Remember Nuna 5? It's on again, baby!

Will there be a Nuna 6? Another Eleanor? Click here for the original Nuna 5 story and update in Jaxonia, then click on the headline for the 2011 story. The race begins on October 16.*




* private asterisk

Is it real or is it Memorex?

(Original video and illustrations removed by webmaster - some kind of You Tube problem)

Back in the 80s a tv commercial featuring singer/legend Ella Fitzgerald touted the reproduction quality of Memorex recording tape, defying the viewer to distinguish between Ella 'live' and Ella on tape.

Fast forward to the present, where fantasy and reality blend seamlessly together in an endless supply of spoofs, satires, cgi creations and photo shop forgeries.

 Look at the article attached here.  Jaxonia could not verify either its authenticity or its hoaxability. The proof, however, may be on its way: Volkswagen has scheduled a '21st Century Beetle' unveiling for April 18, in Shanghai. It's at 7:30 PM; read about it here. In the meantime, read the article and check out the pictures.

While the original comment was posted to a forum in August 2009, Australian CarAdvice.com in March 2010 indicated �Volkswagon Introduces World�s Most Economical Car� that while they don�t have a great deal of information available at the stage of reporting that they do know however, that Volkswagen is set to reveal the world�s most economical non-hybrid car to shareholders attending the 42nd annual general meeting of Volkswagen AG in Hamburg. When is not mentioned. The single-seater is supposed to be capable of 0.91 litres per 100km (or 258mpg in the old measure) and can manage a top speed of 123km/h.

With a weight heavier than a motor cycle, this �behemoth� can do 258 miles to the gallon? A bit hard to swallow. As is the price $600! Is this believable? Even some handheld consumer electronic products costs the same and more! 

I hate to say 'I told you so,' but... and this was NINE years ago!

Never Trust A Republican

Remember Reagan�s second term? Remember that �trickle-down� economic theory? Simplistically, we were told that if the government enacted programs that benefited the wealthy, the wealthy would in turn �trickle down� their largesse to the middle class; more businesses would expand, more jobs would be created, and everyone would benefit.I bought into that theory. Card-carrying Democrat that I am, I decided maybe it was time to listen to rich conservatives. �What the hell,� I said, �The important thing is jobs, and if giving tax incentives and other economic breaks to big business results in benefits for everybody, who am I to fault the plan? So what if the rich get richer? They can�t get any snobbier and exclusionary than they are, can they?�

Every time I try to compromise my liberal ethic, every time I listen to the economic doubletalk of somebody living on a fake farm in Somerset County, I get burned big time. Reagan got my vote, we got trickle-down, and the only problem was the money for the middle class somehow disappeared. The business �expansion� turned out to be Caribbean resorts and cruise lines, and the jobs became entry-level burger flippers for fast-food consortiums. Franchises that were once a great opportunity for the middle class to get a leg up into the Hamptons have now become the purview of stock brokers and bankers. McDonald�s is one of the few successful franchise operations that still cater to individuals (not partnerships and passive investors), but the average franchise buy-in starts at $175,000! Trickle down, indeed. Money just went from one pocket to another in the same pair of trousers.

Read more �

We are but shadows of our former selves...

Today we honor the first world space hero, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

Fifty years ago today Yuri Gagarin and the Soviet Union ignited the flame of American fortitude for what appears now to have been the last time... but what a time it was! Alan Shepard chased Gagarin, John Glenn caught him, and Neil Armstrong administered the coup de grace. America was at the peak of her power and influence.

But Vietnam tore us apart, and our government receded into a forty-year morasse of partisan patriotism and capitalistic greed that has eroded the magnificent diversity and resoluteness that once were our strengths.

Fifty years is all it took to bring us to this embarrassing, forlorn point in our history, wasting our time and blood in 2 1/2 endless, fruitless wars, babbling about economics while our infrastructure crumbles, watching a powerful new oligarchy slice away at a vanishing middle class.

Is there world enough and time left for us, or have we ceded the 21st century and beyond to another hemisphere? We'll see soon enough.