Roller Derby in Portland - Rose City Rollers

If you go, you need to provide yourself with a stage name. My friend Jack used 'Hydraulic Jack'. I would use 'Three Jawed Chuck'. Gearheads, what do you expect? Next bout November 14.

The Derelict

I really like this picture. I'm not sure why, the car doesn't do much for me, though I do like the idea. 

I think it might be because that's how the world looks when I am driving.

People are nuts. This is a 1952 Chrysler Town & Country station wagon that has been worked over internally. The drivetrain (engine and transmission, etc.) has been replaced with a modern one, the seats have been reupholstered, and all the little stuff has been restored to operate correctly.  If you look closely, you will notice that the body proper and the front clip (hood and front fenders) are slightly different colors. That's because the front clip is from a 1952 DeSoto. Since DeSoto was made by Chrysler, it makes sense that it would fit. The change was made because the builder liked the Desoto's grill better, because of the teeth, perhaps? Hot Rod has the story. This line stood out:

The doors close with the solidity of a Mercedes, something we've never been able to accomplish on any of our personal cars.

Seems I heard once that the big car companies have entire departments devoted to how things sound, like the doors closing and the sound of the exhaust.

Via Posthip Scott.

Eye of the Cake

The End Of Dinner, 1913  by Jules Alexandre Grun

Stu mentions Cakes and Ale, I follow the link and discover that, among other things, it is a book written by W. Somerset Maughm. I've heard of Maughm, I've probably read some of his books but it's been so long I couldn't tell you what they were. But he has a fixed place in my mental firmament, along with the likes of Faulkner and that other guy whom I can't quite remember. It will come to me. Michener, that's the one.
    Anyway, I'm always on the lookout for something new to read, so I start in on the sample pages on Amazon. It starts with a discussion by a writer of another writer, not nearly so talented, but much more successful who wrote a bestseller titled Eye of the Needle. Hey! Wait a minute! I've heard of that, it was a movie with that tall lanky guy from Mash (Donald Sutherland) playing an Irish-Nazi spy, or some such. The movie came from a book, but this book was written by Ken Follett, not by Roy. What's going on here?
    Well, Cakes and Ale was written in 1930 and Ken Follett wrote his Eye of the Needle in 1978, so W. isn't talking about Ken's book. Whether there was a previous book with that title only Google knows, and he (she? it?) isn't telling.

A note about the picture. It took me a while to find something that fit. I came across a cropped version of this painting on  a book cover. It took me a while to track it down. Most of the versions I found were very yellow and most unpleasant. Wikiart was no help. Finally, just asking Google Images for "dinner party painting" uncovered this one. I also found one that was similar but the 'tone' was all wrong, so I dismissed it. Then I looked again and I realized that in gross characteristics, it was the same picture. But the devil is in the details, and in the cheap, hand-painted knock-off, which is what it was, they hadn't worried overmuch about the details.

LCS 7 Detroit Side Launch

The Lockheed Martin-led industry team launched the nation's seventh Littoral Combat Ship into the Menominee River on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2014. The future LCS Detroit was formally christened prior to her launch by Mrs. Barbara Levin. Barbara is Senator Carl Levin's wife. He is a Democrat from Michigan.

This is screen shot from Google Maps. When the satellite images get updated, the boat won't be there any more.

Okay, Lockheed I've heard of, but the Menominee River? Where's that? Turns out it forms part of the border between Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It empties into Lake Michigan. About 50 miles North of Green Bay.

Update: Just realized that the boat in the video and the boat on the map are facing opposite directions. Did they turn it around before they launched it? Or are we looking at two different boats?

Power Generation in Zimbabwe

Power Generation in Zimbabwe - CCTV Africa
Red China is financing a big power plant upgrade in Zimbabwe. I wonder how that is going to turn out. You may recall that Zimbabwe underwent the world's most impressive inflation up until 2009, at which point the government gave up on their own money and they started using foreign currency*. President of Zimbabwe and dictator-for-life Robert Mugabe is the world's worst leader and possibly the worst person on the planet. I wonder who is going to come out on top of this deal, China or Mugabe? Mugabe is a shit, but Red China can be ruthless. With a billion dollars at stake I expect China will take this deal seriously. When (not if) Mugabe tries to pull some kind of sleazy deal, I expect the Chinese will straighten him out in short order.
    But then again, maybe not. This is Africa, and Mugabe may somehow get away with ripping off the Chinese.
    Meanwhile, China is making a big fuss about a bunch of uninhabited islands between them and their offshore neighbors. I suspect this is just a big show to distract everyone while they make a big push into Africa in their quest for oil.

*If you want a piece of this historical debacle you can buy real 100-trillion Zimbabwean dollars at Amazon.

Princess Chelsea - The Cigarette Duet

The video is amusing, the tune is not bad. There is a message in there but it's barely noticeable. Some people (rumor has it) are using nicotine patches for the effect (the nicotine high, such as it is), not because they want to quit smoking. I mean these folks never smoked, so there was no quitting involved.

Casablanca gambling? I'm shocked!

Tam has an article about used guns on Shooting Illustrated. The comments on her related Facebook post are very entertaining, and that's where I found this gem. I've seen it before, but it's the perfect crown for all the computerized hassles I've been having.