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Nathan Finneman: Ferrari crashes into wall on I-95 in Fort Lauderdale

8/31/2016

A white Ferrari crashed into a wall in the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 Tuesday morning in Fort Lauderdale.

Sky 10 was above the scene at 10 a.m. and saw the left back tire of the white 599 GTB hanging over the side of the overpass approaching Interstate 595.

The car was facing the opposite direction as traffic.

It did not appear that any other vehicles were involved and the Ferrari did not appear to sustain significant damage.

A Florida Highway Patrol representative said no one was injured.

The crash remains under investigation.

tags: ferrari crash ft lauderdale nathan finneman drifto colorado crash exotic breed of speed bos breedofspeed

Nathan Finneman: Watch an off-road truck jump over an entire village

8/31/2016

Truck world records are falling thick and fast at the moment. Just days after Volvo’s Iron Knight becamethe fastest machine of its kind in history, Bryce Menzies’ 888bhp Pro2 off-roader has set a new benchmark for the biggest truck jump ever.

Bryce, a 29-year-old off-road racer from Las Vegas, landed an astonishing distance of 115 metres (379.4ft) from a purpose-built ramp in the middle of a ghost town in New Mexico, surpassing the previous record of 101 metres set by Tanner Foust in 2011.

An adjudicator from Guinness World Records was on site to verify the attempt, although they are yet to officially confirm the exact record that has been set by Menzies and his team.

The stunt is the result of six months of dedication, in which time the crew performed several trial runs at a secret location in San Diego. These test led to suspension modifications as well as time in a wind tunnel to help make the vehicle more aerodynamic.

tags: red bull truck jump bryce menzies nathan finneman colorado james finneman drifto captain drifto breed of speed breedofspeed

Nathan Finneman: The time in 1919 a WWI German U boat washed ashore on a British Beach and ruined “seaside day” for everyone

8/30/2016

SM U-118 was a type UE II minelaying submarine of the Imperial German Navy and one of 329 submarines serving with that navy during World War I. U-118 was engaged in naval warfare and took part in the First Battle of the Atlantic.The SM U-118 was commissioned on the 8th of May 1918, following her construction at the AG Vulcan Stettin shipyard in Hamburg. She was commanded by Herbert Stohwasser and joined the I Flotilla operating in the eastern Atlantic. After four months without sinking any ships, on the 16th September 1918, the SM U-118 scored her first hit. Some 175 miles north-west of Cape Villano, the U-118 torpedoed and sank the British steamer,Wellington. The following month, on the 2nd October 1918, she sank her second and last ship, the British tanker Arca at about 40 miles north-west of Tory Island. The ending of hostilities on the 11th November 1918 led to the subsequent surrender of the Imperial German Navy. The SM U-118 was transferred to France on the 23rd February 1919.

U-118 was to be broken up for scrap. In the early hours of 15th April 1919, however, while she was being towed through the English Channel towards Scapa Flow, the dragging hawser broke off in a storm. The submarine ran aground on the beach at Hastings in Sussex at approximately 00:45, directly in front of the Queens Hotel.Initially, there were attempts to displace the stricken vessel. Three tractors tried to refloat the submarine, and a French destroyer attempted to break the ship apart using her guns. All were unsuccessful, and the closeness of the submarine to the public beach and the Queens Hotel prevented the use of explosives.

The stranded submarine became a popular tourist attraction, and thousands visited Hastings that Easter to see her. She was under the authority of the local coast guard station, and the Admiralty allowed the Town Clerk of Hastings to charge a small fee for visitors to climb on the deck. This went on for two weeks, during which the town gained almost £300 (UK£ 13,200 in 2016) to help fund a welcome for the town’s soldiers returning from the war.

Two members of the coast guard, chief boatman William Heard and chief officer W. Moore, showed important visitors around the interior of the submarine. The visits were curtailed in late April when both coast guard men became severely ill. Rotting food on board was thought to be the cause, however, the men’s condition continued and got worse. Moore died in December 1919, followed by Heard in February 1920. An inquest decided that a noxious gas, possibly chlorine released from the submarine’s damaged batteries, had caused abscesses on the men’s lungs and brain.

Although visits inside the submarine had stopped, tourists still came to take be photographed alongside or on the U-boat’s deck. Finally, between October and December 1919, the U-118 was broken up and sold for scrap.The deck gun was left behind but was removed in 1921. Some of the ship’s keel may yet remain buried in the beach sand.

