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Nate Silver
Obama Is Out(middle)classing Mccain
October 08, 2008
I'm not sure that the McCain campaign has a winning campaign hand to play on the economy. But consider this. Between the three debates thus far, the Obama-Biden ticket has used the phrase "middle class" 21 times**. McCain-Palin have used it twice.
Today's Polls: Obama Now A 9:1 Favorite
October 08, 2008
I'm short on time today, so let's keep this on point: John McCain is in deep trouble. In spite of some incremental gains that McCain has made in some of the national tracking polls, the set of state polling that follows is so strong for Obama that he continues to hit record marks in all three of our projection metrics. We are now projecting Obama to win the election 90.5 percent of the time, with an average of 346.8 electoral votes, and a 5.4-point margin in the national popular vote.There simply isn't any good news in here for John McCain (all right, he's kicking butt in Oklahoma).
Today's Polls: Is Pennsylvania Still A Swing State?
October 07, 2008
As the political world's focus shifts to the second presidential debate in Nashville, Barack Obama continues to expand his lead upon John McCain in all of our projection metrics, and now rates as almost a 9:1 favorte to win the election in November.Both state and national polls are contributing to this result.
Today's Polls: Mccain's Polling Hole Deepens
October 07, 2008
Are John McCain's negative attacks succeeding in eating into some of Barack Obama's support? They certainly aren't yet. In fact, Barack Obama has had perhaps his strongest individual polling day of the year:You can read these numbers as well as I can. Obama leads by 6 in North Carolina? 12 in Virginia? 7 in Florida? 3 in Missouri? Obviously, I am cherrypicking some of the more pro-Obama results here ...
Today's Polls: Still Smooth Sailing For Obama
October 05, 2008
Barack Obama has risen to his highest-ever level in both our electoral college and popular vote projections, principally on the strength of his commanding lead in the national tracking polls.
Will The Kitchen Sink Work?
October 05, 2008
With Sarah Palin's attack yesterday on Barack Obama's patriotism and his ties to former Weather Underground ringleader William Ayers, the McCain campaign has left little doubt about in which direction it intends to head over the final month of the campaign.
Today's Polls: Remember The Maine?
October 04, 2008
With the first set of tracking polls out to incorporate at least one full day of post-debate interviewing, there is no indication that John McCain and Sarah Palin have made progress in closing their gap with Barack Obama. In fact, Obama ticked upward in three of the four national tracking polls that published today, although he lost a point in Rasmussen.
Today's Polls: Mccain's Herschel Walker Trade
October 03, 2008
Another day, another good set of polling for Barack Obama -- with one important exception:Nevada looks good for Obama. New Hampshire looks really good for him -- and that was one of those states where we hadn't shown much bounce for him before. Yet another North Carolina poll shows Obama ahead; for the first time, we now have him as a (very, very slight) favorite in the state.
Post-debate Thoughts: Mccain-palin Opted To Play It Safe
October 03, 2008
As with the Obama-McCain debate last Friday, the vast majority of the insta-polls went to the Democratic ticket. Biden won the CBS poll of undecideds 46-21, and the CNN poll of debate watchers 51-36. Independents in the large MediaCurves focus group panel went for Biden about 2:1.The internals, however, weren't nearly as bad for Palin as the topline results.
Today's Polls: Boom Goes The Dynamite
October 02, 2008
Let's just start things off with a nice, big chart: You should notice a couple of new features. Firstly, I am now listing the national polls that have come out since the last update -- today there are a ton of them -- just so that we can be more fully transparent. Also, we now have a way to indicate tracking polls: they are designated with a slash. So, for instance, a "3000/3" (as for the Rasmussen Tracker) means that the poll included a rolling sample of 3,000 voters conducted over a 3-day window.Obviously, there are a lot of great numbers for Obama today.


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text: The Second in Command | IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information Official Broadway League sites: - sites - broadway.org broadwayleague.com broadwayfanclub.com kidsnightonbroadway.com stagespecs.org tonyawards.com Quick Search For: In This Category: All Show People/Org. Theatre Season The credits for this production have not yet been completed or verified. The Second in Command Wallack's Theatre, (11/03/1913 - circa. 11/1913) First Preview: Total Previews: Opening Date: Nov 03, 1913 Closing Date: Nov 1913 Total Performances: 11 Category: Play, Revival Description: A play in four acts Opening Night Credits Production Staff Produced by Liebler & Co. Written by Robert Marshall Cast Edward CombermereArthur CurtisJames DaleStanley H. GroomeDavid HallamLena HallidayJohn HarwoodArthur HentonJack HobbsMontague LoveCyril MaudeMargery MaudeMary MerrallHunter NesbittR. P. Young © 2001-2015, The Broadway League, All Rights Reserved. (Copyright and Disclaimer)


text:
I'm not a huge fan of structure. I followed the designated path of life for a while, but I got bored with it. So now I have my own company. It's a lot exciting and a little frightening. The stakes are high, the pace furious. But I sleep better at night than I ever did as a corporate cog.
I love adventures. The best two weeks of my life were my 2007 trip to Japan. It was full of surprises and good friends, like a good adventure should be. I love to find new ways to get around Reston on my bike, and of course, there's my site - which is my biggest adventure yet.
Outdoors, indoors, there's really no way of knowing where to find me. Board games and rock climbing? Reading wikipedia, trading stock, and contemplating the future? That would be a pretty normal day for me - assuming I wasn't working. Which I am, almost every day, in one way or another.
I live the schedule that suits me. I'm more likely to be working at 11PM than 11AM. It's always work time and it's always play time.
I love dogs and hate traffic. I can handle your zany puppy, no matter how zany he/she is. Oh, he/she weighs 100 lbs and comes flying across the room at visitors? No fear, only love.
I am mercurial, scintillating, and analytical


text:
- Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1977.179
- People
John Singleton Copley, American (Boston, MA 1738 - 1815 London, England)
- Title
- Abigael Bromfield Rogers (Mrs. Daniel Denison Rogers) (1753-1791)
- Classification
- Paintings
- Work Type
- painting
- Date
- c. 1784
- Places
- Creation Place: North America, United States
- Culture
- American
- Location
Level 2, Room 2220, European and American Art, 17th–19th century
View this object's location on our interactive map
- Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 127 x 101.6 cm (50 x 40 in.)
frame: 150.5 x 125.1 x 8.9 cm (59 1/4 x 49 1/4 x 3 1/2 in.)
- Provenance
- Abigail Bromfield Rogers; to her son Henry B. Rogers, Boston, MA; by descent through family to Mrs. W. C. Cabot; to Miss A. P. Rogers, 1915; to a relative, Henry B. Cabot, to his wife, Mrs. Henry B. Cabot, by 1938; to relatives Mr. and Mrs. Paul C. Cabot; their gift to the Fogg Art Museum, 1977.
- Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Paul C. Cabot, Treasurer of Harvard University, 1948-1965 and Mrs. Cabot
- Accession Year
- 1977
- Object Number
- 1977.179
- Division
- European and American Art
- Contact
- firstname.lastname@example.com
- Publication History
Henry T. Tuckerman, Book of the Artists: American Artist Life, Comprising Biographical and Critical Sketches of American Artists, Preceded by an Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of Art in America, Putnam (New York, NY, 1867), p. 73
Augustus Thorndyke Perkins, A Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley, J. R. Osgood & Company (Boston, MA, 1873), pp. 99-100
Samuel Green Wheeler Benjamin, Art in America: A Critical and Historical Sketch, Harper and Brothers Publishers (New York, NY, 1880), ill. frontispiece
Martha Babcock Amory, The Domestic and Artistic Life of John Singleton Copley, R.A., Houghton Mifflin Company (Boston, MA, 1882), p. 107
Frank William Bayley, The Life and Works of John Singleton Copley: Founded on the Work of Augustus Thorndike Perkins, The Taylor Press (Boston, MA, 1915), p. 209 (as Mrs. Abigail Rogers)
John Singleton Copley, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA, 1938), p. 27, cat. 66
Historical Records Survey, Division of Professional and Service Projects, Works Progress Administration, American Portraits, 1620-1825, found in Massachusetts, Volumes 1 and 2, Historical Records Survey (Boston, MA, 1939), p. 343, cat. 1826
Old and New England, exh. cat., Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI, 1945), p. 39, cat. 22, ill.
John Singleton Copley, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C, 1965), p. 109, cat. 81, color pl. XV
Jules David Prown, John Singleton Copley, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1966), vol. 2, pp. 296, 430, pl. 428
John Singleton Copley (1738-1815), Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828), Benjamin West (1738-1820) in America and England, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA, 1976), p. 29, cat. 18, ill. p. 7
James Thomas Flexner, America's Old Masters, Doubleday & Co. (Garden City, NY, 1980), pp. 152-153, ill.
Robert F. Perkins, Jr. and William J. Gavin, III, Boston Athenaeum Art Exhibition Index, 1827-1874, The Library of the Boston Athenaeum (Boston, MA, 1980), p. 39
William J. Shank, "John Singleton Copley's Portraits: A Technical Study of Three Representative Examples", Journal of the American Institute for Conservation (Washington, D.C., 1984), vol. 23, pp. 130-152, pp. 134-135, ill.
Leslie Reinhardt, "John Singleton Copley in England", Archives of American Art Journal, Smithsonian Institution (Detroit, MI, 1994), vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 28-32, p. 29, ill. p. 30
Timothy Anglin Burgard, American Art at Harvard: Cultures and Contexts, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1994), p. 11, cat. 51
William L. Pressly, "The Challenge of New Horizons", John Singleton Copley in England, ed. Emily Ballew Neff, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, TX, 1995), pp. 53-54, ill. p. 135
Emily Ballew Neff, ed., John Singleton Copley in England, exh. cat., The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, TX, 1995), pp. 134-135, cat. 16, ill.
