#california based auto

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Cizeta Moroder V16T Prototype, 1988. First presented at the Los Angeles Auto show, the product of a joint venture between some ex-Lamborghini employees, composer Giorgio Moroder (pictured with the car) and Marcello Gandini. The engine is based on the Lamborghini Urraco's 90° DOHC flat-plane V8 and comprised 2 banks of cylinders arranged in a V configuration with 2 cylinder heads per bank. The resulting engine has 64 valves, 8 overhead camshafts and produced 540hp. Production in Italy started in 1991 and moved to California in 1995 but in total only 13 cars were made

#Cizeta #Cizeta Moroder V16T #prototype #V16 #dead brands #hypercar #marcello gandini #Giorgio Moroder #mid-engine #1988 #1980s #Los Angeles Auto Show

[andrevasims]

This custom (CC-free!!) TS3 world Los Aniegos is sooooo cool

Obviously it's based on Los Angeles, but it also takes a lot of cues from Grand Theft Auto V's Los Santos - Which is still so similar to the irl location that I can follow an actual map of California and point out places I've been in GTA, with similar distances between them.

It has the boardwalk/pier area, the ports/industrial area, the long ocean highway thing, a fake Disneyland, the Hollywood hills, it even has a small rural desert area way off on one end. And everything has (mostly) original names, which is my favorite kind of reference/inspiration, where it's obvious you're basing it on something else but you still try to make it original.

There's also already sims populating the world and living in houses, all with their own stories written out and everything like that.

#ts3 #sims3 #the sims 3 #sims 3

[falcemartello]

-----

Cara vecchia auto CIAO!

Una dozzina di stati si sono uniti alla California e a molti paesi nell’approvare una legislazione per vietare la vendita di auto convenzionali e spingere tutti verso i veicoli elettrici (EV), molti entro il decennio. Allo stesso modo, con un gioco di prestigio normativo, l’Environmental Protection Agency degli Stati Uniti ha proposto norme sulle emissioni che imporrebbero effettivamente alle case automobilistiche di vendere principalmente veicoli elettrici. E, naturalmente, il mal chiamato Inflation Reduction Act, alias Green New Deal, riversa sussidi in tutto l’ecosistema dei veicoli elettrici.

La corsa a sovvenzionare e rendere obbligatori i veicoli elettrici è animata da una presunzione fatale: il presupposto che ridurranno radicalmente le emissioni di CO2. Questo presupposto è un’ortodossia radicata non solo tra gli esperti ambientalisti e gli amministratori dello stato regolatore, ma anche tra i critici dei veicoli elettrici, che contestano una transizione forzata principalmente sulla base della perdita di libertà, dei costi e delle distorsioni del mercato.

(Continua)

[haggishlyhagging]

As the fetus's rights increased, mother's just kept diminishing. Poor pregnant women were hauled into court by male prosecutors, physicians, and husbands. Their blood was tested for drug traces without their consent or even notification, their confidentiality rights were routinely violated in the state's zeal to compile a case against them, and they were forced into obstetrical surgery for the "good" of the fetus, even at risk of their own lives.

Here are just a few of the many cases from the decade's pregnancy police blotter and court docket:

• In Michigan, a juvenile court took custody of a newborn because the mother took a few Valium pills while pregnant, to ease pain caused by an auto accident injury. The mother of three had no history of drug abuse or parental neglect. It took more than a year for her to get her child back.

• In California, a young woman was brought up on fetal neglect charges under a law that, ironically, was meant to force negligent fathers to pay child support. Her offenses included failing to heed a doctor's advice (a doctor who had failed to follow up on her treatment), not getting to the hospital with due haste, and having sex with her husband. The husband, a batterer whose brutal outbursts had summoned the police to their apartment more than a dozen times in one year alone, was not charged —or even investigated.

• In lowa, the state took a woman's baby away at birth even though no real harm to the infant was evident—because she had, among other alleged offenses, "paid no attention to the nutritional value of the food she ate during her pregnancy," as an AP story later characterized the Juvenile Court testimony. "[S]he simply picked the foods that tasted good to her."

• In Wyoming, a woman was charged with felony child abuse for allegedly drinking while pregnant. A battered wife, she had been arrested on this charge after she sought police protection from her abusive husband.

• In Illinois, a woman was summoned to court after her husband accused her of damaging their daughter's intestine in an auto accident during her pregnancy. She wasn't even the driver.

• In Michigan, another husband hauled his wife into court to accuse her of taking tetracycline during her pregnancy; the drug, prescribed by her physician, allegedly discolored their son's teeth, he charged. The state's appellate court ruled that the husband did indeed have the right to sue for this "prenatal negligence."

• In Maryland, a woman lost custody of her fetus when she refused to transfer to a hospital in another city, a move she resisted because it would have meant stranding her nineteen-month-old son.

• In South Carolina, an eighteen-year-old pregnant woman was arrested before she had even given birth, on the suspicion that she may have passed cocaine to her fetus. The charge, based on a single urine test, didn't hold up; she delivered a healthy drug-free baby. Even so, and even though the Department of Social Services found no evidence of abuse or neglect, State prosecutors announced that they intended to pursue the case anyway.

• In Wisconsin, a sixteen-year-old pregnant girl was confined in a secure detention facility because of her alleged tendencies "to be on the run" and "to lack motivation" to seek prenatal care.

Certainly society has a compelling interest in bringing healthy children into the world, both a moral and practical obligation to help women take care of themselves while they're pregnant. But the punitive and vindictive treatment mothers were beginning to receive from legislators, police, prosecutors, and judges in the 80s suggests that more than simple concern for children's welfare was at work here. Police loaded their suspects into paddy wagons still bleeding from labor; prosecutors barged into maternity wards to conduct their interrogations. Judges threw pregnant women with drug problems into jail for months at a time, even though, as the federal General Accounting Office and other investigative agencies have found, the prenatal care offered pregnant women in American prisons is scandalously deficient or nonexistent (many prisons don't even have gynecologists)—and has caused numerous incarcerated women to give birth to critically ill and damaged babies. Police were eager to throw the book at erring pregnant women. In the case of Pamela Rae Stewart of San Diego the battered woman charged with having sex against her doctor's orders—the officer who headed up the investigation wanted her tried for manslaughter. "In my mind, I didn't see any difference between born and unborn," Lieutenant Ray Narramore explains later. "The only question I had was why they didn't go for a murder charge. I would have been satisfied with murder. That wouldn't have been off-base. I mean, we have a lady here who was not following doctor's orders."

