborhood Wal-Mart last year and have been very pleasantly surprised at the selection, the prices and the service. A bit cheaper for groceries than the (other) local corporate chains. I'm still very much on my uppers so every cent counts.
The wife of a friend has worked in accounting for Wal-Mart for thirty years and recently retired with a quite substantial 401K, which enjoyed a healthy company match. She, and other employees I've spoken to, tell me W-M is actually a pretty good employer.
Youre touching on something much larger here. Folks in elected office become evr more removed from the daily, yet it is thye who pass the rules and laws that affect evbruyhting.
Do we think anyone who passed the "infrastructre bill" which mandates auto braking adas and in car cameras has actually driven themselves in years?
I'd like to ask Rep. Debbie Dingell driving directions from her district near Dearborn to Selfridge ANG base near Mt Clemens. I'm pretty sure she's been chauffeured there for "government authorized official travel," but I doubt she's ever driven herself. Hell, she's been living in DC for decades to back when she was GM's lobbyist, how she met her late husband from whom she inherited her seat in the House, which he inherited from his father (though if you say she got the GM job because her grandfather was one of the Fisher brothers of Fisher Body, she'll call you a sexist). Hell, I'd be willing to bet she doesn't know how to drive from her district office just a few minutes to Detroit Metro airport for when she has to deign to fly commercial.
Yet these are the people who decide rules for cars and Detroit.
Even Trump with his banning stop starts missed the biggie Adas and auto braking or in car cameras. I’ll bet he hasn’t bought if driven a new car ina decade
The in car camera is likely not a big cost item but those add up. They already have a screen and a cmos camera is just a few dollar at retail so in OEM quantities my guess is that engineering where the camera goes and fiddling with the related software costs more than the hardware.
Hardware cost is not the issue i was driving at. More like who wnats a car spying on them. I dont have camera in my house or on the shitter eiter, the car is private space.
The cost is also exponentially greater than the hardware. In car cameras are part of adas systems and there is also a huge software Cost to enable these systems s to override us.
I was reading an extensive article on in car ai assistant’s . The article went on and on about the different systems and how good they may me. Never once did the article aske do we wnat or desire in car ai or what it’s really gong to do. I mean why do I need to talk to the car to tell it to put with windows down.
When the normies realize that cars are going to have cameras in the dash watching them when they’re driving, there’s going to be a huge backlash, especially now that the Flock camera backlash has picked up steam and is not going away.
After he retired from the Senate, Sen. George McGovern acquired the lease for the Stratford Inn hotel/restaurant in Connecticut. It went bankrupt in four years.
From Google: "McGovern later reflected on this experience in a 1992 Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “A Politician’s Dream Is a Businessman’s Nightmare”, in which he lamented that he had not anticipated the difficulties of running a hotel, especially during a recession, and that he wished he had had more firsthand experience with the daily challenges of business before serving in public office. He argued that many legislators fail to grasp how public regulations and reporting requirements can drive up costs, forcing businesses to pass them on to consumers, and that “one-size-fits-all” rules often ignore the realities of the marketplace."
I seriously doubt that Elizabeth Warren has ever read that op-ed.
The Freedom 250 Race was a raging success and I witnessed thousands of people having a great time. The days before were outstanding the drivers were available for the fans, the pit lanes were open, families brought young children and the sponsors had numerous displays and give-a-ways. Too bad that the locals (NVa, DC, Maryland) avoided it as everyone I meet or saw was from somewhere else. Local media had spent weeks warning their viewers/readers it was going to be a typical Trump sh’tshow. Every night some blue blood was on the local news saying these events were going to destroy their priceless art or building. As was said the MMA fight, the States Fair and the race were not for local consumption they were for all the undesirables in Hicksville. Talk about pissing off the locals, it worked.
Wasn't there a president in the early 1800s who had giant piece of cheese anyone could come intot he wh and take a pice of.
Our better's forget that Washington belongs to "we the people" all of us.
IMO Jan 6 was nothing more than the people going to the peoples house to express their opinions and dissatisfaction. An insurrection would have burnt the peoples house and killed a few officials. You know like BLM did to private property to which they had no right to enter when protesting.
I went both days with my 6 year old. Saturday was by far the more fun day - much less crowded and you got to see the IROC putting on a pretty good show.
Sunday *was* a bit of a shitshow. They closed the bridges for an hour pre race to let Trump & Co do a lap of the track. There was barely any grandstand space if you didn't buy the $4k tickets, and the grand stands didn't have big screens to follow the race that wasn't right in front of you.
Mid race Sunday we tried to make our way over to the braking zone for T1 as on the video it looked like it was pretty empty only to get to the bridge on that side getting closed "because it's missing bolts in the middle of it"
For what it's worth there were a fair number of locals there - they just happened to be the ones that wanted to see racecars go fast rather than complain online about things.
All in all I'm glad it happened, and I had fun, but for sure they could have made it a much better experience with some more time and planning.
The NPR report on the vibrations from the race cars damaging art was fantastic. They had an obviously mentally ill Karen scold with severe TDS who was in genuine distress over all of the priceless art that was sure to be ruined, then the NPR reporter cut to some racing executive who only said “There are no vibrations.”
"Also, Gwenfritz sucks balls. It makes the Jeff Koons balloon dogs look like the David. "
There's a massive modern sculpture on the lawn of the Detroit Institute of Arts called Gracehopper (apparently a tribute to computer pioneer Grace Hopper) that from some angles looks like dogs humping.
There is a not so 'modern' style one in Richmond, VA of Arthur Ashe seemingly fighting off a horde of kids with his tennis racket, not entirely unlike the cover art of the original Doom.
Friends of mine worked for a company in San Jose that was building a new facility. In order to get a building permit, they had to agree to BUY a piece of artwork to go out front and were giving a list (with pictures) of the only pieces they were allowed to use (all very expensive too - talk about your graft).
so they picked the ugliest piece that was on the list, because they wanted to inflict it on the community forcing them to buy that shit.
No way! How have I gone this long in my life without learning the government forces private businesses to pay for "art" no one wants or looks at twice?
I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
...
I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.
For in much wisdom is much vexation,
and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
---
Ignorance is bliss, Steve!
(Solomon does go on to write in the next chapter, "Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness." So, yes, it's ultimately better to be walking in the light than blinding yourself in darkness, but no good comes of me stacking up even more reasons to be depressed about our American government system.)
I can't read Ecclesiastes/Kohelet without thinking of Charles Krahmalkov, my biblical Hebrew professor. For the final, we had to translate a chapter from Ecc. The "wisdom books" of the Hebrew bible are about the most difficult to translate. I didn't think that was particularly fair since some of the students could barely read Hebrew. I did a decent job but only got a B+. When I pointed out that it was the best translation in the class he said that it wouldn't be fair to grade me and the other students equally, since I came into the class knowing both modern and biblical Hebrew. I told him that a math prof would never grade relatively like that, that I met the criteria for an A on the course, but he wouldn't budge.
It's true that I took biblical Hebrew to fulfill my LS&A language requirement because if I had taken the placement test for modern Hebrew, they would have put me in an upper level course and I was in pre-med and had no desire to compete for an A with Mideast Language majors, so maybe playing an angle there bit me on the tuchas.
I'm sure that Solomon would have had some sage advice about that choice.
That part may be near literally true. More like a thatch roofed mud hut.
On the other hand my Daughter worked in the premier modern art gallery in Palm beach. At one stage they literally had 3 used dirty soccer balls in a net bag nailed to a wall that thney sold for 250k.
She became an organic farmer in disgust. The one person she said who came into he gallery who was not wearing their balance sheet on their sleeve and actually understood art and went to the good art was ken Griffen.
Not for the perpetrator, but if you were to call the LAPD station involved as a member of media, they would no longer be able to provide you any details now.
In other "Japanese manufacturer brings back legendary name on a meh car" news, after 8 months of having the sole hybrid Prelude wandering around the floor, my dealership finally put plates on it and knocked 20% off. Which is still €48k / silly money.
They’re gonna be a great used buy in like 3-5 years once they get into ~$30k range.
I’ve seen a few in person and they look terrific in and out. Every account I’ve read says they drive quite well too. Just slow with a… let’s be nice and say not the best suited transmission for purpose.
If it had a stick shift it would command MSRP even with 50k+ miles on it.
Hybrid/CVT and near-universal panning by the automotive press for being slow and too expensive makes me think there will at least be a short dip.
Also, RE: Celica… if it comes in under $40k (lol I know I know what a joke!) I may join you in extending my indentured servitude of monthly payments. I’m even very tight with one of the larger Toyota dealers in the Mid-Atlantic. Could probably score you and I both an allocation!
That e:HHV transmission is a simplified copy of the GM Voltec 4ET50 transaxle. Same dual motor, same idea of using one of the motors for charging the battery. Same idea of a clutched direct 1:1 drive between the engine and diff in high gear.
Now I've driven a Caddy ELR and it felt brisk(er) than a pedestrian Chevy Volt, this makes me think there is quite a bit of magic you could do with programming. Wonder where Honda will go with this, do a mid-cycle refresh with a beefed-up controller, or drop the car altogether.
You absolutely can do a lot with the tuning. Back in high school, the summer auto shop session spent a week down at Macomb Community College. They had a 1st gen volt that the College had been experimenting with, which including playing around with the torque management -meaning turning it off. One of the professors took us for rides and MAN did that thing move! That was probably 12 years ago, now.
The new lude on a nice looking set of wheels (Honda's biggest pitfall is always the wheels) would be great personal commuter at 35k, I'm hoping they sell enough to justify keeping it in production, but not enough so they have to put some cash on the hood.
"The man is 45 years old and he drove a tractor into the points. If he had Hamilton’s seat he would be 13 points behind Antonelli and the heavy favorite going into the second half."
Wherein I repeat my plea to Toto Wolf, whom we all know faithfully reads ACF under a nom de guerre:
Trade Princess George for Alonso and let him and Kimi race with no team orders and full parity of equipment. that will give Kimi a worthy mentor, Fernando one more shot at a WDC, and Mercedes no end of positive press and goodwill among fans. Even Sky Sports would stop it's 24/7 fellating of Hamilton and give the Silver Arrow some love.
Toto, this is a no-brainer. He has driven in one-third of _all F1 races in history_ and has a long history of dragging dogs to a better finish than they deserve. he's hardworking, loyal, and doesn't air dirty laundry or bitch and moan unless the team does something epically stupid. (Alonso whines less in an entire season than George does in a single race weekend.) He also has zero fucks left to give and nothing left to prove, so there'd be no ego and no bullshit.
If Alonso is a worthy mentor, does that mean that Lance Stroll is not a very good mentee?
I'd say so. but it's also possible Alonso doesn't think he's worth mentoring.
correct he is a window licking retard
Strong! But broadly true…
I'm hearing shades of Rocket Powered Mohawk in this comment. Approved!
the guy can turn a phrase
just wish he had a more regular release schedule
I think that's a question that answers itself.
"He has driven in one-third of _all F1 races in history_ "
This blew my mind, i knew he's been in F1 for a long time but that puts it in perspective.
It doesn't hurt that he's driven in the era when there are three times as many races a year as there were in the early days of F1.
Fair point.
Doesn't air dirty laundry?!?!?!?
Ron Dennis would like to have a word with you. So would Honda.
Ah. Good point. I'd forgotten about that. We got some good memes out of that.
OT:
I’m gonna be in Maine between Portland and Acadia/Bar Harbor for the next week to celebrate the wife and I’s first anniversary.
Anyone have any recommendations for things to do, places to eat, places to drink, or things to see?
What's your itinerary so far? In Portland the food and drink is pretty good, but you do need reservations at good places. Old Port is good for a night, then move up the coast. If you like hiking it's everywhere. Sebago Lake about 40 minutes northwest is really nice along with the towns around.
If you like beaches, Higgins Beach south of Portland is fantastic and it's open to the public. Popham Beach about 40 minutes north is great and parking is easy. There are some shark scares.
If you like a tacky but beautiful area, Old Orchard Beach has a pier and lots of fried dough and bad pizza places, but a great beach. There will be a Jeep beach fest and pig roast on September 11 -12.
Avoid Lewiston/Augusta or Bangor. The drive up the coast and all the little places with lobsters and seafood are fun.
Mid bay and all that are rich tourist areas but worth a trip through. There is going to be a balloon festival in Presque Isle next week, it's about 4 hours north of Portland.
