#First electric automobile engine

[histographnowyoungk]

THEN

Lea Mills is the world’s oldest manufacturing factory, founded in 1784. The factory is wind powered.

La Marquise is the world’s oldest running automobile, invented in 1884. It is solar powered.

NOW

Arctic sea ice, 2025.

[catenary-chad]

Why Greaseball is a Really Great train villain: a looong post (4.8k words) on all the historical train context behind replica Greaseball 

For all my issues with the other main engines, I think (replica) Greaseball is FANTASTIC. He just works on so many fundamental levels and gets so much better/worse with historical context.  If we make him an EMD E9 locomotive (a common headcanon) things get even more interesting, and there’s even a convenient irl engine to base him on! 

Note: if you’re into real US trains this info probably won’t be as new to you as my Nez Cassé post, since E and F units are so well preserved and documented in English.      A lot of the topics I go on are pretty widely discussed in US railfan circles and not terribly obscure.  Also this is just about replica, Elvis-style Greaseball vs Wembleyball… her being more modern and European changes a lot and I would take a very different approach.

Also CW for non-graphic discussion of abuse in the very last section. I have a separate warning before it comes up so you can leave before then.  

DIESEL TRACTION IN THE US

First of all, to clear up a common misconception: 99% of all diesel locomotives are diesel-electric.  The diesel engine is used to generate electricity to power electric motors to turn the wheels.  This is why dual-mode engines that can switch between drawing third rail/overhead wire electricity and making their own with a diesel engine are so common.  Besides the power source, they work similarly, so it’s not hard to incorporate.  This is NOT how hybrid cars work, though diesel-electric setups have been used on very heavy trucks for purposes like mining.  Diesel-mechanical is more in line with how automobiles work but is basically unheard of outside of very small switchers in the US (mostly in museums now) and 50s-era shunters and that one weird Fell diesel in the UK. The technical reasons of why isn’t really important here, but has to do with the difficult of making an appropriate gearbox for road locomotives and appealing qualities of electric motors for train use (high starting torque). 

Internal combustion-based locomotives are actually much more recent than pure electric ones.  Electric engines achieved practical use around the 1890s and were well-established in urban and mountainous areas by the 20s-30s…. which is when diesel boxcab switchers first started production in substantial numbers and lightweight diesel trainsets like the Zephyrs, M10000, and Flying Hamburger started to pop up.  The earliest diesels were either slow (switchers) or fast but very weak (lightweight trainsets and railbusses). There were major tech limits to maximum horsepower in diesel locomotives until the second half of the 20th century, which is why several of them were often needed to replace one steam or electric engine, and why you had some weird turbine designs in the 50s-70s as an alternative. 

Early diesel locomotives in the US actually had a lot in common with their early implementation in the UK.  They’re often perceived differently because Thomas the Tank Engine had so many characters based on unsuccessful early British diesel models, while most of the failed earlier US diesels are obscure compared to the successful and widespread ones (that often have the strongest museum presence). There were some notably good early switcher models (some still being used today) that were among the first to replace steam engines because it was one of the tasks that they had the biggest advantage over them in, and limited size wasn’t an issue.  Road diesel implementation was messy and due to the early state of the technology, some railroads like the Pennsylvania Railroad had a strategy more akin to early British Rail in that they planned to just slowly phase out steam as they electrified.  Higher wages and stronger unions were also a factor in both countries dieselizing, due to the vastly lower labor needed for diesel locomotives vs steam and generally safer, more pleasant working conditions on them.  There was also a need to shed a reputation for being outdated to draw in customers again with both.  There was also a desperate early demand for diesel power that led to a lot of questionable builders and designs being picked up early on and later dumped for being nonstandard.  

The main difference is that dieselization’s serious pursuit in the US started around the Great Depression and really picked up in the late 30s, almost two decades before the Modernization Plan of 1955.  So it was a far more mature and well-established technology by the 50s and Greaseball is very much based on this dominant position vs the messy early experiments of the Thomas diesels.  

Greaseball’s helmet heavily resembles the fronts of the E and F unit carbody locomotives made by EMD from the 30s-50s.  I’ll go into those specific models later, but the manufacturer alone is really interesting and has a lot of great symbolism that works with Greaseball. 

Earlier diesel manufacturers included steam builders like Alco and Baldwin, outside companies getting into the diesel locomotive market like Fairbanks-Morse, and EMD, which started as an independent company but quickly became part of General Motors.  One of the major advantages EMD would acquire is mass-production in assembly lines, the way cars were made, as opposed to building one engine at a time like steam shops did.  So Greaseball has some quiet ties to the auto industry (and boy did GM hurt trains in other avenues).  They also used common parts between models, making them relatively easy to repair and rebuild.  You had all kind of mods and changes done to their engines over the decades, which is a fun tie-in to the bodybuilder AND greaser aspect of Greaseball.  I’ll go into how I think he’d specifically be modified/rebuilt later though.  

Another major factor of EMD is… they often weren’t the best in a lot of ways and very much an example of “survival of the good enough”.  Until very recently they all used relatively dirty and inefficient two-stroke engines and other manufacturers often had stronger or technically superior competing models… but it was the ease of working on them and relative reliability vs their competitors that contributed to their success and helped make EMD the dominant manufacturer.  

Bonus fun fact: EMD (and later General Electric) had a lot of success in the export model market due to their early reliability, especially vs British diesel engines.  One of the funnier instances being several colonial African railways holding onto steam into the 70s because they were forced to buy crappy British diesel engines otherwise, and promptly dieselizing as soon as they could buy American ones.  EMD made huge inroads into the British freight market with the Class 59 and 66 (the latter also used in continental Europe).  These came too late to have had any affect on the development of the show early on, but it’s an interesting instance of American encroachment that could be thematically relevant.  The sheer ubiquity of EMD diesels worldwide makes Greaseball weirdly relevant in a lot of countries if you basis swap him a little.  I haven’t figured out quite how I’d approach Girlball but I’d definitely make her one of these export models since it fits.  

Anyways, back to the general history timeline because it’s important for the other reason EMD was so successful.  By the late 30s, diesel switchers were widespread and road models were starting to come out in limited numbers.  Widespread dieselization would have happened nearly a decade earlier if not for World War II.  When the US entered the war, copper, oil, and diesel engines became critical to the war effort.  Coal was not and steam engines don’t use much copper, so the existing steam manufacturers were forced into building them.  EMD’s FT series had proven itself prewar and the company was among the few to be able to develop their locomotive lines during the war.  This gave the company a huge advantage post-war and their E and F units dominated the road locomotive market afterwards (switchers remained more competitive since they had more development before and during the war). 

 If you’re European and know little about American trains, you may wonder when things started getting electrified after that.  They didn’t.  Outside of one stretch of the Northeast Corridor, a recent project by Caltrain, and some isolated freight lines… the US didn’t electrify anything after WWII, and if anything de-electrified much that had existed.  The oil crises of the 70s almost led to something, but the subsequent drop in prices in the 80s made that dry up too.  Leading to the modern day status of having only 1% electrified rail mileage.  The rest is all diesel domain.  They were never a stopgap here.  Due to railroads remaining private businesses post-WWII and facing almost unwinnable economic and political conditions vs roads and air travel, the cost of electrification was out of the question and the much smaller up front cost of diesel engines made them take permanent hold over most of the country post-steam.  To this day, railroads avoid paying up front for things vs just paying more in yearly maintenance for diesel locomotives, and the price of fuel has never gotten high enough to incentivize electrification.  There’s also a whole carrot vs stick situation with state governments raising emissions standards without providing assistance to electrify that leads to a crappy state of limbo that just gives automobiles even more of an unfair advantage, but that’s another tangent that’s not relevant enough to go into.  

This is all a long way to say that Greaseball as the conservative, oppressive establishment is spot-on to the status of diesel traction in the US.  It really can’t be overstated how dominant and inescapable it is.  It’s kind of hilarious hearing people from the UK or Europe talk about how gross and stinky and backwards they are and how much more disliked they are there.  This is why the Greaseball vs Electra feud is so appealing to me- the US is one of the few places where they would be considered remotely competitive and where that matchup is politically relevant.  There’s this compelling thread of Greaseball being a “pragmatic compromise” that’s held on so long it’s become status quo, but would be viewed as a regressive relic elsewhere in the world, akin to how the US’s economic politics are seen in much of the rest of the world.  Greaseball is the majority who very much has capitalism and inertia on his side, Electra is the more qualified but long-sidelined minority who wishes things were even a little more like Europe economically and politically.  They’re so rural vs urban, right vs left wing coded it hurts. Diesel power mainly thrives where frequencies are low and distances are long and rail is a private business that often can’t afford to electrify.  Urban trains are almost exclusively electric due to their inherent frequency and pollution requirements, and are almost synonymous with being state-owned. 

Him being particularly nasty to steam engines also checks out, he’s the era of diesel locomotive that often directly replaced them and I’ve seen claims EMD did deceptive things if not outright cheated on tests vs steam engines.  At the very least they had fairly aggressive marketing.  There’s a reason why I object to the idea that Electra would cheat against a steam engine (even in the early days electric ones trounced them so thoroughly it routinely exceeded railroads’ expectations), but think Greaseball doing it makes sense.  Him playing dirty against Electra also makes sense because they’d have similar top speeds (and that’s being very conservative with Electra’s abilities and keeping them a relatively old model) but Electra benefits far more from a clean setting and would be relatively vulnerable to attack. There’s been decades of cultural downplaying of the advantages of electric vs diesel trains due to the latter’s sheer dominance in the US too. Further tying into the political aspect, electric trains are one of those things whose status only goes up the more you actually learn about them… and it really knocks combustion engines down several pegs, paralleling how right wing politicians in the US tend to be actively anti-education because they quietly rely on voters being low-information and uneducated about how negative the effects of their policies often are.  