Lawmakers' claims that they just wanted to improve conditions for future children rang especially false. At the same time that legislators were assailing low-income mothers for failing to take care of their fetuses, they were making devastating cuts in the very services that poor pregnant women needed to meet the lawmakers' demands. How was an impoverished woman supposed to deliver a healthy fetus when she was denied prenatal care, nutrition supplements, welfare payments, and housing assistance? In the District of Columbia, Marion Barry declared infant health a top priority of his mayoral campaign—then cut health-care funding, forcing prenatal clinics to scale back drastically and eliminate outright their evening hours needed by the many working women. Doctors increasingly berated low-income mothers, but they also increasingly refused to treat them. By the end of the decade, more than one-fourth of all counties nationwide lacked any clinic where poor women could get prenatal care, and a third of doctors wouldn't treat pregnant women who were Medicaid patients. In New York State, a health department study found that seven of the state's counties had no comprehensive prenatal care for poor women whatsoever; several of these counties, not so coincidentally, had infant mortality rates that were more than double the national average. In California in 1986, twelve counties didn't have a single doctor willing to accept the state's low-income MediCal patients; in fact, the National Health Law Program concluded that the situation in California was so bad that poor pregnant women are "essentially cut off from access to care."

-Susan Faludi, Backlash: the Undeclared War Against American Women

#susan faludi #female oppression #prenatal care #low income women #pregnancy #amerika #failed state #court-ordered kidnapping #USA is a society that wants to die #misogyny

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

As fearmongers depict the southern border as a region made lawless by invading hordes, Police Chief Victor Rodriguez of McAllen, Texas, has presided over a 12th straight year of crime reduction.

“We’re working on the 13th,” he told The Daily Beast on Friday.

In fact, crime in his border city of 145,000 is at the lowest level going back to 1985 when stats began to be accurately recorded.

“And the only reason it’s only 37 years is that’s what's on the books,” he said.

With Mexico only 11 miles away, McAllen is visited by a steady stream of politicians who come to inspect the border, and Rodriguez has perpetual difficulty dispelling the presumptions they bring with them.

“The reality and how the world is seeing us are two different things,” he said.

As of this month, McAllen’s violent crime rate is 180.2 per 100,000 people, less than a tenth that of the cities with the nation’s highest rate, St. Louis (2,082), Detroit (2,057), and Baltimore (2,027).

The violent crime rate in the other border cities is not as low as McAllen’s but still below what most people would likely expect. The Texas cities of McAllen, Brownsville, Laredo, Eagle Pass and El Paso, combined with Yuma in Arizona, Sunland Park in New Mexico, and San Diego in California, have a violent crime rate of 340.2. That is well below the national average of 388.5.

The numbers all along the border are partly explained by the wild west simply being not so wild, especially with the presence of Customs and Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies. McAllen’s crime rate of less than half the national average can also be attributed to the application of a kind of unplugged version CompStat—the computer-based strategy of rapid deployment and relentless follow-up that triggered New York’s dramatic decline in violent crime during the 1990s.

“CompStat McAl-style,” Rodriguez said.

“We look at data points every morning,” he added.

With a ratio of two officers per 1,000 residents, he is able to quickly deploy his cops where they are needed. Since the approach reduces crime, that cuts the number of cases the investigators have, which gives them more time to work on each one, which further reduces crime.

In New York, during what is called “the bad old days,” a squad specializing in multiple perpetrator robberies in the subway was able to reduce them from 1,200 a year to 12. Rodriguez was able to achieve a comparable result with cops who specialize in auto thefts. Some 2,100 cars were stolen a year in McAllen in the 1990s. The number in the last few years has dropped to around 50.

Such successes reassure McAllen’s majority of honest working people, which the chief credits as the major factor in reducing homicides and other forms of mayhem.

“We have a good community, we have a peaceful community,” Rodriguez said. “We have a law abiding community, and that translates to less what we call violent crimes.”

Meanwhile, a host of politicians continue to foster the illusion that McAllen is at the epicenter of chaos. Rodriguez stands ready to enlighten anyone who is interested in the reality.

“We’re going great,” he said. “We could be doing maybe greater, I think, if we didn't have to overcome the perception. It is something we contend with on a regular basis.”

This law-abiding border town is a continuing example that the whole country could turn to as crime threatens to spike out of control and the social fabric seems to be unraveling.

“We keep plugging away,” Rodriguez said. “It's not like we woke up yesterday and said, ‘Okay, we gotta do better now.’ We've been at this now for going on 13 years, trying to make sure that our community is not what the rest of the world thinks it is.”

#us politics #news #2022 #the daily beast #us mexico border #border security #us border patrol #violent crime rate #crime rates #immigrants #immigration #Victor Rodriguez #border cities #us customs and border protection #fact check

[sjwallin]

FWIW, I regularly teach 500 students a year, have a Masters degree, teach a load that prohibits me from even thinking of getting a second job while maintaining my independence as an artist, and I’m on the lowest payment rungs, making about $55,000 a year. 😡

“According to a CFA-commissioned independent financial analysis, Cal State’s operating cash flow surpluses (they’ve existed every year between 2015 and 2022) could cover the difference between the administration’s offer and the CFA proposals without dipping into reserves. Yet management prefers to invest in itself and the stock market rather than faculty and staff.”

