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LAS VEGAS – IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon has been seriously injured after his car went sailing through the air during in a massive 15-car wreck early in Sunday’s Las Vegas Indy 300.
Indianapolis 500 winner Wheldon, in line to win $5 million had he won the race, was injured when he car flew over another on the Lap 12 wreck and apparently caught part of the catch fence just outside of Turn 2.
Paul Tracy, who was involved in the wreck, said a team of doctors was working on Wheldon, but there was no word of his injuries. A helicopter lifted off from the speedway, and an IndyCar official confirmed Wheldon was onboard.
Pippa Mann and J.R. Hildebrand also were transported to a hospital after complaining of dizziness.
The wreck left Townsend Bell upside down, smoldering cars strewn all over the track and debris nearly halfway up the straightaway of the 1.5-mile oval.
“Just a horrendous accident,” said Tracy, who was involved in the accident. “Lot of prayers right now for Dan, because it’s going to be a long recovery. They’re scrambling in there right now. There’s 20 doctors in there.
Wheldon had to start in the back of the field as part of the promotion and had quickly worked his way through the 34-car field before the big wreck.
“I’ve never seen such a mess in my entire career on the race track,” said Danica Patrick, in her final IndyCar race before heading to NASCAR. Really concerned about Dan right now.”
Wheldon was transported to a hospital in a helicopter after a crash early in Sunday’s Las Vegas Indy 300.
Drivers had been concerned about the high speeds on LVMS’ 1.5-mile oval after they reached nearly 225 mph during practice.
Their concerns became reality when contact on Turn 2 sent cars flying through the air, crashing into each other and into the outside wall and catch fence.
The wreck left Bell’s car upside down, smoldering cars strewn all over the track and debris scattered down the straightaway opposite the grandstand.
“I’ll tell you, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Ryan Briscoe said. “The debris we all had to drive through the lap later, it looked like a war scene from Terminator or something. I mean, there were just pieces of metal and car on fire in the middle of the track with no car attached to it and just debris everywhere. So it was scary, and your first thoughts are hoping that no one is hurt because there’s just stuff everywhere. Crazy.”
Wheldon bumped Alex Tagliani from his ride with Sam Schmidt Motorsports and raced two weeks ago at Kentucky as a warm-up for Las Vegas.
The accident also collected championship contender Will Power, who sat for a long time in his car in disbelief. Points-leader Dario Franchitti avoided it, and seemed stunned as he waited out the clean-up on pit road.
Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers have come to terms on a new four-year contract that trades annual pay raises for profit sharing and a signing bonus and promises thousands of new jobs building cars and trucks.
Both the union and company said in statements that they would announce details on Tuesday.
Ford shares fell 10 cents to $9.27 in pre-market trading.
The agreement is expected to reduce Ford’s hourly labor costs, which are the highest in the U.S. auto industry. But it is likely to add thousands of new union jobs, depending on growth in U.S. auto sales. Already Ford has promised to add more than 7,000 jobs in the next two years, including engineers and factory workers.
The pact still must be approved by Ford’s 41,000 UAW members in voting that will start next week. Approval could be a problem because many expected the company to restore pay raises and other benefits they sacrificed to help Ford through tough financial times starting in 2007.
According to published reports, Diana Ross is not happy that her daughter Tracee is dating a polygamist. Tracee is dating Bu Thiam, who is the brother of Singer/Rapper Akon. Bu has money and is well known in the entertainment world. He and Tracee are very close, but Tracee had to assure her mother she would never marry a man who would take other women as wives. Tracee has a new show debuting on BET next month called Reed Between The Lines with Malcolm Jamal Warner.
TOKYO — Honda Motor Co. says it will recall a total of 962,000 cars worldwide to fix power windows and computer systems.
Honda will recall 936,000 units of the Fit subcompact, CR-V crossover and Fit Aria in North America, Asia, Europe and Africa, the company said Monday. The Fit is called Jazz in some overseas markets, while the Fit Aria is also known as City.
