There's a 1959 Ford Fairlane 500 for sale in San Francisco's Mission District. It's owned by a neighborhood mechanic, and it runs great -- we've seen it hauling down the street. The body appears all-original, and it looks terrific in a wabi-sabi sort of way.
We're not sure whether to be thrilled or horrified by this news from Hollywood.
BUT before you read on, we encourage you to put on your headphones and start listening to this.
Still with us? Feeling in the mood? Now...
David Ellison, the 27 year-old son of Oracle CEO (and avation geek) Larry Ellison, wants to produce a sequel to "Top Gun," the 1986 film that starred Tom Cruise in a (arguably homoerotic) Cold War period piece about F-14 Tomcat pilots serving aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.
Word on the street that Ellison wants to put the whole band squadron back together, with overtures made to Tom Cruise, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and director Tony Scott to participate in the project.
But why the move to make a sequel now, all of a sudden? We’re told that a big part of the reason is the influence of David Ellison, the 27-year-old son of Oracle Corp. founder — and world’s sixth-richest man — Larry Ellison. Despite being only 3 years old when Top Gun first strafed theaters, Ellison clearly became a big fan of the film on VHS, and went on to become both an aerobatic pilot and instrument-rated commercial pilot before attending USC's film school and then launching his own production company, Skydance. His first production was the 2006 World War I drama Flyboys, in which he also starred. It bombed, but Ellison didn’t lose his taste for the movie business: Just this August, Ellison the Younger left his Skydance offices (located at Santa Monica Municipal Airport, where Ellison still keeps several small aircraft), swung by JPMorganChase, and raised $350 million to co-finance much of Paramount’s slate of films — the first of which will be … wait for it … Mission: Impossible 4, starring Tom Cruise.
Here are two things we're happy to see together at last: bicycles and tacos.
Timothy Holt, aka Taco Bike Timmy, is a restauranteur and cyclist (not necessarily in that order) who sells yummy fish tacos from a custom-built bicycle he pedals in San Francisco and Healdsburg, California.
Timmy's rig is pretty special, and he spoke to the charming Vélo Vogue blog about his ride, which even includes a four-slot griddle so none of the meats touch each other.
VV: Tell me about the history and transformation of the Taco Bike:
TBT: I bought the orange Mexican cargo bike in 08' and wanted to prepare and sell tacos from the bike. Figured out I couldn't do it on my own, so I asked my friend Todd Barricklow a Santa Rosa artist (killing time studios) and he accepted the challenge. It is a one of a kind, art piece. Outfitted for any event from Dolores park to burning man. He put in a lot of time and when you see the bike, it shows. From the hot water hand sink, to the back eating area behind the seat. Truly a genius.
Indeed! Check out the clever and stylish design: Integrated stand-up dining area, with condiment stand, hot water sink, and trash receptacle. Nicely done!
This chilling photo sequence shows what happena when a Mk-48 torpedo strikes a target -- in this case, the former HMAS Torrens, a decomissioned Australian destroyer.
Here's the video version:
Defense Industry Daily, says the Mk-48 is "the standard heavyweight torpedo used by the US military."
The Mk-48 is a huge 533mm torpedo (19 feet long, 3,500+ pounds) with advanced homing, wire guidance capabilities, and devastating consequences when its 300kg warhead hits a target. It is designed to kill both fast, deep-diving nuclear submarines and high performance surface ships, and is carried by US Navy and Royal Australian Navy submarines.
The Mk-48 is an expensive torpedo too: DID says each one goes for $2 million, rising to $3 million with various upgrades factored in.
Back in the day, however, Coop made his name by creating posters for various bands, spectacles, and events. For longtime fans, then, Coop's newly created poster archive will likely bring back a lot of fond memories. And for ye newbie, let it serve as a colorful introduction to his early work (and some new stuff as well).
Last weekend, the San Francisco Municipal Railway (MUNI) did a major overhaul of a section of streetcar railbed at the corner of 30th and Church streets. The project was completed -- start to finish -- in 4.5 days, and it just so happened to take place outside the window of infrastructuralist Ken Murphy.
This is a time-lapse video showing the replacement of the MUNI tracks in front of my house. Demolition began on the evening of Friday, October 8, and work continued around the clock until early in the morning of Tuesday, October 12. The MUNI folks were nice enough to distribute earplugs to those of us in the immediate vicinity.
Very satisfying to watch, and some impressive work on MUNI's part:
Here's a swell piece of Fleet Week 2010 multimedia, and definitely something we don't get to see every day. United Airlines dispatched a Boeing 747 (N173UA) to do a low pass over San Francisco Bay last weekend, and fortunately, someone caught it on video. Wheee!
The video is nice, but this does seem like a missed opportunity for United. After all, wouldn't this have been a swell time to roll out a 747 in the combined United/Continental livery? While thousands of eyeballs were watching the big jet float over the Golden Gate Bridge? Oh well. Maybe next year.