Greaseball as a macho jock is also reflective of the perceived strength of diesel vs electric engines.  Because the US is infamous for its large heavy freight trains that are almost entirely diesel-hauled (besides a single power plant out west), electric freight is an almost alien concept and people associate electric traction with high speed trains, subways, maybe lighter, faster European freight trains at most.  People often act like they’re weak because of this.  This is patently untrue, just look at IORE or the Virginian Railway.  Also see my earlier discussion of how weak diesel engines were early on.  Electric locomotives still have vastly higher horsepower per single unit and the only reason there aren’t ones as strong as diesel engines in the US is lack of demand.  It wouldn’t be that hard to build one for that niche.  But diesel has strong associations with being the “strong and manly” blue-collar option because of its use by every large freight railroad and almost every shortline for all the tough, gritty jobs, unlike those darn city slicker commuter trains. Let’s just conveniently forget that the Milwaukee Road existed and that mines are full of weird little battery-powered “lokies”.  People will even crow about the Big Boy all day and rarely acknowledge the multiple electric engine models of that era with comparable abilities.  

EMD E and F UNITS

Finally, we can discuss Greaseball’s more specific basis.  Greaseball’s helmet doesn’t have a single explicit one like Electra’s, but its styling is very typical of 30s-50s era carbody diesel locomotives, specifically the “bulldog nose” E and F-Units.  These models were and still remain some of the most popular toy and model diesel engines, and are some of the most recognizable American trains in general.  Which they totally deserve, they came in a lot of fun colors and were VERY widely used from the 30s to early 80s irl and were still used in limited numbers for decades after that and are extremely common in museums today.  It’s probably harder to find a railroad museum in the US that doesn’t have one.  They are probably THE symbol of diesel trains in the US, especially circa the 50s.  Even highway signs for train stations resemble them.  

Carbody locomotives like these made the streamlined body a structural element of the engine to save weight and required indoor walkways for maintenance access vs being able to open external panels.  Alco and Baldwin also made far less successful carbody locomotives as competitors but they looked very different. Funny enough, a number of electric locomotives of the era also were built this way, but with cabs at both ends, some of them looking a LOT like Greaseball’s helmet.  

The E-units were EMD’s first line of road diesel locomotives, mainly designed for passenger service.  Since the 30s there were several different models of the line, the first few being built in smaller numbers, and the later ones being much more widely produced post-WWII.   They were relatively long and large for a diesel engine of the time, with atypical A1A -A1A (powered/unpowered/powered x2) wheel arrangements and two seperate prime movers (the actual diesel engine) to produce more horsepower due to the limited abilities of individual engines.  While successful compared to their competitors (which were… generally a mess) there’s a sense that they were designed for a time that would never come.  

They were very much optimized for being smooth at speed for passenger use and while not useless for freight service, weren’t ideal for it due to their limited strength and not having all powered wheels for traction.  Which was a terrible market to be in with the massive decline in passenger rail post-WWII.  The E-units still generally had long and successful lives, but were never as successful as their younger, smaller sibling, the F-unit.

F-units visually resemble shorter E-units, but with single prime movers and Bo-Bo wheel arrangements (four powered axles).  By modern standards they’re small and not terribly powerful, but for their time they were solid and VERY successful in freight service, and often took the place of E-units in passenger service since they worked for that too, and were more versatile overall.  There are a bunch of F-units running in museums because they look good and are easy to find parts for due to the sheer quantity produced (also some, but far fewer E-units). You could totally make Greaseball an F-unit and it would fit with how there’s been some infamously short Greaseball actors.  

There’s a lot of fun commonalities between both models that are relevant to Greaseball.  Both were explicitly designed to be used in multi-engine sets due to their limited individual strength, which perfectly fits Greaseball having his Gang follow him around.  Working in packs that large is a VERY midcentury diesel thing.  Both had the massive drawback of having no rear visibility and basically no ability to go backwards for switching.  That was one of the main traits that led to this style of engine falling out of favor, roadswitchers that actually had rear visibility were more versatile than having separate road and switch engines.  In a race going backwards, Rusty would clean his clock even if he was SUPER crappy and could only go walking pace, because Greaseball would be flying totally blind and crash.  It’s also a hassle to perform maintenance and get inside that body style and the noses were reportedly harder to manufacture.  

As a cursed side note, ATSF solved these problems with their old F-units by roadswitcherfying them into CF-7s.  Hey, they were old and past their prime but still useful and worked GREAT as ugly utilitarian roadswitchers and ran for decades afterwards.  There’s several of these things running in museums.  I’ve actually worked on one and I approve of roadswitcherfication because they really are way less of a pain to maintain this way.  

Speaking of rebuilds, the highest horsepower Greaseball would have as an E-unit would as-built is only 2,400 if he was an E9, but because early EMDs got modified so much and routinely re-engined, we can play around with this.  It fits the character and the Railways Series routinely did this kind of thing.  We’ll suppose Greaseball was re-engined or otherwise modified to get up to 2,700 horsepower… but then there’s the reported issue that the unpowered axles might make him too slippery to actually apply full force, so we’ll get a bit more out there and say he got more substantially rebuilt into a Co-Co (six powered axle) arrangement.  Now you have something that would be vaguely comparable with one of Amtrak’s dysfunctional SDP40F diesels of the late 70s-early 80s, if still a bit weaker but probably more physically stable.  It’s hard to avoid that Greaseball is kind of statistically wimpy no matter how you slice it.  They’d need to tweak the numbers in the song a little, but again, swapping out engines in early EMDs was super common and suits him so it’s not too much of a stretch to bump him to 3700 or something.  You still have issue that he’s not large by UP standards specifically (they are INFAMOUS for large single-unit engines) but he’d still be fairly large vs more typical passenger diesels of the time.  

Anyways, another VERY fun fact about E and F units is that they were regularly used on corporate trains after most of them were withdrawn from regular mainline service in the 70s-80s.  People often complain that Greaseball is barely relevant circa the 80s, which isn’t really true since a lot of E and F units were used on commuter lines for years afterward (if often in cab car form, which are terrifying in any talking train verse).  But there’s another huge loophole that gives a perfect excuse for his existence well into the modern day.  Union Pacific itself used a set of three E9s on their corporate specials until 2019!  They only got pulled due to wheel issues… got no lovers if you got no wheels I guess.  But now you have a perfect excuse for why Greaseball is a 50s-era engine with UP colors pulling passenger trains well after the railroad axed those services in the early 70s.  He’s a corporate pawn!  He’s one of the faces of their company, chauffeuring executives around. Which leads into another fascinating topic with him.

UNION PACIFIC, FREIGHT RAILROADS, AND PASSENGER RAIL

All of the modern big Class I railroads in the US suck in similar ways, but Union Pacific has a stronger identity and seems to have the largest cultural presence abroad, making it the most visible and appealing of them to the public.  It tends to be THE American railroad to many, which goes well with Greaseball’s basis being THE American diesel engine.  Yes, they do have some cool heritage fleet stuff and really cool heritage unit paint jobs, but you’ll never see me depict them in a terribly positive way (if at all) because they’re a PR campaign like the Budweiser Clydesdales for an infamously awful company.  Make no mistake, this is a company that’s been voted “worst place to work” on multiple occasions (and its cohorts aren’t much better).  That’s the ironic thing about Electra being made a crappy boss, Amtrak is notably much better to its workers (and steam engines are the most competitive where labor is cheapest and least organized).  The main thing is unreasonable on-call hours, lack of sick leave, vacation, and break days in general, and working conditions.  Look into the blocked 2022 railroad strike for more on this.  Greaseball could be SO nasty to the freight to reflect this if you made him a symbol of railroad leadership.  You’d have any railroaders in the audience booing him if they did this in the US, it’s a very relevant political issue.  Ironically, things weren’t nearly as bad labor-wise in the 80s, ALW just really bet on the right horse in terms of railroads to align a train villain with.  But there’s a more prominant and existing aspect of canon that also fits the crappy things UP and other class Is do.

Passenger rail has never been as profitable as freight in the US. To give a modern ballpark estimate, I’ve heard $30,000 revenue on a fully loaded longer passenger train vs $500,000 revenue on a train of oil tankers.  And that’s not even including the higher maintenance standards that passenger rail requires, which adds millions to its cost and makes it almost impossible for it to turn a profit.  There is a reason why almost all countries with widespread passenger rail today have nationalized rail systems and even US passenger service is all government-run outside Brightline and museums.  

This situation was particularly bad in the 50s-60s before Amtrak took over passenger service.  Passenger trains absolutely bled money overall, and many of them were required to keep running even at massive losses per government regulation because they were an essential service.  This contributed to the financial ruin of many railroads, and most of them dropped passenger service or sold it to the government as soon as it was offered.  UP in particular was more financially stable, but also happily got rid of their passenger trains when offered.

Since then, the giant merged Class I railroads have become almost exclusively freight-oriented and hostile towards Amtrak-run passenger services.  They’re almost all terrible, but UP is one of the more visible offenders, holding up commuter services in Chicago, and contributing to the massive delays in long-distance western trains.  “Coach sexism” in the form of widespread hostility towards passenger rail by the likes of UP is one of the few canon social metaphors that WORKS.  The other engines would not be that way considering the systems they’re aligned with, but Greaseball could be made so, so much worse.    

There is a weird element of “I hate my wife” boomer humor when people describe passenger trains.  There’s “keeping freight trains in line” schedule-wise due to their time sensitivity.  There’s being seen as needlessly spendy for PR reasons (often true in the older days) paralleling “my wife wastes money on stupid things”.  There’s being seen as more delicate and refined due to needing better track conditions and gentler handling because you know, humans have standards that grain hoppers and sand don’t.  There’s the way that passenger rail isn’t as profitable as freight and basically requires government subsidies… not unakin to caring jobs and “women’s work” in general vs blue collar industrial jobs (Caveat: passenger rail employees were almost all male until Amtrak).  In short, yeah the freight railroads’ treatment of passenger trains in the US does have parallels to sexism, if slightly different from how canon does it. Abruptly dumping them in the 70s also fits Greaseball ditching Dinah mid-show. 