Honda says the recall was prompted by defects in driver’s-side power window switch units, which could potentially melt and catch fire.
It will also recall 26,000 CR-Z compact hybrids globally due to programming problems with the engine control unit
There have been no injuries because of the defects, Honda says
www.blogtalkradio.com/Lennis “Talk 2 Me” 646-727-2914
Sunday at 6:00 to 7:00pm, PST
Be sure to call in early the first part of the show will be dedicated
to the Modeling Industry, yesterday and today where are they at?
Second part of the show we will be discussing Traveling. Family, pet, haunted
travels, cost, budget. Seeing our beautiful country.
Detroit can’t catch a break. The only time the city has been shown any love lately is when Chrysler showed the worldits empowering take on the city during the Super Bowl leaving an indelible catch phrase on everyone’s minds to remember: “This is the Motor City and this is what we do.” But, unfortunately, those words have taken on a new meaning and what they’re “doing” is leaving.
The city affectionately known as The D, is now using that acronym for “Departing.” The New York Times depicts a dismal side to the Motor City when they reported the overwhelming number of residents that have left the city since 2000. The city that came from a bustling 2 million residents has dropped down to less than 800,000. In 10 years, the city has seen the population decline by 237,500 residents–the largest decline in American history for any city with over 100,00 residents.
According to their report, now the once urban center of the north has turned into a dilapidated crack house bereft of inhabitants. The present mayor, David Bing, has committed to tearing down 10,000 vacant residential buildings. But, while that may sound progressive, the city will really appear to be a wasteland when he leaves those massive holes all over the city.
Read here and say a prayer for the once beloved Motown. That’s got to be the way to help the city make a turnaround. It definitely feels like only God can save it.
Automakers are operating in terra incognita as they prepare for the biggest change in the way cars are powered in a century. As they begin to add battery-powered cars to their lineups, they will have to solve some fundamental problems about how the cars are built and sold.
For engineers, the questions include:
Should automakers be technology leaders or fast followers?
Should they develop their own batteries or leave that to specialists?
Should they focus on one technology or hedge their bets with several?
For marketers, the issues are:
Should automakers use existing body styles and model names or create new ones?
Should they start slowly and wait for demand to develop or try to grab market share immediately?
Should they distribute cars through existing dealer networks or start from scratch?
There are few guideposts to follow. The only equivalent parallel in recent history has been the launch of the hybrid gas-electric vehicle, where, arguably, only one company has been successful.
That is Toyota (TM), which unlike most other manufacturers, built a hybrid-specific car, the Prius. The car’s unique character attracted early adopters as well as the environmentally-conscious who wanted to visibly demonstrate their commitment, and Toyota promoted it effectively.
Honda tried to drive the same road with its own hybrid, the Insight. But both the first- and second-generation vehicles sold poorly.
Other automakers installed their gas-electric powertrains in existing models, essentially making the hybrid device an option. The cars lacked a distinctive identity, most have suffered weak sales.
If there lessons to be learned from Prius, they haven’t been reflected in current battery-electric strategies, no two of which seem to be alike.
Two French automakers, for instance, are using sharply different approaches.
My hat is tipped off to our young Black geniuses today. A group of high school students at De LaSalle High School in Kansas City, Miss. have taken part in a project that will go into history books.
When compared with the amount of energy needed to run a regular car powered by gasoline, the electric car built by the De LaSalle students is equal to 452 miles per gallon!
One student, Kevin Duley (pictured above), had the typical dream of becoming a professional basketball player, but the invention changed his mind. He now wants to be a scientist.
The great thing about this story is that is emphasizes the importance of extra-curricular activities in the schools. These students’ futures depend on these programs, especially in the Black community.
Our politicians need to stop trippin out and get it together. They keep taking money out of the school and putting em over seas and in our prisons. If we had it right, prison populations wouldn’t be so high and we’d have more kids going to school instead of jail. But who am I. Just a blogger.
1. Tip from Tae Kwon Do :
The elbow is the strongest point
on your body.
If you are close enough to use it, do!
