Where's the work of art, in the glove compartment? This thing is a total abortion. At least he picked a cheap common old car to mess with, rather than something unusual or valuable.
Yeah, the Caterham is way way way sweet, but I didn't mention it since you aren't going to do one for anywhere near $6K. Actually, Caterham owners would get a little miffed at calling it a "Lotus-7 knock-off", since Caterham actually purchased the rights to continue the marque from Lotus in the 1970s. The rest are knock-offs, whilst the Caterham is a "continuation" of the marque... Which is partly why it costs more! :-) Make mine British Racing Green with a yelow bonnet. And, I'll take the "clamshell" fenders as mine as well. Anyone ever watch "The Prisoner"? Definitely a Neato TV show in its day!
Nice 1930s Benz-ish styling, but for that kind of cash, 50cc is nowhere near enough nads for this thing! Where can you take a car that only goes 30 mph?
If you want to built a *real* sportscar on the cheap, look to something like a Locost (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locost) or one of the myriad of other Lotus-7 knockoffs. Why end up with a 30 mph gokart, when you can build a road-worthy real car? Straight talk from Sid.
chet: That's my whole point. NASA heavily doctors the images they put out to the public to make them look extra pretty and appealing. They make some beautiful pieces of art, but the "science" disappears pretty fast when you start doing this. They've taken heat for this in the past, but pretty pictures excite more people about space = bigger budgets for them.
They admit this image is a composite of at least 2 other images, one of which (a "Blue Marble - Next Generation picture") is itself heavily "enhanced" - read about that on their website. Like the resurrected Viking boat in another article, you have to wonder how much is real by the time they are finished.
Update 3: Christophe and Kevin/Adam are all right!
The term "billion" means different things depending on which English you speak. It comes down to something called the "short and long scale numerical systems", which vary their terminolgy in multiplying units of 1,000 (short system) or in 1,000,000 (long system). You can read about it here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales), but here's the gist:
10^9: Americans (and Canadians) call this a "billion", but Britons (at least old ones) call it a thousand million. Sometimes the term "milliard" is used, but that is mostly in non-English speaking countries.
10^12: Americans can this a "trillion", whilst Brits call it a "billion".
10^15: Americans call it a quadrillion; Brits call it a thousand billion or sometimes a "billiard", but that is pretty archaic.
10^18: Americans call it quintillion; Brits call this a trillion.
Reading the Wiki article, it seems like the Brits themselves have been changing since 1974 to the "short scale" system used by the US, Canada, Australia, and other English speaking countries. Most of continetal Europe continues to use the long scale (like Christophe).
It's a cool story, but to say a 1,000 year old ship is going to "sail again" is a huge stretch. According to the article, 45 years ago, they pulled up only 1/4 of just the basic hull. Something tells me only a very small fraction of that 1/4 hull is now in this "restored" boat. They don't mention it in the article, but I'm betting it is 99 44/100% new boat (built to the prior specs, as well as they could reckon from the small part they started with). There's probably a non-structural hunk of original wood sealed in epoxy and screwed to the rail so they can call it "partly original"
That is pretty cool! I wonder how edited/enhanced it is, though. A lot of released NASA photos are *heavily* doctored, and have been for decades to make them more intriguing to non-scientists (who then tell their congressmen to keep the bucks flowing in NASA's direction).
I'm not saying that the moon shots were shot in the Nevada desert or anything, but NASA employs a number of talented artists who are good at adding color were the wavelengths of light are not visible, removing noise, upping saturation levels, sharpening blurriness and general photoshopping so that the public-released images wind up truly dazzling. The heavy editing always makes me wonder how much you can trust. As an engineer myself, I'd like to see a little less reliance on special effects artists and more on the RAW images.
OK, fine, the cars are bad. Naughty car, take that!
Well, what about the *people* ?
It seems like the perps (yes, I watch Law and Order... all of them) are BOTH a) receiving stolen property and b) street racing. Aren't either or both of these felonies, or at least serious misdemeanors? If they have enough evidence to crush the cars, why are the perps standing around watching instead of hearing about it through the prison grapevine? Answer? Because crushing cars makes a nice news story to get the politicians faces in the media.
Meg: a bobcat is not a house cat. Different species, much bigger, fiercer, and completely wild. Normally they wouldn't bother people, but when one has rabies, it isn't going to think rationally. No, it isn't a leopard or a mountain lion, but a sick one that is feeling mean for really tear you up. Kudos to the guy for keeping his senses. Google the news recently for a guy in Israel who recently wrestled and held down for 20 minutes until game warden arrived a leopard that jumped into his bedroom. The leopard was hungry, but none the worse for wear. That guy must be a serious badass.
Last time I checked, Sarajevo, Italy, and Sadaam's spider hole are all well outside the US. There is nothing wrong with privately owned guns; in fact they are valuable tools to protect people's freedoms both from oppressive governments and from forces without.
You mention you are from the UK. I'm assume that you are too young to know much about the many thousands of civilian Brits (including many women and old men) who made up the British Home Guard (Local Defence Volunteers) during the Second World War. There was an extremely real threat that the British Isles would be invaded (read about Operation Sea Lion -- the Nazi plan to do just that). Whilst that never came to be, the Home Guard was ready with their own weapons (read GUNS!) to slow the Germans down and impede their progress wherever possible. This wasn't "busywork", but the real deal -- government owned weapons were in very short supply (lots left on the beach at Dunkirk unfortunately), so those privately owned rifles, shotguns, and pistols were one of the big things ensuring your nation's freedom. Read about how dire Winston Churchill considered the situation in his 6 volume history of the Second World War. Private gun ownership was there to protect your freedom. Fortunately, the RAF stopped the Luftwaffe first, but that was a monumental upset -- far from a "given" at the time.