“Once a promising statewide public university system designed to provide tuition-free education to California’s working class, the CSU has degenerated into a corporatized behemoth that mocks the democratic values upon which it was founded. Students drown in debt to pay never-ending fee increases, professors scrape by on salaries smaller than those of preschool teachers, while unaccountable administrators rake in six-figure salaries and fringe benefits like free cars and homes…For example, full-time lecturers who hold a PhD receive a monthly salary of $5,400, while the chancellor’s monthly salary consists of $66,250, along with an $8,000 monthly housing stipend and a $1,000 auto stipend…The salary disparities reflect a deeper issue: the abandonment of the principles upon which the CSU was based in favor of the neoliberal assault on all things public.”

#labor strike #california state university #california faculty association #pay teachers living wages

[kiltedveteran]

Today we remember Doug Barney - End Of Watch - 1/17/2016

Officer Douglas Barney, 44, was killed in the line of duty on Sunday, January 17, 2016, while trying to question a man who seemingly had done nothing more than leave the scene of a traffic accident. An 18 year veteran police officer, Doug loved law enforcement and interacting with the community. Doug was perfectly suited to law enforcement, never able to sit perfectly still, always eager for something exciting, and relating to other people in a down-to-earth, sincere way.

Doug was born June 3, 1971 on a military base in Taiwan to Douglas Scott and Darlene Heinz Barney. Doug was raised in Anaheim, California, and worked at Disneyland as one of his first jobs. He attended Clara Barton Elementary School and Loara High School. He played water polo and was on the high school swim team. Just before his senior year, his family moved to Orem, Utah where Doug graduated from Orem High School. He loved the move to Utah and being able to ride dirt bikes daily in the hills behind his family home. After graduation Doug worked a series of jobs, mostly in the auto mechanics field like his father. He loved working on cars and raced his cars a couple of times at the old Bonneville Raceway.

Doug and his wife, Erika, grew up near each other in Anaheim and he liked to tell stories of how he had always had a crush on her. When Erika moved to Utah to attend BYU they continued their friendship and he tried his hardest to get her to commit to dating him (she had a habit of inviting her roommates along when he asked her out for pie.) In 1995 he showed up to her apartment unexpectedly and asked her to marry him. He asked again every day for several months until she finally accepted. Doug married Erika Gilroy on February 17, 1996 in his family home in Orem. Their marriage was later solemnized in the Jordan River Temple. Doug passed away one month before their 20th wedding anniversary.

After their wedding Doug told Erika that although he loved working on cars, it was a bit too lonely of a type of work for him. He didn’t like being underneath the cars by himself all day long and would tend to move around looking for conversations with other mechanics. He admitted to his wife that he had always wanted to be a police officer and, with her blessing, began applying with different agencies. Doug was hired as a corrections officer with the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office in December of 1998 and one year later was hired as a patrol officer. He worked primarily in Kearns and Magna, Taylorsville City, and Holladay City during his career. Doug earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah by taking two classes a semester while working full time to support his family. His degree was in Sociology with a Criminal Justice certificate.

Doug was a devoted husband and father who loved spending time with his family and talking about them when he couldn’t be with them. He loved teaching his kids how to shoot guns, appreciate cars, and the basic approach to a few defensive control techniques. He loved music and listened to every conceivable type of music. For years he kept a cassette tape keyed up in his patrol car to Kenny Rogers’ Long Arm of the Law, which he would sing loudly when a prisoner seemed especially sulky on the way to jail. The end result was usually that they would come into the jail laughing together.

Doug was well known for his boisterous personality. He was larger than life in every way. He was very funny and was often able to diffuse a tense situation with a perfectly timed joke. It is very hard for a criminal to consider violence while laughing. Doug’s law enforcement brothers remember him for his signature greeting of, “hey, brotha!” or “hey, sista!”, and an almost knocking-the-wind-out pat on the back.

Doug struggled with bladder cancer and the side effects of treatments and surgeries for many years. He was frustrated by the time it took him away from work and from his family, but had an amazing ability to stay positive and upbeat and even lighthearted about the challenges. His only desire, always, was to be able to get back to work and to take care of his family. Doug will be forever missed.

RIP Doug. You are NEVER FORGOTTEN!

[max--phillips]

Alright, kids, my unhinged data gathering about EVs has culminated in a google sheet that is now, to the best of my knowledge, complete. I have looked at every active car manufacturer in the US, their EVs (if they have any), their plug-in hybrids (if they have any) (also, referred to as PHEVs), their base price, their max price (meaning, I went in to their build function and added all the shit to it I possibly could), their minimum range, maximum available range, and the type of vehicle. For PHEVs, this included electric-only range, total range, and MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent).

You can visit the Google sheet where this information lives here.

First of all: Why the hell did I do this?

Great question. I got passed on the road about a month ago by a pack of Lucid Air test drive vehicles. It was a rare instance of me not recognizing a vehicle--I literally work with them every day to make a living, and I consider myself to be pretty acquainted with the available auto manufacturers in the US. So, I looked them up, and it's a new EV brand, which might be a good thing vis a vis bringing more players to the market and all that jazz... but their base MSRP is fucking $87,000. I got so mad about the fact that manufacturers just keep bringing luxury EVs to the market and not like, consumer-level, reasonably priced EVs that I decided to compile this list of information to... well. To be fair I don't know what I was hoping to accomplish with this. At most, prove a point, I guess?

With that out of the way... what did we learn from this?

No more electric SUV options. Society has progressed past the need for more electric SUV options.

I compiled information on a grand total of 40 current EV models, 43 future EV models, 35 current PHEV models, and uh... 2 future PHEV models. Of those, 34 current EVs, 26 future EVs, 23 current PHEVs, and 1 of the future PHEVs were SUVs. That's 70%. Meanwhile, we have (in all four categories) 1 lone cargo van/work vehicle, 10 coupes, 8 pickup trucks, 1 hatchback, 1 minivan, 29 sedans, 3 wagons, and 1 microbus (VW ID. Buzz my beloved). And listen, don't get me wrong: SUVs are great. They're versatile (the U in SUV is for 'utility' after all!) and they're filling the niche that minivans once did, but damn, 70% of the market? Come ON guys. We're more interesting than that, I hope.

Are you not rich? Want an EV? Too bad.