Ellen G. Miles, American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C, 1995), p.226
Erica E. Hirshler, "Copley in Miniature", John Singleton Copley in America, ed. Carrie Rebora Barratt, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY, 1995-1996), pp. 117-126, p. 124
Robin Jaffee Frank, Love and Loss: American Portrait and Mourning Miniatures, exh. cat., Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, CT, 2000), pp. 134-136, 345, fig. 74.
Kimberly Orcutt, Process and Paradox: The Historical Pictures of John Singleton Copley, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2004), pp. 3-4, ill., 12
Margaret A. Hogan, ed., The Adams Papers: Adams Family Correspondence, January 1786 - February 1787, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 2005), p. 38, fig. 3
John Updike, Still Looking: Essays on American Art, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (New York, 2005), ill. p. 21
Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. and Melissa Renn, American Paintings at Harvard, Volume One: Paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels by Artists Born before 1826, Yale University Press and Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge and New Haven, 2014), pp. 151-152, cat. 94, ill.
Theodore Bolton and Henry Lorin Binsse, "John Singleton Copley", The Antiquarian (New York, NY, December 1930), pp. 116-118., p. 118
William J. Shank, "John Singleton Copley's Portraits: A Technical Study of Three Representative Examples" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, July 1983), Unpublished, pp. 1-45 passim
- Exhibition History
Unidentified Exhibition, Boston Athenaeum, 1828, Boston Athenaeum, Boston, 01/01/1828 - 12/31/1828
John Singleton Copley 1737-1815, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 02/01/1938 - 03/15/1938
Old and New England, Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art, Providence, 01/19/1945 - 02/19/1945
John Singleton Copley, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 09/18/1965 - 10/31/1965; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 11/20/1965 - 01/02/1966; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 01/22/1966 - 03/06/1966
Copley, Stuart and West in America and England, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 10/17/1976 - 11/07/1976
American Art at Harvard: Cultures and Contexts, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/01/1994 - 12/30/1994
John Singleton Copley in England, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 10/11/1995 - 01/07/1996; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, 02/04/1996 - 04/28/1996
Process and Paradox: The Historical Pictures of John Singleton Copley, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 05/08/2004 - 08/29/2004
- Subjects and Contexts
Collection Highlights
Artstor Digital Library
Google Art Project
- Verification Level
4 - Best. Object is extensively researched, well described and information is vetted


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Carlos Edward Jenkins
Position: LB
Height: 6-3 Weight: 217 lbs.
Born: July 12, 1968 in Palm Beach, FL
High School: Santaluces
College: Michigan St. (school history)
Drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the 3rd round (65th overall) of the 1991 NFL Draft.
Weighted Career AV (100-95-...): 31 (3154th overall since 1950)
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1991 Game Log: Regular Season · Playoffs · vs.


text:
- Northern New York Newspapers
- Watertown
- Ogdensburg
- Massena-Potsdam
- Lowville
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- Malone
- NNY Business
- NNY Living
- NNY Ads
By DANIEL FLATLEY
FORT DRUM A song inspired by fallen Fort Drum soldier and Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. 1st Class Jared C. Monti won song of the year at Sundays Academy of Country Music Awards.
The song I Drive Your Truck, performed by Lee Brice, also was nominated for Single Record of the Year and Video of the Year.
It was written by Connie Harrington and her two writing partners after hearing Sgt. Montis father, Paul, talk about his son on a National Public Radio program. Mr. Monti has driven his sons Dodge Ram truck since his death, including driving it to the post for a memorial service honoring soldiers who died in 2012.
Sgt. Monti was a member of the 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. He was leading a 16-man reconnaissance patrol in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan, in June 2006 when they were attacked. He moved the patrol into a defensive position, returned fire and called for indirect fire support before being mortally wounded attempting to save a fellow soldier.
In November, the song was chosen as Song of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards.
The song can be heard at http://wdt.me/pgQ24J.
Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.
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text: Harold Hendee | IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information Official Broadway League sites: - sites - broadway.org broadwayleague.com broadwayfanclub.com kidsnightonbroadway.com stagespecs.org tonyawards.com Quick Search For: In This Category: All Show People/Org. Theatre Season Harold Hendee Performer Male Also known as: Harold F. Hendee Productions ProductionsDate of ProductionsThe Triumphant Bachelor[Play, Original] Performer: Harold Hendee [David Emery]Sep 15, 1927 - Sep 1927Love Laughs[Play, Original] Performer: Harold Hendee May 20, 1919 - Jun 1919Back to Earth[Play, Original] Performer: Harold Hendee Dec 23, 1918 - Jan 1919The Little Cherub[Musical, Comedy, Original] Performer: Harold F. Hendee [Sir John Monteith]Aug 06, 1906 - Feb 1907The Earl and the Girl[Musical, Comedy, Original] Performer: Harold Hendee [Chorus]Nov 04, 1905 - Mar 10, 1906The Money Makers[Play, Comedy, Original] Performer: Harold F. Hendee Jan 16, 1905 - Jan 1905The Baroness Fiddlesticks[Musical, Comedy, Opera, Satire, Original] Performer: Harold Hendee [Chorus]Nov 21, 1904 - Dec 10, 1904Marta of the Lowlands[Play, Drama, Original] Performer: Harold Hendee Oct 13, 1903 - Nov 1903 Find out where Harold Hendee and are credited together © 2001-2015, The Broadway League, All Rights Reserved. (Copyright and Disclaimer)


text:
Category Archive
'Alt-power vehicles': 259 Posts
Four-Links – Osborn's Oldsmobile, Randy Lanier, Perkins Plymouths, Skyline swap
* If you think the rear end of John Osborn's fiberglass-bodied Oldsmobile looked radical, check out the front end, as seen in the few photos Geoff Hacker of Forgotten Fiberglass and Sondre Kvipt of Kustomrama have managed to piece together.
* With former racing driver Randy Lanier now out of jail, Patrick George at Jalopnik took a look at both his career and the marijuana smuggling operation that financed his racing career and that led to him spending the last quarter century in jail.
(Photo from IMCDB)
* Europeans long appreciated diesel engines in their passenger cars, so a number of American carmakers, in an effort to appease their European customers, put diesel engines where we'd least expect them. Allpar has an article exploring how many Chrysler cars got fitted with oil-burners in the Fifties.
* At first glance, it looks to be a nicely restored Seventies Nissan Skyline, but as Engine Swap Depot pointed out, it not only has an RB26DETT twin-turbocharged dual overhead-camshaft straight-six from a later Nissan Skyline GT-R, it also apparently has the later Skyline's all-wheel-drive system.
* Finally, as Ryan on the Garage Journal pointed out, there's more than one use for vintage Airstream trailers. While this fella converted his into a workshop for repairing saxomophones, we car guys with limited garage space could take a lesson or two from his thoughts about the conversion.
Records are meant to be broken: 80.4 MPH on a steam-powered motorcycle
Photos by the author.
Breaking land-speed records tends to be a fairly difficult proposition. The multitude of venues for doing so nowadays has opened up the opportunities for record breaking, but has also attracted more racers going after records, ratcheting the speeds up higher every year. So it'd probably make sense to find a fairly old, fairly obscure record to break. Something like the land-speed record for steam-powered motorcycles, which was last set 118 years ago.
Or thereabouts. According to Stanley historian Jim Merrick, steam-vehicle pioneer Sylvester Roper had been timed at record-setting speeds atop his Columbia bicycle fitted with a steam engine at least twice in 1896—once at 27.07 MPH and then later during the last lap of a race at Charles River Park in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at 32.4 MPH—and he claimed to have once hit 40 MPH with his motorcycle on a straightaway south of Boston. Roper died that year while atop his motorcycle during a race, apparently from a heart attack.
One other steam-powered motorcycle appears to have gone faster than Roper's in the intervening years: An unidentified rider atop a Stearns tandem motorcycle being used to pace a bicycle race in Chicago in November 1899 recorded a speed of 45.56 MPH. Or, at least, the bicycle racer immediately behind the motorcycle recorded that speed; everybody in attendance seemed to care more about the bicyclist's speed than the motorcycle's.
Enter steam enthusiast Bill Barnes of Lewistown, Pennsylvania. Barnes is no stranger to going fast in a steam-powered vehicle, given that he owns and regularly drives a Vanderbilt Cup Stanley racer replica, and he has made a business of building new burners and boilers for Stanleys. While other racers have been going after the four-wheeled steam land-speed record in recent years, setting and chasing after a new record of 148.308 MPH, Barnes decided to break Roper's two-wheeled steam record, the longest-standing land-speed record on the books.
"I had Roper's motorcycle here in the shop a while back, and I thought, 'I gotta break that damn record,' and once I talked myself into it, I had to do it," Barnes said. That was about two years ago, but Barnes said the decision also came after about 30 years of building new and improved burners and boilers, far more efficient, lighter, and stronger than those the Stanley brothers could build more than 100 years ago. "I use a little closer tolerances on the tubes, and my burner weighs about 20 pounds, where the Stanley's burner weighed 150 pounds."
So Barnes went to work, basing his motorcycle around his own boiler/burner combination and a circa-1908 Stanley EX two-cylinder engine, originally good for about 10 horsepower. With his modifications to the engine and steam system, Barnes figures it's now good for six times that number. To save weight and complexity, he also decided to ditch all the pumps and run the system without a condenser. "It all goes straight out the pipe," he said. "Don't need to worry about water consumption when you're only going about four or five miles at a time." A front fork from a mid-1970s Honda motorcycle and aluminum bodywork that Barnes built himself constituted the rest of the bike.
