Classic Car

CoupeR Design’s Obsidian 900-HP Mustang

Great finds can be found inside and outside of the expansive SEMA show at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Today we found the "Obsidian," a 900-horsepower beast built by Matt Couper of CoupeR Design / Autoworks International. The twin-supercharged, 900-horsepower 392-cubic-inch V-8 breathes via a very mean-looking (and mean-acting) hood scoop. The design modifications on the car are extensive, as well. Over eighteen unique mods were made to the body.

Scion Concept Takes xB Off-Road, Off The Map

Designed and painted by artist David Choe, this unique “Monster Truck xB

Caprice Phantom Donk

We went to SEMA expecting to see off-the-wall vehicles. We prepared for months, but nothing could have prepared us for this: the Phantom Caprice, or a 1972 Chevrolet Caprice riding on 30-inch wheels and snouted with a Rolls-Royce Phantom front clip. It's a well-done DONK (typically an American sedan from the 60s, 70s, or 80s with oversized tires), which itself is a bit of an oxymoron; Donks are typically characterized by shoddy construction. This one, however, looks relatively sanitary on the outside.

The Odd Concept Cars Nobody Covered at the Paris Motor Show

It's no newsflash that Russians have money these days, but what remains to be seen is whether rich Ruskies would be willing to spend their flash cash on cars built by the home team, Lada. But the home team may be ready to find out. Behold the Lada Revolution 3, a Russian supercar. Mid-engine, six-speed, rear-drive, low-slung, adjustable wing in back, this thing apparently has it all. Under the rear glass, under a cover that suggests it might be concealing a V-8, beats the heart of a Renault F4R774 2.0-liter four cylinder, making 245 hp, which is supposedly enough to hustle this thing to 62 mph in just 5.9 seconds en route to a top speed of 155 mph. Pagani has nothing to worry about. Yet.

If you think Russian concepts are weird, try this Hungarian one from the Andros Group. Called iSolo, it's an ultra-light (770-pound), aero-slick (0.22 Cd) three seat electric car that can run on solar energy gathered from the roof panels, plug-in power, or pedal power. That's right, each seat has two pedals that can be pumped to generate electricity. Top speed is said to be 80 mph. A multi-fuel range-extending combustion engine is in the works for a future show.

The name of this one almost says it all: Assystem City Car. w's this for a wacky hybrid. Four wheels arrayed in a diamond pattern. The front and rear wheels can turn fully 90 degrees in either direction, allowing the car to pivot about its center, or to drive into a parallel parking space and then pivot into position. Here's where it really gets weird. The front wheel is electrically driven, with the motor and four batteries all mounted on a turntable that includes a control arm and spring/damper for the wheel (the drivetrain is not unsprung, thankfully. The rear wheel is powered by a Honda scooter's 600cc motor, which again is mounted along with a small gas tank, on a turntable. Assystem is an engineering company, working with Franco Sbarro design, that is looking for a licensee to build the bizarre City Car. We wish them luck.

Lumeneo Smera. Billed as a 1+1 tandem, this four-wheeled enclosed motorcycle of sorts is powered by electricity, using a 30kW motor and a 10 kW-hour battery good for 150 km (93-mile) range. It rides on four 145/70R-14 tires and can lean 25 degrees in the turns. I wouldn't hold my breath for production ever reaching U.S. shores.

Human-powered Mini

Mini has come up with a Mini rickshaw, just in time for the Olympic Games.
Looking for a different way to explore Beijing? Mini has created the ultimate human-powered version of its iconic baby car – a Mini rickshaw.
The rickshaw takes the back half of a Mini and adds the human powered component – a bicycle – at the front.
The Mini rickshaw has been plying the streets of the Chinese capital since the Olympic Games commenced earlier this month.

Italian industrial firm Tazzari Zero's

Italian industrial firm Tazzari has announced preliminary specs and launched a new website for its plug-in auto, the Zero. Measuring 113.5 inches long and sporting 15-inch wheels, the city-bound electric car weighs in at 1,200 pounds -- 312 of that from the lithium-ion Fe battery. It'll handle 88 miles with a full charge that takes 9 hours to fill, but you can reportedly juice up to 80% in just 50 minutes. Top speed is 56 MPH, so don't expect to be driving this on the highway, and it can go from 0 to 31 in under 5 seconds. The company says it's due out later this year in Europe and the Carribean for less than 20,000 Euros ($25,760), and yes, there's a dozen Crayola-inspired colors available. Hit up the official site for a trailer.

Autoblog Green

Gemballa Mirage GT Carbon Edition

Produção do Porsche Carrera GT's pode ter terminado há alguns anos, mas os preparadores não param de brincar com eles. Apesar de ter muitas empresas que o modificam uma das mais conhecida é a Gemballa que criou a versão “Gemballa Mirage GT's” que sempre capricha no estilo agressivo da carroçaria e variedade de cores e acabamentos.

O carro alem do aspecto diferente inclui também um upgrade no motor que o deixa com 670 cavalos indo de 0-100 km / h em apenas 3,7 segundos e de 0-200 km / h em 9,7 segundos chegando a velocidade máxima de 385 Km.

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Blowout Pedal Car Auction Comming to Hershey PA

Now this is odd: apparently, some people gather in person, in a single place and on a fixed date, and even require the purchase of tickets in advance, all to auction off items of some rarity and value. No website, no PayPal, no Buy it Now, no nothing. Cuh-razy.
So crazy, it makes the idea of spending hundreds of craftsman-hours customizing, finishing and transforming eleven old-timey Champion Comet pedal cars into unique works of automotive toy art seem as sober as an actuary.
But there you go. On October 8th in Hershey, Pennsylvania, RM Auctions is conducting a charity auction to benefit the Museum of the Antique Automobile Club of America, at which point this glorious fleet of pedal cars will be dispersed to the four corners of America's four-car garages.
for full pics and details: Custom Champion Comets at Hershey [blog.hemmings.com]dead link: AACA Night At The Museum [rmauctions.com]

Love in Exile

(WARNING: Women's bare asses below. "NSFW" but absolutely necessary here.)

