Finally tracked this little sucker down. After using a bit of duck tape to hold in the passenger side headlight for a couple months I picked up a couple of these tonight.
I was afraid I might have to buy a whole light assembly for like $200 to correct the issue but that is not the case. I had lost the retaining ring/clip somewhere and now I will have it back in working order. Kind of an obscure part. Diagrams show only the whole light assembly but not this ring.
The part # is 26029MB and should be applicable to all the '04-'15 F-Alpha platform vehicles. Courtesy Nissan out of Texas sold me mine, they have been great to me for well over a decade in finding parts and getting them out to me in short order. Don't let your dealer tell you they can't get it!
So I've had a chance to drive all three of these in recent weeks on various business trips.
The Fiesta (a hatchback, auto) I drove around Key Biscayne, FL for four days, the Sentra around San Francisco for a week and the Elantra around New Hampshire for a week. At the end of the period I'm shocked at what a difference there can be between such budget minded vehicles. I would have thought that the drive to cut costs would have homogenized the experience across brands.
The Sentra was by far and away the best of the three in nearly every capacity. While none of the three were particularly quick or sporty the engine on the Sentra is at least willing, capable and dependable. The CVT in the Sentra is acceptable given the good MPG it returns (30 and 38 I believe in city and highway driving) and its 130 HP is well managed. The transmission does have a "sport" and "eco" mode but neither one made any noticeable difference to the performance of the vehicle. The engine in the Elantra was just there...a bit loud, though the whole car was loud compared to the Sentra with seemingly far less sound deadening included. The Fiesta was the real disappointment. Like the Sentra it had a "sport" mode but whether in Sport or regular mode the automatic transmission had no idea what it was doing. Hit the gas and the car didn't respond right away. Then when it did respond it behaved like a drunk looking for his next bar--up, down, high, low, over revved, under revved. Truly the engine management was a complete disaster. There were numerous times during my week with the car that my wife and I thought it was going to break down and cease running because the engine performance was so erratic. A massive disappointment.
Interior and overall looks wise the Sentra again takes the win by a large margin. From the outside the Sentra looks like a baby Altima or Maxima. Enough curves to give it a sporty appearance without making you look like a boy racer. Interior on the Sentra was also well done with quality interior components and a well laid out dash and comfortable seats. Again the Elantra's interior was seemingly just there. Nothing different, nothing noticeable, nothing to really remember...functional. That is except the radio/speakers. The audio performance of the Elantra was so ungodly bad that I thought there should be an 8-track player in the dash. I've never heard an audio system sound so cheap...cost cutting gone way too far...tissue paper woofers and tweeters shouldn't exist these days. The Fiesta's exterior was nice and was the only hatchback of the three. Its dimensions made it easy to maneuver wherever we went and I wasn't COMPLETELY embarrassed to drive it...just a little bit. The Fiesta's interior though is a complete disaster. I've never seen so many buttons in all my life, nor in such a horrid layout. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the positioning, only a desire to completely overload the driver/passenger and to try and impress upon them that this is a "high tech" car...it doesn't work.
Easy grading here...Buy the Sentra...ignore the paid shills who have been reporting over the past two years that the Fiesta is a great, sporty little car...the platform may make a decent rally car once its been gutted, caged, engine reworked or upgraded, in the ST version, etc. As it comes on a dealer's lot in its stock form? Its a dog...And the Elantra? Forgettable...which might be better than my impression of the Fiesta...
There is a lot of effort from various hi-tech companies (SpaceX, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Virgin, etc.) to bring access to the internet to the great unwashed of the world. Whether you believe this is being done out of philanthropy, as a way to build communications systems for off planet enterprises or out of economic greed it is certainly an ambitious effort.
Google has Project Loon which works via balloons broadcasting LTE coverage over 40 square KMs (a REALLY dinky area) from their position floating in the stratosphere. Elon Musk wants to put micro satellites in very low Earth orbit to handle this same task (so low that they are going to be built with the intention that they burn up after a very short lifespan).
I'm sure that someone smarter than me has already thought of this and must have a million reasons why it wouldn't work but...why not use already established, cheap, technology to solve the vast majority of this problem by ship...
More than 40% of the world's population lives within 60 miles of the coast and is growing bigger all the time. An even higher concentration of the world's wealth lives within that coastal zone. So rather than spending the money and effort on space or near space efforts to reach 100% of the world's population, why not part some boats in international waters with satellite connections to the free world's internet system and broadcast that signal inland...Hell, if you want to spend money of the effort, make the ship a nuclear one so it can sit there and provide coverage indefinately. It makes these ships a major floating target for beligerant militaries but...its seems to me to be an overlooked option for these companies looking to tap new markets quickly and cheaply...
Edit to add: After thinking about this for a couple days...why bother with a ship? How bout just lay a cable across the ocean floor, chain a floating transmitter to the ocean floor just off the coast of Akra and call it a day? Seems like a lot simpler solution than thousands of micro-satellites in constantly decaying orbits...