He finished the build in time to take the steam motorcycle to the East Coast Timing Association's speed trials last month in Wilmington, Ohio, where he aimed to double the claimed—if not recorded—top speed of Roper's motorcycle his first time out with his bike, ultimately posting a speed of 80.4 MPH.
"I really wanted to go 100, but 80 ain't bad," Barnes said. "Somebody asked me if I was scared to go that fast, and yeah, I was scared to death—I ain't stupid."
Barnes said he plans to head back to Wilmington next year with the bike to see if he can go a little faster, but he doesn't imagine his record will now inspire others to go land-speed racing atop steam-powered motorcycles. "No, I don't think anyone else will do it," he said. "At least, I hope they have the sense not to do it."
Midweek Matinee: Tomorrow's Drivers
Images courtesy Rob Stuart and AustinWorks.com.
Had more children known that the Phoenix, Arizona, school system implemented such an amazingly cool driver's education program at Garfield Elementary School back in 1954, we suspect that the school's phone may have rung nonstop with constant requests to switch school districts… by parents whose voices sounded suspiciously youthful.
The Jam Handy film Tomorrow's Drivers begins with a miniaturized streetscape filled to the brim with students piloting a fleet of surprisingly uncrumpled Austin Junior Forty (J40) pedal cars, which were produced beginning in 1949 by Austin Motor Company Limited at their factory in Bargoed, South Wales, United Kingdom. One lone tractor, pulling a trailer, appears to be a period AMF. The children learn proper signals, rules of the road, and what happens when the former two items are ignored; a ticket and stint in "time out," for example.
Older children are taught bicycle safety, while driving-age students of North Phoenix High School take their turn behind the wheel of a 1953 Chevrolet Two Ten four-door sedan, with its requisite swaths of cautionary "student driver" lettering and plug for the local dealer, Quebedeaux Chevrolet. Why, there's even some properly sanctioned and chaperoned hot rod club quarter-mile racing going on here.
And while the calming voice of the narrator, James (It's a Wonderful Life) Stewart, describes the story of one young man who loses, then regains, his license and goes on to politely open the door for his date and responsibly motor away in the family's 1954 Two Ten, the film is also directed at Mother, who initially blows through a stop sign in her '54 Bel Air (with daughter aboard), and later comes to see the error of her ways.
Public domain archival footage courtesy of the Internet Moving Images Archive, Archive.org, in association with Prelinger Archives.
As for the Austin J40s seen in the video, Rob Stuart at AustinWorks.com explains that the Austin Junior Car Factory was funded by the South Wales government to provide light manufacturing opportunities to disabled coal miners and was operated as a nonprofit enterprise by Austin.
The J40 was a very well-equipped toy of excellent quality and was probably the best pedal car on the market at the time. It featured real working headlights and horn; detachable wheels with Dunlop pneumatic tires; leather cloth seating; an opening bonnet and boot; a lot of good quality chrome, namely bumpers, hub caps, grille, boot handle, and center bonnet moulding with the Flying A ornament.
The J40 Roadster was based on the 1948 A40 Dorset and Devon saloons. Prototype Austin pedal cars were called JOY cars. The J later was used as "Junior" — the 40 was from the horsepower of the A40 car. Sales brochures were titled Just Like Father's Car: "What a thrill for 'Junior' to drive a car just like father's, to polish it even better than he does, to take the wheels off or pump up the tyres, to lift up the bonnet and examine the 'engine', and best of all to show it off to admiring friends and relatives."
Austin pedal cars were sold through the Austin dealers worldwide. The J40 was primarily intended for the American market but eventually they were to be found around the globe.
There were 32,098 J40s made from 1950 to 1971.
How a bunch of college kids convinced Detroit to cut smog in 1970
1970 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu entered by the Tufts University team in the 1970 Clean Air Car Race. Photo from the Tufts Digital Library.
The whine of a turbine filled the air. Electric cars scooted around without making a sound. Steam cars chuffed their way to the starting line. Propane, natural gas and other exotically fueled cars waited in the wings. And among the 50 or so experimental and prototype vehicles that participated in the cross-country 1970 Clean Air Car Race, the technology from a handful of them would go on to help make modern cars cleaner.
In 1970, the pall of protests hung in the air at college campuses across America. Restive students agitated for social, political, and environmental change, and the protests had started to take a violent and deadly turn. Also in 1970, a literal pall of smog hung in the air at many of those same college campuses. While smog plagued some areas of the country as far back as the Teens, and efforts to clean up stationary polluters began in the early 1950s, the identification and cleanup of mobile polluters didn't begin in earnest until the early 1960s in California, later in the decade across the rest of the country.
Just as the overall environmental movement led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the celebration of Earth Day that year, the increased attention on tailpipe emissions led to the 1970 Clean Air Act – popularly known as the "Muskie Act" after Senator Edmund Muskie's role in drafting the bill – which updated similar, but less far-reaching, Clean Air acts of 1955, 1963 and 1967. Under the Muskie Act, for the first time the country's automakers had to implement controls to reduce certain tailpipe emissions, including carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides by up to 90 percent – and they had to do so within five years. "If they can gear up for a war, they can gear up for public health," Muskie said at the time.
Even before the Muskie Act became law, Detroit's automakers voiced their opposition, claiming they couldn't meet such stringent standards in so little time. But another narrative ran counter to Detroit's opposition, pointing out that the technology to meet and surpass the standards in the Muskie Act not only existed, but could be implemented in a roadworthy automobile.
Among those making the counter-argument were environmentally minded college professors and students, in particular those in the engineering departments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. In 1968, a CalTech engineering student, Wally Rippel, issued a challenge to MIT students: Build an electric car and make it to our campus before we can make it to yours in our electric car.
Breakdowns and other mishaps befell the so-called Great Electric Car Race, but both entrants finished the race (CalTech won, thanks to penalties levied against MIT), and the experience showed that the potential at least existed for cars to make such a cross-country run while emitting drastically less pollutants than those coming off of Detroit's assembly lines.
So in October 1969, folks from MIT and CalTech got together to reiterate their challenge. The next race would take place in August 1970. It would run from Cambridge to Pasadena, and this time, they would open up the race to any college that wanted to participate. They'd also allow more than just electric cars to compete in this race: Initially, the rules called for three classes – one each for electric, steam, and turbine power – but as word spread and as various university engineering departments began to respond to the race requirements, the rules committee added a few classes for vehicles with internal combustion engines: one for liquid-fueled engines, one for gaseous-fueled engines and one for hybrids.
The rules for the race were actually rather simple: Vehicles had to have four wheels, they had to carry at least two average-sized adults, they had to maintain a minimum speed of 45 MPH over level ground, and most important of all, they had to meet the upcoming 1975 federal emission standards.
The judging, however, ended up a Byzantine affair that would later prove contentious. Vehicles were scored not only on whether they completed the race (which was more of a rally, with scheduled stops in Toronto; Detroit; Champaign, Illinois; Oklahoma City; Odessa, Texas; and Tucson), but also on how they performed across a variety of categories (including noise, handling and acceleration) and on how little they polluted along the way, with tailpipe measurements taken in Cambridge, in Detroit and again in Pasadena (according to MIT, powerplant emissions were factored in for the electric vehicles). "Class winners were determined by a mathematical formula which proved in some instances to be as whimsical and arbitrary as the judging panel," Jim Henry wrote in the September 24, 1970, edition of The California Tech, CalTech's student newspaper. The crowning of an overall winner would prove even more opaque and generate quite a bit of controversy.
The University of Wisconsin's two entries: A Lotus Europa running unleaded gas, and an Opel GT running propane.
The response was enormous. At least 32 colleges and four high schools submitted more than 40 entries in all six classes. That's likely due to a few factors: First, race organizers allowed participants to solicit and receive assistance from corporations; though not every team took advantage of the fact, many at least used it to secure sponsorships and funding for their projects. Second, General Motors stepped in to provide a number of Chevrolet Chevelle sedans for use as entries or as support vehicles (Saab, too, supplied a car to Worcester Polytechnic), and the National Air Pollution Control Administration pledged to lease each category winner after the race to study it, essentially a prize of $5,000.
Along the way, students participating in the design, build and competition for the race would present reams of papers on their experiences and findings and would earn countless credit hours.
Opening the race up to corporations, some argued, led to a number of companies essentially entering the race themselves behind student fronts. The move also led to some unexpected developments. For instance, Louisiana State University's entry, a 1970 Pontiac Le Mans four-door sedan, used a 400-cu.in. Pontiac V-8 and fueled up on regular leaded gasoline; aside from some thermal reactors and a particulate trap in the exhaust system, about the only modification made to it was a special carburetor developed by the Ethyl Corporation – the entity behind the promotion, manufacture and distribution of leaded gasoline.
On the other end of the spectrum, some of the entries showed extensive student-led innovation and experimentation. MIT's 1970 Chevrolet C-10 pickup used a jet turbine mounted under a camper shell – with an exhaust stack exiting where the tailgate normally resided and angled to point straight up – to spin a generator that charged a bank of batteries that in turn powered a 600-hp DC motor. At least a few schools entered vehicles fabricated from the ground up, as did the University of Toronto with its Miss Purity, which mounted a student-designed fiberglass gullwing body on a custom chassis and then powered it with a propane-converted 302-cu.in. Chevrolet V-8 that ran a parallel hybrid drive system.