It's really really hard to imagine 007 driving around in one of these. But the more well-heeled among us may have the opportunity, starting next year.
Aston Martin has confirmed plans to begin production of the Cygnet, an urban microcar which basically looks like a Smart that's been spending a lot of time at the gym. In truth, however, the Cygnet is built on the same platform as the Toyota iQ microcar, and this little secret has the unfortunate effect of making the entire effort seem slightly tawdry. No official word on pricing, but Q tells us a Cygnet may go for £30,000, or about US$48,000 -- the right price for any globetrotting superspy on a government salary.
Cygnet expresses a simple but fundamental idea: in the modern city, scale equates to speed and freedom. At just three metres long, the Cygnet gives the driver a new dimension of freedom, able to slot into gaps in traffic, exploit the smallest parking spaces, consume the least fuel and emit the lowest emissions, all while delivering exceptional levels of quality and comfort.
"Cygnet is small but luxurious, an Aston Martin tailor fit for the city," says Marek Reichman, Aston Martin's Director of Design. With an almost unlimited palette of materials, colours and textures, each hand-finished Cygnet will be truly unique, a personalised space within the city. "Luxury is not constrained by scale."
Having a tough time with that accent, James? Here's the video:
As the saying goes, give an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters and an infinite amount of time, and eventually one of them might just write Hamlet. By the same token, give Telstar Logistics a digital camera, six F-18 Hornets, and about ten years of San Francisco Fleet Weeks, and eventually we'll snap a presentable photograph of the Blue Angels.
Indeed, after years of failure, we finally managed to take some satisfying photos of the Angels as they zoomed just a few hundred feet above our heads.
Moreover, from our vantage point, and against a cloudless blue sky, we couldn't help but notice that a few of our photos made the F-18s look decidedly insectoid. Hornet-like, even:
As always, our thanks go out to the U.S. Navy for an excellent airshow.
A few years ago, during Fleet Week 2006, Telstar Logistics visited the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. Actually, that's a bit of an understatement. In fact, we flew out to the Nimitz on a Navy cargo aircraft, landed on the flight deck, explored the ship from top to bottom, enjoyed a hearty lunch in the ships's mess, then sailed gloriously under the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a Grand Adventure, full of memories to last a lifetime.
This year the Wheel of Fortune went for another spin, and blogger Kyle Mizokami came up lucky.
Kyle was invited to visit the amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (LHD-8), which arrived in San Francisco as part of Fleet Week 2010. And guess what? Kyle flew out to the ship, landed on the flight deck, explored the ship from top to bottom, ate a hearty Navy meal, then sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge. He writes:
USS Makin Island looks like an aircraft carrier but is what the Navy calls a Landing Helicopter, Dock. Designed to ferry Marines into combat, LHD ships are equipped with a full length flight deck and hangar and carry both helicopters and Harrier jump jets. Down below, it can house and feed more than a thousand embarked Marines. In the back of the ship is what is called a well deck capable of carrying smaller boats and hovercraft. From the Makin Island, Marines can storm unfriendly places by air and by sea and take them away from unfriendly people.
All that, however, was not what the Navy wanted to publicize. This year’s Fleet Week was also designed to highlight the Navy and Marine Corps’ role in disaster relief. As it turned out the Makin Island, designed to fight wars, was also pretty good as a disaster relief platform. It has the equivalent of a small hospital onboard. It can generate power, fresh water, and provide food. Its helicopters, landing craft, and ground vehicles can carry supplies to disaster zones and people to safety. The Navy and Marines were eager to show how they could be useful in responding to a major emergency in the Bay Area, and as a result the bulk of the civilians being flown out to the ship were emergency management personnel from the governments of both California and San Francisco.
Kyle visited the ship's intensive-care ward:
He toured the engine room, and (thoughtfully) snapped this incredible picture of an engine-monitoring computer display:
He saw the stern well deck, which floods with water when the USS Makin Island needs to launch or recover its landing craft:
For a nice before/after, this video, filmed by the Makin Island's crew, shows what the well deck looks like when flooded. (Wet!)
So, are we jealous of Kyle? Envious? Plagued by petty resentments and thinly veiled antagonisms? Nooooooo. Of course not. Unthinkable. Remember, people: We are professionals.
The Bay Citizen is running Kyle's trip dialry in parts, here and here.
Virgin Galactic's VSS Enterprise, the world's first commercial passenger spacecraft, felt the wind under its wings for the first time today as the spacecraft completed its maiden glide test.
Virgin Galactic, the US company developing the world’s first commercial manned space flight system and tourism business, is delighted to announce the successful completion today of the first piloted free flight of SpaceShipTwo, named the VSS Enterprise. The spaceship was released from its mothership at an altitude of 45,000 ft (13,700 metres).
