Category:
Cars
Cars
Follies of the Madmen #612
Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 25, 2024 -
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Category: Advertising, 1970s, Cars
The Birth of the Robot
The creator's Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Oct 26, 2024 -
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Category: Robots, Stop-motion Animation, 1930s, Cars
The Ghost Parking Lot of Hamden, Connecticut
The "Ghost Parking Lot" was the 1978 creation of artist/architect James Wines. It consisted of twenty cars, placed in a mall parking lot, then buried to varying degrees, and finally covered with tarmac.
image source: sitenewyork.com
Torrance Daily Breeze - June 1, 1978
Wines explained: "this fusion of typically mobile artifacts with their environment takes advantage of people’s subliminal connections with the rituals of shopping center merchandising and the fetishism of American car culture."
But over the years the tarmac peeled off the cars and no repairs were made. So in 2003 the city decided to remove the cars. They were replaced by a Starbucks drive-thru. Wines commented, "If (the sculpture) was in a museum, it would've been preserved."
More info: sitenewyork.com
Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 08, 2024 -
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Category: Art, 1970s, Cars
The Dwarf Cars of Ernie Adams
His website is here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Oct 04, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Enlargements, Miniatures, and Other Matters of Scale, Hobbies and DIY, Cars
‘Sanity clearance’ for Japanese drivers
In the 1960s, Japan experimented with two ways of improving road safety.First, it required that new drivers obtain a "sanity clearance" from a doctor. This was supposed to keep psychotic motorists off the road.
Second, it urged pedestrians to either raise a hand or wave a yellow flag to indicate to drivers that they wanted to cross the road.
Both efforts failed and were quickly scrapped.
The "sanity clearance" was too easy to obtain and people disliked the expense. (Imagine flunking your driving test because you failed a sanity clearance!)
The hand-raising promotion actually increased pedestrian deaths. Apparently pedestrians seemed to believe that, as long as they raised their hand, they had "permission to ignore all traffic rules and boldly march out in to the middle of the road whenever they felt like it."
Sydney Morning Herald - Mar 24, 1968
Posted By: Alex - Tue Sep 17, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Regulations, 1960s, Asia, Cars
Atomic Car
Posted By: Paul - Tue Aug 27, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1960s, Europe, Cars
Double-standard DWI-rules game
Emil Richard Rossi was granted a patent (No. 6,412,777) in 2002 for his "Double-standard DWI-rules" board game.One purpose of the game was to teach players about drunk-driving laws and the financial consequences of drunk driving. Its second purpose was to demonstrate the "double-standard" of drunk-driving enforcement. Or, as he put it, the "Special treatment for drunk-driving offenders according to their Social Status."
Sounds like Rossi had a bone to pick with the way drunk-driving laws are enforced.
No surprise, his game was never produced by a commercial board game manufacturer, but according to boardgamegeek.com he did self-publish the game. So perhaps a copy of it might be available in a second-hand store somewhere.
From his patent description:
The present invention relates to games and game playing. More particularly, the present invention relates to a game based on drunk-driving rules and other rules of the road, the financial consequences of drunk driving, and the different ways of applying drunk-driving rules and other rules of the road according Social Status.
The object of the game disclosed herein, is to provide amusement for the players while they acquaint themselves with the financial liability incurred by being arrested for driving drunk. It is also is an object of the game is to provide amusement for the players while they acquaint themselves with the behind the Scene manipulations resulting in Special treatment for drunk-driving offenders according to their Social Status.
The object of the game disclosed herein, is to provide amusement for the players while they acquaint themselves with the financial liability incurred by being arrested for driving drunk. It is also is an object of the game is to provide amusement for the players while they acquaint themselves with the behind the Scene manipulations resulting in Special treatment for drunk-driving offenders according to their Social Status.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Aug 14, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Games, Inebriation and Intoxicants, Police and Other Law Enforcement, Patents, 2000s, Cars
Flying Saucer Gas Stations
In a previous post we looked at Soviet bus stops. It turns out that the Soviet era produced some weird gas stations as well. In particular, the flying saucer gas stations of Kyiv.They looked cool, and made it so that one didn't need to worry about which side of the car the fuel tank was on.
But they had a tendency to leak fuel from overhead and had high maintenance costs. So they were eventually abandoned.
More info: Rare Historical Photos; Design You Trust
Posted By: Alex - Fri Aug 09, 2024 -
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Category: Architecture, Cars
The Soybean Car
The "Soybean Car" was actually a plastic-bodied car unveiled by Henry Ford on August 13, 1941 at Dearborn Days, an annual community festival. The frame, made of tubular steel, had 14 plastic panels attached to it. The car weighed 2000 lbs., 1000 lbs. lighter than a steel car. The exact ingredients of the plastic panels are unknown because no record of the formula exists today. One article claims that they were made from a chemical formula that, among many other ingredients, included soybeans, wheat, hemp, flax and ramie; while the man who was instrumental in creating the car, Lowell E. Overly, claims it was "…soybean fiber in a phenolic resin with formaldehyde used in the impregnation"
See more pix and text here.
Or at the Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 04, 2024 -
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Category: Inventions, 1940s, Cars
1951 Car Wash Beauty Pageant
Many more great photos at the link.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 02, 2024 -
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Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Advertising, 1950s, Cars
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |