#great news for automobile products

[seat-safety-switch]

Most of you have never driven a car that's got a supercharger on it. Despite mass-media's glorification of the humble Roots (and even the inferior screw-type,) production automobiles have, at best, a turbocharger. Aftermarket cars? Turbos are cheap as hell from AliExpress, slap 'em on there.

The humble supercharger is dying out, between "it costs more to make," "you actually have to maintain it," "belts are icky," and "it caused my fuel economy to poop off a cliff." I think this is a little disappointing. We've lost our heritage as far as Mad Max-style blower whine goes. And that's on gas cars, the exclusive province of "maybe this is a bad idea, but it makes a cool noise."

Even though the sound of an IGBT-stuffed inverter spooling up and getting its gallop on is certainly exciting, there's no way we can put a supercharger on top of an electric car. It will simply cease to exist, lost along with the internal-combustion engine in favour of effortless, abundant torque from any speed.

Don't worry, though. I've got a solution. Many people don't know this, but the Roots supercharger originates in mineshaft ventilation. Bossmen kept having their workers run out of oxygen and die deep underground. The solution? Build a giant machine that pumps compressed air down the mineshaft, and make those ungrateful labourers suck in fresh air whether they like it or not. Sure, a couple lungs were popped, and even the dumbest forum tuner will tell you that the increased air-fuel ratio forced a lot of miners to eat a bigger breakfast, but it worked out. And it can work out for ourselves in this great new modern era.

If there's one thing that electric cars don't currently have, it's good air conditioning. Keeping the humans inside comfortable is simply too much of a drag on current. By cutting a hole in the roof, and then welding a Roots-type supercharger onto that roof, we can easily ventilate the cabin enough to blow the windows out of the doors. Sure, it does mean quite a bit of parasitic loss (that's engineer for "it's kinda hard to push until it really gets going,") but I think it's worth it to preserve our culture. Also, you should really wear ear protection while you're sitting that close to it.

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

1960 Edsel Deluxe Hardtop

This Day in Auto History

6.7.1954

The Ford Motor Company formed a styling team to take on the project of designing an entirely new car that would later be named the Edsel. The decision came as Ford enjoyed its greatest historical success in the 1950s. The 1955 Thunderbird had outsold its Chevy counterpart, the Corvette, and the consumer demand for automobiles, in all price brackets, was steadily increasing. The Ford Motor Company consisted of four brand names: Ford, Mercury, Lincoln, and Continental, listed from lowest to highest in price range. Ford executives believed that there was a gap in the marketplace between the Mercury and the Lincoln, where a new car would compete against GM's Oldsmobile and Buick lines. In the mid-1950s, Americans seemed to have an insatiable hunger for high horse-powered, heavily styled cars, with lots of chrome and many accessories. So Ford planned to fill the public's appetite with a suitable answer. The company spared no expense in the development of its new car, even going so far as to employ famous American poet Marianne Moore to supply possibilities for its name. After an extensive name search and no satisfactory result, somebody suggested that the car be named after Henry Ford II's father, Edsel. Ford balked at the suggestion initially and later relented, on the grounds that his father deserved a tribute; he urged the car's designers to live up to his father's name. Edsel had always had a knack for design, even if his business sense hadn't always lived up to his father's expectations. The Edsel project was launched with great fanfare and vigorous advertising. During the years between the car's conception and its production, the American economy took a downturn. By the time the Edsel was released in 1957, the high end of the car market had once again contracted. Public reaction to the car's exaggerated styling was tepid at best, with particular objections aimed at the Edsel's awkward-looking "horse collar" grill. Sales for the car started slowly and foundered. Newly appointed company Vice President Robert McNamara was charged with the task of salvaging the operation. Had McNamara held the position years earlier, historians point out, the Edsel project may never have been taken on, as McNamara strongly believed Ford should concentrate on the economy car market. McNamara attempted to improve the car's construction and appearance, but when the attempt failed, he was forced to halt production of the car at a disastrous loss of $250 million. To this day, the Edsel remains the biggest failure in American car history, "a monumental disaster created for tomorrow's markets created by yesterday's statistical inputs." History has treated the Edsel more kindly, as its looks are now considered to be an attractive example of 1950s flair. Like its namesake, Edsel Ford, the Edsel has come to be known as an unfair victim of circumstance.

This 1960 Edsel Deluxe Hardtop was photographed at Das Awkscht Fescht at Macungie Park in 2022.

[shippingmyworld]

Youtuber!Timmy and Youtuber!Jimmy AU

Follow up to my Youtuber!Danny Phantom AU from this post cus I can't stop thinking about this AU.

Timmy runs a channel named Fairly Odd Creatures where he makes full-blown mockumentaries about all kinds of mythical creatures/cryptids. Once every 2-3 months he will post a video that's about 60 minutes long and the production value that goes into them is absolutely mind-blowing. People are constantly flooding his inbox, demanding to know what his secret is. There are all-out wars in the comment section of his videos (or whatever social media platform his videos are being discussed on) debating on how in the world the footage is pulled off. Nobody can agree on if it's super-advanced cgi or the best blend of makeup and props the internet has ever seen.

Timmy's secret of course is just the fact that Cosmo and Wanda will simply poof into existence whatever creature Timmy needs for his video. Then he just has to follow it around for a few hours with his camcorder and then edit the footage together.

The funniest part of his videos (and probably the reason that they're so popular) is that nothing in them is even remotely in line with what has already been popularized. For example: "Chupacabra's? Yeah, it turns out they don't drink the blood of livestock. They eat metal. Specifically, automobile metal. Don't believe me? Well I lost this Chupacabra in downtown Dimmsdale for a few hours and it ate half of this totally random car before I found it again. Here's a clip of it taking a chomp out of the tire like it's a donut." (The car belonged to Mr. Crocker and it wasn't an accident).

Each and every video Timmy uploads is guaranteed to hit number one on trending for a few hours, and then hover in the top 20 for a few days. This gives Timmy a bit of an ego, especially since whenever he posts a new one everyone at school is talking about it the next day. He tells himself that he can't reveal his identity because then he's have to explain how he's pulling everything off (his voice is disguised with a magical voice modulator that makes him sound like a dramatic narrator) and thus risk exposing Cosmo and Wanda. However, the second that Trixie off-handedly mentions she watches them he spills the beans. Thankfully for his fairies, nobody believes him.

Jimmy's channel is called Brain Blast in which he posts about his projects and the science behind them. While he does have a small and dedicated subscriber base, most of the comments on his videos are from months or years after he's uploaded them in the first place of people thanking him for posting such great study aids.

Part of the reason why he has a smaller subscriber base is because he doesn't edit his content. They're all done with a single take, which only is extremely impressive to anyone that notices. He writes the script, preps his slideshow and props, and then hits record. Even though he does plenty of "Fun Science" videos ("Alternative Travel Methods feat. Bubble Travel", "How to Launch Your Toaster into Orbit", "Make Your Own Rust in a Can", etc.) the low production and sound quality for everything gives off the same energy as those channels run by a middle-aged man recording stuff about their niche interest on their phones.

Sheen and Carl appear in most of his videos as his assistants (or lab rats depending on the context). They're pretty great helpers, despite the fact that Sheen always goes off script and Carl gets so camera shy that he forgets his lines. Jimmy has to cut in a lot with "That's an excellent question!" to get them back on track. Libby and even Cindy will make occasional appearances. In fact, most of his popular uploads come from videos that his friends requested: "How Real is the Science in Ultralord?", "Surprising Biology of Lamas!", and "The Science Behind Enjoying Music." are counted among his most popular uploads.

