First up is a story I loved because it clearly demonstrates how stupid we human beings really are. Sophisticated automobile technology makes high-performance engines purr in relative silence, but automakers fear that their most demanding drivers are emotionally attached to the engines' roar. Consequently the 2012 BMW M5, with 560 horsepower tempered with sound deadeners, has installed pre-recorded engine noise, channeled into the car's cabin via the stereo system. A computer program matches the amplitude of the engine's growl to the driver's accelerator-revving. Yep, that's right. Spend millions developing an engine to get rid of the engine noise and then spend more money to put it back in stereo...(stop hitting your head against the tree, you're hurting the poor tree).
With only 30,000 hotel rooms in Rio de Janeiro, and 50,000 visitors expected for the June United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, officials persuaded owners of many of the city's short-time "love hotels" (typically renting for four hours at a time) to change business plans for a few days to accommodate the delegates. The hotels will remove some special fixtures and furniture, such as "erotic chairs" and velvet wall coverings, but that the large, round beds would stay. Fortunately, the conference does not begin until June 13. The night of June 12 ("Lovers Day") is a big income-producer for short-stay hotels.
Rich people put their pants on one leg at a time too. It costs $8,500 (plus $3,000 annual dues) to join the ultra-prestigious New York Athletic Club, which counts Olympic champions among its upper-crust members. However, an April brawl in a back room, said to have begun over a woman, saw (according to witnesses) fighting "wolf packs" in a "lion's pit" that resulted in several bloody injuries, with two people sent to the hospital and three arrested. Well, at least I am sure they did not have a problem making bail...
I have often giggled at some of the names of various cities and towns and here are a few good ones uncovered in a report on SmarterTravel.com: Why, Arizona, Whynot, Mississippi, Hell, Michigan., Pig, Kentucky, Embarrass, Minn., Monkeys Eyebrow, Kentucky, and my personal favorite: Elephant Butte, New Mexico.
And, for my fellow Americans, tell me this picture does not make the "American" in you stand a little taller:
Last for today - Don't be too anxious to run out and buy a pair of the new Goggle Glasses:
Live Long and Prosper....
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