Land Rover reunion

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“An 87-year-old woman received the reunion of a lifetime when she got to spend time in an original Land Rover she worked with 70 years ago.

Dorothy Peters told her story to Land Rover, which in turn granted her time with the car she kept pictures of for decades to come. According to the woman, she and her mother went to the Land Rover factory (then called Rover) as she looked for employment opportunities in July of 1946. She was 15 when the automaker hired her as part of the service department at the Lode Lane factory working alongside the first series Land Rovers to be built at the site.” Motor Authority 

Camcorder video

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This found photo reminded me of how difficult it used to be to record, edit and share video. Only the true geek (or your uncle) carried one of these cameras around. When you did get some video you had to get it off the camera and into that big old desktop computer (SCSI) where you could edit it with really bad software. If you wanted to share it you made the video teeny tiny to keep the file size down. Then all you could do was email it. No place to share. Better than Super8 but just barely.

Freedom Points

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“Every time you generate data, in whatever form, you accrue more Freedom Points. Some data is more valuable than other, so points would be ranked accordingly: a trip to Moscow, say, would be worth a million times more points than your trip to the 7-Eleven. Well then, what do Freedom Points allow you to do? They would allow you to exercise your freedom, your rights and your citizenship in fresh modern ways: points could allow you to bring extra assault rifles to dinner at your local Olive Garden restaurant. A certain number of Freedom Points would allow you to erase portions of your criminal record — or you could use Freedom Points to remove hours from your community service. The thing about Freedom Points is that if you think about them for more than 12 seconds, you realise they have the magic ring of inevitability. The idea is basically too dumb to fail. The larger picture is that you have to keep generating more and more and more data in order to embed yourself ever more deeply into the global community. In a bold new equation, more data would convert into more personal freedom.”

Imaginary use of data from a 2015 article by Douglas Coupland

More Land Rovers

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I found what must be the largest collection of vintage Land Rovers in mid-Missouri. (The owner prefers to remain anonymous) His shop(s) is filled with Land Rovers waiting to be restored and while he identified the model and year of each truck, I was so mesmerized I didn’t take notes. In addition to Land Rovers he had a 1970-something Rolls Royce Silver Shadow. I hope he invites me back (when it’s warmer) so I can get a bit more info on these beauties. [middleton]