Cindy once tried to get her own channel up and running and was pretty popular for a while, but after a few months she decided that even part-time content creator wasn't something she wanted to invest her time into. Instead, she'll just muscle her way into Jimmy's videos on occasion. More than once she has basically hijacked Jimmy's script halfway through to talk about famous women related to whatever topic Jimmy is covering.

Jimmy can't really bring himself to interrupt Cindy's hijacking's, because whiles she's right about the contributions these famous women have made, they're not super relevant to the hyper-specific topic/experiment he's currently covering (he will just shoot a second video when he's alone and upload it to make sure all his points got covered). Eventually though, he'll get so annoyed with Cindy barging into his lab whenever she finds out he's planning to film (Sheen spills the beans to Libby all the time and she reports to Cindy) that Jimmy will begin to start most of his videos will a few quick facts that he thinks Cindy will like so she'll leave him alone.

When the Youtube algorithm starts recommending Jimmy some of Timmy's mockumentary's, Jimmy will start posting follow-up videos to Timmy's in order to debunk Fairly Odd Creatures. This in turn starts to push Brain Blast up in popularity due to association. Then a portion of Timmy's fanbase gets latched onto Jimmy. They start taking stills from Jimmy's videos to use as reaction images (because Jimmy gets very upset and frustrated with just how wrong everything in Timmy's videos are).

As to not expose himself on his channel, Timmy creates a second channel in which he uploads videos in exactly the same style as Jimmy's. He discredits this "Science" thing that Jimmy is apparently basing all his arguments on and jokes about how Jimmy sounds like a witch. The second channel isn't very popular until Jimmy posts a "In Response to..." video addressing Timmy's second channel directly. This inadvertently brings Timmy's second channel a flash rise in popularity and sparks a whole chain of video uploads between the two of them. There's a solid month of them uploading daily and basically yelling at each other about why people should unsubscribe from the other person.

Timmy throws himself heavily into the second channel (so much so that he almost forget to film content for Fairly Odd Creatures once), adopting a conspiracy theory persona that believes the earth is flat and that the moon is just a government projection. He invites his totally real alien friend Mark Chang onto the channel all the time to talk about Yugopotamia and help discredit Jimmy ("Like yeah man, I totally saw your radical disc-looking planet and had to fly down and check it out.").

And because people are normal on the internet, there's a whole sub-genre of fans that have started to ship Jimmy and Timmy's YouTube channels. 'Enemies-to-lovers' is the most popular trope for them, and there's even a whole subreddit dedicated to the ship that gets fanart and fanfics posted to it on a regular basis. Timmy is very aware of this group of fans and will occasionally sneak in an off-handed remark about Jimmy just to fuel them because he thinks it will piss off Jimmy even more. In fact, there's a whole slew of small channels that clip and compile 'JimTim Evidence' to fuel their theory that Jimmy and Timmy are secretly dating.

Little does Timmy know, there's actually a clip out there of him saying, "Jimmy may not be able to use his oversized head to deduce simple facts, but that least he can pick out glasses that make his eyes look pretty." Jimmy has watched that clip at least a thousand times on loop because he's low-key attracted to Timmy but refuses to admit it. It's part of the reason as to why he gets so worked up about Timmy's responses to him, because how can someone he's attracted to be just so wrong about everything???

[crazy-pages]

The more I read economics literature about automation trends and globalization trends (the actual economics term, not the rabid racist term) and their economic impacts on developed economies, the more I realize that the fundamental picture we have been sold these things is a lie.

The general picture of automation revolutions is that they present some way of doing work more efficiently and/or to create a better product, and so market forces simply demand it. And we have to figure out how to deal with all of the lost jobs which are resulting from this. Because even in a socialist utopia, surely it would be absurd to continue forcing people to use old and outdated technology to do work less efficiently just so they could have work to do, right? Maybe the socialist utopia will take care of people displaced by this work better, but the displacement will still happen.

Except then I start reading about the actual history in the actual economics of automation revolutions (I recommend Blood In The Machine for a history of the Luddites and the automated textile revolution in Britain). And that's not what happens even a single time. These automated revolutions increase the cost per unit to create a good! They make the quality worse! And the existing workers get displaced, and replaced with oppressed or even outright enslaved labors who make nothing in worse conditions! They didn't even actually reduce the amount of labor involved significantly, they just started working orphan slaves 80-90 hours a week rather than artisan workers doing 30-35, to "reduce" the labor involved by reducing the number of laborers. It seems like no one benefits from this. So why is it happening!?

Well the answer is simple. The machine looms were less efficient, created lower quality products, and were worse for every single person in every sector of the economy ... except insofar as that they enabled a more unequal economy. The textile industry itself made less profit. The world itself had worse and less textiles. But the machine loom owners specifically made more money, because machine rooms enabled more control over workers in ways which could be used to relegate them to an even smaller share of the smaller profits. And they didn't outcompete others by being better, they did it through regulatory capture, illegal business practices, outright fraud, and by having a pre-existing place of power in their society.

The same applies to the classic story of Ford and his great automobile factory model. Sure it produced a lot of cars at low prices, but what the history doesn't tell you is that a bunch of other automobile companies which weren't using the factory model were putting out their own cars similar cost. Sure they weren't scaling up as fast, but everyone involved was making good money and the market kept on producing more companies to fill the gap. Ford made the decision to sell to a new lower cost car market sure, but he did not make a better profit margin per dollar of car purchases than his competitors did. He made significantly worse actually because he had such hideous turnover at his factories, and his cars were of lower quality than non-factory line cars aimed at the same market could be.

So why the hell did the entire automobile industry follow in his wake? Well, because he personally was making an insane amount of money. The factory line model let him simplify the production chain in a way which cut out a lot of people who previously been making good salaries, and it let him replace well paid laborers with dirt cheap labor. (Despite the hubbub about how good Ford's factory jobs paid, they only paid well relative to other no skill no training work available. They paid much worse than the skilled laborers he fired had made.)

And the people who controlled how the car manufacturing process worked were the people who would stand to make money by switching over.

The same is true for globalization. When a berry monopoly which controls 60% of all berry sales in the US does so by importing berries from South America, from varieties optimized for durability rather than flavor, that isn't cheaper than growing them at home. Not even with the higher cost of labor in the US. Not even if you actually paid farm hands a good wage rather than by abusing undocumented workers who can't fight back as effectively. The transport costs are too high.

All across the US food sector we have examples of food monopolies exporting produce production overseas in ways that make the final product more expensive for the customer, and lower quality at the same time. Why!?

Well because it allows them to access even more vulnerable labor markets. So even though the whole pie shrinks, the company owners get a bigger enough cut of the pie to make up for it.

The lie of automation and globalization of work and the damage it does to developed economies is just that, a lie. It is not economically predestined for this stuff to happen. Alternatives are not predestined to be competed out of the market. Unless, of course, ownership of profits is concentrated in only a few hands. Unless what's being competed for isn't net profit or net service provided or net quality of goods, but how much profit you can localize in capital owners.

If that's the actual competition, and of course it is because the people making decisions for companies also own those companies, only then does job automation and the presence of exploitable overseas labor devastate economies.

If laborers actually owned their places of business piecemeal, the motivation for these kinds of economic shocks would largely dry up. Like, sure, labor saving devices get invented sometimes and you need less people to do the same work. And sure, sometimes work can be done overseas for cheaper because standards of living at lower or because there's some comparative economic advantage. But that is not actually what is happening most of the time this stuff occurs.