Even if you go the comparatively mild route of mirroring modern railroads, you still have him treating the coaches as second class vs freight (despite them being legally prioritized).  This is a major issue and why Amtrak has so many delays on long distance trains.  To summarize a complicated issue: due to the relatively unique economics of railroads, they are incentivized to run fewer, longer, irregular freight trains that have become so large they don’t fit in sidings and can’t physically let prioritized passenger trains through.  They then get delayed for hours, especially if the freight train breaks down (bonus: freight trains have a staff of two, engineer and conductor.  The conductor may have to walk up to THREE MILES to check out a possible defect on a car, delaying even more).  The Class Is have a broadly hostile relationship with Amtrak in general for various reasons related to insurance and minimal investment in track maintenance, and it even affects non-Amtrak passenger services like steam excursions.  UP has its personal steam fleet for publicity reasons,  but all of the Class Is are various shades of hostile to running steam excursions with passengers now due to those same reasons.  Even UP barely sells public tickets for theirs.  

Bonus: the reason Mexico has basically no passenger rail now is due to the nationalized railroads being taken over by companies heavily aligned with US freight railroads and with many similar attitudes towards passenger service.  They ditched virtually all of it en masse when they took over. Turbo works perfectly as just Greaseball but in Mexico because the same thing happened there… only a few years before the Mexican Stex production happened.  Electra might be an even more pathetic and unthreatening character there though, because the single, long-delayed electrified mainline built by NdeM was ripped out after only a few years of service by the  private freight railroads.  

WARNING: Leave now if you do not want to read about how abusive Greaseball could be made based to US railroads’ treatment of passenger trains pre-70s.  It’s not graphic, but it is blunt and dark.  I put this at the end for a reason, there is nothing beyond this last section.  

Basically, canon even at its worst arguably undersells how awful Greaseball could be to Dinah and the coaches if you make them symbols of UP and other major railroads vs passenger service pre-Amtrak.  They could be even MORE toxic.  You have a situation now where he outright hates her and wants her gone for above reasons, but is forced to stay in the relationship due to outside requirements and is fundamentally built for that kind of setup as an E-unit.  Railroads forced to keep passenger services usually didn’t have mandated quality standards for them.  They just had to have something.  This led to pathetically short trains (one or two cars), understaffing, and poor maintenance because they just had to have SOME passenger train on that line.  Track conditions reached terrible standards in the 70s on railroads that were near bankruptcy and delaying maintenance.  I absolute do not blame canon for not going this dark in a kids show, but basically there is no limit to how miserable Greaseball could make her life, short of actually killing her. I can’t understate how much she symbolizes something he’d want to rid himself of at any cost but can’t and will take that out on.  It’s BLEAK.  I don’t think I’d even write them this dark myself.

Well… now you see why I do not redeem and revise Greaseball the way I do Electra.  While the latter is wrongly demonized in an impressive number of ways, Greaseball is awful for all the right ones, to extents deeper than the creators probably ever imagined.  He is so versatile and nearly timeless in his awfulness.  If Greaseball were portrayed as remotely good I’d be ripping him to greater shreds than I do Rusty, but he’s great as a hateable bad guy who’s entertaining and globally recognizable even by much of the general public.  Despite all this, I’m fine with him just being a cartoon bully because it’s more palatable and not wrong.  But you could also make him so much nastier than even the workshop if you wanted to go darker.  

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

Oldsmobile

April 29'th 2004. The last Oldsmobile rolls off the line. You may be surprised to learn, that for a long time Oldsmobile meant innovation. Here are just a few of the Automotive technologies Olds pioneered in it's 100+ years in business:

1898: Olds Motor Vehicle Company exports the first American car, a steam-powered automobile, to Mumbai, India.

1901: The first speedometer offered on a production car was on an Oldsmobile Curved Dash.

1901: Oldsmobile was the first to procure parts from third-party suppliers.

1901: Olds produces 635 cars, becoming the first high-volume gasoline automobile producer.

1901: Oldsmobile becomes the first manufacturer to publicly promote their vehicles.

1902: The Oldsmobile Curved Dash is the first mass-produced vehicle in America.

1903: Oldsmobile builds the first purpose-built mail truck.

1908: Oldsmobile rebadges the Buick Model B as the Oldsmobile Model 20, possibly creating the first badge-engineered car.

1915: First standard windshield introduced by Oldsmobile.

1926: Oldsmobile is the first to use chrome plating on trim.

1929: Oldsmobile creates the first Monobloc V8 engine in its Viking Sister brand.

1932: Oldsmobile introduces the first automatic choke.

1935: Oldsmobile offers the first all-steel roof on an automobile.

1940: Oldsmobile introduces the Hydra-Matic, the first fully automatic transmission.

1948: Oldsmobile offers one-piece curved windshields, along with Buick and Cadillac.

1949: Oldsmobile introduces the Rocket, the first high-compression OHV V8 engine.

1952: Oldsmobile introduces the "Autronic Eye," the first automatic headlight dimming system.

1953: Oldsmobile switches its lineup to the 12v charging system.

1962: Oldsmobile creates the first production turbocharged car, the F-85 Jetfire.

1962: Oldsmobile also creates the first production car with water injection, the F-85 Jetfire.

1966: The Oldsmobile Toronado is the first mass-produced front-wheel-drive American car.

1969: First use of chromed ABS plastic exterior trim on the 1969 Oldsmobile Toronado.

1969: First electric grid window defogger on an American car, the 1969 Oldsmobile Toronado.

1971: The Oldsmobile Toronado is one of the first cars to feature a high-mounted brake light.

1974: The Toronado is the first American car to offer a driver-side airbag.

1977: The Toronado is the first American car with a microprocessor to run engine controls.

1982: First use of high-impact molded plastic body components on the 1982 Oldsmobile Omega.

1986: Oldsmobile introduces the Delco VIC touchscreen interface on the Toronado, shared with Buick Riviera.

1988: The first production heads-up display system is introduced on the 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Indy Pace Car.

1988: Oldsmobile breaks a world speed record with the Oldsmobile Aerotech at 267 mph, driven by A.J. Foyt.

1990: Oldsmobile updates the color touchscreen interface with a built-in cellular phone on the 1990 Toronado Trofeo.

1995: Oldsmobile introduces Guidestar, the first onboard navigation system on a U.S. production car.

1997: Oldsmobile becomes the first American car company to turn 100 years old.

2001: The redesigned 2002 Oldsmobile Bravada becomes the first truck to pace the Indianapolis 500.

[nonclassyparty]

sweet and right and merciful (c.s)

summary:

(A STARRING ROLE SPIN-OFF) Choi San deals with the mortifying ordeal of falling in love.

playlist (tba) // my main masterlist // moodboard (tba)//click to donate to Palestine

notes; i bet you thought you'd seen the last of both me and sr!san well you're wrong! tell me if you want to be added to the taglist

snippet;

As he didn't have a disgustingly large amount of generational wealth to back him up nor parents who dabbled in political meddling and occasional blackmail like some of his peers, San always knew that he would have to fight tooth and nail for his spot in the world.

This would seem fairly overdramatic if all he was seeking out of life was a stable job and paid bills, of course: he was, after all, the son of a middle school teacher and a man that had several jobs which he never did right because hey, they never had much so San should've been satisfied with anything. 

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how one would look at it), Choi San was too ambitious for his own good. Having been born and raised in the small town of Namhae which was nothing more than an old supermarket some (nobody under the age of fifty) considered a shopping mall and a small beach - the moment he left for college, he swore that he'd never be back there again for nothing more but the holidays. And simply leaving Namhae wasn't enough, no, you see San's goal was money, more money than he would ever need. Bitterness could be considered a man's biggest motivator to get something done and spending his childhood and early adolescence watching his mother work day and night to make sure the bills are paid just for no money to be left spare sure did make San bitter. Call him shallow and materialistic but to San, money most definitely could buy some happiness.

And so, with that thought in mind (placed by no-one else but himself) since the tender age of twelve when he first visited Seoul for a football game and saw what exactly he's been missing out on living in Namhae, San poured everything he had into his studies until he landed a scholarship for Seoul National University in the field of Electrical Engineering. He had been strategic in his choice of career. Electrical engineering required just enough work and brains for it to be considered a lucrative degree and used just enough engineering principles to keep him interested in the job.

And San was excellent at his job. He was quick and efficient, precise and absolutely never wrong. Getting hired to work at one of South Korea's most renowned automobile manufacturing companies not long after he got his degree didn't come as a surprise to no-one. He was competent. The problem with competence and climbing the business ladder though was that it was rewarded with increasingly complex projects almost every month.

And so, our opening scene: A Thursday morning, sometime in January. Amidst the white cubicles on the third floor of Zenith Motor Company, Mr. Kim was doling out new projects to his top engineers with a vengeance.

"Jung, this ones for you," He smacks Jaehyun over the head with the folder before dropping it unceremoniously on his desk, "And try not to get doughnut smudges all over this one."

"Byun, you're continuing the testing from last month." Jaebum nods his head, eyes barely moving from the computer screen in front of him. Mr. Kim continues with an eye roll, "Lim, new model that needs surveillance."

He continues down the room throwing down casefiles as he goes until he stops by San's desk with a smile, "Choi, since you did so well on the Genesis project I'll let you choose." 

"What are my options?" San asks, leaning back in his chair as two files are thrown onto his desk.

Mr. Kim looks down onto his clipboard. "Mr. Jinyoung needs help with the 3D design for-"

Mr. Jinyoung is one of San's bosses.

"-the new model that we're ready to turn in for production. You could send him an e-mail but I wouldn't, he's a bit...difficult to be around these days."

