ADD A LITTLE FLASH TO A LOVED ONE'S DASH
1. At the price: $130
Ontario is the latest jurisdiction to mandate that drivers put down their cellphones and other gadgets to ensure they are keeping their attention where it should be: on the road. As a result, drivers who are accustomed to conducting business during their daily commutes are likely to be on the lookout for hands-free options that allow them to make calls while keeping both hands on the wheel.
Motorola's Motorokr T505 Bluetooth in-car speakerphone is designed to do just that. The T505 clips to the visor and connects to the user's cellphone over a wireless Bluetooth connection, allowing drivers to send and receive calls without diverting their attention. The audio caller ID verbally tells the user the number of the person calling and drivers can opt to either listen to their calls through the T505's built in speaker system or through their best double din for the money.
The T505 is compatible with a wide range of Bluetooth devices, including personal music players, which can be streamed wirelessly through the device to the car's stereo.
S&T Tire Pressure Monitoring System
2. At the price: $150
President-elect Barack Obama caused a stir on the campaign trail this year when he told supporters they could save money simply by keeping their tires inflated to the proper levels in an effort to improve fuel efficiency. Still, proper tire pressure levels aren't one of those things most drivers are thinking about with any frequency.
That's where the S&T Tire Pressure Monitoring System comes in. It features four tire gauges that are attached to each tire and a digital display that goes inside the car. The gauges continuously monitor each tire and report the information to the in-car display, with both visual and audio notices that can go off when pressure gets too low.
The manufacturers say that keeping tires inflated to the proper levels can save up to two weeks' worth of gas every year and could also save the cost of one or two sets of tires over the life of the vehicle because drivers will also be able to cut down on tire wear through keeping each wheel inflated to the correct pressure.
This way, they might be able to put off that next tire purchase until after the economy recovers.
Nextar GPS/Back-Up Camera
3. At the price: $250
Like breaking up, sometimes backing up is hard to do, especially if your car has been saddled with blind spots and tiny mirrors. To make life easier for anyone struggling to see what's behind them as they're backing into a mall parking space while Boxing Day shopping, Nextar is trying to make things a little easier.
Nextar's GPS/Back-Up Camera features a 4.3-inch dash-mounted screen that not only provides GPS tracking capabilities with voice-guided directions and turn-by-turn prompts but when the driver puts the car in reverse, the screen automatically switches to a rear-view display that is connected to a camera on the back of the car.
The manufacturer says the camera provides a clear viewing range of up to seven feet as well as both a day and night mode to ensure that the screen displays the most accurate picture of what to look out for behind the driver.
The device also features an address book, MP3 playing capability and an SD card slot for expanded memory.
CarMD diagnostic tool
4. At the price: $99 (U.S.)
There was a time when more car owners than not could open up the hood of their vehicle when a problem arose, poke around for a few minutes and identify the source of the trouble. Of course, thanks to technology, cars are much more complex and reliant on internal computers and other electronic systems, which makes self-diagnosis much more difficult.
With the CarMD, drivers simply attach a small device to the vehicle's on-board computer system through a connection that is usually found under the dashboard, which then spits out a quick look at the health of the car on an LED screen. The technology is similar to that used by mechanics to diagnose problems. The manufacturer says the device can be used on any car or truck built for the U.S. market since 1996.
Once users have taken a digital reading of the vehicle's health, they can plug the device into a computer where it can connect to the CarMD software that provides diagnostic information, including a list of probable causes for the problem as well as repair estimates. The software also links up to the CarMD online database to provide better access to diagnostic information submitted by other users.
iLane
5. At the price: $60
While some commuters are lamenting their inability to talk on the phone while driving once the new Ontario legislation takes effect, BlackBerry enthusiasts are hurting more than ever. That's why the iLane was created for every Crackberry user who ever left the office a few minutes early at the end of the day, in the hopes they would either get stuck in traffic or hit a bevy of red lights just so they could spend a few moments catching up on e-mails.
Developed by Waterloo's Intelligent Mechatronic Systems Inc. and touted as the first in-car device that allows BlackBerry and other smart phone users to check their e-mails and calendar through
voice commands while driving, the iLane aims to make driving safer while helping drivers be productive on the road.
The iLane connects to a smart phone wirelessly via a Bluetooth connection and allows users to browse e-mails and place calls through voice commands. Through a small wireless headset, drivers use simple commands such as "reply" or "delete" to cycle through their messages.
Sony Xplod MEXBT 2600
6. At the price: $170
Anyone who spends any amount of time struggling to navigate rush hour traffic or sitting through long sojourns to cottage country knows that it's imperative to have some entertainment options at your fingertips. Fortunately, Sony's Xplod MEXBT 2600 in-dash music player provides a range of music options while tossing in some smart phone functionality for good measure.
The Xplod does what you'd expect a CD player and music system to do at an attractive price - it plays traditional CDs as well as high capacity MP3 and Windows Media discs - but it also features an integrated microphone and streaming capabilities allowing drivers to wirelessly connect and operate a Bluetooth-enabled cellphone.
It includes four 52w power outputs, a detachable face plate and side scrolling LCD screen for displaying text from both CDs and MP3 files.
Garmin nuvi 880 GPS
Ontario is the latest jurisdiction to mandate that drivers put down their cellphones and other gadgets to ensure they are keeping their attention where it should be: on the road. As a result, drivers who are accustomed to conducting business during their daily commutes are likely to be on the lookout for hands-free options that allow them to make calls while keeping both hands on the wheel.