Then there is always a trip to the LLBean mother ship in Freeport. They are rebuilding the main store but have a huge tent store set up for the past year behind the store.
"Avoid Lewiston/Augusta or Bangor. The drive up the coast and all the little places with lobsters and seafood are fun."
That's good advice. Here's my bad advice:
Yes, take all the slow roads -- slower roads than US 1 where you can. Keep the ocean on your right. Stop in every hamlet to look at the lobster boats floating in the harbors. Make a goal to find the cheapest lobster roll you can -- try them all. Watch out for vampires, with or without balloons.
“What's your itinerary so far?”
Honestly we’re kinda going up there with zero plan but to figure it out when we arrive.
There’s a few breweries and restaurants I wanna hit. Would like to see sunrise on Cadillac mountain and thunder hole too, but outside of that? Nada.
Your call to avoid 95 is for sure one I’m gonna try to do. Just depends on traffic up RT. 1 and the like as we don’t have all the time in the world unfortunately.
The balloon festival sounds extremely sick.
Rent a bike, take a ferry and spend a day biking around North Haven Island.
eat all the seafood and especially lobster you can
I've been to Boothbay Harbor and it's a great spot for dinner...
We went to Abel's Lobster on Bar Harbour last year, we enjoyed it a lot. Great beer, too. Can't do much wrong in Bar Harbour. It's just "bad" when the cruise ships land and the city is flooded with tourists.
Other than that, I like Camden a lot. Quiet, beautiful little town. Great view from Mt. Battie behind it.
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens were beautiful, and huge.
Maine Classic Car Museum is well worth a visit!
Ogunquit we liked quite well, too.
Hope any of this helps.
It does! The botanical gardens are something my wife would love.
There is a ferry that will take you from the harbor in Portland out to Peaks island, I enjoyed riding a bicycle around the island and exploring the WWII Battery Steele there. Blyth and Burrows makes a decent drink. In my travels thus far, Maine has been a real favorite. I'd like to ride my Sportster up the coast from Portland to Bar Harbor when I'm not as busy with the care and feeding of a race car.
Blythe and Burrows has come up on everything I’ve looked at so far lol.
It’s high on the list for sure.
I’d like a follow up to hear how this went. Considering doing it for our 10th.
It’s been really, really lovely.
Depending on what you’re after, I’d probably skip Portland next time. Suuuuuper cool, charming little city with a bunch to do, but the little coastal towns dotting the road would be my preference for a night or two I think.
Acadia is one of the prettiest places I have ever seen, though. Bar Harbor is a little bit tourist-trappy, but it is pleasant and the scenery is awe-inspiring.
Check out the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout this weekend on YouTube or
https://www.instagram.com/speedboatmagazine_sb.mag?igsi=MWw2MWFjMDQ1eGhuNA==
Favorite for top gun will be the American Ethanol 50’ Mystic. They ran 221mph last year and for the first time are running on 4x2500hp Mercury QCV4s with centrifugal superchargers. They previously ran 2 of those and 2 big block chevys. They even got the thing ready in time to test.
https://youtube.com/shorts/lL7C97fPfu4?is=Agv6u42KAscgab1X
2nd favorite for top gun is the Dirty Duck 438 Skater. 2x Carson Brummet 2000+ hp twin turbo big block chevys with nitrous. Ran 215mph last year. They burned a cylinder head testing but will have it back together in time. It also appeared to be on the edge of blowing over last year.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3875683322573266&vanity=lakeexpo&http_ref=eyJ0cyI6MTc4Nzc5MTYyOTAwMCwiciI6Imh0dHBzOlwvXC93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbVwvIn0%3D
Team Yahoo Skater will attempt to join the 200 club this year. Twin turbo big blocks.
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=776137075369917&id=williamholtztv
The all time top gun Darana Hybrid former Qatar 50’ Mystic 2x 4000-5500hp T55 turbines, will not be attending. Last year it ran 242mph on the 3/4 mile course, on the old 1-mile course it ran 244mph in 2014. It’s owned by that IHRA clown that went broke because Elon didn’t pay him for data centers.
https://www.facebook.com/speedboatmagazine/videos/darana-hybrid-242-mphownerdriver-darryl-cuttell-and-shootout-legend-steve-curtis/2507884939611637/?hpir=1&http_ref=eyJ0cyI6MTc4Nzc5MTk0MTAwMCwiciI6Imh0dHBzOlwvXC93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbVwvIn0%3D
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=848265376910286&vanity=laketv&http_ref=eyJ0cyI6MTc4Nzc5MjA0NjAwMCwiciI6Imh0dHBzOlwvXC93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbVwvIn0%3D
The Freedom One Skater is out. I’m not sure if it’s been completely redone since they flipped it in a shootout at havasu. You can google the video in peace, no one died. It has 2 blown alcohol drag race style engines and multi speed transmissions, so it could be a contender if they can get it sorted out. But trying for top gun trophies in Skaters takes a bit of a death wish IMO.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=4401636180164214&vanity=laketv&http_ref=eyJ0cyI6MTc4Nzc5MjA4OTAwMCwiciI6Imh0dHBzOlwvXC93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbVwvIn0%3D
Team Factory Billet 51’ Outerlimits V-bottom, the all time V bottom top gun at 186mph, is out this year. 2x 2200hp turbo big blocks and multi speed transmissions.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2081659462720089&vanity=laketv&http_ref=eyJ0cyI6MTc4Nzc5MjE0MzAwMCwiciI6Imh0dHBzOlwvXC93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbVwvIn0%3D
The Parveys retired their 166mph V bottom 43 Black Thunder last year, similar setup to factory billet.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/shootoutcoverage/posts/644009454491658/
But Team ACM is bringing a 42 Fountain with Merc 1550s that has done 171mph before with unlimited distance. So it’s the easy favorite for V-bottom top gun.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=436354312688162&vanity=americancustommarine&http_ref=eyJ0cyI6MTc4Nzc5MzEzNDAwMCwiciI6Imh0dHBzOlwvXC93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbVwvIn0%3D
Tyler Crocket swapped the blown alcohol Proline drag race engine out of the 26’ joker he had it in, that was an absolute death machine that almost went over. It’s now in a 32’ canopy Phantom, so that’s a lot better. But attempting 140+ runs in any single engine boat, V or Cat, also requires a death wish IMO.