If there's one thing I've learned studying this stuff, it's that genuine examples of net gain automation are less common than we think, and tend to be implemented on fairly slower timelines. Same for globalization of work. What is very common is ways in which already unequal systems of ownership and decision making and profit can be made more unequal. And the only fix I can imagine is fundamentally changing and democratizing how businesses operate, and how we handle concepts of ownership.

[reasonsforhope]

[In February, 2023], a small warehouse in the English city of Nottingham received the crucial final components for a project that leverages the power of used EV batteries to create a new kind of circular economy.

Inside, city authorities have installed 40 two-way electric vehicle chargers that are connected to solar panels and a pioneering battery energy storage system, which will together power a number of on-site facilities and a fleet of 200 municipal vehicles while simultaneously helping to decarbonize the UK’s electrical grid.

Each day Nottingham will send a combination of solar-generated energy — and whatever is left in the vehicles after the day’s use — from its storage devices into the national grid.  The so-called “vehicle to grid” chargers deliver this energy just when it’s needed most, during peak evening demand, when people are home cooking, using hot water or watching TV. Later, the same chargers pull energy from the grid to recharge the vehicles in the wee hours of the night, when folks are sleeping and electricity is cheaper and plentiful.

“We are trying to create a virtual power station,” says Steve Cornes, Nottingham City Council’s Technical Lead. “The solar power and battery storage will help us operate independently and outside of peak times, making our system more resilient and reducing stress on the national grid. We could even make a profit.” ...

After around a decade, an EV battery no longer provides sufficient performance for car journeys. However, they still can retain up to 80 percent of their original capacity, and with this great remaining power comes great reusability.

“As the batteries degrade, they lose their usefulness for vehicles,” says Matthew Lumsden, chairman of Connected Energy. “But batteries can be used for so many other things, and to not do so results in waste and more mining of natural resources.”

The E-STOR hubs come in the form of 20-foot modular containers, each one packed with 24 repurposed EV batteries from Renault cars. Each hub can provide up to 300kW of power, enough to provide energy to dozens of homes. One study by Lancaster University, commissioned by Connected Energy, calculated that a second life battery system saved 450 tons of CO2 per MWh over its lifetime...

Battery repurposing and recycling is set to play a massive role over the coming years as the automobile industry attempts to decarbonize and the world more broadly attempts to fight waste. The production of EVs, which use lithium-ion batteries, is accelerating. Tesla, for example, is aiming to sell 20 million EVs per year by 2030 — more than 13 times the current level. In turn, 12 million tons of EV batteries could become available for reuse by 2030, according to one estimate.

“Over the next decade we are going to see this gigantic wave,” says Jessica Dunn, a senior analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Companies are recognizing this is a necessary industry. They need to ramp up infrastructure for recycling and reuse.”

-via Reasons to Be Cheerful, March 13, 2023

[iww-gnv]

(CN) — When Jeremy Kimbrell landed a job 24 years ago at the Mercedes Benz plant in Vance, Alabama, he thought his life had taken a turn for the better.  Just 22-years-old at the time, his experience included working in a clothing warehouse and for a roofing company. The pay was low, the benefits were meager, and Kimbrell wasn’t exactly fond of the hot and dangerous work.  Through an acquaintance, Kimbrell heard the newly minted Mercedes plant was hiring temporary workers with the possibility to be retained as employees. The jobs offered pay of up to $20 per hour, health insurance, vacation and sick days and a retirement plan. The incentives fell short of what union workers were earning at the so-called “Big Three” automakers of General Motors, Stellantis and Ford. Still, it was “pretty good for Alabama,” Kimbrell recalled thinking at the time. But as the years passed and the economy evolved, Kimbrell and other Mercedes workers began to feel increasingly neglected. Pay raises became smaller and less frequent, while promotions slowed to a trickle. Management constantly increased production goals and whittled away at employee liberties.  Temporary workers became less likely to be offered full-time employment — and even when they were, their wages were capped at lower levels than more senior employees. Turnover increased.  “Around the time of the Great Recession is when the workers began to feel like we were being treated like a dime a dozen,” Kimbrell said in a phone interview Feb. 13. “That has led to where we are now, where people are finally fed up.” Since January, at least 30% of workers at both the Mercedes and Hyundai plants in Alabama — plus more than half of workers at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee — have signed union authorization cards seeking recognition from their employers to unionize. That’s according to the United Auto Workers, a major union focused on the automobile industry with more than 400,000 current members.

[omgfloofy]

Audi Star of Lucis Text

During a discussion in the FFXV Book Club discord, the wayback machine link for the Audi Star of Lucis webpage was linked, but when nothing came up, it was immediately dismissed as not working.

In an attempt to find any leads to more content, I started digging through the page inspector to look for the source and found all the text - archive.org wasn't playing the script, and thus none of the text would display.

I initially started to work up a page that preserved some of the styling, but I opted to not do that since that was a lot of work. LOL

So instead, I've just pasted in the text below the cut with *some* styling going on. The primary reason for this, though, is because OF COURSE, there would be some tiny tidbits on the world in the midst of this flowery marketing copy.

Enjoy!

INTRODUCTION

Insomnia, Crown City of the enchanted Kingdom of Lucis

The walled city of insomnia, Crown City of the kingdom of Lucis, is shielded by a force field that offers full protection against enemy attacks and has granted its citizens an extended period of peace and prosperity. This protective shield is generated by a mysterious crystal in the control of King Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII.

Insomnia is a maze of transport arteries, neon illumined skyscrapers and ancient marble monoliths adorned in gold and platinum that cast splendid reflections upon surrounding skyscrapers. Visitors are typically mesmerized by the rare amalgamation of ancient culture and modern technology.

The best of Audi and the Royal Art Society of Lucis

Audi has played a pivotal role in the evolution of automobiles, always driven by its Vorsprung durch Technik slogan. One of its pinnacle achievements is the Audi R8, a genuine handcrafted work of art. Components are manually produced, assembled and polished to lustrous perfection by a small team of master craftsmen at the quattro GmbH factory.

The Royal Art Society of Lucis has likewise been a leader in the production of groundbreaking products. For over 150 years, it has taken on new challenges while never straying from its tradition of innovation and excellence. The unprecedented challenge this time was for the seasoned professionals at the Royal Art Society of Lucis to join Audi's top engineers in creating something truly extraordinary — the Audi R8 Star of Lucis. A fusion of car and crystal.

From Audi to the Kingdom of Lucis

Audi proudly received a Royal Warrant from the Kingdom of Lucis in recognition of its automotive quality, performance and styling. In commemoration of this honor, and to celebrate the 20th birthday of Prince Noctis, heir to the throne, Audi custom designed the Audi R8 Star of Lucis for the Prince. This gift reflects our heartfelt gratitude to the citizens of the Kingdom of Lucis and to the Royal Family, which has long supported the automotive industry. We hope it brings joy to the Prince, his family and friends for years to come.

COLOR

An exquisite finish in the royal color

Black represents the light of the Lucis Royal Family and coats the great crystal, intensifying its brilliance. There are many attractive shades of this royal color in the Kingdom of Lucis, including Ramuhstard Black and Lucis Ebony Black. However, we chose Ultrossic Black to complement the premium metallic finish with a subtle trace of purple.

DESIGN

Design inherited from the gods

Arabesque pattern

This traditional pattern of the Tenebrae oracle clan confers peace, blessings and well being on the Kingdom of Lucis. It has long graced the decorations, attire and accessories of the Royal Family. Delicate yet strong, it conveys a luxury and dignity commensurate with a work of divine art.

Lucis emblem wheels

Each intricately crafted wheel represents the Kingdom of Lucis emblem with finely sculpted swords, the symbols of true mastery, brandished amid rose-like petals.