Mr. Jinyoung is also the husband of one Son Danbi, the thirty-four year old woman that San got...very familiar with for a groundbreaking six times at his apartment before he learned that Danbi is a bit too clingy and his job actually might be at stake if she keeps calling the office asking for San instead of her husband. Three times in a row.

She didn't handle San deciding it's best to stop seeing each other very well.

Getting fired for sleeping with his boss' wife and probably getting his nose broken (for the second time over a woman) when his boss' wife inevitably has a meltdown and exposes how San fucked her into his mattress six times once San refuses to meet up with her out of newfound respect for the man she's married to (read: he's scared that he'll get sacked) or literally anything else. The choice was quite obvious.

"I'll take the second option." San quips with ease as he flips over the folder.

"Research and development for a new model! I was hoping you'd pick that one and am not disappointed, you never back down from a challenge." Mr. Kim comments with a grin that San returns because he's been kissing his ass too long to stop now. "You're working with another engineer from the second floor."

San nods and, as Mr. Kim keeps going down to the next cubicle, his eyes sweep over the file and stop at the bottom of the page where one out of two people tasked has already signed their name. In neat handwriting;

Y/L Y/N

He bites back a groan, eyes falling shut and he can hear the Head of the office keep rattling off assignments somewhere in the background.

Nothing registers because suddenly, San remembers honey skin, judging eyes and a sharp tongue and wonders if getting his nose broken a second time right before getting fired by Mr. Jinyoung and losing his entire career would've been the wiser option.

[spooky-fubuki]

Naomi's Auto Clinic #1: The importance of inspecting your automobile. And spark plug and wire replacement.

Hello my friends this is going to be the first in a series of posts about DIY auto repair and maintenance. Today we have two topics! Why you should regularly inspect your vehicle and replacing spark plugs and wires.

So.... Why should you inspect your vehicle regularly?

well, so you dont end up like this:

Last weekend I was driving home from my parents house when my Miata stopped idling and died at a traffic signal, I started her again and she immediately wanted to die unless I had my foot on the throttle, I went and quickly pulled off onto a side road and opened my hood. I looked around the engine bay until I found the culprit.

The bundle of wires for the Mass Airflow Meter (MAF) had abraded through and caused a short, I spliced and wrapped it in electrical tape and she runs fine once again.

But while I was looking for the problem I found a different unrelated one, which we will get too later!

Alright so what should you inspect?

First you should pop open you hood, the hood release is usually on the underside of the dashboard on the drivers side in most cars.

Now that you have it open I would just do cursory glace over everything. Does anything seem super out of place?

Open the radiator cap and check the fluid level and color, in my case I can see the fluid and it looks nice and green as it supposed too. Word of caution only check this with the vehicle is cold and hasn't been ran for ~30 min or so.

Check your engine oil. Most cars have a pretty obvious dipstick. In my case it has a yellow handle with a loop on it. With a paper towel pull out the dipstick and wipe off the oil, then put it back in all the way and pull it out again. it should be somewhere between full and empty. Take note of the color, if it is very dark you should change your oil!

Check your brake fluid reservoir. As you brake fluid gets older and used it absorbs more water from the humidity in the air. The fluid gets darker as it gets more water content in it. This reservoir is usually in a translucent container near the firewall at the drivers side of the car. As you can see mine is bit dark, so I should replace it soon. I have a future part in this series planned for this already so we will go over it then.

Outside the engine bay take a quick look at your tires. How deep is the tread depth? is there any cracks.

Look for this DOT code, this tells you the month and year that the tire was manufactured, I personally would not drive on any tire older than 10 years old. So if they are I would replace them. The first two digits are the month, and the second two are the year. So my tires were manufactured in the 28th week of 2023.

Back to the engine bay! Take a quick look at your belts to see if you see any cracks or fraying.

Take a look at the wires and rubber hoses. Do you see any cracks if so they need to be replaced, and UH OH. look at what we have here. The spark plug wires are falling apart! lets replace them.

So, I've decide to replace the spark plugs at the same time, simply because I do not know how old they are. And here are the new parts! Along with the tools needed to install them!

First off remove the wires from the plugs, I leave the rear hooked up to the coils so I know where they go.

using the wrench and socket is loosen all the of the spark plugs all the way, then retrieve them using my magnet.

Here are the new plugs! These are pre-gapped so I don't have to set it myself.

I put some anti-seize on the threads to the plugs so they wont corrode into the engine. That would be a pain to extract if they were.

Then I lower the new plugs into the hole with the magnet making sure not to drop them hard.

I always like to start them in the threads by hand so I can make sure the threads are not cross threaded before snugging them the rest of the way down with the wrench.

Alright lets move onto the wires! I like to replace these one at a time to make sure I put the right wire in the coil, its easy to find out what plug each wire is for as they all have different lengths

And they are all in!

Finally take it for a test drive to make sure everything is working properly!

I came back and she ran great! :)

I hope I was able to relay some good information for y'all! I plan on making more of these as I come across more things to do on this Miata. Up next is the brakes or replacing the AC compressor as it is bad.

Stay safe my friends!

[thequeenofthedisneyverse]

Technology from 1870-1899 (For Encanto fic writers)

So, A mutual of mine @miracles-and-butterfliess pointed out that everyone (including me) tends to forget that Encanto was literally made when the triplets were born. Which is literally 1900 or 1901. Regardless, it was the very beginning of the 19th century so let me tell you about the technology/things they would/wouldn’t have. (And please keep in mind that most of these may or may not have been imported into Colombia yet.) 

1870 - 1879

1872—A.M. Ward creates the first mail-order catalog. NO

1873—Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire. NO

1876—Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone. NO

1876—Nicolaus August Otto invents the first practical four-stroke internal combustion engine. NO

1876—Melville Bissell patents the carpet sweeper. NO?

1878—Thomas Edison invents the cylinder phonograph (known then as the tin foil phonograph). MAYBE

1878—Eadweard Muybridge invents moving pictures. NO?

1878—Sir Joseph Wilson Swan invents the prototype for a practical electric lightbulb. YES? 

1879—Thomas Edison invented the first commercially viable incandescent electric light bulb. NO?

1880 - 1889

1880—The British Perforated Paper Company debuts toilet paper. YES

1880—English inventor John Milne creates the modern seismograph. NO

1881—David Houston patents camera film in roll format. NO?

1884—Lewis Edson Waterman invents the first practical fountain pen. YES

1884—L. A. Thompson built and opened the first roller coaster in the United States at a site on Coney Island, New York. NO

1884—James Ritty invents a functional mechanical cash register. YES?

1884—Charles Parson patents the steam turbine. NO

1885—Karl Benz invented the first practical automobile powered by an internal-combustion engine. NO (even before Encanto, Alma’s town looked rural so I doubt the automobile reached them yet.)

1885—Gottlieb Daimler invented the first gas-engine motorcycle. NO

1886—John Pemberton introduces Coca-Cola. NO

1886—Gottlieb Daimler designs and builds the world's first four-wheeled automobile. NO

1887—Heinrich Hertz invents radar. NO

1887—Emile Berliner invented the gramophone. YES

1887—F.E. Muller and Adolph Fick invented the first wearable contact lenses. NO

1888—Nikola Tesla invents the alternating current motor and transformer. NO

1890 - 1899

1891—Jesse W. Reno invents the escalator. NO

1892—Rudolf Diesel invents the diesel-fueled internal combustion engine, which he patents six years later. NO

1892—Sir James Dewar invents the Dewar vacuum flask. NO

1893—W.L. Judson invents the zipper. NO (zippers didn’t become popular globally until a little bit later; buttons, ribbons/laces and whatever else were still the norm/in fashion for fastening and tying (which is still the case in some places today)

1895—Brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière invent a portable motion-picture camera that doubles as a film-processing unit and projector. The invention is called the Cinematographe and using it, the Lumières project the motion picture for an audience. NO?

1899—J.S. Thurman patents the motor-driven vacuum cleaner. NO (if you're running from being killed, the last thing you're going to bring is a vacuum cleaner) 

I remember a post listing the sort of jobs there would be in Encanto but I forgot so I’ll just list the ones I know (let me know if I need to add anything.): 

Seamstress/tailor

Embellisher

Field worker 

Teacher (of any kind; music, dance, art, etc)

Woodworker - wood carver

Toy maker

Construction worker

Joining a Local band/ Orchestra - being apart of a choir 

Carpenter 

Metal worker 

Jeweler (though I’m not sure if Jewelery of the diamond/gem kind is common in Encanto)

bladesmith/ knifemaker 

Inventor? (Inventors should exist in Encanto by now…just one other genius besides Mirabel?)

I know some of these are very obvious but I’m just giving people options okay? 

@miracles-and-butterflies you seem to know a lot more about this kind of stuff so if you have anything to add/take away or me to fix please let me know. I tried to search up “When was X invention imported into Colombia” and literally nothing of use comes up. 

[rjzimmerman]

Yesterday felt like an earthquake shook the foundations of our climate and environmental laws, followed by a hurricane that scattered the bits all over the place and a wildfire that burned those bits that weren't scattered. I didn't watch any part of yesterday's debauchery, either on TV or streaming or the alerts that pop up on my iPhone or iPad, or read anything (neither national, local or environmental or climate specialized media). I figured most of the crap he did yesterday will be the subject of strategic lawsuits, and much will be tossed out as contrary to legislation or regulation or unconstitutional. In other words, I'll pay attention to the reconstruction, not the destruction. But.......it was still a horse shit day.

This compilation from the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law (of the Columbia Law School/Columbia Climate School) is outstanding. Click/tap on the caption of this post and you'll be able to figure out what happened and sort things out as you want. Just click/tap on the caption and go for it. But if you don't want to do that, here's the compilation, abbreviated. Italicized/red fonts are my addition, either explanatory or editorial.