https://youtu.be/oKwLoWO_SY0?is=JN7KGvThAthGf3-2
A bunch of outboard catamarans with Merc 450/500s will be duking it out again. The motors have had a tunable MoTeC ecu available for 2 years now and some of them will be over 700hp. I don’t know if the madman Warren Duke will be back with his 28’ skater that went 151mph.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=25272239329120439&vanity=LakeOfTheOzarksShootout&http_ref=eyJ0cyI6MTc4Nzc5MjQ3MjAwMCwiciI6Imh0dHBzOlwvXC93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbVwvIn0%3D
His competition will be a 39’ canopied Doug Wright Catamaran. They went 147 in an open top boat last year so they expect to be faster.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2419213875156094&vanity=LakeOfTheOzarksShootout&http_ref=eyJ0cyI6MTc4Nzc5MjUyMzAwMCwiciI6Imh0dHBzOlwvXC93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbVwvIn0%3D
The world’s fastest center console is a 36’ Avanti that ran 128mph last year with 4x I6 40 verados tuned with nitrous. The boat now has 450/500 based engines, but no word on if he’s coming back.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3782763445277252&vanity=williamholtztv&http_ref=eyJ0cyI6MTc4Nzc5MjYwNDAwMCwiciI6Imh0dHBzOlwvXC93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbVwvIn0%3D
Will Smith ran 128mph last with 2 Merc 450 based outboards on a 32’ V bottom. This year he the motors on his 32’ “speed skiff” which is technically a center console. So we’ll see if challenges the “center console” record.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNvXi5JWoLD/?igsi=MWJ4enZpZjljMjY5Yg==
centrifugal supercharging is interesting. i guess if you dont need the low end torque of a roots blower and want the higher efficiency impeller then it makes a lot of sense. procharger and the like have some pretty huge units out now thanks to the drag and drive crowd
They are slowly proving to be the winning power adder in 1/8th mile drag racing. Big turbos don’t have enough time to build big boost.
i like centrifugals but ive always been curious about them in big power road race applications. either the cogged belt cant keep up with rapid rpm changes (can it? probably) or a crank driven unit is in a poor spot for packaging
either way procharged foxbodies are rad (and apparently you can build pretty stout 347 blown foxes that are totally smog legal in california)
I would like a supercharger that I can activate with a switch on the gear stick, when outlaw biker gangs give me trouble.
I’d think an AC compressor drive could accomplish this but I don’t know if they can take that much HP.
Trivia: That blower was fake.
But cool as hell.
The FATF chargers were small block Chevy powered and the blowers weren’t hooked up either. Lame
People don't believe in heroes anymore.
Power delivery isn’t linear enough for that application. Boost builds at the same rate as RPM. Screw and TVS roots superchargers seem to be preferable. Gotta manage the inlet air temp though.
ive seen prochargers with decent powerbands but that seems to be the result of limiting it with cam/head choice
There's a LOT of wear and tear on crank snouts with rapid rpm change and you can wring it right off trying to power a supercharger with an appropriately toothed and tensioned belt. For a while there were custom crankshafts with very beefy snouts used in drag stuff. Then turbos became very cheap. I suspect the illustrious minds in Siam determined they could not knock off superchargers very well, but turbos were a cake walk.
i assumed as much
once i saw a lycoming or continential crank i realized a dedicated blower engine would probably need a super beefy front main bearing.
i think someone had a kind of tension rod with bearings at either end to go from the crank pulley to the blower pulley to prevent them from deflecting when you pile on the tension. unsure how well that went
Boats are an expensive way to go fast, but not a whole lot of rules and lots of open space to play.
Yep. The shootout is exciting because it’s unlimited. All of the racing series got turned in to spec power classes or bracket racing. So there isn’t an unlimited class any more that I’m aware of. There are couple of cool endurance races, a couple around England and one in the Caribbean. The Caribbean one got switched to bracket classes though.
" know it’s an anti-gun play, but if only they/them were a little less enthusiastic about the right to bare arms..."
I, for one, will be very happy when the fad of unattractive, pasty pale white women with prison-caliber randomly placed petroglyphic monochromatic tats is over.
chipotle bag americans
Damn that's funny!
Probably gonna be awhile, just last evening at supper my wife's 40 year old niece was showing us the artwork for her planned sleeve.
A Farewell to (enormous doughy inked-up fatbacked) Arms
Lowbrow vs highbrow art: Art was a major luxury good in the past because you had to have money to have the supplies and the time to make it. Mass production let a lot more people dabble in it, and now we're almost all able to access or even make beautiful things. This is a good thing.
Current highbrow art will be forgotten because it's all meaningless bullshit, no matter how much word salad they throw at it. There's historical precedent: The most memorable art made in Japan during the Edo Period is ukiyo-e: lowbrow, mass-produced woodblock flyers that advertised sumo matches or kabuki plays or just looked cool in some way. Nobody's going to give a shit about a banana taped to a wall in 200 years, but there's something we all like looking at right now that will still have value (I don't know what it is but in my biased opinion it could be something as silly but cool-looking as Jim Lee-penciled comic books).
The point of modern art is to enable money laundering. That's why the wealthy care about it.
That's pretty much it.
EDIT: I also think there's some truth to the idea that the wealthy are flexing on us proles with their nonsensical appreciation.
Having known some "artists" (Artistes?) there's also a degree of "Emperor's New Clothes" at work in the world of fine and haute art. Like Duchamp's urinal or Koons' absurd balloon animals, I think there's a lot of people who enjoy preying on the gullibility and self-regard of the wealthy. Taking their money while simultaneously taking the piss, if you will.
There are, of course, exceptions. I know a woman who hails from a very wealthy family who owns and operates a gallery where she sells her "art". Her work is quite earnestly meant and technically competent, but also obscurantist and non-representational and almost entirely devoid of meaning, to my eyes. Much like the three-year-old child who brings a parent a crayoned scrawl stating "I drew this for you, mummy", I believe her most reliable paying client for her works is her mother.