INTERIOR

An interior fit for the Prince

In pursuit of interior beauty befitting the Royal Family, Audi pondered perfection and the qualities most valued by the Prince to arrive at a gratifying solution. The cockpit is efficiently designed and thoroughly refined to make driving intuitive. It frees the Prince to focus on the road while comfortably cruising for hours at high speed. The steering wheel is wrapped in fine leather that gently clings to the palms and features orange stitching carefully placed to enhance tactile pleasure. Clear royal quality audio is delivered by an advanced Bang & Olufsen sound system. A fully digital Audi virtual cockpit graces the instrument panel. Audi connect® provides internet access while Audi connect Navigator instantly links the Prince with an operator at any desired time. Diverse infotainment is always at the Prince's command and within his field of view.

PERFORMANCE

Performance worthy of the future King

In the Crown City Insomnia, where the automobile industry flourishes, a rare fuel from the Western Cavaugh is being fused with crystal to develop a new source of energy. Much of the technology is still experimental, but a number of resulting advances have already been applied to the Audi R8 V10 engine with dramatic effect. The engine responds smoothly and quietly through the streets of Insomnia, but roars with wild abandon when released from civilized constraints in the vast outer reaches of the kingdom.

Bonus

In my tumble down the rabbit hole over the side content for the car, I came across information of a Concept Book (also with an insanely limited print number), and it has some other little things in it.

But first, this cover is NUTS. And I'm all for it.

It looks black until you look at it through a cell phone camera. And you can apparently see the image if you shine a bright light on it.

One of the images in the book, though, has this-

The most important part of this, is I think at the bottom of the plaque, it says something like, "Dedicated [may be incorrect on this] of this first day of the first month of the year seven hundred fifty six."

So it makes me think that this was meant as a 'Coming of Age' gift as much as a birthday gift. (Especially since Insomnia is heavily based on Japan, and at the time FFXV came out, 20 was the age of majority. (it has been lowered to 18, as of 2022.)

It's an interesting thought, I think, that goes with it. I'm trying to find more info on the Concept Book, though, and may post more about it down the line if I do find it.

[diabolus1exmachina]

Hino Contessa 1300 Coupé

The name Hino was taken from the homonymous town in the Tokyo prefecture where the company's headquarters were (and still are). His first steps were to create powerful military vehicles for the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Once the greatest war of all time was over, it dedicated itself to the manufacture of diesel engines, trucks and buses. The post-war Japanese automobile industry underwent a major transformation thanks to the numerous agreements that many manufacturers made with car brands in Europe and the United States. Hino was no different. The operations were going from strength to strength, they had already earned an important place in the industry and even theirs was the first trolleybus in the history of Japan. The brand wanted to expand its business by launching into the world of passenger cars. Already under the name of Hino Motors, it signed a collaboration agreement with Renault in February 1953 and two months later they began to manufacture the Renault 4CV (also called Renault 4/4) under license. In Japan it was marketed as the Hino PA and some 35,000 units were sold in the 10 years it was in production. The French brand ceased production of the Renault 4CV in 1961, so Hino set out to take another step in the automotive world: manufacture its own car. They contacted the prolific Italian designer Giovanni Michelotti, who had worked with brands as relevant as Ferrari, Lancia, Maserati, Alpine or Triumph, to draw the silhouette of the new Japanese car.

The Hino Contessa 900 used the base of the Renault 4CV but at first glance no one could recognize that link due to the charming sedan body designed by the Turin designer. Renault's 35 hp 0.9-litre engine was positioned at the rear and was sufficient to animate the rear axle with the 750 kg that the car weighed. Shortly after, the Hino Contessa 900 Sprint was launched, a coupe version that reduced the weight by 100 kg and had an engine powered by Nardi up to 45 CV. With an attractive design, greater habitability -it offered space for five passengers, one seat more than the 4CV- and the proven reliability of its engine, it was not surprising that the Contessa achieved good sales results. 47,299 units were marketed between 1961 and 1964, a small part of them manufactured beyond the Japanese borders. The great reception in the market of its first car encouraged Hino to develop the second generation. Once again, Michelotti was in charge of its design, who had an overwhelming personality. The front with double optics and no grille was clearly reminiscent of the Chevrolet Corvair while the general lines were similar to other models designed by Michelotti such as the Triumph 2000. The Italian designer had been inspired by the English and American cars for this Japanese model with a French engine. Long live globalization! The Hino Contessa 1300 was bigger and heavier than its predecessor, but also more powerful by using a 1.3-liter 55 hp engine from the Renault 8. It began its commercial journey in 1964 and a few months later the sports version with bodywork arrived. two-door, the Contessa 1300 Coupé with 65 CV. The second generation of the Contessa was exported to several countries around the world, being manufactured in Japan, Israel and New Zealand.

[noxcorvorum]

Do you have any horror podcast recs

I liked tma and old gods of Appalachia but I'm caught up and need to BINGE

hello! youve come to the right place :)

Ghost Wax feels kindof similar to tma, especially tma season 1, with the main character (Owen Voncid) taking statements of people who've encountered the supernatural. However, Owen is a necromancer (the last Reclaimer!) who briefly reawakens the dead so that they can tell their final story, and all of the statement givers are dead. He also has an assistant, Luca Eso, who made the wax cylinders that he uses (he's been around for a very long time, and the remembrances are beginning to slip from his brain) and is a pop culture nerd. They work with a seer, Pip (or Phillipa Le Fay, to respect the stagecraft), who uses her grandmother's tarot cards.

All three of these people work for the Order of Hamsa, which fights the supernatural. Hamsa are incredibly powerful entities who have magic such as geomancy and necromancy, and usually inhabit a human body, though generally not for an incredibly long amount of time. There are several Hamsa in this podcast, including Owen. Owen has remained in his body for much longer than usual. Some other characters I enjoyed are Emea, the apiarist as well as Owen's best friend and a Hamsa, Cosa, the android librarian/archivist, and Azem, who is very thoroughly haunting the narrative. Don't look away.

I absolutely love this podcast, its easily in my top three. There's several incantations/spells which are so fun to me, found family, and really fun sound effects. It has 46 episodes as well as 2 Tales from the Vault, which are filled with smaller stories (I submitted a story to the second one!), there's content on patreon, and season 2 is in production.

Malevolent is about Arthur Lester, a 1930s private investigator from Arkham, Massachusetts, and the voice in his head and his eyes. Episode 1 opens with Arthur coming to on the floor of his office, suddenly blind, a strange entity speaking to him, and his business partner dead on the floor. Arthur and John, as the entity comes to be named, must now figure out how to navigate the horrors, try to find a way to separate themselves, and figure out where John came from. There's lots of cosmic horror/lovecraftian influences in here, and they have so many miles to go before they sleep.

There's a LOT of audio gore/squishy flesh sounds/Arthur screaming because the horrors love ripping into him, so if that's no good then this podcast is not for you. Some of the more eldritch characters also have voice filters, most notably John, which could make them hard to understand, though there are transcripts available. the plot can also be a little hard to follow sometimes.

I really enjoy this podcast, I'm currently relistening to it and having a great time. It's kindof forced family? because Arthur and John physically cannot get away from each other and yet they Have To communicate. They're so so much "its rotten work" "not to me, not if its you" AND "its rotten work" "especially to me, especially if its you, ill do it but christ alive". It's currently 42 episodes at usually 40ish minutes each, and still going, with new episodes releasing mostly monthly. There's also one voice actor, everyone sounds similar because it's the same guy.