By far, though, the most popular class was the gaseous fuel class, with 20 entrants, 13 of which converted their regular gas cars to run on propane (and one of which – the entry from Putnam City High School in Oklahoma City, developed for the school by Corken International – converted its Opel GT to run on either propane or compressed natural gas).
And that's just the official entry list. The months leading up to the race produced several vehicles that didn't make it to the starting line for one reason or another. One of the University of California San Diego's campus police cars, part of a fleet already converted to propane, was destroyed in a one-car wreck on its way from San Diego to Cambridge. At least a couple of cars, including Boston University's Avis-sponsored custom-built battery-electric car, appear in coverage of the race, but not in the official entry list. And a group of MIT students and staff even attempted to convert a two-stroke three-cylinder Saab to single-acting uniflow steam power.
"We had it running briefly, but after 20 minutes of running it seized up," said David Nergaard, who designed the steam engine, but said the flaw came from an advisor's suggestion they use steel bearings. "It also became obvious by the time the race was approaching that our steam generator wouldn't be ready, and besides, it wouldn't fit under the Saab's hood." So in response, he said he rolled his Stanley steam car across the starting line. "The Ford people running the emission tests in Cambridge weren't happy that a 50-year-old piece of technology was as advanced as some of their modern cars."
The UCSD steam-powered AMC Javelin. Photo from Ray Salemme.
Of the two steam-powered cars that started the race – UCSD's AMC Javelin and Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Chevelle – neither finished, and thus the category went without a winner for the race. The Javelin, however, deserves a special mention, if not for its already-in-development powerplant – a 74-cu.in. Harley-Davidson V-twin with custom rotary valves designed to run under 800 pounds of steam pressure and produce about 75 horsepower – then for one of its designers, a UCSD chemistry professor named Stanley Miller, who nearly 20 years earlier had conducted a famous series of experiments related to the origin of life.
Some of the original competitors from the 1968 race showed up as well: MIT's Corvair switched from a battery-electric drivetrain to a serial hybrid drivetrain for the race, while Rippel, the instigator of the 1968 race, helped Cornell design and build its all-electric 1970 AMC Hornet. CalTech, for its part, decided to enter two cars converted to compressed natural gas – another 1970 AMC Hornet and a 1970 Ford Ranchero – largely because an electric car would have consumed too much development time.
LIFE magazine photo of some of the entrants in the 1970 Clean Air Car Race on the morning it left from Cambridge.
Disputes about race rules began even before the official August 24 start of the race. Even though the emissions results counted for roughly twice the performance testing in the final tally, some of the teams with steam-, electric- and turbine-powered vehicles complained that the internal combustion-powered entrants had begun to treat the event as an actual race to the finish; the electrics got a two-hour head start in response (probably explaining why none are in the group shot that appeared in LIFE magazine, above).
Finally getting a good look at the other cars in the race, the teams primarily run by students registered their displeasure at the extent of corporate involvement among their competitors.
And quirks of the rulebook and emissions testing procedures befuddled some teams: For instance, the CalTech Hornet scored highest on the emissions testing in Cambridge, but an exhaust leak midway through the race forced it into last place not necessarily because it ran dirtier than other entrants, but because of the wide differential in emissions output between the start and end of the race.
Still, the race generated plenty of publicity. The Today Show included an interview with participants before the race, and several accounts of the pre-race preparations note that the student teams had to not only get their vehicles running right, but also conduct interviews with reporters at the same time. Popular Science and Popular Mechanics wrote up the race, both before and after the event.
Even as the war in Vietnam continued and the trial of the Manson family for the Sharon Tate murders took place, the race grabbed front–page headlines as it made its way across the country, and the CBS Evening News followed the race's progress every night. Reporters noted which teams led the race at various stages and wrote about the exhaustion of the drivers and mechanical maladies the teams suffered toward the end of the race.
Through it all, cameras rolled, filming the event for an Orson Welles-narrated documentary. And the towns that hosted the race made the best of it: Champaign officials presented the keys to the city to the students; Oklahoma City businessmen treated the students to a buffalo steak barbecue.
Some cars didn't make it the entire way across the country. WPI's steam-powered Chevelle, the Great Teakettle, dropped out, as did the UCSD steam-powered Javelin, which made it about a half-mile beyond the starting line, unable to meet the minimum speed for the Massachusetts Turnpike. The four battery-powered electrics, which benefited from a network of charging stations set up along the route by local utilities, fared a little better: Georgia Tech's Volkswagen-based Elect-Reck made it to the Mississippi River, and even then only with the prodding of race organizers, while the Cornell AMC Hornet at least made it to the finish line.
Others, meanwhile, became minor stars along the way. Just about every account of the race mentions at least two entrants: the University of Toronto gullwing, and the MIT turbine-powered C-10, which burned leaves off of trees all along the route and reportedly shredded the banner that hung over the finish line on the CalTech campus. Science fiction author David Brin, at the time an undergrad at CalTech and a member of the Clean Air Car Race coordinating committee, recalls the truck giving "ear-splitting demos to the press" while parked just outside his dorm room. Both took class wins, though the pickup did so only by dint of having the turbine class all to itself, and the University of Toronto gullwing shared its class win with WPI's Gremlin.
Other class winners included the Cornell AMC Hornet for the electric car class, WPI's propane-powered 1970 Chevrolet Chevy II Nova four-door sedan in the gaseous fuel internal combustion class, and Stanford's methyl alcohol-powered 1970 AMC Gremlin in the liquid fuel internal combustion class.
The Caprang, a 302-powered Mercury Capri running unleaded. Photo courtesy Wayne State University.
The overall win, meanwhile, went to Wayne State University's Caprang, a 1971 Mercury Capri fitted with a 302-cu-in. V-8 from a Ford Mustang, a C-4 automatic transmission, and a 2.33 rear. The team – which consisted of captain Richard A. Jeryan, Brian Geraghty, Mike Riley, John Karol, Alden Raquepau, Lawrence P. Wagle and Dan Harmon – fitted a fiberglass hood, doors and decklid, along with plexiglass side and rear windows for weight reduction.
And rather than convert to propane or natural gas or hybrid drive, they installed a low-overlap camshaft to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, added off-the-shelf catalytic converters and an EGR system, and isolated the carburetor from the rest of the engine compartment to precisely control its temperature. They didn't run straight gasoline from the pump, however. Instead, they ran the engine on lead-sterile gas.
The selection of the Caprang as the overall winner didn't sit well with many of the other participants. It didn't win its class, after all, and one account of the race claims that it failed to meet the 1975 emission standards that race organizers made central to the competition (a claim that probably resulted from the car's emissions test in Detroit, when a manual choke accidentally left open caused the car to register high carbon monoxide readings; the Caprang's subsequent emissions test in Pasadena reportedly resulted in readings that almost surpassed the 1980 emissions standards).
Moreover, the Wayne State University team, as it turned out, was allegedly made up of carburetor engineers then employed by Ford and taking night classes at the school; the team initially couldn't collect their winnings because Ford Motor Company held at least partial ownership of the Caprang.
"(The Clean Air Car Race) turned into an advertisement for a patched-up gas model which allows the major automotive companies to look like they're doing something and they're not," said Peter Lord, a member of the Cornell electric-car team.
But, if nothing else, the Caprang's win did show a way forward for Detroit's automakers. If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler couldn't – or wouldn't – dedicate the resources to develop more exotic steam, turbine, or electric powerplants (Nergaard maintains GM deliberately killed its steam and turbine programs by intermingling the teams working on those programs), they could at least meet federally mandated emissions regulations by using an assortment of proven emissions control devices – catalytic converters, EGR valves, air injection systems, capacitive discharge ignition systems and careful tuning – combined with a switch from leaded to unleaded gasoline.
"I think the race markedly helped our cause and stirred some emotional interest in the program," said John Brogan of the Air Pollution Control Administration.
Some were more direct in their evaluation of the results.
"We're trying to show the industry that the technology exists to reduce pollution," said Alan Goldberg, then a 21-year-old MIT student. "If students can do it and make their cars go across country, the industry can do it."
Indeed, within five years of the race, all of the above emissions control devices became commonplace under the hoods of American cars. The phaseout of leaded gasoline took a little longer, starting in 1973 and lasting through the mid-1990s, while fuel injection wouldn't make it to American cars until the early to mid-1980s, and hybrids wouldn't begin to appear until the early 2000s.
Even so, those latter developments were years, if not decades, in the making, and many argue that the automakers in America and around the world began their research into fuel injection, hybrids and viable electrics as a direct outgrowth of the environmental movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Take, for instance, the first-ever Symposium on Low Pollution Power Systems Development, which took place in 1973 with widespread participation from Detroit's automakers.
"It turns out that the most historically significant thing we accomplished was effected by the least romantic or innovative vehicles in the race," Brin wrote. "Those boring old internal combustion cars that made it across the country on unleaded gas without any explosions. Not even any excess engine wear. They still went vroom in Pasadena, and then were driven all the way back east again and the public noticed. Poll numbers shifted. Within 18 months the EPA had enough support to start acting to reduce lead poisoning."
For all of its positive impact, the 1970 Clean Air Car Race would end up the only such Clean Air Car Race. It proved costly, even with corporate and industrial support: MIT's final tally of the expenses for the race amounted to $265,490, or about $2 million in today's dollars, most of that amount going to the film contract for the documentary.
A follow-up race of sorts, the Urban Vehicle Design Competition, took place in 1972, with less of a focus on cross-country travel and more on a car's suitability to an urban environment. While it lacked the glamor and adventure of the 1970 Clean Air Car Race, the Urban Vehicle Design Competition still managed to attract dozens of entrants from across the country with an equal variety of experimental engines running exotic fuels.