During its first flight the spaceship was piloted by Pete Siebold, assisted by Mike Alsbury as co-pilot. The two main goals of the flight were to carry out a clean release of the spaceship from its mothership and for the pilots to free fly and glide back and land at Mojave Air and Space Port in California.
Other detailed objectives of the flight were successfully completed, including; verification that all systems worked prior and following the clean release of Enterprise; initial evaluation of handling and stall characteristics; qualitative evaluation of stability and control of SS2 against predictions from design and simulation work; verification of performance by evaluating the lift-to-drag ratio of the spaceship during glide flight; practice a landing approach at altitude and finally descend and land.
What's the most efficient way to reduce motor vehicle fuel consumption, unclog America's jammed roads, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions? It's a simple formula called Economics 101.
The San Francisco Examiner reports that an experiment in rush hour congestion pricing on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge has had the effect of -- surprise! -- deterring drivers from using the bridge during peak commute hours. On July 1, the toll for noncarpool drivers between 5 and 10 a.m. and between 3 and 7 p.m. increased from $4 to $6. The result? The Examiner reports:
The new study compared the weekday commute across the bridge between Sept. 13 and Sept. 24 with the same period last year. This year, hundreds more cars crossed the bridge daily between the hours of 4 and 5 a.m. and 10 and 11 a.m., the data revealed. Meanwhile, hundreds less crossed between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m., it showed.
Also, the average commute from where Interstate 80 intersects with University Avenue in Berkeley to the toll plaza has been reduced from 27 minutes to 24 minutes during the peak morning hours, the study said. Overall traffic on the bridge saw a slight drop in September — from 127,931 daily trips to 126,532 daily trips, the data said.
The traffic across the Bay Bridge has been “slowly and steadily” dropping each year since 2003, partly due to toll increases, spokesman John Goodwin said.
If the idea of altering demand patterns by sending clear price signals works on the bridge, just imagine how well might work throughout the U.S. economy … in the form of a carbon tax that would increase the cost of every gallon of gasoline Americans put into their tanks. Higer gas taxes, please!
Image:Traffic at the Bay Bridge toll plaza, by Gohsuke Takama
It's Fleet Week here in San Francisco, so we'd like to apologize in advance if we seem a little distracted. Between the beautiful roar of Blue Angels F-18s tearing through the sky, and the sight of big Navy ships chugging under the Golden Gate Bridge... well, let's just say it's a lot to take in.
The Blue Angels are practically locals, so our special guest this year is the USS Makin Island (LHD-8), a hybrid-powered amphibious assault ship that is basically the USS Prius of combat vessels:
Take a close look at these pictures of a San Francisco cable car.
Can you tell what's wrong with it?
Answer: It's not a cable car!
No, it's not a cable car. It's an electric streetcar. What's the difference? A quick refresher: San Francisco's classic cable cars are unpowered vehicles propelled by grabbing on to a moving underground cable with a giant metal clamp, or grip. Mechanically, it's no exaggeration to say that a cable car is far more closely related to, say, a ski lift, than a contemporary bus or tram.
But if you look at the car shown here, you'll notice a thin black arm that extends up from the roof. That's the big clue. It's a trolley pole, which is used to transfer electricity from overhead wires to the electric motors that give this streetcar its mojo.
San Francisco Streetcar No. 578 was built in in 1895, and according to the folks at Market Street Railway, it may be the world's oldest streetcar still on the active roster of an urban transit agency. It still runs for special events, and it looks almost good as new, although No. 578 does contain some nifty cues that hint at its true age:
But what explains No. 578's uncanny resemblance to a cable car?
That answer is pretty simple. 578 looks like a cable car because when it was built, this is what all public transit vehicles had looked like since the basic infrastructure of modern public transportation was invented in the 1830s. Indeed, the appearance of No. 578 -- and the cable cars, for that matter -- is derived from the shape of the first true mass transit vehicle, the horse car, or horse-drawn streetcar. Here's a horse car from 1877:
Cable cars came along in 1873, and cable car vehicles were basically built to look like horse cars -- only with the horse lopped off. Then things got really exciting. Thomas Edison patented his system for electric power distribution in 1880. Urban electrification followed, as did the development of the electric streetcar, in 1888.
Electric streetcars simply embraced the conventional design vocabulary of the times, which explains why streetcar No. 578 looks like a cable car which looks like a horse car.
The image was captured earlier this week by Carla Cioffi, a NASA photographer. The caption explains (in broken English):
The Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft is rolled out by train to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010. The TMA-01M is a new modified Soyuz vehicle that features upgraded avionics and a digital cockpit display. The crew of Expedition 25 Soyuz Commander Alexander Kaleri, NASA Flight Engineer Scott Kelly and Russian Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 8, 2010 at 5:10 a.m. Kazakhstan time.