For the first time in about a year I actually raced the "race" truck. It was up at the Team O'Neil Rally School in Dalton, NH where the SCCA put on its first stage rally race in some ten years. Many of my fellow entrants were racers I've known for years through the SCCA Rallycross program, including a couple of my prior codrivers.
The weather conditions were fantastic...it was dry and warm and my codriver this day was Tim Meunier who also ran as a driver and codriver in my little Mexican adventure last year. I was admittedly dramatically out of practice and my times showed it. I was pleased by my constant improvement from stage to stage and by then end of the day I felt like some of my pace had begun to return, though far from where I would want to be.
The mileage run on the day was pretty minor--under 20 miles--but it was a good shakedown for the truck to ensure that everything is still up and running and working properly. For the day we finished 20th out of 25 and finished every foot of every stage which would place me 16th on the day if the stage DNFs were viewed as true DNFs and not just a time penalty. Regardless, its a good first step to getting back and used to driving at speed. We'll see what's next.
So Eddie finished up the musical performances on the David Letterman show last night by playing a "solo" version of Better Man. Seeing their performance from back in '96 and seeing Ed now makes me realize how I've aged right along with the band. Awesome to see them still together and playing music after this long, some near 30 years in. Beatles didn't do it, Stones and Aerosmith had turned into shells of themselves to the point of parody and laughter. As PJ and Ed Ved would want, the only comparable to their longevity and relevance is Neil Young. Enjoy the comparison and contrast between the two performances below.
The second performance is from Eddie's first visit to the Letterman show which occurred after weeks of Letterman making fun of the final chorus of Black and Eddie's "do, do, do, do, dutta, do...do, do, do, do, dutta, do" singing and where he comes out to sing just that part with an exceedingly/overly long hold of a single note...its not a serious performance but you can see the shyness in Eddie that is rarely (ever?) present today.
I saw the original article a while ago and now they have come out with Part 2. While I love women in bikinis (who doesn't?) it was cool to see this article with all of these hard core women in off-road.
I have actually met two of these women personally--Judy Smith and Nicole Pitell-Vaughn and both are extremely impressive in their own rights and accomplishments.
Both articles are worth reading for realizing the depth and breadth of female competitors in off-road sports/racing. I just with they had included perhaps a female stage rally racer in here as well--perhaps Nathalie Richard?
Holy crap its been a while since I've posted or linked to anything but a new job will do that to you. Also have decided to focus more on slightly different things than I have previously. It will be a subtle change but a change nonetheless. I will also be posting less as I simply don't have the time I did previously...We'll see what we can do...
Streaming Netflix is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand it makes it easy to watch an endless amount of media. On the other because of its limited menu (covering only a limited number of top flight films vs. the mail version of Netflix) you end up scouring the internet for "Best .... on Netflix". Best horror films, best scifi, just "best films", best "new" films, and on and on and on in an attempt to try and find something worth watching...
So when something like Chef ends up on a number of "best of new films on streaming Netflix" you end up trying it.
While Chef isn't a bad film, it doesn't live up to its billing and certainly not its casting. Here you have Jon Favreau, Dustin Hoffman, Sofia Vergara, John Leguizamo, Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey Jr. With a cast like that you would expect a great film with great performances. Not so. What you get is a film that will likely show up on TNT or TBS or the like and be run several hundreds of times due to its positive and completely inoffensive nature. Seriously, this is like a movie you show to kids in fifth grade to put them to sleep on days when you have a substitute teacher.
Its not completely boring--I could watch Sofia Vergara dust a single mantlepiece for two hours and find it entertaining but, the film tries so hard to be positive and carry a "things will be a all right if you just try hard enough and are a good person" that it is sickenly saccharine. Take that and the fact that the film ties itself in to so many current "trends" like food trucks, cooking being a metaphor for life, etc. that it plays like a hipster's mishmash of ideas--something Favreau who wrote, directed and starred in this film, should be too old for.
A completely forgettable film, if you're on an airplane feel free to take it in. It won't offend your neighbor and it might put you both to sleep.
Especially if you have an interest in potentially purchasing a classic piece of Japanese automobilia. It appears to be a Twitter account that searches Craigslist ads across the country and then posts some of the best and most interesting Japanese vehicles. I never imagined the variety of vehicles that are still out there waiting to be bought, loved and restored. The best thing is that since these are from Craigslist you generally aren't talking about $50,000 spotless masterpieces. These are often rusty, broken, used and most importantly--cheap.
If you like classic Zs, Celicas, Supras, Datsun trucks, old Landcruisers, 35 year old Subarus, etc. This is a great account to follow.
So it was a busy month for developments in North American Rally now comprising four separate organizing entries in the US alone...