Motorola's Motorokr T505 Bluetooth in-car speakerphone is designed to do just that. The T505 clips to the visor and connects to the user's cellphone over a wireless Bluetooth connection, allowing drivers to send and receive calls without diverting their attention. The audio caller ID verbally tells the user the number of the person calling and drivers can opt to either listen to their calls through the T505's built in speaker system or through their best double din for the money.
The T505 is compatible with a wide range of Bluetooth devices, including personal music players, which can be streamed wirelessly through the device to the car's stereo.
S&T Tire Pressure Monitoring System
2. At the price: $150
President-elect Barack Obama caused a stir on the campaign trail this year when he told supporters they could save money simply by keeping their tires inflated to the proper levels in an effort to improve fuel efficiency. Still, proper tire pressure levels aren't one of those things most drivers are thinking about with any frequency.
That's where the S&T Tire Pressure Monitoring System comes in. It features four tire gauges that are attached to each tire and a digital display that goes inside the car. The gauges continuously monitor each tire and report the information to the in-car display, with both visual and audio notices that can go off when pressure gets too low.
The manufacturers say that keeping tires inflated to the proper levels can save up to two weeks' worth of gas every year and could also save the cost of one or two sets of tires over the life of the vehicle because drivers will also be able to cut down on tire wear through keeping each wheel inflated to the correct pressure.
This way, they might be able to put off that next tire purchase until after the economy recovers.
Nextar GPS/Back-Up Camera
3. At the price: $250
Like breaking up, sometimes backing up is hard to do, especially if your car has been saddled with blind spots and tiny mirrors. To make life easier for anyone struggling to see what's behind them as they're backing into a mall parking space while Boxing Day shopping, Nextar is trying to make things a little easier.
Nextar's GPS/Back-Up Camera features a 4.3-inch dash-mounted screen that not only provides GPS tracking capabilities with voice-guided directions and turn-by-turn prompts but when the driver puts the car in reverse, the screen automatically switches to a rear-view display that is connected to a camera on the back of the car.
The manufacturer says the camera provides a clear viewing range of up to seven feet as well as both a day and night mode to ensure that the screen displays the most accurate picture of what to look out for behind the driver.
The device also features an address book, MP3 playing capability and an SD card slot for expanded memory.
CarMD diagnostic tool
4. At the price: $99 (U.S.)
There was a time when more car owners than not could open up the hood of their vehicle when a problem arose, poke around for a few minutes and identify the source of the trouble. Of course, thanks to technology, cars are much more complex and reliant on internal computers and other electronic systems, which makes self-diagnosis much more difficult.
With the CarMD, drivers simply attach a small device to the vehicle's on-board computer system through a connection that is usually found under the dashboard, which then spits out a quick look at the health of the car on an LED screen. The technology is similar to that used by mechanics to diagnose problems. The manufacturer says the device can be used on any car or truck built for the U.S. market since 1996.
Once users have taken a digital reading of the vehicle's health, they can plug the device into a computer where it can connect to the CarMD software that provides diagnostic information, including a list of probable causes for the problem as well as repair estimates. The software also links up to the CarMD online database to provide better access to diagnostic information submitted by other users.
iLane
5. At the price: $60
While some commuters are lamenting their inability to talk on the phone while driving once the new Ontario legislation takes effect, BlackBerry enthusiasts are hurting more than ever. That's why the iLane was created for every Crackberry user who ever left the office a few minutes early at the end of the day, in the hopes they would either get stuck in traffic or hit a bevy of red lights just so they could spend a few moments catching up on e-mails.
Developed by Waterloo's Intelligent Mechatronic Systems Inc. and touted as the first in-car device that allows BlackBerry and other smart phone users to check their e-mails and calendar through
voice commands while driving, the iLane aims to make driving safer while helping drivers be productive on the road.
The iLane connects to a smart phone wirelessly via a Bluetooth connection and allows users to browse e-mails and place calls through voice commands. Through a small wireless headset, drivers use simple commands such as "reply" or "delete" to cycle through their messages.
Sony Xplod MEXBT 2600
6. At the price: $170
Anyone who spends any amount of time struggling to navigate rush hour traffic or sitting through long sojourns to cottage country knows that it's imperative to have some entertainment options at your fingertips. Fortunately, Sony's Xplod MEXBT 2600 in-dash music player provides a range of music options while tossing in some smart phone functionality for good measure.
The Xplod does what you'd expect a CD player and music system to do at an attractive price - it plays traditional CDs as well as high capacity MP3 and Windows Media discs - but it also features an integrated microphone and streaming capabilities allowing drivers to wirelessly connect and operate a Bluetooth-enabled cellphone.
It includes four 52w power outputs, a detachable face plate and side scrolling LCD screen for displaying text from both CDs and MP3 files.
Garmin nuvi 880 GPS
THE PROGRESS AS ITS NATURAL RIGHT HAS BIG PROBLEMS
Find the solution for the problems
He says most politicians believe the consequences of deal-making outweigh the real-world consequences of inaction, but that a slowly builot in a political context. I think law makers are befuddled by that."
Gary Krieger, a pediatrician in the Los Angeles suburb of San Pedro, certainly has horror stories to tell. Because his practice is 70 per cent Medi-Cal patients, he has been the recipient of some $30,000 in IOUs from the state. To get reimbursed, he has recently had to open accounts at banks still accepting notes.