For a good time, watch Kings/Bobcats on a Wednesday night. That which barely need be spoken: Kevin Martin is insanely underrated, quick on his feet and to the basket more like any other top scorer than "next Reggie Miller." Crazy unorthodox with every shot, and plenty of his movements, to the point where I think he confounds even really good defenders. His mechanics are their own language, like Sacramento were a basement he's been locked in for years, but chosen to continue his education nonetheless. Like a cross between dictionaries in jail, Kasper Hauser, and someone who assimilated our Periodic Table of Style on a micro-level. Plus his whole pre-hood, Fresh Prince-era look makes him all the more displaced, foreign, alien. Where else could he exist but the nether-place that is the Kings? That's a true original, or space beast hiding behind the cloak of "the artist" and our over-dependence on reading cues of appearance.

As predicted, Francisco Garcia is vital and just does it all when given confidence-through-minutes. Those announcers' whole "Nocioni and Gooden are the future" talk is serious back-sliding, though I'll forgive them since they obviously don't know shit about Gooden past where he was drafted. It was nice to see that Wallace, once unsung, can now have opposing teams shook from end-to-end after one or two possessions. And what's really funny is that, rather than stalking the floor as a possibility, the mature Wallace is a real presence, having finally married his non-stop grinder's grind with a quixotic string of applied highlights. No one else in the league makes you feel that splitting defenders for a dunk is as much "effort" as "skills," but that's what Wallace has finally become. He doesn't scrap, or hustle–he exerts. Plus, as much as it pains me to make analogies like this, he's become the Predator, right down to the vaguely shamanistic appearance and sado-masochistic tendencies. This is where country and funky opens out onto an atavistic future, impossible to trace far enough back or locate on the horizon. No shit this is the second Predator movie, which is like a combination of Dead Presidents, The Jerk, and Left Behind. I have watched it twelve times.



The point of this post, however, isn't to remind myself that there is joy in visiting old friends and finding out that, on some level, you kind of don't know each other anymore. It's to remind us all that, while Wallace became more guard-like and fluid over the last few years, it's under Larry Brown of all people that's he found some measure of consistency, or at least a way to remain constantly relevant rather than maraud when the chance presents itself. Brown didn't even want Wallace at first, but now, he's created a more focused GW—even if the numbers are down. You could chart a similar arc for Diaw, who irony of all ironies, has seen his career rescued by Larry. Once thought to be the ultimate SSOL player, Diaw's now shown that he's capable of taking advantage of his myriad point-center skills while holding down the middle with some authority. On paper and in person, he's more productive than with D'Antoni, the coach who invented him.

But let's not forget that this maturation is taking place UNDER LARRY FUCKING BROWN, who despite his tempestuous relationship with Iverson has never exactly been one to suffer dynamism or template-busters. It's almost as if, after the utter fail in New York, and the subsequent hit sustained by his reputation—at best, LB was over, if not permanently open to criticism—he's sublimated his outlook, made it less literal. Brown doesn't preach "The Right Way" as a serious of dictums or proscriptions, but as a way players can tailor their individual games to some of the abiding necessities of playing the game of basketball. Which is to say, he's gone from authority figure to mentor, trusted by players who want to win and want to get better because he uses who they are to run common sense basketball.

This may be premature, and based entirely too much on two players. And yet in Charlotte, Brown has the chance for a new beginning; over-sensitive nut-case that he is, or subject to burning out/mellowing with age as are all men who push themselves and others too hard, it's not implausible that he's had a change of heart. It certainly beats phoning it in, which is certainly impossible for a coach like Larry Brown. You could say he's compromised, but I prefer to see it as a great basketball mind having finally discovered the principle of compromise. Or as the ultimate proponent of coach-centrism coming to terms with a player's league, something that's kept Popovich on top for as long as it's been.

Novo vídeo do Audi R8 V10

Novo vídeo com mais detalhes do Audi R8 V10:

The One-Seat Eco Vehicle

The personal eco-vehicle from Myers Motors was featured at the ‘Milan 2008: Best of the well-tech awards’ and is most definitely worthy of it. The odd looking one-seater called the ‘NmG’ (no more gas) runs on electricity and can reach a speed of 75mph. It can easily be parked anywhere, helps us breathe cleaner air, turns heads and does not need petrol. Indeed-This little car can transform our planet.

Proxima rides at you like a car, zips off like a motorcycle

You'd probably think the Proxima is a car if you saw it from the front, or a motorcycle — albeit an odd-looking one — from the rear. You'd be right, both times. A concept by Alvino Design, the Proxima is a two-seater that successfully blends two different vehicle styles. Chances are, if you love motorcycles the Proxima won't provide the same thrill, but anyone into odd vehicle concepts or just sleek body stylings besides should be able to appreciate the Proxima's elegant tapering from one vehicle and into another.

Check out the gallery below for more of the Proxima.

Nissan NV200

The NV200, also by Nissan, comes with a complete 'pull-out' office: perfect for travelling salesmen

Nissan's 'Round Box'

Nissan's 'Round Box' concept car looks odd, but it comes with unique windows set into the car's floor that give you a great view of tarmac and roadkill as it rushes beneath you

Nissan unveils

Nissan unveils its concept vehicle Intima. The front passenger's seat swivels outwards by 80 degrees to make it easier for passengers to get in and out