On the ugly and disappointing side of things is the USRA. Formed only in '14 and coming out with a number of announcements and expectations early in '15, it has fairly well thrown in the towel for the year. First off, as stated in last month's report you had the Waste Management Winter Rally which "should" have been one of the USRA's first events with organizers of the event also being party to the new Rally organization but was foiled in this attempt by supposed contractual obligations and remained with Rally America. Then there was the Matthew Noble-Mark Memorial RallySprint which also should have been an USRA event. For whatever reason (not disclosed to public by organizer) this event was cancelled outright. Lastly you then have Denise McMahon (a listed board member of the USRA) out in the Southwest announcing that "The USRA at this time is not ready to put on a rally program but should be able to take over in 2016 of what the Organizers HP RallyGroup has already in place since last year" seeming to indicate that we will not be seeing ANY events put on by the USRA in '15. Denise did announce that her own group, HP Rallygroup LLC, will be putting on the Bilstein Southwest RallyCup series that includes:
Desert Storm Rally - April 11th in Blythe, CA (coefficient 3)
Mendocino Rally - July 18/19th, in Ukiah, CA (status TBD) (coefficient 2/3)
Rally Utah - August 7/8th, in Cedar City, UT (coefficient 2/3)
Arizona Extreme Rally - September 12th, in Kingman, AZ (coeff3)
Seed 9 Rally - November 7th in Jean, NV
This is pretty darn impressive for a small (one woman?) organizing effort, many people struggle to put on a single event, let alone five, and without a National organizing/sanctioning body behind her? Going forward we will replace the USRA with updates on the HP Rallygroup events unless the USRA has anything of note to mention.
USRA grade for the month: F
Then you have the reentry to US Stage Rally of the behemoth that is the SCCA. Exiting stage rally in the early 'oughts for numerous reasons while continuing autocross on dirt for the past decade or so, the SCCA is now officially dipping its toe back in the stage rally waters. Rumored to be happening on a "test" basis for a while, the very first SCCA RallySprint was announced in late February and is to take place at the Team O'Neil facility in New Hampshire. Documents show this to be a two stage (each of some 2.5 miles in length), run multiple times event. Supposed top speeds will reach 70 mph and there will be no cones...this is a real stage rally event presenting all the risks seen at a non-sprint length event, just shortened up a tad. It will be interesting to see just how much mileage is done in the event. The entry cost is under $200 and the # of competitors is to be capped. Additionally, the individuals actually running the event are long time SCCA Rallycross and NEFR Stage Rally contributors who know how to run events pretty well. I have entered the event as is very close to me and at the price its hard to go wrong...as long as we aren't sitting around trying to tech the vehicles all morning it should be OK. I encourage the organizers to not take a real "lunch" break and just build in a brief "service period" as a normal stage rally would have. The absolute minimum amount of down time possible should be built in. I know of no other official SCCA RallySprint events that have been announced yet though I'm sure there will be soon. The SCCA has stated that it will be running RallySprints only in '15 though given most national Rally America events have deep roots in the SCCA, if the USRA isn't pressuring events to move to them in '16, I wouldn't be surprised if the SCCA was...All that said the SCCA doesn't seem to be putting much effort into promoting the RallySprint efforts with no info on it on their site, nothing broken out separately from their RallyCross or RoadRally programs, nothing in their forums...if you weren't keyed into watching websites like Jalopnik or in close contact with SCCA Rallycross staff in the New England, you might not have any idea that such a series of events is coming to fruition.
SCCA grade for the month: B
Rally America saw two events in February. First up was the aforementioned WMWR in Pennsylvania. Though the primary Rally America site provides little to no info on the event, the stand alone web page for the race reveals 14 entries (double the 7 entries seen in '14) with three Open Light Impreza's on the podium, led by Jon Kramer taking the win by a bit over five minutes and a time of 1:15. The event even generated a 7+ minute long video and interview on a Wellsboro, PA news website to be seen here:
Continuing with the "winter theme" after Sno Drift and WMWR Rally America is usually done with the snow but not so this year. With the deep freeze the US has seen this year, 100 Acre Wood was more a snow/ice rally than the very high speed gravel/dirt it typically is. The 2014 version of the event included nationally known (even outside the Rally community) racers like Pastrana and Block as well as National level competitors like L'Estage, ACP and Matt Johnson and 25 National entries. The 2015 version saw growth in the overall number of racers from 50 (25 National, 25 Regional) in '14 to 58 this year, it saw a substantial drop in National entries (from 25 to 17) and an exit of all of the aforementioned names except ACP. David Sterckx provided David Higgins only competition and finished 5:42 back of the winner. In equal vehicles and tires a Sterckx/Higgins contest would be a great thing to watch. Jim Beaver again provided nearly live radio coverage of the event, much as he did at SnoDrift. Rally-America posted "full" video coverage of SnoDrift about 10 days after the event and had posted very nice daily recaps of the event just after the finish of action each day. Rally America completed the same nice recaps for 100 Acre Wood as well. Rally America did generate a bit of negative press for itself when it reversed an earlier decision to grant Bill Caswell's "Build Race Party" photographers media access to the event, likely as a result of comments and articles from BRP asking where the National level competitors have gone and if Rally America is really being run properly--questions anyone with a brain would contemplate. Because of this action, Caswell revealed that his group had gone unpaid for an extended period of time in '14 after being hired for photo coverage of an event. Eventually he was paid he stated but not after months of collection efforts and pressure from a third party. Not exactly the way a racing organization should be run but it continues a long established pattern with Rally America.