How many of the vehicles from the 1970 Clean Air Car Race still exist is uncertain. We've only found evidence of two: An electric Honda motorcycle, an unofficial entry from Campolindo High School in California; and the WPI Gremlin that shared top honors for the hybrid class. The latter now sports a 650-hp AMC V-8 and conventional drivetrain capable of pushing the Gremlin into the 11s in the quarter mile.
Even so, that Gremlin's owner doesn't have to turn its headlamps on in the daytime to plow through heavy smog.
The official entry list for the 1970 Clean Air Car Race:
That rapscallion repo man Curtis and possibly the world's first getaway car
In researching steam cars of the 19th century for the recent article on the Seth Taylor car, it became apparent that said steamers were really good at two things in particular: Establishing automotive firsts and angering their inventors' neighbors and fellow townspeople. Francis Curtis's steamer of 1867 managed to do both at once.
To be fair, Curtis wasn't really all that much of a rapscallion, as far as we can tell. Rather, he held at least a few prominent positions in the Newburyport, Massachusetts, municipal government, including superintendent of the gas works and builder of the first municipal waste system. In 1866 he even built the city a steam-powered wagon for fighting fires, a vehicle that didn't, apparently, see much use but did, apparently, convince the Amoskeag Locomotive Works of nearby Manchester, New Hampshire, to begin building fire engines, some of which would go on to become the first self-powered fire engines for the New york and Los Angeles fire departments.
Though Curtis's steam-powered fire engine didn't see production, it received enough praise – "as self-reliant and independent as though it were a living thing," the Newburyport Daily Herald reported – to convince him to build a smaller steam-powered passenger vehicle. The Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1805-1942, describes it as a horseless carriage with a 40- to 45-pound vertical boiler steam system and 5hp engine capable of 25 MPH and a range of 30 miles, "provided about a half-dozen stops were made for water."
Curtis built the steam carriage for a customer and reportedly charged $1,000, to be paid in installments, for it. When the customer fell behind on payments, Curtis took it back, making the first instance of vehicular repossession, according to the Standard Catalog. His neighbors couldn't have been all too happy, though. Like the inventors and operators of many a steam-powered horseless carriage, including John Gore and the instigators of Britain's infamous Red Flag Act, Curtis and his steam carriage caused all sorts of agitation among his neighbors. In Curtis's case, it was enough for one of those neighbors to swear out a warrant for Curtis's arrest, though on what charge nobody seems to know (likely some variation of disturbing the peace).
"When the sheriff arrived, Francis Curtis left, in his car, with the lawman in hot pursuit on foot – the first getaway by automobile in American history," according to the Standard Catalog. Sure, it wasn't for robbing a bank or a train – those getaway cars would likely come decades later – but it counts.
While no source seems to relate the ultimate fate of the Curtis steam carriage, Curtis himself must have continued tinkering with steam power, judging from the slide valve for a steam engine he patented in 1870. He also must have made nice with the locals, considering he worked to finish their sewer system in later years. He did, however, choose to build a house and live a couple towns over, in Topsfield, just far enough away from those irate neighbors.
Boston to Chicago in an electric (and millions more)
The Internet Archive Book Images collection has uploaded over 2.6 million photographs, illustrations, and visual images to their Flickr. According to the BBC, these previously unavailable images were scanned from over 600 million book pages printed from 1500 to 1922 (though some appear to be from as late as the 1950s, raising potential copyright issues) and tagged according to the surrounding text. Spending time in there can lead to some interesting discoveries, such as the story behind the gentleman shown in the electric automobile above. At the wheel of the S.R. Bailey & Company Model F roadster is Colonel Bailey himself, having completed a touring run from Boston to Chicago via New York City.
As reported by Popular Electricity in Plain English magazine, circa 1912, the colonel made the trip with no accident or failure of the electric car, and many gasoline cars were passed on the route. The car was equipped with a General Electric motor and a long-range 60 cell A-6 Edison battery, which helped the Colonel and engineer H.J. Foote cover around 150 miles per day. Average speed over the 1,300-mile trip was 15.7 miles per hour with total time adjusted for road stops, which "included not only those for inquiring along the way, railroad gates, etc., but for getting arrested and going to court, stopping for luncheon, changing tire chains, etc." No explanation was given concerning the particular events which led to the arrest (!), but the average running speed without stops was 17.8 miles per hour.
The image archive was created by going back over book scans which were initially ignored by optical character recognition (OCR) software on the assumption that these were images, drawings, or something else that did not contain characters. These areas were saved as jpeg image files and posted to Flickr with the surrounding text, along with a link to the source book or magazine page, which in this case revealed the story of Colonel Bailey and his electric roadster. And millions more! Who knew?
To search the archive, click on over to the Internet Archive of Book Images and enter a search limited to the archive collection. Try the search terms "engine" or "automobile," but only if you have a few hours to kill. The search isn't perfect, but it is free of charge and immensely entertaining.
ICON's Helios concept envisions a past that never happened
The ICON Helios concept. Images courtesy Jonathan Ward.
Jonathan Ward is a bit of a madman. The man behind TLC Land Cruisers and automotive builder ICON has a job many of us could only dream about: selling and restoring old Land Cruisers, building better-than-new versions of iconic trucks, and constructing concours-quality restomods of cars such as the Aston Martin DB4 Zagato. As impressive as his body of work may be, with each one of his creations fully deserving of a feature story in its own right, it's his latest project, the ICON Helios, that seems to be drawing the most interest among both media and potential consumers alike.
Ward is a lover of alternate realities and histories, exploring how things would have turned out if events had gone differently, and the Helios project is basically one big "What if?" The Helios is designed in the spirit of Ward's favorite design language, streamline moderne, and exists as a continuation of that style, a style that Ward feels was cut far too short by world events.
To paraphrase Ward, the Helios would have existed in a world where the industrial revolution hadn't instituted a switch from detailed low-production to mass production, where the roaring 20s had continued, the Great Depression and World War II never happened, and car designers had started to draw their inspiration from aviation about a decade earlier.
The Helios would have been penned, to quote Ward, "If Howard Hughes, around the time that he created the DC-1 experimental plane (and before he went totally bonkers…), had too many martinis with Gordon Buehrig and Buckminster Fuller at the Beverly Hills Hotel Cabana."
A replica of the Hughes H-1 in flight. The actual aircraft resides in the National Air and Space Museum.
Though we're fairly certain Ward was referring to Hughes's experimental H-1 racer and not the Douglas DC-1 prototype (which Hughes later purchased), we get his point. What then, would Buehrig, Fuller and Hughes' drunken napkin sketch look like? In short, it would look stunning.
The Helios is clearly influenced by the aircraft and Art Deco style of the 1930s, featuring burnished-aluminum construction, exposed copper rivets and leather hood straps. The Helios's main inspiration, however, comes from the gorgeous streamline moderne cars of the era. The front of the Helios, and especially the grille, clearly resembles the 1938 Hispano-Suiza Dubonnet Xenia, while the boattailed rear bears more resemblance to the Auburn Boattail Speedster and the Bugatti Type 57. The split sunroof draws from a similar design on the Round Door Rolls-Royce, and the seam down the middle of the Helios seems to be a mix of the Round Door and the Bugatti Type 57.
While it's easy to pinpoint exact design influences on much of the Helios, the side profile poses a bit more of a challenge. The side of the Helios is more a compilation of streamline moderne design techniques, looking the most, to this author at least, like a mashup of the side profiles of the Cord 810/812 and the Embiricos Bentley.
While the Helios may draw much of its inspiration from pre-existing designs, the end result is an original and beautiful car, completely unlike anything on the road today. Befitting such a design, Ward is looking to the future for the Helios's drivetrain and chassis, which will be borrowed directly from the soon-to-be-released Tesla Model X electric car.
The Model-X drivetrain, with its dual electric motors and selectable all-wheel drive system, should provide plenty of go (and grip) to get the large, five-passenger Helios up to speed in a hurry, while still providing several hundred miles of all-electric range under ideal conditions. In this regard, the Helios is like a 1930s idea of the future come true, based upon a past where battery power ruled over gasoline.
At least it could be a vision of the future come true, but the Helios does not physically exist yet. It's still in the sketch stage, and even Ward admits that it's several years (and a very wealthy client) away from being a reality. This detail aside, it's a pleasure to once again see form rule over function, and we hope that this particular vision of the future can come to pass.
Canada's oldest automobile to go on display at Canada's newest concours
Photos courtesy Canada Science and Technology Museum.
The crowd roared with laughter and derision at the cloud of steam that grew from the middle of the Stanstead Fairgrounds. Rather, to be specific, they chided the machine at the center of the cloud, a malfunctioning horseless carriage that local watchmaker Henry Seth Taylor had promised them would revolutionize the way they traveled. Nearly 150 years later, however, crowds at the Cobble Beach Concours d'Elegance will likely be a little less critical of what would become known as Canada's first automobile.
By the mid-1860s, plenty of steam-powered horseless carriages had emerged from workshops across Europe and the United States. Canada, however, didn't get its first recorded glimpse of one until 1864, when an unidentified steam carriage – likely one built by Sylvester Hayward Roper of Massachusetts and exhibited by carnival man W.W. Austen – made a tour of country fairs across New England and eastern Canada.
Then 33 years old, Taylor – an inveterate tinkerer, jeweler, saloon owner, photographer, investor and inventor who lived in the border town of Stanstead, Quebec – became enamored with the steam carriage and a year later set about building his own. He recruited a local blacksmith, Joseph Mosher, to forge some metal parts, but did much of the work himself, according to Sharon Babaian, curator of land and marine transportation for the Canada Science and Technology Museum in
Stanstead Ottawa, Ontario. That work included not only designing and fabricating the two 3-1/2-inch by 10-inch brass cylinders attached to the frame, but also the entire steam works, 60-pound coal-fired boiler, and an intricate tiller steering system. All said and done, the steam carriage weighed in at about 500 pounds; Taylor boasted that his invention could keep up with any trotting horse around.
