There are photography archives, and then there are National Geographic photography archives. The pictures are dramatic, and usually the story behind how they were taken is, too.

Fans and/or residence of "The OC of New York" may be interested to hear that the world's largest cannoli was created at a nearby local bakery. There are noms, there are NOMS, and then there are Yankee Noms...

Journalists are now openly talking about Alfa having a central role in Fiat's revival plans for North America. On the one hand, sounds like great news. On the other, it sounds rather a lot like pinning your hopes for success on your tacky, somewhat loopy old aunt.

Hey, look, the Queen of England wasn't always a little old lady. Even now, she has a smile that impresses. I guess some things really do breed true.

Star Trek's holodeck technology appears to have taken another step toward reality. In college I once speculated that one day I'd be able to tour the Pyramids just as they appeared when new. It looks like I was off by a generation, but only by one.

Ok, suddenly the Cruiser doesn't look so worn: here's a guy with a Volvo who's rolled the odometer over three hundred times. Of course, it's a Volvo, but it is one of the sportier "svëdish pëpl haf a sëns of stilë tøø, ya?" models. For comparison, our Spider will be turning forty this October, and has 3% of that Volvo's mileage. Which is, of course, why it's still around.

I don't really know quite what to make of this, but it looks tough and potentially injury-causing. Ellen kept trying to dance to the music.

It seems like cars aren't the only things that last forever in the desert sun. I especially like the old scribblings on the chalk board, and the graffiti from 1968. Vandals, maybe, but they seem to have eye toward preservation, eh?

Yes, the new Morgan EvaGT is a darned beautiful thing. And nowhere near as mad as their last effort, at least in the looks department. Oh, don't bother to ask how much it is. The Hamster can afford one, but not the likes of you and me. Still, it is awfully easy on the eyes.

Looks like it's more than possible to convert an AR-15 assault rifle to shoot uber-cheap .22 LR rounds. I'm sure this is old hat to the gun nuts in the audience, but it were news to me! And for 1/10th the cost, I'm thinking giving up the big bang and kick, at least for some kinds of practice, is worth it.

The things that have found a home on the internet often surprise me. Well, you know, aside from the tentacle stuff and the guy with the extra... but I digress. Anyway, one of the GOOD things is a collection of the Sheperd Paine Monogram diorama sheets. I pored over these things for hours at a time back in the 70s. Just looking at them takes me right back to the floor of my old playroom, sitting cross-legged on the tile floor.

Spy photos seem to indicate Fiat is going ahead with plans for a limited production Lancia Stratos "revival." The original was a dominant force in 70s rallies. Since it's rumored to cost more than Alfa's new 8C, I'm even less likely to own one. Ah, well...

It was once thought to be the "dead man walking" of flat-screen technologies, but now a new manufacturing technique may cause the price of large plasma screens to plummet. A revolution in manufacturing is what caused large LCD prices to drop. It's nice to see something similar happening for this older technology. Competition is good!

The next generation of vending machines is premiering at a Tokyo train station near you. A vending machine that suddenly opens its eyes and looks around is way too "Skynet" for me. Plus the potential of a giant LCD screen strapped onto one of those infamous panty dispensers is just mind-boggling.

Democrats on the hill are now apparently in full panic mode. Yeah, I know, source isn't exactly unbiased. Still, for someone who had to watch them all dancing a bacchanalia celebrating "a new era of progressive power", who had to hear over and over and over again how Republicans would have to embrace the new paradigm or face a generation in the woods. Well...

HA HA!

This week Pebble Beach is having it's world-famous concours (fancy word for, "car show"). WSJ is taking a quick look at just what's for sale at the auction. Yes, there's an Alfa there, dur. A whole bunch of other stuff too. Unfortunately, no pictures. Of all the times to skip them...

Meanwhile, developments continue in how best to introduce various mujjis to their assorted virgins. Dig all the mass graves you want, Persians, it ain't going to be our boys that'll be in them. Come to think of it, it won't be yours buried in them, either. We're getting to the point we can drop a bomb on you, and your buddies, when you're driving to your "private" opium den. Sleep well!

Today's "head explodes with candy" moment is brought to you by a failed smuggling attempt in Chile. Yeah, that'd be all I need. A pet with thumbs. Ahem, all together now, "no, Ellen, you can't have one."

A Chinese transportation firm is planning to build buses that travel over traffic. It's not clear to me if these are genuine road-going buses, or some sort of hybrid rail-like system. Still, it does make for an interesting idea. As long as, you know, you go first.

What good is owning a high-speed camera if you can't make films of people smashing stuff? Ellen would likely use it to film endless reels of cats walking around, but you already knew that, eh?

And some people think my job is this.

Yes, yes I do pet fluffy kittens. I'm not a Dr, I'm and Licensed Veterinary Technician. What I cannot do is perform surgery, write a diagnosis, or prescribe medicine. What I do is laboratory diagnostics, anesthesia, dentistry, comfort someone who has to make the decision to let their dying pet go, perform xray diagnostics, be that surgical nurse, and be physician's PE and RN all at once.

Do you really get to see me in the hospital? Probably not. I am the person in the back that takes care of your pet while your vet is glorified.

Next time your at the vet's office think of that.

And yes, I get to pet fluffy kittens. Does a 'real DR' or nurse do that?

Didn't think so.

Those of you who aren't regular viewers of Mythbusters can now check out, ever so briefly, their general awesomeness. A season or two later, they tried the same thing, but instead of a flat plate they used a blade, proving they can in fact double the awesomeness of a rocket smashing a car.

Turns out that little computer Ellen insists on calling, "my phone" has got a glass face stronger than steel on it. A kind of glass that was patented forty years ago, no less. Intellectual property, FTW!!!

I'm surprised it's taken this long for someone to fade old WWII pictures into modern ones, but I'm glad they did. The results are truly fascinating, and graphically show how humans can bounce back from the most amazing tragedies. When they're allowed to, that is.

Who knew Vader's car was an Aston? See? See? I do occasionally mention cars that aren't made by Alfa!

While waiting for Futurama to return to the airwaves, one enterprising, and patient, man decided to see just how detailed he could get recreating the "New New York" of the series. All I ever managed to do with the dratted things was build walls and step on them.

Kevin gets a no-prize that'll crash a dinner party and then snarl about how the English have no balls for bringing us a first-hand account of someone who went on pilgrimage to go see Galileo. Rrrm... sort of. Being an Italian through and through, fate ensured the proper finger would be preserved. Oh don't worry, Ellen's already made similar arrangements.

Leonard Nimoy has decided to put his other profession on exhibit. 26 photos seems to me sort of a smallish exhibit, but then again not quite half of them are life-sized. A shame they didn't put a few technical details in the article. I'd be interested to know what sort of camera he uses etc.

A new armored vehicle being built in Britain has passed yet another spectacular test. I'm reminded of those Evel Knievel toy cars that would blow apart if they hit something hard, and then just snapped back together again.

Israel's effort to remove glorified bottle rockets, mortars, and artillery from Hamas's list of "toys with which I would like to play" has completed its final tests and will be deployed by November of this year. Even better, there's lots of interest in the product. My guess at a prime customer? Another small country sharing a border with a bunch of homicidal maniacs. This thing sounds small enough to purchase and deploy discreetly. All in all, a good thing.

Looks like the core technology of the PS4 is slowing making its way out of a lab. I just got a damned blu-ray player. This new tech better take its sweet time going into production.

Tempelhof airport, who's checkered past includes a monument to Nazi pomposity as well as the eastern anchor of the Berlin Airlift, has been turned into an enormous open-air park. I would think the flat, miles-long runways with their great, curved taxiways would make for some spectacular cycling opportunities. But I'm funny that way, donchaknow?

I guess, in a way, this is news: a non-profit agency's effort to certify market fish are what they say they are actually works. Likely it adds to the cost as well, but most people will pay a certain premium to ensure they're getting what they're paying for.

Mike J. gets a no-prize that'll go anywhere for bringing us The Tank Chair, the ultimate in handicapped mobility. If something stuck Ron in a wheelchair, it'd be all Amber could do to keep him from driving one of these around in the house.

From crooked teeth to straight teeth in only 60 seconds. By the hair style, it looks like she got her braces not long after I had mine removed. The ones I got had bands that wrapped around the whole tooth.

Archeologists in Britain have announced the discovery of a huge Roman coin hoard. Huge as in 52,000 coins weighing a whopping 350 pounds. The hoard was discovered by a hobbyist using his metal detector, but he had presence of mind to stop what he was doing and call in the archeologists when he realized what he'd found. The local county council now hopes to have the find declared treasure, which will allow the discoverer and the land owner to be compensated at market value for their discovery. I'll let the coin collector in the peanut gallery speculate as to just how much that might be.

Navy fans and arm-chair admirals should find this quick look at the still-building CVN-78 of interest. Otherwise known as the Gerald R. Ford, when launched it will be the first new aircraft carrier since 2003, and the first new class of such ships since 1968.

Scientists at MIT and Harvard have created self-folding origami sheets. By using special strips of copper and some electricity, they are able to cajole a sheet of fiberglass into a variety of different shapes.

Mark gets a stars-and-stripes no-prize for bringing us the following neat collections of the US Military. Some I'd seen, most I'd not. I'm figuring you won't have seen a few either:

• Collection One
• Collection Two
• Collection Three

Mike J. gets a no-prize that's worth a second look for bringing us the Sci-Fi airshow. Kinda heavy on the Space 1999 stuff, but I still like the idea of wandering around a flight line full of space ships

My Lawyers* remind me that the really important birthday happened two days ago, and I will duly note it, on the way to announcing a happy 100th for Alfa Romeo! My kid was born almost exactly 93 years after Alfa! How cool is that?!? More immediately fortuitous, the Alfa Owner's Club convention is nearby this year. Us? Going? Well duh

In other news, we had to jump the Milano, who's battery finally gave up the ghost. New battery, clean car, and a whole show full of them tomorrow. Life is good.

----
* Aka Ellen and The Grammas

And now, a honeycomb structure shaped like the risen Christ. Made by actual honeybees. No, really!

Remember, awhile back, when all the nerds were up in arms that we were consigning petabytes of information to the dustbin of history because it was recorded on obsolete media? Progressives wanted government intervention to stop it while opportunists wanted to spend the money a fat federal grant would provide? You know, to ensure precious information would not be lost simply for the lack of a player? Yeah...about that...

As long as the media survives, there will always be people clever enough to tease it out. It may not be easy, and it may not be cheap, but it will happen. Anyone else is selling something.

And by the way, did I mention my VCR collection? You know you'll never get to see those old tapes again, otherwise...

Popular Mechanics got its first look at a nifty new laser-based IR missile jammer. The new unit is much smaller, simpler and (presumably) cheaper than the one it replaces, and is already being fitted to helicopters in Iraq and Afghanistan. The dumber, less effective, but more numerous RPGs still remain a threat, but it seems engineers are working on that one as well.

Sure, models are nice, but full-sized replicas made from blueprints using cardboard are nicer. Now this sort of modern art I like.

Nothing quite like placing the test track of a popular car show in your video game for oodles of free publicity. Well, one would at first think it's free. It wouldn't surprise me if some licensing and promotion agreements may have been quietly signed. At any rate, it definitely look like fun!

Lord, bless this, thy Wikipedia, without which we would not have a convenient listing of funerary monuments throughout history. Settle in for a long bout of link-following, fellow seeker.

Folks who've long wanted a crack at Top Gear's test track (*cough* Ellen *cough*) are soon to be getting their wish, albeit virtually. Of course this would be for a console my regular gaming buddy Joshua doesn't have. Nothing quite like conflicting priorities to provide an annoying buzz on a Friday morning.

Making the rounds: US cars have, for the first time, topped foreign-based one in a well-known quality survey. "Foreign-based" may sound like a euphemism, but since many (most?) "foreign" cars are actually built in the US, it's a necessary distinction.

Now if only they'd come up with a bike jersey with this on it. It's even done up in light colors!

It takes a bit of time to load, but this innovative map of where, and which direction, people moved in the US in 2008 is still worth a click or two. A country in motion, indeed.

Well, if they build it, and if they bring it over here, and if it's in our price range, I definitely think that we'd be driving the prettiest SUV on the road. If recent reports are to be believed, it'll even be one of the better built ones, as well. Likely in Canada or the US, even. Ain't that a kick in the teeth?

Looks like Tea Partiers are well on their way to taking over the Texas GOP. Getting away from obnoxious morality police and concentrating on economic issues has, in my opinion anyway, always been the great unacknowledged winning strategy for the GOP. Politicians, and most pundits, seem not to have grasped just how powerful the late Clinton-era budget surpluses were as an ego boost to an overstretched nation. So far the Tea Party movement has been able to shrug off the left's increasingly shrill attempts at ridicule and demonize it. If they help remove these spendthrift's hands from the levers of power, they will have truly arrived.

Victor Davis Hanson is brilliant most of the time. But when he's mad, he's freaking fantastic. A better statement of the constrained view in this era, I have yet to find. Those of you who would immediately dismiss him as a toady of Cheney's neo-cons should be fair warned: he's a professor of your beloved classics and a farmer in the central valley. He's smarter than you, me, and the other guy, put together. Dismiss that at your peril. Not that it's ever stopped you before...

Nothing like a fully-functional Lee Enfield replica to start your Friday. The catch? Lego. Lots of Lego.

Well, why not: Israeli students are trying to organize a reverse flotilla to provide humanitarian relief to Turkish Kurds. Now, let's all pause and consider the likelihood of Turkish commandos showing up with paint guns as their primary armament to stop this particular flotilla.

Thing is, as long as the current Turkish administration isn't directly involved, I think it'd be quite likely. The Turkish military remains the final bulwark standing between Ataturk's vision and Islamic fascism, but they're not as strong as they once were. And, unfortunately, as with most progressive administrations, the current Turkish government is nothing if not involved.

Chris gets a no-prize that'll annoy the Pope for bringing us news that a newly refurbished museum in Italy will feature recently rediscovered remains of the seventeenth-century astronomer, Galileo. Unfortunately no pictures of said bits are part of the article, so Ellen will be disappointed.

WWII history buffs will likely find this account of a "lost" jungle battlefield of interest. Me, I'm not quite sure how something can be lost if the locals have known where it is all along, but I can be ornery that way sometimes. They even found a dead guy leaning against a tree. You'd think jungle critters would've carried him off long ago.

I'm not sure how much of it is real and how much of it is just clever editing, but this short film about "underwater base jumping" was still pretty neat. Yet another sport I'm more than content to be a spectator of, and not a participant.

PanelWithTextBoxes.Controls.Cast<System.Web.UI.Control>().Where(x => x.ID != null && x.ID.Contains("TextBox")).Cast<TextBox>() .Where(y => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(y.Text) && int.TryParse(y.Text, out i)).Select(y => y.Text).ToList().ForEach(z => obj.ListOfInts.Add(Convert.ToInt32(z)));

An actual, working piece of code. In "pseudo-code", what this translates into is "go get all the entry blanks which aren't empty, and have a NUMBER in them, inside this panel and store what a person entered in that blank as a number in a list."

Yes, I wrote it. Hopefully you're not horrified. Seems to work well, and replaces a multi-line function with a single line. Whee!

Analysts are finally getting their arms around Fiat/Chrysler's future plans, and things are looking pretty interesting. The sudden softening of the Euro puts Marchionne's American venture into a much better light. If the currency should collapse, it'll seem downright prescient.

Aaannndd the location of the next Formula 1 race in the US iisss... Austin, Texas. They've held a few of them in Texas over the years, and they've been a disaster because they insisted on dates in July and August. Of course, that was a long time ago, and on temporary street courses at that. But really... Austin? Gah, why not, I guess.

In even weirder news, it seems Ferrari want to be the backers of a new US-based team. They call it "the silly season" for a reason. I just don't remember it ever starting this early.

I'm not completely sure this super-slo-mo video of a water balloon popping is completely un-retouched. That said, I've seen enough of these super-slo-mo videos to say the waterfall itself looks legit enough. Either way, there's nothing quite like ugly, nerdy white guys doing dumb things for no particularly good reason to end the night. And I say that as a card-carrying member of same, I'll have you know.

When I read "rural New York site to host F-1 race," I had to stop myself. People outside New York think of the place as Manhattan, with Buffalo as some sort of suburb within site of the Empire State building. Natives and regular visitors know there's a whole helluva lot of "rural" in New York. But, low and behold, the site looks to be less than an hour away from the particular patch of "rural" New York the in-laws live in. Now, proposing an F-1 race is absolutely not the same as actually having the red lights turn off and the cars shriek away. But it is a remarkable development. I'll be watching this one closely, you can count on that.

I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like these 3-D illusion projections on buildings. I wasn't completely sure it was real until I looked closely at the edges of the second building's columns. The projection doesn't extend an inch beyond them. I wonder if it looks that interesting from off-angle views?

