The Amphicar

The Amphicar was the only amphibious automobile ever mass-produced for sale to the public. The German vehicle was designed by Hanns Trippel, creator of the war-time Schwimmwagen and manufactured by the Quandt Group at Lübeck and at Berlin-Borsigwalde. Its name is a combination of "amphibious" and "car".

This Amphicar was photographed** in Saskatoon on the South Saskatchewan River

The powerplant was the 1.1 L (1147 cc/69 in³) engine from the British Triumph Herald. This engine predated the Triumph Slant-4, which was also found in the early SAAB 99. It comes with a power output of 43 hp (32 kW) at 4750 rpm. Called the "Model 770", the Amphicar could achieve speeds of 7 knots in the water and 70 mph (113 km/h) on land. Nevertheless, some would comment that it wasn't a very good car and not a very good boat either because of this modest performance in or out of water.

Production started in 1961, after 1963, cars were assembled from the parts which had been supplied for the over-estimated sales of 20,000 per year, and production ended in 1968. Most cars were sold in the United States. Cars were sold in the UK from 1964. Total production was 3,878 vehicles before the company folded.

Amphicars were plagued with reliability problems, including faulty waterproofing on the engine that occasionally caused it to seize while driving through water (just in case, Amphicars came with an oar) and rapid corrosion of most surfaces. The vehicles have been described as "marginal in water, and not too fun on land", due to the bathtub shaped structure. However, they are one of the few amphibious production cars. The amphicar works well in snow, but has many limitations otherwise.

*Wikipedia


--more-- http://www.amphicar.com/history.htm

**Photo Credit D. B. Austen

Blessed Be: A Wiccan Ceremony - Leahmoin (CD)

'Blessed Be' is a celebration of all that is natural and spiritual! Original Wiccan texts are sung by a female choir, accompanied by beautiful music. The first is an uplifting chant for casting a circle of protection, the second is absolutely mezmorizing, used to connect with Cerriden's cauldron of knowledge and inspiration and the third, whike relaxing, also pays homage to The One who created all that is. All three songs are long-playing and allow the singer or listener to tune into the Divine Presences in order to set the mood for sacred magick.

Maureen Bennett (Narrator), Maureen Bennett (Singer), Wout Folmer (Guitar (Bass)), Barbara Goedbloed (Singer), Fred Kosters (Gong), Fred Kosters (Keyboards), Fred Kosters (Producer), Fred Kosters (Engineer), Ineke Rem (Singer), Trui Simmelink (Singer), Bodhi Geerlings (Singer), Georgette Spuyman (Singer), Cock Witte (Singer).

This recording is a lovely addition to any gathering, or may be used for solitary practice. The music is so mesmerizing that it also provides a soothing backdrop for all kinds of meditation.


Amazon.com: List Price: $7.19

Word Facts

Cabbaged and fabaceae, each eight letters long, are the longest words that can be played on a musical instrument. Seven letter words with this property include acceded, baggage, bedface, cabbage, defaced, and effaced.

Aegilops, eight letters long, is the longest word whose letters are arranged in alphabetical order. Seven letter words with this property include beefily and billowy. Six letter words include abhors, accent, access, almost, biopsy, bijoux, billow, chintz, effort, and ghosty.

Spoonfeed, nine letters long, is the longest word whose letters are arranged in reverse alphabetical order. Trollied is an eight letter word with this property. Seven letter words with this property include sponged and wronged.

Cimicic and Cimicid, each seven letters long, are the longest words that are exclusively made up of Roman Numerals.

Nonsupports, eleven letters long, is the longest word in the English language made up of only letters in the second half of the alphabet. Ten letter words include prosupport, soupspoons, and zoosporous.

Overnumerousnesses, eighteen letters long, is the longest English word that consists of only letters that lack ascenders, descenders, and dots in lower case. Overnervousnesses is seventeen letters. Sixteen letter words with this property include curvaceousnesses and overnumerousness. Fifteen letter words with this property include erroneousnesses, nonconcurrences, overnervousness, and verrucosenesses.

Lighttight and lillypilly, each ten letters long, are the longest English words consisting only of letters with ascenders, descenders, or dots in lower case.

Tittifill, nine letters long, is the longest English word consisting only of letters with ascenders or dots in lower case. Eight letter words with this property include libidibi and tikitiki.

The only English words that consist entirely of letters with descenders in lower case are gyp and gyppy.

Honorificabilitudinitatibus, 27 letters long, is the longest English word consisting strictly of alterating consonants and vowels. An eighteen letter word with this property is epicoracohumeraler. A seventeen letter word with this property is hypovitaminosises. Sixteen letter words with this property include aluminosilicates, depolarizability, and supererogatorily. Fifteen letter words with this property include cytomegalovirus, heterozygosises, hexosaminidases, paramyxoviruses, pararosanilines, parasitological, tenosynovitides, tenosynovitises, unimaginatively, and verisimilitudes.