Taylor's September 1867 debut of the steam carriage at the fair didn't go all that well. A separated hose caused the steam cloud and subsequently caused Taylor to have to push the automobile off the fairgrounds. Babaian said that Taylor's grandson described the inventor as a man who tinkered for the fun of it. "He seemed uninterested in patenting his inventions, and there was no sense that he wanted to commercialize the automobile," she said. "He liked to to see what he could do. He liked refining and improving it." So he fixed it and brought it out to the fair the following year for a flawless performance.
He demonstrated the steam buggy at various other county fairs that summer as well, but Taylor didn't get to spend much time with it. Sometime in 1868, while driving down a hill in the village of Stanstead, the carriage – to which Taylor had neglected to add brakes – picked up too much speed and wrecked. As Charles A. Friedric described the incident in Automobile Quarterly volume 4, number 4:
muddy ruts in unpaved roads had seemed sufficient stopping power. But on that morning the road was dry, and Taylor found himself speeding down the slope wih a boiler full of scalding water directly behind him. The vehicle's steering apparatus – to turn to the right, twist tiller to the left – was not particularly appropriate for moments of emergency. Nor was Mr. Taylor; he pulled the steering arm the wrong way, then instinctively jumped from the car. Seconds later, the buggy landed on its side at the bottom of the hill.
The accident – Canada's first automobile accident, by the way – damaged the buggy's wheels, so the next day Taylor gathered up the remains and carted them back to his barn, where he hoisted them to the loft. He picked a few pieces off it here and there and repurposed the boiler for a steam launch he invented about a year later (which ended up sinking to the bottom of Lake Memphremagog after the boiler – burning wood this time – sent out sparks and ashes that set the wooden launch aflame, causing Taylor to abandon ship and swim ashore), but the wreck in the loft remained untouched for as long as the Taylor family owned the property.
Then in 1960, an antique collector named Gertrude Sowden bought the property, recognized at least that the vehicle in the barn's loft shouldn't be scrapped, and eventually sold it to Richard Stewart, an American collector who restored what remained of the steam carriage, had a new boiler and wheels made for it, and most importantly, fitted brakes to it. He initially loaned it out to the Ontario Science Center, then in the early 1980s sold it to the Canada Science and Technology Museum, which normally has it on display as part of the museum's "In Search of the Canadian Car" exhibit. "Everybody agreed that it was an important vehicle, and that it was important that it come home to Canada," Babaian said.
The Cobble Beach Concours d'Elegance just happens to coincide with the museum's annual weeklong shutdown for cleaning and maintenance, so Babaian said that makes it much easier to get the steam carriage out to show. She said that museum staff will not be firing it up for the concours, however.
This year's Cobble Beach Concours will take place September 13-14 at the Cobble Beach Golf Resort Community
in Toronto near Owen Sound. For more information, visit CobbleBeachConcours.com.
Four-Links – King of the Hill Corvette, Nemo car replica, homebuilt EV in Manhattan, Nissan heritage collection
* No, the King of the Hill Corvette was not a propane-powered special. Rather, "King of the Hill" was the nickname given to the prototype LT5-powered ZR1s, and one Corvette enthusiast went all the way to England to find the wrecked King of the Hill Corvette above, then proceeded to restore it.
* Remember the Nemo car from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? One hot rodder liked the lavishly decorated six-wheeled car so much, he's started building a replica of it. The last update we see was from a couple years ago, so we have to wonder if he's made any more progress on it since then. (via)
* This Manhattan-based homebuilt, VW-chassised, canvas-bodied electric vehicle has been stumping NYC carspotters for a while, but MAKE magazine recently caught up with the builder/owner to find out more about it.
* Nissan has put its fairly sizable heritage collection online, including an entry on this Type 80 van from 1937.
* Finally, the Fiat Jolly and the Mini Riviera Buggy weren't the only such beach cars. We've previously linked to CoolBeachCars.com, and this week we also came across a Flickr page that displays the wide variety of vehicles that fit into the beach cars mold.
From the Archives – 1979 Electrek
1979 Electrek, as seen in the pages of the May 1989 edition of Hemmings Motor News.
Interest in electric cars was rekindled in the 1970s as energy prices began to soar to new heights. One of the new battery-powered cars that hit the market in the late 1970s was the Electrek Uncar, produced by Unique Mobility out of Englewood, Colorado. According to early 1980s Department of Energy data, the Electrek 2+2 wore a fiberglass and polycarbonate body, but was also available in hatchback form. Its design featured an enclosed battery tunnel running up the center of the vehicle, with a motor compartment almost completely enclosed on the underside. Propulsion came via 16 6-volt lead acid batteries, feeding a 32 hp General Electric motor via a Soleq controller. Regenerative braking was also a feature, and the car was designed to be recharged using a standard 110-volt household outlet. The listed top speed was 75mph, with a 0-30 of 9 seconds and an advertised cruising range of 100 miles at 30 MPH.
This 1979 Electrek appeared in the May 1989 edition of Hemmings Motor News, matching Stormtrooper helmet not included. From the seller's description:
The electrics are coming back! 1979 Electrek, the ultimate in electric cars, 4-speed, regenerative braking, fwd, rack and pinion, disc brakes, sunroof, 75-mile range, $15,000.
The original price for the Electrek back in 1979 was $25,000 which would be around $82,000 by today's standards. Even at $15,000 in 1989, the Electrek would be slightly less than $29,000. In addition to the high initial costs, the poor weight to power ratio of the 16 lead-acid batteries (a problem that's plagued electric vehicles for generations) won the car few fans, and only in recent years has electric car battery technology vastly improved.
It's hard to know what one would be worth today with so few of them out there, but the demand for electric cars, scooters or anything that consumes less gas is as high as it's ever been, especially with populations gravitating back toward cities rather than the suburbs. Some kind of modernized conversion with more efficient batteries might make the Electrek a nice alternative car for a handy do-it-yourselfer. Unique Mobility, now known as UQM Technologies, still exists today, working on the cutting edge of electric vehicles and related industries.


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Best & Worst Dressed at the 'Mad Men' Season 6 Premiere in Los Angeles
Mad Men returns to our screens April 7th on AMC—but the cast and crew of the hit television series got a sneak peek when the show premiered in Los Angeles last night. Check out what some of your favorite cast members—Don Draper (Jon Hamm), Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks), Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), and more!—wore on the red carpet. And don't forget to check out our dedicated Mad Men page for coverage all season long!
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As per the latest notifications released after the final hearing of SC, the result of COMEDK 2013 Exam has been annonuced and can be seen on the following link:
The notifications for COMEDK UGET 2013 have been released by the Consortium. All the exam aspirants have to apply via Online Application Forms which can be filled by CLICKING HERE or logging onto:www.comedk.org - the official exam website. Entrance Exam of COMEDK 2013 will be conducted by the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka. It is a common entrance test for admission in Medical and Engineering Courses.
The exam will be held on 12.05.2013 from 10.00 am onwards and the result will be released on 1.06.2013. The rank lists of COMEDK 2013 will be released by 11.06.2013.
Exam Pattern of COMEDK 2013:
- Exam duration will be 3 hours and have three sections namely – Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics.
- Exam has the following schedule:
Papers & Timings
Morning Slot (10 am to 1 pm)
Afternoon Slot (2.30 pm to 4 pm)
Mathematics, Physics & Chemistry
Chemistry and Physics
English & Biology
Both (MBBS/BDS and BE)
Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics
English & Biology
- The answers are to be marked on an OMR answer sheet.
- As per the Exam Pattern of COMEDK 2013 , every question will carry one mark and questions having more than one answer marked against them, will not be evaluated.
- According to Exam Pattern of COMEDK 2013 there will be NO negative marking in exam.
- In case of tie in exam result, the candidates having lesser number of negative responses will be given preference. If the tie still persists, the candidates will be given ranks as per other tie – resolution procedures as per Exam Pattern of COMEDK 2013 .
This test will be conducted for admission in COMEDK member institutions only. The test scores of COMEDK 2013 Entrance Exam will be valid only for the year 2013-2014.
The candidates can logon to the official website of COMEDK 2013, http://www.comedk.org to apply online for the exam.
A separate link will be available on the website for assistance in filling the application form. Candidates should go through the instructions carefully before filling the COMEDK 2013 application form. Any deviation from the given instructions can lead to the cancellation of candidature.
The candidates should submit a DD in favor of COMEDK (spelling should be correct), payable at Bangalore. The DD should be of Rs. 1200/- for the students applying for B.E. only and Rs. 1500/- for the candidates who are applying for both the tests (MBBS/BDS and B.E.) in COMEDK 2013.
The candidates should check that the DD for COMEDK 2013 has been countersigned by the banker.
Before filling the actual ONLINE Application Form of COMEDK 2013, the candidates should go through the sample one.
The online COMEDK 2013 application form should be filled with utmost care as the information once filled will not be changed and if the candidate fills more than one application form, his/her candidature shall be cancelled.
Click on the "Preview" button prior to submission, to be sure that the information filled is correct and no need of correction is there.
As soon as the COMEDK 2013 Entrance Exam application form is submitted, a unique application number will be assigned to every candidate. After ensuring that all the details are right, candidates can take the print out of the Online Application Form and Online Date of Birth Certificate/Identity Proof (Candidate copy and COMEDK copy).