Update: It seems that video is a demo, and like most demos it over-promises a bit. Still, the actual item is quite interesting.

The advantage of a gear-obsessed brother is we get video! I can only imagine what it must sound like on a big rig, instead of dinky computer speakers. At any rate, enjoy!

It seems it has largely been forgotten that cable TV was originally more about reception and picture quality than it was about content. Growing up in rural Arkansas, as I recall at least a hundred miles from any TV transmitter, meant we either had cable or we didn't have anything at all. You could even run a coax cable into the back of the FM tuner, and use the same giant antenna to pick up radio stations. My, how times have changed.

One of the most innovative computer games of the past five years is available for free. If you never played the game run, do not walk, to get it. I'm still waiting for the next installment, but in the meantime this should be plenty fun.

Verizon wireless has confirmed it's working on an Android-based tablet computer. Go for the announcement, stay to watch a reporter try to turn a very short press release into a very long article. I thought the old "cut-and-paste twice" trick to lengthening an essay was restricted to high school students.

For your next camping idea, we present 20 of "America's Least-Visited National Parks." No surprise they're nearly all in America's version of the Great F- All, aka "The Southwest." Ellen and I think roughing it means no Tivo, but we respect people who have fun in the outdoors. So, well, enjoy!

Why does it so often seem the neatest new architectural triumph is located on the other side of the dratted world? Ah, well. Likely I wouldn't be able to afford a stay anyway. But it would be nifty to stroll the grounds.

Indycar racing is coming to the mid-Atlantic region! Fortunately open-wheel race cars don't have stereos or GPS systems, so they should be relatively safe from the crackheads that infest Baltimore. Hopefully they'll have really good locks on the pit doors, though.

The venerable giant robot shooter, Mechwarrior 4, is now officially available for free download. If you missed the game when it was new, give it a try now. If you miss playing it, have some fun! I wonder if this would make it easier to port it to a modern console?

A British sniper set a world sharpshooting record by taking out two Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan from more than a mile and a half away -- a distance so great, experts say the terrorists wouldn't have even heard the shot.

Good.. kill as many of those douche bags you can get.

Zagato has officially unveiled its TZ3 Alfa, and it's just as pretty as the CGI pictures made it out to be. This one also includes a picture of the previous TZ, which shows the heritage to good effect. Nothing says "rich" quite like having a custom, one-off Italian sports car built on commission.

It would seem a human truism: the ingredients may change, but everyone likes to eat a deep-fried something. Some of them sound kinda tasty, I must admit. Except poutine. N-A-S-T-Y.

I'll see your grueling marathon and raise you this: "Sunday’s race will feature long slogs up ski slopes, wades through mud bogs, crawls through corrugated pipes and under barbed wire, climbs over vertical walls, traverses on rope bridges and a drop from a plank into a cold pond. The finish line is through a ring of fire — next to the free beer, near the live band. "

I don't pretend to understand it, but I respect those who do.

Tik Tok Military Style!

I'm not sure how we missed the story of a lego-based robot which can solve any Rubik's Cube in less than 13 seconds, but it took the announcement of an improved version for us to learn about it. Or them. Those dratted 3x3 cubes were the bane of my junior-high years.

It seems that the most popular theme park in China is not the one with the mouse, it's the one with the little people. It's not exploitation if they're getting paid for it, and if it supplies a good living for people who would otherwise be on the street, I'm all for it.

Geothermal energy generation appears to be growing in leaps and bounds. The statistics quoted come from an advocacy group, so I'm not sure just how much they can be trusted. Still, if it's roughly as cheap as coal that means it can, presumably, replace the stuff. Then we get to watch the fireworks as the green side of the Democratic party gets in a scuffle with the organized labor side. What, you think those unionized miners are going to take this lying down?

Another week, another neat looking concept car built on an Alfa chasis. Having a 100 year anniversary has its advantages, donchaknow? I just wish it was an actual car instead of a CAD picture.

Looks like the on again/off again schedule for Alfa's return to the US is on again. Until, you know, it's off again. Ah, well. The car is apparently well-regarded.

Fiat has finally come clean on its plans for the next five years, and it's nice to see Alfa figures prominently in them. If they actually manage to produce an SUV it'll definitely herald their return to the States, since we're the #1 market for those things. And I'm happy to say that my change in jobs means even a pricey one will likely be within reach in the 3-5 years it takes for one to come to market. Will we once again become an all-Alfa household? Only time will tell.

Mike J. gets a no-prize he'll have to hide from the pandas for bringing us news that Asus has taken a new, and unexpected, direction in laptop design. Around here, we need the laptops to be made of indestructible things so it'll take longer for Ellen to destroy them. The rest of you probably don't need that level of protection.

Microsoft has finally given the go-ahead to release the Mechwarrior 4 codebase for free. I played that game for many action-packed hours. It's good to find it's still going strong after all these years.

Visual Studio 2010 is on its way, and it appears It Will Be Good. My shop is definitely planning on the upgrade, but I think it'll be something like a year after its release.

Looks like the new Alfa Giulietta is doing well. It'll be interesting to see what the Top Gear blokes make of it. They might eventually sell one here. You know, just like Ellen might stop snarling some day.

Coming soon to a grocery store near you: super-high alcohol beer. With proof levels approaching that of many whiskeys, I'm surprised they're still allowed to call it beer. Oh, and news flash to the reporter: I imagine it will be quite obvious that it is not a normal beer after the first taste.

I guess things in Afghanistan must be looking up if a lunatic Aussie can travel the country with a cameraman and live to tell the tale. AUSSIE AUSSIE OI OI OI!!!

Looks like hajji is having a problem with robots raining death from above. I'm sure this is somehow terribly illegal and will result in true and just investigations of war crimes perpetrated by the CIA. What's that? This is a policy of the Obama administration? Oh, well, then it will be rightly celebrated as a clever and effective measure brilliantly implemented by people who cleverly stand outside the more complex segments of the government. Ya kno wha' I maen?

Bah. "it does not matter what color a cat is as long as it hunts mice."

Starting the 4th of the month is Tornado Week on the Weather Channel!! *see your local listings*

The special this year, you can build your own tornado!

Jeremy Clarkson got to test the new Ferrari 458 in conditions that can best be described as, "challenging." Would that we could all have such problems.

Computerworld is carrying this year's look into how Formula 1 gets IT done. The much shorter answer is, "very quickly and very very expensively." The long answer should warm the heart of any race car-obsessed computer nerd.

It's a funeral home, and a mini-amusement park. Great. Yet another thing to add to Ellen's dream-home list.

Problem: The "God Hates Fags" people have set up a protest in your city. Solution: Engage in some creative media jujitsu. This is one I really do hope to see go viral.

There's something a little twisted in LIFE magazine running a photo essay on "truly amazing mummies." Bonus: it's a new exhibit opening in Santa Ana California, which means we won't be able to see it but I bet Nina will.

Turns out the authors of the Curious George series barely escaped the Holocaust. Some day someone will likely trace significant parts of the US's post-war dominance to enormous numbers of extremely talented people who fled the ultimate expression of progressive doctrines. I think it's a real, and largely unchronicled, tragedy that the progressives in charge of US foreign policy at the time made it cheaper for the USSR and the Nazis to kill their undesirables instead of send them our way.

Gaming, hell, I think this would make for a nifty hobby table too. All those little cubbies and a sunken work surface... the only way you'd know I was building scale models was the smell of the paint thinner.

Why thank you for this sign, but Ellen gave me one that said pɹǝu a long time ago.

Remember those "reactor-in-a-box" ideas that were getting pushed around a few years ago? It seems they've attracted some pretty serious money. Solving the problem of how to make unlimited green power will, of course, not please many of said greens. First there's the whole sturm and drang we'll get because ZOMGQ!!1!! You just buried all that in mother earth!!! Then, of course, there's the fact that most of the green agenda isn't about helping the environment at all.

I think an alternate title might be: Have Craigslist, will rally. Maybe after this third-place showing he'll pick up some sponsorship? It would be fun to see what he could do with some real money to throw around.

Surveys are now showing public support for nuclear power has reached an all-time high. The good news is the Obama administration's broken-clock powers seem to have aligned on this issue, and they're supporting it. The bad news is access to clean power has never been high on the far left's agenda, as its knee-jerk response to any attempt to build new plants can attest. It'll all boil down to what happens when they actually try to build one.

Tivo has finally announced its new lineup of DVRs. The base model gets 45 hours of HD, the XL model gets a whopping 150 hours (on a 1 tb drive!) And they get a capacity meter too! Me, I'm hoping some firmware updates will allow us poor Tivo HD owners to use that spiff new split remote. It'd be nice if they'd let us get rid of the bloody tuning adapter, but alas, it would appear to still be required. Fios users and others with less traditional cable providers, not so much.

That'll be Mister Mazda Miata to you, bub. And they've got some toned chick with a katana to make it stick, donchaknow?

Progress on creating a car that can go 1,000 mph seems to be moving forward nicely. Seems like their initial designs were generating twice as much lift as the car itself weighed. Having the vehicle try to fly while going faster than the speed of sound would be... bad, donchaknow?

Hey, knowing stuff like this beats the hell out of all those zombie survival guides. You know, because aliens might actually exist, whereas zombie hordes are nothing but the fevered imaginings of a nerd with a shotgun fetish.

Hang on, there's a bunch of moaning creeps banging on my door. BRB

&*(%@#%$

NO CARRIER

Via Violins and Starships.

So now there's a lipstick out there which, according to the manufacturer, changes color if a woman gets aroused. Which is all well and good, but it's the image of me running up to Ellen with a bunch of paint chips to hold against her face that makes me laugh out loud.

Ah, the joys of waterproof electrics and periscoping intake and exhaust tubes. Still, I only see him getting into the water, not getting out.

Scientists have developed a device which allows blind people to "see" using their tongue. No, not like that. The device works by translating images into electrical pulses which are then transmitted to the tongue via a lollipop-like transmitter. With practice, the prototype has allowed a man blinded by an Iraqi grenade to perceive much more of the world around him.

Exactly why he picked a spider, I'm not sure. A cheap, small, pretty car to use as a base, I guess. The rattling is a bunch of loose stuff banging around when the car goes over rough pavement. A 76 model was saddled with huge steel battering rams for bumpers, so without those and the engine, even with all the batteries it might actually not be all that heavier.

One of his students asked Buddha, "Are you the messiah?"
"No", answered Buddha.
"Then are you a healer?"
"No", Buddha replied.
"Then are you a teacher?" the student persisted.
"No, I am not a teacher."
"Then what are you?" asked the student, exasperated.
"I am awake"

Heck, I would've watched it if all they did was just knock a bunch of stuff over. The music just happens to be pretty good too. I only saw one possible cut in the whole 3:50-ish shot, and I'm not sure of that. One helluvan achievement!

Mark gets a no-prize shaped like Davy Jones' locker for bringing us news of the discovery of a bunch of centuries-old shipwrecks. The wrecks were found at the bottom of the Baltic during routine surveying for a gas pipeline being built between Germany and Russia. All are apparently in remarkable condition, and one may be as much as 800 years old.

Here we go again (~ on our own ~): Rock Band 3 has been officially scheduled for release during the 2010 holiday season. Scheduled is not the same things as actually released, but consoles seem to have a much better track record of hitting their deadlines than do PC games.

A California start-up has created a new kind of fuel injection which could increase an automobile's efficiency by as much as 50%. The key to the tech is to heat and pressurize the gasoline, and then injecting it directly into the cylinder. A whole host of benefits accrue from this seemingly straightforward change, but it's still not clear just what, exactly, would be required to implement the idea in a production engine.

Anyone in the market for a DeLorean? I think $57,000 is probably close to what they cost back in 83, adjusted for inflation. I see DeLoreans from time to time around here. It'd be nice to see even more.

Looks like the 70s "folded paper flying saucer look" is coming back again. All the Italian design firms were rendered nearly useless in the early 70s by this fashion trend. Let's hope this one remains a one-off. I like curved, not folded ones.

Problem: You're a hyper-rich oil magnate who loves boats and entertaining lots of guests.

Solution: Port-a-Island.

Ellen has entertained the notion of living on a boat for years, but was never sure where the cat boxes would go. This would solve that problem rather neatly, no? It's checkbook time!!!

Is it a hovercraft? An airplane? A boat? See for yourself. That seems to be the best part of Oz and Kiwi-land... if you want to try creative and exciting ways to kill yourself, well, good on ya mate, we'll have some beer waiting if ya manage ta make it back!

Pininfarina has revealed the concept car it created for Alfa at this year's Geneva auto show, and it's definitely full of win. The shape of things to come? Oh hell, nobody's sure Alfa's even going to be around in two years. Still, if they manage to stick it out, they could do (and often have done) a lot worse than basing a production car off of such a slick piece of artwork.

It looks like Google really wants all us Android-based phone users to be on the same version. Understandable, really. Good news: Looks like it'll come down to us this quarter. Bad news: seems the only phone that definitely WON'T need to be reformatted is Motorola's Droid. Meh, we put backup widgets on ours weeks ago, they should be fine either way.

It's like watching a slide show of a fish bowl... you just can't stop. I'm at least as impressed with the people who've managed to keep the same house, sometimes the same decorations, for such a long period of time.

What do you get when you combine 2250 tongue depressors with a whole lot of time and determination? Something like this. I'd never heard of stick bombs either. Sounds like a potential father-daughter project to me!

'“We had a lot of luck with the weather,” said André Gierke from the radio station 89.0 RTL. “A proper winter for naked sledging.”' Pictures are NSFW, but I bet you probably figured that part out on your own.

Nothing like an ordinary bit of meteorology mixing with an extraordinary bit of technology to start the day. Bonus: even though it's a "duh" sort of thing, I still thought it remarkable how different the trajectory of this rocket is than that of the shuttle. Yeah, they're going different places, but still...

Folks, it just don't get no better than this: the Python is a 500 meter tube of explosives tethered to a rocket on one end, and an armored truck on the other. I keep thinking, but I just can't figure a down-side to this one. Well, except for all the moanin' and complainin' of the condo comittee. I mean, really, just because it tears the street apart and shatters everyone's windows...

Not content with massive subsidies, Japanese rice farmers are now turning their fields into forced-perspective art. Leave it to the Japanese to take something annoyingly stupid and rush it right out the end, so it comes back around to being cool.

Up next: CSEG Barbie! Olivia took one look and started threatening to kick my butt if I didn't get her one. My wife's child, let me show you her...

Just ahead of the Geneva auto show, images of Bertone's Alfa Romeo Pandion concept have been leaked to the press. There's a reason people hire Italians to design their cars. Building them, not so much, but in for a penny, in for a Lira, that's what we think around here. It certainly doesn't look like anything else out there. I actually think I like it.

Mark gets a no-prize that'll be vigilant until someone steps on it for bringing us this look at where the future of UAVs may be headed. The article is very long on "look what'll happen if it all works like it's supposed to", and very short on, you know, an actual vehicle. Still, I remember this sort of thing being discussed in AvWeek back in the late 90s, so it does seem progress is being made.

And now, a crab that measures 10 feet across. And it's not done growing yet. Predictably, this big-strange-ugly is considered a delicacy in Japan.

Owners of Series 2 (or earlier) Tivos may want to hold off upgrading until after March. Then again, like Apple, Tivo is not shy about charging a premium to pay off its R&D, so the new ones probably will come dear. Of course, that probably means price-cuts on the ones current today.

Mobile middleware developer Dalvik has announced a new virtual machine for Android which claims higher performance and longer battery life. As an all-Android-phone household, we're for it!

And in my day, we had a turbo button on the outside of the case, and you had to push it. And we were lucky!

It seems DARPA is testing the feasibility waters for an unmanned sea drone. The idea seems to be to make the robot do all the hard, dangerous work of tracking and harassing aggressor subs, leaving the rest of the Navy to do whatever the heck they'll have left. Fling airplanes at the water, that sort of thing.

Google has admitted it's working on technology that could provide spoken-word translation in a phone some time in "the next few years". Which could, of course, mean next year, the year after, or fifteen years from now. Still, since both our phones are droid-based, one would suppose we'd be ideally positioned to take advantage of whatever actually materializes.

And now, a gallery of photos of manta rays. Gigantic airplane-like fish that are too big to care if the naked ape blowing the bubbles is dangerous or not. Not sure why, but I just think that's about as nifty as it gets.

It seems spray-on liquid glass will be the next big thing. Anything that makes hospitals safer for patients is fine by me.

Mark gets a no-prize that'll slot right into place for bringing us this fine demonstration of parking control. The spider almost certainly would fit. Thing is, the Milano just might too. They're both just about that narrow.

