Finally A Flying Car

Road legal at last: The flying car finally gets its driving licence after years of delays

It's been cleared to take to the skies for more than a year - but that's not much use when you're supposed to be able to drive it, too.

But now the flying car has at least been declared officially road legal.
It means the Terrafugia Transition could be in U.S. garages as early as next autumn, after two years of delays.

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Ready to go: The Terrafugia Transition has finally been declared road legal, and it could be in U.S. garages as early as next year. It was first developed in 2009, but has faced years of hold-ups

It may not be the world's first flying car, but its makers say it is the first to have wings that fold up automatically at the push of a button.
It costs $200,000 - about the same price as a Ferrari - and can be reserved online for what Terrafugia describes as a 'modest' $10,000 deposit.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has officially announced the Transition, called a 'roadable aircraft' by its makers, can now be legally driven on America's roads.

It granted the vehicle special dispensations, which allow it to use airplane-style plastic windows instead of the safety glass usually used in cars, as it would be too heavy.

Innovative: The Transition 'roadable aircraft' costs $200,000, and can be reserved for a $10,000 deposit

Ready for lift-off: It takes just 30 seconds for the Transition to convert from a car into a plane

The polycarbonate windscreens can withstand the impact of birds, so they won't fracture.

The administration has also granted Terrafugia permission to use heavier-grade tyres, which are not normally allowed on multi-purpose vehicles.

It's the second hurdle the Transition had to overcome before it could go on sale, after the Federal Aviation Administration ruled last year it could fly with its current weight, 110lbs over the normal legal limit for light sport aircraft category.

Terrafugia had originally hoped to deliver its first production vehicles as early as this year, but after problems with suppliers it has had to delay the release date to late 2012.

Ground-breaking design: The Transition is the first flying car with wings which fold up at the touch of the button. When they are fully retracted, it resembles an ordinary car - almost

According to Terrafugia, it 'combines the unique convenience of being able to fold its wings with the ability to drive on any surface road in a modern personal airplane platform.'

THE FLYING CAR'S SPEC

Cost: $200,000
Length: 19ft
Width: 5ft 6ins when wings are folded, 27ft when they're open
Top speed on the road: 65mph
Top speed in the air: 115mph
Range in the air: 500 miles on one 20-gallon tank of fuel
Power: 100hp four-stroke engine

Prospective owners will need plenty of space for their new toy - it requires 1,700ft of road for take-off.

Its creators, which include former Nasa engineers, say the vehicle is easy to keep and run because it can fit into a normal domestic garage and uses regular gas.

It measures 19ft long and just 5ft 6ins wide when the wings are folded up, but they have a full span of 27ft.

It has a top speed of 65mph on the road, but that soars to 115mph in the air.

Drivers can convert it from a two-seater road car to a plane in less than 30 seconds with the touch of a button.

It doesn't have a gearstick, but on the road can be controlled with brake and accelerator pedals and a steering wheel like an ordinary car. In the air it is operated with a joystick near the steering wheel.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2011985/Flying-car-Terrafugia-Transition-declared-road-legal.html#ixzz1RV20iaq4

Man loses his job after Chase bank has him arrested for cashing their own check

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Lynda Bryon at KING-5 News in Seattle has the story, ably summed up at The Consumerist:

Ikenna [Njoku], a 28-year old construction worker, went to deposit a $8,463.21 Chase cashier's check at his local Chase branch, only for the teller to decide that neither he nor his check looked right and he got tossed in jail for forgery, KING5 reports. The next day, a Friday, the bank realized its mistake and left a message with the detective. But it was her day off, so he spent the entire weekend in jail.

By the time he got out, he had been fired from his job for not showing up to work. His car had been towed as well. It ended up getting sold off at auction because he couldn't afford to get it out of the pound. He had been relying on that cashier's check for his money but it was taken as evidence and by the time he got it back it was auctioned off.

All this while the cashier's check had been issued by the very bank he was trying to cash it at.

Chase didn't even apologize, not even after a year. A lawyer volunteered to help write a strongly-worded letter requesting damages. After trying hard to get a response, they sent KING 5 a two-sentence reply: 'We received the letter and are reviewing the situation. We'll be reaching out to the customer.'

I dunno about you, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if he had been another color, none of this would have happened. Auburn is not a lily-white suburb by any means, but the man's description of her questions raises all kinds of red flags.