Candidates should stick a passport sized photograph of not more than 6 months old. Any Application form with hazy/smudged/tempered photograph will be rejected. Also if the candidates' photo mismatches, this will call for rejection.
DD exceeding the required value will not be refunded. No refunding of the COMEDK 2013 application money will be made in case of wrong filling of details.
Candidates should send the completely filled COMEDK Entrance Exam application forms via post. Forms sent personally will not be entertained.
Before sending the application forms, the candidates should confirm that they have placed the following documents along with the COMEDK 2013 application forms:
- Application form of COMEDK 2013 complete in all respects with their photo, signature, left forefinger impression and his/her parents/guardian signature.
- The print out of ONLINE Identity Proof (COMEDK copy)/Date of Birth Certificate with candidates' photo, signature and attestation by the Gazetted Officer not below the rank of Tehsildar or the head of the institution where the candidate has studied.
- Photocopy of 10th class mark sheet or school leaving certificate showing the candidates' Date of Birth.
- Candidates belonging to the ST/SC and OBC of Karnataka should submit their reservation certificates as well the income details of their parents (OBC) and Minority Certificate (for minority candidates).
The completed Application forms of COMEDK 2013 should be sent to the following address till 15th of April 2013 via Speed Post/Courier:
Executive Secretary – COMEDK,
#132, Second Floor, 11th Main, 17th Cross,
Malleswaram, Bangalore-560055,
Candidates are advised to visit the COMEDK 2013 Entrance Exam website regularly to watch the RED LIST. This list will comprise the INCOMPLETE Application forms and the candidates whose forms are listed in this category, will be rejected if they don't resolve the pending issues till the prescribed date.
Candidates of COMEDK 2013 will be issued a Test Admission Ticket (TAT) for identification which they have to bring on COMEDK exam day. No requests for the change of Test Center will be entertained. These TAT will be sent via Speed Post at address mentioned by the candidate on the application form. The dispatch of COMEDK 2013 TAT will begin by the mid of April 2013.
In case any candidate does not receive the TAT, he/she should visit the official site of COMEDK 2013 or send an e-mail regarding the non-reception.
In case the TAT of Entrance Exam gets lost in post etc, candidates will be issued a duplicate one on the test day.
Candidates are required to bring their passport sized photograph with their Name, Application Number and TAT Number on its backside at the time of COMEDK 2013.
The results will be published in two stages:
- Test Score
- Final Merit/Rank list Publication
Important Dates:
- Start of Online Application Forms filling: 12th of March 2013
- Last date of receipt of complete Application Forms : 15th of April 2013
- Last date of Dispatch of COMEDK 2013 TAT: 24th of April 2013
- Date of COMEDK 2013 Exam: 12th of May 2013
- Publishing of Answer Keys: By the evening of test day
- Last date of receiving objections to answer key: 16th of May, 2013
- Publishing of Test Scores: 1st of June, 2013
- Last date of Receiving Objections to Test Scores: 5th of June, 2013
- Publishing of Rank List of COMEDK 2013: 11th of June 2013
Other Related Links:
COMEDK UGET 2013 | COMEDK 2013 Test Score
COMEDK UGET 2013 Admit Card, Hall Ticket
COMEDK 2013 | UGET Counselling
COMEDK 2013 | UGET Exam Pattern
COMEDK | UGET Previous Year Papers
COMEDK 2013 | UGET Practice Papers
COMEDK 2013 | UGET Eligibility Criteria
COMEDK 2013 | UGET Online Registration
COMEDK 2013 Admit Card, Hall Ticket, TAT
COMEDK 2013 | UGET Application Form Status
COMEDK 2013 | UGET Application Submission Process
COMEDK 2013 | UGET Application Form Date, Notification
COMEDK 2013 Cut Off, Rank Predictor
COMEDK 2013 Answer Key with SolutionsDiscuss Your Doubts


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For almost ninety years the underground bakery at Farina, around 650 kilometres north of Adelaide, didn't produce a single loaf. A lone light, at first light, signals the ruin has reopened for business.
"When you walk in here first thing in the morning say five o'clock, you sort of feel like you're stepping into the boots of the guys that used to do it 100 years ago and you begin to think about what they must have had to go through," said Adelaide baker Martin MacLennan.
Mr MacLennan was approached in 2010 by the Farina Restoration Group to revive the bakery for a few weeks a year, as a way to help fund the preservation of the rest of the historic town.
"It's representative of just so many towns across inland Australia that have disappeared into the saltbush and the dust and become heaps of rubble and what we're keen to do is provide a representative township of all those lost towns," said the group's leader 79 year old Tom Harding.
In the late 19th century Farina was a vital outback transport hub and agricultural service centre at the end of the Old Ghan Railway, with a multicultural population that peaked at 300.
When the railway was extended and later re-routed away from Farina to safer grounds the town inevitably declined, with the last resident leaving in 1975.
While most of the timber and galvanised iron structures have collapsed, the stone buildings have withstood the test of time better, with parts of the two hotels, post office and police station among those still standing.
The Farina Restoration Group, which is mainly caravanning enthusiasts, isn't trying to rebuild the town. It wants to stabilise the structures and make sure the stories behind them aren't lost.
"It's amazed us what we've been able to do," said Tom Harding. "It's got a notice on the gate up there which says Farina Ruins, now we've kicked the ghosts out and you'll see the people's names appearing around all around the place and you can feel their presence."
While two heritage stone masons are employed, most of the group are volunteers and several have personal links to the remote town.
Bill Collins lived in Farina when he was a child.
His grandfather cameleer Nathaniel Finn spent most of his life in the town and is buried in the local cemetery along with other family members.
"He loved the life here, he loved his animals, his family... he had seven daughters in a row," said Mr Collins.
"He was the general rouseabout for the town really. Whenever they needed a dirty job done Nat was on the list."
While Mr Collins old house is a pile of rubble these days, another volunteer Bob Moffatt has helped stabilise his great grandparents' home, which is the only residence still standing in Farina.
"It's great to be able to do it, know it still exists and think about how they may have lived in this area," Mr Moffatt said. "It must have been pretty tough, but they were real pioneers." "I really look forward to sharing it with other members of the family and feeling a bit of pride that I did a little bit to preserve it."
One of the tourist drawcards, The Transcontinental, has also received a lot of attention from the restoration group. "It's almost beating us.
We've put two weeks work, probably a thousand man hours, has gone into the building just to save it," said Tom Harding.
Originally a hotel and later a hospital and boarding house, The Transcontinental has special meaning for volunteer 74 year old Mario Vaiana. He and his younger brother and sister used to live there, when his father worked for the railways in the 1940's.
"All the ones that come up to restore are all genuine and all want to help and it's a pity not more people do the same, putting the time into the town," said Mr Vaiana.
The old town is also one of the reasons Kevin and Anne Dawes bought the neighbouring sheep and cattle station in 1991. And the couple, that also assists with the annual working bee, is delighted they no longer have to watch history crumble around them.
"If we didn't have any restoration work no-one would want to come up and take a photo of a pile of rock," Kevin Dawes said.
"Our goal is to make sure nothing more falls down so that in a hundred years time these ruins will still be here for people to understand the history of the outback."


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What's Hotter Than Summer Right Now?
Winter Texans burning up the internet and phone lines making reservations and plans for their winter stays. Just ask our client Mrs. M from Laguna Vista who placed her condo for rent in our new Winter Texan Rentals Directory and rented her unit within four days! The trend for Winter Texans to make their winter stay plans is coming earlier each year and the best place to make those plans are through the internet. MORE
La Belle The Ship That Changed History
One of the most significant exhibitions on European colonization in the United States will open next week at the Bullock Texas State History Museum. Beginning Oct. 25, 2014, one of French explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle's ships that sank along the Texas coast more than 300 years ago, is set to be reassembled in the museum's gallery and visitors will see a centuries-old international story of cultural conflict unfold.
Texas Wine Season Opens
Fall in Texas means cooler temps, a slower pace and mini vacations that are even funner than summer vacations. Most importantly it is grape harvest time in the Lone Star State! Which means wine trails, harvest parties, wine and food festivals and great texas music! Don't miss one of the best seasons of the year in Texas....WINE SEASON!
Texas Safety Stops
While we know you can't wait to get to your winter destination in Texas, we realize we have..well... a large state. With that in mind the Texas Department of Transportation has been building new and renovating some of the states rest stops. So take a breather and enjoy some of the most unique rest stops in the world!
Coastal Halloween Haunts
Halloween has become one of the major holidays in the United States over the last decade, Texas as always is no exception and does this holiday in a BIG way! And nowhere in the Lone Star can you find more haunts than along her coasts. The coast of Texas has a long history of hauntings and embraces it even more during the Halloween season. Check out some of the prime events and scary locales along the Texas coast to get your haunt on this Halloween.
