What have you seen?

[brokenergy]

Today I was catching the bus home when I saw a guy who looked exactly like Neil Patrick Harris. So anyways that got me thinking for a topic about the things that you have seen that are funny, weird or just plain amusing. So post and share some of things you have seen.

[Vindekarr]

Some thigns I've seen lately that? lots, stuff you lads and lasses may find interesting? I'll try.

 

#1: I recently saw a specimine of a FactoryHouse. These really excite me, because they're such a clever idea. Basicaly the idea of Facotryhouses is to give people who couldnt normaly afford to make a new house the option of home ownership, which is of greta importance ion countries such as australia which barely have sufficient numbers of new houses to fit the whole population growth rate. Anyway so they're houses, built to a standard template, that are then built in factories! The houses are then broken up, driven to the site on a truck, at which point a crane carries the parts to their locations and a welder attaches them to the ground. Very clever idea, just now starting to catch on here, though I understand the Americans have been doing it for more than a decade.

 

#2 As you know I like spiders, but most spiders dont get along very well, Tarantulas tend to the gentlest variety of spiders, and even they become very violent if their territory is breached, let alone by another spider. But a few weeks ago I saw a gestalt of about 30 or so Golden Orb Weaver spiders in a gargantuan web that was run between some powerlines. Not only had they seemingly circumvented being electrocuted, but they had also realised that they'd catch more prey working together, and had collaberated to make a gargantuan web the size of a large bedsheet. Though scientists have been able to get even the most violent and agressive of all spiders, the cannibalistic Latrodectus Mactans(black widows) to live together and pack-hunt by carefully raising them as sisters.

 

#3 An article I was reading recently about the future of personal transport, apparently Hybrid cars are taking off even more than I'd expected, at this rate of takeup, by 2012 EVERY major western manufacturor will have atleast one hybrid model, as it stands only Audi, Mercedes-Benz, BavarianMotorWerk(BMW) Renault, Citreon and Peugeot need to produce a hybrid for that to happen, as the American Big-3 all make a hybrid, as do most of the Japanese export brands. Five years ago this would have been inconcievable, but today it's just a fact of life, and while I state this too often, Im a huge car lover, it makes me feel proud that we've been able to adjust ourself in such an important way so quickly. I think the thing that's changed is the perception of the electric motor: cars like the X-1 have shown us now that an electric can infact outperform virtualy anything petrol, by sgnificant margin, and cars like the CR-Z and Tesla have shown us that they dont need to be soulcrushingly dull little tripepiples.

[Netwit2008]

I can't think of one weird thing I've seen recently besides my own reflection in the mirror :tongue: Man I am tired, lol My brain is going into "see no evil, remember no evil, can't even plan no evil" melt down mode! :teehee:

[Vindekarr]

I saw THIS on the news this morning, and it interested me greatly.

 

Apparently fruit fibres, when mixed through plastic, are almost as strong as Kevlar, and twice as easy to come by(any old Pineapple will do) and produce hyper strong heat resistant plastics that could make metal entirely redundant in car bodywork, and eventualy engines.

 

A car's outer shell needs to be hard, the harder the better. When a car goes into a corner a degree of flexing force travels through the vehicle and fractionaly bends the vehicle's frame, which then re=straightens after the turn is made. The faster you go the more extreme that gets, this flexing force greatly impairs vehicle handling, and thus safety. High-end sports cars have long attempted to come up with ways to avoid this, the easiest way is to use conventional materials but make the car very light, that's all well and good for dedicated sports cars but for your "drive to work, take the kids to school, go shopping with your spouse" sort of machine, it's hideously impractical.

 

Thus Carbon Fibre is a popular remedy. Using Carbon Fibre, and ultralight, incredibly strong material, car designers no longer need to use a convential blueprint. Carbon Fibre vehicles are instead built as a "tub" with the bodywork and chassis forming a single unified exoskeleton, vastly(VASTLY, like, 1800% improved survival chance at speeds above 200 MPH) improving occupent safety while producing an equally vast enhancement to handling and cornering by completely eliminating flex. But Carbon Fibre is very expensive.

 

Enter the plant fibre/plastic hybrid, does almost anything a carbon fibre weave can, for the cost of regular plastic. This may well be a revolution in car design.

 

http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee454/Vindekarr/120px-Proton-MPV-Chassis.jpg

 

This image shows a current era car chassis, it's an unwieldy behemoth of very heavy metals, it's also very vulnerable in a crash as it bends with incredible ease under heavy forces.

