Travis In Austin

We grew upnin same era, I totally understand. He was a mad genius apparently, he was holding that first lp up for ransom, they were all living in a house together at his insistence. He thought it would improve the sound or something. Then guitar player quit, He wouldn't leave the house, and they sent Ry in to try and rescue this project, and he did. Ry was 20 and apparently could relate to Don in a way others couldn't. Nice to meet another Beefheart fan…you’re right too. Rolling Stone had Trout Mask Replica as number 86(?) on their Top 500 albums of all time. One of his band mates said he was a tyrant; which may be true; but, he was always really cool when i saw him. But, then it was a social setting. He did suffer from some serious panic attacks -- i want to say that i heard an interview where Ry said that he froze one time before a huge show and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. They had a chance to play Monterey Pop, which everone knew was a big opportunity. They had the Mt. Tam fest a couple of weeks prior. He does freeze up, and falls off stage into mamagers lap. Say he freaked out when he saw a girl in the audience turn into a goldfish. Ry quit, they could not find replacement who could play the intricate guitar parts of Ry, they couldn't play Monterey. some crazy stuff.

I had No idea who owned the VRDs and should of asked, I just took it for granted that anyone who would tote such nice gear to Hope would be playing it sooner or later and that I would get in on it at that timeI also did not know who's or what Pre Amp they hooked up, but there was obviously some sort of problem as it sounded terrible!Lets try to plan out better for next year, and use something other than what was being played???Roger Use Roy's reference disks. There are 4 disks, vocals, dynamics, deep bass, etc. There are several tracks that everyone can agree on, and you go from there. Just don't let Roy do the A/B, cause he will make you do it with white noise, if he is in a good mood he will let you switch to pink. The problem is I think the only jube cabinets they have in Hope are the lab standards, and I don't think they want those outside the lab, but Roy could address that if he is around during next years event. I would really like those to be set up for everyone to listen to, in a good room, with decent corners, with 402's, VRDs on the tops and SS on the bottom. Travis

We grew upnin same era, I totally understand. He was a mad genius apparently, he was holding that first lp up for ransom, they were all living in a house together at his insistence. He thought it would improve the sound or something. Then guitar player quit, He wouldn't leave the house, and they sent Ry in to try and rescue this project, and he did. Ry was 20 and apparently could relate to Don in a way others couldn't.

Were you in a position to be able to listen to any of the differences between pres, amps? I have heard that the VRDs with that NOS preamp is a pretty hot setup. I have the VRDs but not the preamp.

I was going to suggest this, I bet Christy can get you their conference room next year, if y'all didn't have it this year. That is about the only place I have ever been able to get any critical listening done at one of those shindigs, other then the lab listening room with limited people. Those Naks are awesome, very smooth,those VRDs are obviously a different topology, and I think you would hear a distinct difference with music you were familar with. What pre were they using with the VRDs?

His music is awesome. Milk, Ry Cooder is all over that 1st album, and Trout are my two favorites. This is what Frank said about him (it is funny because I remember those Helm St. Bakery trucks growing up in LA area, and Frank wrote a song about getting him a Pepsi: "He had dropped out of school by that time, and spent most of his time staying at home. His girlfriend lived in the house, and his grandmother lived in the house, and his aunt and his uncle lived across the street. And his father had had a heart attack; his father drove a Helms bread truck, part of the time Don was helping out by taking over the bread truck route [and] driving up to Mojave. The rest of the time he would just sit at home and listen to rhythm and blues records, and scream at his mother to get him a Pepsi. Frank Zappa"

You grew up in Lancaster Stew? Schu, I saw many great shows at the Civic in the lalate 70s and early 80s. Thanks for posting that ticket stub.

Rationally, how would it differ from any other organ transplant? Dave Well here is just one difference that will make it political, not medical, like abortion, sex assignment surgery, and euthanasia. They routinely but organs from a body of one sex into the body of the opposite sex. It is not a factor they look at, they are only interested in the best possible match. So, will matching still be the major concern, or is the first concern that body be same sex? The body is relatively healthy, it is capable of repoduction, whose kids aren they? Genetically they are the family of the body donor, but they came from the body controlled by the brain of a different person. So do you sterilize the body before the transplant to prevent this from happening? Here is a major problem that doesn't happen with other transplant procedures. At what point do you cut off the head of the donor body? In many states if you cut the head off while there was brain wave activity it would be murder. Transplanting just the brain makes the ethical issues a 1000 times more complex, plus it is at least 100,000 times more complex than a head transplannt (hearing, sight, smell, taste, speech are all implicated with a brain transplant, not, presumably with a whole head). That is 3 differences off the top of my head.

Rationally, how would it differ from any other organ transplant? Dave I don't think rationality is going to be the inquiry. It will be ethics, specifically in the medical context one one side and philosophy/religion, including the mind-body question, on the other side. We just had a lung transplant in the national media a couple of years ago that had to be decided by a federal judge. The medical community was sort of split over whether the 10 year old girl should get a set of adult lungs based on a rational tranplant priority list. Rationality turned out to have nothing to do with it, emotions did. I agree with the opinion in the Popular Science article, we won't see it in this country for a long time, I am guessing not even in this century. They will at least need to demonstrate that the spinal cord can be appropriately fused. One of our top guys in spinal cord injuries at Purdue says it can't happen yet in two years. Now if a drug company can figure out a way to make money off it, like they did with heart transplants, they will create an accelerated path to mainstream. The problem is that it apparently takes stem cell research to do that. We are not, historically, very rational in this county when it comes to stem cell research. Not saying that is right or wrong, just saying it will not be looked at here rationally. It for sure will not be inovated here as the heart transplant was, too much controversy here. I wonder where he plans on doing it? He is from Italy, but if the Vatican issued a pronouncement on it I would think it is not going to happen there. Maybe he picked a Russian patient because he hopes to do it there?