Views on YouTube for SnoDrift Rally--17,200
Views on YouTube for 100 Acre Wood--10,600
Facebook Likes--30,556 (up from 29,748 last month)
YouTube Subscribers--10,334 (up from 10,033 last month)
Twitter Subscribers--20,000 (up from 19,700 last month)
Instagram Followers--5,296 (up from 4,246 last month)
Alexa rating of Rally-America.com--146,292 (down from 139,632 last month)
Rally America rating for the month: B
NASA Stage Rally saw one small event happen and picked up a second event as it was announced to be the sanctioning body for the RallySprint test day that was organized in the place of the failed USRA Matthew Noble Marker event.
The California Rally Series Rally School event saw 53 participants looking to learn more about the sport and get some tips from organizers and current drivers/codrivers.
The Washington Test Day #1 was put together in very short order to help accommodate the plans that a number of racers had made but were in danger of going unfulfilled due to the cancellation of the USRA event. A small turnout was expected in early March as entries are capped for the NASA test day program that was introduced this year.
NASA also released their updated version of their Android Rally Clock app to run on your phone or tablet just as NASA uses on their NOOKs. Additional NOOK developments included some online training/education on how to use their NOOK timing system via their YouTube channel where they posted a series of videos such as the one below:
NASA Stage Rally staff also attended the North American Motorsports Expo in Charlotte, NC as an outreach to educate/promote the NASA Stage Rally Program and showing off some Stage Rally vehicles to boot.
Facebook Likes--3,031 (up from 2,615 last month)
YouTube Subscribers--238 (up from 232 last month)
Twitter Subscribers--319 (up from 301 last month)
Instagram Followers--458 (up from 378 last month)
Alexa rating of 290,220 (up from 526,968 last month)
NASA Stage Rally rating for the Month: B+
As always, comments are welcome as would be a recap of events/developments of Stage Rally either North or South of the border...
Finished up watching this series last night. Its certainly not for everyone. Its Japanese, its a cartoon, its subtitled, its got naked giants without genitalia eating people. Its anime which if you don't already know what it is, you probably won't like it.
That said, its about as good as anime gets. Its weird in all the best ways. Humanity has been stuck inside three concentric walls since it was almost exterminated some 100 years earlier by these giant "Titans" of which there are different kinds but all of which love to wordlessly eat people--lots of them. Besides the enormous walls the only thing standing between humanity and extinction are teams of military like individuals who use waist mounted devices to swing from building to building or tree to tree with their reloadable swords to slice the Titans apart.
So you have the classic Japanese anime with lots of people flying through the air showering each other in oceans of blood. Behind it all are the questions of what exactly are the Titans? Where do they come from? Why does the royal family get to stay inside the safest circle and get all the resources? How do we kill more of the Titans? Why can Eren turn himself INTO a Titan? Has a Titan who can transform into a human infiltrated the group?
It started off as a manga (comic) in Japan and has quickly spread across the globe with novels, films, video games, etc. with millions of editions in print. The english subtitled anime series does not carry it all the way through where the manga has gone and leaves much unresolved and unanswered and thus a bit dissapointing that more answers aren't given and so I'm waiting for the collection of episodes (this first "season" was some 25 episodes long). The translation is fairly good though a bit too literal vs. conversational as is typically the case with anime but there is definitely a bit of info lost in translation and there are gaps in information that leave you asking if you missed an episode or part of an episode that I attribute to the move from Japanese to English.
The series has been a bit controversial in Asia with those in Hong Kong and Taiwan seeing the Titans as stand-ins for invading China and South Korea calling it a reflection of Japan's recent militaristic turn. I doubt its either but the fact that it has gotten a lot of people all riled up over it shows its now widespread influence. If you've given things like Akira and Ghost in the Shell a chance in the past and enjoyed them (as I have, though I am only a VERY small anime aficionado, knowing only the largest of titles and series), I would recommend some binge watching to include Attack on Titan for a current look at the top level of work coming out of Japan.
In a world where probably a billion or two people light and heat their hovels by burning yak butter candles and ox dung bricks it says a lot about me that I get such glee at such a simple gadget...but there it is....
The SnapPower SnapRays Guidelight is a brilliantly simple device. Consisting of little more than your standard plastic outlet cover a couple tabs on the back to contact with the positive and negative terminals on your standard outlet connected to three small, white, LEDs, and a light-sensor the Guidelight replaces your standard outlet cover providing you a built in nightlight that allows you to ditch either the plugin incandescent bulb you likely have in your children's bedrooms and get that outlet back for use or the more expensive and time intensive to install versions that leave no outlets in their place. Maybe its the Dad/Father/homeowner in me that thinks this is really neat but it just seems so natural an invention and one that screams "cool".
