Spinning spare parts

At least four deaths have been blamed on the Arctic blast that has canceled more than 1,200 flights and wreaked havoc across the Midwest and Great Plains as East Coast residents prepare for record-breaking drops in temperatures.  A 57-year-old man and two women ages 64 and 81 were killed in a head-on collision in Kalamo Township, Michigan, Monday morning. Authorities said the poor road conditions were likely to blame in the two-vehicle crash. The victims have not been identified.  In Kansas, eight-year-old Cassie Ralston was killed in a three-vehicle crash caused by icy roads on Monday.  The Kansas Highway Patrol said the collision occurred 8am Monday on Highway 56 near Overbrooke in Osage County when a maroon Dodge Ram pickup truck driving westbound lost control, crossed the center line and hit a black Ford Edge head-on. A third vehicle - a red Oldsmobile Alero - rear-ended the Ford and Cassie, who was a passenger, was killed. Terry Ralston, 52, of … [Read more...] about At least four drivers die on icy roads and more than 1,200 flights are cancelled as winter storm causes mayhem across the Midwest and Great Plains – while 70% of the COUNTRY braces for freezing temperatures starting tonight

Hundreds of people desperately waited in lines trying to flee the Bahamas Friday afternoon after a major airport was turned into a 'debris field' when Hurricane Dorian wreaked havoc on the Caribbean islands and left dozens dead, exclusive DailyMail.com footage shows.  While the official death toll stands at 30, that number is expected to rise and hundreds of body bags have been ordered along with extra freezers. Up to 70,000 are in need of 'life-saving assistance' while Great Abaco is said to be virtually uninhabitable, as witnesses say there is a 'smell of death' with corpses floating in the water.  The Grand Bahama International Airport in Freeport sits in ruin as several airplanes have been left destroyed and useless after the catastrophic Category 5 storm battered the islands on Sunday, unleashing deadly 185mph winds. The airport's runway was strewn with aircraft parts, with wings ripped from twisted plane bodies and cars littering the runway as officials tried to … [Read more...] about EXCLUSIVE: Hundreds desperately wait in lines trying to flee the Bahamas after major airport was turned into ‘debris field’ when Hurricane Dorian smashed through and left planes destroyed as volunteers flock to provide aid and rescue animals

Mobile auto services are more common than you might realize. At least in Los Angeles, it’s pretty easy to find a detailer, a mechanic or even a body and paint tech to come out and work on your car wherever. Now, you can even get tires mounted and balanced. Here’s how it works and what my experience with ZipTire, in particular, was like. (Full Disclosure: Every brand and company mentioned in this post is an outfit I paid with my own money for their products and services. I’m not sponsored by or affiliated with any of them and neither is Jalopnik. That said, both the wheel vendor FN Wheels and tire seller/installer ZipTire knew Jalopnik and were aware that I might blog about my experiences with them.) Advertisement Good tires are arguably your car’s most critical components. They affect every aspect of performance, so you’re going to want the best ones you can afford, make sure they’re sized appropriately for what you want your vehicle to do, and … [Read more...] about Here’s How Mobile Tire Installation Works And Why You Might Want To Try It

You remember the opening. Of course you do. For a generation of kids who grew up watching the film in theaters or on DVD, it’s damn near iconic. The sun rises above the African savanna. The chant begins: “Naaaaa-nts ingonyama bagithi Baba.” Antelopes look up from their munching; meerkats spring to attention. From far and wide, animals fly and gallop and lumber and march, each of them drawn toward something. Everything becomes a blur until we swoop above the fray and — “the cirrrrrcle/of liiiiiife!” A majestic lion stands atop a ridge. A wise old mandrill approaches him, and then walks toward the jungle cat’s mate. He marks their newborn cub’s forehead and, in a series of quick cuts, holds the cub aloft for all to see. The crowd roars (literally). Long live the future king! No matter how many times you see this sequence, it never fails to make the hair on your arms stand up. And no matter how many times you return to it, it’s highly … [Read more...] about What Do We Want From ‘The Lion King’ and Disney’s Live-Action Remakes?

The Iliad is the first great book, and the first great book about the suffering and loss of war. We love to tell stories about war. Tony Blair wove his own when giving evidence at the Chilcot inquiry yesterday: the latest, unpoetic attempt to make sense of an east-west clash of powers. He might note that "spin " goes back to The Iliad: the first-century writer Dio Chrysostom argued that Homer, for reasons of his own, suppressed the truth about the Trojan war – in reality, the Greeks lost. "Men learn with difficulty . . . but they are deceived only too readily," he wrote. Why is the first book a book about war? Perhaps because war is inextricably bound up with humanity's urge to tell stories. Civilisation – with its settlements, its boundary lines, its hierarchies – breeds conflict and narrative alike. In The Iliad, two characters have the narrative urge, and something approaching a synoptic view of the scenes surging around them. Achilles sings stories of heroes' … [Read more...] about The Iliad and what it can still tell us about war