[Magick Man]

This is funny, sad, and shocking, all at the same time. This American chick got a tattoo and was told it meant "friendship", but, well, it doesn't...



http://hanzismatter.blogspot.de/2013/01/from-angel-r.html

 

[billybob_jcv]

Has anyone here that has always driven a left hand drive manual stick (shifting with your right hand) car tried to drive a RHD stick (shifting with your left hand) car? Whenever I've visited a RHD country, I've always had rentals with automatic transmissions. Shifting with your left hand just seems impossible to me - I am VERY right-handed, and I can't imagine trying to shift with my left hand.

 

[Magick Man]

Sure have. The old Fairlady is RHD and it's not bad at all. The biggest problem is road position, since it places you on the outside part of the lane here in the US. It takes a little practice to keep from hugging the center too closely and freaking out other drivers. The shifting itself didn't take long to adjust to at all, and now I just take a few seconds to re-acclimate when I hop in, and then I'm off and running. And no, I'm not ambidextrous at all, I'm very right hand dominant.

 

[VortexBlast]

As per Magick's recommendation and my friend's mechanic, I have changed my tyres to some Michelin shoes. The problem is that the one you recommended me (Pilot Sport A/S Plus) doesn't exist in Jakarta so I had to make a decision. Change tyres to some Bridgestones RE002 or to stick with Pilot Sport 3s...
 
I then went to a well known wheel and tyre shop in Jakarta to check if they had any of those tyres. They did have the PS3 but in 205/55 R16. One size too big but it shouldn't hurt performance by much rather it should improve ride quality which is a big plus in Jakarta (though it does look a bit fat).
At the same time, I have bought some new wheels to change the fairly heavy and quite ugly 10 spokes wheels. Volk TE37SL in black to be precise.
 
Driving the car, I have noticed some dramatic changes in the way the car rides. First of all, ride quality has much improved compared to the stock Turanza ER370 then I noticed that the steering is heavier than before. I don't mind that because I do like a more heavier steering wheel because with the stock tyres, the steering was quite numb and light actually (blame the electric power steering). I also felt that even at average speeds, the level of grip is actually amazing and the steering response is a lot faster and a lot precise now.
Also when it was installed, it was raining. I thought it wouldn't do too well on the wet but it proved me wrong, it has good traction on wet conditions as well!
 
I will post some pictures tomorrow.

 

[billybob_jcv]

What was the original stock tire size? I know you said your were thinking of changing them to 205/50-16, but I'm not sure you ever said what the car had when new. Compared to the 205/50-16, the 205/55-16 would be just a bit taller. I think 205/55-16 is a much more common size, so it doesn't surprise me that it was easier to find. How is your speedo? If the diameter changed compared to the stock tires then the speedo might be off.

 

[VortexBlast]

Quote:

What was the original stock tire size? I know you said your were thinking of changing them to 205/50-16, but I'm not sure you ever said what the car had when new. Compared to the 205/50-16, the 205/55-16 would be just a bit taller. I think 205/55-16 is a much more common size, so it doesn't surprise me that it was easier to find. How is your speedo? If the diameter changed compared to the stock tires then the speedo might be off.

 
Stock tyres were 185/55-16. I've checked how much difference it will make. The speedo will be too slow by 3.6% so the speedo is a bit off. If they had the 205/50-16, the difference would be 0.2%.

 

[Magick Man]

Maybe I spoke too soon, this is the Canadian Minister of Defense. Is he a nut or a hero?



[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEQdvYFMBAU[/VIDEO]

 

[Hutnicks]

Quote:

Maybe I spoke too soon, this is the Canadian Minister of Defense. Is he a nut or a hero?

Former minister of defence. He worked under Lester Pearson who was in office until 1968.
 
He was outspoken on UFO's even back then. Who knows if in fact there is any truth to this. He is currently attempting to get all governments to disclose any alien technology which may have a bearing on the current environmental issues.
I suspect if there were alien tech available on earth GW would have loosed it on everyone from Saddam to the neighbour who's dog pissed on his lawn.
 
His work on creating the unified TriService resulted in uniforms we called bus drivers and sapped the morale of each service. Of course we went back to the 3 service system in due time at what cost only the government knows.

 

[Magick Man]

I've heard the tales most of my life, my dad is a strong believer. Personally, I'm not sure what to think, but I do know there's a lot of hinky things that have happened that aren't easily explained with the info we're given..

On a similar subject, who built these?



Göbekli Tepe is 12,000 years old with some granite stones weighing in excess of 60 tons, yet they were placed with laser precision. Some even appear to have been melted by extreme heat, while others have carvings so intricate that we'd have difficulty duplicating them today, even with advanced tools. That's another thing, tools... archeologists have never found any.

 

[Hutnicks]

Quote:

I've heard the tales most of my life, my dad is a strong believer. Personally, I'm not sure what to think, but I do know there's a lot of hinky things that have happened that aren't easily explained with the info we're given..

On a similar subject, who built these?