Renaissance Fest Begins
Eight weeks of fun and mayhem…the 39th annual Texas Renaissance Festival is set to get underway the second weekend in Oct. With a theme for every weekend there's fun to be had by everyone. This 55 acre 16th century village comes to life each weekend with, strolling performers, live jousts, battle reenactments, costume contests, food eating contests, a daily fireworks show, plus live music, magic, dancing,and just plain FUN. MORE
Message in a Bottle
Like a message in a bottle, more than 1,000 bright yellow drift cards have been released into the Gulf of Mexico to track ocean currents. Anybody who finds one is urged to follow the printed directions and contact the Texas A&M University officials in charge of the program. There could even be a small gift for some lucky finders.MORE
Spirits That Keep Watch
Be careful in your respectful vigilance that you make no effort to harm the hallowed Alamo Shrine, for here spirit heroes still stand guard. If you are looking for a ride on the wild side, the Alamo is an exceptional place where history reaches across the time barrier and fills the heart with exceptional emotion for the loss of so many heroes who have gone before. MORE
If Big Tree Could Talk
Just northeast of Rockport-Fulton, square in the middle of the Texas Gulf Coast near the community of Lamar, on a peninsula that stretches into the bay, there stands a 1,000-plus year old live oak they call BIG TREE. It's not a tall tree, but considering its girth, it is the largest and oldest oak tree in Texas, and a favorite place for visitors in the region. The history that unfolded under the shade of this great tree is abundant, sometimes violent and sometimes colorful. Can you imagine, if BIG TREE could talk... it might be saying something like this...And so much MORE
Great Fall Destinations - Part 1
As the summer season slowly changes to Fall in Texas, followed quickly by a new winter Texan travel season, many are preparing their travel iteniaries now in anticipation of a fruitful year. And, according to winter visitor travel trends in recent years, more and more travelers are planning on seeing more of Texas than just the inside of their favorite RV park.MORE
Magical Getaway -- Matagorda!
Exploring the Magical Matagorda Bay is a must for nature lovers visiting the Gulf Coast - anytime of the year - but late winter is the apex for great weather and excellent bird watching opportunities. The area was named one of the best birding areas in the nation by the National Audubon Society. MORE
Getting Fit For Travel
Being active is critical for staying healthy-so it's a good thing exercise-related aches and pains, sore muscles, and foot and leg cramps don't have to put a damper on the activities that people love. Thankfully, there are many safe and natural remedies to keep pain at bay. MORE
Ship Ghosts of Port Brownsville
It was a foggy, cool day at the Port of Brownsville, the kind of day that lends itself to strange stories, especially if you're looking for one. I was in search of a good 'yarn at the shipyard', a story that might grace these pages in honor of the Halloween season. As if on cue, the clear and slow ringing of a ship's bell was carried by the cool, damp breeze. MORE
Texas Roadside Fruit & Veggie Stands
Before you hit the road in search of produce there are a few roadside terms you should know. PYO - stands for pick your own, RS - roadside stand, FP - fresh picked on the farm sales. Some farms and roadside stands even have an honor system for payment.MORE
Chinati Hot Springs
It's not a place you're likely to find by accident. Even if you're looking for it, it's no easy task. But the healing waters of Chinati Hot Springs, the dry arid environment of the Chihuahuan Desert, and the blissful isolation of Deep West Texas combine to create a mythical appeal that continues to lure the adventurous . MORE
Lighthouses of Texas
Stoic, dependable, historic - the lighthouses of the Texas Gulf coast, like their counterparts in other parts of the world, are more than just reminders of man's great struggle with the sea. With varied shapes and sizes, their brilliant lamps kept watch upon the seas, the one great hope of mariners who were long upon the open water, guiding man and ship safely through channels and waterways to the safety of shore. MORE
Welcome to Paris
But what is that on the peak of the tower -- a cowboy hat? Darn tootin', because this Eiffel Tower is located in Paris, Texas, and while not as tall and majestic as its counterpart in France, at least Texans have found a good use for it. MORE
RV Across Texas
Just about every Texan knows the state parks of the Lone Star State are great places to commune with the natural wonders of Texas and to get lost beneath the big blue sky. Some of the parks are, of course, better than others to RVers, but it won't be a long search to find just the perfect place to set up camp and feel the comfort and economy of RVing the state park system of Texas. MORE
The Jesus Tree
Crystal City's Jesus Tree may be one of the best off-the-wall stories of the decade. Discover the hope the tree has brought this South Texsas community. It is out of the way, but worth a visit if you want to see this unusual work of Nature for yourself. MORE
Road Trip: Texas Flea Markets
What once were considered glorified garage sales have developed to a new level across America, and perhaps nowhere more so than in the Lone Star State. The SUPER flea market concept brings not only trash and treasure trinkets to a market setting, but often include unique hand crafted products and expensive imports! MORE
U-boats in the Gulf
Not every day has been a day in paradise along the Texas coast. Unknown to many, in the early days of U.S. involvement in World War II, German U-boats clouded Gulf waters MORE
Texas Wildflowers!
Lady Bird Johnson can correctly be called the Mother of Texas Wildflowers, with her sweeping campaigns to paint the state's enormous highway system with natural and colorful flowers that are native to the state. Years after those early efforts, Texas is indeed one of the most "flowered" states in the Union. MORE
Border Ghost Town
Once buried beneath the waters of South Texas' Falcon Lake, Mexico's colonial jewel, Guerrero Viejo, now a ghost town, glistens again in the warm Chihauhuan sun. But now only the skeletal remains of the once great city can be seen again. MORE
Coastal Romance
Corpus Christi is one of the most underrated cities in all of Texas. With a hint of metropolitan savoir-faire and full of Texas savvy, it's the perfect place to spend your honeymoon or to escape for a lover's retreat. Discover La Villa Casita in the historic district of the Sparkling City by the Bay and explore the attractions of the Coastal Bend of Texas. World birding, great restaurants, wonderful beaches and lots of culture. Discover Corpus Christi and discover the good life. MORE
Sexuality and Seniors
As Valentine's Day quickly approaches many seniors are thinking about what they sometimes strive to forget, namely that love, romance and sexual pleasure are intimately tied together and nearly impossible to separate. The truth is, age is not a barrier to good sexual relationship. The right types of food can help! Discover sex for seniors and improve your Valentine experience! MORE
South Texas Music Walk of Fame
Corpus Christi is a true music town, the heart of a musical region, a place that has produced some of America's most enduring music, artists and songwriters; a place where live music can be spontaneous and wonderful, a place where the very best are honored and immortalized in a local attraction known as the South Texas Music Hall of Fame. MORE
Hill Country Getaways
The Texas Hill Country is a perfect getaway destination for active travelers looking for a little outdoor fun. Discover ten great Hill Country adventures waiting to happen and enjoy the fall season! From clear running rivers to pristine Hill Country environment to historic sites and many state and regional parks, there's something for everyone in this getaway. Hit the road and discover the heart of Texas. MORE
The Haunted Yacht Club Hotel
It was the late 1920s and prohibition was in full swing. The new Yacht Club Hotel in Port Isabel had just opened, a high society, high roller facility that offered pleasures on the remote Texas frontier. Guests came from all over the country to enjoy freedom from social censorship and enjoyed the pursuits of the Texas tropics. But at least two of those early guests who checked in, never checked out, and from time to time you can still find them there. MORE
The Very Best Home Remedies
Home remedies. Just about everyone has one. That doesn't mean they all work - or any of them for that matter. But review our collection of home remedies we discovered while researching this article. We didn't try them, and don't recommend you do without further research. But we offer them up for your entertainment value. Have fun. MORE
Mexico's River of Raptors
Imagine the rarity of being able to watch a pair of gilded hawks or osprey soaring above a tropical waterfall, surrounded by pristine jungle, riding the thermal currents in grace and glory, circling first up then down, demonstrating their prowess and aerial agility and determined might. The thought conjures visions of the wild outdoors; one of peace and serenity watching one of nature's great raptors exercise their natural freedom and dominance of the skies. MORE
The Forgotten Towers of Port I.
You won't see them in the Port Isabel skyline today, but years ago two massive radio towers stretched to the sky, one of the first attempts of the U.S. military to establish offshore communication with naval ships and forces outside our borders. This is the story. MORE
Ghosts at the Brownsville Port
It was a foggy, cool day at the Port of Brownsville, the kind of day that lends itself to strange stories, especially if you're looking for one. I was in search of a good 'yarn at the shipyard', a story that might grace these pages in honor of the Halloween season. As if on cue, the clear and slow ringing of a ship's bell was carried by the cool, damp breeze. MORE
Lost Ghost Ship of South Padre
Much has been written about the 1554 Spanish "Plate Fleet", a four-ship flotilla of treasure laden ships that sailed from Veracruz harbor April 9 that year headed for Havana, Cuba, and eventually to Spain. Three of those ships wrecked just off the coast of South Padre Island. Two have been recovered. The third remains a mystery. MORE
Texas Aggie Honey
Just in time for the holidays, the perfect gift for that "Aggie" in your life...Aggie Honey! Sounds like an impending Aggie joke but it's for real, and of course not just for Aggies. At the forefront, of researching the environmental and biological factors that are pressuring honey bees across the planet, this Aggie team has made some progress....the nice part is the reward....HONEY...AGGIE HONEY! MORE
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*All Rights Reserved>


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Glenn Marshall
presented by Culture Shock Management
Lives and works in Belfast, Northern Ireland
Glenn Marshalls distinct style of abstract computer animation blends modern art, eastern mysticism, mathematics, nature and science. A strong advocate of the digital artists necessity to be both artist and programmer, creating their own technology to create their art, his recent works are entirely self-coded animations. In 2010 Glenn hooked up with long-term collaborator Hugh McGrory to create a film and animation piece on the artist '101love'. Glenn is currently reimagining his computer generated worlds into innovative apps for the iPhone / iPad and beyond.


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American Music Award-winning R&B group New Edition makes a stop in Oklahoma City in July, and subscribers can save nearly 40% on tickets.
Tickets are $24 (reg. $39.50) for Lawn Seating for the Sunday, July 13, concert at 7 p.m. at the Zoo Amphitheatre.
New Edition's catalog of hits includes "Candy Girl," "Can You Stand the Rain" and "Cool It Now." The Grammy-nominated group launched the careers of Bobby Brown and the members of Bell Biv DeVoe.
Please go to your email and confirm your subscription.