So I've had a Pioneer Elite receiver for the better part of five years now. All I ever did was a single 5.1 auto-MCACC calibration. Then, after I found a home theater forum, it suddenly occurred to me maybe doing an advanced calibration for just the two fronts and the sub might make a difference in how I listen to 2-channel music.

Yeah, I know, "DERP DERP DERP." The difference is startling, easily on the level of a component upgrade. And I got it for free!

So let that be a lesson to you. There's a reason why you get all those MCACC presets. Use them!

It's my blog. I'll post what I want to!

This week's Boston Globe photo essay revolves around vikings, horses, and fire. Here's to high-speed CCD photography!

Like most cars that look amazingly fast, you can't afford this one either. Danged Europeans get all the cool cars!

Hey, if Wikipedia can't provide a list of papal tombs dating right back to the beginning, well, what good is it anyway? History nerd? Me? Guilty as charged.

Me, I want to come up with some sort of scanner thingy that will let me peer inside without disturbing the occupant. There's lots to learn from a skeleton!

Alfas unreliable? Not according to race-day results! What? They're stripped junkers only lunatics with too much time on their hands drive? Why, you say that like it's a bad thing...

Boeing has released videos of an IED-killing laser. Seems long on "ideal conditions" and short on "clever hajji" to me, but I guess everyone's gotta start somewhere. I especially liked how they put fake dummies next to the mortars.

Nothing like a little forced perspective, strange sculpture, and the occasional human oddity to start the week. It's a curious, albeit not particularly surprising, conceit of people in their twenties that the only way to make a strange picture is with Photoshop. Photography's more than, what, 150 years old? People were making twisted photos before the grandparents of the designers of Photoshop had been born.

Mark gets a no-prize that's just flat had enough for bringing us this timely bit of advice to the currently ruling political class. One thing I think doesn't get enough notice on either side of the aisle is just how important the debt and deficit has become to most centrists. A very large number of people in the US were very happy when the country started to run surpluses. Failing to reign in spending is bad enough with such folks. Explosively increasing it makes it even worse.

Seems like the Japanese have some competition. A Korean firm has debuted a robot that'll do the laundry. I gotta get me one of these. Holy crap, how domestic is that?!?

Man bites dog. Redskins beat Cowboys. Shoeless Joe says its so. In the annals of heinous impossibilities, all pale against the realization that the one seat in the senate the Democrats never had to worry about, the one who's long-time owner made government-run health care his primary concern, now belongs to a Republican. Now if that doesn't just scream, "appropriate irony," I don't know what does. 2010 is going to be a lot of fun. Well, for my side at any rate.

Agreed: If Pontiac had been allowed to build cars like this, there would never have been a question of closing it. I don't even want to know how much it costs to create a bespoke version. But it sure is interesting to look at!

A++++!!! Would kill Nazzi scum again!!!

Mark gets a no-prize chock-full-o'-hope for bringing us this amazingly clever video.

And this was second prize???

Problem: A poor country with rickety infrastructure has just been shaken "like a Polaroid picture," making airlift relief very difficult.

Solution: Drive an airfield over and park it just off-shore.

Big-deck aircraft carriers: expensive, but darn well worth it.

Nothing ends the Yuletide season better than mounting the ol' Christmas tree on a rocket. You'd think they would've used something lighter than a big ol' hunk of rebar to brace it. Would've flown farther, been more dangerous, that sort of thing.

I've always thought statistical anthropology was one of the more fascinating, and little-known, aspects of the field. I guess it has to do with anth being the place where people fled from numbers. But when you read stuff like this, it suddenly becomes a lot more fascinating. As for why it's not more widely reported in the media... DUH!!! It's optimistic and doesn't mention Obama by name once. Why would they pay attention to that?

Making the rounds: a local car club fished a complete pre-war Bugatti from the bottom of a lake. I'm actually a little surprised they're parting it out. These cars are rare, and simple, enough that skilled artisans can recreate what's rotted. Yes, it will be a $250,000 restoration, but at the end you'd likely have a $2.5 million dollar car. If you wait long enough, almost any interesting car will be worth restoring. And Bugattis are very, very interesting.

Mark gets a no-prize hungry for brains for bringing us this nifty mod for your next trip to the shooting range. I wonder if it makes a splattery mess of the range itself?

Looks like Florida just got its decennial snow storm. The best part is watching this tie the global warming crew up in knots. No wonder they switched the name to "climate change."

Ellen has always insisted The Weather Channel is the most interesting channel on the dial. If stuff like this happened more often, I'd be more likely to agree. One thing we both do agree on: if Jim Cantore shows up in your neighborhood with a camera, head for the hills!

When we went up to Maryland to visit Uncle Jeff, Olivia was most impressed with their Nerf chain gun. Yes, there is a nerf gun which shoots... oh, hell, I dunno, a lot of Nerf darts per minute. It's freaking belt fed! Apparently bouncing several dozen Nerf darts off one's cousin's head pretty much defines a good time. I'm not sure, because I was busy bouncing the same off her uncle's. He told me there were mods that made it even more awesome, but I didn't believe him. So he went and proved me wrong.

Ok, just to repeat: A belt-fed Nerf gun. It just don't get much better than that.

I love the smell of markets at work. Smells like... victory. High prices, driven by demand, which allow profits that are not confiscated by the government create incentives for efficiency and exploration. The result? Commodity prices always go down over time. Times when this has not been the case are usually rooted in government policies which either distort demand or destroy incentives for innovation.

What I remember most was, later on, discovering that Omni looked so damned much like Penthouse. Omni was a regular read of mine all the way through high school. I remember the antimatter section being gold, not red, but that's likely just faulty memory.

The world's tallest building has officially opened its doors. The mile high skyscraper was considered a pipe dream when I was a kid. Who would've thought the first one to exceed half that distance would be built in the Persian Gulf? And why not? Now that they've got their own F-1 race, Dubai just seems that much cooler.

NASA has kinda, sorta, but not really decided where the space shuttles will go after retirement. Common sense has said "Smithsonian, Houston, and Kennedy" for quite some time, and this just confirms it. Or does it?

Best. Esoteric. Speaker. Description. Evar: For many years electrostatic loudspeakers had a reputation as a generally unreliable and occasionally dangerous product.

I know, I know. It's just that I've been flittering around electrostatic speakers for nearly thirty years now, and I've never seen such an appropriate description.

Scientists are working on an alcohol substitute that only gets you pleasantly buzzed and can be fixed with a pill. It's based on Valium derivatives, so I'm pretty suspicious, but if it passes nanny state and obama-ite regulatory tests, I'm all for it!

Just in time for the holidays, Michael Shumacher is now definitely-for-real back in F-1, this time with Brawn Mercedes. Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher were most of what made Ferrari so dominant in previous years. Will they do it again? Who knows, but it sure will be fun to watch!

This week's Boston Globe photo essay is dedicated to all that global warming that keeps falling outside. Composition is particularly strong with this set. I would've tried for something similar, but I was too busy shoveling.

LG has announced the creation of "the world's thinnest TV". The 42-inch unit is only 2.6 mm thick. If I recall correctly, I think that's slightly less than two nickles glued together. It also weighs not quite 9 pounds, making it much simpler to mount on a wall. No word on price, but I'm sure a premium will be charged to defray the R&D costs.

Latest silly season rumor: Danica gets an F-1 ride. Ok, brutal honesty time... the reason why the mainstream media celebrated her only win was because they didn't know much about racing. That was a team strategy win, had nothing to do with her speed. That said, conventional wisdom is she's plenty quick enough, and just has to find the right ride (shaddup, you). It would be amazingly good for the sport if the first genuinely competitive F-1 US driver in a generation was a woman, and a hot one at that. However, common sense says she'll sign a NASCAR contract and be disappointed in her open wheel "failure" all the way to the bank.

A submersible autonomous gilder recently completed its first transatlantic crossing. As I recall, Global Hawk did the same sort of thing about ten years ago, but it didn't have to contend with sharks. There's all sorts of implications, aside from the generic cool factor involved.

Sometimes the shot is just that important. There's a similar picture sequence from a 50s road race, but Google searches won't turn it up.

The engineers at Lotus have created a new type of internal combustion engine (ICE) that, it's claimed, is 10% more efficient than the best existing ICE. People have been trying to make 2-stroke engines practical in an automobile for more than a century, and it hasn't happened yet. Still, it seems to be a lot more than just plans in a computer.

F- having a stone medieval mug, I want one I can mount a bayonet on. Like all military-grade things, it has eye-watering specs and an eye-watering price. Still, it's fun to look at!

Have digital graphics suite, will travel. As a demo, it's pretty darned cool. As a story? Hey, if we couldn't criticize other's people's creations, the internet would be a much, much quieter place.

Virgin Galactic's first commercial space ship had its coming out party on Monday. I could've done without the revelation that the hot chick painted on the nose is actually Branson's (now 90-something) mom. I know, I know, but still...

What better way to while away the rest of the weekend than using Google Maps to explore Pompeii. What always surprises me is how small ancient cities were. Then you get used to looking at cities which can be encompassed in a 100m scale, you go chasing Rome's old Imperial walls and realize just how BIG that city was back in the day.

The center of the maelstrom. Except nowadays we run 5 speakers with 2 amplifiers per. It's a good life.

Boeing's latest attempt at justifying that big ugly 747 with the laser in its nose? Kills IEDs dead. A weapon with infinite ammo that only takes about 5 minutes to cook off a hajji-wired 155mm shell? Sign me up for 12! Ain't technology grand?

These were the cars modeled in Grand Prix Legends. If that simulation was even vaguely accurate, these little beasts are very fast and very scary. But they do look oh-so-right, eh?

In the on again/off again saga of Alfa coming back to the US, it seem things are back on again, and with a very nice looking sedan. "Milano" wasn't really much of a name anyway. Giulietta is much nicer, evokes all sorts of things for people who've never heard of the marque, and is spelled just weirdly enough to make it challenging. Will we actually see it? I'd like to think so.

Fast forward to the 3 minute mark, then enjoy. Ellen knew what it was because she thought it was someone driving a Milano around without a muffler. Sorry, yes, they really are all of that, and a bag of chips.

So Scooby Doo is on the TV. Me, I think it would be interesting to look up Casey Kasem, see what he's up to nowadays. Turns out he's doing fine. His kids are doing fine too. So I go look up the first one, Kerri Kasem. Wikipedia doesn't have any pictures. Being male, and therefore visually-driven, I wanna see how his kid turned out. Which turned up this. So all of you who were thinking Cher and Chastity/Chaz were causing a great karmic imbalance? Well, there ya go.

So, are these 50 CGI portraits really that amazing? On the one hand, yes, I certainly couldn't come close. On the other, I think all but one have something ever so slightly wrong. Most of them seem to be made of wax, in my opinion. It may be intentional, but it's definitely something noticeable. It'd be even more interesting to see if they can animate these things.

Ok, on the one hand, it's... well, it's complicated, but it comes from a good place, that a teenager with terminal cancer is having his dream classic car restored by his fellow car-nut fans. Then again, it totally sucks that this car was built when I frakking graduated high school. I remember lusting after Fieros as a teenager, and now this teenager's last wish is to see one restored.

I have no idea what to make of this. I guess that's part of being a grownup?

Remember when all we really wanted was a clear view of the Earth from space without all the clouds in the way? That's only because nobody'd figured out how to capture a film of those clouds. Until Now. Reminds me of Jupiter, only with friendlier colors.

Latest rumor: Schumacher's back with Mercedes ne' Braun next year. To my knowledge, the only superstar who retired and stayed that way was tha wee Sco'sman, Jackie Stewart. Otherwise, the ones who retire at the top of their game always seem to come back.

A very neat encounter with a leopard seal.

Best... Game... Show... EVAR!!!

Fans of Command and Conquer should find this full-sized recreation of a Tesla coil of interest. Those things saved my rear more than once in that game. Dasvadanya, comrade!

If only Olivia had been around, this guy would've helped make a really cool picture. Star Wars geeks descending on us to tell why it isn't possible in 3... 2... 1...

Classic-car ensurer Hagerty recently posted this nice article about why certain owners are so fascinated with the cross-and-serpent. Those are some very nice cars in there, but the owners seem to be of a kind with the rest of us.

I guess this means we'll soon have a whole new set of T-shirts to choose from. Just about every purely mathematical concept has proven to be useful somehow in the real-world. Things like 3-D Mandelbrot sets have the potential to be useful and pretty.

Most Alfisti consider the things they drive to be race cars. Others turn theirs into race cars. A precious few talked the factory into building them a race car. By all accounts, it's actually much more fun to drive than it looks. And that's saying something.

One of my MOST FAVORITE people that comes to see me at work.

Rock on lady! Your new Snow White legs you showed me today are awesome!

Google has recently announced Go, a new computer language, licensed under a BSD open source license. I guess I must've finally graduated to programming middle school, because I recognize and understand about 80% of what they're talking about in there. I do still love my C# something fierce though, especially after tinkering a bit with VB.

I know, I know, I should be posting more stuff. Instead, I'm watching Olivia learn to touch type by using Dance Mat Typing. It's a BBC production, so all the characters sound like Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Home row keys, FTW!

“Nick, you like Alfas? Why don’t you take the 8C for a spin[?]” Yeah yeah yeah. And you don't want that motorcycle, or those coins, or that Chevelle, or those diamonds, or that resto-mod, or to drive down a 60 degree grade into the canyon, yadda yadda yadda. Tell me you don't want this car, and I'll shrug. Say it to my face without glancing away.

Didn't think so.

What better way to begin this set of year-end lists than with the "best 101 music videos of the decade?" I haven't heard of about sixty percent of the list, and about half of the rest seems to be made up of White Stripes videos. Meh, pop culture fun at its finest!

The article doesn't explicitly say it, however I can't help but think these must be the oldest identical twins alive in the world today. Pretty wild to think these two retired back in the 70s, eh?

Nothing like catching a fish bigger than your boat. Like bow hunting or whaling with hand-held harpoons from an oared launch, I respect this sort of hunter. Skill, risk, and just a whiff of nuttiness is where it's at!

Imagine trying to wipe your butt with these!

Pretty neat, but the pointy ones... OUCH! I bet they make good cat scratchers though!

Fingers??? Who needs fingers?

It's sorta like what I went through getting the Milano's belts back on, only REALLY REALLY fast.

Ok, well, when some nut-job hotrods up your car to go ripping around the Nurburgring, maybe we'll talk. Yeah, I know, it's because they're well engineered and nobody wants them anymore. But still!

P.S.: It makes a neat noise, too:

Nothing like a top 10 list of astronomical objects to start the day. Sometimes I'm actually glad we orbit an unremarkable star in a boring corner of the galaxy. There is such a thing as too interesting, ya know?

If nothing else, this site is proof our grandparent's parents were every bit as goofy as we are. Comparing these spectacularly unselfconscious bits of whimsy to the stunts the boomers pulled in the 60s is quite instructive.

Toyota has developed two flower species which help absorb CO2 and cool their Prius plant. The plants are part of a long-running effort to reduce the carbon footprint of the factory which creates everyone's favorite "smug" emitter.

National Geographic is featuring the first known images of a sperm whale eating a giant squid. Well, looks more liked "eated", since it seems to be an extremely ex-squid.

From coffee bean to carbon atom, we got it all. I had no idea the bits that make up our immune system were so tiny.

Nothing like a POV camera to show you that, yes, extreme mountain biking is every damned bit as scary as it looks. And how about that course? What, did they build this town on a wall or something?

Lord bless Wikipedia, without which it would be much harder to access the straight dope on the Philadelphia Experiment. Ron likely wishes that could be, "what happens when you lift one corner of the city and dump it all into the river?" but alas, it's not.

Well, they may have been a part of the only empire worse than, well, any other one in the world, but those Soviets sure knew how to paint a picture. Then again, suffering in war is universal, so maybe that's the reason these compositions are so effective.

Now, if it were in the US, a "body painting festival" might make you run for the eye bleach. They'd probably run out of paint before the third contestant and then it'd get really bad. But since they're in New Zealand, hey, it's not so bad after all. Video is tasteful but not particularly safe for work.

All those folks who think I'm obsessive about my hobby are pleased to be sitting down and shutting up now. Me, I'd go for replicating the cockpit of a Pan-Am 747, but that's me and it's been done before. I can't quite think of anything like this ever being mentioned anywhere.

Now reports are saying the MiTo and the new Milano are scheduled to reach our shores in 2012. Previous reports were holding these two models to be "too small" for the American market. Considering the number of those spam-can Smarts I see roller-skating around our area, I'm glad Fiat has reconsidered. For now, at least.

And now, some photo-realistic pencil sketches. Best I ever managed was a few steps beyond stick figures. Ellen's actually quite good, but hasn't been able to sit still for the lengths of time required in years. ~ Art isn't easy ~

Of course it would be Attenborough who'd end up catching humpback whales beating the crap outta each other over a chick. I first saw this sort of cinematography in The Blue Planet. As I recall, it's made possible by a new sort of camera and microphone. Whatever it is, it's spectacular.