Hello from the Hallowoods is a post apocalyptic show about identity, grief, family, and survival. It's formatted as a radio broadcast by an entity named Nikignik, who narrates everything. There is one voice actor for the majority of this show (save for the occasional character speaking outside of Nikignik's broadcast), and they do an amazing job, especially considering the amount of characters.

Some of the characters I really enjoy are Diggory Graves, a nonbinary frankenstein's monster with knife hands and a leather jacket, Percy Reed, a transmasc piano ghost, Riot Maidstone, the lesbian punk daughter of a rockstar, Olivier Song, a genderfluid cloud witch, Ray, a ghost possessing an automobile, Moth Scarberry (moth/mothself), Ray's adopted kid, Walt Pensieve, the asexual groundskeeper of the Hallowoods, and Polly, a devil in a floral suit. Some of the antagonists include Lady Ethel Mallory, a gaslight gatekeep girlboss of a marketing specialist for an evil corporation and the Instrumentalist, a religious fanatic who keeps killing people and turning them into instruments. Darker than your dreams, and farther north than you remember, the Hallowoods loom.

Each episode has a different theme based on the title (such as Keys, Names, and Bones), and is split into several different stories that follow different characters as Nikignik jumps around. There's not very many voice filters, because Nikignik is doing the voices himself, though I think there are a few, and transcripts are available. There's 145 episodes at usually 30 to 50 minutes each, and a new one releases every wednesday.

Sidenote, the Instrumentalist is *really* religious as well as homophobic and transphobic, and he regularly misgenders/deadnames a trans main character. He only exists in the show for about 50 episodes, and definitely gets what he deserves.

The White Vault is a found footage podcast with the first two seasons comprising a repair team's trip to Outpost Fristed in Svalbard. They go up to repair some damaged equipment as well as look at some weird readings, and then have to wait out a massive storm. They find a hatch in the auxiliary bunker, and explore the tunnels beneath to find a village beneath the ice. Theres Graham Casner, the survival guide, Walter Heath, the repair technician, Karina Shumacher-Weiß, the geologist, Rosa De La Torre, the medic, and Jónas Þórirsson, the representative of the company sending them. Travel is not advised.

I listened to the bulk of the first 2 seasons at 2 am while playing powerwash simulator, and it made me so incredibly anxious that I had to have my back to a wall *in the game* so nothing could sneak up one me. Highly recommend. There's so much fear and helplessness surrounding what could be hiding in the storm and in the ice, and I absolutely love the concept for the antagonists.

Seasons 3 and 4 are about a different team in Patagonia, season 5 checks back in at Svalbard, and season 6 is somewhere else entirely. 3-4 are pretty alright in my opinion, maybe a bit repetitive as it follows a similar pattern to the first two seasons, but I don't hate them. I think 5 is pretty good, though it has my favorite character in it, so, you know. I think 6 goes in a bit of a different direction, though I'm not caught up so I can't really comment on it. Seasons 1 and 2 are absolutely stunning, though.

The creators and cast of seasons 1-2 also have a horror dnd podcast called Dark Dice. I must admit I haven't finished the first campaign, though I really liked what I did listen to. I'm told the second campaign has Jeff Goldblum in it, and has 2 different parties with one hunting the other, though I haven't listened to it yet, so take that as you will.

Jar of Rebuke follows Dr. Jared Hel, a cryptid scientist with amnesia in a small Midwestern town, and perhaps closer to the cryptids than they realize. They're also immortal, and (for a reason I don't remember at this particular moment) he has to wear a key around his neck, and never take it off. I'm not caught up, though I really liked what I did listen to. There's lots of fun cryptids and supernatural happenings, such as Jared getting a hellhound as a pet. The episodes are about 10-20 minutes each, and it's ongoing.

As someone on tiktok so aptly said, if you have trust issues with your therapist, you probably shouldn't listen to this podcast. Jared is manipulated by their therapists, and we sometimes hear them talk about him like he's a test subject or creature, not a person.

Do You Copy is another found footage podcast surrounding Redtail National Park, which more or less contains an area called the Dead Zone, in which technology doesn't work and other spooky stuff happens. The Dead Zone has a possible imminent ecological disaster, and though the park is evacuated until the emergency is over, there are a couple people still inside. These include two ghost hunters, a hiker and their dog, and two park rangers who have been instructed to stay inside in hopes of hearing from the three others. I found the Dead Zone and what lies inside VERY interesting, both from a horror perspective and a speculative biology/ecology perspective. It is finished at 14 episodes.

The Hyacinth Disaster is a space horror found footage podcast, and easily in my top three (the other one on that list is tma). It is set in 2151, when Jupiter and Mars have been colonized, and the asteroid belt is being mined for resources. There are two main mining companies in the show, Halaesus Mining Co in Lagrange 4, Greek objects, and Lykaeon Minerals Corporation in Lagrange 5, Trojan objects. The Corvus, a ship contracted to Halaesus and ordered to survey and harvest an asteroid in Lagrange 5, was captured by Lykaeon and held for ransom, and Halaesus denies the ransom broadcast is true, unwilling to pay. The skeleton crew of the MRS Hyacinth has gone rogue in the slowly dwindling time limit to survey a possibly incredibly valuable asteroid, hoping to pay the ransom themselves. But they are 6 people manning a ship meant for 53, and there are so many things to go wrong.

Conlin Hynes is the captain of the Hyacinth and is a good friend of Ember Roth, the captain of the Corvus. Con isn't the greatest captain, not by a long shot, but he's incredibly loyal, and maintains a talented crew. Famke Hynes, or Blue, is Con's sister, and the captain of her own ship, the Sibirica. She would have been the captain of the Hyacinth had she won the rock paper scissors match when they first bought it. She's returned to the Hyacinth to run comms for her brother as they bring Ember and her crew home, and to blow things up along the way.

Finch is Con's wife, and doing an admirable job at being an one-person engineering and seismology team. She's doing her absolute best with the equipment they have that corporate refuses to replace or reapir. Dreadnought in exosuit 2 is by far the youngest of the crew at 24. He's a surveyor, and in fact surveyed Saniss 130991, the very rock they're at, himself. He saw the potential and purposefully misfiled it, hoping to make a bigger profit if corporate didn't know about it, and told Finch, who told Con, and now they're all here.

Grimm is in exo 4, one that he bought himself and has carefully maintained. He refuses to tell the others what he's named it. He moves around a lot, as he gets bored of jobs quickly. Seems like a hardass, but he's actually a pretty nice guy. Argus in exo 7 is one of Con's best friends, having worked with him and Grimm on several jobs. He's a pretty optimistic guy, and follows Grimm as he moves from job to job. His lucky object of choice is a surprise tool that will help us later.

There's lots of angst and horror but also lots of comedy. I've seen a couple reactions that thought there was too much comedy for the situation, but personally I really enjoyed it. It's 7 episodes long, at about 2.5 hours total. There's a lot of sound effects for the ship controls that could potentially be irritating, Dreadnought's dialogue is full of static and sometimes difficult to understand because his radio is partially broken, and there's a loud, extended, high pitched static sound often in the first few episodes (It's when they activate the squealer device, it lasts for about 10-15 seconds each time and there's a countdown from 5 right before), so if you have issues with mechanical/static sound effects, this probably isn't for you. There's transcripts for episodes 1-4 on the website, along with a database of more information about the world.

I'm so so normal about this podcast, I have a note full of facts and trivia (Ember was voted into captaincy by her crew, and according to dreadnought, the ratio of greek names to jovian objects is about 1 in 50,000), my senior quote was from here, I've relistened to it so many times. I cannot recommend this enough.

Among the Stars and Bones is another found footage space horror, but this time it's about anthropology and alien technology. The format is mission files being sent back to the company from a large team investigating an abandoned alien settlement. There's about 7 different perspectives, one from each branch of the team (xenoanthropology, IT, etc).

