Car of the Day

1967 Iso Rivolta S4

Italian car with a 355 HP Chevy V8 from Detroit, it was the fastest 4 door sedan in the world. In 1967. Expensive, too. Cost as much as a Rolls. Pretty enough, or maybe it's just the green paint that attracts me. Via Road & Track.

The Berlin, er San Diego, Wall

Does the Border Fence work?
Does the Border Fence work? Well, that depends on what you mean by 'work', Kimosabe. Does it ensure that only the most active, athletic, and determined individuals get into the U.S? Then yes, it does. Does it ensure employment for fence builders in the southern border states? Then again, the answer is yes. You just need to learn how to frame your questions.

The choice of tune to accompany this video is genius. Via Iaman.

Motorcycle of the Day

Spotted in downtown Portland, Oregon

Notice the drum brakes. This thing is old!

Via older son.

Shopping Mall Dream

AFI Mall MIBC Moscow - kishjar?
Not where we were.

My wife and I are in a shopping mall after some auto parts. It's not your typical big mall with acres of parking, glitzy department stores and dozens of boutiques. It's more of an outlaw mall that has grown up on the side of this hill. It's been there for years and growing for all that time. It's full of the kinds of stores you find in strip malls and other not prime real estate. Last time I was here it wasn't quite so big, so we charge in expecting that we will get to the auto parts section fairly soon, but after a long time spent following the main corridor that keeps zigging and zagging back and forth we are getting a little discouraged, so we stop and ask someone. They are glad to tell us that the auto parts section is another eight miles down this corridor. Well, nuts to that, we're  not going to hike 8 miles, we'll go back to the entrance and . . . catch a tram, maybe, that will take us there via the lower level.
    This mall is built on the side of a hill, but it is pretty much restricted to just a couple of levels, but it goes all the way around the hill, or it would if it were long enough. It's kind of a big hill.

The Looking Planet

The Looking Planet from Eric Law Anderson on Vimeo
Cosmic. 17 minutes long.

Spritz

Kyrill Potapov: Finding My Optimum Reading Speed from Quantified Self on Vimeo.
I liked the Jacques Derrida jab (1:25). In general, Spritz seems to be a good thing. You can read faster with good comprehension. On the other hand, you are liable to miss some of the more subtle issues, which doesn't surprise me too much (5:00). From a story on Quantified Self, via Detroit Steve.

Land

North Atlantic Lands
Newfoundland is the marked with the red spot on the left,
Scotland & England are marked with the red spots on the right.

Trying to explain Ireland to someone who had never heard of it this morning and I realized that the North Atlantic is populated with a string of islands with land in their name:

•  England
•  Scotland
•  Ireland
•  Iceland
•  Greenland
•  Newfoundland

There are a bunch of other places with land in their name scattered over other parts of the world, but they don't have this close historical / geographic proximity:

•  Finland
•  Poland
•  The Netherlands
•   Switzerland
•  Swaziland
•  Thailand
•  New Zealand

Update November 2016 moved Scotland.