Historian Yuval Harari at the World Economic Forum earlier this year. He covers so many big ideas in half an hour. (“Algorithms will understand us better than we understand ourselves.”)
Author Archives: Steve Mays
Go Ahead, Millennials, Destroy Us
From an op-ed piece by Tim Kreider in the NYT:
(Young people) “remember everything, and forgive nothing.”
“…they will have a thousand times more energy for that fight than you and a bottomless reservoir of moral rage that you burned out long ago.”
“I for one can’t wait till we’re gone. I just wish I could live to see the world without us.”
I hope he’s right but have my doubts. I remember how quickly my sixties era passion faded as I aged. I’m still waiting to see a million young people in the streets again.
Roxor
“The resemblance between the new Roxor and the classic Jeep is no accident, mind. Indeed, the company began its automotive work seven decades ago, with a license to build Willys vehicles for sale in Asia. […] Unfortunately for those swayed by the Roxor’s pleasingly-retro looks – and its $15.5k starting price – you shouldn’t expect to see it on public roads. That’s because it’s not actually road-legal: instead, it’s intended to compete in the Side x Side category (“a small 2- to 6-person four-wheel drive off-road vehicle”) and be put to work on ranches and other off-road situations.” [Slashgear]
When a tree falls in the forest…
I fired up the chainsaw yesterday and cut up a couple of dead trees that have been on the ground for a couple of years.
I’d normally just leave these but I plan to drive the Land Rover down into the woods from time to time and these would be in the way.
I only have one power tool: the chainsaw. And I love cutting up downed trees. We’ve got more firewood than we’ll ever be able to burn and I can’t give it away. But getting it up to the house is hard work. So the plan is to spit logs as needed, toss ‘em into the back of the Land Rover and haul them up to the house.
Final tweaks
Mr. Wolf clearly knows his way around vintage vehicles but his buddy, Philippe, is apparently something of an expert on Land Rovers. Based on the photo (above) it looks like Philippe has a garage rather than a dealership. That’s where the truck is this week, getting final tweaks.
I told him to start with a valve adjustment, reset cam timing and injection pump timing, set timing chain tension, replace the thermostat, and see if he can find a way to adjust the free play in the steering relay box.
Regular readers will remember last week’s Mystery Patch, which leaked.
Good news from the drive up in the rain: the Mystery Patch in the roof does not leak! The bad news: everything else does leak. A bit more grey goop and we’ll be watertight.
And a bit less drafty…
Looking at a Series 2 Santana at Philippe’s, I realized that your truck is missing seals on the slider windows front and rear. I’ll track them down, that’ll make the cabin much less drafty.
Once Philippe is done, the truck is done. Everything has been checked and fixed. Sometimes twice. I’ll fly out to meet Mr. Wolf, play with the truck and celebrate, then it’s time to ship the truck to Jefferson City.
Here’s a bit of background on Phillippe from the Euroland website:
Originally from the beautiful South of France, The Provence, was originally a Rolls Royce, Bentley technician. He added Land Rover to his knowledge and specialty and is very fortunate to be one of the technicians to be certified at Land Rover in Solihull, England.
This project has taken twice as long as expected and cost a lot more, but I’m probably going to get close to the “better than the day it rolled off the assembly line” promise.