Toyota's I-Real

Models steer Toyota's I-Real concept car at the Tokyo Motorshow

Bike Meets Car in Three-Wheeled Can-Am Spyder

Ostensibly opening up the pleasures of the motorcycling to would-be riders who, for any or all of a variety of reasons related to fear of falling over, haven't taken the plunge, the slightly odd new Can-Am Spyder promises to keep things upright by putting three wheels on the ground instead of two. The latest offering from Bombardier Recreational Products, the company that gave the world the truly revolutionary Ski-Doo in the late 1950s and the similarly significant Sea-Doo in the 1970s, the Can-Am Spyder merges the drivetrain of a motorcycle with the front end of a sports car to create something, well, different. The look is undeniably novel, and with 106 horsepower from a 998-cc V-twin, it offers performance that, while a far cry from even a low-end sport bike, is still on par with, say, a Porsche 911 (which isn't bad at all). Sixty miles per hour arrives in about 4.5 seconds, and the Spyder will scoot to an electronically limited 110 mph. It's on sale now, priced at $14,999. A manually actuated five-speed sequential transmission is standard; an electronically controlled version will add $1500. Specify yellow paint instead of the standard silver for an extra $300.
We love the concept of a motorized trike, although we'd prefer one that came at the idea from more of an automotive perspective, like the spectacular Renault 20Cup concept from a couple of years ago. The Can-Am Spyder is not without its charms, but it seems to us that for five or six grand more, a Mazda MX-5 Miata or a Pontiac Solstice makes vastly more sense — no helmet required.
Source: blog.wired.com/

Pair of Twos

Behold, my reaction to Barkley in jail. You should compare and contrast it with Dr. LIC's earlier take on an earlier stage of the situation.

Beyond that, here's some serious DITYT shit:





Hiss on YouTube clips is the new surface noise on samples.

Russell's Barber Can't Use Occam's Razor

So last week, the thing du jour around the basketball blogosphere was Michael Lewis's NYT article, specifically its discussion of how players like Battier, wholly complete and savvy behind-the-scenes type guys who do little things we can't notice, make happiness and winning. It's interesting stuff and more good than bad, but at this point is probably like two months away from falling into evil hands and being subverted into some form of scientific discrimination—maybe a reason to keep Julian Wright off the floor. What interests me at this point are the differences between the explosively subtle. The two top teams in the East both feature point guards who are both far from superstars and absolutely and completely indispensable to everything they do. And they could not be more different in every way possible. While Mo's fundamental soundness have stabilized the Cavaliers to a great degree, the far more interesting case study in my opinion is what Rondo's glorious incompletionism and rejection of fundamentals at the individual level have done for his team.



I'm not even going to try and put a quick label on Rondo. He simply defies them, whether positive or negative. As much as any player in the NBA, Rondo is paradox incarnate. Rather than being a paradigm of quiet contribution and efficiency at all times—the standard "know your role" PG—Rondo is at once an unstoppable for whom there is no possible answer and a gaping wound whose weakness provides a possible attack point. He is the type of young, talented, and developing player who normally thrive on bad teams, but he runs the point for the league's current juggernaut. He the worst shooting guard in the NBA, and yet leads all guards in FG%. He's brimming with athletic skill and his body looks like the product of Jay Bilas being allowed access to the Forge of Hephaestus, and yet he's more beloved by stat heads than scouts. His play is more audacious than any guard in the league, and yet he is the unknown star of the Celtics.

The fantastic of Rondo all traces back to the fact that he has no jump shot. This is hardly news. However, it is important to make some distinctions between having a bad jump shot and Rondo's jump shot. Russell Westbrook and Raymond Felton have bad jump shots. They are given space and it is the goal of every defense to force them into taking a shot, and it is a constant struggle for them to create lanes by trying to keep defenses honest. Rondo has no jump shot. He has eschewed it. It is a false God to him. It is not a part of his decision tree but an unwelcome last resort. Defenses do not try to force him to take a jump shot, for there is no pretense he will actually take one. When Rondo gets the ball in his hands, the clarity of his goal actually leads to a greater set of permutations than it normally would-if we are to stretch the metaphor of the outside shots, than the difference between other point guards' possessions and Rondo's possessions are the difference between a gunfight and swordplay.

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To wish, as most do, for a Rondo with a jumpshot is to wish for a sober Bukowski, a Woody Allen with normal relationships, Obama without the Bush era. Part of what makes him so much better this year, and most of what makes the Celtics tolerable now, is Rondo's embracing of his own destiny and his mandate to all others to get on board. Rondo this year has matured by regressing to his orginal state and taking it to its logical conclusion, rather than attempting to straddle compromise. Whereas last year, he flirted with the idea of playing like a conventional point guard and even started to become passable at it-last year 56% of his shots were jumpers and he shot a very acceptable 42% on them, which is far from terrible. All his shots were wide-open, yes, but that is a better mark than LeBron James has ever posted. This year, however, he has decided to completely reject any semblance of obeying a positional doctrine and has seen his jump shot FG% fall to 33% and, more importantly, has upped his percentage of "inside" shots to 58%, which is a full 10% higher than the next guard and higher than, for example, Pau Gasol and Amare Stoudemire.

At the same time, while Rondo would occasionally sit in the corner and take a passive offensive role last season and allow Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to make the plays, this year he demands that the veterans fall into line and allow him to be the one who creates. And Rondo is perhaps the purest creator in the NBA. I've long maintained that point guards are like writers, whose effectiveness is determined not by their own personal ability to put the ball in the basket but to turn the court into their own dark funhouse and make the opposing team see the game on the point guard's revised and ultimately manipulative terms. Steve Nash's world is one of impossible choices-he is the best-shooting guard in the league, and he forces defenders to attempt to consolidate their force into a stationary Maginot line that he can fit the ball around. Chris Paul's is one of forced annexation-he is everywhere on the court he wants to be, invading spaces (against the Lakers, there was one possession where he got a basket by going to the basket by dribbling in step behind Lamar Odom's turned back) and blowing up rotations into a chaos only he can see angles through. Rondo's game is predicated, more than anything else, on his ability to become a creature of nightmares. While Paul is a wily trickster who flits around defenders and coerces them out of their comfort zones, Rondo uses his athleticism to fool defenders into seeing things as simpler than they really are. For Rondo to succeed without having any sort of personal go-to scoring moves, he must make himself capable of all things.