2. Learned this from a tourist guide.
If a robber asks for your wallet and/or purse,
DO NOT HAND IT TO HIM .
Toss it away from you …
Chances are that he is more interested
in your wallet and/or purse than you,
and he will go for the wallet/purse.
RUN LIKE MAD IN THE OTHER DIRECTION!
3. If you are ever thrown into the trunk of a car,
kick out the back tail lights and stick your arm out the hole
and start waving like crazy..
The driver won’t see you, but everybody else will.
This has saved lives.
4. Women have a tendency to get into their cars
after shopping, eating, working, etc., and just sit
(doing their checkbook, or making a list, etc.
DON’T DO THIS!)
The predator will be watching you, and this
is the perfect opportunity for him to get in
on the passenger side, put a gun to your head,
and tell you where to go.
AS SOON AS YOU GET INTO YOUR CAR ,
LOCK THE DOORS AND LEAVE..
If someone is in the car
with a gun to your head
DO NOT DRIVE OFF,
Repeat:
DO NOT DRIVE OFF!
Instead gun the engine and
speed into anything, wrecking the car .
Your Air Bag will save you.
If the person is in the back seat
they will get the worst of it.
As soon as the car crashes
bail out and run .
It is better than having them find your body
in a remote location.
5. A few notes about getting
into your car in a parking lot,
or parking garage:
A.) Be aware:
look around you,
look into your car,
at the passenger side floor ,
and in the back seat.
B.) If you are parked next to a big van,
enter your car from the passenger door .
Most serial killers attack their victims
by pulling them into their vans while the women
are attempting to get into their cars.
C.) Look at the car
parked on the driver’s side of your vehicle,
and the passenger side.. If a male is sitting alone
in the seat nearest your car, you may want to walk back
into the mall, or work, and get a
guard/policeman to walk you back out.
IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY. (And better paranoid than dead.)
6. ALWAYS take the elevator
instead of the stairs.
Stairwells are horrible places to be alone
and the perfect crime spot.
This is especially true at NIGHT!)
7. If the predator has a gun
and you are not under his control,
ALWAYS RUN!
The predator will only hit you (a running target)
4 in 100 times; and even then,
it most likely WILL NOT be a vital organ.
RUN, Preferably in a zig -zag pattern!
8. As women, we are always trying
to be sympathetic:
STOP
It may get you raped, or killed.
Ted Bundy, the serial killer, was a good-looking,
well educated man, who ALWAYS played
on the sympathies of unsuspecting women.
He walked with a cane, or a limp, and often
asked ‘for help’ into his vehicle or with his vehicle,
which is when he abducted
his next victim.
9. Another Safety Point:
Someone just told me that her friend heard
a crying baby on her porch the night before last,
and she called the police because it was late
and she thought it was weird.. The police told her
‘Whatever you do, DO NOT
open the door..’
The lady then said that it sounded like the baby
had crawled near a window, and she was worried
that it would crawl to the street and get run over.
The policeman said, ‘We already have a unit on the way,
whatever you do, DO NOT open the door.’
He told her that they think a serial killer
has a baby’s cry recorded and uses it to coax
women out of their homes thinking that someone
dropped off a baby.. He said they have not verified it,
but have had several calls by women saying that
they hear baby’s cries outside their doors
when they’re home alone at night.
10 . Water scam!
If you wake up in the middle
of the night to hear all your taps outside running or what you think is a
burst pipe, DO NOT GO OUT TO INVESTIGATE! These people turn on all your
outside taps full blast so that you will go out to investigate and
then attack.
Stay alert, keep safe, and look out for your neighbors!
Please pass this on
This e-mail should probably be taken seriously because
the Crying Baby Theory was mentioned on
America ‘s Most Wanted when they profiled
the serial killer in Louisiana
I’d like you to forward this to all the women you know.
It may save a life. A candle is not dimmed by lighting another candle..
I was going to send this to the ladies only,
but guys, if you love your mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, etc.,
you may want to pass it onto them, as well.