Some don’t call it art. We collected pre 19th century botanical and bird engravings. It’s something to think about all the hard labor done completely by hand from making copper plates and paper as well as the ink by candlelight. Here’s an example. Prices vary widely by subject matter. Most were colored in at a later date.
https://sothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b64ce06/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4197x4197+0+0/resize/800x800!/quality/90/?url=http:%2F%2Fsothebys-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fmedia-desk%2F6a%2F05%2Fafd9a2274acba244042bd4572d05%2Fgerman-tulip-engravings.jpg
"she wrote “If you haven’t had your balls all the way in someone’s mouth, I feel sorry for you"
this is a horrid pickup line because it comes from someone that looks like her
"if only they/them were a little less enthusiastic about the right to bare arms"
theyre forced to show 24sq ft of skin becuase when youre double a normal weight you run hotter than a gr corolla on track
"It truly had something for everyone except, ya know, the 300,000 Dutch people who came to see Max finish a whole race"
really does suck seeing max not win
"some people read the books and still see it that way"
i thought it was an origami crane
"the Celica is coming back as a 2.4-liter turbocharged AWD coupe, possibly with hybrid power"
oh my god who cares
"Thai immigrants are 78% female, while 65% of Afghan immigrants are men. Huh. 163,000 people were let in during 2015; approximately 500 of them were arriving to work a pre-arranged job."
utterly unbelievable and all of them need to go back
"In the second quarter of 2026, LiveWire captured a robust 76% of the adult e-motorcycle market by selling 267 motorcycles, losing nearly $19 million in the process"
pure comedy.
"really does suck seeing max not win"
It really did suck seeing that as it happened. At least LH didn't podium. Princess George still has his measure.
I think Max is the best driver in the world, but I found it oddly reassuring to see him make a mistake and prove he is human after all.
Agreed!
this made me lol irl: when youre double a normal weight you run hotter than a gr corolla on track
blood about as thick as 20w-50
Me too!
No shit. I've managed to lose about 70 lbs in the last three years (23 in the last 12 months alone) , and this is the first summer that I've definitely noticed that I'm not sweating profusely in this confounded heat all the time, even when not engaged in physical activity.
It's rather a nice change to be approaching "normal" weight again after all these years as a disgusting fatbody.
Of course she has purple hair.
https://www.heyalma.com/jewish-comedian-jacqueline-novak-gives-us-a-talmudic-dissection-of-the-blowjob/ Umm NSFW
I have actually heard this in real life but the farthest I've strayed from Catholic is protestant.
That reads like something the SPLC would pay Stormfront to write as a parody, yeesh!
https://theonion.com/sale-of-bet-to-white-supremacist-group-results-in-no-ch-1819595187/
I can say that they pass it down from generation to generation, or at least a young lady I knew was very excited to practice on me when I met her because her aunt had just given her a lesson on how. I took her heritage as irrelevant at the time.
what a horrible post
another woman "comedian" whos only real subject is sex. how thrilling.
i wish women were funny
Iliza Schlesnger isn't too bad, though she's at her best when riffing on women.
She has lost her fastball but her elder millennial skit was very good. Most comedians lose their fastball after 1-2 specials. It's a hard gig to keep up.
She's now just another too liberal older white lady.
"oh my god who cares"
As a former owner of a "78 Celica GT and a '00 Celica GT-S.....
exactly
you had one of the great ones and as such you shouldnt be forced to buy a exceptionally lame vehicle and instead have the choice of something fun like your gts
Speed you cant “back in my day!” cars made before you were born.
I’m actually keen on Toyota’s performance products. Let’s wait and see what this one actually looks like before judgement. If it’s an eCVT only hybrid Prelude competitor, then yes fire away.
i was talking about his 2000 celica gts
wait how old do you think i am
29 Gs for a mcycle? Not fricken worth it! I rode a BICYCLE from Seattle to Boston, and I'm thinking of doing it again even though I'm now in my 70s! I took 45 days and very much enjoyed the trip! Went over the Cascades, slept on the shore of Lake Pend Oreille (Idaho), and lots of other fun stuff.
When did you do the ride?
I did Seattle to San Fran back in the 1980s, down the coast in 9 days.
I did that ride probably summer of 1975. Seattle to San Fran sounds very nice, and nine days sounds quick! I don't remember the distance between San Fran and Seattle, but I'm thinking it's probably around 1000 miles. I once did the middle of the Oregon coast to SF. Can't remember exactly when--maybe the '80s. Very pretty!
I thinkI did Seattle to Boston summer of 1975. I've written an account of that trip and I'm going to post in on Substack in the near future.
It was something like 950 miles. We stayed in motels, so travelled light. And in summer the wind is typically from the north/northwest, so we had a lot of tail winds. There is a lot of climbing, even on the coast road.
I've lived the E-Moto adventure as a parent. My oldest (now 15) did a bunch of odd jobs all summer two years ago and just showed up with a Surron LBX he bought from someone at the gas station (I helped him build a Bafang conversion that planted the seed). He fixed it up, got it powder coated, put it all back together himself, and rode it everywhere. We took it to a few MX tracks, too.
Alas, many other kids got e-motos, there was lots of property damage, a few crashes and terrifying videos of kids going 40+ next to little children walking on sidewalks, and mini-takeovers, which led to a police crack down this summer, starting with PSAs, warnings and calls to parents, then impounds and tickets if caught riding dirty again. He fortunately sold early on, but prices for the e-motos completely cratered around us, particularly for the non-brand Universal Chinese E-Moto.
At least Harley isn't looking for government handouts and taxpayer dollars to finance its sacrifice to the death cult.
Too bad we couldn't have sane energy policy that would allow us to retain leadership of civilian nuclear technology. Of course, we sold it all to China and got Taylor Sheridan and Yellowstone-branded steak seasoning instead.
https://www.decouple.media/p/westinghouse-a-portrait-of-american?utm_source=%2Finbox&utm_medium=reader2
The kids in my neighborhood are terrorists on them. I dont ride my motorcycle on the bike paths or the sidewalks
That's what happened here too.
I haven't seen it on the woods paths here but one place has put up signs forbidding them.
They must have cracked down here as well, there is an elementary school at the entrance to my neighborhood with two entrances about 250'-300' apart, and turnign onto the street used to be like driving onto the video shoot for DMX's Ruff Ryders Anthem music video every day when I'd get home from work. All the kids would do stunt laps between the two entrances, mostly when traffic was clear. I haven't seen any of that since before the summer. Part of me loved that they were outside being dumb kids again, but the other part of me was thinking the serious injury was a when not an if scenario. It always seemed like to more serious the hardware the less gear the rider had on as well.