I really enjoyed it the first time I listened, there were a lot of good anxious moments. A couple of my favorite characters are Dr. Celia Pannella, who heads the xenoanthropology section, and Ben Kelleher, who heads the xenoarchaeology section. I found the alien science/speculative biology really really interesting.

Given you liked tma I'm assuming you know of The Magnus Protocol, but if you don't, it's pretty much Magnus but in a civil service job instead of archiving. It has such characters as Colin the longsuffering IT guy, Alice, who is coping with the horrors by ignoring them, Needles, and Chester and Norris, two text-to-speech voices who we have definitely never heard before (/s).

It has 10 episodes plus an Easter/April Fools special, and it's on a break until April 11th.

Mabel is a podcast about ghosts, families, secrets, and connections. Anna Limon is a carer who has been hired to take care of Mabel Martin's mother Sally. The house is odd, the house is alive, and the house is hungry. Anna is unraveling a mystery as fast as she can find the thread, and Mabel, having grown up half-feral and half-faeral, is somewhere under the Hill.

I will admit I haven't finished this show, but I would definitely recommend it. I actually had to restart it because I wasn't expecting to be as invested as I was. It is very much a faerie story, with riddles and all.

The Silt Verses is a story about faith, and what people will do to keep it. It follows Sister Carpenter and Brother Faulkner as they travel upriver, looking for revelations of their outlawed god, the Trawler-Man. There's a whole cast of gods, many of which are capitalistic, and most of the ones that are not have been outlawed. Some examples are the Trawler-Man of the river, the Waxen Scrivener of decay and books, the Saint Electric of radio and electricity, and the Cairn Maiden of graves and death.

I'd say it has semi similar vibes to Old Gods, mostly with the many deities and monsters. I'm only about halfway through it, but I'd definitely recommend it.

Hope you find something you enjoy!

[hirocimacruiser]

Speaking of the Skyline GT-R, it was a straight 6 engine. The first-generation GT-R, which debuted in 1969, was also a straight-six engine, and its predecessor, the 1964 GTB, had a 1500 with an extended engine room and a straight-six engine. The R32 GT-R, which returned to the circuit in 1990 and went on a winning streak, was naturally equipped with a straight-six engine. However, in May 2002, a GT-R that appeared in the All Japan GT Championship SUGO was equipped with a new "V6 engine." All GT-R models were changed to V6.

In March 1990, the Skyline GT-R (BNR32) made its spectacular debut at the West Japan Circuit at the opening round of the All Japan Touring Car Championship. He achieved his first victory by holding off strong opponents such as the Ford Sierra RS500 and Toyota Supra, and since then has won 30 races.

They would be on an unbeatable 20 race winning streak until the Group A regulations expire at the end of the year. The overwhelming speed of its RB26DETT engine (inline 6-cylinder 2771cc+ twin turbo with nominally over 470 horsepower/02 specification) and four-wheel drive completely changed the conventional wisdom of touring cars around the world.

The All Japan GT Championship, which started in 1993, rapidly grew to become the most popular racing event in Japan. The main battlefield for the GT-R has also shifted here. In 1993, it won 3 out of 3 races, in 1994 it won 2 out of 5 races against Porsche and Ferrari, in 1995 it was replaced with the BCNR33 and won 2 out of 6 races, and in 1996 it won 1 out of 6 races during the overwhelming dominance of McLaren F1. In 1997 1 win in 6 races with the rise of Supra, 2 wins in 7 races in 1998 with the rise of NSX, 1 win in 7 races in 1999 after replacing with BNR34. 2 wins in 7 races in 2000, 1 win in 7 races in 2001, and 0 wins in 8 races in 2002. This is a total of 15 wins in the All Japan GT Championship. It wasn't until 1999 that Toyota's Supra and Honda's NSX gained strength, and a close-up competition between them and the Skyline GT/R began. Due to changes in the regulations unique to the series that equalize the combat power of each car, it is impossible to say whether the machines are superior or inferior just by looking at the trends in the number of wins, but since the beginning of the new century, the GT-R has been relatively competitive. The chances of winning have diminished.

Under these circumstances, the decision was made to switch to a V6 engine midway through the 2002 season. The rear-wheel drive BNR34, equipped with the new VQ30DETT engine (V6 cylinder 2987cc+ twin turbo, over 485 horsepower), showed off its good origins by finishing in 2nd place at the 5th race at Fuji and at the 7th race at MINE. The team is disappointed that it ended 2002 without a win.

The team is determined to make amends for the lack of a win in 2002 in 2003.

The 2003 machine has changed before and after due to changes in vehicle regulations.

It became possible to use a vibrator frame, and the low hood shape of the 2003 GT-R became a hot topic among fans as soon as test runs began. We need to pay attention to future developments.

However, on the other hand, there are many GT-R fans who are disappointed that the long-loved straight-six (RB) will be replaced by the V6 (VQ). This was an era when in-line six-cylinder engines were becoming more valuable, and the RB engine's great appeal was its torque characteristics that appealed to the rider's five senses, as well as its good engine speed and vibration.

Each engine type has advantages and disadvantages. While reflecting the various needs of each era, from a global perspective as an automobile manufacturer, we created products specifically designed for motorsports.

We come to the fact that it is difficult to make an engine exhaust. An RB engine that exhausts from the left side cannot be used in left-hand drive cars, and because of its length, it cannot be installed in front-wheel drive cars either. When considering the global automobile market, it is important to have an engine that can be used in left-hand drive and front-wheel drive cars, and the lightweight and compact V-type 6-cylinder VQ engine can be used for a variety of purposes.

It was.

VQ engine became a luxury in 1999

When it was first introduced in the Cefiro car, it was not an engine designed for motorsports use. However, the VQ was introduced into the motorsports scene one after another overseas. Overseas motorsports officials were quick to realize that it had high potential as a base engine for racing. For example, Spain's one-make formula, which is becoming increasingly popular, Grand Am racing sports cars, the Dakar Rally, and off-road racing in South Africa.

VQ is demonstrating high combat power.

The decision to equip the 2003 model GT-R with a V6 engine instead of the familiar straight-six was not a sales strategy, but an essential choice to improve the machine's competitiveness. I'm saying that.

At the ``Nissan Motorsports Press Conference'' held in February 2003 the keyword mentioned was ``fast GT-R.'' The revitalization of the GT-R, which emphasizes ``fast'' rather than ``strong,'' has just begun with the V-6 VQ engine.

PIC CAPTIONS

BNR32 (1990~1995)

In 1990, the GT-R myth returns. BNR32 begins a winning streak. The GT-R is back for the first time in about 20 years.

BCNR33 (1996~1998)

In 1998, E. Comas/Masami Kageyama, riding BCNR33, won the JGTC championship.

BNR34(1999~2002)

GT-R equipped with VQ engine participates in test race at JGTC Round 3 in 2002 (car No. 22)

[dailyanarchistposts]

Technology

Technology Today

The neutrality of science and technology is a myth. Science is used to legitimate power, technology to justify social control. The myth is wheeled out when technology comes under fire e.g. for causing industrial pollution or traffic congestion. Inadequate policies or under-developed technology are blamed rather than the technology itself. The solution is a “technical fix” — more of the same. The ideology of industrialisation is that modernisation, technological development and social development are the same. It is used to justify the pursuit of economic growth, with the emphasis on wealth generation rather than its distribution.

