I know BMW advertises their cars as the ultimate driving machine, but in the hands of an idiot, they become the ultimate crashing machine. When the Highway Patrol pull you over, they come to the passenger side of the vehicle for safety.
A Police officer in Fairfax, Virginia was speaking to a driver he had pulled over. The dash-cam shows just that and in the distance an 'out of control BMW' slides across the median backwards then side swipes the stopped car with such force that is bends the guard rail, hits the police car forcing it to slide back a car length.
The office saw the BMW and tried to run for cover but was struck to the ground, literally inches from disaster.
It's reported the BMW was driving more than 120 miles per hour when it lost control and spun around.
Video clip:
News link:
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I have an old laptop that only gets used when I'm outside, usually on a jobsite and I need to review drawings that I don't have printed copies of. The battery would only work for a short time, so I replaced it. The hard drive was slow so a friend suggested I upgrade to an SSD (solid state drive) that works faster with less power drain.
Good idea. I bought the drive, 500 gigabyte. The problem is the drive on the laptop is 1 terabyte. While I'm only using a small part of the capacity, the conversion software won't compress what I have to the smaller drive. No problem. I bought a 1 terabyte SSD but I haven't gotten back to the project. It's in the box on my desk collecting dust and the laptop is somewhere in the living room, also collecting dust.
I have a computer simulator for learning to fly model aircraft. It does airplanes, drones and helicopters. I used it religiously and the cord at the top of the controller wore out. It doesn't work reliably. No problem said I, as the plan was to cut a few inches of the worn wire off the cord and reconnect it.
There is a coil (interference filter) where it exits the controller that I snipped off. One problem is 6 wires come from the USB side and 5 wires come from the inside of the controller. Something gets changed in the coil. It took a few days of searching for my test meter. I gave up and bought a new meter. It's been a few months and the opened controller is on the shelf.
While looking for something else, I found the test meter that I couldn't find earlier. So now I have 2 meters and the project isn't finished.
I bought a new controller but it doesn't work with the older software, so I had to buy the newest version simulator and I'm undecided if I will go back complete the project.
The thought now is to pay my friend who suggested I do the SSD upgrade. His business is technical electronic repair. Changing the drive and repairing the controller is something he could easily do.
Projects I don't complete.
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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has popped up in the news this past week... several times. It appears his connections with conservative billionaire Harlan Crow has recently uncovered some unreported gifts and non-disclosure of real estate sales.
However wrong (or possibly illegal) that is, he will gather support so it's like water running off a duck's back.
The question raised is how could a Supreme Court Justice be impartial and able to do his job fairly when his wife and long time investor friend are ultra-conservative pumping money and support into the Republican party?
Certainly my opinion... I expect some of you to differ.
Nearly a year ago, there was movement on other issues that he should be removed from his position.
I'll call this a request for justice about a Justice.
My blog # 1,671
System blog # 71,200
Ed Sheeran has defeated a copyright infringement lawsuit involving his Grammy-winning song "Thinking Out Loud" to the Marvin Gaye classic "Let's Get It On."
Stated publicly, he felt frustrated by the baseless claims and praised the jury's decision.
A Manhattan jury has found the musician did not engage in willful copyright infringement.
Okay, lots of song have similar beats, rhythms, chord progressions and that doesn't make them liable to other similar sounding songs.
I can think of other groups who 'lifted' songs by other other artists and either settled in court, out of court, win or lose.
This video/sound comparison came out 6 years ago:
In court, Ed backed up his claim that there are other songs with the same progression recorded before Marvin Gaye's song... would that mean he was guilty of copyright infringement too?
That would be a copyright infringement of a copyright infringement.
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I have a credit card about to expire and need to go through all the sources who use that card and be affected when I activate the replacement. Amazon, water company, power company, insurance, Internet provider, virus protection, cellphone service, prepaid toll...
Any one I forgot will have to chase me. Life is that way!
Donald J. Trump is in Scotland breaking ground for another golf course. Reports are the red carpet welcome wasn't a big turnout.
I heard bagpipes...
News link:
We are getting some severe weather this week. About 20 miles north, in Palm Beach Gardens, a tornado touched down flipping cars and damaging houses. The National Weather Service in Miami said the tornado that hit late Saturday afternoon had winds of over 100 miles per hour.
Luckily, there were no reports of injuries or fatalities.
