Posted By RichC on March 15, 2006
What’s wrong with this Mercedes Benz marketing video? (click here to view) Maybe its just me, but I’m not sure this was the best dressed choice for the national marketing of the brand new Mercedes Benz GL-class vehicle.
For as much as Mercedes Benz spends on marketing and developing a premium corporate image, I felt this clip was a little ‘too comfortable’ and could have used some ‘tailoring,’ in more ways than one. 
Perhaps a little more professionalism in both clothing and personnel selection would have made a big difference? I’m sure Rob Mueller is a bright guy, but when I see his white tee-shirt proudly displayed where his tie should have been, that just doesn’t fit with a brand new beautiful GL-Class Mercedes.
Other than the video walk-around, I look forward to test driving the GL450 when it arrives at my local dealer … especially when the diesel option arrives. (I don’t even want to think about what they’ll be asking for that.) What do you think? Was the portly, less than exquisitely tailored product manager the right choice for this product introduction and walk-around?
Category: Automotive, Mercedes |
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Posted By RichC on March 14, 2006
NASA’s Stardust space capsule returned to earth on January 15, 2006, after investigating the Comet Wild 2. It captured particles of dust from the comets tail in a special strong but lightweight gel. Most of us were taught that comets were ice, dust and gas, but scientists gathered at the Johnson Space Center in Houston discovered minerals formed by intense heat as well, which suggests to them that our comets may originally come from close to the sun.
The comet ‘Wild 2’ is about 3 miles wide and passes nearest the earth while in its orbit closest to Mars. Its eliptical path then sends it zipping well out into our solar system before bringing it back around the sun again. When we visually see the comet, it is a bright streaking lump followed by a long gaseous tail that grows as it nears the sun and shrinks as it heads back off into space. Comets can have tails as long as 62 million miles, although Wild 2 is much smaller. They travel at speeds faster than a bullet travels, making intersection for Stardust, the space capsule, a critical calculation. The spacecraft had to travel at 13,000 mph to pass within 160 miles of the core of the comet which is traveling at 10,000 mph.
As far as comets go, Wild 2 ellipse around the sun is shorter than most. It will be back again in 6.39 years unlike the famous Haleys comet which return every 100 years. Although the age of comet dust is debated, many believe that the dust is from 4.5 billion years ago and that comets may have delivered the water that led to life on Earth. Another interesting component in comets is that they are loaded with carbon, an element essential to life.
Scientists chose to send Stardust to ‘Wild ‘ primarily because it has just recently entered an orbit that takes it close to the sun, which they indicate ‘bakes’ the surface of comets. Wild 2 is believed to have more of its material perserved because of this and therefore the dust more apt to offer better material in which to study. In 1974 Wild 2 neared the large mass of Jupiter which swung the comet through gravitational pull on a course taking it closer to the sun according to calculations, since it wasn’t actually discovered until 1978.
(Wild 2 was named for Paul Wild, a Swiss astronomer who first spotted the comet in January 1978.)
Category: Space |
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Posted By RichC on March 13, 2006
The EAA284 chapter meeting was at Red Stewart Airfield yesterday, March 12th, after a drenching evening of rain, which continues today. The grass strip was absolutely soaked yet a T-craft and Cub successfully ‘rutted’ down the runway and sprayed their way into the air. (from the care of the runway perspective, I didn’t think it was such a good idea) Our time was well spent and the comradery enjoyable. Before the meeting, everyone had a chance to socialize a few minutes outside and meet the new airport guard dog. Perhaps she has some growing up to do?
Our March meeting brought out a couple new faces, and although I didn’t get a chance to talk much to them, I’d like to welcome them to our chapter just the same. Ralph Wirth from Wirth Advertising and Marketing was our speaker and he gave an excellent presentation on vinyl graphics. Most of us doing any airplane building or restoration could see application (pun intended) for this kind of full color computer aided graphics on vinyl. As the assembly comes to completion one could really finish a project well using some of Ralph’s talents.
I enjoyed listening to Ralph Wirth openly discuss the changes in technology that enable such high quality imaging on vinyl; something that wasn’t even possible at any dollar amount a few years ago. His knowledge of the industry and investment in equipment is a good resource for our chapter and its members. Ralph can be reached at Wirth Advertising and Marketing, 1237 Cincinnati Ave., Xenia, Ohio 45385. (for an example of his work, see previous post for a photo of his VW Golf TDI)
Category: Aviation |
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Tags: eaa284, flying, red stewart
Posted By RichC on March 11, 2006
I’m sure by now everyone has heard the story about the Ferrari Enzo that crashed along the Pacific Coast Highway in late February, but thought I would include a rather amusing video clip of a European Ferrari crash at the end of this post.