This ideology is used to suppress the potential for individualsocial emancipation offered by particular machines such as wind power technology (i.e. small scale, for local use, and community controlled), and to legitimise their use in ways that are socially and environmentally exploitative (large scale wind farms under state/private control supplying the National Grid). Technological innovation is used politically, but presented in neutral technical/scientific terms such as “increased efficiency”. A modern example might be the introduction of assembly line production techniques into the construction industry; or a ‘technical solution’ to social needs such as the development of a new transport system; or as the economic ‘rationalisation’ of out of date technologies, for instance the introduction of new print technology by Rupert Murdoch at Wapping which led to the printers’ strike of 1986/7. ‘Work improvement’ schemes such as job enrichment allow workers a say in minor decisions to divert them from key areas such as pay and productivity. Innovation is used as a threat to blackmail sections of the workforce into particular tasks: employers often threaten female machine workers that if their demands for equal pay with men are met, they will be replaced by machines.

Science has prostituted itself to its paymaster, big business, and is a dangerous partner in change. In the 1880’s Frederick Winslow Taylor invented ‘scientific management’ (now known as Taylorism). He believed all productive processes could be broken down into hundreds of individual tasks and each made more efficient through rigorous management and the use of controlling technology. A prime example is the assembly line and it is no coincidence that the great ‘success’ of Henry Ford was based on the application of Taylor’s principles to mass automobile production. What is surprising is that during the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks enthusiastically took up Taylorism. Lenin described it as “a combination of the refined brutality of bourgeois exploitation and a number of the greatest scientific achievements in the field of analysing the mechanical motions of work; we must systematically try it out and adapt it to our own ends.” A belief in the neutrality of technology, and that it could be controlled by the scientific and managerial elites of the ‘workers’ state, was one of the factors leading to the corruption and eventual destruction of the Russian Revolution. But Taylor’s research has since been shown to be wholly unscientific. His timed study tasks were made on an atypical worker chosen for his large size, great strength, and general stupidity. Taylorism has largely been superseded by ideas about ‘job enrichment’ at work; unfortunately, such ideas are equally unscientific.

The objectivity of the scientific method is used to mask the problems created by advanced technology and to legitimise the policies of the ruling class. The Roskill Commission was set up in 1969 to look at the siting of a third London airport. The masses of ‘expert evidence’ showed that it was less socially damaging to fly loud aircraft over working class rather than middle class areas because of the different effects on property values. Technological programmes are presented as outside the area of political debate, so only technical objections are allowed. Official enquiries into the location of motorways and nuclear power stations can discuss where they will cause the least environmental and social disturbance but not whether they are needed in the first place or whose interests they serve. Similarly, the trend is to present politics as a purely technical or managerial activity, with policies assigned measurable ‘performance targets’ but which ignore other social consequences.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Isadora Duncan, the dancer, was born 147 years ago today.

Born in California, Duncan lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. She performed to acclaim throughout Europe after being exiled from the United States for her Soviet sympathies.

Duncan's fondness for flowing scarves was a contributing factor towards her death in an automobile accident in Nice, France, when she was a passenger in an Amilcar. Her silk scarf, draped around her neck, became entangled around the open-spoked wheels and rear axle, breaking her neck.

In her early years in the San Francisco area, Duncan attended school but, finding it to be constricting to her individuality, she dropped out. As her family was very poor, both she and her sister gave dance classes to local children to earn extra money.

In 1896, Duncan became part of Augustin Daly's theater company in New York. She soon became disillusioned with the form. Her father, along with his third wife and their daughter, died in the 1898 sinking of the British passenger steamer, SS Mohegan.

Duncan’s different approach to dance was evident in her early classes, in which she “followed [her] fantasy and improvised, teaching any pretty thing that came into [her] head.”

A desire to travel brought Duncan to Chicago where she auditioned for many theater companies, finally finding a place in Augustin Daly's company. This job took her to New York City where her unique vision of dance clashed with the popular pantomimes of theater companies.

Feeling unhappy and limited with her work in Daly’s company and with American audiences, Duncan decided to move to London in 1898. There she found work performing in the drawing rooms of the wealthy and inspiration from the Greek vases and bas-reliefs in the British Museum. The money she earned from these engagements allowed her to rent a dance studio to develop her work and create larger performances for the stage.

From London, Duncan traveled to Paris, where she drew inspiration from the Louvre and the Exhibition of 1900. One day in 1902, Loie Fuller visited Duncan’s studio and invited Duncan to tour with her. This took Duncan all over Europe creating new works using her innovative dance technique.

Duncan’s style consisted of a focus on natural movement instead of the rigid technique of ballet. She spent most of the rest of her life in this manner, touring in Europe as well as North and South America, where she performed to mixed critical reviews.

Duncan became quite popular for her distinct style and inspired many visual artists, such as Antoine Bourdelle, Auguste Rodin and Abraham Walkowitz to create works based on her.

Duncan disliked the commercial aspects of public performance, like touring and contracts, because she felt they distracted her from her real mission — the creation of beauty and the education of the young. To achieve her mission, she opened schools to teach young women her dance philosophy. The first was established in 1904 in Grunewald, Germany.

This institution was the birthplace of the "Isadorables" – Anna, Maria-Theresa, Irma, Lisel, Gretel, Erika, Isabelle and Temple (Isadora's niece) – Duncan’s protégées, who would go on to continue her legacy. In 1914, Duncan moved to the United States and transferred the school there.

A townhouse on Gramercy Park was provided for its use, and its studio was nearby, on the northeast corner of 23rd Street and Fourth Avenue, which is now Park Avenue South.

Otto Kahn, the head of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. gave Duncan use of the very modern Century Theatre at West 60th Street and Central Park West for her performances and productions, which included a staging of Oedipus Rex, which involved almost all of Duncan's extended entourage and friends.

Duncan wrote of American dancing: “let them come forth with great strides, leaps and bounds, with lifted forehead and far-spread arms, to dance.” Her focus on natural movement emphasized steps, such as skipping, outside of codified ballet technique. Duncan also cites the sea as an early inspiration for her movement.

By the end of her life, Duncan's performing career had dwindled and she became as notorious for her financial woes, scandalous love life and all-too-frequent public drunkenness as for her contributions to the arts. She spent her final years moving between Paris and the Mediterranean, running up debts at hotels.

Duncan spent short periods in apartments rented on her behalf by a decreasing number of friends and supporters, many of whom attempted to assist her in writing an autobiography. They hoped it might be successful enough to support her.

Duncan's fondness for flowing scarves was a contributing factor towards her death in an automobile accident in Nice, France, at the age of 50. On the night of September 14, 1927, Duncan was a passenger in the Amilcar automobile of a French-Italian mechanic Benoît Falchetto, whom she had nicknamed "Buggatti.” Her silk scarf draped around her neck, became entangled around the open-spoked wheels and rear axle, breaking her neck.

As The New York Times noted in its obituary: "Isadora Duncan, the American dancer, tonight met a tragic death at Nice on the Riviera. According to dispatches from Nice, Miss Duncan was hurled in an extraordinary manner from an open automobile in which she was riding and instantly killed by the force of her fall to the stone pavement."

The accident gave rise to Gertrude Stein's mordant remark that "affectations can be dangerous.”

[Deborah Roldan-Dixon]

[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.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Le luxe est lié au temps qui passe.

- Jean Louis Dumas

Louis Vuitton’s heritage as a trunk maker preceded even the founding of the company.

It was in 1837 that a 16-year-old Louis Vuitton arrived in Paris by foot and started apprenticing for Monsieur Maréchal. At the time, horse-drawn carriages, boats and trains were the main modes of transportation, and baggage was handled roughly. Travelers called upon craftsmen to pack and protect their individual objects.