I first saw something like this in 2003, 2004. I'm just about certain we linked it up here, but I can't quite figure out how to make it pop out of the archives. There's more than one sort of dirty fun, I guess. The artist is Kseniya Simonova, who apparently recently won "Ukraine's Got Talent."

A 32-carat flawless, colorless diamond just sold at auction for $7.7 million. Bonus: The billionaires who owned it were well-known philanthropists who donated almost all their fortune to charity after they died.

Most people would just have a bunch of blurry white blobs if they tried to take pictures without a lens on their camera. This guy is not most people. Likely this sort of esoteric stuff will be all that's left of film photography in a few more years.

By using plagiarism-detection software, one scholar has found strong evidence that a previously unattributed play really is part of Shakespeare's works. I've often thought that it would be interesting to try similar techniques on, for example, the books of the New Testament, who's authorship is (in my opinion) a more interesting question.

1983 wasn't a particularly good year for performance cars. That said, people in the know can find at least one that was available. Calloways were incredibly expensive when new, and as far as anyone knows only perhaps 100 are still around. Last time I saw one go by, it was the #5 prototype. As I recall, the owner was asking for something in the high 20s, and as far as I know it did not sell. But they are definitely fun rides.

Me, I don't think these "re-imaginings" of Disney princesses makes them look like superheroes. I think it sorta makes them look like zombies. Disturbingly hot zombies. I need to get out more...

Latest rumor says Alfa may be toying with the idea of a 3.0L V8 twin turbo with Multi-Air technology. That would likely end up being a 500+ hp motor getting 35+ mpg and a carbon footprint about the size of a couple of cat farts. Heading toward our shores! Definitely something to consider blowing the child's college fund on.

Nothing like ten minutes of large-caliber bullets hitting various kinds of armor plate to start your Friday. I think it's especially wild when it seems to liquefy when it hits the angled plates.

Looks like submarines won't be completely helpless against airplanes for much longer. As I understand it, a big part of anti-submarine tactics, from the planes used to the attack tactics, are premised on the idea the sub can never, ever shoot back. Literally attacking this basic idea will likely cause many late nights for the ASW bad guys.

Meet George Sweeper, who manages to maintain a 1968 Jaguar in downtown Brooklyn. From what I've read, a 68 is one of the better years to have... ergonomics and overall comfort are much improved from the earlier models, and they had yet to be strangled and mangled by those lovely progressive policies from the 70s. Good for him!

Another week, another interesting photo montage from the Boston Globe. This week's subject is Afghanistan, and the images are no less powerful than normal. Something for those who think these people aren't worth helping to mull over, no?

Ok, I'm not asking you which one is prettier. The 80s weren't kind to anyone's car design. And I'm not asking you which one you'd want. Since you're not nuts like we are, your answer will be "c) none of the above." What I'm asking you is which one is more interesting looking. Less dated.

Thing is, even I didn't realize the contrast until I saw an 80s era 5-series parked in our church's lot during the Fall Festival. Trust me, a BMW of the same era is ridiculously dowdy when compared to our goofy little Italian box. Bah, I'll let you be the judge. Oh, I know what you're going to say, but I also have a feeling I know what you're going to think, especially when you compare the roof lines...

Hey, if you can't share someone's small pleasures, what good is life? Haven't had a really memorable moment lately. I hope that means fate is saving up. In a good way.

Presenting VictorySiren.com, a site which provides pictures and details of the air raid sirens which were scattered across the country during the cold war. Turns out they were powered by Chrysler V8 engines. One of them seems to be in the process of restoration for use on the air show circuit. Now that'll make for an interesting experience, eh?

The latest Alfa Romeo has a 1.4L, 170hp motor that powers it from 0-60 in less than 7 seconds and gets nearly 50 mpg. The secret? A revolutionary induction system that actually does away with a conventional throttle. Now if we can somehow lure Fiat into bringing them over...

Hey, at least they're saying nice things about the goofy pictures. I've worn t-shirts and jeans since about... forever I guess. It's the hairstyles that'll be my downfall.

Hey, man, what good is an HD camera if you can't stick it to a balloon and loft it up past 100,000 feet. It's sort of like watching a fish tank, going in the other direction.

While a little meandering and ultimately pointless, like the classic car hobby itself this story of one man's barn finds is nonetheless entertaining. Me? I've never really had a proper place for the classics I already own, so I'm not constantly on the prowl for more. That said, when I am looking to buy, the perfect has always found me, and in a surprisingly short amount of time.

While I'm not completely sure why someone would want a life-sized paper model of Link, the hero from the Legend of Zelda video games, I think the result is nonetheless impressive. Hey, everybody needs a hobby!

Good: Finding nine of the rarest gold coins in the US in a safe deposit box left to you by your parents. Bad: The feds snatch them away because they were "stolen". Good: looks like the feds are going to be forced to give them back. Maybe. One of the reasons the feds are, well, the feds is because they have a nasty habit of doing just whatever they see fit.

Today's Boston Globe photo montage takes the aftermath of hurricane Ike as its subject. It took me a little while to realize clicking the pictures made them switch from before to after. Oh, and -1 to the Globe for not mentioning the irony of a lion being protected by a Christian church.

Ever wanted to know what a a trillion bucks looked like?

And now, a fire truck being towed out of a sink hole. Something tells me the total immersion will be... unkind... to the electronics.

While more than a bit pretentious, Food in Real Life was still interesting enough for me browse it all the way to the bottom of the first page. Back in my bachelor days I was a real connoisseur of all foods boxed. The quality defines "hit and miss." I sure could've used this back then.

As with most big-security projects, launching ultra-secret spy and communications satellites generally is rather hard to conceal. Freedom sometimes means using your free time to annoy bureaucrats, donchaknow?

Presenting Star Raiders, a game my brother and I played to absolute mastery on our old Atari 5200. Strangely, the article does not mention the 5200 port, nor the earlier 2600 port of the strategy game on which Star Raiders was largely based. Activision came out with a simpler, and better, adaptation of most of the same concepts, although the name of that game escapes me. Game developers, it would seem, have been stealing ideas from each other for decades.

It's pizza, on a stick! Olivia's not much for pepperoni, but I sure am. Looks pretty darned yummy to me.

Today's take on which Alfas will show up on our shores takes a much more optimistic view. What raises my hopes is Fiat seems to be looking to take on established niches by building high-quality vehicles and undercutting the competition's price. That's always a winning combination.

Yes, yes, it's the color of a 1972 Frigidaire, but what a Frigidaire! Now that, my friends, is a car that'll make the security guards over at the DARPA building remember me.

Nah, not any time soon. But after Olivia graduates high school? All bets are off!

It would seem everything I've heard about the S2000 is true. Well, maybe not everything, since (miracle of miracles) this one does seem to have its share of flaws.

These cars command a brand loyalty very close to that of Alfas, and since they're much cheaper and better built, there are a whole lot more, well, "Hondisti" than there are Alfisti. It's not for me, but I've driven a riced-up one and I must say I still think it's a sewing machine, but it's definitely a sewing machine with heart. And anyone who questions their pedigree nowadays doesn't know what the heck they're talking about.

Ah geeze. Somebody get a mop. Damion's head just exploded.

Felipe Massa's return seems now set to be the opener of the 2010 season. When hit on the head with a full soda can at 160 mph you are, look as good you would not.

Hey, if I knew how to cast iron, I'd probably want to make a cannon too. I don't know enough about Civil War tech to figure out if a 4"-er was a standard sized gun or not. Meh, it'll shoot golf balls 600 yards. That's plenty good enough for me!

And now, a baby chimp taking care of a baby puma. No better way to start the week!

Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly, best known as the stars of Cagney and Lacey, are reuniting for an upcoming episode of Burn Notice. A good combo on a good show. What's not to love?

Fans of computers or old electronics may find this collection taken at the Computer History Museum in California of interest. I think the control panels from the 60s and 70s are pretty nifty, in a "looks like Star Trek wonder what that button does um no I don't and I didn't touch it and let's get out of here" sort of way.

The latest rumor seems to indicate the 169's replacement will be based on a Maserati chassis, not that of the Chrysler 300. The 300's platform is well-regarded, but old and difficult to adapt to the needs of European markets. The Maserati chassis will be sweet, but the resulting vehicle will almost certainly be too much for us to afford new. Ah well, maybe after depreciation does the deed we'll pick one up. At least this one is nice looking!

All petrolheads should own an Alfa if they want to know what differentiates a car from a toaster

-- Jeremy Clarkson

Nuff said.

Well, maybe not. If you genuinely wonder, "you know, you seem quite rational. Except for your choice in cars. Dude, wtf?!?" Well, read this, but skip past the bits about the watches. That's what I feel, and God help her I'm pretty sure Ellen feels, about Alfas.

We're coming up on a very specific anniversary very soon. Like, now. We'll all need to badger Ellen into talking about it.

And now, a shredder so bad-ass it's able to eat a whole car. Now that's recycling.

HardOCP answers the question we've all been asking: how many hard drives does it take to stop a .50 sniper rifle round? The answer is as cool as the question.

When is a spiral not really a spiral? When it's a bunch of differently-colored squares, that's when. It's likely our visual centers evolved in response to the pressure of finding ripe fruit in a tree, not to counter some clever damned scientist in a lab. Fun!

Hey, why not drive four supercars across the country? There was one in there even I didn't know what it was, other than pretty. You'll have to scroll down to the start and read up, but I thought it was worth it.

So how many years did Bill Murray's character spend in Punxsutawney? The answer seems to come close to what the director just threw out there in an interview long ago. Go to see what nerds like me (and most of the guys who read this site) do when they get the bit in their teeth. Stay to watch the NERD FIGHT!!!

Ron gets a no-prize filled with genuine buttery goodness for bringing us this past tale of a future that didn't come to pass then, but could today. How could someone be so prescient? Well, 1978 was the first time in the past thirty years when the economy was in the crapper, confidence was low, and progressives held all the cards. The second time had a better politician at the helm. The third time... well, let's all hope the third time is not the charm, in this case at least.

Oh, and I can cast each role in the story using a buddy of mine. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out who ends up in which role.

Look who they're fitting with artificial limbs now. Apparently it's a permanent one, which answered the question of how they were planning to deal with contact sores.

Fans of secret and abandoned places should find this collection of pictures of abandoned subway stations of interest. I'm pretty sure the Toronto station was used in the filming of the Matrix, but it's too early in the morning for me to research and be sure.

Coming to an obsessive blog about science fiction, anger, and cats near you: the Alfa BB video series. Sharp eyes will note the lack of a shift knob and the non-stock steering wheel. Even though it's fuel injected, mine sounds pretty much the same, but only if I pull the air cleaner off first. And I'd love a garage like that. LOVELOVELOVELOVE!

Problem: You work at a place where accidents happen at very high speed around a race track that's more than twenty miles long.

Solution: Horsepower. Leave it to the Germans to over-engineer something to the point it goes right out the other side and becomes amazingly cool.

Go to watch goofy Italian sedans going balls-out down various medieval donkey trails. Stay to see if those Italian sedans end up collecting any of the insane Frenchmen crowded on the sides of the road (minute 9-ish). And the song at minute 4-ish.

While a bit "fluffy", this editorial about how women are turning to motorcycles in increasing numbers was still of interest, even to a guy like me. Mainly, I guess, because it includes brief advice on the sorts of bikes one should look at as a beginner.

No, not for me, I'm askeered of those things. A few other people I know either are getting or want to get one. Those people.

Ah, progress. It now appears that, for the comparatively affordable price of $8,000, you, too, can get your own satellite launched. The press release makes it sound like a grown-up version of those electronics kits you used to get from Radio Shack. Except, of course, this eventually gets to go into space. Progress is good!

And now, a building that falls over and rolls across the street. No, really!

Everyone knows F-1 team principles make big bucks. That's very nice. Nicer still are the benefits. The latest rumors have Renault pulling out after this season, so ol' Flavio may end up out of a job soon.

Shumacher's coming back to Ferrari! At least, that's what Bild is saying. For those who're not following the sport (philistines), lead Ferrari driver Phillipe Felipe Massa got hit in the head by a spring roughly the size and weight of a full soda can at 155 mph last Saturday during practice at Hungary. Amazingly, he's still alive and in guarded condition, with doctors hopeful for a full recovery.

That said, he almost certainly isn't coming back very soon. It will be very interesting to see how ol' Shumy does. Ferrari built cars around him to his very particular tastes, and the current car isn't one of those. That said, he didn't win 7 world championships just because everyone else moved aside.

See you next Sunday!

Remember those stories about the "sky deck" in the Sears Willis Tower in Chicago? Yeah, it's about as spectacular as you'd think. Seems on the day it premiered it was raining. That'd be just my luck. Supposedly convention-after-next will be in Chicago, so I'll have to pencil this in on my, "to do" list.

Coming in second isn't always a great thing, but if you're Alfa Romeo, and your competition includes brands like BMW and Mercedes, second place, well, it' ain't so bad. And yeah, I think having Daihatsu on the top spot is a little strange myself, but I'll take what I can get!

Well, they may not have won the latest round of the, "24 Hours of Lemons" race, but check out who took the next four three spots! They may be goofy Italian cars, but, when prepped right, they can definitely be fast goofy Italian cars.

Presenting Yellow-Yellow, the bear smart enough to defeat "bear canisters" most campers can't get into. The in-laws will not be surprised to find out this bear, is from New York.

Ron'll have to go to the shoals of Orion to pick up the no-prize he gets for bringing us this graphic example of what happens when Welshmen have too much time, and way too many Christmas lights, on their hands.

No, it's not bad. It's actually pretty darned funny. And I know they're not exactly Christmas lights, but that's what they looked like to me.

E-mail? Who needs e-mail. I need this. Heck, it even picked the restaurant I was jonesing for as a supper pick tonight. Technology is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Remember, folks, quad turbos and a thousand-and-one horsepower mean never having to say you're sorry. It actually looks like the GT-R beats the Veryon in the first few hundred feet. After that it would seem the Veryon gets it all hooked up and lined up and then it's just freaking gone.

Which is what I'd expect if I were driving a car that cost ten times what a $100k-ish competitor cost. eh?

While the site itself seems to be critical of the restaurant conversions it features, personally I have no problem with it. Then again, I work in Arlington, who's re-use zoning laws are famous in the way they limit what can and cannot be done to the exterior of a building. Still didn't save that cool dealership over at Ballston, though.

Whale shark? Your aquarium has one whale shark? But does it have three? And, from what I could count, three manta rays as well. Can't say I've ever even heard of those living in captivity. Now if this was the tank in my doctor's office, I might be more likely to visit!

From someone who is supposedly related to someone who works at Chrysler:

From my brother Steve who works in the Prototype Shop at Chrysler........ New fun facts and such.....Fiat 500 will be badged as a Chrysler The Abarth version is in AND will be marketed. There are also some NEW oddities.....Full ELECTRIC 500 (not hybrid). Steve says it is pretty cool. The Abarth 500 has 17" wheels with extremely low profile tires. He said it took two (2) guys PLUS the tire machine to get the tires on the wheels because of the "very ridgid" sidewall. Now he says this one is a monster and is very quick. Also lurking around is a Lotus Elise that is full electric. It may OR may not be produced and marketed as a Dodge. He also says that with all the Italians involved; English has become the 'secondary' language. He is STILL trying to interpret "hand and arm" gestures and as yet can't decipher whether the "yelling" is normal or frustration or madness or just being "Italian",,,,,Ed K.

Bah. Ellen read it over my shoulder and couldn't understand how someone couldn't understand "language-plus-gestures".

Nothing like full motion video to ensure the guys you're sending to their 72 virgins really deserve it. At least nowadays they're blanking the HUD info, which I always found quite informative as to what was taking the pictures, and where it happened to be.

While these things are certainly interesting looking, I don't know how well they'd do holding books. Probably expensive too. Still, it is a step up from some planks and a couple of cinder blocks, eh?

Via Violins and Starships.

She ended up in Kenya:

In many ways, the setting is just a typical family breakfast.

Young children and their mother enjoy croissants and orange juice while sitting around a table together.

But things become a little different when you notice a giraffe poking its head through the window to join them for a drink and a bite to eat.

Note to hyper-literal relations: "lost sister" is a literary device. Except when Nina's GPS unit runs its batteries flat.

Mark gets a no-prize that contains the receipts of all his past Ren Fair tickets for bringing us news that one of the most extensive collection of medieval accounting records in the world is now on-line. These records provide very valuable cross-checks to the various chronicles of the time, and allow the tracking of sometimes very normal men throughout their lives, something that is not possible anywhere else in Europe until perhaps the late 18th century.