I know...kinda silly to get excited for this...but it is such an elegant and simple design and seems just...well...cool that I grabbed up a bunch and put them in my kids' rooms and elsewhere around the house and now my house is nicely lit with a dim little, comforting, white light in the kitchen, living room, kids bedrooms and upstairs bathroom...Oh, and they're energy efficient too!!! Spending $12 a piece to replace a .50 cent outlet cover...ahhh...America...
Another well produced film of the race I ran in last year...kept looking to see myself in it, but no...not in there. Can imagine trying to manhandle big bikes like this in that terrain and heat...Film is well shot and quite clean however. Worth the brief 20 minute watch for a look at the terrain and race conditions.
With every Winter comes a similar story here in New Hampshire. The death(s) of hikers/climbers attempting to tackle various summits in the White Mountains. While big events like losses of entire climbing parties on mountains like Rainier, Hood, and others typically make the evening news, the constant drips and drabs of hiker deaths in the Whites is rarely noticed though on a gross number basis, the Whites are likely the deadliest mountain range in the States.
This past week however the death of Kate Matrasova made it as far as being covered in the NY Post, NY Daily News, Bloomberg, and various blogs/websites that cover finance and technology and general gossip due to Matrasova's daytime job as a trader for BNP Paribas, her husband's job as a VP (one of thousands) at JP Morgan Chase and their (reported) million dollar mid-town Manhattan apartment.
Matrasova was attempting a Northern Presidential Range traverse. She was not attempting the entire traverse but sought to top out on the peaks of Madison, Adams, Jefferson and Washington followed by a descent to the base of the cog railway. A challenging effort no doubt, especially in Winter but not one that was beyond her skills. What has not been generally reported on her is her extensive climbing/mountaineering background that includes summits of McKinley, Elbrus, Aconcagua, and Kilimanjaro amongst others and was an avid marathoner leaving her in peak shape. With her extensive income she also had top of the line gear with her. Bottom line is that she was more than qualified and competent to make the attempt.
Many will question her choice to make a solo attempt, I generally don't. I don't have near the experience that she had but I have completed solo winter summits of Washington (NH), Marcy (NY), Greylock (MA), Bear (CT) and Mansfield (VT) as the highest peaks in each of these northeastern states. I certainly understand the thought of doing these things solo. No one else to rely on, go at your own pace, no one to irritate you, good or bad its all on your shoulders, etc., etc. There is something about accomplishing something hard on your own that interests a good number of people, Matrasova was evidently one of them and attempting the Northern Traverse was not outside her capabilities as a solo mountaineer.
Her chosen route was generally conservative. Taking the Valley Way Trail up to a col in between Madison and Adams was about the easiest route she could have chosen. If she was trying to bite off more than she could chew she would have chosen the much steeper Kings Ravine Trail or more exposed Howker Ridge Trail. The path she chose would be amongst the most protected ways to get to the ridgeline.
So that pretty much leaves us with the weather. Going into the hike weather reports disclosed that peak conditions had temperatures of about -6 F and winds of about 40mph. Pretty brutal for those used to living in the valleys and plains but near balmy (no joke) for the Presidential Peaks in Winter. During my Winter climb of Washington the conditions were similar though in my case the sun was shining and no significant changes in weather were forecast. Encased in a standard mountaineer's bubble of down, Gore-tex, mountaineering boots, crampons, goggles, etc., Matrasova would have been quite comfortable in that weather--likely sweating profusely in fact when faced with strenuous exertions required of climbing in deep snow. Unfortunately, the forecast was wrong and conditions deteriorated to levels where no one could survive.
Matrasova would have KNOWN that deteriorating conditions were predicted for the area and was likely pressed to complete her climb and return to work (this was a Sunday afterall). She wouldn't be getting a second chance to do this a day later (though being young, wealthy and having a supportive husband she could certainly have returned in a week or two...) By the time Mastrova set off her emergency beacon around 3PM the temps had dropped to -21 and the winds increased to 77mph. She had succeeded in summiting both Madison and Adams but turned back after reaching Adams peak in an attempt to get lower. She missed her bailout opportunity some 2 hours earlier. After sumitting Madison she would have had to pass both the Madison Spring Hut AND the Valley Way Trail she had come in on as the direction she chose required retracing the path up to Mt. Madison before continuing on to Adams. At this point the temps would have already been dropping and the wind picking up. It would also have been obvious at this point (about 1PM) that there was NO way she was going to complete her traverse. She had started out at 6AM and some 7+ hours later she had only completed a single peak with an uphill climb the rest of the way (Madison being the lowest of the four peaks she had intended on completing that day). With the Sun going down around 5PM or so and no mountaineering tent or overnight supplies with her (at least as has been reported) she stood ZERO shot at getting to Washington and down even in the BEST of conditions. There should have been a single choice on her way back down from Mt. Madison towards the trail she already knew and had traversed earlier that day. Bail and head down. She'd have been back on tarmac before the Sun set with ease.