The most important of Rondo's myriad dichotomies is his relationship to the rebulous concept of completionism. Clearly, Rondo is an incomplete player on an individual level. However, on a team level, he completes his team in a way Battier could only dream of doing for his own. Rondo's lack of individual manuevers means that all of his actions are aimed at either getting to the basket or creating a wide-open shot for somebody else; his lack of completion makes him exist less as a player and rather as a concept of absolute efficiency-that he has no step-back jumper as his Plan B just means the game to him is an infinite number of paths to Plan A. Not only does Rondo thrive on the Celtics, but he could only exist on the Celtics-without options around him, his freedom would be channeled unto himself instead of serving to transform him into a manifestation of Occam's Katana Blade. And it should be noted that the receiving end of Rondo's creation is often a simple 18-foot jumper by Kevin Garnett, who, many years ago would once position himself as the roll man and look to spin and finish in a spectacular and wholly improvised fashion before he became Complete and relegated himself to an upgraded Antonio McDyess.

Mo Williams, who I'm realizing I find far less interesting than Rondo, nonetheless provides the counterpoint to how individual completionism can have team-level benefits. Mo utilizes a sort of hybridization of the short-lived Iversonian school of scoring, which is to block out the court and turn the game into a battle against one defender for the best immediately possible shot opportunity and the new efficiency-dictated model for scoring, which is to find a way to get the ball to the most high-percentage shots on the floor and to value quality possessions over shot creation.

Mo functions well as a finisher of created plays, but with the ball in his hands Mo has a few spots on the floor that he uses a screen to get to and can always get off a decent-percentage shot from. This shows in Mo's stat line-with radically different teammates around him, his PER is exactly the same as it was last year, and his shot breakdown remains nearly identical. Mo doesn't change dynamics of a given play the way Rondo does, but his abilities as an Island Unto Self provide a foundation atop which ball movement and the general Amazing made by LeBron can then be placed with Mo functioning as a safety net.

And so there it is-Mo succeeds with fundamentals, Rondo with spectacularly flawed gifts. To say that a combination of them would be the perfect guard is to miss the point of them entirely.

Covini C6W Car

Wow! Look at this car, it's ...it's.... odd. A new 6 wheeled "supercar" is expected to hit production in 2009. The car is called Covini C6W, an Italian two-seat, two-door supercar with a removable roof section.

"OLED-clad car " German engineers

'Leccy Tech With the Geneva Motor Show on the horizon, German engineering services provider EDAG has released a preview of what it hopes will be one of the stars of the 2009 Swiss auto gathering: the “Light Car – Open Source”, a concept it is describing as “visionary and courageous”.

The LC-OS consists of a rolling chassis that can be adapted to a number of styles and roles by using different body panels. Drive will be provided by four in-wheel electric motors powered by a lithium-ion battery pack which give the vehicle a range or around 150km (90-odd miles).

far so good, but now things start to get a bit sci-fi.

To begin with, the LC-OS's body panels will be made from something called basalt-fibre made by Austrian company ASA.TEC.

Rather being made of chunks of the Giant's Causeway, basalt fibre is made up of the minerals plagioclase, pyroxene, and olivine – none of which we had actually heard of before today - and while similar in usage to carbon fibre and fibreglass, it's tougher than the latter and cheaper than the former. It is also fully recyclable and has a specific tenacity three times that of steel. At least that's what is says here.

The basalt-fibre body panels will apparently be transparent giving the car the appearance of being made of glass - so bad news for anyone who likes to drive while nude – although EDAG's announcement is a little contradictory on this point.

Some or all of the outer and inner bodywork will be used as a giant OLED screen which can portray lights and instruments as, when and where the driver wants, in effect turning the entire car into a computer desktop - well, sort of.

"We have transferred today's multimedia and lighting technology standards to the car, and in future want to offer the customer scope for free configuration, as the entire surface of the vehicle functions like the display of a multimedia installation, and can be used intelligently and individually,” said Johannes Barckmann, head of the EDAG Design Studio.

Uses for this include a graduated display of the LC-OS' braking force on a whole tailgate screen “brake light”, which could be helpful for those driving behind an LC-OS once they have got over the shock - or for posting rude messages to other motorists.
Before you ask, we should point out that the company's use of the term 'open source' isn't quite how we all understand it. This is no come one, come all collaborative design project - EDAG's simply approaching other firms to help it work on the tech.
The LC-OS will be 4m long, 1.7m wide, and thanks those neat in-wheel motors will have a 2.9m wheel base giving ample space for five passengers.
Come the opening of the Geneva show on 5 March, we will have more of an idea as to how much of EDAG's plans are based on hard engineering and how much on their design department smokin' and a-tokin' late one night

The Houston Annual Art Car Parade

The Houston Annual Art Car Parade began in 1988 as a small gathering of eclectic hot-rodders and some 40-odd, impressive (albeit slightly bizarre) rides. In 2008, the Art Car Parade drew more than 250 participants, apparently because hey, you can’t spend all your time at Burning Man…
While some of the cars seemed to indicate heavy inspiration from both illegal drugs and Crayola, some of the decidedly aftermarket rides, like the truck pictured above, were so impressively customized they seemed downright SEMA-worthy.

Zero maintenance with 24 wheels : Cadillac WTF

Here’s one hell of a conceptual design: the Cadillac World Thorium Fuel concept. Otherwise known as the Cadillac WTF. It was created by Loren Kulesus. Everything about the aptly named WTF has been created to last for 100 years without maintenance. That’s the reason for the element number ninety, thorium: to act as a nuclear fuel powering batteries that would power this beast.
Also, every major system is redundant just in case of a failure. Even the wheels are covered and shouldn’t give you much trouble. The wheels don’t have individual tires. In fact, what you get is one combined unit made up of six individual wheels. That gives you 24 wheels in all, and each wheel has its own induction motor just for good measure. According to the creator, “The vehicle would require the tires to be adjusted every five years, but no material would need to be added or subtracted.”