The Codex Sinaiticus, one of the oldest three bibles known to exist, is now available on-line. The interesting thing about Sinaiticus, and its other contemporaries Vaticanus and the somewhat later Alexandrinus is how unique they are. At this period Christian writings, and the Old Testament documents they were usually based on, were distributed in collections of books, many examples of which survive today. These three are the only "whole" bibles known to have existed for seven or eight centuries.

Looks like the Air Force has a new toy. "Translator" doesn't seem quite right for a system that connects a bunch of disparate data networks together. "Ultimate bridge" seems more appropriate to me. But wtf do I know?

The New York Times is now getting in on the act with this road test of the Alfa Romeo MiTo. The review's conclusions, that the car is heaps of fun but a bit crude and harsh, tracks pretty well with other road tests I've read. The nice thing is suspensions can be refined and steering can be fixed. In other words, it would appear to be no worse than any other new model, and in many cases is much better.

All for (supposedly) around $20k. They may just have gotten it right this time.

Four words: rifle mounted cup holder. I love America! Not sure I recognize the gun though, maybe an H&K?

84 lb. girl catches 190 lb. fish. We watch the Animal Planet show River Monsters pretty avidly, and so knew such monstrous critters did in fact ply fresh waters. We did not, however, know any of them lived in Spain. Aye ca-rumba!

And in the, "if you have to ask..." category, we have this 1962 Alfa Giulietta Sprint Zagato. I actually saw one of these a very long time ago at an owners club meet in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. They're amazingly small cars, with a really neat, blatty exhaust note. The owner had restored it himself, and said it was like driving around inside a drum. But a fun drum! I had no idea the things were so valuable. Then again, that was right around 20 years ago, so this may be a case of "when appreciation attacks!"

Update: Don't miss this even pricier TZ-1, the follow-on to the Sprint Zagato featured above. Vintage race cars, FTW!

If CNet is to be believed, the first Alfa Romeo on our shores will actually be the "new" 4-door Milano. The article includes a new phone picture of the pre-production line. Can't say I find it particularly stylish, but this "foam squishy" look is actually the result of a raft of progressive legislation intending to protect pedestrians. In other words, they're ALL going to look like that soon. I guess if it saves one idiot who doesn't look both ways...

While I'm sure having a big ol' telephoto lens helped make this all look a lot closer together than it actually was, this is still a really nifty air show picture. Andrews AFB, where I take all my shots, is of course emphatically not surrounded by various buildings, so I'll just have to pass on trying for one of these.

Another installment in the MechWarrior franchise would appear to be on the way My brother and I spent hours and hours blowing up various teams of "other" nerds with the last version. Will this be a worthy replacement? Only time will tell.

Outback (not the steak house) once served dinosaurs.

Nasty once of course!

The spy pictures, they keep coming. Slightly off-kilter styling: check. Big booty: check. Not likely to be mistaken for anything else: check. Yep, that's an Alfa my wife would love. Except she'd have to give up her PRESENT Milano, or her nearly equally beloved PT Cruiser, so I don't see one of these in our future. Now, if either got smashed in 2012? All bets would then, my friends, be quite off.

Land Rover, of all people, has unveiled what it bills as the "worlds toughest cell phone". Unfortunately no phone is so tough it can't be lost in the side pocket of a back pack. Not that I'd reveal someone who actually did something like that...

Three words: Bikini. Fireworks. Stand. Did I mention how much I love the USA?!? Amazingly, this did not originate in Texas, but rather in Tacoma, Washington. I guess all those stories characterizing the great North West as a bunch of screaming liberal hippies sipping Starbucks in their yurts complaining about "flyover country" and regulating their own children out of the local housing market was a bit of an exaggeration, eh?

Well, probably only a bit...

Leave it to the Kiwis to come up with an airline safety tape even I'd pay attention to. Go for the flight attendants wearing body paint. Stay for the flight attendants f-ing up their lines in body paint. Heck it even includes something for the ladies.

I can think of no finer send-up to the center-left elitism I find so common with so many folks I know. The discussions on his board about this one are epic.

I'm laughing precisely because you don't think it's funny.

It seems Chrysler and Fiat are beavering away at getting the new 500 over here as soon as possible. If it's even vaguely in the price range of the Smart, they likely won't be able to build them fast enough. Not so sure about a wagon with that body type, but who knows?

Presenting the Falkirk Wheel, what has to be the most spectacular solution to the problem of getting a boat from one body of water to another at a different elevation. I'd read about this thing years ago in a travel magazine, but they only had a single picture of it. This site has video!

Details are beginning to emerge about exactly what Fiat tech Chrysler is already working to integrate into new models. Interesting tech in what would otherwise be pedestrian cars is what makes Italian automobiles so neat to me. It's nice to read such things will soon be in American cars as well.

If I had a four car garage, and a whole helluva lot more money than I have right now, I'd make this guy an offer. I've read, more than once, that owners of pre-war Alfas like nothing more than to take their cars to shows which feature pre-war Cadillacs. "It's so much fun to make them cry," was what they kept saying.

It's an Italian thing. Ellen understands.

Yeah, it may be old news to you, but this clip from (yet another) British "real science" show was still pretty impressive to me. I was a little disappointed they only dropped it from the top of a big crane. The Mythbusters guys must have a bigger budget, as I'd expect them to work out a way to at least drop it from a helicopter or something.

Problem: Jet packs are a neat idea, but it's just not possible to carry an adequate fuel supply

Soultion: Use the most common reaction mass candidate on the planet, and tow a pump behind you.

Since I haven't seen these things everywhere, there're bound to be hidden issues. The two I think I see are noise and the tendency to power-wash the skin off the pilot's legs.

I know, I know, the ISS makes for one helluvan expensive camera platform. But sometimes the results are still worth it. I especially like how the volcano punched a hole in the cloud cover around it.

And now, garagantuan trees shaped like mushrooms. You'd think after running this place as long as we have, we'd know all about these places. You'd be wrong.

The new Acropolis museum has opened at the foot of that very famous hill. Predictably, lots of mentions of the Elgin marbles and almost no details on just what is actually on display in this new space.

Lest you think they're all sparkling, like new... this is how most Alfas meet the end of their days. The first one I owned wasn't much nicer than this one. Ah well. I wonder if he'll sell me the tail lights?

The pictures remind me of Joshua's old barn photos. Here's to hoping he finds images as compelling at this Sunday's show!

Turns out it's ridiculously easy to hack those flash-message road signs. Except, of course, that it's illegal.

RON.

The thing is, they're not actually toys. I forget exactly how this is done, but as I recall it can be done with just about any SLR.

Presenting Atlas Obscura, a site which attempts to chronicle every weird or obscure bit of interesting architecture and geography, well, anywhere. Personally I think the Los Alamos surplus store is the most interesting. Knowing how the feds work, that's the most likely final resting place for the Roswell aliens.

Ron gets an indestructible no-prize for bringing us this entertainingly translated article about what appears to be Russia's latest effort in military mobility. Hey, Hajji, eat this!

An entire page from the Weather Channel dedicated to TORNADOS!

Finally I can say, the next Alfa Romeo bound for the US looks to be shaping up nicely. This would seem to quash rumors that the next 169 vehicle would be based on the same platform as the Chrysler 300. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, since that platform has the rear wheels driven as God and Jano intended. Still, it'll be interesting to see how it turns out. They may even end up naming it "Milano."

And now, how about a bunch of pictures of one of the prettiest cars ever made? Say what you will about Italians, they certainly know sculpture.

Me, I call this "journalists as bait." Really fast, really expensive bait.

People sometimes wonder why I like Formula 1 so much. This is why.

Oh, and I would definitely be able to take off from a standing start.

It's the barriers I'd be worried about.

Now that the deal is done, more and more details about which Fiat platforms will be heading, and even built, here are coming out. The Jeep brand has always been a jewel for whomever happened to own it at the time, so it's nice to see them continuing it. Putting an Italian-designed body and an Alfa-designed engine into one makes it extremely tempting, IMO. Heck, they'll still be built in Detroit. But I won't hold that against them.

Alfa Romeos being built in the USA. Will wonders never cease?

Now that it's done, the models Chrysler and Fiat will be producing together are being detailed. Howabout this:

Alfa Romeo: Fiat plans to build the upcoming Alfa Milano sport sedan and station wagon in one of Chrysler's plants. Another Chrysler plant could build a sporty midsize crossover for the iconic Italian brand. Alfa may also get a larger sport sedan based on the next generation of Chrysler's excellent 300 platform.

Two Milanos in our future? One of which without boged up electrics? Well, stranger things have happened. I can't think of any off hand, but I'm sure they're out there.

The fat lady would finally seem to be taking the curtain call:

DETROIT — Italy's Fiat is the new owner of most of Chrysler's assets, closing a deal Wednesday that saves the troubled U.S. automaker from liquidation and places a new company in the hands of Fiat's CEO.

Good luck to them!

They're gonna need it.

Ares has a fun little guessing game any armchair defense weeny would love.

Ok, this is one "first response" team I'm quite happy to have missed:

A crack team of "rapid response" volcano experts scrambled to the South Pacific Ocean last month to find something rarely seen by human eyes: an underwater eruption exploding into the inky, cold depths and spewing lava onto the ocean floor.

Ron gets an explosive no-prize for bringing us news of this rare and spectacular example of nature's fury.

Sometimes mash-ups are lame. Then someone goes and combines SEM images with a Google Earth interface. Let me just say I'm glad bugs are small. If they weren't, they'd be much freakier than they really are.

It would seem that, at least in the opinion of one attendee, Nintendo was the big winner in this year's E3 show. Since the Wii is the only console we own, that sounds like a big deal to us!

Most of the time, science tells us this is bad, or that is bad. Sometimes though, it tells us something very good indeed. Sorry, Ron, no mention of Southern Comfort being good for after-weights recovery.

Kinda cool when your family finds the classic car you used to own and gets it running and back in your possession again. Ellen and I don't have this problem. Cars come into our possession intact, and either stay here (White Spider, 13 years and counting), or depart bound only for the yard (previous Spider & Milano).

I wonder where that Duster I had back in 1988 got to...

Fans of Wii fitness should find all these recently announced expansions of interest. The opportunities scanning one's body into the Wii for Ron to embarrass Amber may just be enough to tip them over to purchase one.

It would seem the hit movie Heathers is on for a sequel. Since it's been [evil laugh]21 years[/el] since the original, it'll be interesting to see just how it plays out. Slater is on board, apparently as a sort of ghost adviser or something. Here's to hoping it doesn't suck!

Holy crap! She played Spock's MOM?!? Dur. I didn't even recognizer her.

I have no idea what to make of this clip. Well, other than it's nice to see Montreal in motion, watch some really cheesy in-car effects, and nice driving.

And watch the French threaten to gum it all up. A Citroen cock-block!

Nothing like a coil gun to get your day started. Unfortunately the video isn't working for me at the moment, but just from the look of the capacitors it seems pretty interesting.

While definitely nifty, I know Olivia would never actually let me use something like this as a computer. He'd end up with hearts and unicorns and, well, Wall-e stickers all over him.

Jeff gets a swirling no-prize Ellen will want to chase for bringing us news of the latest-and-greatest tornado chasing project. The article also includes 2 other bits of good news: Storm Chasers is on track for a third season, and they're going to be covering this project, at least for one episode.

While I'd known of most of these "10 Geological Wonders", it was still neat to look at. And guess what... the Soviets created at least one of them.

Hopefully they won't park it in the convention center garage:

The Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione is one of Fiat Group's latest and most ambitious supercar projects. Sold by the team at Maserati of Baltimore, the exotic modern classic is sure to become a legend in the motorsports world for it's sharp design. As a new resident in Baltimore, she will hopefully be the photo focus of exotic spotter cameras and video sightings all around the charm city region and Washington DC Metro glam nightclubs.

If nothing else, it greatly increases the chance one will be around next year's Owner's Club convention, which is happening in Maryland.

With bells on, baby, with bells on!

Artificial Owl seems to be a website dedicated to pictures of abandoned things. It's surprising that, even in the modern world, ruins have both power and beauty. Case in point, the SS America, which is the subject of one of the remarkable pictures on the masthead of the Owl site. Sadly, America seems to have been pounded to bits now, and no longer stands sentinel over that lonely bit of beach.

There's no better way to start the day than looking at a whole passel of shuttle pictures. I think the shot with both of them mounted on their pads is the most impressive. That would've made our visit to the cape a lot more interesting. Unfortunately I think they wouldn't've let us get even that close if the shuttles had been out then.

This month marks the 40th anniversary of Apollo 10, who's lunar module Snoopy orbits the sun to this day. Now that would be an interesting snag for some future space archeologist!

Nothing like a little back-light to really punch up the shot. There must be some reason why nobody's ever tried this with the ISS, which is a lot bigger than either of these things.

Turns out it's just as interesting to stare into other people's refrigerators. Hopefully that critter was dead before he was put in the freezer. I'm not holding out a lot of hope, though.

While sinking a zodiac-like inflatable boat at 100 yards via remote control sounds pretty nifty, it's when they start talking about mixing pepper spray into the stream that it suddenly turns into a lot of fun. Well, if you're not a pirate, at any rate.

If the ship already has high pressure water available, I can literally see no down side to this, other than perhaps expense. Now that insurance rates for shipping through pirate-infested waters is presumably on the rise, I'm not sure that impediment will hold out for long.

No, it's not quite as satisfying as picking them off with a Barrett .50, but it has the advantage of shutting up all the bleeding hearts in Berkeley and Brussels. Anything that puts a cork in those particular bungholes is all right by me.

Can't see how we missed this one: on Friday it was announced the songwriting duo behind ABBA have reunited, albeit only for one song. If loving kitschy pop songs is wrong, I don't want to be right.

[Ellen]: “Is it pretty?”

Dude: “What is?”

Me: “The engine. Is it pretty?”

Dude: “Why do I want to see if the engine is pretty?”

Me: “Exactly.”

If only the second set of movies had been this clever. I guess we'll have to go out and see this at some point. If we ever get back to Florida (it is in Florida, right?), that is.

Everyone please stand for the fat lady to sing her song:

Chrysler LLC today announced that, as a result of the comprehensive restructuring plan agreed to by many of its stakeholders, it has reached an agreement in principle to establish a global strategic alliance with Fiat SpA to form a vibrant new company. It will allow Chrysler and Fiat to fully optimize their respective manufacturing footprints and the global supplier base, while providing each with access to additional markets. Fiat powertrains and components will also be produced at Chrysler manufacturing sites.

The MSM is finally glomming onto the fact that Fiat really never has made particularly sturdy cars. Truth is, Italians don't consider screwing a car together correctly all that important. Design, beauty, performance, and heritage are all far more important. If it means the trim falls off, well trim doesn't make it go faster now, does it?

Thing is, Americans will put up with a surprising amount of this sort of foolishness as long as they feel they're being taken care of, and the whatever it is doesn't keep breaking the same thing over and over again. Fiat's quality is supposed to have picked up dramatically in just the past four years or so. Will it be enough? Who knows?

I'm just happy they're back!

There's camouflage, and then there's camouflage. Since it's not active, it only works from one specific spot, but still.

Hey, she's a college student. She's supposed to have too much time on her hands.

[Ellen]: “Is it pretty?”

Dude: “What is?”

Me: “The engine. Is it pretty?”

Dude: “Why do I want to see if the engine is pretty?”

Me: “Exactly.”

First it was a "sky bridge" over the Grand Canyon. Now it's observation rooms on the soon-not-to-be Sears Tower. I'm not particularly acrophobic, but I think I'd have to peer out from the side on this one. And how'd you like to work that construction job?

Well, now they've moved on to actual production plans:

The first Fiat car to arrive will be the 500, known as the Cinquecento, an update of the Italian classic from the 1960s that has earned comparisons to the more expensive Mini Cooper and has been a big hit since its introduction in Europe two years ago.

...
In Europe, the Fiat 500 sells for roughly 9,000 euros, or $12,000, on average. The Mini, made by BMW, sells on average for $25,600 in the United States.
...
Alfa Romeo will return with the MiTo, a compact now on sale in Europe, as well as the Milano, reviving a name from the 1980s and 1990s.

The Italians' saving grace has always been price, and their downfall was always taking direct aim at the likes of BMW and Mercedes. If they can mesh successfully with Chrysler, make cars at least as reliable as a Toyota, and priced less than their European competitors, they won't be able to build them fast enough.

Is a new Alfa in our future? Not immediately. Our current automotive need, such as it is, is not for a sedan or a micro-car, but instead for a truckster. If the oft-rumored Alfa crossover becomes a reality we'll likely be at the dealership with bells on. Until then, well, until then it'll just be nice to see the ol' cross-and-serpent in US dealerships.

Here's to hoping they have a long, happy relationship, with new cars for all!