Instead, here is my speculation. Matrasova was obviously experienced and driven and had succeeded in nearly everything in life having been born in (literally) Siberia and having made it to the top of her profession and the rest of the globe. If she wasn't going to complete what she had set out for, she'd at least put in a good faith effort, challenge herself and grab one more peak before heading down. This would, after all, make for good training for the rigors to be demanded of her in her future attempts at Everest and Vinson (looking at her list of summits, completing the 7 Summits was definitely a goal of hers). At only 1 in the afternoon, she couldn't imagine herself bailing out NOW...that would have been a waste of a day. So her intent was to push herself a little bit, bag Adams and THEN head down. Which she completed.
Unfortunately the winds picked up beyond what she had ever experienced and literally blew her off the ridge. Sometime after she initiated her distress signal the peak winds were recorded to exceed 140 mph. Well above what it would take to sweep a fit girl of at best, 150 lbs. off her feet and down the mountain. Her body would be recovered a few hundred feet off the trail, still above treeline but on the lee side of the ridge. Given the scrapes on her face and removal of her pack she was either blown there or tumbled there, came to a rest and expired after having lost the will or ability to fight. After having traveled the world, summited peaks in the most remote locations some three or four and five times the height of the Whites where only pressurized jet liners play, pushing on to summit Adams looked like a simple proposition...afterall...no one dies in mountaineering accidents five hours or less from NYC in little podunk New Hampshire right?
It was a simple mistake of hubris. She shouldn't be vilified or made fun of nor her husband chastised for letting her go alone. She could have made a better decision and turned back earlier (such is the story of 50% of mountaineering accidents) the other 50% being morons who don't belong up there in the first place. But she didn't.
My only question here is--what was the delay in getting up Madison in the first place? Someone so fit, and so experienced, should have FLOWN up her chosen path and gotten there much earlier. Was the snow deeper than she expected? Did she have snowshoes? Did she get lost in the woods BEFORE ever reaching the ridge? Something slowed her down early on and may have been the driving force behind why she was pushing to summit Adams, despite the deteriorating conditions, blaming herself for a silly error earlier in the day that eliminated any chance of the stated goal of the Northern Presidential Traverse.
Question is...which will get here first and which will be the best product.
First off we have the CCM GP-450 Adventure. A small British company who has supplied the military and NGOs with bikes for some time. They have been out testing this bike across the globe (South America amongst other locations) and are doing demo rides for potential customers in England currently. An interesting innovation is that the frame is not welded together and is instead uses an aluminum bonded design. The bike definitely leans towards the "Dakar" style end of the spectrum vs. a ADV style bike. Pricing in England is listed at about 8,000 pounds which translates to about $12,000 and putting it firmly in the KTM/BMW pricing range, particularly for a 450CC bike (though its weight of 290 pounds is pretty darn light). At last notice CCM hopes to have the bike approved for sale in the US by late '15 with first sales I would imagine in early '16.
Then we have the AJP PR7 660. A Portuguese product from a company that has to date focused on small enduro style bikes the PR7 was introduced as concept vehicle late in '14 and has reportedly been put on track to be introduced for sale in late '15--though this is in the UK with a US date not disclosed. A significantly bigger bike than the CCM GP-450 using a 660CC Yamaha engine seen in the Tenere and weighing in at 342 pounds (dry), the PR7 is only a "lightweight" in comparison to the big BMW and KTMs but in the world of ADV and "Dakar" style bikes this is actually fairly small. In terms of styling and anticipated performance the PR7 appears to be on par (or nearly so) with the GP-450 targeting a more hardcore rider with intentions (dreams?) of actually racing the vehicle in a real rally race. Pricing on the AJP when it is available is reported to be 9,000 pounds or $13,900 with like the CCM above puts it in the "premium" category of ADV motorcycles.
Lastly we have the CSC (California Scooter Company) RX-3 Cyclone. A true "lightweight" bike at
only 250CC but with a weight of 386 pounds, you won't be outrunning many fellow riders on this Chinese sourced bike (which goes under various other names in other countries around the world). The RX-3 is styled and aimed much more towards the introductory ADV riding market vs. higher end bikes above. Its price reflects this target audience at a eye-opening $3,495. The power of paying people peanuts in China is obvious and while the bike does seem to be covered in a lot of shiny, bright, cheap looking plastic, it does come with a full, unlimited miles, two year warranty on all parts (first year sees all labor covered as well). That said, the warranty is only of value if the primary company is still in business, time will tell whether the RX-3 is a bargain and great stepping stone to get people on a bike and at least CAPABLE of running fire roads and other more extended terrain or if CSC becomes a negative touchstone for any thirdworld motorcycle product in the ADV segment introduced to the US. The first shipment of RX-3s have currently left mainland China and with a stopoff in Korea will arrive at the Long Beach port on 3/6/15 but are not scheduled to be unloaded till 3/24/15 due to the ongoing worker slowdown there (I would imagine it will be later this). But if you can't wait for the PR7 660 or GP-450 or can't afford them, you could buy three RX-3s for the price of one of the aforementioned.