PUTTING AMERICA FIRST IN INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL AGREEMENTS

Withdraw from Paris Climate Agreement

Withdraw from any other agreements made under UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Revoke any financial commitments under UNFCCC

Revoke U.S. International Climate Finance Plan

DECLARING A NATIONAL ENERGY EMERGENCY

Declares national energy emergency, primarily based on high energy prices

Use any lawful emergency authorities “to facilitate the identification, leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation of domestic energy resources.”

Use Defense Production Act and federal eminent domain authorities

Issue emergency fuel waivers to allow year-round sale of E15 gasoline (E15 is ethanol/gasoline mix)

“Expedite the completion of all authorized and appropriated infrastructure, energy, environmental and natural resources projects”

Use emergency authorities and nationwide permits to grant approvals under Clean Water Act Sec. 404, Rivers and Harbors Act Sec. 10, and Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act Sec. 103 for energy projects

Use emergency consultation processes under Endangered Species Act, and frequent convening of Endangered Species Act Committee, for energy projects

Use construction authority of Army Corps of Engineers

The term “energy” is defined to mean “crude oil, natural gas, lease condensates, natural gas liquids, refined petroleum products, uranium, coal, biofuels, geothermal heat, the kinetic movement of flowing water, and critical minerals” [not wind or solar] (excluding wind and solar is childish and just plain stupid)

UNLEASHING AMERICAN ENERGY

“eliminate the ‘electric vehicle (EV) mandate’ and promote true consumer choice … by terminating … state emissions waivers that function to limit sales of gasoline-powered automobiles; and by considering the elimination of unfair subsidies and other ill-conceived government-imposed market distortions that favor EVs” (the elon musk pacifier....i.e., Tesla)

“safeguard the American people’s freedom to choose from a variety of goods and appliances, including but not limited to lightbulbs, dishwashers, washing machines, gas stoves, water heaters, toilets, and shower heads”

Require all agency heads to review all existing regulations “that impose an undue burden on the identification, development, or use of domestic energy resources – with particular attention to oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower, biofuels, critical mineral, and nuclear energy resources”

Attorney General “shall consider whether pending litigation against illegal, dangerous, or harmful policies should be resolved through stays or other relief”

Revocation of many executive orders

Terminate the American Climate Corps

Council on Environmental Quality must propose rescinding its NEPA regulations (NEPA regulations are the core of our environmental laws)

CEQ to convene working group to expedite permitting approvals

“all agencies must prioritize efficiency and certainty over any other objectives, including those of activist groups that do not align with the policy goals”

“facilitate the permitting and construction of interstate energy transportation and other critical energy infrastructure, including … pipelines”

In NEPA and other permitting reviews, “agencies shall adhere to only the relevant legislated requirements for environmental considerations and any considerations beyond those requirements are eliminated”

Disband Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases; all of its guidance, recommendations, etc. are withdrawn

Consider eliminating the “social cost of carbon” calculation

EPA in collaboration with other agencies shall submit recommendations to OMB “on the legality and continuing applicability” of the greenhouse gas endangerment finding of 2009 (this is the core concept from the US Supreme Court case that provides the legal basis for greenhouse gas controls)

Immediately pause disbursement of funds appropriated through Inflation Reduction Act or Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; review processes for issuing grants, loans, contracts, or any other financial disbursement of appropriated funds

Secretary of Energy to restart reviews of applications for approvals of LNG export projects

Maritime Administration to review approvals for proposed deepwater ports for LNG export

“identify all agency actions that impose undue burdens on the domestic mining and processing of non-fuel minerals and undertake steps to revise or rescind such actions”

UNLEASHING ALASKA’S EXTRAORDINARY RESOURCE POTENTIAL

Expedite permitting and leasing of energy and natural resource projects in Alaska

Prioritize development of Alaska’s LNG potential

End restrictions on development of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and certain other areas in Alaska

Numerous other actions to facilitate energy development in Alaska

TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL OF ALL AREAS ON THE OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF FROM OFFSHORE WIND LEASING AND REVIEW OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S LEASING AND PERMITTING PRACTICES FOR WIND PROJECTS

Stop leasing of federal waters for offshore wind

Issue no new or renewed approvals, rights of way, loans for onshore or offshore wind projects

“consider the environmental impact of onshore and offshore wind projects upon wildlife, including, but limited to, birds and marine mammals”

PUTTING PEOPLE OVER FISH: STOPPING RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM TO PROVIDE WATER TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Restart work “to route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state for use by the people there who desperately need a reliable water supply”

“The recent deadly and historically destructive wildfires in Southern California underscore why the State of California needs a reliable water supply and sound vegetation management practices in order to provide water desperately needed there”

DELIVERING EMERGENCY PRICE RELIEF FOR AMERICAN FAMILIES AND DEFEATING THE COST-OF-LIVING CRISIS

Among many other actions, “eliminate counterproductive requirements that raise the costs of home appliances”

“Eliminate harmful, coercive ‘climate’ policies that increase the costs of food and fuel”

[justforbooks]

Osamu Suzuki

Suzuki chairman who over half a century grew the company into one of the world’s largest car and motorcycle manufacturers

Osamu Suzuki, who has died aged 94, was one of the global automotive industry’s longest serving leaders. A director since 1963 of Suzuki, the motorcycle and small car manufacturer based in Hamamatsu, Japan, he rose through the ranks to become in 1979 the firm’s president, a position he relinquished only in 2019 to ascend to the chairmanship. Latterly, as is customary with elder statemen of Japanese industry, he became an adviser, the title he still held at the time of his death.

When he first joined Suzuki, in 1958, it had been in the automobile business for only four years, building the tiny two-cylinder, air-cooled Suzulight car, in a country that was still finding its way as an industrial power. It had been founded in 1909 as a loom manufacturer, but the collapse of the cotton market in the early 1950s galvanised a move towards automotive endeavours.

Suzuki produced its first motorcycle – really a 36cc motorised pedal bike – in 1952 but 10 years later would notch up its first Isle of Man TT victory. In 1976, Barry Sheene won his first 500cc World Championship on a Suzuki RG500. The loom-making arm of the firm was separated from the automotive side in 1960 and, under Osamu, Suzuki expanded into the production of outboard motors, wheelchairs, all-terrain vehicles, and prefabricated housing.

He progressed conservatively to make Suzuki the largest small car producer in Japan, always with a keen eye on cost cutting, even on a shop-floor level: in one plant he famously had some of the light bulbs removed to save $40,000 on electricity.

Suzuki motorcycles arrived in the UK long before its cars, alongside Honda and others helping decimate the British motorcycle industry from the mid-60s onwards with dependable, easy to maintain two-wheeled machinery.

The now collectable Whizzkid Coupe and Jimny off-roader (sold in the UK as the Satana and Samurai) were relative latecomers to the Japanese car sales bonanza from 1979. The Suzuki Alto of the early 80s was the cheapest automatic car then available in the UK, priced at £4,000, while the 1985 Swift was the firm’s first four-cylinder “supermini” sized vehicle.

The Bedford Rascal – better known as the “Sooty van” in the TV puppet series Sooty and Sweep – was really a rebadged Suzuki Carry, or “kei” truck, built to conform to strict Japanese light commercial specifications. These Rascal/Carry trucks were a spin-off from a deal that Osamu Suzuki struck with General Motors in 1981 to sell its economy cars in North America with Chevrolet badges, in return for giving GM a 5% stake in the company.

Osamu would also preside in 2009 over a tie-up with VW that ended in a court battle, and latterly collaborated with Toyota on the design of self-driving cars.

From the late 60s, production of the small Fronte rear-engined cars ramped up under Osamu’s leadership but, unlike its rivals, Nissan, Toyota and Mazda, Suzuki did not give in to the temptation to move upmarket, preferring to use its resources to build satellite plants in emerging markets where its small runabout cars had most appeal.

Beginning in Thailand in 1967 – and followed by Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia and Pakistan in the 70s and 80s – Suzuki expanded its operations on the Pacific rim rather than tackle local rivals head on, although between 1967 and 1970 Japanese production rose substantially, based at four new locations.

In the early 80s Suzuki became the first Japanese manufacturer to establish a manufacturing outlet in India, where its new front-wheel drive Alto/Fronte broke the stranglehold of the outdated Hindustan ambassador (a locally built 1950s Morris Oxford), and the equally ancient Fiat 1100-based Premier Padmini to become the bestselling car in India. Osamu Suzuki made over 200 flights to India in an effort to get this historic deal done.

By the beginning of the 2000s Suzuki had 60 factories in 31 countries as sales rose tenfold to a value of $19bn.

The son of Toshiki and Matsuda Shunzo, and born in the city of Gero, Gifo Prefecture, in central Japan, Osamu graduated in law from Chuo University in Tokyo in 1953 and worked in the loans office of a local bank before joining Suzuki in 1958. Around the same time, he married Shoko Suzuki, the granddaughter of the company’s founder, and, as per local tradition when there is no male heir, adopted his wife’s family name.

Had Hirotaka Ono, the son-in-law he had been grooming to take his place, not died of cancer in 2007, Osamu would probably have enjoyed a much longer retirement. A keen golfer into his 90s, five years ago he handed the reigns of the company to his son Toshihiro, the eldest of his three children.

🔔 Osamu Suzuki, industrialist, born 30 January 1930; died 25 December 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[seaturtleloverworld]

My mom said I'm good boy. But so far nobody has loved my picture 😢💔

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Ten Unknown Facts About #BMW

1. Founding and History: BMW, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, was founded in 1916 in Munich, Germany, initially producing aircraft engines. The company transitioned to motorcycle production in the 1920s and eventually to automobiles in the 1930s.

2. Iconic Logo: The BMW logo, often referred to as the "roundel," consists of a black ring intersecting with four quadrants of blue and white. It represents the company's origins in aviation, with the blue and white symbolizing a spinning propeller against a clear blue sky.

