Category Archives: Because I Can

Canada is getting a Real-Life Mario Kart Track!

Posted on November 25, 2017 by James| Comments Off

Do you like Canada? Is that even a question? Do you like karting? Time to log on to MapleMingle.gov or get a passport, because there’s a new speedway opening next year that looks like it will let you live out your Mario Kart dreams in the real world.

Come Spring 2018, the newly constructed Niagara Speedway at Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls, Ontario will open its four-story karting track. According to DailyHive, the new track is the largest elevated karting track in North America.

For anyone who hasn’t played Mario Kart, there’s now an on-track video to show you around. Uh, spoiler alert?

Posted in Because I Can

WKRP in Cincinnati – “Turkeys Away”

Posted on November 23, 2017 by James| Comments Off

Posted in Because I Can, Humor

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on November 23, 2017 by James| Comments Off

Undocumented Immigrant

Posted in Because I Can, Humor

John F. Kennedy

Posted on November 22, 2017 by James| Comments Off

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917–November 22, 1963)

The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, took place on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, USA at 12:30 p.m. CST (18:30 UTC). John F. Kennedy was fatally wounded by gunshots while riding with his wife Jacqueline in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository in Dealey Plaza, according to the conclusions of multiple government investigations, including the ten-month investigation of the Warren Commission of 1963-4 and the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) of 1976-9. This conclusion initially met with widespread support among the American public, but polls, since the original 1966 Gallup poll, show a majority of the public hold beliefs contrary to these findings. The assassination is still the subject of widespread speculation and has spawned numerous conspiracy theories (even the HSCA, based on disputed acoustical evidence, concluded that Oswald may have had unspecified co-conspirators), though these theories have not generally been accepted by mainstream historians and no single compelling alternative theory has emerged.

Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, Patriotic

Rotary BMW M3

Posted on November 21, 2017 by James| Comments Off

Posted in Because I Can, Planes Trains and Automobiles

Happy Birthday, ISS

Posted on November 20, 2017 by James| Comments Off

On November 20, 1998, the first segment of the ISS, the Zarya FGB, was launched into orbit on a Russian Proton rocket, and was followed two weeks later by the first of three ‘node’ modules, Unity, launched aboard STS-88.

Wikipedia Link

Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, Patriotic

RIP Angus Young

Posted on November 19, 2017 by James| Comments Off

AC/DC co-founder and guitarist Malcolm Young has died after battling dementia for several years, the band announced Saturday. He was 64.

Young died at home with his family at this bedside, the band said in a statement.
Young, along with his brother Angus, founded the legendary rock band in 1975 in Australia.

“Renowned for his musical prowess Malcolm was a songwriter, guitarist, performer, producer and visionary who inspired many,” the statement said. “From the outset, he knew what he wanted to achieve and, along with his younger brother, took to the world stage giving their all at every show. Nothing less would do for their fans.”

Young played rhythm guitar to Angus’ lead, and his driving riffs and mop-top hair were signatures of the band’s sound and image for decades.

Posted in Because I Can, Music, News

RIP M-M-M-Mel Tillis

Posted on November 19, 2017 by James| Comments Off

Lonnie Melvin “Mel” Tillis (August 8, 1932 – November 19, 2017)

Country Music Hall of Fame member Mel Tillis died on Sunday (Nov. 19) at the Munroe Regional Medical Center in Ocala, Florida. He was 85. The suspected cause of death is respiratory failure, according to his publicist, Don Murry Grubbs.

Despite his many distinctions as a performer, songwriter, actor and music publisher, Tillis was most identified with his stuttering, a speech impediment from childhood that he transformed into a comic bonanza.

Lonnie Melvin Tillis was born Aug. 8, 1932, in Tampa. By his account, he began stuttering when he was 3 years old, following a bout with malaria. His early attraction to music led him to learn to play guitar and violin while still a teenager. He also played drums in his high school band. While serving in the Air Force from 1951 to 1955, he played in a country band called the Westerners.

In 1956, Tillis made his first pilgrimage to Nashville, hoping to secure a recording contract. When that effort failed, he returned briefly to Florida and turned his attention to songwriting. Here success came quicker. Webb Pierce scored a No. 3 single in 1957 with “I’m Tired,” a song Tillis co-wrote with Buck Peddy and Ray Price.

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Tillis

Posted in Because I Can, Music, News

Veteran

Posted on November 11, 2017 by James| Comments Off

A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to his country for an amount of ‘up to and including my life.’