But he says he has lost a good deal of income even as his bills mount; the most recent one was for $8,000 for vaccines and lab tests. He is considering laying off his two office staff and is telling his predominantly Hispanic patients - many of whom require mandatory vaccinations for their children before school starts - that he will be providing only emergency services. "When the state turns off the spigot, it becomes virtually impossible to continue," says Dr. Krieger. "It is a tragedy and a travesty and I am deeply upset at all elements of government. When they get to the state capital they go behind a moat and they don't understand they are hurting very real people."
Government is cutting off all Medi-Cal payments
Vendors, who by law are ineligible for IOUs, have been in even worse shape than Dr. Krieger, who at least was receiving chits until the announcement this week that the government is cutting off all Medi-Cal payments. The vendors have had to scrape by even as they continue to deliver essential supplies to prisons, hospitals and schools. Richard Ficker, president of Sierra Foothills Provision Co. in rural Chinese Camp, has stopped buying raw materials, laid off four people and cut back the hours of another 30 employees from five days to three. He estimates he is owed more than $350,000. The good way to do is dropshipping.
While the pressure builds to maintain an even keel, the state's financial officers are trying to figure out where they are going. An infusion of revenue - from licence fees and sales taxes - has meant that $992-million of the IOUs have been redeemed.
But Nancy Badely, a spokesperson for the California Bankers Association, says most banks will likely pull out if the impasse continues. This would create a major headache for Gray Davis, the state's controller: "There is no road map for how to issue IOUs after the banks reject them."
The victims of spending cuts
The looming end-of-the-month pay day for state employees will surely focus the minds of the legislators. Talks aimed at solving the deadlock continue sporadically.
But it is difficult to figure out how close to resolution the problem is. Phillip Isenberg, a Democratic member of the Assembly and an ally of Mr. Brown, observes, "It has all the earmarks of a spy novel set in Central Europe before the start of World I, with various couriers and intermediaries skulking through corridors and hallways passing obscure messages among themselves. Occasionally, people look out their window to see if there's a smoke signal or some other marker. Did the governor wear a carnation in his lapel today? No? I wonder what that means. What kind of Car Speaker did the they use today? Does that mean he's in a bad mood?"
Eventually, however, things will return to what passes for normal in Sacramento. Real cheques will be printed once again and California's trading partners will breathe easier for another year, even as the victims of spending cuts howl in pain.
TIGHT TO LOOSE CONDITION
Hi Bob,
We run two Late Models at Hawk Eye Downs in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We are having problems with a tight-loose condition. The cars weigh 2,825 pounds and we run on Hoosier 800 tires, the chassis is a Hamke, both front springs are 350 pounds, the sway bar is 1 1/8 inch, the left rear spring is 185 pounds, the right rear is 300 pounds, and the shocks are Bilstein; RF 8-3, LF 12-2, RR 50-30, LR 60-10.
We run 58 percent left and 51 percent rear with the third link mounted to the left of the pumpkin at 40 degrees. The car gets into the corner very fast and is fast down the straight. We lose ground from the apex out to the end of the turn.
We have two nights with a close points battle and we are presently in the Third and Fourth Place. Both cars could be winners if we could get off the corners. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. (Ed. note: The reader included a link to a YouTube video of a recent race.)
Thanks,
--Stan Siems
Stan,
Yours is a very common condition. From viewing the video, I see where the 76 car running second early on was turning the wheel way too much even at the very drop of the green flag. So, he was either very tight or had a ton of Ackermann in the steering. The 43 car took longer to lose the lead, but that car was not good in or off the turns.
The way I know that is, the 74 car and the 64 cars passed the 43 on the outside and entry, even high, for those cars was much better than the 43. They carried much more speed into the corner.
From your description of the cars, I see a big split in the rear springs that is not needed if you are not running on bumps. The rebound in the front shocks is way too high for a conventional setup like yours because high rebound is reserved for running on high spring rate bump rubbers or bump springs.
You don't say where your roll or Moment Center is located, so that could be a huge problem. In order for the frontend to work properly, the front geometry must be known to be correct. This is where we start with any stock car.
I would suggest re-evaluating the front shock rotes, reducing the rear spring split, and by all means, find out where your Moment Center is located and position it left of centerline about 5 to 6 inches to the left after the car dives and rolls. And, the LR shock rebound is way too high. That is crutching the car into the turns and it helps a tight car, but gets rid of it if you solve the tight condition.
Also, no one I know of runs the third link at 40 degrees. That would tend to upset the entry of most Late Model cars. The most anyone can effectively use is 70 degrees or so. You need to take a look at that also. The cars that were fast in the video turned well and from that had good drive off the corners. And, take all of the Ackermann out of both cars.
NOT ME: Try As We Might, We Cannot Escape Ourselves (Part 1)
So it's safe to say that in 2016, 2 billion times a day, people will be looking at pictures of themselves and thinking, "My God, I look fat. Do I look this fat all the time? Am I this fat?"
Or maybe not fat. Maybe old, or tired, or just unexpectedly unattractive. Maybe a certain shot taken by a fellow partygoer--probably using that most cruel and unforgiving flash function--will reveal the bald spot we hadn't noticed or the eyes too close-set or the sudden appearance (and perhaps here I'm revealing too much about myself) of what can only be described as jowls.