The average base MSRP for an EV in the US right now is $65,556. Are you kidding me? The average base MSRP for the future EVs I found information on is $86,377. The PHEVs include some performance/ultra-luxury brands because of the fact electric motors provide a lot of torque and are desirable in some performance vehicles, so even taking those out, the average base MSRP of a PHEV is $63,442.

The superlatives

Current EVs

First, the good superlatives:

Lowest base MSRP & max price both go to the Chevy Bolt EV, ranging from $26,500 to $34,000. (sedan, range around 259 miles)

Highest range (unfortunately) goes to the Lucid Air, the vehicle that started me on this whole thing. The minimum range is 410 miles, which is the highest minimum range available. The maximum range is 516 miles, blowing the Tesla Model S extended range out of the water by 111 miles. (sedan, price ranges from $87,400 to $249,000).

Now, the bad superlatives

Highest base MSRP goes to the Audi RS e-tron GT, at a whopping $143,900. This beats our highest maximum price model's base MSRP by $2,700. (sedan, range around 232)

Highest maximum price goes to the Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo and Cross Turismo at $304,000. Fun fact: $30,000 of that maximum price is for custom paint. (wagon, range from 222-235 miles)

Lowest range goes to the Mazda MX-30 with a measly 100 miles of range. The next lowest range, the Ford E-Transit, a cargo van, gets 108! This vehicle is currently only available in California. (SUV, price ranges from $34,110 to $43,000)

Current PHEVs

Good superlatives

Highest electric only range goes to Land Rover, both the Range Rover and the Range Rover Sport, with 51 miles. (SUV, MPGe for both is 42, total range for both is 480, price for the Range Rover Sport ranges from $118,200 to $159,000, and price for the Range Rover Sport ranges from $142,575 tp $170,000).

Highest total range, best MPGe, AND lowest base MSRP goes to the Toyota Prius Prime, with 640 miles of total range and a whopping 133 MPGe. Its base MSRP is $32,350. (sedan, electric only range is 44 miles, maximum price is $50,000)

Lowest maximum price goes to the Kia Niro, which will only let you spend $44,000 on it. (SUV, base MSRP $33,840, electric only range 33 miles, total range 560, MPGe 108)

Bad superlatives (a lot of ties for this one, folks)

Worst total range: a tie between the BMW XM and the MINI Countryman, both at 300 miles. (BMW XM: SUV, 30 miles electric only range, 46 MPGe, costs between $159,00 and $186,000. MINI Countryman: Sedan, 17 miles electric only range, 73 MPGe, costs around $41,000)

Worst electric only range is a tie between the Ferrari 296 and Ferrari SF90, both at 15 miles. I have thoughts (derogatory) about these models, but I'll save them. (both coupes; both 330 miles total range; 296 gets 47 MPGe, SF90 gets 51 MPGe. Base MSRP for the 296 is $237,500. I'll get to the SF90 in a moment,)

Worst MPGe goes to the McLaren Artura at 39 MPGe. (Coupe, 330 total range, 19 miles electric only range, base MSRP $237,500)

The highest listed maximum price goes to the Porsche Panamera E-Hybrid, at $295,815. (Sedan, 19 miles electric-only range, 480 miles total range, 52 MPGe, base MSRP is $109,000.)

The highest base MSRP goes, once again, to the Ferrari SF90 at $524,815. Just reading that number hurts me.

Finally, a five-way tie for the most likely to have the highest actual maximum price, because they're cowards and don't put their pricing on their websites. These are the Ferrari SF90, the Ferrari 296, the Bentley Flying Spur, the Bentley Bentayga, and the McLaren Artura. (Bentley Flying Spur: Sedan, 26 miles electric-only range, 500 miles total range, 46 MPGe, base MSRP $217,525. Bentayga: SUV, 29 miles electric only range, 448 total range, 45 MPGe, base MSRP $200,025).

I'm not going to do any superlatives for future vehicles because I don't want to jump the gun on any judgements. Plus, with some of them the MSRPs are just like... educated guesses. Anyway, I have the whole google sheet here if you wanna poke around.

What conclusions can we draw from this?

I appreciate that the US wants to regulate new car sales sooner rather than later to encourage new EV sales in an attempt to be more environmentally friendly. However, until the average price for a new EV comes down significantly, more and more people are going to be in the used car market whether they want to be or not. Beyond that, we simply do not have the infrastructure for this. There are gas stations on damn near every corner, but the closest charging station to me is 2 miles away, and even that's a Tesla Supercharger, so it's only useful if you have a Tesla. The closest non-Tesla charger is 4 miles away. Sure, you can plug it in at home, but in order for that to be done at more than a snail's pace, you need to have it specially installed which is an additional cost that people may not be able to afford.

Additionally, it's interesting to me that being environmentally friendly is still such a huge privilege that's seemingly marketed towards wealthy people, yet huge corporations and the ultrawealthy people actually polluting our planet continue to offload the blame onto poor people for using single use plastics. It's a bizarre paradox.

In conclusion, car manufacturers need to get their shit together so more people can buy EVs at a price that isn't insane. Thank you goodbye

#tori says things #max says things #I have opinions about cars #advice

[onenettvchannel]

BREAKING OVERNIGHT: Ohio Gaming YouTuber 'IShowSpeed' engages in virtual conversation with Grand Theft Auto 5's voice actor 'Ned Luke'

(Written by Mitch Williams / Bailley Mass Communication News Intern for OneNETnews)

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- In a dynamic realm of video games and a virtual world of entertainments, an intriguing rendezvous unfolded on the digital landscape as Ohio-based gaming YouTuber named Darren Jason Watkins Jr., widely known as 'IShowSpeed' crossed paths in a virtual conversation with the iconic voice behind 'Michael de Santa' from the 2013 blockbuster video game 'Grand Theft Auto 5' (GTA 5). The unexpected encounter occurred during an Instagram LIVE session owned by Meta Platforms Inc., capturing the attention of gaming enthusiasts worldwide.

(from top to bottom, Ned Luke & IShowSpeed)

For those unacquainted with the gaming universe and the real world online broadcasting events… IShowSpeed, hailing from the said state in Cincinnati, has built a substantial online presence, boasting a dedicated fan base on his YouTube channel, where he shares captivating gameplay content and engages with viewers. His gaming influence extends far beyond his home state, reaching a broad audience intrigued by his gaming exploits.