 

http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee454/Vindekarr/120px-Mclaren_MP4-12C_Goodwood.jpg

 

This image shows a Mclaren MP4-12C Supercar, this vehicle is made using a single massive Carbon Fibre exoskeleton, which is incredibly light, but it's force resistance is unbelievable, make this one of the safest cars in the world to crash, as if you've ever seen a Formula One crash in recent history, you'll know that Carbon Fibre monopiece vehicles are built with almost unbreakable safety capsules, there's a reason nobody has died in F-1 since 1994, and Carbon Fibre is a major contender for that reason.

[phobert]

In regards to the OP, at wrok we play a game called Celebrity Watch to pass the time. Basically we point out people that look like celebs and award points on a scale of 0 to 5, 0 being not at all and 5 being a doppleganger. I'm currently leading withh 52 points, notable people being Female Gary Busey and Female Kevin Bacon.

[kevkiev]

So I was taking some shots of my spanky new (used) guitar awhile back. Took about a dozen photos in quick succession, with no change in lighting, positioning, etc. All seemed pretty normal except for the last 2 pics, which had this weird, obviously supernatural :tongue: um... thing hovering over it. I'm pretty sure it was the manifestation of mojo itself!! Or... just maybe... something downright EVIL. (If you happen to be into Captain Beefheart, then you know that electric guitars can channel the devil himself!) :devil:

 

Check 'em out:

 

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh70/diggermats/t5sp2.jpg

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh70/diggermats/t5spooky.jpg

 

Okay, so you're skeptical. Me too, but check this out:

 

Thing was.... I'd put the guitar back on its stand, a few feet behind me and my PC, before downloading the pics from my camera. As I was noticing these strange images, I heard the "twang" of a plucked guitar string. WTF?! :blink: I whirled around and there was my guitar, just sitting in its stand. (No one else was home.) I turned back to the PC and, again.... "TWAAANG".... DOUBLE WTF?! :unsure: :blink:

 

Okay, must admit I was gettin' a little freaked.

 

Then I remembered that just before starting the pic download, I'd loaded up one of my DVD guitar lessons into my TV/Stereo setup in the room right next to my PC room. It had started playing when I was dowloading the pics - the source of the twangs.

 

No spooks, no spirits. Just some interesting timing.

 

Still, it was pretty cool for 10 seconds or so before I figured it out.

 

Anyways, seemed like a good little story to post on either April 1 or October 31. So there ya go. :biggrin:

[Netwit2008]

Whooa! That does look like a spirit though. :ermm: Had me freakin for a minute, lol But um...I don't see an explanation for that image, only the sound :unsure:

 

Also gives me an idea for a new thread topic, so thanks :biggrin:

[kevkiev]

... But um...I don't see an explanation for that image, only the sound :unsure:

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I guess I just kinda dismissed the images as.... hmmmn..... geez, I dunno. :unsure: In any event, given the sad state of my guitar playing, it definitely wasn't the mojo I was hoping it was. :tongue:

 

Saw your new thread - cool idea!

[Vindekarr]

I saw a Lexus L/F/A today.

 

Now, normaly for me, Paris Hilton buying a car is enough to make me hate it, simply for that reason being that Paris Hilton likes something about it. Now the LFA however is the absolute exception to that rule. Worked on below radar for close to 15 years, the LFA is quite probably the fastest Japanese car ever. What i love about it though is it's quirky. You could not ever mistake one for anything else. Technolgoicaly too it's very unusual.

 

Bearing a loose similarity to a Dodge Viper, and with a similar setup of a massively powerful V-10 engine mounted slightly infront of the dashboard, rear wheel drive for lively handling, and a body domitnated by a serpentine, agressive hood with a huge Jennifer Lopez butt, the LFA is a stunningly good technolgoical device. That V-10 produces about 500-600 horsepower, which is stump-pulling froce, but the downside to big power is weight, good then that the LFA's monster powerplant weighs less than the V-6 in a Camry. It's carbonfibre body is also light, and while some will bemoan it's Lexus heritage, it's a Toyota under the bodywork, and that means it's got fundamentaly, racing blood. It's not the macho, flame red Italian Stallion of a Ferrari or Lamborghini, it's not the technological opus of a Porsche or Nissan GTR, it's not the brash, bold, blue-collar roadbeast of a Shelby, Chevy or Dodge, it's something entirely diferent. It's an odball, something truly unique, and that's why i love it.

 

http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee454/Vindekarr/800px-Lexus_LFA_001.jpg