The Tango car

The Tango by Commuter Cars is a bit of an odd duck, even by electric car standards. Famous for being owned by George Clooney, it seats two in tandem to retain the ability to "lane split" and encloses its passengers within a race car roll cage. It accelerates almost as fast as a Tesla Roadster and has a top speed somewhere North of 120 mph. Although it has taken the company a long time to produce a small handful of these vehicles, the $108,000 price tag guarantees the line ahead of newly-placed orders is short. Unfortunately, its range is also somewhat short at 60 miles with its current lead acid configuration. A lithium ion power pack could make it capable of a more meaningful 150 miles.

Gold-plated Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG

It’s nice to know that some people are having some fun living it up in this recession, while the rest of us count and sort our pennies. This is a gold-mirror-finish Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG from the Bling on Wheels Show, at the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai. It’s just plain crazy like everything else in Dubai.
If you drive this thing during the day, everyone will know where you are thanks to the trail of innocent onlookers who were blinded by the light bouncing off it. No word on how much it cost the owner to completely bling this thing out.All I know is people in Dubai have way too much damn money. Next they’ll cover one of their fancy skyscrapers in gold and blind us all.

Alleged Smart Car Body Kits

"Safe to Say, This is What Saturday's Should've Been"-TK

Let no one ever tell you I don't take this shit serious, or write just to hear the sound of my own sweet, sweet voice. The whole dust-up last spring over whether the Lakers were FD or not, that was just frustrating. The debate over what the championship Celtics gave up to win, well, I think their play early this season showed we could all be made happy. But the LeBron debacle this weekend just plain embarrassing. It was sloppy, clueless, and obscured what I actually want to say about a new duality worth watching, one that could be even more central to the league's future than Kobe/Bron. And so, with a hearty shout-out to my new friends at the Real Cavs Fans board, here's a second take that will, when necessary, acknowledge the wreck that preceded it.

Why did I fuck this one up so badly? Because those LeBron threes were, clearly, definitively, LeBron James threes. All the power, fury, excess, and iron-clad assurance that defines James everywhere else on the court, they finally came out in his long range shot. Remember, I played a large part in a book that sought to understand basketball acts in terms of a "Periodic Table of Style," asserting a direct correlation because effectiveness, comfort level, and individuality. I know that James has hit three-pointers in the past, some at key moments. I've also been mightily impressed by the progress his stroke has made this season. But the reason for all the ninth-grade existentialism was that, for the greatest players, there's an idea, or a feeling, that pervades their every act. We call this "style," and it's the symbiotic relationship between how one approaches the game and how one carries out a generic act like "go left." I think superstars can go through several incarnations—most obviously, the various Jordans, but more recently Kobe through the years, or Wade then and now. What makes James both awe-inspiring and at times frustrating is that he seemingly has the ability not to spontaneously expand his capabilities, but pull off shit as if he weren't present in it.

Yes, I will single out his three-point shooting prior to Friday. When James takes two dribbles and then staidly fires away from the top of the key, that's almost a distraction from an epic work in progress. What makes James James? His uncanny combination of size and speed, which has gotten even more inexorable in the open court, off the dribble, or anywhere around the paint; the emergent defense nightmare he's become; his court vision, which insistently delivers the ball to whichever Cav happens to be closest to the basket; a nose for rebounds that comes with just understanding the action better than anyone else. All some combination of peak basketball IQ and/or outlandish physical gifts, traits he's applied more seamlessly, and synthesized with greater ease, as he's matured. This is the education of LeBron, and what I talk about when I imagine the "authentic" James. It's also, to be sure, a process, but one quite different from those that—ahem—mere mortals face. As we quoted in the book, Kobe consider himself to be "chasing perfection," aspiring to an absolute. James isn't so much trying to make perfection his own (he does have a few flaws) as he is transcending it, putting together a game that replaces a (false?) idol with his own frightening visage.



What I saw as "video game" LeBron was his knack for knocking down threes with no personal, stylistic context; why this troubles me is that it's at once in some ways unreal, or glib, and thus—at least according to the way I view the game—proof that he hasn't fully made the shot his own. For most players, we'd say "hasn't assigned a style guide icon to it;" for James, I think we expect nothing less than the invention of a new icon. Friday, he accomplished this. Those were shots that get labeled "video game" because they're impossible, but to me, "video game" signifies impersonal and facile. It refers not to the act, but the tone of it. And, in typical LeBron-ian fashion, what should've been a fundamentally unreal and unlikely way of doing things ends up seeming more fitting than "the real way" of doing things. That's why James is something other than mortal—not because he's already perfect, but because he exists beyond perfection. He's almost its mirror image, functioning always just on the other side of impossible. Does that make him less human than Kobe? No, but it certainly makes Kobe's journey something mere mortals can relate to, a parable of ambition, toil, and vanity that at least vaguely applies to other people.

Without getting all the implied religious analogies even more tangled, Jordan is obviously the idol of today's NBA. In the past, we've discussed Kobe as Jordan-centric classicist, Bron as defining a new paradigm for the future. What if we introduce Durant as the third element, the Air Apparent not in game per se, but in, well, Jordan-ness? Here's the crucial distinction, which might well blow up in my face: Kobe may be mortal, but there's something inhuman about single-minded pursuit of an ideal. It's clinical and, while subject to fits of passion, ultimately rational. There's a tacit assumption that with enough work, he'll match MJ's greatness. The problem is, Jordan's career isn't a template, it's a narrative, a series of organic occurrences that gave rise to the illusion of perfection. Perfection is the limit of what's possible; James inverts this structure, Kobe looks only at the finished product. Duran both steps out of MJ's shadow as a player and, with a honorable nod to Allen Iverson, has more of a flare for drama, more of a sense that his greatness grows out of the moment and is then added to the prototype, than anyone since Jordan. There, I said it.

I'm running out of superlatives for Durant, and I don't want FD to turn into am unreflective parody of itself. But I find it critical that, for a player whose on-court demeanor is unflappable calm masking a yes, MJ-esque need to win, the element of drama is absolutely key. So far, every major event in his career has been a surprise, a shock, a sudden leap: the explosion at UT, sudden maturation late last season, All-Star numbers in run-up to the snub, absolute rule over the Rookie/Challenge game, comeback in HORSE (not important in itself, but helped make ASW his, itself a truly amazing narrative development), and now the freakish production since the break. You could blandly cast this as "Durant keeps getting better," but the reason I dare invoke MJ is that for KD, he's got that emergency gear that kicks in whenever failure or rejection starts to peak out from behind the corners. It's not anathema to him, or a strange unknown creature; it's a demon that haunts him and co-mingles with any ego he builds up from one game to the next. If his demeanor is one of unknowability and ghostliness, the game that pours forth from him is unmistakably human in its emotional thrust. This isn't about proving shit, or scouting out some other plan of existence. It's about a player who has a hair-trigger when it comes to pushing himself, and for whom "pushing yourself" involves lots of pushing and lots of self.

As We Glide Upon Long Isles of the Night

Bethlehem Shoals: Okay, so let's set the stage. I wrote that provocative LBJ post only out of enthusiasm for this Warriors/Thunder game. Ziller announced through a major media conglomerate that this was our new talisman. Ty Keenan missed out on free tickets because he was busy mulling over my offer to chat this. And he, like Dr. LIC, were hungry. We certainly did "Let's do this," and here are the results.

BS: Local League Pass feeds are the last bastion of true regionalism.
Ty Keenan: Oh let me put the game on. I was watching Hitman.
Dr. Lawyer IndianChief: I'm watching this on mute.
BS: They've already said "fun" 6,000 times. SETTING THE STAGE.
Dr. LIC: Okay, turning the volume on.

BS: Fuck it, Anthony Randolph is the new Amir.
TK: That hadn't been decided yet?

Dr. LIC: Damn...Sabonis was NOT a Euro.
BS: Sabonis and Drazen, too.
Dr. LIC: Drazen gets real respect. So far I'm not convinced that Spaniards are real Euros either.
BS: Spanairds are a bad influence on basketball, and I mean that in the best way possible

Dr. LIC: My friend Paul just texted me: "What flag is on S-Jax's headband?" I'm guessing Jolly Roger.
TK: POW/MIA.
Dr. LIC: Oh wait, he was asking about the FD shirt.
BS What if Wade starts a trend with that giant face Band-Aid?
Dr. LIC: He stole that from Penny.

BS: I love that kids in the Bay have no choice but to root for Stephen Jackson.
TK: Why don't any of those kids like Monta? He should have a Dora the Explorer-type cartoon.
BS: The reason why Monta and Randolph should be together forever is that one looks like a bigger version of the other.
TK: The difference is that Monta looks like the happy baby and Randolph looks like the one who had colic.
BS: The other reason Odom likes Randolph is that AR's expressions are even more pained.



Dr. LIC: This whole Thunder coaching situation proved that everyone is wrong about everything. P.J. was hailed as the next Popovich; He couldn't even figure out what KD and Jeff Green's positions were.
BS: I thought he was brought in to sabotage the team. Under the pretense of being "a good coach for young players" which for some reason means yelling, not being imaginative and figuring shit out.
BS: Is Durant so skinny that his bones make a noise when he hits the ground?
TK: I definitely heard a noise.
TK: Monta's getting there.
BS: Monta has more first steps in any path across the court than any player in the league.
BS: Did Marco get tanner while he was injured?
TK: I think a little. It's been really dreary here over that period, too.
BS: I'm implying that he went out of town to tan.
TK: He might have a machine.

BS: There's Thabo!
Dr. LIC: This game is delivering.
BS: I just realized it's 33-26 with lots of time left in the first.
TK: It feels like it's only been five minutes or so
BS: Maggette is the most most Duke-like un-Duke Duke player in the world.
Dr. LIC: True.
TK: Jason Williams might have given Maggette a run for that though
BS: Crawford is like that guy who tries to find the most fucked up people in a bar as an excuse to get trashed

BS: 1) Warriors broadcast shows more replays of opposing team than any other local feed. 2) They once made a Derrick Rose dunk the dunk of the game (I think, TK can confirm this) and 3) They are as obsessed with monitoring Monta's explosiveness comeback as I ever was with Amare.
TK: #2 is definitely true. I think part of those might have to do with the fact that they were bad for so long. And they've had the same announcers for basically the last 10 years and the same color guy for longer. They've always had to make an effort to find something interesting to talk about the game.
BS: I am supposed to mention that I am not live-blogging these nachos
TK: I might want to write about FD college players at some point, because Weaver was totally FD in college but is boring as hell now. Or maybe I'm just not excited by him because he was so cool in college.
BS: (I am chatting with Nate Jones, and trying to explain to A. that I guess I would be cool with her going on a date with Tyson Chandler) I like Weaver. He's what Earl Watson should be.



TK: One thing Monta hasn't really figured out yet is the spin on his crazy finishes.
BS: This game is like floating through heaven: "Oh look, Anthony Morrow's first-born. Now how about an off-the-backboard 'oop, with the announcers intoning that "you knew someone was going to bring it out sometime." Also, Kevin Pelton and I have concluded just now that, if Chandler had gone to the Thunder, they could've fielded the longest line-up ever (Westbrook/Weaver/Durant/Thabo/Chandler).
TK: Green wouldn't be in that lineup?
BS: "Length" wasn't invented until 1992, so no.
> TK: wait, what does 92 have to do with it?
BS: I guarantee you both teams were up for this. I'm fairly certain it's known around the league that playing either of these two team is a rush. Oh, and if Jeff Green gets 20 boards, my foot will cave in. Wait, did the announcer just imply that Krstic sews his own jersey?