This book was one I had to hunt down on Amazon as it was not popular enough to show up in my local Barnes&Noble stores. I knew of Peter Thiel from his involvement in the formation of PayPal and his continued private equity investments. His membership in the "PayPal Mafia" is well known as are his libertarian-ish views and personal causes such as paying smart kids to NOT go to college and instead focus on a singular idea or product of their own development.
The book is written in a lecturing style which is fitting as the work is essentially a collection of his lectures to students at Stanford within a course on startups.
Within this collection are his thoughts on people like Malcolm Gladwell and John Rawls (who he thinks are pretty much boobs who focus on chance and "fairness" in their explanations for success and economics), the reason why current education and college produce a bunch of people studying everything but knowing nothing, why planning matters, how monopolies are a good thing, why successful startups contain people who are of a like mind/personality, etc. Its all quite good and I must admit, my own particular political, social and economic leanings tend to make me a fan of Thiel's ideas.
What is most important about the book is its call to arms for people to think big, to plan, to try new things, and be contrarian (though you then get the "if everyone is being contrarian, is it contrarian anymore" argument, similar to the 1990's "Alternative" music argument). Calling for a return to what he calls "definite optimism", a trait he finds in the world from the 1600's through the 1960's quoting Marx and Engels who stated that society had "created more massive and more colossal productive forces than all preceding generations together. Subjection of Nature's forces to man, machinery, application of chemistry to industry and agriculture, steam-navigation, railways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole continents for cultivation, canalization of rivers, whole populations conjured out of the ground--what earlier century had even a presentiment that such produced forces slumbered in the lap of social labor?"
Thiel likely sees and cites herein, man's placement of 12 men on the moon as the ultimate example of planning, creation and optimism. Mentioning the plans of a 1940s schoolteacher by the name of John Reber who was a self-taught engineer and proposed a series of dams in San Francisco Bay designed to reclaim land, provide freshwater, etc. Thiel states that such a plan would never be taken seriously today but at the time the plan ended up being endorsed by newspapers across California, congressional hearings were held and the Army Corps of Engineers built a 1.5 acre scale model of the plan. The fact that such an idea from such an individual would be dismissed outright in today's society is a major failing of our current culture he feels. No longer do we welcome big plans and ask merely if they would work and instead we have turned into a society ruled by the Baby Boom generation, like Gladwell, who see little to no value in planning or individual effort but instead see only luck, happenstance, and social context.
We need more people who believe in individual exceptionalism, the ability to make one-self into whatever we wish and to dream big ideas. We need more people like Thiel and less people like Gladwell (who's book Outliers I reviewed positively here in the past) if we hope to move the human race forward. If you are developing a product or company or even just fantasize about carving your own path rather than being told what your path will be, then Zero to One is worth the read.
This print is available on Easy (a website for "handmade" items) and is signed by the artist, Roger Warrick. Warrick seems to be a big time endurance racing fan with most of his art centering around tracks and events like Sebring, Indy, LeMans, etc.
He essentially has two styles of art with one being a "serious" realistic depiction of the racing action and the other being a Dave Deal-esqe "car-icature" of various vehicles and their drivers. This one is his most recent production and depicts the recently introduced Front Wheel Drive Nissan NISMO GT-R LeMans racer that will be contesting various WEC events (including LeMans) this year. Some of the nice details seen here including the fire breathing exhaust exits on the hood of the vehicle (where they actually ARE located) and the positioning of Godzilla (the GT-Rs nickname) in the front of the vehicle where the engine is placed, are nice touches. It will look nice in a frame on my wall.
As is usually the case, I don't get out to see many films in the theater and only end up seeing the ones that both my wife and I both have an overwhelming desire to see. American Sniper was one such film. Having read the biography about two years ago I was well familiar with the background and though some of the film was fictionalized to create a narrative that would provide an arc it was largely in line with the details from Chris Kyle's book.
The film itself was excellent with Bradley Cooper's portrayal of Chris Kyle being spot on. From Kyle's Texas accent to his physical build, Cooper does a masterful job in imitating his real life model. In story and direction there isn't much new. We get Kyle's reasons for entering the SEALs, his time in BUDs, his meeting with Taya (his future wife), his deployments, his actions in Iraq as both a sniper and in more close quarter battles, the deaths of close friends, marital problems, etc. All of it is well portrayed and Eastwood provides enough context to understand where Kyle comes from and why he views the world the way he does. Yup, some of it may seem too simplistic for modern audiences but based on his own words, it rings true.
American Sniper is not a "great" film. It doesn't belong up there with any pantheon of Buzzfeed lists of the best films of all time. Its a very good film that is exceedingly enjoyable but it isn't Earthshattering in its delivery. Unforgiven remains Eastwood's high-water mark and by a large margin and Mystic River is also better...
