www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txn_8V1yZ2Y

Credits
Advertising agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Paris, France
Executive Creative Director: Chris Garbutt
Creatives: Emmanuel Bougneres, Benjamin Dessagne
TV Producer: Antoine Bagot
Head of digital and branded content: Frederic Levron
Director: Gustav Johansson
Production company: Moonwalk
Post production: Nightshift
Music production: Studios Appollo

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2019340/Hapless-blonde-crashes-250k-Bentley-FOUR-supercars.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

http://hamptonroads.com/2011/07/two-neverfinished-navy-ships-head-scrap-heap

They are the two ships no one wanted, almost constantly embroiled in one dispute or another for the past 25 years. The two Navy behemoths have never gone on a mission, were never even completed, yet they cost taxpayers at least $300 million.

Now the vessels, the Benjamin Isherwood and the Henry Eckford, are destined to leave Virginia waters for good and be scrapped at a Texas salvage yard, with no money coming back to the U.S. Treasury.

The Isherwood, stretching more than 660 feet, began its final journey this week, unceremoniously towed Tuesday from its mooring spot in the James River Reserve Fleet, also known as the “ghost fleet,” near Fort Eus-tis in Newport News.

Its destination: International Shipbreaking Limited in Brownsville, Texas, just above the Mexico border. There, the vessel will be cut up, its innards removed and disposed of, and its steel and other metals sold as recycled products.

The Eckford, of equal size, is scheduled to follow next Tuesday, leaving behind fewer than 20 junk ships in the ghost fleet, the smallest number since its inception during World War I.

Once the two Navy oilers have departed, “it will close one of the saddest chapters in American shipbuilding and for that matter, federal fiduciary folly,” wrote Joseph Keefe, a global maritime commentator, this week on the website MaritimeProfessional.com.

In seeing the two ships headed for a scrap heap, the U.S. Maritime Administration, which oversees ghost fleets in Virginia, Texas and California, also will close one of its most contentious disposal contracts – one that spurred environmental protests on both sides of the Atlantic, caused lawsuits over American toxic dumping, and drew condemnation by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

In 2003, the Maritime Administration announced a $17.8 million contract with Able UK, a shipyard in northeastern England, to dismantle 13 ghost ships from Virginia.

Able UK, which had never demolished a ship before and did not have permits to do so at the time, also was to receive the Isherwood and Eckford as perks to sweeten the deal.

Only four ghost ships arrived at the yard in Hartlepool, off the North Sea, the rest blocked by legal orders and political maneuvering. There they sat for nearly seven years before finally being recycled in late 2010, according to company and government officials.

Able UK won title rights to the Isherwood and Eckford after completing the work and took ownership in June, said Kim Riddle, a spokeswoman for the Maritime Administration, a branch of the U.S. Transportation Department.

The theory was that Able UK would finish construction of the two oilers – they were 95 percent and 84 percent complete at the time – and sell them for big dollars to a NATO ally or another friendly country.

But because the oilers were single-hulled ships, instead of the modern double-hulled standard, “we concluded that recycling was the best option,” said Peter Stephenson, Able UK’s executive chairman, in a statement released Thursday.

Neither Able UK nor International Shipbreaking would disclose the details of their scrapping contract, saying a confidentiality agreement had accompanied the deal. And since the contract did not involve the Maritime Administration, the agency declined to comment as well.

The government paid Able UK $10 million to scrap the four ghost ships from Virginia, said Riddle.

The Isherwood and Eckford were part of an 18-ship class known as the Henry J. Kaiser fleet of replenishment oilers, titans that carry oil for Navy vessels around the globe.

They were the only two that went unfinished, and were part of a 1985 budget request from the Navy for three oilers for a combined $567 million, according to records.

The two were built at the Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Co. in Philadelphia, which defaulted on its Navy contract in 1989. The ships were then sent to Florida to be finished. But disputes over costs and materials in Tampa led to the termination of that contract in 1993, according to records.