It terminates on the northern end just north of Georgetown. It was initially supposed to go up to the Metroplex and beyond, as part of the Trans-Texas Corridor project, but that project was killed in the last session.

All of Houston's Toll Roads are like that. I mentioned this very thing to the young lady who assisted me at the EZ Tag store. She said, "we don't have that here". Freaking Dallas at least has toll booths where you can pay, Houston gives you a dic in the arse, with the cherry on top being a ticket requiring a mandatory court appearance. It's no wonder Dave wants an autonomous car. Driving there sucks rocks, big time. I'd hate to think what it's like over by NASA during rush hour. OMFG, IH45 btwn Galveston and Houston is suppose to be a biach, and I've always left Galveston taking the back roads to Schulemburg, so I'd pop out approx. 1.5 hrs. west of Houston, and well away from traffic hell. Anyway, I was told that the EZ Tag works on all Texas Toll roads, including my favorite, State Hwy 130 between Seguin and Austin. They say it goes all the way to Dallas, but I've never taken it that far.

That is interesting. Is that because they anticipate they will be reading or something else that their attention is inside the vehicle? I know a lot of people who cannot read as a passenger in a vehicle.

It is a long way off. I have never heard of a mainstream physician having to resort to crowd funding to finance a medical procedure. Dr. Shumway certainly didn't. http://www.popsci.com/no-human-head-transplants-will-not-be-possible-2017

Which toll road is that down in Houston that doesn't do toll by mail? I didn't even know that existed. All of the toll roads up this way are mail or TxTag, you save a little if you do TxTag. What a scam, that same thing happened to me in Denver, no pay lanes. I sent a check for the amount of the toll, and put payment in full, they cashed it. Sent that to the contractor that they use to collect and I never heard from them again.

I have to get up to speed every year, by the time F1 comes to Austin in November I like to be at least half way informed.

Gosh the rules now, wow. Finally had some time to read a couple of my back issues of Autoweek last night, and I think some of them are great. Four engines (I mean power unit), whoops, I mean 5, for whole season. Reliability becomes a major issue at the end of the season. Each team has a number of "tokens" it can use during the season to make engine improvements. It looks like Honda got a pass and will be able to make engine improvements during the season without penalty, which is a major brake for them but seems to be the most logical approach. http://m.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/117386

I agree Dave, the hands free alternative in rush hour is well worth it, just in terms of stress reduction alone. There are major changes that need to be taken to have a fully integrate connected AVs. UT and A&M are doing studies and designing systems. This will control the speeds of AVs on surface streets, monitor flow in real time (which is already being done right now with cell phone pings on an anonymous basis), will factor in anticipated loads based on destinations people have entered into their av, etc. Eventually, AVs will be required in congested urban areas, and eventually there will be no traffic lights, except to tell pedestrians when it ok to cross the street. That is if, and when, cities want the technology to be the most efficient.

Wow! Anyone have a db meter?

An integrated system that coordinates AVs with traffic buildup is certainly much further down the line. This can happen in major cities but it will come with the cost of additional time. If freeways are congested it will put you on surface streets, alternate routes, etc. The model will probably involve tolls and fees for Peak times. A toll lane in Austin begins next year that works that way. The toll is variable, from $1 to $5, depending on the congestion level for about 10 miles of road that goes directly into downtown. An integrated AV system will probably give you alternateatives, freeways and less time would cost X, surface roads and longer routes would be Y. Less if you travel between 10 and 2. UT is working on intersection and traffic control design for use with AVs. They have been asked to work up a model that gives intersection priority to emergency vehicles and those vehicles that bid for and receive priority. This would be delivery trucks, FedEx etc. As you approach an intersection and a company truck approaches perpendicular, you stop and the truck goes through. The truck that has bid and paid gets the "green" light. There will no longer be income from traffic tickets, municipalities will have to make up that income in other ways such as this. I think the big question is regardless of the technology, full AV, or just partial driver assistance, at what point will we see a 10 percent improvement in commute times? What percentage of vehicles in urban areas need to have the tech to see any real commute time improvement? I think the commute times will continue to worsen as already projected and then slowly improve down the road. I think ten years is optomistic on when improvement begins, but who knows. As always, it depends on how much of a legislative priority it is, the ever present urban vs. rural competition for funds, and how this ends up being legislated on a local,state and federal level. As always, time will tell. Travis

Isn't there another rule, no work during the mid season break? I cannot keep up with it all. And wasn't Bernie talking last year about the teams going to 3 cars this year?

Quite Hollow, great Vids, thank you for those. I really like Roy's new sub.

They flew in from Houston, CC and Bmont? Guess they lucked out and beat the weather that came in Friday morning into Spinks where I was hoping to pick up Bill. I saw things cleared up nicely by Sunday so it must have been pretty coming back. My timing hasn't been good lately, I was in Hope a couple of weeks ago and Roy was out of the Country, but got to say hello to a couple of factory friends, but it sure would have been nice to see some old forum friends and meet some new ones. It sounds like it was a great time, as always, with some excitement thrown in. Looking forward to seeing more photos, especially Boxx's family.

Wish I could have been there as well, I was hoping to get Bill H. to come along with me and fly him in, but weather didn't cooperate Friday morning and I don't think he had the time to do a drive in on Sat. And back on Sun.

Did they have those up and running for y'all to hear?

An even older motor, BMW 1.5L single turbo, with associated turbo lag. With 5.5 bar of boost, 1300 to 1500 hp, race limits on fuel required backing boost down to about 3.8 Bar and 800 to 850hp.