The Rot13 method of encrypting text is performed by rotating the alphabet by thirteen characters. Because there are 26 letters in the alphabet, the decryption process is the same as the encryption. The longest words to form other words when Rot13 encrypted are the seven letter words abjurer and nowhere, which become each other.

*Fun with words

The Shortest Story EVER!

“Knock”

by Fredric Brown...

The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.

Disappearing Car Door

Driving a car with disappearing doors will definitely grab everyone's attention.


*Thanks, DW

WATCH: How Can We Add Some Funny To This Onion “Satire” Of A Bullied Gay Teen?

Sometimes satire isn’t meant to be funny, but there’s something about this Onion parody of a bullied gay teen that just doesn’t sit well with me. Yes, satire can expose the sad side of unfortunate issues in new and insightful ways, but it generally should still make us laugh or donate some humor into a dark situation, which this does not.

Full story here at queerty.com

Life is short...

*Thanks, DW

What Is It?

The Original Apple Computer...

Squirrel Tales - A MUST READ!

"Finnegan" the squirrel

For about as long as she can remember, Debby Cantlon says, friends and strangers have brought her animals in need. So it wasn't much of a surprise when someone asked her if she'd care for a newborn squirrel found at the base of a tree somewhere near Renton.

Debby Cantlon, who plans to release Finnegan, the young squirrel, back into the wild, bottle-fed the infant squirrel after it was brought to her house. Cantlon, who has cancer, says rescuing injured animals is therapeutic for her.

When Cantlon took in the tiny creature and began caring for him, she found herself with an unlikely nurse's aide: her pregnant Papillon, Mademoiselle Giselle.

Finnegan was resting in a nest in a cage just days before Giselle was due to deliver her puppies.

Cantlon and her husband watched as the dog dragged the squirrel's cage - twice - to her own bedside before she gave birth.

Cantlon was concerned, yet ultimately decided to allow the squirrel out - and the inter-species bonding began.

Finnegan rides a puppy mosh pit of sorts, burrowing in for warmth after feeding, and eventually working his way beneath his new litter mates.

Two days after giving birth, mama dog Giselle allowed Finnegan to nurse; family photos and a videotape show her encouraging him to suckle alongside her litter of five pups.

Now, Finnegan mostly uses a bottle, but still snuggles with his "siblings" in a mosh pit of puppies, rolling atop their bodies and sinking in deeply for a nap.

Finnegan and his new litter mates, five Papillion puppies, get along together as if they were meant to.

Finnegan naps after feeding.

Finnegan makes himself at home with his new litter mates, nuzzling nose-to-nose for a nap after feeding.

LAUGHTER IS GOOD MEDICINE

A hip young man goes out and buys the best car available: A brand new Ferrari GTO. It is the most expensive car in the world, and it costs him $500,000. He takes it out for a spin and stops at a red light. An old man on a moped, looking about 100 years old, pulls up next to him. The old man looks over at the sleek, shiny car and asks, "What kind of car ya' got there, Sonny?"

The young man replies, "A Ferrari GTO. It cost half a million dollars!"
"That's a lot of money", says the old man. "Why does it cost so much?" "Because this car can do up to 320 miles an hour" states the young man proudly.

The moped driver asks, "Mind if I take a look inside?"
"No problem", replies the owner.

So the old man pokes his head in the window and looks around, Then, sitting back on his moped, the old man says, "That's a pretty nice car, all right... but I'll stick with my moped.

Just then the light changes, so the guy decides to show the old man just what his car can do. He floors it, and within 30 seconds, the speedometer reads 160 mph! Suddenly, he notices a dot in his rear view mirror. It seems to be getting closer! He slows down to see what it could be, suddenly...

Woooooosssshhhhh! Something whips by him, going much faster!

What on Earth could be going faster than my Ferrari the young man asks himself. He floors the accelerator and takes the Ferrari up to 250 mph. Then, up ahead of him, he sees that it's the old man on the moped. Amazed that the moped could pass his Ferrari, he gives it more gas and passes the moped at 275 mph.

Whoooooosssshhhhh! He's feeling pretty good until he looks in his mirror and sees the old man gaining on him again! Astounded by the speed of this old guy, he floors the gas pedal and takes the Ferrari all the way up to 320 mph. Not ten seconds later, he sees the moped bearing down on him again! The Ferrari is flat out, and there's nothing he can do! Suddenly, the moped plows into the back of his Ferrari, demolishing the rear end. The young man stops and jumps out, and unbelievably, the old man is still alive.

He runs up to the old man and says, "Oh my God! Are you OK? Is there anything I can do for you?" The old man whispers..." Unhook... my... suspenders... from... your...side... view... mirror."