Two billion times a day, starting in late 2016, we will all feel really bad about ourselves and the way we look.
Just as the technological revolution has scaled up our interactions with friends via Facebook and our meaningless chatter via Twitter, it will also increase the number of times we encounter our own faces--once limited to chance gazes at our reflections in a window, or passing a hallway mirror without reflexively turning away--and suddenly see ourselves as others see us, in the most unflattering way possible, which is the way we actually look.
There is--you knew this was coming, didn't you?--an app for that. If you download something called "Facetune"--available for iOS and Android--you will have a suite of tools, some of which work automatically, to slim down your cheeks, fill in your hair, lift up your eyes, and get rid of those jowls. What once required expert use of airbrushing and digital-photography software now comes ready to download and easy to use for the rest of us. Full disclosure: I have used this product. Fuller disclosure: Damn, I looked good.
Well, not really. I looked, scientifically speaking, exactly the same. But now I have the technology to adjust my photographic image to be in closer alignment with my self-image. Those of you who encounter me in real life out there on the street are stuck looking at my old and jowly face. But when it comes to my tagged, shared, tweeted, and Instagrammed appearance--which is, let's face it, probably a lot more significant--I look just the way I look when I close my eyes and imagine my current face and body, which are based on a photograph taken of me on a sailboat in June 1987. And I looked good.
Thanks to Facetune, I still do, because I look great to myself and I look great in the Internet cloud and it doesn't matter how I look to you in real life because two against one.
So despite our natural discomfort when we think about the most recent Vanity Fair cover girl, Caitlyn Jenner--and when I say "discomfort" I mean it in the most supportive way possible--what she must have felt walking past mirrors and window reflections during the years in which she answered to "Bruce" can't be all that different from the way many of us feel when we see ourselves in a photograph and think, "Is that me? That isn't me!"
Or maybe not fat. Maybe old, or tired, or just unexpectedly unattractive. Maybe a certain shot taken by a fellow partygoer--probably using that most cruel and unforgiving flash function--will reveal the bald spot we hadn't noticed or the eyes too close-set or the sudden appearance (and perhaps here I'm revealing too much about myself) of what can only be described as jowls.
Two billion times a day, starting in late 2016, we will all feel really bad about ourselves and the way we look.
Just as the technological revolution has scaled up our interactions with friends via Facebook and our meaningless chatter via Twitter, it will also increase the number of times we encounter our own faces--once limited to chance gazes at our reflections in a window, or passing a hallway mirror without reflexively turning away--and suddenly see ourselves as others see us, in the most unflattering way possible, which is the way we actually look.
There is--you knew this was coming, didn't you?--an app for that. If you download something called "Facetune"--available for iOS and Android--you will have a suite of tools, some of which work automatically, to slim down your cheeks, fill in your hair, lift up your eyes, and get rid of those jowls. What once required expert use of airbrushing and digital-photography software now comes ready to download and easy to use for the rest of us. Full disclosure: I have used this product. Fuller disclosure: Damn, I looked good.
Well, not really. I looked, scientifically speaking, exactly the same. But now I have the technology to adjust my photographic image to be in closer alignment with my self-image. Those of you who encounter me in real life out there on the street are stuck looking at my old and jowly face. But when it comes to my tagged, shared, tweeted, and Instagrammed appearance--which is, let's face it, probably a lot more significant--I look just the way I look when I close my eyes and imagine my current face and body, which are based on a photograph taken of me on a sailboat in June 1987. And I looked good.
Thanks to Facetune, I still do, because I look great to myself and I look great in the Internet cloud and it doesn't matter how I look to you in real life because two against one.
So despite our natural discomfort when we think about the most recent Vanity Fair cover girl, Caitlyn Jenner--and when I say "discomfort" I mean it in the most supportive way possible--what she must have felt walking past mirrors and window reflections during the years in which she answered to "Bruce" can't be all that different from the way many of us feel when we see ourselves in a photograph and think, "Is that me? That isn't me!"
NOT ME: Try As We Might, We Cannot Escape Ourselves (Part 2)
Caitlyn has told us about her long conviction that something about her old self, Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner, wasn't really true. Winning races, getting awards, appearing on cereal boxes, starring on television shows--whatever it was that Bruce was doing, it wasn't right because he wasn't doing it in a dress, as a woman.
Caitlyn Jenner didn't want to look like Bruce Jenner, and lucky for her, there is an app for that. Well, more than an app--a suite of surgical, cosmetic, and hormone-therapy tools to help align her self-image with the one everyone else sees on the street. Caitlyn Jenner is now, according to her, a lot more "comfortable" with the image she presents to the world. It's a lot truer to how she sees herself when she closes her eyes. Cynics may point out that there's a whiff of a career move here--Jenner's reality-television show, chronicling her journey from Bruce to Caitlyn, has already resulted in a multimillion-dollar payday. But listening to Bruce Jenner talk to Diane Sawyer, and then reading her words later in Vanity Fair--and, yeah, the pronouns shift with the verb tense--it's hard not to wish her the very best.
Which isn't to deny that some transformations are good for the career. Rachel Dolezal, the former president of the Spokane, Wash., chapter of the NAACP, had a similar problem. Born white, to white parents, from an entirely white family tree, she passed herself off as black because, as she recently told Matt Lauer on the Today show, she "identifies" as black. Rachel Dolezal would pass mirrors and reflective surfaces and catch sight of this plump-cheeked white woman and think, "That's not me. That can't be me."