"I find it absolutely wonderful that we are having these “lowbrow” events in DC. Newsflash: America is lowbrow. It is a country that, prior to its recent forcible reimagination as a dumping ground for the worst people the rest of the world has to offer, was resolutely middle-class, plain-spoken, and uncultured."
America might have been middle-class and lowbrow but back when families gathered on Sunday nights to watch Ed Sullivan, the middle class was regularly exposed to high culture. A lot of middle-class pop culture was slightly watered down high culture, as opposed to today when a lot of pop culture comes from ghetto and prison culture. Sullivan had ballet dancers (my mother was deeply offended by Nureyev's codpiece) and opera singers. Longines Symphonette sold LP collections of great operatic arias and famous symphonic overtures. Arthur Fiedler made a pretty good career out of selling high culture to the masses.
Great, now all I can think of is being forced to watch Lawrence Welk.
Seriously LOL, that used to be on the TV every time we would go visit my grandparents. UGH.
When I was a child I thought Welk was foreign as he seemed to speak with an accent.
Turns out he was just Midwestern.
Thanka yew boiiiiiiz.
"my mother was deeply offended by Nureyev's codpiece"
I'm guessing then that she was not a fan of Kiss or WASP...
That was when highbrow stuff was still good. Now it's just meaningless trash. "Symphonies" that try to find the beauty in the space between discordant "chords". Today's lowbrow stuff is better. I'd rather listen to Drake than Philip Glass.
There's still a market for good highbrow stuff, but that stuff's all a hundred years old now.
In my house we watched Hee Haw.
Roy Clark could masterfully play just about any musical instrument with strings. I would have loved to hear him play with David Grisman and Andy Statman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQUAbQnNGuk
Let’s not forget the best example of exposing the low brows and middle class to high culture — Bugs Bunny.
I've said it before: "What's Opera, Doc," was the apex of Western culture.
That is how intelligent our culture used to be, because even the normies got the joke!
Now we are just plain dumb.
Look for Bugs Bunny’s Southern Fried Rabbit cartoon to see every Southern cliche known to man in one cartoon..
"“If you haven’t had your balls all the way in someone’s mouth, I feel sorry for you."
This says more about her husband's, uh, dimensions than she might want to admit publicly.
As I recall, she implied it had long been a go-to move for her with everyone. It would have to be. She is painfully ugly, a real monster in human flesh, kind of like a female Christopher Lloyd. I'm also painfully ugly so I'm allowed to say that.
I wonder if the most common reaction was "Oh wow... hey now, that's... that's interesting. Really something. Can you put the bag back on now?"
Most common reaction was to go home, delete JDate, burn off their fingerprints, and flee the country.
Those words spoken through the recipient’s bag.
Having at least one memory of a hook up with an uggo, I can confidently say even that lady's best balls in mouth move is never going to be enough. They somehow get uglier when they decide "my best move is to thoroughly debase myself and turn this into masturbatory sex with a chance of STD and child support for you."
*gagging noises*
thank you for taking that bullet for us
One of many reasons I don't drink heavily anymore. But at least a top 3. lol.
"A female Christopher Lloyd" - that gave me a $10 laugh.
It says much about both.
Marble-sized.
And not the big ones, either.
Of course it didnt jam, it “misfired” if it jammed, she’d be dead after the gun went off. In my thousands of rounds of ammunition i have had one misfire.
How can you not have a misfire? It happens all the time in movies and on TV shows.
Exactly. Always with a click too.
Multiple clicks with a striker fired pistols. Dear Hollywood if the gun doesnt go off the glock will not go click again
I mean. They do happen and if it’s your first one youre not going ti be aware to tap rack and pull again. But it 1/2000 odds this story is true.
Those are much better odds than I would give it.
That’s because the filed the firing pin down so they had full auto. Max stopping power.
Maybe the dude was an artisansal handloader working in Berdan resulfurization or something.
Those guys usually load too hot!
much like homemade hot sauces theyre either incredibly mild or a severe chemical reaction
Fun story: there's a hole in the wall in my garage that was a result of the same incident that made the guy I bought my house from give up handloading. The cylinder of a .44 Magnum revolver missed his head by inches....
Yeah. Im not risking my life to save thirty cents
Comments like that have me increasingly questioning your claim to being an accountant, based on personal experience.
Im still cheap but i dont fuck with plumbing electrical or things that can kill me. Except motorcycles
I had to check, and not taking into account the cost of reloading supplies, the cheapest 44 Mag is around 80 cents per right now, ranging up to 3 bucks per for the boutique shotshell stuff. JFC
Thats steep, but youre not shooting too many rounds of 44 anyway. .
I think i paid 50-60cents for 5.56 and less for 9mm, the 308 gets pricey.
Moste expensive ammo i shot was .50 cal, I think that was &5 per round, then I see ww2 or vietnaam clips and theyre firing thousands of rounds of that stuff in single mssion..
I was handloading .44 Mag to save money back when it was still $12 for 50 rounds; you could do it for an eight cent bullet from National Bullet, a 2.5 cent Federal primer, and about six to eight cents' worth of Hornady #8.
depends what youre shooting and how much shooting you do. , we shoot 250-500 rds in a session.
These days 5.56 is ok, 9 mm is pretty inexpesive, 45 can be reasonable but the Vepr takes 308 and that adds up fast in 30 rd clips. Still buy ammo off the rack though, just prob shoot less as a result.
Its not just the $, cleaning 3-5 guns each time can be a chore, apparently some dont.
I've experienced one misfire, which was to be expected; I was running cheap wadcutter 9mm through a rental CZ Scorpion I was trying to talk myself out of purchasing.
I had an EAA revolver that misfired something fierce. I had to re-shim the cylinder to get the head space to where it needed to be and so I'd stop getting light hits.
Word to the wise: EAA doesn't make good pistols, especially not revolvers.
every few shots the firing pin of my whitney wolverine would fly back and hit my bicep!
I believe you!
Oh I want one of those so bad!