Fiat and Chrysler would appear to have reached a final deal. New Alfa Romeo cars would seem to be heading our way, if rumors are true as early as next year.

An ironic twist, really. It was a deal with Chrysler back in the mid 1980s that was widely seen as instrumental in Fiat pulling the marque out of the US. Here's to hoping this deal turns out better than that one, and the one after with Mercedes. After all, when more choices show up, the consumer is the one who wins.

Enter Alfa:

Chrysler LLC and the U.S. Treasury Dept. have reached an agreement with banks and private equity firms holding $6.9 billion of the automaker’s debt. Those firms have agreed to take $2 billion and a small equity stake in the company, paving the way, it seems, for Chrysler to avoid bankruptcy and with Italian automaker Fiat.

No, the fat lady hasn't sung, but I think I can hear her warming up in the wings.

Why pay big bucks for some super-reliable modern Japanese Q-ship when you can spend it on one of the quirkiest automobiles ever built in Britain? I remember lusting after these cars as a kid not because they were pretty, but because they were really expensive and made it look like you were driving around in an Atari game system. I think the car failed in large part exactly because of this.

Ron gets a no-prize with a striped vest and one of those funny flat straw hats for bringing us this most distinctive of tributes to John Williams. Personally, I think Joshua does a better Wookie.

A university project has created a Formula 3 race car built with as many renewable resources as possible. The fiber and foam replacements sound interesting, but I wonder how flammable they are? If you have to treat your nice green car with nasty artificial chemicals to keep it from crisping the driver in an accident well, that sort of seems to miss the point, doesn't it?

Now I know what we'll take on our next hike. What? Why no, I don't think the park rangers will have a problem with it. Why do you ask?

The first road test of the Alfa MiTo explicitly written with an eye for the US market is up, and things would seem to be very, very good. It's a little fan-boyish, yes, but the cars tend to do that to people. And hey, what's not to love about a car like that which can get 40 mpg and starts at perhaps $15k? Beats the hell out of a Mini!

And if Ellen didn't want one before, she'll probably want one now:

Another great feature of the Blue&Me system is the telephone integration, allowing you to pair up Bluetooth-enabled mobiles so you can use your phone with your contacts directly via the steering wheel-mounted controls. Alternatively, and this is quite slick, you can use the voice-activated commands. Depending on mobile phone type, it will even read out SMS messages for you. Once the set-up process is completed, the system recognizes your phone the minute you get in and start the car.

It appears someone has finally come out with an honest-to-God powered armor suit. Personally, I'll believe it when I see one of Nippon's finest hopping around like a giant grasshopper. Until then, it's as real to me as the suit Ellen's latest "I definitely don't think he's cute oh Amber isn't he dreamy?!?" crush wore in Iron Man.

They look like hay bales made of ice. Now for some snow cows and snow horses to eat them!

It seems New Yorkers aren't anywhere near as nasty as their reputation would have you believe. And by "New York," I mean the city, and by the "city" I of course mean Manhattan. What to the rest of us is obvious requires a great deal of clarification when one's relatives live near the city.

Even though, by rumor, they only brought exactly 6 of them over, I definitely think one of these will end up in my garage (warning: French video). Then again, I'm cheating, because I know one of the six owners, who's only looking for a loon who'll pay what he's asking.

What? Why's everyone looking at me all of a sudden? Do I, like, have a "cross-and-serpent" t-shirt one right now?!?

Oh... wait...

I don't know what it is, but I like it. The best games are the ones that are easy to learn, hard to master.

Apa, 49, has become increasingly concerned about the damage inflicted on the world's highest mountain by both climate change and the waste left by careless climbers.

This spring season he hopes to conquer Everest for the 19th time, and he will use the trip to focus attention on how climate change is affecting the Himalayas -- and also bring back down as much rubbish as he can carry.

No Scott, just because I can carry 10 bags at once and a cat carrier and Olivia does not make me a sherpa.

It seems the famous bust of queen Nefertit has a hidden secret. Yes, Ron, I said "bust." Would someone please give him a glass of water or something?

It's getting so even the turtles are coming to the US for health care. Personally, I blame Rahn whatsisname...

Meet Liam Hoekstra, one of the very very rare people to have myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy, or muscle enlargement:

Liam has the kind of physical attributes that bodybuilders and other athletes dream about: 40 percent more muscle mass than normal, jaw-dropping strength, breathtaking quickness, a speedy metabolism and almost no body fat.

Lest we all become too envious, it's important to keep in mind that, while his soft-tissue changes make him seem almost superhuman, his skeleton, and most importantly his joints, have not changed at all. Like a car, the human body is an intricate, inter-related system. Also like a car, beefing up the power without simultaneously strengthening the support structures results in something fun, but fragile.

To put it another way, there's a reason professional athletes in strenuous sports end up being forced to retire due to injuries, and it's not always the fault of physical contact.

Robert H. gets a red, juicy no-prize for bringing us news that you, too, can plant your very own Campbell's tomato soup tomato. People learn to fear Ellen in the fall when she totes paper sacks around, for they know this means a large number of home-grown tomatoes are headed their way.

The Science Museum in London has a new exhibit opening which features Nick Park's best-known characters hosting "what every aspiring inventor needs to know." Here's to hoping the show goes on the road, and over the pond, some time in the future!

Blockbuster's on-line rental service is coming to Tivo. Unlike the Netflix service, this new one is available to Series 2 users. We've been using the Amazon download service for about six weeks now and are very pleased with it. More selections is a good thing!

Tired of gloom and doom? Take a look at what might be coming down the ol' technology pike soon. Exploitable zero-point energy sounds just way beyond fantastic. That is, if it's not just fantastic.

Ol' Harry finally coughed up a ring for Calli.

I distinctly remember all the papers playing up the "Did you know Harrison Ford's dating a girl more than 20 years younger than he is?" when they got together. The papers neglected to mention his "girl" was in her late 30s at the time. Grownup celebrities are only allowed to be so if the MSM allows them.

Let me show you it... my latest obsession.

Ok, obsession's probably too strong. My latest "makes me itch & makes you think I'm weirder than usual." As if that were possible.

At any rate, it really captures what's so artful about these one-off Italian GTs. 0-60 in just under 6 seconds is only reasonably quick by today's standards, but with those curves...

Nobody's sure if it's coming to our shores, but the next Alfa to bear the name "Milano" seems to be coming along nicely. I hope one day it does, just so I can park ours next to one.

F- taking pictures of whales... this is the kind of "get inna boat & go lookit" adventure I'd want to try. No scuba for you, there's undersea volcanoes about!

Leave it to the Japanese to create the ultimate Italian car memorabilia store. Not just Alfa (although there's a ton of that in there), but just about any Italian car-related badge seems to be in there. A few Germans too. Don't delay, the chotchkee-lover you please next could be you!

Well, they may be old news to motorcycle fans, but I'd certainly never seen a "hubless" motorcycle before. And, since my opinion is the only one that counts, it means nobody else has either. So there you go!

Sometimes, when I think about touring Italy one day, I do a little daydreaming about what it would be like to haul the Spider back to the land of it's birth and go for a drive. Turns out I can get rather close to that dream, without having to rent a container and wait for a transatlantic boat trip. I do think having a repair truck following me around would be a bit tacky.

So, will this be one of the new Alfas to land on our shores? In all honesty, I can't say that I find it pretty. Then again, when I think that its main competition is supposed to be the Mini and that godawful Smart car, well... suddenly it becomes a whole lot prettier. You certainly wouldn't mistake it for any other car on the road. Considering how hard it is to tell any new car from any other new car nowadays, that's a real achievement.

The folks who revolutionized auto diesels are now bringing a new valve train technology into production. Actuating valves with something other than a spring smells a lot like F-1 technology. Considering Fiat has underwritten the Ferrari F-1 team for decades, it's not that far of a leap.

Ron gets a no-prize that'll spout "verily" a lot for bringing us news that a portrait of Shakespeare made during his lifetime has been found. Found here being a relative term... the painting has apparently been in the possession of the same family for generations. It was only when one of the family members saw the famous copy of the painting in the Folger Library in Washington DC, in 2006, that the connection was made.

Jack Hayes, director of NOAA’s National Weather Service, included a researcher from the National Center for Atmospheric Research Societal Impacts Program on the assessment team to examine why many people did not take action to protect themselves.

See! It was the presidental primary elections after all!

It would seem tomorrow's Space Shuttle launch may just be visible to those of us in Northern VA. Unfortunately we live in the bottom of a shallow bowl, next to a big bright busy airport. Still, might be worth a look.

Ron gets the famous pinky-to-mouth-corner no-prize for bringing us this set of illustrations that graphically demonstrates what a trillion dollars really means. It's my understanding that one of the biggest problems bank robbers have is not security, but transportation. It's all well and good to hold up an armored car, but it's often not understood they're big for more than one reason.

The remains of William Shakespeare's first theatre have been found in East London.

Archaelogists from the Museum Of London unearthed what they believe to be part of the original curved wall of the first Globe Theatre in Shoreditch.

Concession stands unearthed next.

I think I would flush all sorts of stuff with this.

My goldfish would finally fit and I would not have to tell my nice neighbor where NOT to dig in my garden!*

*Nice neighbor likes to plant flowers and stuff in my garden. He weeds it too. I'm not complaining. Just stay away from kitten corner.

Ron gets a no-prize that'll rumble the kitties off their perches for bringing us this Star Wars-based bit of hi-fi componentry. I don't want one because I don't feel like going through all the damned work. Others, maybe not so much.

How neat!

The finger was removed when the astronomer's body when it was exhumed from his unconsecrated grave and transferred to a mausoleum in a Florentine church in 1737. It is usually on display at Florence's Museum of the History of Science.

Slashdot linked up news that LEGO has come up with a robotic kit targeted for kids aged 5-10. Being the owner of one unit of same, and always looking for something Olivia and I could do together, I was a bit disappointed to find out the product seems (at least for now) to be targeted, and priced, for teachers with classrooms. Oh well. Still, it'll be something I'll keep my eyes out for, perhaps this Christmas?

Ron gets a very edible no-prize for bringing us the 11th annual chocolate fashion show. It's exactly, and exactly not, what you think.

Personally, I can think of no better application of applied sciences than re-creating old cannon and firing them. Turns out they're more powerful than previously thought.

Looks like at least one British car tester likes the MiTo. If it out-performs a Mini, is priced a little less than the Mini, and most important of all is built at least as well as the Mini, they won't be able to make them fast enough to meet US demand. If they bring them over here, that is.

While I think it's a bit of a stretch to call some of these gizmos and technologies Formula 1 spin-offs, they're still pretty neat and hey, who knows?

It would seem at least one person thinks Halo's transition from FPS to RTS was successful. Ok trust me, if you don't know what that means it means you don't care. For the rest of us... well, RTS's can be pretty darned nerve wracking to me, but they're still fun. I'm just nowhere near as good at them as I am at shooters. We'll see...

Look what I found!!!

We couldn't find a tire pressure placard on the car itself, so this morning I had Ellen fish the owners manual & paperwork out of its hidey-hole on the parcel shelf behind the rear seats. No, really, that's where Alfa put it! Anyway, this afternoon, waiting for Ellen to gather Olivia out of Tai Kwon Do, I got bored and started digging around, and found this! Yep, that's the Holy Grail of classic car nut-dom, the Original Window Sticker. And get this, the car was originally sold in Rapid City South Dakota!

In other news, there was once an Alfa Romeo dealership in Rapid City, South Dakota.

1988 Price: 21,150. Adjusted for inflation: $40,010.

I found a few other things that seem to indicate the car sat in a dealership for four years before being sold. Carfax's report was nothing like this, which makes me seriously call into question that service's accuracy, at least in the early years.

Ain't classic car ownership grand? :)

Today's "uppity Italian sedan staying with cars it should instead be worshiping" is brought to you by Laguna Seca raceway. Special guest star: an Acura NSX. Race starts at 3:50, the fun starts at 11:50.

For me, there's nothing wrong with 17,000 square foot of cave-house. Ellen's enchanted with big, open windows all over the place, A/C bill bedamned, so I'm not so sure about her preference. Oh, and I don't see an obvious garage, so that might be a deal breaker right there.

Hey, a man's gotta have priorities!

I'm not sure there's enough trouble in the world to describe what I'd be in if this followed me home (auction link, "moar pix" are here...) That said, if all my goofy ravings have given you a virtual bite on the head*, well, this is definitely one helluva piece of zombie food. When new, I think they were ~ $40k. I do not know but suspect the reserve will be somewhere around half that.

Oh shaddup, and start breathing again. It's a Q4!!! AWD, FTW!!! Probably still smells new! Someone I know must buy it so I can get a ride in it, dammit!

No?

Philistines....

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* Except for Joshua, who doesn't fit in Alfas with roofs on.

Today it's at Jay Leno's garage. Tomorrow, it could be in mine. Be sure to hang on until the half-way point, when they show off a working crescent wrench that was scanned fully assembled, and printed exactly the same way.

There are dozens of little parts for the Milano that are NLA*. Maybe they won't be for much longer.

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* No Longer Available.

Oh come on. It's 60 seconds. If nothing else, a preview of what Ellen would have done to the last Milano, had it lasted.

It's probably for the best I don't know anyone with a big shooting range or access to any sort of explosives. If I did, I'm pretty sure I'd try a stunt like this. Only, you know, dumber. Personal injury FTW!

Which is why I like road course racing best. All the horsepower in the world, and in this case I'm just about certain that Corvette has got at least a 100 hp advantage, won't do you any good if you don't know how to turn and brake.

I've told the owners of various overpowered or overmodded cars that yes, their car is quick and yes, it will definitely beat mine in a quarter mile drag race. Thing is, I'd tell them, there's always a left or right turn at the end of the quarter miles I want to run on, and that'll be where I'll say, "buh-bye."

Now, I have proof.

And yes, I know the driver made those passes in spite of his car, not because of it. He also overcooked it in turn 6. Hey, if you're not spinning out occasionally, you're not trying.

It's official: if they actually bring Alfas over here, one of 'em's gonna be called Milano. An Italian-language article has some speculative pictures on what the new models might look like. I've worked too dratted hard on Ellen's car to give it up any time soon, but I must admit the 2011 timing of a purported crossover SUV would be a mighty tempting replacement for the family truckster, especially if it's VW-priced instead of BMW-priced.

Meh. Fun to think about, that's all.

Ron's Mark's next no-prize will fall out of the sky on him because he let us know about the EDIS map, your one-stop-shop for everything disaster. Worldwide!

I know from experience these little monsters are fast:

A turnstile-jumping tot, who can't even speak yet, gave his mom an 11-minute scare Tuesday when he slipped out of a Queens restaurant and jumped on a No. 7 train.

Olivia pulled her disappearing act when she was 4, stayed gone for about five minutes until I found her a few dozen yards down the beach. I called it a "powerful, cheap lesson."

About a great many things.

Mark gets a dusty yet very valuable no-prize for bringing us news of a discovery that would warm any descendant's heart:

A classic Bugatti car, which gathered dust in a Tyneside garage for half a century, has been sold for 3.4m euros (£3m) at an auction in Paris.

Bonhams had listed lot 17403 as a "motoring icon" with an engine that has not been fired up for 50 years.

Relatives of reclusive Newcastle doctor Harold Carr found the 1937 Type 57S Atalante in a garage after he died.

I'll wager it'll take quite a bit of work even to get the engine to turn over. Of course, with a car like this, getting it running is always the easiest part.

As I'm sure you all know, the 2009 F-1 season is right around the corner. Even those in the peanut gallery who aren't waiting for Melborne should find this 2 minute explanation of what's been changed at least mildly interesting, if nothing else for the way-cool computer graphics. Something not mentioned, but which seems obvious to me, is that the cars seem to be getting, well, pretty again. With all the wings, barge boards, and shark gills, it was hard to see the car, let alone appreciate its wickedly functional beauty. No more. And it promotes overtaking! Could this herald the end of the endless, changeless parades that too many races had become? Only time will tell.

If, and let's all admit it is a monstrously big if, the stars align, Fiat's plan to bring two Italian models to the US next year may actually come to pass. A tiny Fiat and a smallish Alfa? Well, why not? To make it even spicier for your friendly local Alfa nuts, the model that may get shipped over is (apparently) due to be named Milano.

In other words, this is not a cool photo, it's an after-the-fact shot of a leprechaun's last moments. Ah well, I guess the pot of gold buried in the grill means you won't need to explain it all to the insurance adjuster, eh?

I know, I know... I'm on my own if I go chase.

No wait....Ammmberrrr.....

Finally, the intartubes^tm are living up to their "anarchic" expectations: Wikileaks has just released several tons of kinda-sorta-as-long-as-they-don't-find-out-secret Congressional reports on, basically, everything. It remains to be seen whether the party of "hope and change" will move decisively toward business as usual and actively attempt to close this firehose of potentially explosive information. Being a cynical, card-carrying member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, I think you already know what I think will happen.

