Eeh by gum

This was the one I could find on a quick skim but apparently there were others tagged as Mazespin Park, Variante Mazespin, and Nikita Mazespin Playground on Google Maps.

Hat tip to GFYDJT on Kinja

Edit: there's lots more

My new favorite thing is is electrek's weird alibaba EV of the week.

Here's an electric RV based on a piaggio ape style scooter.

https://electrek.co/2021/02/27/awesomely-weird-alibaba-ev-of-the-week-a-4800-electric-rv-with-a-small-catch/

Aparently it has a 40kph (25mph) top speed which actually might be alright if you live on a small island in the Atlantic, would allow you to really appreciate the passing scenery in detail.

Here's a video tour

I wondered if this should have been posted to overland but decided against it since this thing can barely over-road..

@RallyDarkstrike

Was unloading groceries from my car when I heard a plane coming in, my thought process went something like this:

*Wind must be out of the north today, makes sense, it snowed this morning
<glances up>
*That's a bit of a chubbier boi than usual
*Hang on, are those wheels along the side?
*Holy shit, that's an Antonov!
<desperately grabs phone> shit, shit, shit, shit, shit
I have never been so mad at how slow my phone is to load the camera (mostly my fault for all the other crap I left running) as by the time it booted all I caught was it fading into the distance.
It would hardly have @ttyymmnn's new super camera plane photography even if I'd caught it sooner.

I then pulled up Flightradar: it was this plane operated by Volga-Dnepr airlines coming in from Anchorage, which I have to assume was a refueling stop. Wonder what it's hauling.

VI4524 from Anchorage to Toronto https://fr24.com/VDA4524/277850c2

I remember we had one of the really big Antonovs (edit, there's only one of them) come through YYZ around this time last year too hauling PPE from China, that caused a fair bit of planespotter buzz.

If I knew when it was scheduled to leave again I'd be tempted to scoot up to the airport with the kids and see if we could watch it takeoff.

Some awesome old photos on English Russia today

https://englishrussia.com/2021/06/15/archive-photos-of-soviet-aiports/

But the one that really struck me is this photo of Andrey Tupolev and Sergey Ilyushin in 1966, Moscow.

So we needed more storage in the family room and on Friday my wife half jokingly sent me a Kijiji listing for a gigantic 8' x 6' mid-century teak wall unit in great condition for $150

I only thing I love more than mid-century furniture is a bargain so booked the big boy 6'x12' U-Haul box trailer and I headed the hour north to Barrie Saturday morning.

I am a pretty frequent flyer with Uhaul after the last couple of years of moving/reno so helped the girl in the yard hookup the trailer which was too heavy for her to lift onto the ball (weirdly the big box ones don't have trailer jacks like the utilities do) then she chained and wired it up. All set, I texted the seller a Waze link with my eta and pulled away.

"Damn this thing feels heavy, no I don't have the parking brake on" <looks backward again> "oh shit there's two of them!?"

Turns out it's friend wanted to come too!

See the scrape?

EDIT: ahahahaha I just looked more closely at the photo above and saw all the other scrapes on the floor alongside! This is clearly a common event

What had happened is they'd parked the two trailers super tight together with the tongue of the back one under the front. When we leveled up my trailer the back axle came down and snagged top of the rear one's tongue.

Shit

There's no employees anywhere around and now I'm on the clock to meet the seller. How do I get out of this without having to completely unhitch and/or go all the way back up to the office?

We'll it's only hanging on by a thread maybe I can pop it up and off. Scavenging around the yard I was able to find a short piece of 2x4 and a chunk of concrete about the same height. Wedged them under the back wheels of the trailer put it in low range and inched forward. Success, it's free but now I've left a trailer in the middle of the aisle. At this point an employee swung by; he didn't seem too concerned that I'd attempted the 2-4-1 deal and sent me on my way while shuttling the escapee back with a hand dolly.

The rest of the trip went reasonably smoothly and despite some cottage country traffic I made it there during the window I said I would (I've been jerked around by enough flaky sellers - I always show up on time)

Nice old couple moving out of their condo to live with their daughter so needed to shift it quickly. Their son helped me load carry it out the patio doors into the trailer then I strapped it in place. All very smooth.

Weirdly the trailer felt worse coming home loaded, definite faint porpoising sensation even at steady speed on the highway. Made me wonder if the surge brake was set too sensitive although when I mentioned it to the guy at dropoff he said the brake was only for emergencies if it comes unhitched. I know there's a third chain for that purpose but I'm pretty sure those springs and that linkage are to activate when it pushes forwards against the hitch.

The unload into our house was the worst part; it splits into 3 pieces but they're still bloody heavy and we scuffed paint on a couple of places coming in. I'm reasonably confident it'll buff out but anyone got any tips for cleaning teak?

Aside from that it's in fantastic shape, one of the bar hinges is broken so I'll have to fix that but worst case I'll 3d print a part.
Spent today loading it up and adding Lego to display on the shelf.

Senna delivered!

Who knew longtime lurker was also a longtime philosopher... I look forward to reading something with more depth than a manual for a change.

The Lego GTR is awesome I've already had to tell my son a few times he needs to finish the massive Harry Potter set from his birthday before he gets his mitts on mine.

To my Senna recipient (you don't know who you are); your stuff is somewhere between China and here (narrows it down) the tracking links aren't working too well atm.

Happy St Patrick's Day

They did this last year too when it was a radical idea and nobody knew what the hell was going to happen.

It's free on YouTube and pay what you can to support their road crew etc

Be straight with them and see where it goes. After undergrad I had an option to do a master's in impacts and explosive engineering; which would have guaranteed a lucrative career. In fact some of the people I knew who did it got hired by defence contractors so fast they had to finish their dissertations remotely while working.
I couldn't do it; despite being fascinated by fighter jets and cold war hardware (love your ekranoplan btw) I couldn't imagine a future where I was doing calculations varying X to kill Y% more people.
Did mechanical engineering design instead and to my knowledge nothing I've built since has made the world worse.
I'd have her same issue with toy guns too, esp where you are.

@carsoffortlangley oh god I don't want to know what the crackpot conspiracy nuts are making of this

@454ssracetruck ahhh Winnipeg

@boxer_4 a quick google showed a few people putting these into gokarts but I think you should go full toploading convertible....

@midengine

@mr-ontop I feel like suddenly sideways is also a possibility

This showed up on my local marketplace yesterday: 86 RX7 with a Mustang 5.0 motor and a whole bunch of go-fast bits.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/230313645340481/

Looks like a riot with those wide flares and even if it is someone else's project looks reasonably well sorted.



Not sure what the target market is, drift missile or track toy d'ya reckon?

@chariotoflove "call the cops" Joey the bats with coordinates from the LoJack

My wife -who is awesome- has been steadily building up her baking skills during the pandemic lockdown and decided to surprise me with an F1 themed father's day cake.

It looks like a Ferrari vs Aston Martin mid-pack battle since that's the colour fondant which was available.


Big fan of the halo and I guess soft compound Pirellis!
Those kerbs are definitely Austrian suspension eaters!

@chariotoflove I have to assume that based on the clientele they normally deal with it deters the time wasters and people who just want a free rental car to pickup something across town. "$20?! Shit for that I'll just take the bus"

@farscythe jeez with the futball results too is anybody in your country sober at the moment?