From The Emerald City

The Wizard is going to confer, converse, and otherwise hob-nob with my brother wizards at... ToonTown's Pagan Summerfest! Happy Solstice everyone!

Posting will resume Monday Morning...Keep checking daily .. if there are no new posts that day, check the archives. I bet there is a lot that you haven't read yet....

Yours,

--The Wizard

Hot out?

Think about it...

Evolution of Dance

The funniest 6 minutes you will ever see! Remember how many of these you have done! Judson Laipply is dancing.

Zero to 200....

A couple had been debating the purchase of a new auto for weeks. He wanted a new truck. She wanted a fast little sports-like car so she could zip through traffic around town. He would probably have settled on any beat up old truck, but everything she seemed to like was way out of their price range.

"Look!" she said, "I want something that goes from 0 to 200 in 4 seconds or less. And my birthday is coming up. You could surprise me."

So, for her birthday, he bought her a brand new bathroom scale.

Services will be at Downing Funeral Home on Monday the 12th. Due to the condition of the body, this will be a closed casket service. Please send you donations to the "Think Before You Say Things To Your Wife"

Hot air balloons over Albuquerque

*Thanks, Auntie 'M'

Bob and Larry (and what the goat saw)

Once upon a time two guys, Bob and Larry, were walking through a forest and they came across this HUGE hole in the ground. They pondered the possibility of just how deep the hole might be. Bob said to Larry, “Larry, I bet we just need to throw a rock down in the hole and then we will know how deep it is.”

So Bob threw a rock in the hole. They waited and waited, and never heard a blasted thing. Larry said, “Bob, we need a bigger rock!”

So Larry went and found a bigger rock, it was almost as big as Bob. Larry hucked the rock in the hole and they waited. They waited some more, still not a blasted thing. Then Bob broke the silence by exclaiming, “We need something BIGGER!”

He went walking through the forest and came back with an old railroad tie, hoisted it above his head and threw it in the hole. They waited and waited, then out of no where this goat came running through the forest.

The goat was moving so fast Bob and Larry barely got a glimpse of it as it flew up in the air and jumped down the hole. Bob turned to Larry and said, “That is just about the strangest thing I’ve ever seen .”

Bob and Larry sat and pondered the speed of the goat for a couple of minutes and then along came farmer Randy. Randy asked Bob and Larry (with a thick Montana accent), “Have y’all seen a goat around here?”

Bob and Larry glanced at each other and then retold the story of the goat running through the forest and jumping into the hole. Randy, looking confused (as Montana ranchers named Randy usually are), responded (again with a thick Montana accent), “That couldn’t have been my goat… he was chained to a railroad tie.”

Sara Gilbert Asks Adam Carolla To Explain His Antigay Humor

from TheAdvocate.com



During an appearance on the CBS interview program The Talk, Adam Carolla defends his sometimes antigay humor to host Sara Gilbert, saying that nice jokes aren't funny. 

Gilbert gently chided the comedian about some antigay remarks he's made in the past, mentioning that he's also participated in antihate campaigns. "Just to set the record straight, how do you feel about us gay people?" she asks.

"I wish more people were gay," Carolla offers, before adding the curious explanation. "If you've driven over to the gay part of town in Los Angeles, it's a golf course."

Carolla defends his remarks as being part of his stage persona. "If someone says to me what you think of your mother-in-law and I go, 'Oh, she's a delight, I love her dearly,' nobody laughs," he tells Gilbert. "So if somebody says, 'What do you think about Chaz Bono,' I have to say something that's horrible, so I can get a laugh. And then everyone goes, 'Oh, that's what you think?' I'm on stage! Nice doesn't get laughs, especially on stage, that's what I'm saying."

Carolla suggests that comics should get a pass. “When did we start holding comedians up to the level of politicians and school teachers?" he asks. "We are comedians, we’re supposed to say these things…I’m not saying hurtful things. We make no policies.  I don’t control anything, I just tell jokes.”

Last year GLAAD scolded Carolla for alleged jokes, such as stating that the LGBT acronym should be changed to YUCK. Herndon Graddick, who is now the organization's president, released a statement last August that said, “Given his history of antigay and racist comments, networks and advertisers should know what their money is supporting if they choose to hire Adam Carolla. The gross intolerance that he tries to pass off as comedy should not have a place on our airwaves.” The “history” Graddick refers to is a reference to to statement Carolla made while cohosting the radio show Loveline, in which he claimed that gay parents were “not as good as straight parents.”

Watch the clip from The Talk om The Advocate.com

Unbelievable! A Black Deer!

Pictures taken by RJ Verge near Beamsville Ontario, Canada Black deer are more rare than albinos...

I have never seen or heard of one of these before.

If you love animals....this is a rare and beautiful set of pictures.

Black Deer