While Grand Theft Auto 5 on the hand (developed by Rockstar North), is a critically acclaimed mature-rated action and adventure game. With its immersive storyline & expansive open-world environment set in the fictional state of San Andreas, covering between their counties of Blaine and Los Santos, the game has gained immense popularity and remains one of the top-selling video games globally, even right here in the Philippines! The virtual world of its aforementioned mature-rated game draws inspiration from real-life locations in California, United States of America (U.S.A.).

The focal point of this digital rendezvous stems from IShowSpeed's recent gameplay of the concluding mission in GTA 5, which unfolded on YouTube LIVE (where it was both owned between Google and Alphabet) Wednesday afternoon (January 3rd, 2024 -- Eastern local time). In a unique twist, the YouTube chatting community actively participated in shaping the outcome by collectively choosing the letter "C" for the death wish scenario. This decision spared both in-game protagonists, namely Mr. Trevor Philips and Mr. de Santa, but left IShowSpeed grappling with potential trust issues, questioning the true value of the ostensibly happy ending presented to his global YouTube audience.

Following this intense gameplay experience, the gaming community was treated to a virtual split-screen discussion on Thursday night, (January 4th, 2024). The enigmatic Ned Luke, recognized as the voice behind the pivotal character 'Michael de Santa', engaged in a candid conversation with IShowSpeed via Instagram LIVE, which were independently checked and legitimately verified by K5 News FM. The discourse delved into the intricacies of the last mission, providing insights into the choices made, and unraveling the consequences faced by the in-game characters.

IShowSpeed's engagement with Ned Luke sheds light on the evolving landscape where gaming enthusiasts and industry professionals seamlessly connect in the virtual realm. As the boundaries between reality and gaming blur, such interactions serve as a flabbergasted testament to the immersive and communal nature of its gaming experience.

SCREENGRAB COURTESY: Ned Luke via Instagram LIVE Video & Rockstar Games BACKGROUND PROVIDED BY: Tegna

SOURCE: *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKo94DhrW80 [Referenced YT LIVE VIDEO #1 via IShowSpeed] *https://www.instagram.com/tv/C1seLqoyeOH/ [Referenced IG LIVE VIDEO via Ned Luke] *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzRq5eYdbvE [Referenced YT LIVE VIDEO #2f via IShowSpeed] *https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/IShowSpeed *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Luke *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_V and *https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/The_Third_Way

-- OneNETnews Team

#breaking news #overnight #fyp #los angeles #california #IShowSpeed #YouTuber #ohio #cincinnati #michael de santa #ned luke #GTA V #grand theft auto #gta spoilers #instagram #celebrity #social media #in-game #exclusive #first and exclusive #K5 News FM #OneNETnews

[theblinkserial]

Chapter 4

July 12, 2024

5:18 PM (CST)

KTXB Evening News

20 minutes after The Blink

Andy Waller is not a world-famous newscaster, not by a long shot. If you asked someone in New York or California who he was, they wouldn’t have a clue. But ask that same question in one specific corner of northeast Texas, you’ll find that everyone knows Andy Waller’s name.

And if they don’t, they certainly know his face. Perfectly symmetrical, clean-shaven, distinctly charming, Andy’s youthful face appeared every night on TV screens throughout the local area just before Wheel of Fortune, where, for the last five years, it had stolen the breath from middle-aged women sitting beside their snoring husbands on the living room couch. Andy Waller had become a household name for countless families throughout the state, a man who sat right across from the couch and read the events of the day out loud with that devilish grin flashing out at his audience.

Today, however, Andy is not smiling.

“We—We’ve just got another video,” he stammers from behind a BREAKING NEWS banner along the bottom of the screen. His voice no longer has that over-enunciated confidence inherent of newscasters. Instead, he has reverted back to his native Texan drawl. “This one was sent in by a viewer from Mount Vernon a few minutes ago. Can we switch over to that one?”

A moment passes, Andy’s face awkwardly motionless in the center of the shot as the news crew works to pull up the video, then the screen cuts to black.

It starts with a view of a Little League game filmed from the bleachers. The field is old, the borderlines between sand and grass blurred in several places from wind and time. A chainlink fence surrounds the field’s perimeter, and beyond it grassy Texas fields extend to a wall of forest far in the distance. Small shadows of cottonball clouds drift effortlessly across the world. It is a perfect summer day.

The metallic ting of a bat striking a ball, then the sound of parents cheering and clapping as a young boy runs tottering toward first with everything he’s got. Just before he reaches the base, the camera drops and gasps fill the stands, the same sound you expect to hear when one of those Little Leaguers gets hit by a foul ball, but when the camera pans back up it is like four hours have passed in the span of a few seconds. Twilight now blankets the scene in a hazy dimness that causes the camera to auto-adjust its focus. A blurry flock of small birds takes flight over the field, followed by a handful of bats zigzagging through the air at the mistaken belief they overslept their circadian alarm clocks. The cameraperson aims upward and zooms in on the Sun, and it is immediately clear that something is wrong.

Though at first washed out from the brightness, the camera shortly begins absorbing more and more detail as the Sun’s glare diminishes. What started as a perfect circle has morphed into a gibbous shape, like the moon a few days after it is at its fullest. As the shape continues to deform, the sky begins to darken, the clouds changing from white to gray and then to almost black. In less than half a minute, the Sun has become only a fraction of its former brilliance, the progression resembling a sped-up video of the moon’s phases. From full to gibbous to quarter in the span of a few seconds.

The crescent Sun wanes further, its last sliver glinting like firelight along the blade of a new scythe. Beads of light flash and pop along this strange hairline curve in the sky, sparking briefly against the ever-darkening backdrop, and then it is gone.

The video goes black, but concerned voices can be heard from the parents in the stands. Were it not for these whispers, people watching from home might think the video has ended, but it hasn’t. The camera zooms out to show the field now bathed in the harsh glow of tall stadium lights. On the field, the Little Leaguers stand with gloves hanging limply by their sides, all of them staring straight up at the stars.