Louis Vuitton quickly became a valued craftsman at the Parisian atelier of Monsieur Maréchal. These were the roots of his highly specialised trade; the beginnings of his career in an artisanal industry that called upon skills to custom design boxes and, later, trunks according to clients’ wishes. Louis Vuitton stayed for 17 years before opening his own workshop at 4 Rue Neuve-des-Capucines near the Place Vendome in 1854.

As rail and then automobile travel became an established part of life, Vuitton’s business began to grow. The early success of Louis Vuitton meant he had to expand his operations. This lead to the 1859 opening of his atelier in Asnières. Just northeast of the center of Paris, the workshop started with 20 employees.

In 1900, there were nearly 100 people and by 1914 there were 225.The original atelier has been expanded throughout the decades - including the addition of the Vuitton family residence - but it is still where products are crafted today.

While the family home has been preserved and is part of a private museum, 170 craftsmen work in the Asnières workshop, designing and creating leather goods and special orders for clients around the world.

In the 1900s, travelers carried all their essentials inside wardrobes and flat trunks—which, unfortunately, often attracted burglars. Master trunk maker, Louis Vuitton sought to help his clients protect the goods inside their travel pieces.

In 1886, father and son, Georges, adopted a single lock system with two spring buckles. After several years of development, George patented this revolutionary system and it was so effective, he challenged Harry Houdini, the great American escape artist, in a public newspaper to escape from a Vuitton box and lock. Houdini didn’t rise to the challenge, but the lock’s effectiveness is indisputable. It is still used today.

Carried by the likes of Paul Poiret, Dora Maar, and Francis Picabia, LV luggage was not only a status symbol but also a practical purchase: Its trunks were - and still are - waterproof to prevent accidental damage to the items inside. They first appeared in the LV monogram pattern in 1896.

Louis Vuitton, the founder of the famous Vuitton house died on 27 February 1892. His travel trunks were praised for their solidity and practicality. "This great French factory is a glory of our country.” declared the obituary of Le Figaro at the time. Shops were opened in London, New York and Philadelphia. When Louis Vuitton died, his son Georges took over and made this beautiful house prosper. It is to him that Louis Vuitton owe the now emblematic monogram canvas, a bold print to deter imitation.

[beardedmrbean]

“1916 showed us the way!” didn’t it lead to multiple Eastern Europeans leaving their home countries to escape communism? And iirc in the 80’s ussr had to ban a American movie because Russians were surprised that even the poorest Americans could have their own car.

Hmm what happened to the Romanovs? Oh yeah after their murders they are heavily romanticize (heh) and later became saints. That usually happens when the next leaders are worse than the last.

I can say more but Jesus Christ commies are dumb, can someone make Liberty Prime already?

Ya some of the most hokey jerry rigged contraptions in history were made by smart people who were trying to escape their communist utopia.

Also you're thinking of "The Grapes Of Wrath (1940)" staring Henry Fonda, only thing good that ever came from a John Steinbeck novel imho. The Grapes of Wrath (film) - Wikipedia

Although Steinbeck avoided a call from the House of Un-American Activities Committee, the film based on his book, which subtly (many would say openly) criticizes capitalism during the Great Depression by following a family of sharecroppers, received significant backlash from the public.

In the times of the so-called “Red Scare”, such criticism was perceived as “socialist”, “Marxist” and above all ― un-American.

John Carradine and Henry Fonda In ‘The Grapes Of Wrath’

Therefore, when the film was given the “Red Label”, the USSR felt that it was time to step on the stage.

Stalin himself considered that if The Grapes of Wrath managed to annoy the U.S. government so much, perhaps it could be used as a propaganda tool in the country which he governed with an iron fist.

He approved the film to be released in the USSR in 1948, at the time when the Cold War was just “heating” up. This wasn’t a common sight at the time, as cinemas only promoted domestic productions.

Stalin, who had the final say on pretty much everything that was going on in the country, was highly suspicious of foreign movies, which he considered to be “subversive”.

However, in this case, Uncle Joe thought that a film which the Americans label as “socialist” must be heaven-sent in the largest and most influential socialist state of the time.

This was a sound conclusion given that the main subjects of the story ― the Joad family ― are suffering from poverty after losing their farm due to the recession which forces them to become migrant workers.

However, after the film was released, Stalin’s idea completely backfired. In the film, it appeared as though even the poorest owned an automobile ― a luxury that was off limits to an ordinary Soviet citizen at the time. Instead of evoking anti-capitalist sentiment among the common folk, it was as though the only thing the viewers could see was the difference between being poor in the USA, compared to their own experience in the USSR.

While the USSR boasted itself as the country that belongs to the peasants and the workers, Stalin had, in fact, canceled many of the privileges that were gained during the country’s first years. ___________________

Romanov's suffered from blue blood, but yes they were absolutely slaughtered, SOP for royalty generally speaking.

Last Czar of Bulgaria, Simeon Borisov von Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (you may recognize some of those names at the end, they're all related to each other) is still alive and served as Prime Minister there for 4 years so don't always get murdered.

Another fun bit with the commies is they blame capitalism for their own failures too, 'US didn't trade with them so they didn't have enough food' kind of thing.

hunger makes you dumb, we should have a give a snickers to a commie day, might help

[s1m1rthbl0g]

Unpredictable path of sales: Virtual Reality

Success of a company depends on the Success of a new product . Not only Sales and marketing team hooked on number for new product sale even production capacity , supply chain and working capital estimation for new product are quite crucial . There are traditional Methods like cojoint analysis are available to test market adoption for new product , However to get exact forecast for new product sales volume still a big challenge .

VR Game Changer :-

We have seen examples of some great products when they were launched looked very promising . However, they could not get the great success . for example TATA Nano , Google Glasses and Apple Newton (( personal digital assistant ) . Probably they were ahead of their times or simply they could not assess consumers interest in product features and attribute . Times have changed now we have Virtual Reality tools available which can help us to get consumers insight in a product much more accurate than traditional methods to predict product adoption . Now research by Harz and team recommends a novel solution : having potential customer interact with planned product using Virtual Reality . Combined with right statics model , VR based interactions yield more reliable data for product analytics and improvement . Now with VR consumers can experience product in much immersive way and interact with computer to generate seamless information flow . These are much more accurate than traditional Methods

Hurdles for implementation :-

The biggest hurdle is designing a very immersive VR system for product testing . A three dimensional , 360 degree VR can cost as much as $10000 per minute . But a less immersive VR system can cost fraction of this . The price of a popular VR system ranges from $10 Display that can be integrated to a smartphone to few hundred Us dollars . Though the cost may be roadblock but benefits accrued are immense . The result obtained product testing by VR is of gold standard compared to tradition market research techniques . In product testing in some scenarios it has been observed that VR bases outcomes are accurate more than 50% compared to traditional test . The error in projecting post launch sale was only 2 % in VR based models . which is much less than 40% - 60% success in traditional methods of product testing .

When to use VR Decision :-

It is important to understand when to use VR based models for predicting sales of a product compared to tradition methods . For example for FMCG product it is much cheaper to test market product sales by interacting with consumers in reality .Proctor and Gamble and Unilever of the world where cost of product is much less can afford to have real life interactions with consumers . However as we go up towards consumer durables and more so costly product like Automobiles , where cost of producing a prototype is much higher VR Based product testing will be much useful . for complex products where different attributes of product hold different value for consumers VR based product techniques . Proper Analysis of VR based Product testing and sales prediction will also help in minimizing cost of establishing Product line , Distribution . This will help in customization of various product features also .

In nutshell .. Virtual is becoming real !! At least in Arena of product testing .