[Vhfcn-l] Monday musings

[Gary Thewlis]

Any time Detroit scores more than 100 points and holds the other team below
100 points, they almost always win.

Doug Collins

 

The reformer is always right about what is wrong. He is generally wrong
about what is right.

G. K. Chesterton

 

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.

John Kenneth Galbraith

 

A lot of people ask me if I were shipwrecked, and could only have one book,
what would it be? I always say 'How to Build a Boat.' 

Steven Alexander Wright

 

If you had to identify in one word the reason why the human race has not
achieved and never will achieve its full potential, that word would be
'meetings.' 

Dave Barry

 

I would like to thank my middle finger for always sticking up for me when I
needed it. 

Anonymous

 

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Regenerative braking is a standard and expected part of any electrified car
now, from Honda's mild hybrids up through battery-electric vehicles like the
Tesla Model S. It lets the car recapture energy from momentum, which would
otherwise be wasted as brake heat, by running the electric motor in reverse
to recharge the battery.

 

According to a short piece in Car Design News, the first car to employ
regenerative braking was an electric concept car called the Amitron,
unveiled in 1967 by--of all things--American Motors. Shorter than a Smart
ForTwo minicar, it was sufficiently wide for three passengers to sit side by
side. The 1,100-pound car was powered by a combination of nickel-cadmium and
lithium-nickel-fluoride batteries, the former for quick power delivery on
acceleration, the latter for maximum energy storage for sustained cruising.
Together, the combined battery gave the Amitron a sustained range of 150
miles at a speed of 50 mph.

 

1976 AMC Pacer - While the company had planned to offer the Amitron as a
commuter vehicle within five years, it never did so, despite a second
concept car in 1977 called the Electron that looked very similar. The
short-but-wide layout reappeared in the 1975 Pacer compact, however.

 

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The first official White House car was a 1909 White Steamer, ordered by
President Taft.

 

Gulf opened up the first drive-in gas station in Pittsburgh in 1913.

 

Oklahoma City was the first to use parking meters on July 16, 1935.

 

Royce Hailey's Pig Stand was the first drive-in restaurant, opened in Dallas
in 1921.

 

The 1953 Corvette was available in one color, Polo White.

 

The 1960 Plymouth Valiant was the first car fitted with an alternator,
rather than a direct current dynamo.

 

The 1924 Chrysler was the first car fitted with a replaceable cartridge oil
filter.

 

The 1904 Acme, from Reading, PA, was the first car to be offered with a
"perpetual guarantee". Perpetuity was disturbing in this case, as Acme
closed down in 1911.

 

The 1904 Thomas Flyer, with a removable hard top, was the car that first
referred to itself as a convertible.

 

The 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix was the first to have its radio antenna embedded
in the windshield.

 

The 1930 Cadillac 452, the first production V16, used the first successful
series-production hydraulic valve lifters.

 

Detroit, Michigan in 1919 had the World's first three-color traffic lights
installed. Two years later they experimented with synchronized lights.

 

The first drive-in movie theater opened in Camden, NJ in 1933.

 

The 1949 Chryslers were the first to use a standardized production key-start
system.

 

The Olds designation 4-4-2 stands for 4 barrel carburetor, 4 speed
transmission, and dual exhaust.

 

Clyde Barrow (of Bonnie and Clyde) in 1934 wrote to Henry Ford, "I have
drove fords exclusively when I could get away with one. It has got every
other car skinned, and even if my business hasn't been strictly legal it
don't hurt anything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V-8"?

 

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STEWARDESSES is the longest word that can be typed with only left hand.

 

In New York by law the death penalty is required for jumping off a building.

 

In Texas it is illegal to shoot a buffalo from the second story of a Hotel
room.

 

In Texas criminals must give their victims 24 hours advance written notice.

 

In the state of Washington a concealed weapon must be under 6 feet long.

 

The world's busiest MacDonald's is located in Moscow.

 

By law every citizen of Kentucky must take a bath annually.