3. Innovation in Technology: BMW is renowned for its innovations in automotive technology. It introduced the world's first electric car, the BMW i3, in 2013, and has been a leader in developing advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) and hybrid powertrains.

4. Performance and Motorsport Heritage: BMW has a strong heritage in motorsport, particularly in touring car and Formula 1 racing. The brand's M division produces high-performance variants of their regular models, known for their precision engineering and exhilarating driving dynamics.

5. Global Presence: BMW is a global automotive Company

6. Luxury and Design: BMW is synonymous with luxury and distinctive design, crafting vehicles that blend elegance with cutting-edge technology and comfort.

7. Sustainable Practices: BMW has committed to sustainability, incorporating eco-friendly materials and manufacturing processes into its vehicles, as well as advancing electric vehicle technology with models like the BMW i4 and iX.

8. Global Manufacturing: BMW operates numerous production facilities worldwide, including in Germany, the United States, China, and other countries, ensuring a global reach and localized production.

9. Brand Portfolio: In addition to its renowned BMW brand, the company also owns MINI and Rolls-Royce, catering to a diverse range of automotive tastes and luxury segments.

[realinspirations]

 Elon Musk is one of the maximum influential and debatable figures of the modern-day technology. As an entrepreneur, inventor, and engineer, he has played a critical function in revolutionizing industries starting from automotive and aerospace to artificial intelligence and renewable electricity. With an bold imaginative and prescient for the destiny of humanity, Musk has set his points of interest on dreams that after appeared impossible, along with colonizing Mars and integrating synthetic intelligence with the human mind. This article delves into his life, achievements, and the impact he has had on the world.

Elon Musk biography and early life

Early Life and Education

Elon Reeve Musk changed into born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. From an early age, he displayed an exquisite aptitude for technology and entrepreneurship. By the age of 10, he had advanced an interest in computing and taught himself to program. At 12, he created and sold his first online game, "Blastar."

Musk moved to Canada at 17 to wait Queen’s University and later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, wherein he earned tiers in physics and economics. His time at Penn provided him with the foundational information that could later shape his innovative hobbies. He in short attended a Ph.D. Software at Stanford University but dropped out after just  days, selecting rather to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors.

Entrepreneurial Beginnings: Zip2 and PayPal

Musk's first foremost business challenge was Zip2, a employer that furnished on-line business directories and maps for newspapers. Founded in 1996 along with his brother, Kimbal Musk, Zip2 received traction and was eventually obtained with the aid of Compaq for almost $three hundred million in 1999. This early success provided Musk with the capital to fund his subsequent project.

Following the sale of Zip2, Musk co-founded X.Com, an internet economic services and charge business enterprise. X.Com sooner or later evolved into PayPal after merging with another startup. PayPal revolutionized on line transactions and have become a dominant force in digital payments. In 2002, eBay received PayPal for $1.Five billion in inventory, cementing Musk’s popularity as a wealthy entrepreneur.

SpaceX: Making Space Travel Affordable

Rather than retiring with ease, Musk set his points of interest on something a ways greater formidable—area exploration. In 2002, he based SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.) with the imaginative and prescient of creating space journey greater low cost and eventually colonizing Mars. Initially, SpaceX confronted a couple of challenges, consisting of three failed rocket launches that nearly bankrupted the corporation. However, in 2008, the fourth launch of the Falcon 1 rocket changed into a fulfillment, securing a agreement with NASA and solidifying SpaceX’s credibility.

Since then, SpaceX has completed top notch milestones, including:

Developing the Falcon nine and Falcon Heavy rockets, which significantly reduce launch expenses.

Successfully touchdown reusable rocket boosters, a sport-changer for space journey.

Launching the Crew Dragon spacecraft, making SpaceX the first personal employer to ship astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

Developing the Starship rocket, that is designed for deep-space missions and Mars colonization.

SpaceX’s achievements have reshaped the gap enterprise and placed Musk as a pacesetter within the push for interplanetary journey.

Tesla: Revolutionizing the Automotive Industry

In 2004, Musk became involved with Tesla Motors, an electric powered car (EV) startup based through Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Musk invested heavily within the business enterprise and ultimately took on the function of CEO. Under his leadership, Tesla transformed from a struggling startup to the world’s maximum treasured automobile producer.

Tesla’s foremost contributions to the automobile enterprise encompass:

The Roadster (2008), the primary highway-prison electric sports vehicle.

The Model S (2012), a luxurious sedan that set new requirements for EVs.

The Model X (2015), a high-overall performance electric powered SUV.

The Model three (2017), a mass-marketplace electric automobile that boosted EV adoption worldwide.

The Model Y (2020), a compact SUV that speedy have become one in every of Tesla’s fine-selling motors.

Tesla has also led improvements in battery technology, self-using software, and renewable electricity integration. Despite facing production challenges and regulatory scrutiny, the organization has endured to push obstacles, inspiring different automakers to shift toward electric powered mobility.

Neuralink and the Future of Brain-Computer Interfaces

Beyond area and electric vehicles, Musk has additionally ventured into neuroscience. In 2016, he co-founded Neuralink, a company targeted on growing mind-computer interfaces (BCIs). Neuralink ambitions to create implantable devices that can help individuals with neurological disorders and, inside the long term, enable direct communique between humans and synthetic intelligence.

Neuralink’s potential packages consist of:

Restoring movement for humans with paralysis.

Treating neurological conditions including Parkinson’s ailment and epilepsy.

Enhancing cognitive competencies through AI integration.

Though nonetheless in its early degrees, Neuralink’s studies represents a massive jump in the direction of merging humans with era.

The Boring Company and Hyperloop

Musk’s choice to resolve city congestion brought about the introduction of The Boring Company, a tunnel creation and infrastructure company. The organization makes a speciality of developing underground transportation systems to lessen site visitors in fundamental cities.

Additionally, Musk proposed the Hyperloop, a high-speed transportation idea that makes use of vacuum tubes to move passengers and load at close to-supersonic speeds. While numerous companies have taken up Hyperloop improvement, Musk’s vision has inspired a brand new wave of innovation in transportation generation.

Controversies and Criticism

Despite his achievements, Musk has not been without controversy. He is understood for his unfiltered social media presence, wherein he has made statements that have caused prison disputes and market fluctuations. His management style has additionally drawn grievance, with a few describing him as demanding and incessant.

Some of the notable controversies consist of:

His tweets about Tesla’s inventory rate, which caused an SEC lawsuit.

Public disputes with regulators and authorities agencies.

Concerns over exertions practices and working conditions at Tesla and SpaceX.

While his unconventional method has won him each admirers and detractors, Musk’s potential to push industries ahead remains simple.

[helpinghumanity]

Congratulations 🎉 Claim it 🙏🤗

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Ten Unknown Facts About #BMW

1. Founding and History: BMW, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, was founded in 1916 in Munich, Germany, initially producing aircraft engines. The company transitioned to motorcycle production in the 1920s and eventually to automobiles in the 1930s.

2. Iconic Logo: The BMW logo, often referred to as the "roundel," consists of a black ring intersecting with four quadrants of blue and white. It represents the company's origins in aviation, with the blue and white symbolizing a spinning propeller against a clear blue sky.

3. Innovation in Technology: BMW is renowned for its innovations in automotive technology. It introduced the world's first electric car, the BMW i3, in 2013, and has been a leader in developing advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) and hybrid powertrains.

4. Performance and Motorsport Heritage: BMW has a strong heritage in motorsport, particularly in touring car and Formula 1 racing. The brand's M division produces high-performance variants of their regular models, known for their precision engineering and exhilarating driving dynamics.

5. Global Presence: BMW is a global automotive Company

6. Luxury and Design: BMW is synonymous with luxury and distinctive design, crafting vehicles that blend elegance with cutting-edge technology and comfort.

7. Sustainable Practices: BMW has committed to sustainability, incorporating eco-friendly materials and manufacturing processes into its vehicles, as well as advancing electric vehicle technology with models like the BMW i4 and iX.

8. Global Manufacturing: BMW operates numerous production facilities worldwide, including in Germany, the United States, China, and other countries, ensuring a global reach and localized production.

9. Brand Portfolio: In addition to its renowned BMW brand, the company also owns MINI and Rolls-Royce, catering to a diverse range of automotive tastes and luxury segments.

10. Cultural Significance: Mercedes-Be

[nancyfmccarthy]

The National Automobile Museum

Torino has a history that is strongly tied to the automobile. We have been to the Fiat Factory and Test Track, The Fiat Museum and now the National Auto Museum. Unlike the others that were Fiat specific, this museum is about the history of cars generically. It is a beautiful museum ( with an excellent coffee shop). It was a good destination on a rainy day. It is also conveniently located near the world’s first (and maybe best) Eataly, where we headed for lunch.

The lighting in the museum was great for showing off the cars but less great for photos. But, here are some highlights:

This is the first “self propelled vehicle”. It has a steam engine and was built in 1769.

An early electric model built in 1899 in Belgium could reach 60mph!

This electric model from 1907 was built by Pope and expected to be a consumer favorite in the US.

A ‘49 Cadillac, when cars were like ocean liners!

The first Beetle arrived in 1938. This is a '52 model.

An Alfa is always a highlight!

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

Cadillac was founded in 1902 by Henry Leland, who named the company after Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, who happens to be the founder of Detroit. Just 6 short years later Cadillac brought the idea of interchangeable parts to the automotive industry and laid the ground work for modern mass production of automobiles. As a result, Cadillac became the first American car to win the prestigious Dewar Trophy from the Royal Automobile Club of England. After earning such high praise Cadillac adopted the slogan "Standard of the World."