BS: What if the Thunder don't really play in Oklahoma City? Like they're on a soundstage in Hollywood that Bennett owns, and the players are all cool staying with the team beacuse it's really Los Angeles life?
TK: I've been exchanging emails with the guy at Run of Play. And he said his dad works next to the practice facility. Mentioned that he gets updates on the cars in the parking lot, but nothing on the players. So it's possible that they stage practices.
BS So anyway, the NBA is going to promote the fuck out of the Thunder starting next year because this team has such star power and is so fun. And none of them leave because it's really LA. Plus all the "fans" are extras, professional ones, waiting in line to audition for Eastbound and Down.

BS: This tableux of over-amped kids is really weird, even grotesque. It's like Rookie/Soph all over again. Maybe Kevin Durant plays his best in front of delirious seven year-olds.
TK: This is sorta like a baseball broadcast. Wait, did the Thunder just let Randolph dunk?
BS: His brand-new reputation precedes him. It's really weird how much he's changed his game recently. It's like a coach actually said something to him in English.
TK: Or Martian, in this case.
BS: Maybe Monta has to translate.



(Half of halftime)

BS A. just asked if she could go on a date with Chris Paul. I said sure. She said "actually, he'd probably make me build a fucking house."
BS Totally subjective: When they show Garnett's championship celebration,wtih some of that sad/surreal/dreamlike Adidas music under him, it kind of makes it make sense to me.
Dr. LIC: Eh
BS: Whatever, advertising rules my mind. Seriously though, it tugs at my KG heartstrings. It even makes that entire Celtics season have some pathos to it. Though maybe that's just because it's not front in front of me pissing me off.
Dr. LIC: That commercial is still wack. KG getting injured tugs at my KG heartstrings.
BS: I'm just a sucker for that music. Need i remind you of a certain KG ad?
Dr. LIC: The stand up comedian!!!
BS: TEARS IN HEAVEN
Dr. LIC: There hasn't been a commercial that important since.
BS: For you/me/us or the NBA as a whole? I'd argue "The LeBrons" was more important.
Dr. LIC: Culturally, but not for us. Man, I still can't believe that one Durant commercial had Buck65 music.

Dr. LIC: These "NBA Cares" commercials have officially reached the point of suspicious.
BS: Elaborate. . .
Dr. LIC: Like, you musta done something wrong to have to brag so much about doing good.
BS: Derek Fisher?
TK: Especially Derek Fisher.
Dr. LIC: With the MLB, it's just accepted that they "care."
TK: Is that true?
BS: Like it's not a matter of action? It's a state?
TK: I'm not sure anyone thinks MLB is morally good anymore. They could probably use their own version of those ads.
BS: I think steroids are an entirely other world of morality. Like the way people don't understand how bills get written in Congress. Wait, that's a bad analogy. Whatever, it's a series of parallel moral concerns.
Dr. LIC Modern problems vs. Old Testament sins. That's steroids vs. NBA issues.
Dr. LIC: (Alvin Gentry is secretly coaching the whole league right now)
BS: Okay, I've got this. MLB=Sharia. Please, neither of you be singing a West Side Story tune right now. Though I've got to admit, it's kind of a hot name for a lady.

Dr. LIC: The Warriors have stockpiled enough players. They have to make a big trade for an A-gamer this off-season, or else they'll be the Jerry West Grizzlies.
TK: Every contract is really long, though.
BS: I think you are greatly underestimating how much the Warriors resemble a guerilla movement. Do they move ahead by forming coalition with center-left parties?
Dr. LIC: South Africa?
BS: Let's just drop this. I went to a talk by an ex-Tamil Tiger the other night and that stuff's been on my mind, but I obviously don't know enough about the actual facts.
Dr. LIC: Kyle Weaver, Carl Landry, Kyle Lowry are all the same person to me.
BS: You cannot fool Jamal Crawford with ballhandling. He may not be a great defender, but that other thing's a point of pride for him.



TK: I almost feel like they're making up the score.
BS: Like, adjusted for their having scored too much? Or inventing it for the sake of having to have something?
TK: No, fabricating
BS: That's how I feel about soccer. Also—another dilletante alert—I read today that in Saudi Arabia all budget and data and prices are just made up
when they need them for major deals, projects, etc.
Dr. LIC: Wow
BS: Westbrook is out Monta-ing Monta.
TK: I just want to say that i'm incredibly proud of being right about Westbrook.
Dr. LIC: Me too.
BS: I liked Bayless better, just to be contrary.

TK: That was the greatest broadcaster question ever: "When you're flying in for an awesome fingerroll, how do you know not to use glass? Tell all the youngsters out there."

Dr. LIC: Okay, hear me out on this... in the NFL, too many quarterbacks were getting hurt. So they changed the rules—wussified them, really—so QBs get more protection. And even though they still get busted up (Brady), it seems to have worked somewhat. I think the NBA should do the same with foul rules inside. You've got Amare, KG, Al Jefferson [and Bynum] dying at crucial junctures. Like, start making fines inside a fineable offense. We get higher scores (Gentry style) and less injured bigs.
BS: You are really broken up over this.
Dr. LIC: Dude, KG. Amare. Al Jeff. This fucking SUCKS. That shouldn't hapen.
BS: The problem is that players like Kenny Thomas still exist. Nick Collison, etc.

BS: "Anthony Randolph possibly hit a chair" has weird echoes of "Luke Ridnour couldn't guard a chair."
TK: I think if you said that out of context people would think he got in a fight with a chair.
BS: Anthony Randolph is "special" in so many senses. And no, i'm not calling him retarded.
BS: Maybe Odom said that quote about Randolph's bright future to finally deflect attention away from his own potential. He wanted them to shut up about how HE could've been the next Magic.
Dr. LIC: Stretch run here.
BS: This game is making me think I don't know anything about basketball. Oh and another very Duke thing about Maggette: never seemed interested in leading the league in scoring from a bad team, even though he possibly could've (which no one else from Duke, save Hill, ever could've).

