How Slow?

1960 Ford Falcon

How slow was a 1960 Ford Falcon? Mr. Regular spells it out:

A 1960 Ford Falcon is so slow, it makes a 50cc Honda Metropolitan scooter feel like a CBR1000 sportbike. It's so slow, 0-60 takes longer than loading a Homestar Runner cartoon on dialup. A Falcon moves slower than a clock in church. It moves slower than campaign finance reform. A Falcon runs slower than Half Life on your parents 300mhz 1995 Packard Bell desktop. 

Heh. And for your edification we have a factoid:

In 1960 the USA had 61.6 million registered automobiles. Compare that to 128.3 million cars by 1995, and 253.6 million cars by 2012. 

Hershey Electric Railway

Electric locomotive and freight cars for hauling sugar cane

The Hershey Electric Railway first ran in 1917. It is a standard-gauge electric interurban railway that runs from the suburbs of Havana, Cuba, to the city of Matanzas, approximately 57 miles to the east. There is a station and depot at the town of Camilo Cienfuegos, better known by its pre-revolutionary name of Hershey. The railway was built by The Hershey Company to transport sugar to the port of Havana.  ~ Wikipedia

Cuba was the sixth country in the world to get a railway – even before Spain – and as a result has an extensive, although slowly declining, network. - Slow train across Cuba

Hershey sugar mill, Hershey, Cuba

Hershey built up an extensive empire in Cuba. Hershey's Cuban holdings were sold in 1946 to the Cuban Atlantic Sugar Company.

Bridge of Bacunayagua

Bridge of Bacunayagua, Matanzas, Cuba

The Bridge of Bacunayagua was inaugurated in September 1959, nine months after Castro came to power. I suspect that the bridge was finished in 1958, and it just took Castro nine months to get around to capitalizing on it. Kind of funny that the tunnel under the entrance to Havana Harbor was also completed in 1958. I mean all we hear about the Batista regime is how corrupt it was, but all these big construction projects were going on as well.

The bridge was designed by Luis P. Sáenz (Duplace), a very prolific guy. He was so talented that the CAACE (Cuban American Association of Civil Engineers) has a scholarship named for him.

Google Map here.

Quote of the Day

“Everyone looks retarded once you set your mind to it.”
― David Sedaris

Via Ross

Cayo Jutías Lighthouse

Cayo Jutías Lighthouse - Dave Artioli

Cayo Jutías
1902 (U.S.). Active; focal plane 141 ft; white light, 2 s on, 13 s off. 134 ft octagonal skeletal tower with central cylinder, lantern, and double gallery, built on a screwpile foundation; original Barbier et Bérnard Fresnel lens. . . . This lighthouse is the only survivor of four towers of this class built in Cuba during the U.S. occupation; it was prefabricated in the U.S. by the Waddell & Hedrick Co. - Lighthouses of Cuba

Cayo Jutías Lighthouse

Just something I came across while looking at Cuba. Reminds me of the Lighthouse off Key West - Sand Key Light.

Pic of the Day

St. Petersburg, Russia

Moa, Cuba

If Cuba is going to join the world economic community, they are going to need to produce something besides colorful entertainment. They do produce sugar and tobacco, but producing only agricultural crops pretty much relegates you to 'colony' status. Then I find that there is a good sized nickel mine in Moa. Along with the mine there is an ore processing plant, which needs electricity. 50 years of Fidel has pretty much destroyed the countries infra-structure, so the first thing they needed was a new electric plant.

ABB generators arriving at the new Moa power plant. Photo: Courtesy Harren & Partner

Faced with an electricity crisis caused by aging thermoelectric plants, an obsolete grid and hurricane damages, Cuba in 2006 decided to decentralize part of its electric system by deploying hundreds of fuel-oil generators that run 24 hours a day, and thousands of backup generators that kick in during peak hours or emergencies. The decentralized approach — which is part of a larger program dubbed “Energy Revolution” — helped Cuba eliminate extended blackouts in a matter of months, at a relatively low cost, and made the system more resilient to hurricane damage. - The Cuban Handshake, 2014