And (you knew this was coming) there's an app for that, too: a collection of hair and skin products that alter the appearance, a judiciously vague appropriation of African-American symbols and designations, a careful editing of the life story. Rachel Dolezal, unrepentant and at peace, presents herself to employers and television interviewers as black and proud.
The problem with Facetuning or Sex-tuning or Racetuning, though, is that there's still the messy and unmanageable business of real life to contend with. When you knock on your date's door and reveal your true face--not the one you've carefully tended and tuned and uploaded to the popular dating app Tinder--you'll know in an instant by the crestfallen and disappointed look on your intended's face whether you've gone a little too far with the tuning.
Rachel Dolezal may identify as black, but she lost her job as head of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, and with it the ability to convince anyone, anywhere, that she's African-American. She will always be a white girl who acted black.
And try as she might--and she is trying, mightily--to have us forget the athletic exploits and superstardom of Bruce, Caitlyn isn't ever going to be just Caitlyn. She'll always be Formerly Bruce. That's the price she pays for Bruce's fame.
There isn't, in the end, much you can really do about your true self. That fleeting glimpse we get in the mirror or in a candid shot on Facebook, the one that looks too fat or old or white or male, the one that makes us say, "That isn't me! That can't be me!"--well, it is.
It's you. It's me. It's us. And though we wish it were not so, there is no app for that.
BMW COMPANY
ON ROUGHER GOING
Grip in bends is probably no more impressive than expected of a BMW with a price tag of more than $200,000 but it is still pleasant to know the best component speakers for you has good grip reserves. The car's passage into sweeping, smooth bends is obedient and prompt due to the width of the tyres but the power steering masks some of the nuances of feel expected in a sports coupe.
Handling in bends is less precise _ no surprises _ but there is a little annoying wobble of uncertainty from the back at the car's grip limits. A multilink suspension involving what BMW calls "kinematics" was devised to curb its cars' former tendancy for "handling tail-happiness" and to this the 850Ci has added a degree of rear-steer.
Tyres are so wide that occasionally they suffer the edgy "tram- lining" common in racing cars. Where the road has indentations, the tyres will try to steer up the sides which can be surprising at first. The steering is sensitive enough to give proper feedback, however, and warn of the car's unintended slight change of direction. Because the tyres are so wide and have such deep water clearing grooves, the brake performance on slippery roads is impressive.
ANTI-LOOK HYDRAULICS
ABS anti-lock hydraulics, and the grip to allow it to work, make the 850Ci's stopping distances reassuringly short. Pedal pressure is light enough due in part to fairly soft brake pads which, in turn, dust the alloy wheels rapidly with black dust (this should be cleaned off quickly to prevent corrosion). The coil sprung ride is a pleasant blend of luxury and sport _ firm but never uncomfortable _ and accommodates dips and rough patches well.
Disadvantages of the BMW include the poor rear seat access, small boot, large doors which cramp any access in tight car parks, one air bag and the uncertainty entering some bumpy corners. Also, it is a shame the wheels have a laced alloy pattern which is maddeningly fiddly to clean. For all its faults, however, it remains timeless, beautifully finished, equipped with maximum automation to ease the burden of driving, and boasts the silence on the road that enables you to enjoy a good sound system. It rates 9 out of 10.
STORY IN FIGURES PRICE
$208,000 including tax. ENGINE: V12, aluminium, single-overhead, chain-driven camshafts, fuel- injected, capacity 4988cc, develops 220kW at 5200rpm, 450Nm torque at 4100rpm. TRANSMISSION: Electronically controlled four-speed ZF automatic, lockup clutch in fourth, three programs, rear drive, automatic slip control. SUSPENSION: Independent by coil springing, struts in front with double-lower pivot point, multi-link rear suspension. STEERING: Ball and nut. Turning circle: 11.5metres. BRAKES: Disc, vented in front, ABS anti-skid hydraulics. Tyres: 235/50 by 16 on alloy wheels. PERFORMANCE: 250kmh, 0-100kmh 7.8seconds; fuel 11.6-16.4litres a 100 kilometres, capacity 90litres.
The village contained 350 people in neat, stilted homes strung along a half-metre-wide asphalt sidewalk which meandered among the palm trees. Fishing boats alongside a dock, a co-op, post office, one-man police station, a market the size of a cottage and Miss Lily's bakery consisting of three oil drums and two wooden tables were the focal points. Miss Lily baked 150 loaves of bread a day, seven days a week, charging 25 cents a loaf for her chewy, coconut-milk-and-all-spice creation. Excitement centred around a disco which functioned only on Fridays and Saturdays.
A raffish, bearded American called Larry (thought to be ex-CIA) took me in his pick-up to the defunct housing project 25 kilometres up the peninsula. His "snake" dog continually criss-crossed in front of us to detect the deadly fer-de-lance as we floundered through the dense growth trying to find surveyors' stakes. But all we could identify were two concrete skeletons of hotels and some weedy canals.
Belize is a country where nature may be enjoyed in its most basic form - especially when the hundreds of rusting car bodies are removed from the roadsides.