I, of course, need no justification, because I'm nuts. Oh stop nodding, that's not funny. Anyway, those of you with a more green bent who feel a pang or two of angst about keeping an old, "inefficient" classic car (or motorcycle, or boat, as the case may be) on the road may find this heartening:

[W]hile many newer cars operate with far greater efficiency, producing very few hydrocarbons at the tailpipe, etc, the amount of resources required throughout the production life-cycle when assembling a new car is astonishing when you consider the development and machining of all the tooling equipment, the refining of raw resources, and sheer volume of oil required to fuel that process before any gasoline ever even enters a tank.

Yes, getting a new car will generally produce fewer emissions and consume less fuel than an older one ... but I just simply can't justify supporting the idea that next year's model is the best one yet, and that we need to keep disposing, trading, our cars in for new ones to be 'responsible'. If I can reasonably maintain a car so that it is at peak efficiency and already using relatively little fuel, what justification is there for spending more money to use more resources to purchase something that will probably perform around as well as the old model did?

So, if you're pining for something old and gasoline powered, but have a tiny Al Gore on your shoulder bitching at you, give this argument a whirl. The next classic vehicle you save could be your own!

Via yet another poor bastard who fell victim to the Alfa Entry Drug.

Explorers have discovered the wreck of HMS Victory. No, I hadn't heard of it either, but according to the article it's a mid-18th century British warship which was separated from a fleet in a storm on the English channel and sank with (apparently) all hands. She also sank with some 4 tons of gold coins in her hold, which has yet to be found.

If nothing else, this should explain why the cars are so narrow. And there's also that whole, "gorgeous old roads in a gorgeous old country" angle, donchaknow?

We won't see the 159 over here, but the follow-on has a better chance of showing up than anything built previously. Top Gear has it's always unmistakable take on the cross-and-serpent's current mid-sized sports sedan. The walk across water thing is an interesting irrelevancy, but boy, does that guy need a hair cut or what?

NASA has unveiled the new final assembly building for the Orion spacecraft. On the outside, it apparently still looks like the old Operations and Checkout Building (which, if I recall correctly, isn't all that much to look at), but on the inside it's a completely new building. Now if they could just build the damned rocket...

Looks like Fiat wants to bring seven models over as a result of the Chrysler deal. The Fiat products would appear to be headed for a re-badge, while the Alfa stuff (including the MiTo!) keeps the cross-and-serpent. On one hand, this sounds like a much better pairing than the previously rumored BMW alliance. At least here it's quite obvious the product lines are complimentary. On the other hand, Fiat is signing up with the weakest of the big three, a company that's already failed with one European merger, and is saddled with tons of UAW members.

(With apologies to Pournell & Niven) On the third hand, rumors of a return have flown thick and fast since almost the last car rolled off a boat in '95. Those all came to naught, so chances are very good this one will too.

Dammit.

While its consequences for Alfa are still unclear, nearly everyone is saying the recently announced Fiat-Chrysler deal will result in re-badged Fiat 500s hitting Chrysler dealerships. No, I'm not familiar with it either, but this was pretty interesting:

No, I don't think it's all that pretty, and no, it wouldn't be my first choice for a car. Like you, I kept squinting at the picture, trying to figure out where the wind-up key goes.

Then again, all I need to do is remember this thing is aimed squarely at the SMART and suddenly I go from "whut?" to "oh hell yes." Unlike that tennis-shoe-on-wheels, this thing seems able to get out of its own way, and then some.

Happy 25th birthday, Macintosh! In other news, 1984 is now officially 25 years ago. Kids born in that year aren't even in college anymore. Some have kids that are 8 years old.

Bah, I tell you... bah....

That's mister funny-looking Italian sedan to you, bub.

I better not catch Ellen doing this. The operative word being "catch," I suppose.

Although it would be funny if she did it with her ma riding along.

"Not with me in the car! Not with me in the car!!!"

I think this brings "unintended use" to a whole new level: sniper rifle software has been launched for the iPod Touch. It's a music player, and a ballistics computer. Whatabahgain!

Ron gets a no-prize that'll get him a great parking spot at the next car show for bringing us the "ten craziest concept cars of all time." The fact that Alfa topped the list has absolutely no bearing on my willingness to link it up.

StickingToIt(MyStory);

Nothing like an entire blog dedicated to medical oddities and diseases to start off the morning. Just in time for breakfast!

Nothing like some hi-rez shots of good ol' planet Earth to give you some quiet contemplation in the afternoon. Every time I think I've seen every unique bit of landscape this place has to offer, I'm proven wrong. It's a good thing!

It may have taken attending the Detroit Auto Show to see it, but it would seem the latest iteration of the Alfa Romeo B.A.T. cars is worth it.

For you philistines* scratching your heads, the original B.A.T. cars were 3 Bertone design experiments done on Alfa chassis in the 1950s. As most Alfa show cars and prototypes were wont to do in that era, these "escaped" and ended up in private hands, eventually becoming some of the most coveted cars in the world.

This one seems to mostly be a Maserati under the skin, but it's not like that's a bad thing, either.

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* See definition 2b.

One more reason to seriously think about getting a new TV: lunatics back-flipping trucks on New Year's Eve. Even though the clip cuts off before you're sure, the driver was completely OK.

Mark gets a no-prize with a parachute attached for bringing us the story of a man who intends to fly and drive from London to Timbuktu. The catch? He'll never change vehicles.

Best of luck, and here's to hoping Hajji decides you're not worth an RPG that day!

See! See! we're not the only ones who love these goofy, boxy cars:

Sir Edmund Hillary needed to climb Everest "because it's there," and the same can be said for every racing junkie about "The Green Hell."

"Hell"? Think 13 miles, dozens of corners, 1000 ft. in elevation change and a hotly debated number of annual fatalities among those brave enough to tackle it. Online fan forums mention anything from five to 50.

...

Enter Ron Simons, owner of 75Experience, the de facto official Nordschleife driving school. It holds the largest collection of Alfa Romeo 75s in the world, and one look at the Alfa's boxy shape immediately explains why.

That's right, folks... for a price, you too can tear around the world-famous Nürburgring in a race- prepped Alfa Romeo Milano! Even if they are called 75s over there. Luckily, they also provide an instructor!

According to my sources, the Milanos in use are tattered but still a whole lot of fun. One more thing to add to the list of "to-dos" when we finally make it over there.

Hey, man, why not turn a surplus 747 into a dorm-style hotel? If it makes money and provides a cheap, safe, clean place to stay, I'm all for it!

As with most things in television, drawing that simple yellow line on the football field is more complicated than you'd think. Computers are wonderful things!

So, how old is your car? Or cars, as the case may be. Ours:

• '71 Alfa Romeo Spider: 51 "people years" old.
• '88 Alfa Romeo Milano: 27
• '01 Chrysler PT Cruiser: 77

Not too shabby!

There's nothing like finding a 1932 Bugatti in the garage your dead uncle left you to pick up your day. Not to mention the E-type and the Aston.

This is most likely something my descendants will not have to worry about, as the cars I leave behind in my garage (hopefully) a long time from now will most likely be in boxes.

Ever wondered just wtf?!? is up with all these multi-dimensional theories? This might help. One of the exciting things about the Large Hadron Collider is, if they can keep it from exploding at any rate, that it will be able to reach energies which should allow us to prove, or disprove, at least some of these "multi-D" theories.

Or create a black hole that'll swallow us all. I forget.

All's I can say is, I sure am glad they're using dummies. Testing all the gear the Navy & Marines use to ensure it all works, using way cool explosives and sleds? Sign me up!

Never worry again about fried tootsies with this new air-conditioned beach. Bonus: project was announced in time with the opening of yet another loopy environmentalist conference. Let the press releases begin!

While they didn't actually prevent the boarding, these excerpts from a Somali pirate assault on a Chinese cargo ship show that at least some crews are not willing to go quietly. And a big thumbs-down to Malaysian helicopter gunners. If that were me, hey, I'm out to turn those pirate skiffs into flinders scattered across the ocean, not just chase them away. Poverty and piss poor government ain't no excuse for terrorizing the seas.

Reactionary? Me?

Ron gets a no-prize that looks like it should backfire but doesn't for bringing us the story of the very first land speed record. Said speed? 39.24 miles per hour. Which doesn't sound like much to modern ears, but considering the state of automotive engineering at the time (1898) and the average speed of a horse-drawn coach of the era, I'm sure it was plenty exciting for all involved.

Just watch.

You remember reading the reason why everything in the 50s seems to be shaped like a jet airplane because it was the technology? Yeah, I guess it's a little like that. I've never even bothered to find out how much one of those dratted things must cost.

Way to potentially p*ss off the in-laws, moms, grandmoms, and various other hovering relatives, #412: a Halo-themed wedding. Back when we got married, best they had was the PlayStation. A Gran Turismo theme would've been cool, but way beyond our budget.

On today's Price is Right: The Power of The Price Compels You. How Joshua missed that one I'll never know. Guess he's not a game show nut like me.

And yes, I am stuck at home, sick with some plague of some sort introduced either by child or work. Worst part: entertainment news TV. It's very discouraging to try and scream, "WHO THE F--- CARES!?!?" when each attempt triggers a coughing spell. Best part: Watching Price is Right on Tivo delay. No commercials!

This is the first time I've done this in years. Is Judge Judy even on any more? Want to know what my wife will be like in 30 years? Yeah, like that. Hopefully with a big beefy syndication deal thrown into the bargain!

Oh yeah, one other thing. Most disappointing: I stink at The Price is Right. Back when I was a kid, and spent hours pouring over Sears Wishbooks and watching dozens of different game shows during various vacations and breaks in the 70s, I was a freaking guided missile on Price. So far today I'm not even close.

Can you say, "sick and tired of being sick and tired?" I knew you could...

I must admit I can't think of a better way to recycle a deux chevaux. With video!

If I didn't already work for a charity, this one would certainly be a worthy cause. Oh heck, it still is. Save those tatas! Ron gets the coveted Evenrude no-prize for bringing us this truly worthy charity.

He... OMFG... he actually... liked something!!! Will this be enough to get me back onto Steam? Not at first, but (as I recall), if you buy the CD version the code you get is a "get out of jail free forever" card. We'll see...

It seems, after all this time, Microsoft is looking to leverage its Flight Simulator engine to cover, well, everything. Falcon 3.0 took a run at this sort of thing way back in the mid-90s, and the result went exactly nowhere. In fact, the resultant sim was so buggy it almost literally took a decade to get right.

Microsoft is of course a bit richer than your garden variety game developer, and this is after all more than ten years later. We'll see...

The US Missile Defense agency has released this video of Lockheed Martin's Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV-L) during a recent hover test. It's a good thing it's meant to be used in (or near) space... watch how the cameras shake. It looks to be really loud.

I'll see your bayonet and raise you a chain saw. I'm pretty sure it'd be useless in a real fight, but it sure does look good. For the zombie hunter who has everything!

Mah Alfa lust, let me show you it.

Mah Alfa lust.

Thing is, these cars were hand-built out of a bunch of tube steel and some parts out of a bin. The blueprints are public domain. If they were as popular as Cobras, there'd be a cottage industry in S. Africa making them. With me as a customer.

Ah, well. This is the real deal. There's a reason they don't put the price where you can find it.

Me, I wanna see what Carfax says about it. I'm not completely sure it has a proper VIN. I know our 71 spider doesn't, and it was mass-produced.

After a 15-month overhaul period, the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is underway again. Hopefully it won't get towed right back as it did so often before this latest re-work. That thing seemed to be puttering around on a hook more often than it ever sailed under it's own power.

Look out, Hajji! Israel's deploying new toyz:

The Israeli Army is already operating the Sentry-Tech pillbox towers, mounting remote controlled weapon stations from an operational command center
...
As suspected hostile targets are detected and within range of Sentry-Tech positions, the weapons are slewing toward the designated target. As multiple stations can be operated by a single operator, one or more units can be used to engage the target, following identification and verification by the commander.

The sad thing is, it'll probably require sending a brace or two of Palis to their erstwhile reward before they learn these things mean business. Of course, there's always underground...

I guess proof doesn't get any more concrete than seeing a 2008 Alfa on Ebay. Yours for (so far) $190,000. Whatabahgain!!!

I need to find a richer set of friends...

Mark gets a no-prize that actually can dance on the head of a pin for bringing us the story of Willard Wigan, a man who's entire life's work can fit inside the eyes of needles. Now that, friends, is patience.

The inelegantly named but always useful NR-1 nuclear research submarine is finally being retired. Taken down not by obsolescence or wear-and-tear, but rather by the same whimper that gets all unique and uniquely useful machines... a lack of spare parts. Right now she's scheduled for a bone yard. It would be nice to see her in a museum some day.

Fans of how movies get made, or those who want to drool at pictures of Robert Downey Jr. being pensive [*cough*]Ellen[*cough*] should like perusing Jeff Bridges' scrapbook of the making of Iron Man. And what a strange site he has, too!

Score one for Coke's marketing department:

Dr Pepper is making good on its promise of free soda now that the release of Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy" is a reality. The soft-drink maker said in March that it would give a free soda to everyone in America if the album dropped in 2008. "Chinese Democracy," infamously delayed since recording began in 1994, goes on sale Sunday.
...
Beginning Sunday at 12:01 a.m., coupons for a free 20-ounce soda will be available for 24 hours on Dr Pepper's Web site. They'll be honored until Feb. 28.

Well, I thought Dr. Pepper was owned by Coke. Seems it's owned by Snapple. Did I dream that, or did they get sold at some point?

Ron gets a no-prize that still has all its fingers for bringing us this graphic (but not gross!) demonstration of the "SawStop", a very valuable safety option for table saws. I seem to recall hearing about these quite some time ago, but I'd never seen anyone with the guts to actually try it themselves. And, while I can't blame the guy, it looks more like he touched the side of the blade than the teeth. Meh, still pretty spectacular stuff. I certainly wouldn't want to use a table saw without one.

Sometimes it's lighting, sometimes it's the subject, and sometimes all that's required is the "right" angle. Ellen and I try to do this occasionally, but we can't quite get it all to line up.

Me, I like the one that doesn't look like it has a drain. I definitely don't want to know how much any of them might cost, if they're for sale at all.

Via Violins and Starships.

Honda: the good news is, it's run by engineers. The bad news is, it's run by engineers, although just how that's bad isn't explained in the article.

Alfa used to be like this, making lots of different models and coming up with all sorts of interesting solutions to all kinds of problems. Unfortunately the company was eventually destroyed when the government bureaucrats who ran it decided to use it as an instrument of social justice instead of a company with which to make and sell cars.

Mike P. gets a 1/72 scale no-prize for bringing us this anime visualization of a tortoise tank. If it were ours, it'd munch up a bunch of fuel and then hide in its hangar the rest of the day.

Ares: "German forces in Afghanistan have received over a million liters of alcoholic beverages this year, according to press reports."

Who knew?

Most of the time, when making the final cleanout of the grandparent's home, you find things you will treasure. Sometimes, though, you find something the whole country will appreciate:

Tony and Albert Fagler didn't know too much about Grandpa Albert, except that he did something with photography in the armed forces during World War II.

When Grandma Betty died in 2000, the boys had the task of cleaning out their grandparent's home in Englewood.

In the basement, they found an old cardboard drum, mostly full of junk and old pictures. They also found three sealed canisters of very old 16mm film.

Turns out the film, which had to be quite carefully digitized, was gun camera footage, scenes of ground combat aftermaths, and a color film of their grandparent's honeymoon. Sweet!

Exactly how a 200 hp 2L four banger is able to confidently pick off, well, everything on the track from Porsche to Ferrari to (no, really!) Chrysler I think perhaps is more about the driver than the car. But it sure does make a sweet sound, eh?

The weapon in question is...

A "1970 GTA Stradale Replica". More pictures are here: http://bertonebilder.alfatreter.com/#home

The event is "onboard salzburgring sounds of speed 2008".

After an absence of nearly 15 years, Alfa Romeo is once again selling cars in the US. $200,000+ cars, mind you, so I'm not looking for one in my driveway any time soon. Well, unless Bill Gates or someone like that reads this thing, in which case, black seems a nice color!

Oh, and it's good to see Keith's Stradale ended up somewhere nice in the US.

Google has added ancient Rome to the list of cities which can be accessed via Google Earth. In spite of the company's "do it all, with magic" reputation, they did not in fact invent a time machine. Instead they worked with scholars and modelers to create a virtual version.

...this is a knife:

A Royal Navy warship has rescued a Danish vessel after it came under attack from Somali pirates.

HMS Cumberland and the Russian frigate Neustrashimy repelled the attempted raid in the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday.