The Navy thought about turning the Isherwood and Eckford into ammunition ships, but that proved too expensive. In 1997, three years after the ships had been mothballed in the James River ghost fleet, the Navy cut its ownership ties.

Since then, the two star-crossed ships have sat idle in the middle of the James – until this week.

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com

Be sure to check out our Home Site JunkCarNation.com , Click here to check it out.

Peace and love in a world full of junk.

For $5,100, this Pinto lets you rock out with your cop out

The impending end of the road for Ford’s evergreen Crown Vic has police departments scrambling to buy up the last ones as well as looking for alternatives. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Pinto squad car is pretty alternative, but does is its price make it all that and a box of donuts?

My wife once bought a Nash Metropolitan from a guy whose ex-wife had used a baseball bat to bash the car’s roof in an attempt to get back at him for saying she looked fat in those jeans or something. Every time he went out to repair the damage, it made him so angry that he basically couldn’t work on the car, hence forcing the sale. Yesterday’s Celica All-Trac was all kinds of all apart, and due to the seller’s apparent apathy towards piecing it back together before doing the Craigslist shuffle, 72% of you voted it go to the Crack Pipe parts department.

Okay, I know it may seem like this is the Freaky Fords department as today’s candidate  is the second theme Ford we’ve had this week. This one however, is so cool I thought you’d let it slide. Besides, that old maxim about variety being the spice of life? It’s baloney. The spice of life is really Red Curry. This car is much more than a decal and paint special, and in fact this 1978 Pinto Police Car is jaw dropping in its level of coptastic detail. The seller says it was built as part of the campaign of a candidate for sheriff. It still has woodwardforsheriff.com emblazoned across its front fenders even though the address is now one of the Internet’s many backwaters. That’s potentially the only questionable element of this amazing Pinto Patrol Car. As you would expect, it’s black and white and red all over – once you light up the gumball on the roof. There’s everything you’d expect a cop car to contain, from spotlights on the A-pillars to the mouth-watering Dunkin Donuts on the console, even down to a subtle POLICE INTERCEPTOR badge just above the driver’s side tail light.

In 1978, the Pinto’s drivetrain wasn’t up to snuff for police duty, and in fact burying the gas pedal would usually result in little more than a sputter of tepid exhaust noise that sounded eerily like the car was saying um, yeah, I’ll get back to you on that. Making this one less crappy and more coppy is a drivetrain out of an 1980 Thunderbird. That’s a 140-bhp V8 and C4 automatic to you civilians. Sure, 140 ponies won’t make this Pinto one-adam twelve, but since the V8′s already there, most of the hard work involved in filling its corral has already been done.

Inside this Copinto you’ll find more T-Bird in the guise of the red bucket seats. The original Pinto platforms were about as supportive as a hand-me-down jockstrap, so these have to be a step up. There’s also extra gauges, an Rayovac flashlight, and, the bane of escapees everywhere, a Motorola two-way. The cops aways used to say, you may outrun me, but you can’t outrun a Motorola. Fun fact- Motorola was started by William Lear – the business jet guy – and he named his daughter ‘Shanda’!  I defaecate you in the negative.

The whole car, inside and out looks to be in great shape, and the somewhat cheesy nod to Andy Griffith on the trunk lid could be easily covered simply by having a ‘perp’ spreadeagled against the back of the car. Or, just leave it there and pretend you’ve got an APB out for ‘Ain’t Bee. Oh and the seller’s name is Rocky, how cool is that?

Cop cars are usually something one tries to avoid being dumped into, however jumping on this John Law Pinto might be just the ticket. And while they say if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime, this car’s $5,100 price tag doesn’t seem to be beyond the means of a public servant’s hourly wage. What do you think, is that a price that would make this Pinto patrol palatable? Or, would that leave you busted?

You decide!

http://jalopnik.com/#!5796441/for-5100-this-pinto-lets-you-rock-out-with-your-cop-out

One of the Top 12 finalists from last season’s “American Idol” had to escape through the window of a burning car Tuesday night … when her GMC Envoy suddenly BURST INTO FLAMES.