Meanwhile, I just love being at the mercy of the people who run the financial-services sector, don't you?

Does Michelle Obama Know About This?

Oak Park, Michigan:

Their front yard was torn up after replacing a sewer line, so instead of replacing the dirt with grass, one Oak Park woman put in a vegetable garden and now the city is seeing green.

The list goes on: fresh basil, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, cumbers and more all filling five large planter boxes that fill the Bass family’s front yard.

Julie Bass says, “We thought we’re minding our own business, doing something not ostentatious and certainly not obnoxious or nothing that is a blight on the neighborhood, so we didn’t think people would care very much.”

But some cared very much and called the city. The city then sent out code enforcement.

“They warned us at first that we had to move the vegetables from the front, that no vegetables were allowed in the front yard. We didn’t move them because we didn’t think we were doing anything wrong, even according to city code we didn’t think we were doing anything wrong. So they ticketed us and charged me with a misdemeanor,” Bass said . . .

City code says that all unpaved portions of the site shall be planted with grass or ground cover or shrubbery or other suitable live plant material. Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are what Basses see as suitable.

However, Oak Park’s Planning and Technology Director Kevin Rulkowski says the city disagrees. He says, “If you look at the dictionary, suitable means common. You can look all throughout the city and you’ll never find another vegetable garden that consumes the entire front yard.”

So what is suitable? From another local news report:

. . . we asked Rulkowski why it’s not suitable.

“If you look at the definition of what suitable is in Webster’s dictionary, it will say common. So, if you look around and you look in any other community, what’s common to a front yard is a nice, grass yard with beautiful trees and bushes and flowers,” he said.

God forbid your yard doesn’t include beautiful trees, bushes and flowers. It’s your job, Oak Park citizens, to give Kevin Rulkowski pretty things to look at. According to Bass’s blog, she’s demanding her right to a jury trial. So the city plans to throw the book at her.

our attorney spoke to the prosecutor today. (for the record, my crush on him is totally finished after today.)

his position: they are going to take this all the way.

officially, this means i am facing 93 days in jail if they win.

no joke.

Faked: Japan nuke company caught using employees to ask questions during televised hearing — Told to impersonate private citizens who want reactors restarted

President of Japan Nuclear Operator May Resign Over E-Mails, New York ...Read More

Where is the Gold in Fort Knox?

Did you know that no member of Congress has been allowed to look at the gold in Fort Knox for over 40 years?

TSA Can Grope Dying Old Ladies; But Can't Catch Guy Boarding Flight Illegally?

Apparently the TSA's Security Theater is a comedy. Pjerky was the first of a whole bunch of you to alert us last week about the TSA's massive failure to catch a Nigerian man who boarded a flight without a valid boarding pass. The man successfully flew from New York to Los Angeles. Apparently, the flight crew discovered they had a stowaway after people complained about the man's smell (even though he was seated in a seat). I'm not quite sure how complaining about someone's smell leads to them being found out as a stowaway, but what I do know is that the guy was not arrested when the flight landed. Instead, he was taken into custody a few days later when he tried to do it again by getting on a Delta flight from LA to Atlanta without a boarding pass. This time, the FBI took him in, but later released him. Meanwhile, the TSA was busy groping 95-year-old cancer patients.

How To Protect Yourself From Airport Thieves — Otherwise Known As TSA Agents

Since it’s Conspiracy Saturday, how about this one: TSA agents are supposed to steal stuff to help with the security theatrics to make you feel unsafe.

It defies public-trust expectations, but there are rogue officers at the Transportation Security Administration who think nothing of stealing your stuff.

[...]

The TSA also estimates that for every TSA employee who touches a bag, some six to 10 airline or airport employees and contractors also have — mostly out of view of the passenger.

[...]

There are steps you can take to keep your things out of thieves’ hands:

• As much as possible, keep a watchful eye on your belongings. “You are responsible for your property as it proceeds through the screening process,” according to the TSA.


• Do not pack jewelry, cash, laptops, electronics or any fragile items in your baggage. Leave anything that you can’t live without at home.


• Skip the trays that the airport provides for jewelry, watches and wallets, and belts — using them invites theft. Take off those items before you get to the security line and put them in the pocket of a carry-on.

If you have a lost or missing item from a security checkpoint, check the airport’s lost and found first. The TSA has a list of all the phone numbers at every airport.

If you think your property was stolen, or damaged, during the screening process you can file a claim online.