Meh. I bet they were hoping to shoot the big gun this time.

Ron gets a weird hybrid no-prize with a mullet on for bringing us this strange yet strangely cool amalgam of some classic 90s sh-tbox cars. Question the motives? Sure? Admire the craftsmanship? Definitely.

So what does one do with all the bits that make up "big science" after big science has moved on? Well, this! Just about any complex machine can be turned into attractive sculpture*, and since these are much more complex than most...

I bet those are some of the most expensive garden sculptures in the world.

----
* C.f. Romeo, Alfa.

Congratulations to Alfa Romeo and its parent company FIAT for snagging the 2009 European Car of the Year award for the MiTo. This is quite different from the award Motor Trend gives out. Instead, this one is awarded by a consensus vote of European automotive journalists.

The latest in the rumor mill is that, if they ever come back, the MiTo will be sold alongside the Mini, using that marque's dealer network. We'll see...

Those "buried-in-the-back-yard" nuclear power plants we talked about a few years ago seem to be coming along nicely. Even as gas prices fall, it's just possible the oil bubble stuck around long enough to get these alternative energy sources past their R&D financing hump, making them much more likely to be put into production. Like I've said before, anything that gets Hajji and his oil-rich financiers closer to a bread line is fine by me.

Alfa 169, anyone? Even if they did manage to bring them over here, I doubt I'd be able to afford it. But it's fun to dream!

Some of the facts read like they're from the "pulling numbers out of my rear end" dept., but they're still fun to think about.

Mark gets a fun, fact-filled no-prize for bringing us this quick ditty not only about how far we've come, but how much farther we're going to go.

Ron gets a no-prize he can holster a gun in for bringing us The Box of Truth, a science-driven site dedicated to investigating just about every question anyone's ever thought of about firearms. It's a good thing!

Televisions capable of showing 3D images without requiring the viewer to wear special glasses are on the way. If the article is accurate, the effect works but has limitations. Additionally, as with all new electronic tech the first generation is expensive, with the bigger sets scheduled to start at ~$15,000.

Mark gets a no-prize that'll squawk at the touch of a button for bringing us this video of a penguin doing whatever it takes to avoid becoming a whale snack. And boy, you can really tell those whales aren't happy about it one damned bit.

Forget Tacitus, Suetonius, or either of the Plinys. If you really want to know what the average Roman was like, just look at their graffiti. Turns out they weren't all that much different from us after all.

Sic 'em girl! Sic 'em!

I do have to admit, Bill Burton and Megyn Kelly are very good at their jobs. Watch the jujitsu-like way he bypasses Kelly's questions and hammers home his talking points. Then watch Kelly simply not let him off the hook. Masterful performances, masterful!

And yes, I know it's Fox. No wonder most of you seem to hate them so much... I'd never seen such a clear example of a right-leaning press corps using standard MSM tactics so effectively. It's only fun when you get to spray the water hose, eh?

Keep remembering folks... it's not "95% get a cut", it's "95% get checks", and something like 40% of that 95% don't pay any freaking taxes anyway. What an awsome idea!

And hey, Ellen, I guess I owe you a pizza or something... as you predicted, they're already defining down what constitutes "rich". I wouldn't want to be a small business owner if Obama manages to take the prize, because I bet they'll move what they define as "big" business downward even faster.

Fans of weird wildlife may find this list of 20 "very strange" endangered species of interest. I personally didn't know the anglerfish was considered endangered.

While this home-made amateur Bumblebee Autobot costume is impressive, IMO it's not how it looks when it stands still, it's how it moves that determines just how sophisticated the build is. Then again, as I recall from watching Robocop out-takes, a lot of "selling" this as a massive robot has to do with the way the actor inside the thing is moving around.

Why buy a Lamborghini Countach when you can just build one yourself?

There are a lot of classic cars which could be built up this way producing a car that is essentially identical to the original. This isn't one of them, but hey, everyone's gotta have a hobby, no?

Jeff gets a purple heart no-prize for bringing us news of the opening of a new military hospital for dogs wounded in war. The Walter Reed reference was worthy of a cringe, but otherwise this seems nifty enough. Here's to hoping it doesn't end up filled with $100 per shot rabies vaccines!

Just in time for the market's collapse, Fiat has announced they're moving Alfa's introduction to the US up to 2010. It's encouraging to finally see the deadline move closer than further away. I just hope there's a market for the cars when they get here, because this thing sure does look nice.

Update: Alfa, Porsche, and Audi are being wooed by the IRL. Turbocharged inline 4s may not sound like much, but that's what F-1 ran in the 80s and 90s. Those were, as I recall, 1.5 liter 4 cylinder engines with output estimated to be 1200 horsepower in qualifying trim.

I guess there are worse hobbies than teaching eagles to fly. Bonus: noble eagle birdy looks just like goofy green chicken parrot birdy when he climbs out of his travel cage.

Sarah Palin has confirmed she will be putting in an appearance on this Saturday's Saturday Night Live. Risky, but if it works it could pay off big time. Here's our onside kick, let's hope we're able to recover it and keep the momentum going.

C# Problem:

You have one generic list of type<T>. Each T in turn contains two generic lists of type<A> and type<B>. A and B implement interface I. A method exists which requires a generic list of type<I>. From the parent list of type<T>, how do you feed the method its required list of <I>?

(My) Solution:

List<I> il = new List<I>();
topList.Select(x => x.ListOfA).ToList().ForEach(x => x.ForEach(y=>il.Add((I)y)));
topList.Select(x => x.ListOfB).ToList().ForEach(x => x.ForEach(y=>il.Add((I)y)));
Result r = SomeMethod(il);

Bonus:

Is there a way to implement this by re-casting the objects in listofA and listofB to I without using a ForEach() call?

Can both lists be combined into one using a single line of code instead of two?

Is it necessary to instantiate il before proceeding?

The above code actually does work. It worked on the first try, even! And I am genuinely curious about the questions. S'my site, I'll talk about what I want! :)

Fans of monster trucks and all things military transport should find Navistar's latest and greatest of interest. The comments (one of which from our own regular DensityDuck) are also quite perceptive.

No, Ellen, you can't have one.

The Army is testing a "heavy fuel" engine which could end up powering a variety of different vehicles. I'd never heard of "opposed piston, opposed cylinder" engines before, but the concept certainly sounds interesting. The new proposal makes it sort of sound like lego engines... you just keep stacking more in until you get the power output you want.

Alternate title: sometimes you're the earthquake, sometimes you're the engineer. Boingy boingy boingy!

Making the rounds: a new kind of robot that assists the elderly and disabled getting around is now for rent in Japan. Bonus: the company's name is Cyberdyne. So if any elderly people are seen chasing after anyone named Conner, well, there you go.

Double the engines, double the fun? Seems to me it would be "double the engines, double the weight and expense," but wtf do I know?

Builds fitness, enables reenactment. Just don't get no better than that!

Just in time for election, science news is carrying the closest thing we can get to 1908 debates. What I think is remarkable is that these men have obvious accents which I simply can't place, because they don't exist anymore.

Allstate is examining if playing computer games makes you a safer driver. The thinking goes that older people who play computer games are kept mentally sharper than those who don't. It's still an experiment, but if it pans out the insurance company plans on offering special discounts to folks who complete an approved course of games.

See, mom? I told you playing video games would pay off some day!

Jesus pulled rabbits out of his hat!

*Really neat article.

Hey, if desktop video editing can't be used to put Star Wars objects in the skies of San Francisco... well, what good is it anyway?

I especially liked the "Death Star on the horizon" shots. I wonder if Olivia's great-great-grandchildren will be able to look up in the sky and see something man-made on that scale?

Bonus: Parrots!

Those of you curious as to just WTF kind of car it is we've bought should find this old Motorweek Illustrated segment of interest. Even if you don't, it's still a hoot to see the old 80s graphics, John Davis with hair, and note that MWI has been using the same test track for at least 20 years. Ours is black, but otherwise is identical to the car being tested.

And, while we can do this with ours, we won't.

Ellen.

Yves Rossy has become the first man to fly across the English Channel with a jetpack. I'm just as impressed that he engineered the thing to fold up enough to allow him to jump out an airplane, and then unfold and lock together in-flight. That is one neat piece of kit right there!

Mark gets a no-prize that breaks up into four pieces for bringing us this time lapse of a Boeing 720 being scrapped. It surprised me just how long it seemed to take them to get around to the engines. You'd think those would come off first of all.

Self-guiding para-sail with a 30,000 pound cargo capacity, anyone? If you drop it from a high enough altitude, it'll guide itself to a landing 15 miles away.

In other words, it would now seem possible for someone to deliver 15 tons of crap to your location in complete silence via a robot with a wingspan the size of a 747's. I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!!

Ron gets a well-crafted no-prize for bringing us a most unique sort of engineering project. Building a super car out of wood? It's closer than you think!

Those wacky Japanese are at it again, this time offering personal airbags for the elderly. Meh, who am I to make fun? If they'd add a module that blew up around knees, I'd probably order three for a certain someone in my own life.

Hunters in the audience may find this article about a new sort of deer camouflage of interest. The hunters I know are a bunch of guys who go out hunting with other guys, and it's the one who brings home the biggest buck who's considered the coolest, not the one who looks the best. I think this stuff'll do well if it works as advertised.

A revolutionary new landing craft design is taking the world by storm. Anything that gets a soldier out of a vulnerable landing craft and onto a beach where they can shoot back is fine by me. Maneuverability is nice too!

An entire day's worth of broadcast in Latin? Ok. Includes a Latin rap tune? Well... maybe not so much.

Anybody know if they speak Latin much in Vatican City anymore?

NVIDIA is looking to change how you think about 3-D games. I suppose I'm one of the lucky people who've never been made motion sick by a shooter. Turning my monitor into a 3D window instead of a movie screen may just change that. It'll sure be fun to find out!

Jeff gets a no-prize with a hole in its roof just big enough to let God watch for bringing us news of yet another of Jerry Jones' clever marketing ploys. Ron'll probably pick up three sets.

Those wacky Finns are at it again, this time cooking up an Alfa-based 4x4 extreme off road vehicle. With a US V6 no less!

It would seem that, perhaps some day, everyone's network could be parked out on the ocean. Boy, that sure would make those remote "shutdown -h now" mistakes a pain to correct, eh?

Actually, I'm surprised it's taken this long for someone to gin up their very own landspeeder. Even though the article says it's a 1:1 copy, it looks a little small to me. Maybe I just never looked that closely at the original.

Fans of old buildings may find this pictorial exploration of an old abandoned brewery of interest. Remember folks, it costs money to tear something down, and nothing to leave it standing.

Then again, that building would seem to be chock-full of all sorts of useful bits, not to mention what I would suppose to be tons of Not Cheap copper. You'd think someone would've salvaged it by now.

I can barely imagine seeing one of those monstrous strip-mine dump trucks trundling around with a driver. It would seem that, pretty soon, they'll do it all by themselves. Those things are emphatically not cheap, so it remains to be seen how Caterpillar would warranty one to not drive itself off the edge of a pit. It would, however, make a for a really amusing video!

There's detailing a car, and then there's Detailing a Car. The closest I ever got to something like this was removing my car's bumpers to polish them. Heck I only ever did that once.

Nothing else says "speed" in quite the same way as 40 mph+ runs downhill on a skateboard. Of course, nothing else would likely say "road rash" as crashing on a run like this, even though they didn't.

I wouldn't do it, but it sure was interesting to watch.

Reviews of the new MiTo continue to roll in. It's especially heartening to hear the automaker is deciding not to build Alfas in southern Italy any more. The marque's serious decline began with the government decision to use the automaker as a tool for social change instead of making cars. The result definitely confirmed the old saying, "If you want to send a message, use Western Union."

Personal dolphin-shaped watercraft, anyone? Seems to me the jumping would be fun, but not the landing.

Inkjet printer, meet the concrete jet printer. Does this mean that even illegal labor is now too expensive to build houses economically? Or, perhaps, construction demand is now so high worldwide there simply aren't enough skilled mason to go around?

Olivia would want to feed these to her plush dinosaur.

Olivia: "Daddy, what do t-rexes eat?"

Me: "I dunno, other dinosaurs I suppose."

Olivia: "No they don't! They eat guts!!!"

Me: "If you already knew the answer, what'd you ask me for?"

Olivia: "Silly daddy!"

Chicks...

Via I Speak of Dreams.

Coming soon to a hookup near you: hyper-speed internet access. Hollywood has been largely ignoring the Internet's piracy potential because, right now at least, it's problematic for users to download entire movies in a hi-def format. If this sort of speed ever becomes commercially available, that restriction will perforce be removed.

In other words, you only thought that whole RIAA vs. college kids thing was a giant fiasco. Hollywood's got a lot more money to throw around, and they're much less subtle about it.

Ron gets a no-prize that'll have to buy two plane tickets for bringing us a very large man firing a very tiny pistol. That'll be, "do you want fries with that, sir?" to you, bub.

I'm sure you'll all be shocked, shocked to know I occasionally cruise E-bay to see what Alfa spiders are going for at the moment. I'm not in the market for another one, but it's very helpful to know what the current market value is in case mine gets in an accident. Really!

At any rate, this morning I was browsing around and found this 71 spider.

It's a "nice" car, probably one of the very last around in this precise sort of condition. "Too nice to be a parts car, too rough to be cherry" cars start evaporating around the 20 year mark, typically ending up as parts, and occasionally ending up as cherry.

But what absolutely floored me was this:

The significance? Ours is 5022. It was the car just in front of ours on the assembly line, nearly forty years ago. And, after all this time, it not only has survived, "lives" in the same area as ours!

I tell ya, there have been some damned strange coincidences involving Alfas in my life lately. Hell this isn't even the first one.

Kismet I tell you. Fate, even.

Hey, field stripping and reassembling an AR-15 in less than 60 seconds is a pretty nifty accomplishment for an 11 year-old girl. Well, I think it is anyway. Everyone's gotta have a hobby!

The new Nikon D-90 is out, and boy does it look sweet. At $1200 for the full kit, it's not anything we'll be picking up soon, but that "SLR video camera" thing sure does sound interesting. Maybe next year?

I guess if you dive in exotic locations long enough, you're bound to see something really unique. Like, say, an albino whale shark. I don't know how many factors had to come together all in the right place at the right time to get those pictures. I'm just glad they did.

Bah. You can have your medals for gymnastics, diving, track-and-field, whatever. I've found a contest we can all participate in. 76 wpm on a QWERTY keyboard. I'll take it. I bet the super high scores are on Dvorak keyboards or something like them.

First plug-in car fridges, now plug-in car microwaves. It's getting to the point people are going to be able to tailgate party in one of those goofy little micro cars. Not as much fun as a gun-shaped barbecue, but it beats the heck out of eating cold food.

Fans of those neat "as it happens" camera shots at the Beijing Olympic diving contest may be interested to know how they get those shots. Once I saw the big tube I pretty much figured it out, but it turns out it was both simpler in general and more complex in detail than I'd imagined.

Mark gets a no-prize so ugly and slow you can't help but love it for letting us know France's iconic Citroen 2CV is turning 60 this year. Road and Track made endless fun of the car when I was in high school, and yet they still shed an editorial tear when the production line finally closed up.

The Navy's new soopa-ship is just about to be turned over to the service for trials. It was built by the well-known shipwrights at Lockheed Martin.

Yeah, I had to look at it twice too. This sort of partnership was mentioned briefly in the book Skunkworks, but the author said the Navy was so entrenched in "the Navy way" they were impossible to deal with. I guess anybody can get along if enough money is put on the table.

... smells like victory:

Boeing announced today the first ever test firing of a real-life ray gun that could become US special forces' way to carry out covert strikes with "plausible deniability."

Go for the news, stay for the description:

Precision engagement of a PID [Positively Identified] insurgent by a DEW [Directed Energy Weapon] will be a highly surgical and impressively violent event.

If it actually works as advertised, I imagine there will be more than a few of these mounted on a certain wall with a certain blue star painted on the side of it.

Sometimes the ball clears the wall, sometimes the wall grabs the ball. Proof positive that if you wait long enough, the weirdest plays can and will happen.

It seems Canon is bringing a fuel cell-based SLR to the market. If previous patterns are any indication, it won't be something mere mortals can afford, but after a few years? Who knows?

Annie gets a crystal-clear no-prize for bringing us news of further developments in "invisible cloaks". The example definitely doesn't make the subject disappear, but it's weird enough to certainly warrant further research.

Fans of big science should have some fun with this collection of pictures taken in and around the soon-to-be-activated Large Hadron Collider. I'm not sure science gets much bigger than the LHC.

New Scientist: "'We look like prats, but at least we're all prats together". On the one hand, I can see having a cellphone that can locate a person to within a foot or so a real safety boon. On the other, well,