25-year-old Paige Miles — who claimed 11th place on the show — was on her way home from rehearsal in Florida … when something went terribly wrong and her SUV caught on fire.

Miles, who documented the terrifying incident on her Facebook page, explained, “The electric shut down, the car doors wouldn’t open, i jumped out my window and watched my mother’s Envoy blaze.”

Moments after she emerged from the fiery wreck, Miles said she was crying and shaking … and her blood pressure was through the roof … but she didn’t seem to have suffered any major injuries.

Afterward, Miles took photos of the charred remains of her mom’s ride — pretty damn scary.

http://www.tmz.com/2011/04/27/former-idol-contestant-my-car-burst-into-flames-paige-miles-american-idol-fire-scary-season-9-ryan-seacrest/

sorry for the delay. i went to get milk for my coffee and there was a long line.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville Metro Police arrested a man after they said he stole a car with a baby inside.It all started around 1:30 a.m. Monday at a gas station on Bardstown Road, when police said the child’s babysitter went inside, leaving the the baby and keys in the car.”I’m sure this was probably a crime of opportunity that was given and this individual took that opportunity,” said LMPD spokesman Dwight Mitchell.Shoun Balevre, 36, faces kidnapping, wanton endangerment and theft by unlawful taking charges.”Fortunately, he was caught and the baby’s fine,” Mitchell said. “That’s the good thing.”Police said Balevre stole a car from a Circle K gas station on Bardstown Road after a babysitter left the keys in the ignition and went inside the store, leaving the 8-month old she was watching inside the car.”The lady was trying to get her credit card to work at the pump and they told her to come in for a second and I guess in the commotion of trying to get her gas, left her kids in the car,” said Michael Smith, who works at a Shell station on Six Mile Lane where the stolen car ended up.Police said when Balevre realized the infant was inside the car, he ditched it about an hour after stealing it.Police said they received an anonymous call, possibly from Balevre, telling authorities exactly where the car and child could be found.”The baby was recovered in a fairly good amount of time, unharmed, which is the key here at this point,” Mitchell said.Police said they were able to track Balevre down and by 4 a.m. Monday, he was arrested.”Don’t leave your keys in the car and definitely don’t leave your kids in the car,” Smith said. “In a matter of seconds, someone can jump in your car and this incident can happen again.”

Erin Wood recalls her husband Brian as a selfless man who was counting the days until the couple welcomed the birth of their first child. And while she is filled with grief, she is equally filled with gratitude to him for sacrificing his life to save two others — hers and that of their unborn baby.

The Vancouver, B.C., couple were traveling through Washington state to visit family Friday when an oncoming Chevy Blazer weaved wildly. As the car hurtled at them head-on, Brian braked hard and swerved to the right, ensuring he would take the brunt of the crash as the Blazer slammed into them.

“It’s pretty obvious if you look at the car that if it would have been a head-on crash, we both would have been killed, right along with our baby,” Erin Wood told Carl Quintanilla on TODAY Monday from Vancouver.

“He definitely saved us. He made that choice, and I’m thankful for that.”

It was a life cut short for Brian, 33, lead designer for Relic Entertainment, renowned in the computer gaming world for such games as “Company of Heroes.” He would have been celebrating his fifth wedding anniversary with Erin on Friday; instead, she and family are planning his funeral for Sunday.

Drugs in oncoming car
According to police, the driver of the other vehicle was trying to take off her sweater while her front-seat passenger took the wheel. Washington State Trooper Mark Francis told NBC News that the vehicle crossed over the center line while the driver and passenger “jerked the wheel, overreacted and overcompensated. [They] steered back to the left and lost control, and that’s when they came head-on into the husband and wife.”

Brian Wood was killed instantly, and two male passengers in the vehicle driven by Jordyn Weichert were ejected from the back and killed. Police found heroin, cocaine, marijuana and syringes in the Weichert vehicle, and a .25-caliber pistol was found on the body of one of the men killed. The Province newspaper in British Columbia reported all four occupants of the other vehicle were well known to local law enforcement.

msnbc.com