All but one.

The kid who’d been headed for first moments earlier is now rounding third, too focused on scoring a home run to realize the world just ended. He slides across home plate and jumps to his feet, fists raised and a triumphant grin on his face as he looks to the stands, then his gaze shifts upward and he begins to cry.

This is where the video ends and Andy Waller’s perfect face returns to the living rooms of Texas. Rather than charming, though, his face is haggard and haunted. Shocked. Afraid.

“Uh,” is all he manages to say before glancing slightly up above the camera. He stands up and walks out of frame, leaving an empty desk in the shot. A minute passes like this. Indistinct voices mumble in the background, doors creak open and clang shut, footsteps shuffle around just out of view.

When Andy returns, his eyes are somehow even more haunted than they were, like he hadn’t believed the videos and reports coming in until he looked outside for himself.

“Uh,” he repeats, then clears his throat, remembering the hundreds, maybe even thousands, of unseen eyes currently fixed on him. “I just looked out the window and, uh, the sky is dark. This is real. The—The Sun seems to have . . .” Andy trails off, eyes again drifting back behind the camera as all thoughts of TV broadcast etiquette leave him.

He doesn’t know that his segment is already in the process of going viral, that, because it is one of the earliest and clearest videos shared of the Sun’s death, it is already being posted to Facebook and Twitter and Reddit and being sent to other news stations around the world, where it is shared again and again. He doesn’t know that his face will shortly be one of the most famous faces not just in Texas, not even in the United States, but in the entireworld. He has always wanted this kind of fame, has always secretly prayed for the day his face would be beside the likes of Anderson Cooper and Lester Holt, and his prayer to be a celebrity television star will be answered a dozen times over before the week is out.

Andy has no idea that in the next few days, his brief segment will become the most watched video on the Internet, breaking records as the fastest growing viral video in the history of the world.

He also has no idea that it will be one of the last viral videos mankind will ever produce.

#the blink #web serial #writeblr #writing #writing community #science fiction #fiction #scifi #serial #writers of tumblr #chapter 4

[femmesandhoney]

hey as someone from Detroit who actively lives in Detroit that post comes off as dismissive of our efforts to rebrand ourselves as a midwest tourist destination after the auto industry moved away from Detroit and took all its jobs with it. We have cool and historical places (as we are the birthplace of motown, techno, and arguably american punk rock), art, history, and science museums, good food of all different ethnicities, local live music, and our riverwalk which was voted the best in america by USA TODAY for the third year in a row. Beyond the gentrified spaces there is so much magic in Detroit and we wish people would stop just instantly assuming we live in a fucking shithole because it's actually fucking great

hi anon, you're assuming a lot about my feelings about Detroit based on one off hand joke about American tourism specifically for non-Americans. I am correct that people traveling abroad to the US will most likely not put Detroit on their lists of must-go places no matter how nice of a city it is. I'm sure there are people who do see the beauty of the city and plan a trip there, but I think a lot of tourists will go to places like California, Florida, NYC, Washington DC, and general national parks and monuments out West.

As someone from Milwaukee who loves the Midwest, I don't think badly of Detroit at all lol, I think we have beautiful culture and nature, but most tourism towards the city will be marketed to other Midwesterners or Americans. Did i ever say its a shithole? Did i say i hate Detroit and think its a wasteland? No, so don't put words in my mouth.

#like i would love to visit Detroit given the chance lmao #but its definitely not want tourists often come for

[lasseizlesbontempsrouler]

What are the states favorite book genres?

Alabama - Realistic Fiction

Alaska - Historical Fiction + Non-Fiction

Arizona - Anything written for 5th graders (mostly Mystery)

Arkansas - the books based from musicals / vice versa

California - Historical Fiction + Non-Fiction + Romance + Textbooks

Colorado - Fantasy

Connecticut - Historical Fiction (Only Pirate Era)

Delaware - Short Stories

Florida - Kids books in Spanish + Rocket Science textbooks in Spanish

Georgia - Realistic Fiction / Thriller

Hawai'i - Horror

Idaho - Realistic

Illinois - Thriller + Dystopian + Action

Indiana - Non-Fiction + Realistic Fiction

Iowa - Fantasy

Kansas - The Wizard of Oz

Kentucky - Horsegirl Books

Louisiana - Cookbooks + Fantasy/Magic + Sappy Romance

Maine - Non-Fiction

Maryland - Fiction + Mystery

Massachusetts - Dystopian + Realistic Fiction

Michigan - Realistic Fiction + Thriller

Minnesota - Those sad dog books + Fantasy + Romance

Mississippi - Action & Adventure

Missouri - Realistic Fiction

Montana - Non-Fiction + Horror (And True Crime)

Nebraska - Contemporary Fiction

Nevada - Romance. Like.. NSFW type romance books

New Hampshire - Books that were later turned into movies

New Jersey - He reads Self Help books to make fun of them

New Mexico - Historical + Historical Fiction

New York - Art/Photography + Literally Anything Else

North Carolina - Biographies

North Dakota - Humor + How-To Guides (On Stupid Shit)

Ohio - Dystopian

Oklahoma - The Outsiders.

