Jack Goldman died this month. Mac? Windows? X11? You may think of visionaries who shaped technology as you know it. You might imagine that they were the original thinkers or visionary businessmen. You're wrong. The guy who laid the foundations started out trying to invent the electric car
at Ford, before being hired to Xerox creating the legendary PARC labs that invented computing as we know it; he lived to see
his prediction that "...any electric car produced in our lifetime will have to be a hybrid" come true.
posted by rodgerd
on Dec 24, 2011 -
17 comments
On December 19th, Ford closed the doors of their
St Paul auto plant, ending 800 jobs and 86 years of history. The plant was closed as part of Ford's move to end the Ford Ranger in North America, a truck that will still be available
overseas. Born of the 80s gas crisis, the Ranger has been Ford's compact truck for almost forty
years.
Ford blames demand for large trucks and the shrinking gap in price between the compact and full-sized truck markets, spurring
concern about the future of the compact truck market in North America.
posted by Stagger Lee
on Dec 23, 2011 -
93 comments
Web artifact made of solid gold CELEBRITY LECTURES SERIES from Michigan State University. Ten years worth of lectures were posted in 1998. They are all still there-- awaiting your return.
Edward Albee ,Isabel Allende, Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood, Pat Conroy, Jacques d'Amboise, E.L. Doctorow, Richard Ford, Carlos Fuentes, David Halberstam,
Joseph Heller,
John Irving, Judith Jamison, William Kennedy, Norman Mailer, David McCullough, Terry McMillan, Arthur Miller, Joyce Carol Oates, Philip Roth, Jane Smiley, Susan Sontag, Amy Tan,
Paul Theroux, John Updike,
Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Derek Walcott, Garry Wills, August Wilson and
Tom Wolfe.
I listened to the Vonnegut lecture. Imagine-- a whole hour and a half (Well, I skipped the first 9 minutes of introductions.) with my favorite author wheezing and sputtering. How refreshing to hear him declaim in his own voice and reveal the happiest day of his life and his own favorite from among his works -"The Sirens of Titan".
posted by notmtwain
on May 27, 2011 -
8 comments
I’m Jonathan Klinger and I’m spending one full year driving a 1930 Model A everywhere I go. (Starting October 13, 2010) Why? Because not everything a person owns should contain a computer.
365 days of A
posted by fixedgear
on Feb 12, 2011 -
38 comments
He was... "...the meanest, toughest, most ambitious S.O.B. I ever knew but he'll be a hell of a secretary of state." -- Richard Nixon
Alexander Meigs
Haig, Jr.,, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, who served US Presidents Nixon (as a military adviser, deputy assistant for national-security affairs, and chief of staff), Ford (chief of staff), and Reagan (secretary of state),
has died at the age of 85. Haig
commanded a batallion during the Vietnam War (where he was seriously wounded), managed the White House during the Watergate scandal that brought down President Nixon, and was himself a former Presidential candidate.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Feb 20, 2010 -
40 comments
Whether it's trailer hitches or complete rebody customizations;
Ford,
GM and
Dodge all provide guides to body builders or upfitters to make safe and reliable modifications to light and medium duty trucks and vans. The guides contain wiring diagrams; dimensions and specifications (eg:
how much weight can you put on your van's roof); emissions information; and information on areas to avoid mounting equipment in for safety.
[more inside]
posted by Mitheral
on Oct 10, 2009 -
9 comments
MSNBC and NBC News is reporting that former President Gerald Ford has died at age 93.
posted by barrista
on Dec 26, 2006 -
258 comments
Aero Warriors: Battling at super speedways on Sunday to sell cars on Monday. In 1969 only showroom stock cars were permitted in NASCAR sanctioned events. This meant in order to compete a car had to be produced and available through dealers in minimum quantities. Only minor changes for racing were allowed. And in 1969 Ford and Chrysler were locked in a Battle Royale to win races. To this end both produced cars designed to dominate on the 1+ mile speedways. For Chrysler: the Dodge Charger 500, Dodge Charger Daytona, and Plymouth Road Runner Superbird. For Ford: the
Ford Torino Talladega and
Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II. Aero Warriors is the story and history of these street legal, 200mph (320kph) capable, wildly winged cars from the Chrysler side of the line.
posted by Mitheral
on Mar 19, 2006 -
16 comments
After an American car company
recreates its legendary
1960's Ferrari-beating race car, the first $150,000 2005 production car
sells at a charity event for $400,000 over sticker price, (to a
Microsoft-enriched individual, of course) and many months later, dealers are still asking up to
$200,000 over sticker, or at least
$150,000 over sticker. The "experts" at Edmunds say the car is selling for
about $100,000 over sticker (seeing their "True Market Value" requires a few clicks from this page), and the widespread belief is that these
admittedly amazing cars are virtually impossible to find and all selling for at least $100,000 over sticker.