In 1910, Cadillac became the first company to offer a passenger car with a fully enclosed cabin, a major change from the vehicles of the time. Two years after that, in 1912, the company released the Model Thirty, the car with no crank, which was the first production car to feature an electronic self-starter, ignition, and lighting. By dropping the crank starter, Cadillac opened the door to women drivers, and was able to bring the prestigious Dewar trophy back to Detroit, making Cadillac the only car manufacturer to claim the award twice. Nearly three years later, Cadillac brought the world the V-type, water-cooled, eight cylinder (V8) engine, which would become the signature of the Cadillac brand.

The Roaring 20's was not only a big decade for the country but was also important for Cadillac. In 1926, Cadillac branched out and offered customers more than 500 color combinations to choose from. As the famous Henry Ford saying goes, you can have any color you want, as long as it's black. Cadillac changed this mentality. That same year, the company brought in designer Harley Earl to design the 1927 LaSalle convertible coupe, which made the car the first to be designed from a designer's perspective rather than an engineering one. What Earl created was elegant, with flowing lines, chrome-plate fixtures, and an overarching design philosophy, that made the Cadillac brand known for beauty and luxury.

In the middle of the 1930's a midst The Great Depression, while most companies and families were struggling Cadillac created the first V-type 16-cylinder engine for use in a passenger car. This engine would go on to be one of the most iconic engines in Cadillac history. Shortly thereafter, Cadillac released a V12 version to give buyers something between the already popular V8 and new V16 engines.

Cadillac went quiet in the 1941's when they suspended automobile production to help produce planes for the war. After the war ended Cadillac adapted some of the aircraft technology and created the first ever tailfin on a vehicle. This feature is now found on almost every car and was one of the biggest reasons that Cadillac was given the first ever Car of the Year award in 1949.

The tailfin took off rather quickly and by the mid to late 1950's it was being featured heavily in the design of nearly every vehicle. Also in the 50's Cadillac began developing power steering, which helped the automaker take third, tenth, and eleventh places at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. After Cadillac's stunning "victories" power steering quickly became the new standard of the industry.

Small but meaningful innovations filled the 1960's for Cadillac. In 1963, the company made front seatbelts standard in their vehicles, which lead to the eventual passing of a federal law requiring front seatbelts in all vehicles just one year later. Then, in 1964, Cadillac brought to market automatically controlled headlamps and redefines luxury with Comfort Control, the industry's first thermostatically controlled heating, venting, and air-conditioning system. Over the next few years, Cadillac introduced variable-ratio power steering, electric seat warmers, and stereo radio.

While the 1960's were fairly quiet, with only some smaller, luxury items being introduced, Cadillac started out 1970 with a major bang. Cadillac opened the decade by unveiling the 400 horsepower, 8.2-liter engine Eldorado. With its completely redesigned axle this model boasted the highest torque capacity of any passenger car available at the time. Closing out the decade, Cadillac brought to market the 1978 Seville which used onboard microprocessors in its digital display. This started the era of the computerized automobile.

Throughout the 1980's Cadillac laid low, working on some new technologies that would come to market in the early parts of the 1990's. The first feature to debut was an electronic traction control system on front-wheel drive vehicles. Cadillac began offering this as a standard feature on the 1990 Cadillac Allante. This same year Cadillac would go on to win the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Two years later, in 1992, the company developed a feature that allowed the engine to run for up to 50 miles without coolant, and a unique induction system for near-perfect fuel distribution. The Seville Touring Sedan of that year would become known as the "Cadillac of the Year" thanks to features such as an all electronically controlled Powertrain, traction control, anti-lock brakes and speed-sensitive suspension. Closing out the decade, Cadillac introduced the, now iconic, Escalade SUV.

CELEBRATING 100 YEARS AS 'THE STANDARD OF THE WORLD'

Coming up on the 100th anniversary of the Cadillac brand, the company had to do something big or the decade, and they did not disappoint. Cadillac started off the 200's by introducing the F-22 stealth aircraft inspired Cien Concept, which ended up winning a few design awards. Later in the decade, in 2008, Cadillac expanded the Escalade SUV by making it the world's first full-size luxury hybrid SUV. In the same year, the company redeveloped the CTS Sedan. This redesign has been incredibly popular and even won the coveted 2008 Car of the Year award. A short year later, the performance edition CTS-V, becomes the fasted V8 production sedan in the world, establishing a record lap time of 7:59:32 on Germany's famed Nürburgring.

[kushblazer666]

Ten Unknown Facts About #BMW

1. Founding and History: BMW, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, was founded in 1916 in Munich, Germany, initially producing aircraft engines. The company transitioned to motorcycle production in the 1920s and eventually to automobiles in the 1930s.

2. Iconic Logo: The BMW logo, often referred to as the "roundel," consists of a black ring intersecting with four quadrants of blue and white. It represents the company's origins in aviation, with the blue and white symbolizing a spinning propeller against a clear blue sky.

3. Innovation in Technology: BMW is renowned for its innovations in automotive technology. It introduced the world's first electric car, the BMW i3, in 2013, and has been a leader in developing advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) and hybrid powertrains.

4. Performance and Motorsport Heritage: BMW has a strong heritage in motorsport, particularly in touring car and Formula 1 racing. The brand's M division produces high-performance variants of their regular models, known for their precision engineering and exhilarating driving dynamics.

5. Global Presence: BMW is a global automotive Company

6. Luxury and Design: BMW is synonymous with luxury and distinctive design, crafting vehicles that blend elegance with cutting-edge technology and comfort.

7. Sustainable Practices: BMW has committed to sustainability, incorporating eco-friendly materials and manufacturing processes into its vehicles, as well as advancing electric vehicle technology with models like the BMW i4 and iX.

8. Global Manufacturing: BMW operates numerous production facilities worldwide, including in Germany, the United States, China, and other countries, ensuring a global reach and localized production.

9. Brand Portfolio: In addition to its renowned BMW brand, the company also owns MINI and Rolls-Royce, catering to a diverse range of automotive tastes and luxury segments.

10. Cultural Impact: BMW's vehicles often become cultural icons, featured in fi

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[disgruntled-writer]

By now, we’ve probably all seen that one post about wizards understanding technology as magic and magic as technology. I humbly disagree. In fact, I think that by equating the two your loose nuance and the reason both are awesome.

First, I’d like to set up what I suspect to be the source of that idea. Arthur C. Clarke came up with three “laws,” that describe his chosen genre of science fiction. The third is what we are concerned with: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” All three of these laws are more writing advice or trope than fact, but this one caught on, keep that in mind.

So, as for the post, which I will try and find and reblog to this blog ASAP, it irks me in two ways. The first is that it fundamentally misunderstands the idea of arcane knowledge. Specifically, it implies the premise of wizards knowing why magic works. Arcane knowledge is arcane knowledge because you know that if you do X, Y happens, but you don’t know the underlying mechanisms or why that input delivers that output. That’s what makes magic magic.

Without that level of obfuscation, it just becomes science. A known fundamental law of the universe. That isn’t to say that it can’t be in the process of being explored or even understood in the broad strokes, but if you can extremely accurately predict future interactions, you’ve made scientific theory. You can also have a lot of understanding of what inputs lead to what outputs; everyone on your block can know mage hand without knowing why it works.

Now, specifically I am referring to on a societal level, not a personal perspective. As at that level most modern technology is arcane to most of us. You know that when you perform a series of inputs, you get an output. Which is to say, this technology, which is sufficiently advanced, is, to the individual a matter of magic, of the arcane. But, it’s obviously not magic; the sum of human knowledge entirely contains how a phone works.

This brings us back to Arthur C. Clarke. The reason his third law exists as writing advice, at least to me is that it’s simply good advice. When writing science fiction, you’re not trying to predict or justify some future technology, you’re trying to explore its consequences and ramifications. To quote Frederik Pohl, “A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.” The tech and its functionality is pre-supposed.

But, it’s importantly, just a good observation. From a personal perspective, which is what most stories are built for, you don’t need to know how a Time Machine, a Smartphone, or a Fireball works to understand what actually matters. How do you control the Time Machine? How do you use a Smartphone? How do you cast Fireball? What do they do?

TLDR: a Wizard shouldn’t be able to precisely and accurately explain how a set of motions and noises makes a fireball, but an Electrical Engineer could explain how clap-on clap-off lights work, down to the molecular level.

Now, the section where I give obligatory writing advice.

The first is that magic is as good a tool for Sci-Fi as the warp drive is. Too few fantasy settings really sit down and think about the consequences of there being a non-insignificant portion of the population capable of blowing your house up. Going into that can make an interesting story in of itself.

To those who want to write Sci-Fi, don’t try to waste your words and your reader’s attention on explaining the mechanics any more than you have to. We don’t care about WHY the FTL engine works, we care about what it does. I’ll probably have more when I inevitably talk about Technobabble.

Regardless, thank you for reading this far, have a good day, and may you write at the speed (but not quality) of a coked-up Steven King.

[winterpinetrees]

The Ambush (The Gap Years part 20)

July 2nd 2019

Coconino National Forest, AZ

After three weeks on the road, Marin's luck runs out. They're on the run from an entire empire, remember?

..............

The car lurches to a halt, and if Marin hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt, he might have died right there. Well, not really, but his chest is going to be bruised. He’s about to ask if there is a deer or something in the road when Sierra calls out a magical glow. Only humans can sense magic on instinct. He looks behind his seat to see a cord of light clinging to their rear bumper. It’s about 9am on State Route 87, a narrow road with scattered pine trees on either side. There isn’t a single other car in sight. In a human story, the lack of other cars would mean safety. Here, the isolation means that there’s no reason for elves to hold back. They’ve planned for this, but they haven’t practiced. It’s time for their first real ambush. 

Unable to escape, Brian spins the car right to put a human and automobile shield between Marin and their enemies. The cord of light ties back to absolutely nothing, but the nothingness shimmers a slightly tan white. Colored light combines to white. That’s basic magical theory. He calls to the humans that they’re fighting multiple opponents of equal power. Sierra jokes that they’re all nothing compared to the power of gun. The fact that she’s kind of right is part of how they got into this situation in the first place. Seven billion wild, fanatic, humans armed to the teeth is a threat to anyone with a brain. Marin casts a spell over the car. It’s mostly an illusion to hide their actions, but should protect the car as well. Then they move.  