The story that was told by the ‘alleged’ passenger and car owner, Stefan Erikson, is intriging. According to Mr. Erikson, ‘Dietrich’ [no last name] was the driver who ran from the scene and excaped into the Malibu California hills. (yeah right) Who is this crazy ‘Dietrich’ and was he really racing a 626 HP Mercedes SLR at an estimated 160+ mph?
It seems that investigators doubt both the race and Dietrich. Sgt. Philip Brooks of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was quote that they believe that Dietrich “no longer exists and that the Ferrari was racing by itself and there were no Mercedes.” Another clue is that only the driver’s side air bag had blood on it and Stefan Eriksson suffered a cut lip in the crash so DNA matching should assist in determining if Stefan Erikson was behind the wheel or not. This could twist this story one more time since Eriksson’s blood-alcohol level after the crash was .09, slightly more than the legal .08 limit. If you ask me, Mr. Eriksson should just be thankful to be alive.
Crackin’ up a Ferrari
Category: Misc |
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Posted By RichC on March 10, 2006
Thursday afternoon Dubai Ports World pledged that it would transfer operation of six U.S. port terminals to a U.S. entity settling at least some of the “exuberant” behavior of many Americans and our representatives. President Bush and his administration said this should settle a political firestorm surrounding the deal. Perhaps as my previous post commented, we need to deal with foreign ownership of areas we consider security issues.
Most thinking Americans after this will need re-evaluate how we deal with countries that we consider our allies in partnering with us in the war on terror and allow our military to operate on their soils. Interestingly, the UAE was first to partner, serves more of our Navy ships in the Middle East than any other country and allows the US to fly it unmanned aircraft out of there country. The are far more active in combatting terror than let’s say China? Yet Dubai Ports is not permitted to operate port companies (I’m not saying they should … but they should be treated fairly) but Chinese firms are? Let’s get some consistency with our security concerns if that is really the reason. (see Rep. Duncan Hunter’s suggestion)
I understand the concerns we all have about security, and I think Dubai Ports deserves review, but this issue was way over blown by both parties in congress and the predjudicial attack by many Americans. Congress should be embarrassed in how they reacted; way too strong and way to quick. It smacks of ‘Islamophobia’ or at least anti-Arab predjudice if you ask me. The last I heard is that we would working to ‘win the hearts and minds in the Middle East?’ If we are concerned about security, fine, then lets look at all port companies and related security risks. If we want to be protectionist, then let’s deal with that not disguised as a security issue. Jack Kemp makes my point.
Jack Kemp “On the Record” with Greta Van Susteren 3/9/2006
Category: Misc |
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Posted By RichC on March 9, 2006
The 2006 TDIClub and CinciTDI DVD is nearly ready to ship. The ‘teaser’ video clip is being posted here before being sent to the groups video pages. This is primarily to test the H.264 recorded ‘teaser’ clip in hopes to get a little feedback. Most Quicktime 7.0 users with relatively fast computers shouldn’t have problems with the higher quality/smaller size mp4 encoding codec. The”How To” teaser clip will soon be posted at the video section of the TDIClub and CinciTDI)
My concern is that a more heavily encoded, but higher quality H.264 version, of the ‘teaser’ will cause problems on some older computers? I’ll post the 3 minute 45 second clip below (Warning: audio comes on strong) and request that readers having trouble comment as to their browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Netscape), computer processor and speed.)
Category: Automotive, Diesel, How-To, Video, Volkswagen |
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Tags: cincitdi, intake, manifold, soot, tdi, tdiclub, teaser, vw
Posted By RichC on March 8, 2006
A few weeks ago, I made the comment that we need to be careful as to the signals we are sending to allies around the world in restricting what allies are permitted to operate companies in the US. My concern was that when we restrict business ownership based on prejudice, jumping to the conclusion that the Dubai port business is connected to terror, that we risk gaining ground in developing better relationships in the middle east. In the port operations case, the United Arab Emirates is one of the few middle eastern countries that allows the US to stage attacks on terror from as well as base our warships around. I recognize that there are many people in UAE who may be sympathetic to the terrorist and as a government still will not recognize Israel … so there is a concern. Unfortunately, banning ‘only’ middle eastern companies from business dealing and port ownership will do little in winning hearts and minds of more Arabs. Neil Cavuto had an interview with Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA) who presented a solution that might bridge the gap without the predjudicial taste. We’ll see if it gains traction although President Bush doesn’t seem to be paying attention (Reuter’s article). See Cavuto interview video below.