Posted in Because I Can, Patriotic

Veteran’s Day

Posted on November 11, 2017 by James| Comments Off

Veteran's Day

Posted in Because I Can, Patriotic

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Posted on November 10, 2017 by James| Comments Off

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald, May 1975.

SS Edmund Fitzgerald was a cargo ship that sank suddenly during a gale storm on November 10, 1975, while on Lake Superior. The ship went down without a distress signal in 530 feet (162 m) of water at 46°59.9′N 85°6.6′W, in Canadian waters about 17 miles (15 nm; 27 km) from the entrance to Whitefish Bay. All 29 members of the crew perished. Gordon Lightfoot‘s hit song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, helped make the incident the most famous marine disaster in the history of Great Lakes shipping.

Posted in Because I Can, On This Day

1100 HP AMC Javelin AMX

Posted on November 9, 2017 by James| Comments Off

The only thing better than a Hellcat is a Demon. The only thing better than a Demon is a Hellcat engine with 1,100 horsepower. The only thing better than that is when the engine is stuffed into an AMC Javelin AMX.

This 1972 AMC Javelin AMX, created by the Ringbrothers in conjunction with Prestone, was clearly created in an ultimate pursuit of perfection.

The 6.2-liter, 707-horsepower V8 out of the Dodge Challenger Hellcat has been dumped into the engine bay, but Jim and Mike, AKA the Brothers Ring, have swapped out the stock supercharger for a 4.5-liter Whipple unit

And despite the source car being a traditional muscle car, the Wisconsin-based Ring Brothers didn’t stop at the engine. Much of the body is carbon fiber. The suspension is a custom setup. Those sweet, sweet side exhausts are new. And those spiffy Baer brakes should be enough to haul your shiny golden missile down from simply unconscionable speeds.

Posted in Because I Can, Planes Trains and Automobiles

What 108 Years Of Repaving Looks Like Under Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Asphalt

Posted on November 7, 2017 by James| Comments Off

Last month, Indianapolis Motor Speedway president J. Douglas Boles posted this picture of a core sample taken of the track:

Read the story over on Jalopnik

Posted in Because I Can, Planes Trains and Automobiles

Centaur-ific: The Centaur Excavations at Volos

Posted on November 7, 2017 by James| Comments Off

September 29, 2017 — I was surrounded by hordes of 19-year-olds dressed in bright orange and white. Their youth was brazen with their tan legs and fresh faces, and they spoke in accents that placed them far below the Mason-Dixon. I stroked the scraggily beard on my pale, craggy face, feeling my age, and hunkered deeper into my dark cardigan. I just wanted to find a centaur skeleton.

I was braving the sunny campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, slipping through alleys and over walking bridges trying to find the shortest distance between my parking garage and the John C. Hodges Library. Because it had a centaur skeleton. Did I mention that?

Read the entire story here…

Posted in Because I Can, Critters

Marble Machine – Triple Gears Lift

Posted on November 6, 2017 by James| Comments Off

Posted in Because I Can, Gadgets

Daylight Savings Time Ends

Posted on November 5, 2017 by James| Comments Off

Clocks turn back an hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday, marking the beginning of standard time for the next few months.

This means that this weekend will be an hour longer than normal, but it will get dark an hour earlier in the evenings.

Standard time will be used through March 8, when clocks will “spring” forward an hour to begin Daylight Saving Time.

Ironically, standard time is no longer the norm. About two-thirds of the days during the year now operate on Daylight Saving Time.

Daylight Saving Time now begins on the second Sunday of March each year and ends on the first Sunday of November.

DST has roots tracing to 1918 in the United States, though not all places always observed it. Currently, it is not used in Hawaii and most of Arizona.

Posted in Because I Can

SlideWheel

Posted on November 4, 2017 by James| Comments Off

Posted in Because I Can, Gadgets

Mustang

Posted on November 4, 2017 by James| Comments Off

The very first Ford Mustang, the 1964 model, cost $2,320 and produced 210 horsepower, while coming in at 2,556 pounds. The 2018 Mustang GT produces 460 hp, weighs 3,705 pounds and costs $35,095. There have been a lot of Mustangs in between.

Posted in Because I Can, Planes Trains and Automobiles

Back to the Future Custom 1967 VW Bus

Posted on November 2, 2017 by James| Comments Off

Velocity Motorcars brought to life a custom 1967 VW Bus that’s heavily inspired by Doc Brown‘s iconic DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future. The beautiful vehicle features a working flux capacitor, a custom dashboard filled with time traveling buttons and switches, and a television screen in the back for viewings of the classic film.