Nathan Finneman: Example of What NOT To Do In HUGE Surf!

8/30/2016

In Tahiti, there is a little village called Teahupo’o (a name that translates roughly to “head chopper”) that is famous for it’s huge surf break. This break not only draws tons of surfers, but also it a place boats congregate and take passenger for wild rides. It has sadly taken the lives of many surfers, and these folks were lucky to escape a similar fate! They may have been having fun, right up until THIS happened!
The moral of THIS story is twofold; never set sail with a captain you don’t trust (ask the crew of the Maersk about that one!), and ALWAYS WEAR YOUR LIFE JACKET! We understand than when you are relaxing, you might not need a vest, but is there any logic in not wearing one in THESE waves?!? Some statistics suggest that at least 80% of recreational boating fatalities are people who are not wearing one, and it doesn’t take a big leap of faith to figure out the likelihood of drawing is far higher without one.

Nathan Finneman: Airlander 10, the world's largest aircraft, crash lands after 2nd test flight

8/24/2016

Airlander 10, the butt-shaped airship that just flew for the first time last week, crashed earlier this morning on its second test flight, damaging the cockpit.

Nicknamed "The Flying Bum," the helium-filled aircraft took off from its central-England airfield last week to begin its initial testing, and was flying this morning for a second round of test flights. The aircraft completed its tasks for the day during its hour and a half flight before coming in for a landing.

Video posted to YouTube from witnesses on the ground show the aircraft’s slow descent, nose first.

Photos published by the BBC show that the crash damaged the cockpit. According to a tweet from Hybrid Air Vehicles, there were no injuries in the crash, but the company denied that it had been damaged in a collision with a telegraph pole, as had beenreported earlier by eyewitnesses:

Ford is building cars without steering wheels, gas or brake pedals

8/24/2016

Last week, Ford announced it will launch a fleet of autonomous taxis in at least one city in 2021. But, unlike other automakers, Ford’s self-driving cars won't have a steering wheel, gas or brake pedals.

Most major automakers have said that they are planning to roll out a self-driving car sometime during the next five years, but the levels of autonomy vary. Many car companies have committed to semi-autonomous systems that enable the car to be completely autonomous in certain driving situations, but that still have a steering wheels so that the driver can take back control of the vehicle when needed.

However, Ford wants to make its cars fully autonomous because it sees these semi-autonomous systems as a possible liability. This is because people begin to trust the systems too much and fail to re-engage control of the vehicle when needed.

“We are not in a race to be first, but we are in a race to do the right thing, which is why we are building on more than ten years of experience on how to responsibly deliver a ride service that is fully autonomous that does not require a driver to re-engage,” Ken Washington, vice president of advanced research and engineering, told Business Insider.

“Our research has led us to understand that it [re-engagement] is very difficult to do and we don’t know how to enable that, so that is what led us to pursuing a full level four autonomous vehicle and this re-engagement issue goes away,” Washington said.

Ford, of course, is not the only company developing self-driving cars that has run into this problem of customers trusting self-driving systems too much.

For example, when Tesla first rolled out Autopilot, there were numerous YouTube videos that showed drivers testing the limits of Autopilot by taking their hands completely off the wheel while driving at fast speeds down a highway. One driver even sat in the back seat while the car drove itself down a freeway.

Now, Tesla and other car makers implementing these advanced drive assistance systems (ADAS) have always maintained that drivers are still required to monitor the driving situation and keep their hands on the wheel. But the fact of the matter is, once people get use to the technology, they will find ways to abuse it.

Ford wants to avoid this problem all together, which is why the company is ramping up its efforts to get its vehicles to level four autonomy.

However, at least in the beginning, Ford’s self-driving cars will still have some limitations.

For example, the cars will only be able to operate in geofenced areas within an urban area, meaning the company will set defined physical parameters that have previously been mapped by the company’s driverless test fleet.

Ford will also only provide the self-driving service in an area where the sensors on its driverless cars can “operate at their optimum performance,” meaning that it will not operate in certain weather conditions or in geographical locations that might interfere with how sensors collect data.

Bone Chilling Footage Of A B-17 Going Down

8/11/2016

The Intercom Dialogue Really Puts You There!B-17 Flying Fortresses, the most iconic bomber planes according to many, were sent to some of the most dangerous enemy territories during World War II. Designed to travel long distances and drop up to 8,000 lbs. of bombs, they were used extensively in the European Theater. Their missions typically involved destroying strategic targets such as bridges, factories, airfields and oil refineries. With such high value targets, one can imagine that the Axis would protect their assets at all costs and did so through intercepting fighters and heavy flak.