I’m still not sure as to the security risk that the Dubai port ownership creates; on one hand I believe the President’s strength is looking out for the security of our county and that he is working to build allies in the middle east. On the other hand, I’m not fond of anything that remotely adds risk to our nation’s security. Representative Hunter offered some compelling remarks in try to re-evaluating what ‘any’ foreign government should be allowed to own in the US. Upon some reconsideration, this might be a logical approach and I’m someone in support of Rep. Hunter’s proposal. If we do an over-the-board evaluation of security issues as they relates to foreign corporations owning at risk segments of our infrastructure. The ports might just be one of them but if we go down Rep. Hunters path, prejudice should not be factored into who can and can’t own certain companies.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) on Neil Cavuto 3/7/2006
Category: Misc |
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Posted By RichC on March 8, 2006
A friend of mine spotted this switch on one of the forums he visits, and I thought was worth a post. Actually it segues into a pet peeve of mine, that of people confusing the ‘no conversion biodiesel’ alternative with just ‘straight’ (SVO) or ‘waste’ (WVO) conversions.
A quick comparison between what I call biodiesel and SVO/WVO is that biodiesel is vegetable oil that has undergone a transesterification process where glycerin is removed. Using this alternative fuel requires no modification on most modern diesel vehicles. It can be used at 100% (‘neat’ or B100) or blended with petroleum diesel at any percentage. A common 20% blend is called B20. It is included as an alternative in the recent energy legislation and is eligible for tax credits. There is a growing commercial industry around Biodiesel (see Biodiesel.org) as well as many grassroots organizations.
SVO or WVO ‘conversions (the switch photo) is an alternative to petroleum that requires additional hardware be installed into cars and trucks. Most options install a separate heated tank where the vehicle starts on regular diesel or biodiesel and then switches to the SVO or filtered WVO after it has been thinned by heating. Additional heating of fuel lines and filters are generally installed too. Shutdown requires purging of the fuel line and running a fuel that doesn’t thicken when cooled for a few minutes. Two installation kits that I’ve tinkered with are Greasecar or Greasel.
I hope this helps … yet many in the media continue blend the terms. Correct them!
Category: Biodiesel, Diesel, Energy |
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Posted By RichC on March 7, 2006
The Loremo isn’t due out until 2009 according to Gerhard Heilmaier, but this radical new sports car is making many in the automotive engineering world turn their heads. The Loremo is designed to be a low resistance vehicle and offers efficiency beating most anything on the road while remaining stylish and sporty. Most economy models sacrifice performance for high miles per gallon, but the Loremo GT version with a 50HP 3 cylinder turbo diesel can zip to 100km/h (approx 60mph) in 9 seconds and still get an estimated 85mpg. For the super thrifty, get your order in for the LS version which comes with a smaller 2 cylinder 20HP turbo diesel and will go nearly 150 mpg.
The company founders believe that all cars of the future will have to be more efficient, and therefore that was the prime reason for reducing the weight of their vehicles. The 450kg automobile will be in a 2+2 airdynamic shape that has a drag coefficient of .20 or ‘cw x a of .22.’ The composite vehicle is also engineered for safely and does away with the traditional doors; you climb in like a ‘bathtub’ according to the company.
Check out the company’s website and click below for a 3-D ‘quicktime’ around the Loreno.
Loreno 3D Walkaround
Category: Misc |
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Posted By RichC on March 6, 2006
Do we need to petition our community for a “hitching post” at the local Caribou Coffee Shop in West Chester, Ohio?
How does that saying go … “the more things change (and they certainly have in our community!), the more they stay the same.” Seeing people on horseback trotting around Liberty Township was probably commonplace a little over a century ago, but it looks a little out of place in the hustle and bustle around here nowadays. At any rate, having a conspicuous police presence as a deterrent to crime is wise and the visablity of police on horseback even better (really noticeable IMHO) … besides with the amount of traffic in this high grow area it might actually be easier to get around?
I’ve noticed that the sunshine and warming temperatures seems to be drawing out locals and mounted police alike; might it be a sign that spring is on its way?
The horseback patrols that the West Chester Ohio Police Department uses are ideal for overseeing the many retail stores, parking lots and restaurants that surround the 330 acre park that use to be a Voice of America relay station.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to visit the developing park, the sunshine and warmer temperature would make for a great opportunity to stretch you legs as there is an excellent walking path as well as a variety of fields for sports, pets and even competitive remote controlled sailing fleets! The Voice of America Park and Museum is just off I-75 north of Cincinnati and was establish after the decommissioning of the VOA Bethany Station in September of 1995. This unique broadcasting facility looked like a giant pin cushion in its prime as the acreage bristled with huge towers an miles of wire. The facility served to broadcast shortwave radio to all corners of the world for more than 50 years. In its day, it was the means to communicate the message of freedom and democracy people around the world. It provided an important like for people oppressed by communism during the cold war and is credited with playing an important role in the colapse of the Soviet Union during the 1980s. With that reasoning, the new Butler County park was aptly named, “Ronald Reagan Voice of Freedom Park.”
My Frappr Map
Category: Local |
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Tags: caribou, coffee, horse, ohio, police, west chester