Cat Scale

Posts Tagged ‘Sep-2008’

It’s Football Time Again

Predictions for the college and pro teams this season

College: South’s Gonna Do It Again?
Remember when we were told no team from the Southeastern Conference could win a national championship? Those SEC juggernauts just beat up on each other week after week, so if one did make it through the season relatively unscathed, it had nothing left at the end. The Bowl Championship Series means those days are gone, as LSU proved last year when it reached the BCS championship game and dismantled Ohio State. An SEC might sink its teeth into a championsh…

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Steady as He Goes

A stunt driver in China steers clear of danger on a risky highwire trick

It just isn’t normal to decide it would be fun to drive a car 150 feet in the air. Over water. On steel cables. But Liu Suozhu, 48, of Henan province in China, wanted to do it anyway. Suozhu recently drove a car over the Mi Luo River in Pingjiang City. During the 30-minute ride, covering about 750 feet, he offered his own minute-by-minute description of the drive via radio, broadcast to more than 10,000 people who turned up to cheer him on. The car had no modifications. The steel cab…

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Unpack That Bundle

Hopping a freight train just got tougher

THE CAREFREE HOBO who jumps into a boxcar for a free ride is an iconic image in America. Hopping a freight carries a bit of a romantic tinge to it, thanks to a slew of movies and novels. And it once was possible to catch a ride on a freight train and not have to worry too much about getting caught. The standard enforcement practice was random “stop and search” to inspect trains for the presence of unauthorized riders or illegal cargo.Now, artificial intelligence is being utilized f…

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Driving for Dummies?

When it comes to trucking technology, I've got control issues

TRUCKING WAS TRUCKING back when I began in the mid-1970s, and plenty of fun. Bouncing along the roadway, shifting through the gears, blowing smoke. Air conditioning was rolling down the windows and turning the dash-mounted fans to high. What trucker didn’t enjoy the “sweet” smell of diesel exhaust on a cool morning or evening? Back then, safely piloting a rig took concentration and required a variety of skills. Nowadays, it seems that technology is managing trucking so that we…

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A Shift in Luxury

Car accessories for people with money to burn

WOULD SOMEBODY WITH $150,000 lying around invest it in a gear shift knob? Iced Out Emz, a custom car accessory company in Las Vegas, banked on the idea that, yes, someone would do just that when they created a knob for a Bentley Continental GT. “Every year we do a trade show convention for our industry, and we wanted to show the consumer what our company is all about,” says Tony Lee, director and chief designer of Iced Out Emz. “So we made something very extravagant to show our…

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