This whole thing is a public funds wasting publicity stunt by the city & politicians involved. I'll concede that IF (a big "if") these guys were convicted of some sort of crime, it is possible that confiscation of the property is permitted under the laws on the books. I'm OK with that as long as they were actually *convicted* ... an arrest is not good enough (which is why I have a problem with immediate property confication in drunking driving or drug arrests).
OK, so we will assume they were convicted... Why doesn't the city AUCTION the confiscated property and collect the funds? It's not like this property could only be used in the commission of a crime.... there is a ready market for tarted up rice cars! Their approach instead is to create a big wasteful photo-op by destroying what is now taxpayer property. A lot of cash goes into building these cars -- even that 10 year old Acura might have $10K or even $20K woth of work done to it. Why is this taxpayer property being destroyed? And, as Michael says ... if they are *sure* that parts are stolen, why aren't these being returned to either the rightful owners or the insurance companies that paid out on those owners' theft claims? Politicians love spending others' money. Next year they will by trying to jack up the property taxes to fill the budget shortfall no doubt.
"Get into trouble"? The people in the referenced article got into trouble because they were on private property (a shopping mall is NOT public property) and wouldn't leave when so asked by the management. One is only allowed to remain on private property at the pleasure of the owner (in this case, the mall owner). Tough noogies on them. If they don't like it, they should buy/build their own shopping mall.
I like the T-shirt, but the price is way way high.
If you want to built a *real* sportscar on the cheap, look to something like a Locost (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locost) or one of the myriad of other Lotus-7 knockoffs. Why end up with a 30 mph gokart, when you can build a road-worthy real car? Straight talk from Sid.
They admit this image is a composite of at least 2 other images, one of which (a "Blue Marble - Next Generation picture") is itself heavily "enhanced" - read about that on their website. Like the resurrected Viking boat in another article, you have to wonder how much is real by the time they are finished.
Straight talk from Sid.
The term "billion" means different things depending on which English you speak. It comes down to something called the "short and long scale numerical systems", which vary their terminolgy in multiplying units of 1,000 (short system) or in 1,000,000 (long system). You can read about it here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales), but here's the gist:
10^9: Americans (and Canadians) call this a "billion", but Britons (at least old ones) call it a thousand million. Sometimes the term "milliard" is used, but that is mostly in non-English speaking countries.
10^12: Americans can this a "trillion", whilst Brits call it a "billion".
10^15: Americans call it a quadrillion; Brits call it a thousand billion or sometimes a "billiard", but that is pretty archaic.
10^18: Americans call it quintillion;
Brits call this a trillion.
Reading the Wiki article, it seems like the Brits themselves have been changing since 1974 to the "short scale" system used by the US, Canada, Australia, and other English speaking countries. Most of continetal Europe continues to use the long scale (like Christophe).
Straight talk from Sid.
Straight talk from Sid.
Straight talk from Sid.
I'm not saying that the moon shots were shot in the Nevada desert or anything, but NASA employs a number of talented artists who are good at adding color were the wavelengths of light are not visible, removing noise, upping saturation levels, sharpening blurriness and general photoshopping so that the public-released images wind up truly dazzling. The heavy editing always makes me wonder how much you can trust. As an engineer myself, I'd like to see a little less reliance on special effects artists and more on the RAW images.
Straight talk from Sid.
Well, what about the *people* ?
It seems like the perps (yes, I watch Law and Order... all of them) are BOTH a) receiving stolen property and b) street racing. Aren't either or both of these felonies, or at least serious misdemeanors? If they have enough evidence to crush the cars, why are the perps standing around watching instead of hearing about it through the prison grapevine? Answer? Because crushing cars makes a nice news story to get the politicians faces in the media.
Straight talk from Sid.
Last time I checked, Sarajevo, Italy, and Sadaam's spider hole are all well outside the US. There is nothing wrong with privately owned guns; in fact they are valuable tools to protect people's freedoms both from oppressive governments and from forces without.
You mention you are from the UK. I'm assume that you are too young to know much about the many thousands of civilian Brits (including many women and old men) who made up the British Home Guard (Local Defence Volunteers) during the Second World War. There was an extremely real threat that the British Isles would be invaded (read about Operation Sea Lion -- the Nazi plan to do just that). Whilst that never came to be, the Home Guard was ready with their own weapons (read GUNS!) to slow the Germans down and impede their progress wherever possible. This wasn't "busywork", but the real deal -- government owned weapons were in very short supply (lots left on the beach at Dunkirk unfortunately), so those privately owned rifles, shotguns, and pistols were one of the big things ensuring your nation's freedom. Read about how dire Winston Churchill considered the situation in his 6 volume history of the Second World War. Private gun ownership was there to protect your freedom. Fortunately, the RAF stopped the Luftwaffe first, but that was a monumental upset -- far from a "given" at the time.
Straight talk from Sid.
OK, so we will assume they were convicted... Why doesn't the city AUCTION the confiscated property and collect the funds? It's not like this property could only be used in the commission of a crime.... there is a ready market for tarted up rice cars! Their approach instead is to create a big wasteful photo-op by destroying what is now taxpayer property. A lot of cash goes into building these cars -- even that 10 year old Acura might have $10K or even $20K woth of work done to it. Why is this taxpayer property being destroyed? And, as Michael says ... if they are *sure* that parts are stolen, why aren't these being returned to either the rightful owners or the insurance companies that paid out on those owners' theft claims? Politicians love spending others' money. Next year they will by trying to jack up the property taxes to fill the budget shortfall no doubt.
Straight talk from Sid.
I like the T-shirt, but the price is way way high.