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Thursday, November 15, 2007

Voltage And Vancouver

i don't even feel like commenting on this. but i'm pretty damn sure that you guys and gals know exactly what i'm thinking.

below are some excerpts from this story from The Globe And Mail newspaper:

Astonishing video footage released yesterday shows Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski did not resist police or confront them before officers zapped him with a taser, setting off a struggle that ended in his death in the international arrivals area of Vancouver's International Airport.

The footage, shot by Victoria resident Paul Pritchard, was released to the news media yesterday and widely broadcast, providing a raw look at events that have prompted a furious debate in B.C. about the police use of tasers.

The release comes a month after the incident that ended in the death of 40-year-old Mr. Dziekanski, who had come to Canada on his first-ever airplane flight to begin a new life with his mother, who lives in Kamloops and had been eagerly awaiting his arrival.

He began acting erratically after more than 10 hours being processed - the footage picks up as he was positioning chairs and a table in a manner that caused the automatic doors to remain open. Security guards look on...

...Someone yells "hit him again." He was tasered twice. Police pile on, seeking to restrain him. One officer places his knee on Mr. Dziekanski's neck.

Mr. Dziekanski went into medical distress and died there. The footage shows officers attending to him. One man in a suit checks for a pulse. It is impossible to tell from the footage whether he is dead at that point, although he appears non-responsive.

An autopsy later found no sign of drugs or alcohol in Mr. Dziekanski's system, but failed to come up with any specific cause of death....




gotta love the cops. nice to know that Canada's police are the same sort of psychos that we have. at least we're not alone.

for more on the story, follow the link a few paragraphs back up, and there is more of the story at http://mvdg.wordpress.com/2007/11/15/the-vancouver-taser-affair/

sweet dreams all.

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Sunday, November 04, 2007

Today's Philosophical Question

Is God exothermic or endothermic?

( i'm using the upper-case inclusive "God" here. that is, the supreme supernatural being of any religion or combination of religions or a hypothetical being existing simply for the sake of argument)

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Chevrolet Makes Official Announcement Regarding The Oft Sighted Blue Devil Corvette

Since the introduction of the C6 Corvette, there has been a "super-Vette" sighted, by car mag guys and industry insiders, being tested at various tracks and roads around the world, including the Nordschleife of the Nurbugring. this Uber-Vette has been, heretofore, codenamed The Blue Devil. However, last month, Chevrolet announced that it will be going into production, and it will be under the ZR1 moniker (non-hyphenated, as of now, unlike the early 90's version).

Here are some specs and some differentiations from the venerable 90's Monster Vette:

• The engine in the C6 ZR1 will be, like the early 90’s ZR-1, an all-aluminum mill. But, unlike the early 90’s model, it will remain a pushrod, overhead-valve design, as opposed to the ZR-1’s DOHC design

• The engine will displace 6.0 liters, be supercharged, and produce around 650 bhp

• The roof and A and B pillars (and probably the hood as well) will be made of carbon fiber, unlike the aluminum panels that make up the rest of the car. This is done, of course, to lower the total weight of the car and to lower its center of gravity.

• The projected price is $99,000. Steep, for me anyway, but there will be no other vehicle on the planet that is even nearly comparable in performance that is less than $60 grand more than the ZR1

• Also, according to spy shots, there appears to be a Plexiglas or Lexan or some other clear polycarbonate window in the hood. My guess would be that it serves purely to showcase the engine.

• The wheel and tire packages on the ZR1 will be massive. Larger even than the P325/30ZR19’s fitted to the current Z06.

• Current spy shots of the ZR1 show Carbon-Ceramic brake rotors, at least on the front. This suggests that they’ll also be available on the production version, but probably as an option. This marks a first for Carbon, Ceramic, or Carbon Ceramic brake rotors on a Corvette.

• The C6 ZR1 will most likely go on sale in late 2008 as a 2009 model, and it will probably have a production run continuing not much further than the 2011 model year.

And that’s about all I know now. I’ll update as conditions warrant.

Have a wonderful day, and a wonderful week, my friends.

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