Carrying one of those in your Qvale Mangusta (!!!) would make you the coolest person who has ever lived.
"There should be events like the Freedom 250 continuously. If nothing else, holding such events might accidentally and/or occasionally expose our legislature to their constituencies."
Perhaps it's too much to expect folks running for major offices to shop at Walmart, but at least I'd like them to know where the nearest Walmart is to their official domicile.
It's too much to expect MY broke ass to shop at Walmart.
Hey, don't diss my people, man!
I long held all the usual upper-middle, liberal-left prejudices about Wal-Mart. A sharp change of class has altered my perspective.
I started shopping at my neighborhood Wal-Mart last year and have been very pleasantly surprised at the selection, the prices and the service. A bit cheaper for groceries than the (other) local corporate chains. I'm still very much on my uppers so every cent counts.
The wife of a friend has worked in accounting for Wal-Mart for thirty years and recently retired with a quite substantial 401K, which enjoyed a healthy company match. She, and other employees I've spoken to, tell me W-M is actually a pretty good employer.
Youre touching on something much larger here. Folks in elected office become evr more removed from the daily, yet it is thye who pass the rules and laws that affect evbruyhting.
Do we think anyone who passed the "infrastructre bill" which mandates auto braking adas and in car cameras has actually driven themselves in years?
I'd like to ask Rep. Debbie Dingell driving directions from her district near Dearborn to Selfridge ANG base near Mt Clemens. I'm pretty sure she's been chauffeured there for "government authorized official travel," but I doubt she's ever driven herself. Hell, she's been living in DC for decades to back when she was GM's lobbyist, how she met her late husband from whom she inherited her seat in the House, which he inherited from his father (though if you say she got the GM job because her grandfather was one of the Fisher brothers of Fisher Body, she'll call you a sexist). Hell, I'd be willing to bet she doesn't know how to drive from her district office just a few minutes to Detroit Metro airport for when she has to deign to fly commercial.
Yet these are the people who decide rules for cars and Detroit.
Even Trump with his banning stop starts missed the biggie Adas and auto braking or in car cameras. I’ll bet he hasn’t bought if driven a new car ina decade
The in car camera is likely not a big cost item but those add up. They already have a screen and a cmos camera is just a few dollar at retail so in OEM quantities my guess is that engineering where the camera goes and fiddling with the related software costs more than the hardware.
Hardware cost is not the issue i was driving at. More like who wnats a car spying on them. I dont have camera in my house or on the shitter eiter, the car is private space.
The cost is also exponentially greater than the hardware. In car cameras are part of adas systems and there is also a huge software Cost to enable these systems s to override us.
I was reading an extensive article on in car ai assistant’s . The article went on and on about the different systems and how good they may me. Never once did the article aske do we wnat or desire in car ai or what it’s really gong to do. I mean why do I need to talk to the car to tell it to put with windows down.
When the normies realize that cars are going to have cameras in the dash watching them when they’re driving, there’s going to be a huge backlash, especially now that the Flock camera backlash has picked up steam and is not going away.
The answer is quite obviously, NO.
After he retired from the Senate, Sen. George McGovern acquired the lease for the Stratford Inn hotel/restaurant in Connecticut. It went bankrupt in four years.
From Google: "McGovern later reflected on this experience in a 1992 Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “A Politician’s Dream Is a Businessman’s Nightmare”, in which he lamented that he had not anticipated the difficulties of running a hotel, especially during a recession, and that he wished he had had more firsthand experience with the daily challenges of business before serving in public office. He argued that many legislators fail to grasp how public regulations and reporting requirements can drive up costs, forcing businesses to pass them on to consumers, and that “one-size-fits-all” rules often ignore the realities of the marketplace."
I seriously doubt that Elizabeth Warren has ever read that op-ed.
This kinda hits right in the middle of the issue
The big corps have compliance departments,
They don like rules but the cost of meeting a bunch of endless rules is fractional for them.
Whereas for a small or medium business it’s major and that’s how small business gets crushed . Yet 2-3/5 of employment is small and medium business
I DO NOT shop at Walmart. Period.
The Freedom 250 Race was a raging success and I witnessed thousands of people having a great time. The days before were outstanding the drivers were available for the fans, the pit lanes were open, families brought young children and the sponsors had numerous displays and give-a-ways. Too bad that the locals (NVa, DC, Maryland) avoided it as everyone I meet or saw was from somewhere else. Local media had spent weeks warning their viewers/readers it was going to be a typical Trump sh’tshow. Every night some blue blood was on the local news saying these events were going to destroy their priceless art or building. As was said the MMA fight, the States Fair and the race were not for local consumption they were for all the undesirables in Hicksville. Talk about pissing off the locals, it worked.
Wasn't there a president in the early 1800s who had giant piece of cheese anyone could come intot he wh and take a pice of.
Our better's forget that Washington belongs to "we the people" all of us.
IMO Jan 6 was nothing more than the people going to the peoples house to express their opinions and dissatisfaction. An insurrection would have burnt the peoples house and killed a few officials. You know like BLM did to private property to which they had no right to enter when protesting.
I went both days with my 6 year old. Saturday was by far the more fun day - much less crowded and you got to see the IROC putting on a pretty good show.
Sunday *was* a bit of a shitshow. They closed the bridges for an hour pre race to let Trump & Co do a lap of the track. There was barely any grandstand space if you didn't buy the $4k tickets, and the grand stands didn't have big screens to follow the race that wasn't right in front of you.
Mid race Sunday we tried to make our way over to the braking zone for T1 as on the video it looked like it was pretty empty only to get to the bridge on that side getting closed "because it's missing bolts in the middle of it"
For what it's worth there were a fair number of locals there - they just happened to be the ones that wanted to see racecars go fast rather than complain online about things.
All in all I'm glad it happened, and I had fun, but for sure they could have made it a much better experience with some more time and planning.
The NPR report on the vibrations from the race cars damaging art was fantastic. They had an obviously mentally ill Karen scold with severe TDS who was in genuine distress over all of the priceless art that was sure to be ruined, then the NPR reporter cut to some racing executive who only said “There are no vibrations.”