But using publicly available data, including completed eBay auctions and
public documents, this
non-commercial site shows the truth to be very different than the hype.
posted by escorter
on May 13, 2005 -
32 comments
"The President wants me to argue that he is as powerful a monarch as Louis XIV, only four years at a time, and is not subject to the processes of any court in the land except the court of impeachment." - James D. St. Clair, arguing before the Supreme Court in 1974.
The court
didn't agree, returning an 8-0 decision and as a result, thirty years ago today Richard Nixon announced his
resignation. The next day at
11:35AM it became official and
Gerald Ford, the first unelected Vice-President in history was sworn in under the provisions of the
25th Amendment to the Constitution as the 38th President of the United States.
But what if Nixon had chosen to respond differently? What if he had
vowed not to resign?
Article II of the Constitution makes the President the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy. Could the Supreme Court really have forced Nixon to comply with their order? What if the President had viewed the Court's order as an attempted
coup d'etat?
posted by snarfodox
on Aug 8, 2004 -
17 comments
Heads are Gonna Roll • Ford Motor Co. is pissed at ad agency
Ogilvy & Mather after O&M leaked a viral marketing ad for the Ford Sportka depicting "a realistic-looking orange cat climbing on top of the car and curiously poking its head into the open moon roof...The roof slides closed and the cat struggles briefly to escape before its headless body slides to the ground." Apparently Ford never authorized
the commercial's (.mpg) release.
posted by dhoyt
on May 2, 2004 -
33 comments
At Ford, Why Wasn't Safety Job One? "Like other car companies, Ford has consistently fought mandatory increases in fuel economy....by invoking fears that higher mileage requirements would result in smaller, more dangerous vehicles. Safety has been used to beat back fuel efficiency regulations. But Ford's own internal documents and a series of recent court cases reveal a company that is shockingly indifferent to safety risks in the very class of gas-guzzling vehicles it most wants to shield from increases in fuel economy standards...All of this leads us to wonder, if Ford is willing to produce a product it knows will injure and perhaps kill a certain percentage of customers simply to maintain profit margins, does the company really have driver safety at heart when its lobbyists aggressively fight easily-achievable standards for higher corporate average fuel economy?" A new review of internal car manufacturer documents, and more questions about corporate ethics.
posted by fold_and_mutilate
on Mar 11, 2003 -
13 comments
Ford will sell hybrid Escape at a loss. In order to get technology out to the public, and get feedback from customers, Ford is going to release it's hybrid version of the Escape SUV, and take a loss with it.
With today's economy, who knows what that will mean in the end for an already struggling Ford.
posted by wondergirl
on Mar 6, 2003 -
51 comments
FuckedCompany knocked offline for two days due to headlines that sounded like Ford's advertising slogans. While FC is no stranger to
cease and
desist orders, Ford threatened
the web host directly, who ended up pulling the plug. Was Ford in the right, or did they overstep their bounds? Personally, it sounds a lot like suing a newspaper when a headline plays on your advertising.
posted by mathowie
on Aug 27, 2002 -
30 comments
As the biggest, burliest SUV sold in the United States -- nearly 19 feet long and weighing about 7,200 pounds -- the
Excursion was attacked by social critics who accused Ford of environmental irresponsibility. I for one,
will not miss it.
posted by hotdoughnutsnow
on Jul 31, 2002 -
77 comments
Cheat! Win a new car! Ford's website tie-in to the NASCAR race series looks fairly normal on first glance. It's a contest that offers prizes (Grand Prize a new Taurus) based on picking the top Ford finishers in each week's race. However, the website is riddled with issues. Enough issues that no one should win a prize when all is said and done. More inside:
posted by machaus
on Jul 31, 2001 -
4 comments