This Fortress is hurt…drifting into the flak alone and helpless. In a minute Nazi fighters will swarm in like buzzards for the kill. You can watch, but you can’t go down to help.

As you’ll see in this historical footage, a B-17 squadron gets attacked by Nazi fighters. Though tough to watch, the audio from the intercom will really show you to horrors these brave crews faced every time they flew out on missions. They see one of their B-17 hit, with an engine catching fire. It then begins to plummet towards the earth, while you hear the other crews hoping for them to bail out. They see five parachutes deploy, however, B-17 crews typically consisted of 10 men.

Watch This Pokemon Go-Playing Driver Crash Into a Cop Car

8/11/2016

It's an incident that can be more or less summed up in one beautiful sentence: A Pokemon Go-playing driver slammed into a police car in Baltimore on Monday, with the entire incident captured on one of the officer's body cameras.

Luckily, no one seems to have been injured in the incident. The officers were not in the police car when the Pokemon Go player's Toyota RAV4 rammed the cruiser, while the driver and his passengers appear to have been protected by an extremely thick layer of stupidity.

The body camera video both depicts the moment of impact, when the Toyota slammed into the parked Dodge Charger police vehicle hard enough to briefly knock the two-ton car into the air and send it skipping several feet down the asphalt, and the awkward follow-up when the embarrassed young man driving the RAV4 climbed out, phone raised as if in explanation.

"That's what I get for playing a dumb-ass game," the Pokemon Go-playing driver said in a moment of lucidity he really could have used several seconds earlier. Police said the driver fully admitted to playing the app, which enables users to collect virtual monsters placed at real-world locations usually filled with actual people the users could be interacting with instead.

This is hardly the first Pokemon Go-related automobile accident to occur since the game exploded into popularity a little less than two weeks ago. Last week, a 28-year-old in upstate New York collided with a tree while playing the augmented-reality game, prompting the local police department to reiterate that, no, you should not be playing a video game on your phone while driving. Which by now should really, really be obvious.

Fans demand more road courses and NASCAR knows it

8/11/2016

Boy, have times changed.Old-guard stock car enthusiasts used to thumb their noses at any event not held on an oval.

Suddenly, NASCAR fans can’t get enough of road course racing.

“We’re absolutely aware of that,” said NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I think it becomes the challenge of where we are on the schedule — with the 36 races we have. And then the fact that every race matters.

“Having those two road courses where they are is really important in the schedule--to see people have a chance to potentially make the Chase and go out there and run off a win.”

From an entertainment value standpoint, it’s hard to beat a good battle on a short track. Restrictor-plate racing is an animal all to itself. And with the tweaks the sanctioning body has made to the current rules package, even the intermediate tracks have been competitive.

An increasing demand for more road coursesBut time and time again, fans wonder why there aren’t more road courses on the schedule — particularly in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

“We love the fact that we have road course racing on the schedule,” O’Donnell added. “We do have some weather challenges when you look at road courses.

“But we’re definitely aware of the desire for the fans — it’s not NASCAR ignoring it. There’s a lot of logistics involved. When you talk to (WGI president) Michael Printup or (Sonoma president) Steve Page, they like where they are in the schedule. It really works for them and we have to take that in mind as well.”

Page has often said he doesn’t want to compete against the football in the fall. That’s understandable, given the rich history of the San Francisco 49ers and the University of California across the bay in Berkeley. However, it’s hard to beat wine country in autumn during grape-picking season.

The weather at the Glen last weekend was absolutely ideal. And an early fall date would be lovely as well. But weather isn't the same kind of issue on a road course that it is on an oval since Goodyear provides rain tires to the teams in case of inclement weather.

Still, the dilemma really isn’t about moving Sonoma or the Glen into the playoffs as much as it's about the challenge of finding another road course with adequate infrastructure to support the Sprint Cup Series. But chances are that won’t happen for the next five years. Last October, NASCAR announced the same 23 venues will be on the Cup schedule through 2020.

Ovals that double as road coursesWhile that’s great for the track operators, it’s likely not what the fans want to hear.