BS: Wait, is Jackson keeping Durant from going off?
TK: He's still 8/13. I'm not sure why he was out for so much of the third.
BS: That's what I love about Durant, even his quiet games are All-Star-ish. As opposed to guy who struggle to get good numbers on off-nights, and thus are impossible to ignore.
Dr. LIC: Durant is truly the quiet assassin. He really is like when people say "he has no conscience."
TK: This is making me imagine him as the insane person in a gothic novel.
BS: I am sure Kobe would be jealous of that remark. Okay, quick, someone come up with a Manchurian Candidate-inspired nickname for KD. Actually, that would be a dope ad.



BS: Durant is a scoring machine. I never really understood that cliche until seeing him this season.
Dr. LIC He really should be drawing double-teams, though. Maybe that's just Nellie's stupidity.
TK: Is anyone doing it? I could see people not wanting to acknowledge that he's already as good as he is.
BS: Who would you leave open? This team isn't THAT bad.
Dr. LIC: See, that's what I'm saying. The Thunder should be much better. The move to Oklahoma made them think they were an expansion team.
BS: Rebuildng from scratch makes anyone think they're an expansion. It's the great equalizer.
TK: What's their record since P.J. left?
BS: I'd do record since 1/1, since that's when Durant really started going crazy.
Dr. LIC: 12-30 since P.J. left
TK: 9-13 since 1/1, going into tonight.
BS: In the West, no less.

Dr. LIC: Watson is the most Blaxploitation last name ever.
BS: Like Matt Watson? Watson like Sherlock Holmes's sidekick?
Dr. LIC: C.J.
TK: Earl, too.
BS C.J. and Earl Watson are two of the least Blaxploitation players in the league.
TK: James Watson definitely wouldn't like to hear that he has a Blaxploitation name.
Dr. LIC: The name is part "Watts," part "son."
BS: I like to pretend that Azubulke works in finance.
Dr. LIC: Kelenna Azubanky.
BS: Ugh. I'm embarrassed.

BS: "He's never going to go away." That's our next Stephen Jackson shirt right there.
BS Someone should do shirts [huh?] about stat inflation. And see what teams inflate the "right" players, versus those that random players have the biggest games against.
Dr. LIC: The Timberwolves.
BS: You're right, it probably has nothing to do with tempo.
BS: Wow, that was truly Odom-esque of Randolph. Forgetting he'd dribbled.

German ww2 troop carrier

Almost identical but not actualWe wandered through his multi level carpark taking the odd non-Benz car from its stands giving it a quick service, plus spray grease in and on door hinges etc. An hour or two on the private roadway to get a little heat in things then puting it away for another indeterminate period.

In our roaming we decided to go through the unrestored and non-running lot and came upon some treasures he had forgotten he had!First up a German ww2 troop carrier (half-Track) which is fitted with a petrol engine! In the medium light it looked like a Benz or Maybach built engine (not that I am that familiar with the prewar stuff)!We checked it out a little closer and even though it was in a well used condition and a bit rusty, we concluded we should have a closer look when it is pulled into the service area. Keep posted for that one!He recalled that he bought it in an 'Auction' lot that came from a deceased/dispossessed eastern bloc government auction where he had only narrowly been able to get it out (or so they made out). He was forced to buy a container load of Eastern-bloc motorcycles to make up the required minimum export value, then they were able to include the 'troop-carrier' in the shipment and be guaranteed safe passage for the lot.What was revealed when the container with the motorcycles was opened was quite a few new 'Jawa' and 'CZ' motorcycles and most unexpected a ww2 'BMW' motorcycle with a sidecar!

There was excitement in my voice as I suggested we check it out, the Motorcycle collection is not given the credence the cars are but I am keen to check that particular machine!
We find it and it is complete, however, rotten tyres and a rusted-on fuel cap prevented anything happening but to pull it out and put in the order for tyres.
The tank mounted gearshift and 'Hi/Lo' range lever moved and all gears seemed to be present, but who knows!
So, we shall do all the oil and the rest while we wait for the tyres and check the 'Troop-Carrier' for viability for a run, since it has pads on the tracks (which need replacing) and the front tyres are cracked and ancient, we conclude this one will take a while!
I encouraged my friend to just leave it in the condition it is in with a thorough clean-up only and renewal of parts that just must be replaced to run as it should.

Flying cars

By now I was fully expecting that we would all be driving flying cars. You can imagine my disappointment. The Terrafugia Transition flying car isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but it’s better than nothing. The car can be driven around on the roads like a normal, though slightly odd looking. When you hit a runway or other long flat area, though, you can flip out those 27 foot wings and you are ready to take to the friendly skies. The car will have about the same fuel efficiency as a Honda Accord – in the range of 30 mpg. When you are airborne you will be able to fly at speeds up to 130 mph, which obviously isn’t jet speed, but is much better than driving in a traffic jam. The Transition will begin selling in 2009. Presumably the market for such a vehicle would be very small, and the $148,000 price tag makes it even smaller. If you want one you can reserve it just by putting 5% down.

Electric cars in the world

The Reva is an Indian built electric car and one of the largest selling electric cars in the world. The Reva is a small 3-door hatchback measuring only 2.6 m long and with a top speed of 70km/h it is designed as a city car. Its small size and lake of pollution has won favor with London’s city council where it is exempt from London’s congestion charges. The car features a 13 kW DC motor mounted in the rear with 8 lead acid batteries under the front seats. It takes 2.5 hours to get to 80% charge or 8 hours to fully charge the Reva that gives it a range of 80klm although future use of lithium ion batteries will improve this greatly. The body of the Riva is made of colour impregnated ABS plastic that makes it dent and scratch resistant. In some markets the Reva is sold as the Reva G-wiz and as with most electric cars has found itself a niche market for people that want a cheap neighbourhood runabout and dont really need to go far or fast on a highway.
http://www.revaindia.com/