Grip in bends is probably no more impressive than expected of a BMW with a price tag of more than $200,000 but it is still pleasant to know the best component speakers for you has good grip reserves. The car's passage into sweeping, smooth bends is obedient and prompt due to the width of the tyres but the power steering masks some of the nuances of feel expected in a sports coupe.
Handling in bends is less precise _ no surprises _ but there is a little annoying wobble of uncertainty from the back at the car's grip limits. A multilink suspension involving what BMW calls "kinematics" was devised to curb its cars' former tendancy for "handling tail-happiness" and to this the 850Ci has added a degree of rear-steer.
Tyres are so wide that occasionally they suffer the edgy "tram- lining" common in racing cars. Where the road has indentations, the tyres will try to steer up the sides which can be surprising at first. The steering is sensitive enough to give proper feedback, however, and warn of the car's unintended slight change of direction. Because the tyres are so wide and have such deep water clearing grooves, the brake performance on slippery roads is impressive.
ANTI-LOOK HYDRAULICS
ABS anti-lock hydraulics, and the grip to allow it to work, make the 850Ci's stopping distances reassuringly short. Pedal pressure is light enough due in part to fairly soft brake pads which, in turn, dust the alloy wheels rapidly with black dust (this should be cleaned off quickly to prevent corrosion). The coil sprung ride is a pleasant blend of luxury and sport _ firm but never uncomfortable _ and accommodates dips and rough patches well.
Disadvantages of the BMW include the poor rear seat access, small boot, large doors which cramp any access in tight car parks, one air bag and the uncertainty entering some bumpy corners. Also, it is a shame the wheels have a laced alloy pattern which is maddeningly fiddly to clean. For all its faults, however, it remains timeless, beautifully finished, equipped with maximum automation to ease the burden of driving, and boasts the silence on the road that enables you to enjoy a good sound system. It rates 9 out of 10.
STORY IN FIGURES PRICE
$208,000 including tax. ENGINE: V12, aluminium, single-overhead, chain-driven camshafts, fuel- injected, capacity 4988cc, develops 220kW at 5200rpm, 450Nm torque at 4100rpm. TRANSMISSION: Electronically controlled four-speed ZF automatic, lockup clutch in fourth, three programs, rear drive, automatic slip control. SUSPENSION: Independent by coil springing, struts in front with double-lower pivot point, multi-link rear suspension. STEERING: Ball and nut. Turning circle: 11.5metres. BRAKES: Disc, vented in front, ABS anti-skid hydraulics. Tyres: 235/50 by 16 on alloy wheels. PERFORMANCE: 250kmh, 0-100kmh 7.8seconds; fuel 11.6-16.4litres a 100 kilometres, capacity 90litres.
The village contained 350 people in neat, stilted homes strung along a half-metre-wide asphalt sidewalk which meandered among the palm trees. Fishing boats alongside a dock, a co-op, post office, one-man police station, a market the size of a cottage and Miss Lily's bakery consisting of three oil drums and two wooden tables were the focal points. Miss Lily baked 150 loaves of bread a day, seven days a week, charging 25 cents a loaf for her chewy, coconut-milk-and-all-spice creation. Excitement centred around a disco which functioned only on Fridays and Saturdays.
A raffish, bearded American called Larry (thought to be ex-CIA) took me in his pick-up to the defunct housing project 25 kilometres up the peninsula. His "snake" dog continually criss-crossed in front of us to detect the deadly fer-de-lance as we floundered through the dense growth trying to find surveyors' stakes. But all we could identify were two concrete skeletons of hotels and some weedy canals.
Belize is a country where nature may be enjoyed in its most basic form - especially when the hundreds of rusting car bodies are removed from the roadsides.
OLD-STYLE ETHICS MAKE MODERN WOES
GLOBE AND MAIL CORRESPONDENT WASHINGTON
Jim Wright is an old-time politician whose traditional Texas habits could be about to cost him his leadership of the U.S. Congress .
The 66-year-old Speaker of the House of Representatives has a florid oratorical style that is quaintly archaic, and he plays politics with a single-minded partisanship learned from Lyndon Johnson in the 1950s.
But his problem is that his personal and political finances are separated in a manner that, to understate the case, is less than scrupulous. Mr. Wright has been cosy with savings and loan institutions and the oil and real estate industries throughout his 35 years on Capitol Hill.
That is the way business was always done in Washington, but Mr. Wright looks likely to pay a steep price for his old-fashioned ways in this newly ethical era in U.S. public policy.
Early next month, the House ethics committee is due to report on its 10-month investigation into Mr. Wright's financial affairs.
THE SPEAKER IN THE HOUSE
Even if no action against the member from Fort Worth is recommended, the damage from the report of an independent investigator to the committee and the debate over its contents in the House seems likely to cost Mr. Wright his Speaker's gavel.
"I don't think he will be forced to resign by the report," said one House aide, who, like most Democrats on the subject of their leader, requested anonymity. "But if the debate on the floor gets into the nitty- gritty, Wright could announce that he will step down after this term."
If Mr. Wright does lose his post, it will be a stunning fall for a powerful man.
Like the majority leader in the Senate, controls the flow of legislation in the chamber. In addition, he has an influential voice in the assignment of members to committees and can also decide which committee should have jurisdiction over a bill that cuts across committee lines.
Most important, as Speaker, Mr. Wright is a principal spokesman for his party on the major issues of the day.