It may, however, be a more important film than any of these for what it brings out of its viewers. Becoming one of the largest grossing "R" rated movies of all time and already the highest grossing "war" film of all time, American Sniper becomes a Rorschach test for any viewer. Those on the left see it as gringoism at its worst, transforming the Iraqis into mere meat to be mown down by the hands of an avenging American. Those on the right see it as an expression of American Patriotism and Texas individualism. As always with these things, its neither.
As Eastwood has actually stated himself, its more of an anti-war film than either the Right or Left want to portray. By the end of the film Kyle has been broken down both physically and mentally by the tasks required of him. We've watched his friends die, his justified but difficult shooting of a boy and his mother, marital difficulties, absence from his children's life, the questioning of the war's purpose by his brother and others around him, watched him piss himself as he stands overwatch, and finally, his own destruction at the hands of someone he had hoped to help. To view the aforementioned and find that the film is either a white-washing of the American effort there or a purely Patriotic retelling of a Christian, Texas, good old boy is to ignore what one has just seen.
American Sniper is an honest retelling of an exceedingly brave and capable soldier who served his country to the limits of his existence. It deserves to be told and seen and understood--properly.
Looking for an anti-Valentine's day film last night this horror film was picked due to its good reviews and its director, Ti West, being viewed by many as a up and coming director to watch.
Certainly the film is not your traditional modern horror film. There's no torture-porn, a relatively minimal amount of blood and gore, no "found footage", no "paranormal activities", etc. It was stated from the get go to be a homage to 70's and 80's horror films and it definitely looks and feels like it. The clothes, cars, hair, Sony Walkman, grainy film stock, music, corded telephones, payphones, etc. all give the appearance of events and filming that took place in the late 70's or 80's. I had to go and check the release date of House of the Devil a number of times to ensure that it was made just a few years ago...there is nothing really here to give away that it wasn't made some 30-40 years ago.
The pacing of the film is also decidedly un-modern. The edits are far apart and virtually NOTHING happens in the first 45 minutes of the film which merely sets up your standard horror trope--a young girl is hired as a babysitter for a baby that doesn't exist in a big scary house in the deep woods by a very weird couple on the night of a lunar eclipse. If that doesn't give you an idea of where this story is going you haven't been paying much attention.
While the story is typical it is still well put together and once you are in the major set piece of the film (the house), Ti West does an excellent job or ratcheting up the tension. Its here that the film shines with lots of odd camera angle shots and still frames where the female lead goes in and out of the shot and your SURE something bad is going to befall her--but doesn't. When things begin to go badly for our heroine the tension West has been building over the last hour or so is released and it returns to some fairly typical "girl covered with blood being chased through a scary house by a tall creepy guy" action. The film ends with what I guess is supposed to be a "twist" or "surprise" much like say Nightmare on Elm Street or the like but really it doesn't fit with the events of the story and seems just tacked on so that the viewer has something to wonder about after turning the film off.
There are certainly elements here that deserve watching and Ti West's development as a director has potential--particularly since he is branching out into other genres with a Western (always a favorite style of mine) with Ethan Hawke (himself a recent star of a number of horror films), John Travolta and Taissa Farmiga (younger sister of Vera Farmiga) watch" but any stretch of the imagination.
This was a film I had been interested in when it was in the theater due to its intense trailer and laundry list of good actors and producers. With Ridley Scott and Leonardo DiCaprio as producers and Casey Affleck, Willem DeFoe, Forest Whitaker, Zoe Saldana, Sam Shepard, Woody Harrelson and Christian Bale as actors, Out of the Furnance may have been one of the most star laden vehicles in recent memory.
One of the greatest things about the film is how each actor subverts their fame in service of the story. The story itself is what stands as the backbone of the film. Out of the Furnace is a fairly straightforward tale of one good brother and one questionable brother wherein the questionable brother falls afoul of some bad people thus necessitating the good brother to take revenge and cross over into a grey area of morality. What makes it more interesting that your standard fair are the interracial triangle between Bale, Whitaker and Saldana's characters, the dark side given to the "good" brother present in his vehicular homicide displayed on screen and the depiction of white poverty present in the Northeastern US.
Directed by Scott Cooper who has studied under Robert Duval and was the filmmaker behind Crazy Heart and the upcoming Whitey Bulger bio Black Mass, the film is easily viewed as a modern Western, with meth, underground fighting, the Iraq War and ruined mill towns taking the place of cattle rustling, card playing, the Civil War and the far West. Cooper also seems to have taken on producer Scott's penchant for dark scenes and sharply shot scenery. Additionally, Cooper paces the film as Scott might, taking the time to tell the story with fleshed out characters and not pushing the action.
With the truly bad characters in the film based upon the "Ramapo Indians" (more white trash than Indians and not a recognized "tribe" by the Feds at this point) living in and around the Ramapough Mountains in Northeastern New Jersey it merely confirms my view of NJ as a thoroughly detestable state--my in-laws not withstanding.
The film itself opened the same weekend as juggernauts Frozen and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and was almost entirely ignored at that time, it doesn't deserve to be. Those looking for shootouts and John Woo style action will not care for Out of the Furnace but those enjoying quality work and film noir will.