"Also, Gwenfritz sucks balls. It makes the Jeff Koons balloon dogs look like the David. "
There's a massive modern sculpture on the lawn of the Detroit Institute of Arts called Gracehopper (apparently a tribute to computer pioneer Grace Hopper) that from some angles looks like dogs humping.
https://homepages.bluffton.edu/~SULLIVANM//michigan/detroit/tonysmith/gracehopper.html
There is a not so 'modern' style one in Richmond, VA of Arthur Ashe seemingly fighting off a horde of kids with his tennis racket, not entirely unlike the cover art of the original Doom.
Literally laughed out loud, thank you for your service
Well it's a good thing I went with 'fighting off' instead accidentally with 'beating off.'
Nah that would have been even better
that one is at penn state
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Ashe_Monument
I hears barber motorsports park has all sorts of great sculpture around the track.
Friends of mine worked for a company in San Jose that was building a new facility. In order to get a building permit, they had to agree to BUY a piece of artwork to go out front and were giving a list (with pictures) of the only pieces they were allowed to use (all very expensive too - talk about your graft).
so they picked the ugliest piece that was on the list, because they wanted to inflict it on the community forcing them to buy that shit.
27 states have programs that a certain a percentage of a capital project’s cost (usually 1-2%), must be used for public art.
https://nasaa-arts.org/nasaa_research/state-percent-art-programs/
No way! How have I gone this long in my life without learning the government forces private businesses to pay for "art" no one wants or looks at twice?
Its to subsidize the tards, i mean artists
tardists
you must have been living in a cave for a long time.
Ecclesiastes 1:12-18
I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
...
I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.
For in much wisdom is much vexation,
and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
---
Ignorance is bliss, Steve!
(Solomon does go on to write in the next chapter, "Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness." So, yes, it's ultimately better to be walking in the light than blinding yourself in darkness, but no good comes of me stacking up even more reasons to be depressed about our American government system.)
I can't read Ecclesiastes/Kohelet without thinking of Charles Krahmalkov, my biblical Hebrew professor. For the final, we had to translate a chapter from Ecc. The "wisdom books" of the Hebrew bible are about the most difficult to translate. I didn't think that was particularly fair since some of the students could barely read Hebrew. I did a decent job but only got a B+. When I pointed out that it was the best translation in the class he said that it wouldn't be fair to grade me and the other students equally, since I came into the class knowing both modern and biblical Hebrew. I told him that a math prof would never grade relatively like that, that I met the criteria for an A on the course, but he wouldn't budge.
It's true that I took biblical Hebrew to fulfill my LS&A language requirement because if I had taken the placement test for modern Hebrew, they would have put me in an upper level course and I was in pre-med and had no desire to compete for an A with Mideast Language majors, so maybe playing an angle there bit me on the tuchas.
I'm sure that Solomon would have had some sage advice about that choice.
That part may be near literally true. More like a thatch roofed mud hut.
On the other hand my Daughter worked in the premier modern art gallery in Palm beach. At one stage they literally had 3 used dirty soccer balls in a net bag nailed to a wall that thney sold for 250k.
She became an organic farmer in disgust. The one person she said who came into he gallery who was not wearing their balance sheet on their sleeve and actually understood art and went to the good art was ken Griffen.
Hahahahahaha!!! I don't know why I expected anything less from the sculpture after reading your description. Well done.
“12 years ago our neighbor walked into our home, stuck a pistol in my wife’s face, and pulled the trigger. It jammed.”
But did he also yell 'This is MAGA Country!' ?
*TTAC Country
He had to wait 12 years to tell the story either because of reasons or because arrest records typically disappear around that time.
Has anyone asked him what she did to provoke the incident?
That would imply they believe it happened, so no
she didn't get his balls in her mouth
Deez nuuuts.
Exactlky
On their own? Hot shit!
Not for the perpetrator, but if you were to call the LAPD station involved as a member of media, they would no longer be able to provide you any details now.
Sorta figured that's what you meant.
In other "Japanese manufacturer brings back legendary name on a meh car" news, after 8 months of having the sole hybrid Prelude wandering around the floor, my dealership finally put plates on it and knocked 20% off. Which is still €48k / silly money.
Yow. They are forty grand here which seems high
They’re gonna be a great used buy in like 3-5 years once they get into ~$30k range.
I’ve seen a few in person and they look terrific in and out. Every account I’ve read says they drive quite well too. Just slow with a… let’s be nice and say not the best suited transmission for purpose.
Just watch. Honda will discontinue them and then they will become impossible to buy used. I've seen this movie before!
Maybe!
If it had a stick shift it would command MSRP even with 50k+ miles on it.
Hybrid/CVT and near-universal panning by the automotive press for being slow and too expensive makes me think there will at least be a short dip.
Also, RE: Celica… if it comes in under $40k (lol I know I know what a joke!) I may join you in extending my indentured servitude of monthly payments. I’m even very tight with one of the larger Toyota dealers in the Mid-Atlantic. Could probably score you and I both an allocation!
That e:HHV transmission is a simplified copy of the GM Voltec 4ET50 transaxle. Same dual motor, same idea of using one of the motors for charging the battery. Same idea of a clutched direct 1:1 drive between the engine and diff in high gear.
Now I've driven a Caddy ELR and it felt brisk(er) than a pedestrian Chevy Volt, this makes me think there is quite a bit of magic you could do with programming. Wonder where Honda will go with this, do a mid-cycle refresh with a beefed-up controller, or drop the car altogether.
From what I’ve read, their attempts to mimic a dual clutch with it are largely successful! It works, and “feels” somewhat correct.
It also apparently serves to make the car much slower.
You absolutely can do a lot with the tuning. Back in high school, the summer auto shop session spent a week down at Macomb Community College. They had a 1st gen volt that the College had been experimenting with, which including playing around with the torque management -meaning turning it off. One of the professors took us for rides and MAN did that thing move! That was probably 12 years ago, now.
The ELR is way quicker than the Volt, though the battery range is less. I have owned both.
The new lude on a nice looking set of wheels (Honda's biggest pitfall is always the wheels) would be great personal commuter at 35k, I'm hoping they sell enough to justify keeping it in production, but not enough so they have to put some cash on the hood.
"they look terrific" . Really, I dont see that. Thyre somewhat more interesting than the creased or melted slop that counts as car styling today.
Nah, looks blah. From the side, hood is too short. Front overhand too long. Back looks like Godzilla stepped on it.