Now, several venues have the capability of transforming an oval into a road course. Indianapolis and Daytona modify their facilities for IndyCar and IMSA, respectively. So why not for NASCAR?

As NASCAR evolves into more of a made-for-TV sport, the sanctioning body must give credence to the entertainment value of the on track product. Short of creating an Indy-specific package for the Brickyard 400, the race will never regain the status it enjoyed prior to the 2008 tire debacle. But the event could certainly benefit from something fresh.

For now, the fans will have to wait patiently until the Cup tour rolls into Sonoma — 10 months from now.

Rave reviewsOverall, the Glen was a huge success. The proof was in the number of campers — both inside and out of the circuit — the fans in the infield and grandstands as well as the traffic on Saturday and late into Sunday night.

Although there were some concerns regarding the newly-paved track, with two test sessions and a conservative tire, the Cheez-It 355 at the Glen went off without a hitch.

“Any time there’s a repave, there’s a lot of trepidation heading in,” O’Donnell said. “Typically, it’s a challenge for us but all in all, I thought, no different Watkins Glen. You look at last year versus this year, and I thought it was a great race. The track did a great job — and you could see that from the race teams coming in. The tire certainly performed well. So, all in all, terrific job by everyone.

“Candidly, during the race, you almost forgot there was a repave. It was like we were at Watkins Glen with the same instance of 2015.”

Bad timing?Perhaps the biggest surprise on Sunday came in the number of speeding penalties on pit road.

While teams received sheets detailing the timing lines — and preemptive warnings were issued by crew chiefs and spotters following a rash of infractions — throughout the course of the race, seven drivers were busted in the first 54 laps.

O’Donnell acknowledged additional timing lines were added to pit road at the Glen in an effort to highlight the work of the pit crews. O’Donnell believes the move will even the playing field.

“You never want to catch anyone speeding, certainly, on pit road,” O’Donnell said. “But the reason those timing loops are there is to make the competition as close as possible and have teams really have to rely on their pit crews to have an advantage versus maybe kind of skirting the rules a little bit in between loops.

“What was happening was we had a bigger gap in the loops that were on pit road than the amount of pit stalls a team could drive through. We were seeing teams really cross that line — and then hit the gas — and have an advantage depending on where they were on pit road. So we just added some additional pit lines that really brought the pit crews back into play more. We were trying to avoid any competitive advantage for a particular pit stall.”

But one of the benefits of being a top qualifier in time trials is selecting the best pit stalls. O’Donnell said the teams supported NASCAR’s decision and are adapting to the additional timing lines.

“Like anything, you’re going to see some challenges with it,” O’Donnell said. “I think all in all it’s the right thing to do and it will continue to play out throughout the year.”

These Two Warbirds Will Give You Goosebumps

8/1/2016

A Spitfire And Bf 109 Make Lots Of NoiseThese were the ultimate rivals during the Battle of Britain. To be fair, Hurricanes did a tremendous amount of fighting as well, but unfortunately this video does not include one. The Spitfire and Bf 109 chase each other through the air and come in hot towards the ground buzzing the cameraman.When it comes to seeing two planes reenacting a dogfight nowadays, that’s one of our favorites.

At the beginning of the war, the greatest advantage the Bf 109s had over British fighters was fuel injected engines.

Until 1942 when Spitfires were fitted with pressure carburetors, Luftwaffe pilots had one major advantage over Spitfires and Hurricanes. When having a RAF fighter on their tail, their fuel injected engines allowed them to simply make a nosedive to avoid them. Since Spitfires used carburetors, giving chase would cause initial fuel starvation which later led to overflowing the carb due to negative ‘gs’. Before remedying the issue, RAF fighters were taught to half-roll their planes in order to feed the engine before diving.

Nathan Finneman: Ferrari crashes into wall on I-95 in Fort Lauderdale

Nathan Finneman: Watch an off-road truck jump over an entire village

Nathan Finneman: The time in 1919 a WWI German U boat washed ashore on a British Beach and ruined “seaside day” for everyone

Nathan Finneman: Example of What NOT To Do In HUGE Surf!

Nathan Finneman: Airlander 10, the world's largest aircraft, crash lands after 2nd test flight

Ford is building cars without steering wheels, gas or brake pedals

Bone Chilling Footage Of A B-17 Going Down

Watch This Pokemon Go-Playing Driver Crash Into a Cop Car

Fans demand more road courses and NASCAR knows it

These Two Warbirds Will Give You Goosebumps

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