Oregon - Historical Fiction + Fantasy

Pennsylvania - History + Religion (literally random religions)

Rhode Island - Freaky Friday

South Carolina - Anything (Cookbooks mostly)

South Dakota - Non-Fiction + Romance

Tennessee - Realistic Fiction

Texas - Western Shit + Travel + Fantasy + Romance

Utah - Parenting + Fantasy + Religion (Mormon)

Vermont - No Opinion

Virginia - Realistic Fiction

Washington - Self-Help + Sappy Romance

West Virginia - RomCom + True Crime

Wisconsin - Novels

Wyoming - Western + True Crime + History/Civil Rights Stuff + (Auto)Biographies

#welcome to the table #welcome to the statehouse #wttsh #wttt #ben brainard

[mirrorballdazai]

Isn't it too early for mike and will to get engaged at 15?and also be gay? start hiding from the world at such a young age?better not to be together otherwise they would suffer,is not cool dating in a basement…not even holding hands?better as friends but without being beaten by homophobes 🙅🏼‍♀️

Grand Theft Auto V is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2008's Grand Theft Auto IV, and the fifteenth instalment overall. Set within the fictional state of San Andreas, based on Southern California, the single-player story follows three protagonists—retired bank robber Michael De Santa, street gangster Franklin Clinton, and drug dealer and gunrunner Trevor Philips—and their attempts to commit heists while under pressure from a corrupt government agency and powerful criminals. The open world design lets players freely roam San Andreas' open countryside and the fictional city of Los Santos, based on Los Angeles. The game is played from either a third-person or first-person perspective, and its world is navigated on foot and by vehicle. Players control the three lead protagonists throughout single-player and switch among them, both during and outside missions. The story is centred on the heist sequences, and many missions involve shooting and driving gameplay. A "wanted" system governs the aggression of law enforcement response to players who commit crimes. Grand Theft Auto Online, the game's online multiplayer mode, lets up to 30 players engage in a variety of different cooperative and competitive game modes. The game's development began around the time of Grand Theft Auto IV's release and was shared between many of Rockstar's studios worldwide. The development team drew influence from many of their previous projects such as Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3 and designed the game around three lead protagonists to innovate on the core structure of its predecessors. Much of the development work constituted the open world's creation, and several team members conducted field research around California to capture footage for the design team. The game's soundtrack features an original score composed by a team of producers who collaborated over several years. It was released in September 2013 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, in November 2014 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, in April 2015 for Windows, and in March 2022 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Extensively marketed and widely anticipated, the game broke industry sales records and became the fastest-selling entertainment product in history, earning $800 million in its first day and $1 billion in its first three days. It received critical acclaim, with praise directed at its multiple protagonist design, open world, presentation and gameplay. However, it caused controversies related to its depiction of violence and women. Considered one of seventh and eighth generation console gaming's most significant titles and among the best video games ever made, it won year-end accolades including Game of the Year awards from several gaming publications. It is the second best-selling video game of all time with over 169 million copies shipped, and as of April 2018, one of the most financially successful entertainment products of all time, with about $6 billion in worldwide revenue.

[lboogie1906]

Clarence Darnell Gilyard Jr. (December 24, 1955 – November 28, 2022) was a university professor, actor, and author. As a performer, he appeared in film, television, and stage productions. He was known for his roles in Matlock, the Left Behind movie trilogy, Walker, Texas Ranger; Theo, Die Hard; and Top Gun. He was born into a military family in Moses Lake, Washington, the son of Barbara and Clarence Darnell Gilyard Sr., an Air Force officer. His family was from New Orleans, but he grew up on Air Force bases in Hawaii, Texas, and Florida. He spent a year as an Air Force Academy cadet before leaving the service to attend Sterling College. He played football and became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. He received a tennis scholarship, and he attended California State University, Long Beach, majoring in acting. He completed his BA at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He returned to school, receiving an MFA in theatre performance at Southern Methodist University. He made guest appearances on Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, 227, Simon & Simon, and Riptide. He was cast in the final season of CHiPs as Officer Benjamin Webster. He co-starred in The Duck Factory. He appeared in a commercial for McDonald's. His movie was as an F-14 Tomcat radar intercept officer, LT. (JG) Marcus "Sundown" Williams, in Top Gun. He was a military man in The Karate Kid Part II. He appeared in Die Hard as Theo. He appeared as Reverend Bruce Barnes in Left Behind: The Movie and its sequel, Left Behind II: Tribulation Force. He appeared in A Matter of Faith. He performed the role of Hoak Colburn onstage at the University of New Mexico's Popejoy Hall in the Neil Simon Festival's Driving Miss Daisy. In the 2018 edition of the football video game Madden NFL, he plays high school coach Devin Wade in the "Longshot" section of the game. He reprised his role as criminal gang member Theo from Die Hard, in a commercial for Advance Auto Parts' DieHard brand of car batteries. He was an associate professor in the College of Fine Arts – Department of Theatre at UNLV. He married Catherine Dutko; married Elena Castillo (2001 -). He had six children. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/Cmjmqnirqyu/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[exhxustxd]

alex rhodes is here.

basic information:

full name: alexandra “alex” rhodes

nickname(s): only goes by alex or al, no one really knows her full name

age: 44

date of birth: november 5th

hometown: seattle, washington

current location: taos, new mexico

ethnicity: dominican, puerto rican

nationality: american

gender: cis woman

pronouns: she/her

orientation: lesbian

occupation: auto mechanic

living arrangements: a small one bedroom in taos 

language(s) spoken: english, spanish

physical appearance:

face claim: michelle rodriguez

hair color: black

eye color: dark brown

height: 5′5

build: athletic?

tattoos: probably quite a few at this point, maybe a half sleeve and some large ones scattered about, couple on the other arm and couple on the legs 

piercings: ears (don’t think she uses those much anymore) and nipnips

clothing style: tight jeans, tank top and probably a leather jacket when cold-ish

usual expression: skeptical

distinguishing characteristics: i mean hot af?

health:

physical ailments: tendonitis in the wrists, and some back pain related to not taking care of her body while drumming actively 

neurological conditions: ptsd, depression

allergies: tbd

sleeping habits: not great, the ptsd keeps her up sometimes, and she won’t use sleeping pills after her recovery 

eating habits: tries to be healthy, but will take whatever is easier

exercise habits: tries to stay in shape. isn’t as dedicated as she used to be, but puts in some effort at least 

emotional stability: 6/10

sociability: won’t take anyone’s bullshit, and can seem very closed off if you don’t know her well — if you put in the effort though, she might talk your head off

body temperature: gets cold easily when she’s still, but she’s usually moving around, so it doesn’t happen all that much 

addictions: coffee, like a shit ton of coffee

drug use: none now. she had a drug problem when she was touring regularly

alcohol use: nothing crazy, she’s in a place with her recovery where she can drink on a night out, but it’s something she rarely does because she’s always working 

personality:

positive traits: dependable, driven, loyal, honest, confident, compassionate

negative traits: bossy, destructive, paranoid, elusive, direct, secretive, calculating

fears: relapsing, vulnerability

hobbies: restoring old cars

favorites:

weather: rain

color: army green

music: alternative rock

movies: who has time to watch them anyway

sport: basketball

beverage: cinnamon whisky

food: bbq base pizza

animal: wolf

song: everybody but you — state champs, ben barlow

family:

father: deceased

mother: deceased

sibling(s): one younger and one older

children: –

pet(s): a boxer named elvis

family’s financial status: very well off 

extra:

zodiac: scorpio

tw: drug abuse, drug overdose, car accident, survivor’s guilt/ptsd

bio:

born and raised in seattle, washington, alex was particularly fan of the rain and the nature found there. the thought of ever leaving never crossed her mind. not until high school at least. 