Clay’s job is cover fire. He sweeps the hair away from his eyes and balances the concussion rifle on the windowsill. It’s difficult to keep up an illusion when you’re being shot at. Honestly, few elves outside of his family have the skill and the raw power to pull it off.  As magical weapons, concussion rifles are especially dangerous, because the only thing that can reliably stop them is a magical defense. The soldiers will have to choose invisibility, or risking broken bones at the hand of the human boy who already killed a noble. The invisibility spell flickers for a moment and then breaks completely once the soldiers realize it has started to crack. There are five of them in dark gray armor and featureless helmets on the side of the road. 

Brian kicks his door open and crouches behind the front of the car. It’s electric, and there isn’t really an engine there, but it’s something to hide behind while he shoots with a magical pistol. The weapon is Zerada’s orange now instead of his green. He can tell from the sparks that it’s set to stun. Clay’s gun isn’t. However, Brian is drawing more of the fire. Probably because he looks more dangerous. Brian is a stereotypical wild human. He’s big and muscular and the scar on his jaw makes him look like a soldier, even if Marin’s learned that he got it tripping down the stairs as a toddler. Marin slips out of the car as well, and Sierra passes behind him to take the driver’s seat. The Audacity is her creation. She’s better behind the wheel than swinging a baseball bat. 

Are there more soldiers behind them? Probably, elves traditionally fight in teams of nine, but maybe the soldiers looking for them are spread so thin that there isn’t a full squad. Marin looks over his shoulder at the other curb while he climbs onto the roof. When he was little, he wondered why Lazarus Sondaica, the first Apex and the founder of his genus, chose to master illusions while on campaign. He fought with a staff and a greatsword, so wouldn’t strength or speed or a ranged ability be a better skill? There may not be soldiers on the left side of the road, but if there are, they don't see him judge the distance, plant his quarterstaff into the ground, and vault across the pavement. Now he knows that Lazarus chose the signature of his line because illusions are real magic. The Mercurali and the Eight-Points who follow them have their tricks, but the only thing that can truly stop an illusionist is a more powerful one. With the rest of his family in custody and Arjuna probably retired, he’s about as powerful as there is. 

Marin lands as quietly as he can and swings his staff in a wide arc.  He’s testing to see where his opponents are, and holds a dagger in his left hand. A soldier appears, then a second, and Marin moves quickly to get behind his target. On the other side of the street, Zerada flies through the air and pounces like the fox that is the symbol of her family. The humans probably need more help than he does, but it still stings. She’s fast, and her skill with charms means that she’s hard to keep down. Marin remembers a thousand- really, they’ve been doing this for decades- sparring matches against her, and the way he would always lose focus at the end. She jokes that he just can’t bring himself to hurt his betrothed, but Marin knows there's magic at play.

It’s not too challenging to stay alive though. Marin just keeps hidden and stays moving. The faceless gray armor has weak points, and these are commoners he’s fighting. They may be more physically capable of fighting with a few flesh wounds than he or Zerada are, but they heal slower, and they aren’t afraid to run. His mother would talk about commoners some nights, when he was quiet and she’d had a long week with the High Council. She told him how they didn’t care so much about legacy, and that even the Voyagers, who built their culture around hurricanes and rocket ships, didn’t worship danger like they did. Marin was struck by her wording. He’s been training since he could walk, but did he revere it? Marin weaves between three skilled soldiers without even being scratched. He certainly isn’t this good at anything else. 

Marin manages the final soldier with a strike below an arm. His dagger is short and he angles the strike to be less damaging, but they’ll have to get medical attention quickly. He’d have loved to capture a soldier instead, but his tutors were always clear that mind control only delays problems instead of fixing them. They can get intel from Zerada’s allies to the northeast without holding someone captive. Besides, a gun set to stun would be more helpful than a dagger for taking prisoners. A conscious elf can always switch worlds, unless they’re within range of one of the Betrayed. After a final check of his surroundings, Marin lets his spell end and walks back to the car. He leans against the now-dented front and smiles at Zerada. Her twin daggers are soaked red. There’s a splash of blood on her chest as well. It’s not hers. He can recognize the consequences of a messy strike. 

“Is anyone hurt?” Marin asks, looking at Brian, who has a history of injuries. The human can take it though.

He runs a hand through his blond hair. “I could feel a few shots, but I’m alright”.

“You messed up the car though…” Sierra replies. 

“I needed something to hide behind! There isn’t an engine in the front anyway,”

She rests her head against the steering wheel and sighs.

“And one of you needs to charge this rifle once we get on the road,” Clay adds.

The gun’s emerald detailing is duller than it should be. He hates charging gadgets. It burns him out and takes hours, but it’s the only way for Clay to make himself useful in a fight. Marin opens the back left door, which swings upwards instead of out like most car doors, and moves to step inside. Then there is light behind him, and he turns to face it, and something shatters. It isn’t glass. The bone in his upper right arm bends and snaps. He roars like one of his family’s sabertooths before he even registers the pain.

“GET IN THE CAR!” Clay yells, lifting the rifle to aim behind Marin.. They’re all yelling, but he’s the only one saying words. 

Marin has always been the son of the Apex. He was never expected to wield the scepter, but his quarterstaff feels like part of him, and Lazarus knows he can fight. That’s why the prince is able to keep his footing, even as a shot from a concussion rifle strikes right below his shoulder with the force of a cannonball. The shock is white-hot and familiar. Marin throws himself into the car and lifts his head to see the ninth soldier backing away. Brian fires a shot, but the enemy has gone to the other world before it can connect. In eighty-six years, Marin has broken several bones. High nobility are fragile like that. He knows how the next few hours are going to go. 

The shock will last a few minutes. He’s filled with adrenaline (so much more than from that easy fight), and the world is tinted green from his glowing eyes. That’s part of how Marin knows it’s bad. Usually the mind filters that out. He’s in the middle back seat with Clay to his right and Zerada to his left. The boy pulls supplies out of his messenger bag. There’s fear in his brown eyes, but his hands are steady. Brian may look more like a warrior, but Clay is a far more dangerous human. 

“I’m going to splint this and then we’ll figure out our next steps,” he says, holding a roll of bandages. His dying gun is forgotten beside him.

Marin closes his eyes and tries to focus. His arm burns and he can feel something shift when he breathes, but he’s a nobleman. He controls his body, not the other way around. Marin focuses on the break in his arm. Clay’s hands are cool, and he distantly realizes that he has begun to cry, but he needs to look deeper. The bone has broken into three pieces. One has shifted to nearly block an artery. He lets his magic coil around the break.

“Zerada better still have allies where we're going. You need more than my first-aid. An x-ray, at least”.

“The bone is in three pieces. I can hold them together, but it will take some of my magic,” Marin explains calmly. 

“Three pieces… that’s a segmental break. You need surgery,”

Zerada shuts him down. “He has magic. High nobility heal quickly. And I will have allies. Genus Adust is huge. They can’t have killed or captured everyone. It would look bad”. 

No one talks for a long time. 

“Normally people are in a lot more distress about a break this bad,” Clay says.

“I’m a prince, Clay. Pain is just your body giving a warning”. He remembers training with his mother. The scepter of his genus isn’t gold or bronze or any metal that existed outside of Lazarus’s void-cursed dreams, but it is dense and heavy. He flexes his left hand and thinks of proper form, and how long it took to learn. 

“How did you learn this anyway? I’d thought that the powerful human families were…” the first word that comes to mind is unfit. Unfit to rule, and maybe even unfit to live. Survival of the fittest. A proper plague will decrease the human population, but unless Ishtar has some tricks up her sleeve, the richest humans will fare better than the subjects they want. He finds a better word. “Soft”. 

“Some of the other kids I climb with taught me. Sometimes someone falls”. Clay narrows his eyes. “Calling an ambulance is a great way to get caught somewhere you shouldn’t be. They’re expensive too. That’s not an issue for me, obviously, but it is for them. And I can only throw so much of my father’s money at issues that are a whole lot bigger than us”. 

“You want to be a doctor?” 

“Whatever helps people when and where they need it.” 

“Well then you’re off to a great start,” Sierra adds.

“I was thinking more about general medicine at a lower cost, and less being a field medic for an elf prince with hollow bones”. 

His bones are not hollow. 

Brian scoffs. “Oh please. We’re off on an adventure. Try to enjoy it!” 

The humans don’t have all the details, but they certainly have found themselves on an adventure. Shooting soldiers, defending the last free heir to the throne, driving across their country just before it changes forever… they’re in a legend, really. 

But his injury is worse than he’s letting on. It’s going to take a lot of focus and magic to hold his humerus together, and his illusions have been their strongest asset this whole time. Still, Marin lets himself imagine a world where they win. One where they rescue Zerada’s brother and all of his cousins, and prove his grandparents’s lineage wasn’t a waste after all. He’d retake the throne with Zerada by his side and create a new age, and he wouldn’t even have to go mad within the void to do it. With the elven world revealed, Sierra would have all the elven tech she wanted. Brian would love the thrill of noble courts, (seriously, Zerada is a lot)  and Clay could finally fix the systems he hates instead of just kicking at the edges. 

Zerada told him a few nights ago that the humans all took a gap year because there was something they couldn’t face about the rest of their lives. It wasn’t just a joyride like what she planned. Well, win or lose, if they unite the realms or die trying, the humans will never have to face the world they grew up in. They get to matter, and they have hope. It’s not a gift equal to saving his life back in San Fransisco, but it’s the best he can offer from this deep in the woods. 

..................

long ago I imagined this fight taking place in a Denny's parking lot. That wouldn't make sense with new lore though.