OUR THREE WEEKS PASSED
Along with his Senate counterpart, George Mitchell, he is the closest the United States has to a leader of the opposition. And under the Constitution, the Speaker is next in line to the presidency if the vice- president is unable to assume the president's role.
The problem was that the thing was out of scale. Our daughter, Mavis, seemed to realize this better than anyone. She knows about big screens; she once spent 40 minutes watching a 30-second video loop of a running dinosaur, life-size, at the Royal Ontario Museum. She was quite happy to nestle down on the dining room floor and watch Toy Story. But she also asked, a couple of times, whether she could go upstairs and watch a video on our small TV. She was clearly ambivalent, maybe because so much in an adult house is out of scale for a three-year-old, from the size of the stairs to the height of the kitchen counter. In this one area, she had control, and she used it.
The enormous van returned, and everything went back into boxes and out the door. It took a day or two for the dining room to snap back into shape, but domestic spaces are amazingly elastic. I'm sure now that even our upstairs room would have felt distorted after a few weeks of home theatre. I've tried to think of a place where such a thing would feel right, and I keep coming up with some kind of separate building, like a garage. Or, more to the point, a small theatre, which is what it is, and not any part of my idea of home.
Jim Wright is an old-time politician whose traditional Texas habits could be about to cost him his leadership of the U.S. Congress .
The 66-year-old Speaker of the House of Representatives has a florid oratorical style that is quaintly archaic, and he plays politics with a single-minded partisanship learned from Lyndon Johnson in the 1950s.
But his problem is that his personal and political finances are separated in a manner that, to understate the case, is less than scrupulous. Mr. Wright has been cosy with savings and loan institutions and the oil and real estate industries throughout his 35 years on Capitol Hill.
That is the way business was always done in Washington, but Mr. Wright looks likely to pay a steep price for his old-fashioned ways in this newly ethical era in U.S. public policy.
Early next month, the House ethics committee is due to report on its 10-month investigation into Mr. Wright's financial affairs.
THE SPEAKER IN THE HOUSE
Even if no action against the member from Fort Worth is recommended, the damage from the report of an independent investigator to the committee and the debate over its contents in the House seems likely to cost Mr. Wright his Speaker's gavel.
"I don't think he will be forced to resign by the report," said one House aide, who, like most Democrats on the subject of their leader, requested anonymity. "But if the debate on the floor gets into the nitty- gritty, Wright could announce that he will step down after this term."
If Mr. Wright does lose his post, it will be a stunning fall for a powerful man.
Like the majority leader in the Senate, controls the flow of legislation in the chamber. In addition, he has an influential voice in the assignment of members to committees and can also decide which committee should have jurisdiction over a bill that cuts across committee lines.
Most important, as Speaker, Mr. Wright is a principal spokesman for his party on the major issues of the day.
OUR THREE WEEKS PASSED
Along with his Senate counterpart, George Mitchell, he is the closest the United States has to a leader of the opposition. And under the Constitution, the Speaker is next in line to the presidency if the vice- president is unable to assume the president's role.
The problem was that the thing was out of scale. Our daughter, Mavis, seemed to realize this better than anyone. She knows about big screens; she once spent 40 minutes watching a 30-second video loop of a running dinosaur, life-size, at the Royal Ontario Museum. She was quite happy to nestle down on the dining room floor and watch Toy Story. But she also asked, a couple of times, whether she could go upstairs and watch a video on our small TV. She was clearly ambivalent, maybe because so much in an adult house is out of scale for a three-year-old, from the size of the stairs to the height of the kitchen counter. In this one area, she had control, and she used it.
The enormous van returned, and everything went back into boxes and out the door. It took a day or two for the dining room to snap back into shape, but domestic spaces are amazingly elastic. I'm sure now that even our upstairs room would have felt distorted after a few weeks of home theatre. I've tried to think of a place where such a thing would feel right, and I keep coming up with some kind of separate building, like a garage. Or, more to the point, a small theatre, which is what it is, and not any part of my idea of home.
SWALLOWED BY THE BIG SCREEN
THE FULL EYE-POPPING
We switched on the set. It waited an impressive moment or two, flashing a tiny green light to let us know that something majestic was about to be served in our dining room. And then--poof!--Sesame Street flashed over the screen. Big Bird, right there on our Big TV.
We were not convulsed. I would say that we were confused, physically, by this new activity in a room we knew well. Our dining room is a fairly Edwardian space, with wainscoting and floral wallpaper and pressed-back oak chairs. Till now, a chiming wall clock, only slightly younger than the house, had been the only glass-fronted appliance with anything to reveal.
Broadcast TV took on a kind of drab monumentality, which was perhaps not surprising. What more is there to be learned, after all, from a blow-up of a cooking spot on The Dini Petty Show? Exceptions were few. A field documentary about elephants, including a truly monumental copulation, felt right on the big screen.
Rock videos, and anything with a lot of hand-held camera did not, because anything that looks herky-jerky on a small screen is stomach-turning on a large one. Imagine looking at the world while pretending your neck is the spindle in a washing machine in mid-cycle. It's the same kind of "convulsive sensuous participation" that marked the first wave of virtual reality devices, when people would come off them and immediately throw up.
THE EXPERIENCE OF A HUMUNGOUS
We watched all types of videos. I had the idea that it was necessary to make the system do different things, even though I was mainly interested in seeing what it would do to us. Mainly, it focused our minds on the search for the tape that would be worthy of our gear.