early on, some friends had decided that they wanted to start a band — but lacked a drummer. while alex had no idea how to play drums, she was bored out of her mind with school and spent most of her time restoring old cars with her dad, so she figured it was worth giving something that didn’t involve her dad a shot.

it didn’t take long for alex to become completely obsessed. her obsession grew and developed into producing as well — and she found herself trying harder at school in order to get into a good college where she could learn the tools needed to continue making music.

after high school, alex went on to study music technology at usc.

at usc, alex finally met people she vibed with. people she actually enjoyed being around. and that’s how they ended up in the band off-piste.

coming out of college, the gang established themselves in the california scene, and before long they were touring the world.

on tour though – alex found love. their tour manager. they had grown closer over the years, and eventually it developed into more than friendship, and it wasn’t long before the pair got married.

touring took its toll on alex though. being offered drugs everywhere they went – it grew harder and harder to say no. and alex soon found herself with an ever-growing addiction. speed and cocaine soon became daily visitors in her life.

after wrapping up a tour in los angeles, alex found herself in a car accident with a bandmate and a crew member. oblivious to the fact that the driver was under the influence, alex didn’t really know what had happened until she woke up in the hospital to the news of their bandmate’s passing.

as the band broke up and alex was left dealing with the aftermath of what had happened, she spiraled even further. having been begged for months to get back on the road as a drum tech – alex finally agreed, but only as a sound technician. there was no way she was going to be touching a drum kit again.

being back on the road only fueled her addiction, and after an accidental overdose in between tours, she realized enough was enough. she decided it was time to get clean, and checked into rehab.

once out, alex packed her things and moved to taos. filed for divorce and left everything she knew behind. the marriage hadn’t felt like a real marriage in a long time and she needed a slower pace of life, in a smaller place, with less of her old friends. she needed fresh and healthy. and being around el again could be just that.

she got a job working as a mechanic at the auto shop, and thrived. being back to fixing cars and sticking to a routine made staying clean achievable.

at this point, alex is fourteen years clean and prefers it that way. life is monotonous and lonely, but that’s the only way of life she knows at this point. aside from whatever hellscape taos is turning into of course.

alex might be hard to get to know – but she will definitely get to know you. she has a way of finding your pressure points and what makes you tick – maybe even without you realizing. perceptive and observant – but quiet.

she’s an emotional daredevil once she’s truly invested in something. she will fall head first into it and not care how much it hurts her.

#[alex] it's been a long night nah fuck that it's been a long life #[alex] intro

[spookysaladchaos]

Global Top 24 Companies Accounted for 49% of total Commercial and Household Water Purification Systems market (QYResearch, 2021)

Water Purification Systems are used to remove undesirable chemicals, biological contaminants, suspended solids and gases from water. The goal is to produce water fit for a specific purpose. In this report, we will mainly analyze commercial and residential water purification systems for providing clean and safe drinking or usable water.

According to the new market research report “Global Commercial and Household Water Purification Systems Market Report 2023-2029”, published by QYResearch, the global Commercial and Household Water Purification Systems market size is projected to reach USD 20.64 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 6.2% during the forecast period.

Figure.   Global Commercial and Household Water Purification Systems Market Size (US$ Million), 2018-2029

Figure.   Global Commercial and Household Water Purification Systems Top 24 Players Ranking and Market Share (Ranking is based on the revenue of 2022, continually updated)

The global key manufacturers of Commercial and Household Water Purification Systems include A.O. Smith, Coway, Midea, Aquaphor, Boomma, Qinyuan (Unilever), Angel, Pentair, Whirlpool, Culligan (BDT Capital), etc. In 2021, the global top 10 players had a share approximately 49.0% in terms of revenue.

About QYResearch

QYResearch founded in California, USA in 2007.It is a leading global market research and consulting company. With over 16 years’ experience and professional research team in various cities over the world QY Research focuses on management consulting, database and seminar services, IPO consulting, industry chain research and customized research to help our clients in providing non-linear revenue model and make them successful. We are globally recognized for our expansive portfolio of services, good corporate citizenship, and our strong commitment to sustainability. Up to now, we have cooperated with more than 60,000 clients across five continents. Let’s work closely with you and build a bold and better future.

QYResearch is a world-renowned large-scale consulting company. The industry covers various high-tech industry chain market segments, spanning the semiconductor industry chain (semiconductor equipment and parts, semiconductor materials, ICs, Foundry, packaging and testing, discrete devices, sensors, optoelectronic devices), photovoltaic industry chain (equipment, cells, modules, auxiliary material brackets, inverters, power station terminals), new energy automobile industry chain (batteries and materials, auto parts, batteries, motors, electronic control, automotive semiconductors, etc.), communication industry chain (communication system equipment, terminal equipment, electronic components, RF front-end, optical modules, 4G/5G/6G, broadband, IoT, digital economy, AI), advanced materials industry Chain (metal materials, polymer materials, ceramic materials, nano materials, etc.), machinery manufacturing industry chain (CNC machine tools, construction machinery, electrical machinery, 3C automation, industrial robots, lasers, industrial control, drones), food, beverages and pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, agriculture, etc.

For more information, please contact the following e-mail address:

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.qyresearch.com

#Commercial and Household Water Purification Systems