Göbekli Tepe is 12,000 years old with some granite stones weighing in excess of 60 tons, yet they were placed with laser precision. Some even appear to have been melted by extreme heat, while others have carvings so intricate that we'd have difficulty duplicating them today, even with advanced tools. That's another thing, tools... archeologists have never found any.

I quite liked the Smithsonians report on that with the Here we have symbols in stone 6000 years before writing.
 
Apparently not.

 
When I encounter things like this I play out a scenario. What if all of what we know was wiped out?  What would an archeologist make of the findings after 100 centuries time? You would have vastly built up areas and others in quite primitive native states. If you found a mountain village in Chile first that would be the picture you had of the civilization. If you then found San Francisco you would carbon date everything and come up with a similar timeline for both areas. What do you make of it. How could two so disparate cultures exist at the same time?
 
looking back 100 centuries to a very unstable world anything could have happened. A roving tribe could have chased away the inhabitants and taken all the tools and technology with them as loot when they moved off.
 
I heard Ben Rich shortly before his death say that they could not build an SR-71 in todays environment, it would be technically impossible. That makes one think. Look at the skill sets we have lost in the last hundred years, it does not surprise me we cannot explain ancient constructs.

 

[customcoco]

The same could be said about Nazca's lines :
 

 

[VortexBlast]

Some pictures. 

 

 
At first, I didn't want to go with TE37s because I saw the 15 inch version and it was too flat, not concave enough so I thought that the 16 inch was more or less the same but I was so wrong. It looks damn good and contrasts very well with the silver paint. Also, it is much, much lighter than the stock wheels.
Oh yeah, the tyres are a bit thick... They didn't have a Pilot Sport 3 with a 50 sidewall. Next time when I will change the tyres again, I will make sure to search and ask 2 weeks before changing them just to get the right size.

 

[billybob_jcv]

Looks good VB! I think they fill the fenders very well.

On the creation of ancient artifacts: Do not underestimate what can be accomplished if you are OCD and have easy access to hundreds of slaves toiling for decades on a single task.

Have you ever noticed that the artifacts speculated to have been built with alien help are always big stone structures or other things that could be built from components available at the time? Where are the ancient high-temp ceramics, plastics and composites that would have been available to any star-traveling race? Are we to believe that the aliens took the time to help ancient man cut and lift a 60 ton block of rock, but the aliens didn't give the job foreman some lightweight and super strong hand tools and a couple of laser levels? Show me an ancient shovel made out of transparent aluminum and then we'll talk!

 

[Hutnicks]

Quote:

Looks good VB! I think they fill the fenders very well.

On the creation of ancient artifacts: Do not underestimate what can be accomplished if you are OCD and have easy access to hundreds of slaves toiling for decades on a single task.

Have you ever noticed that the artifacts speculated to have been built with alien help are always big stone structures or other things that could be built from components available at the time? Where are the ancient high-temp ceramics, plastics and composites that would have been available to any star-traveling race? Are we to believe that the aliens took the time to help ancient man cut and lift a 60 ton block of rock, but the aliens didn't give the job foreman some lightweight and super strong hand tools and a couple of laser levels? Show me an ancient shovel made out of transparent aluminum and then we'll talk!

They have not dug down to that level yet

  OR Aliens are eco friendly so all the left over tools bio degraded into something that tastes like chicken and was eaten

 
If you're looney enough or spend too much time in the desert looking at blank space called area 51 you can come up with myriad theory's.

 

[Magick Man]

Some pictures.
....
At first, I didn't want to go with TE37s because I saw the 15 inch version and it was too flat, not concave enough so I thought that the 16 inch was more or less the same but I was so wrong. It looks damn good and contrasts very well with the silver paint. Also, it is much, much lighter than the stock wheels.
Oh yeah, the tyres are a bit thick... They didn't have a Pilot Sport 3 with a 50 sidewall. Next time when I will change the tyres again, I will make sure to search and ask 2 weeks before changing them just to get the right size.

Those look really good, much better than OEM.

Looks good VB! I think they fill the fenders very well.

On the creation of ancient artifacts: Do not underestimate what can be accomplished if you are OCD and have easy access to hundreds of slaves toiling for decades on a single task.

Have you ever noticed that the artifacts speculated to have been built with alien help are always big stone structures or other things that could be built from components available at the time? Where are the ancient high-temp ceramics, plastics and composites that would have been available to any star-traveling race? Are we to believe that the aliens took the time to help ancient man cut and lift a 60 ton block of rock, but the aliens didn't give the job foreman some lightweight and super strong hand tools and a couple of laser levels? Show me an ancient shovel made out of transparent aluminum and then we'll talk!

Going by sheer population at the time of the building of the great pyramids, there simply weren't enough people in Egypt to build them, going by what we conceive would have been the conventional building methods and the human fossil record of the time. There's a finite amount of work possible with human labor, even with block and tackle or pulleys. A modern example is Coral Castle, and I strongly recommend everyone visit the place if you're ever in south Florida. It was constructed by one man, all by himself, without heavy machinery. No one knows how he lifted some of those 30-40 ton sections of cut coral and balanced them so perfectly (one is a 30 ton door that you can push open with one finger, I know because I did just that). It's absolutely stunning. :blink: