In 1970, Plymouth hoped to persuade Ford Mustang and Chevy Camaro buyers to choose their Barracuda instead. One of Plymouth's tactics was to offer greater customization options.

At the time, the Mustang offered 15 exterior color options:

1970 Ford Mustang Exterior Paint Options

The Camaro offered 18 exterior color options:

1970 Chevy Camaro Exterior Paint Options

Note: This sheet pertains to multiple Chevy models. We have obscured the color options unavailable on the Camaro.

Plymouth went heavy by offering a whopping 25 color options. They demonstrated this to buyers not with a lame sample sheet, but by dropping this innovative-for-the-time rendering into the brochure:

1970 Plymouth Barracuda Ext. Paint Options

That rendering is freaking gorgeous, as are all of the colors. There's not a single one of those I'd decline.

As Hot Rod reports, automotive enthusiast Tim Wellborn, founder of the Wellborn Musclecar Museum in Alabama, had known about the rendering since childhood and recently decided he wanted a real version. According to My Classic Garage, "Collaborating with the Big Easy Motors television show on the History Channel, the Wellborn Musclecar Museum tapped famed builders at The Bomb Factory in New Orleans, LA [and] set out to create a real life version of the original 1970 illustration."

Here's what they came up with:

They did commit to a single color for the driver's side (looks like #17 on the chart):

While the "Paint Chip 'Cuda" isn't for sale, the museum sells both posters and banners featuring its image.

Pandemic-time party pioneers in Germany have been holding social-distance-obeying drive-in raves. The cars line up in rows and no one gets out of the cars, so presumably your dancing is limited to whatever you can pull off in a seated position. Also, since all cars have built-in noisemakers, attendees aren't shy about using them.

I'm sure it was fun for the people who went, but between the honking, the flames and whatever that music is, it looks and sounds like a living hell to me. But I recognize I'm not the target market, and I hope this helps attendees blow off steam.

In the sci-fi series The Expanse, set in the 2300s, characters carry smartphone-like devices and are often seen "throwing" data from their device onto a nearby screen for group viewing. Here in humble ol' 2020, designer Cyril Diagne has figured out how to do it, without the histrionic swiping gesture performed on the TV show, and including a capturing step:

Diagne calls it "AR Cut Paste" (though some have commented it's really copy and paste) and has made the code freely available on Github.

Handrail manufacturers often weld straight pipes to elbow connectors, then must grind the welds smooth. To speed this task, some use contraptions like this MB 650 RV product by German power tool manufacturer GeBrax, which attaches to an angle grinder to turn it into a flexible strip sander:

Other German companies, like Flex Tools and Fein, make dedicated pipe sanders:

There are also a host of sketchy-looking "As Seen on TV"-type companies flogging their own angle grinder attachments…

…but I think I'd stick with the reputable German brands.

Climbing coconut and arecanut trees to harvest their prizes is strenuous, dangerous work, and requires a young body. But in Dakshina Kannada, India, "there is a substantial migration of well-educated youngsters to the cities for white collar jobs," K. Ganapathi Bhat told India's The News Minute. "There is a huge scarcity of employment in labour-intensive sectors like agriculture, especially those skilled in climbing trees."

"Having been born in a family with an agricultural background, it was painful to see the ripe coconut and arecanut either eaten by birds or falling across the fields," Bhat says. At 60 years of age, he's too old to climb the trees himself. But unlike most farmers, he has a Bachelors of Science in Physics, Chemistry and Maths. Thus he cobbled this together:

The bike-based contraption runs on gas, using what appears to be a chainsaw motor. After testing it out for two years on roughly 2,000 arecanut trees on his own farm, Bhat reckons the "mileage" is 90 trees per liter of gas (360 trees/gallon), and that the machine can carry an 80kg (175-pound) person to the top of a 30-meter (98-foot) tree in 30 seconds--safely. If the brakes fail, a backup brake kicks in to jam the wheels in place. As long as your tree isn't mushy and algae-covered (he tested those, too, and found the performance unsatisfactory), you're in business.

Here's more footage of the machine in action, including Bhat jumping up and down on it, to demonstrate that it safely stays in place:

Although he's been approached by several manufacturers, Bhat has turned them down, as he's not interested in profit. "I wish to partner with an organisation that would help me share the technology with the farmers to benefit them," he says. "I do not wish to seek royalties for such a venture. But I want to make sure that this product reaches as many farmers as possible, so that, in some way, it helps in the development of the overall agricultural scenario of the country."

Dutch restaurant ETEN, which is part of Amsterdam's Mediamatic Arts Centre, is trialing an innovative approach to social-distancing dining. As reported by Reuters, a series of small greenhouses (max. capacity: 3) has been constructed along the waterfront outside of their restaurant.

Servers wear gloves and facemasks.

Food is served on long planks, so the servers can slide them onto the tables without entering the greenhouses.

Ditto for busing the dishes afterwards.

If I can point out one flaw, it's that the tables need those server-summoning buttons they have in Asia. In the photo below, you can clearly see the two dudes on the right are desperate for refills.

And while the solution is Dutch, the marketing contains a bit of French. "Organisers call the project 'Serres Séparées' (Separate Greenhouses)," Reuters reports, "because they say it sounds better in French."

I don't play golf, and didn't realize there's apparently an occasional need to change the locations of the holes on the greens. But there is, and this is how they do it:

I'm going to say that guy rates his job satisfaction a 10 out of 10.

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New card designs are now available in my shop! Each 5×7 card is printed by me, with archival inks on beautiful archival paper. Archival just means that it will last a long time with no fading, making them frame worthy! … Continue reading →

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Want to learn how to paint this sweet flowery girl?! I’m a guest teacher for the month of October over at True Colors. I’ll be teaching you how to create this fun, Frida-esque painting, in two 30  minute videos. Together we’ll … Continue reading →

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