I watched radar a few times today and areas 30 miles south of me were under tornado watch. As far as I know, there were no incidents there.
I'm not sure why the news reported it as a 'suspected' tornado. It appeared on radar as a tornado, damaged as a tornado, people were warned we were on a tornado watch and the news posted video of the tornado.
News link:
Quick video of a car being flipped:
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I'll start with John Paul Jones, bassist for the rock band Led Zeppelin. Born in England in 1946, John Richard Baldwin, change his name to John Paul Jones and not to be confused with the Naval officer back in the 1700's.
JPJ, was a studio musician, often termed session musician, playing bass guitar, piano, keyboards and mandolin. He knew Jimmy Page long before Zeppelin was formed. JPJ is also credited as a musical arranger and producer. After Zeppelin disbanded JPJ did some solo work. I've heard him singing on a few songs, but I wouldn't consider him a singer. Funny, I don't consider Clapton a singer either!
While he was a strong part of the sound that shaped Zeppelin, his recessive personality often had him cast into the background.
I was playing bass guitar professionally when Led Zeppelin's album hit the American airwaves and he was the bassist to copy. I would listen to his parts over and over again.
While he played keyboards for Zeppelin, his contribution of (Hammond) organ on Your Time Is Gonna Come is a sound masterpiece. I was in a 5-piece band and the keyboards were performed by another member. I still think JPJ's musical taste on that album was flawless.
One of my favorites is Kashmir. From their 6th album Physical Graffiti.
There are a few liver versions on YouTube, but the keyboards get drowned out by guitar and drums. Here's the album version where JPJ is credited for playing the orchestration and a mellotron.
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My neighbor is semi-retired and does maintenance around my condo. He called me yesterday to say my dryer vent is clogged. I don't normally do laundry, but I noticed it took more than 2 cycles for the comforter to dry. I haven't checked the vent in... a long time!
So, I went around the back of the building this morning to see. Wow.. there is a cage around the vent that keeps animals from getting inside. It was packed with lint. I'm surprised any clothes or towels dried. Inside the laundry room, I removed the vent hose from the dryer where it connects to the outside wall and inserted the hose from an industrial strength shop-vac but it was only able to get lint inside the vent as the vanes are one-way letting air out and close tightly with the vacuum.
Armed with a broom, screw driver and wrench I used a ladder (yeah, I'm on the 2nd floor) to remove the cage surrounding the vent. I was able to clear the lint from the louver & vent, but it's not worth trying to get all of it out of the holes in the cage.
Good for now, Home Depot sells those cages for $9.
Not a priority and it will happen at a later date!
For people who don't know how to parallel park, there's the all electric Hyundai MOBIS with the c-Corner System. Each wheel has a motor and steering control to turn 90 degrees.
Not only can it drive sideways, it can do a 360 degree turn in it's own space and do a tilting 90 degree turn. On the road it can change lanes with all 4 wheels tipping the the car stays straight.
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It's official. As of this morning, President Joe Biden formally announced that he is running for reelection in 2024. It's 6am Joe... are you really up for this?
Currently, Joe is 80 years old making him the oldest US president in history.
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I'm reading a story tonight that states a Florida lawmaker is introducing an amendment that would allow Governor Ron DeSantis to run for president of the United States and not have to resign his position as governor of Florida.
Isn't that a case of having your cake and eating it too!
Currently, any politician holding office who decides to run for president must resign that position. My guess is it's because you're out on the campaign trail day and night and not at your office serving the people who voted you there.
So, the 'strike-all' amendment was filed earlier today by Republican senator Travis Hutson, whom DeSantis endorsed last year.
If passed, that assures DeSantis can hold on to his position of Florida's governor and be allowed to campaign should he decide to run for president in 2024 and not get the party's nomination and win the election. Sound right?
My, my Ron... what perfect timing you have.
Link:
Always the reader comments are classic:
Richard:
"What good is a law when you can change it on a whim? Would they do that if a Democrat was governor? When you have a body that will change laws to placate one person you aren't far from a dictatorship."
Scott:
"GOP gamesmanship: If you can't win with the cards you're dealt, stack the deck."
Stephen:
"Is he getting a state salary while out politicking???"
AB:
"Also known as the "I don't have a lot of confidence in my chances to win the Presidential election, so I want to keep my old job just in case" bill."
Mystery Team:
"I think the books covering Florida Law have tripled in volume since this guy took office. So much for smaller government."
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