The sets very presence jostled us into an anxious imitation of the natives in the original King Kong, as we tried to lay hands on the offering that would make the really big monkey appear. The strain was sometimes palpable. "Do you want to watch something tonight?" my partner Tereza would say, as if proposing that we finish the evening by putting another coat of paint on the bathroom ceiling.
Not that we didn't have fun, or popcorn. My George Balanchine dance videos looked great, as they never do on our regular TV, because the ensemble scenes didn't turn into Balanchivadze's Flea Circus. Peter Greenaway's ornate Prospero's Books also worked well, as it would not on a 20-inch screen. But we knew that these things weren't really what the system was built for. I remembered an "audio consultant" telling me how the speakers should be arranged, so that when a fighter jet streaked overhead in a film, we should be able to feel it pass. All his examples were like that: machine-gun bursts, exploding ammo dumps, Arnold Schwarzenegger using his superior fire-power and my Dolby Pro-Logic amplifier to save the Free World.
CONCLUSION
So we rented Terminator II: Judgment Day, in the letterbox edition. Not bad, although not as mythic as it seemed in the theatre. But we had to keep the volume at a moderate level, since the kids were in bed upstairs. The next day, while everyone else was out, I played the action scenes again, with the Bass Boost on and the sound turned up, so that the floor rumbled under my feet.
When Arnie's motorcycle roared out of the picture, I felt like I was on it. When he routed a division of assault police, with a portable Gatling gun and a rifle mortar, the whole house shook. It was great. I would have abandoned myself to it completely, but we live in a semi-detached house, and I was worried about the effect on the elderly widow who lives on the other side of the wall. After all, it's only two layers of solid brick.
I turned off the set and the guns fell silent. The room returned to the strange condition that was becoming the new norm. It felt hollowed out. If the set wasn't on, there didn't seem to be any reason to be there, and if it was, the space was annihilated. At all times, the screen's physical presence demanded attention. The message of the moment was not TV Watched Here, as I had thought, but Watch TV Or Die.
We switched on the set. It waited an impressive moment or two, flashing a tiny green light to let us know that something majestic was about to be served in our dining room. And then--poof!--Sesame Street flashed over the screen. Big Bird, right there on our Big TV.
We were not convulsed. I would say that we were confused, physically, by this new activity in a room we knew well. Our dining room is a fairly Edwardian space, with wainscoting and floral wallpaper and pressed-back oak chairs. Till now, a chiming wall clock, only slightly younger than the house, had been the only glass-fronted appliance with anything to reveal.
Broadcast TV took on a kind of drab monumentality, which was perhaps not surprising. What more is there to be learned, after all, from a blow-up of a cooking spot on The Dini Petty Show? Exceptions were few. A field documentary about elephants, including a truly monumental copulation, felt right on the big screen.
Rock videos, and anything with a lot of hand-held camera did not, because anything that looks herky-jerky on a small screen is stomach-turning on a large one. Imagine looking at the world while pretending your neck is the spindle in a washing machine in mid-cycle. It's the same kind of "convulsive sensuous participation" that marked the first wave of virtual reality devices, when people would come off them and immediately throw up.
THE EXPERIENCE OF A HUMUNGOUS
We watched all types of videos. I had the idea that it was necessary to make the system do different things, even though I was mainly interested in seeing what it would do to us. Mainly, it focused our minds on the search for the tape that would be worthy of our gear.
The sets very presence jostled us into an anxious imitation of the natives in the original King Kong, as we tried to lay hands on the offering that would make the really big monkey appear. The strain was sometimes palpable. "Do you want to watch something tonight?" my partner Tereza would say, as if proposing that we finish the evening by putting another coat of paint on the bathroom ceiling.
Not that we didn't have fun, or popcorn. My George Balanchine dance videos looked great, as they never do on our regular TV, because the ensemble scenes didn't turn into Balanchivadze's Flea Circus. Peter Greenaway's ornate Prospero's Books also worked well, as it would not on a 20-inch screen. But we knew that these things weren't really what the system was built for. I remembered an "audio consultant" telling me how the speakers should be arranged, so that when a fighter jet streaked overhead in a film, we should be able to feel it pass. All his examples were like that: machine-gun bursts, exploding ammo dumps, Arnold Schwarzenegger using his superior fire-power and my Dolby Pro-Logic amplifier to save the Free World.
CONCLUSION
So we rented Terminator II: Judgment Day, in the letterbox edition. Not bad, although not as mythic as it seemed in the theatre. But we had to keep the volume at a moderate level, since the kids were in bed upstairs. The next day, while everyone else was out, I played the action scenes again, with the Bass Boost on and the sound turned up, so that the floor rumbled under my feet.
When Arnie's motorcycle roared out of the picture, I felt like I was on it. When he routed a division of assault police, with a portable Gatling gun and a rifle mortar, the whole house shook. It was great. I would have abandoned myself to it completely, but we live in a semi-detached house, and I was worried about the effect on the elderly widow who lives on the other side of the wall. After all, it's only two layers of solid brick.
I turned off the set and the guns fell silent. The room returned to the strange condition that was becoming the new norm. It felt hollowed out. If the set wasn't on, there didn't seem to be any reason to be there, and if it was, the space was annihilated. At all times, the screen's physical presence demanded attention. The message of the moment was not TV Watched Here, as I had thought, but Watch TV Or Die.