Why? Because science, of course. According to researchers (where do I apply for this job?), swearing can help remedy a whole clusterf*ck of ills. It can help relieve social pain (for when a good cry just won’t do), strengthen social bonds … and even allow you to withstand being submerged in cold water for longer periods of time. If only Jack had dropped a few f-bombs at the end of Titanic.
And it can be particularly useful in the workplace. As the cunning linguists immersed in the world of totally-not-made-up-curse-word-science point out, in moderation an occasional inflammatory word can send a message, whether it’s “stop f*cking up, or we’ll have to fire you” or “quit passing this sh*t off as client ready, you imbecile.”
Plus, these words are often used as an escalation signal to warn that it’s time to back the f*ck off before a difference of opinions turns into full-fledged workplace violence. So, there’s that.
The first Air Jordans to feature visible Nike Air—and undisputed classics—are back after a seven year hiatus.
The MVP of the 1988 NBA All-Star Game was
Michael Jordan. 30 years later, this fact seems obvious: he's MJ. Of
course he racked up an All-Star MVP. But it's easy to forget that at the
time, winning the award was one of MJ's top achievements (he wouldn't
win an NBA title until 1991). Still, Jordan's MVP win in front of a home
crowd in Chicago is still one of the coolest things he ever did, and to
sneakerheads, the shoes he was wearing during that game are one of the
all-time best Air Jordan sneakers. Next month, the Air Jordan 3 "Cement" makes its return after seven years in Nike's archives.
The
Air Jordan 3 didn't just help MJ on the court because they looked cool.
(As we all remember, "it's gotta be the shoes.") They were also a
massive step forward for the Jordan brand, as they were the first
Jordans to feature visible Nike Air technology. Debuting the year after
the original Air Max sneaker,
the Air Jordan 3 was also designed by Tinker Hatfield, who went on to
design every Air Jordan through the 15. But the Jordan 3 remains the
most beloved Air Jordan sneaker by many sneakerheads as the first to
truly represent "His Airness."
Never co-sign for a loan, contract or other financial commitment unless you’re prepared to pay the whole amount yourself.
Generally, if someone asks you to cosign for them it’s either because
1.) they can’t get approved on their own, or 2.) they’ve been approved
(but at a high interest rate) and a co-signer would get them a lower
rate.
Cosigning isn’t just “putting in a good word” for someone. It’s
asking you to cover their debt in case they don’t. Lenders generally
know how to assess risk, so when you co-sign, you’re taking a financial
risk that underwriting experts refused to. If the friend / family member
/ coworker you cosigned for falls behind (or just chooses not to pay
his bills and party instead), you’ll get the harassing calls demanding
payment. It’s a lose-lose situation: lose your friend/family member;
lose your money.
Family owned rum-maker Bacardi is buying the outstanding 70% stake it doesn’t own in the self-proclaimed ultra premium tequila brand, Patron. The deal values Patron at $5.1B. Mmm, tastes like Spring Break ’09. The high-end rum runners have been expanding their brand offering to be inclusive of all young party goers seeking bad decisions.
Bacardi has been on a mission to become a major player in the premium spirits space since new CEO, Mahesh Madhavan, took over in October. The Cuban based company now owns its own Bacardi Rum line, Grey Goose Vodka, Patron Tequila and Bombay Sapphire Gin. Seems like they are really trying to corner the Long Island Iced Tea market.
Get the salt and lime
Alcohol sales were down 1.3% in 2016 but the tequila market grew by 5.2%. Coincidentally Applebee’s served up $1 margs over the same period.
Bacardi needed to make a splash to stay relevant in the blue agave industry as Diageo recently made headlines by purchasing George Clooney’s tequila brand “Casamigos” for $1B. As if he needed the money.
The Biggest Wastes Of Time We Regret When We Get Older
Dwelling on Your Mistakes and Shortcomings
Learning from your mistakes is one thing. Dwelling on them wastes
your time, diminishes your confidence, and keeps you from getting on
with your life.
Dwelling also makes you more apt to repeat your mistakes. In a recent study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology,
researchers asked subjects to spend money during an imaginary trip to
the mall. Before "shopping", some subjects were asked to recall a past
financial mistake. They found those subjects were more likely to incur
debt. A press release for the study concluded:
Perhaps the most surprising, Haws said, is that searching through the
past can negatively affect behaviour, depending on the ease of recall,
even when past examples are positive...Instead of dwelling on the past,
Haws said, her research into behaviour suggests that setting goals for
the future can positively change present behaviour...In short, if we
want to have better self-control, "Look forward," Haws says. "Don't look
back."
When you think about your own experiences, it probably makes sense.
Dwelling makes you feel like a failure. When I feel like a failure, it's
easy to tell myself there's no point in trying, because I already suck.
(Hence, getting further into debt when you already feel like an
overspender.)
Of course, you don't want to skip over your mistakes and ignore them either. The goal is to glean something from them, then release the failure. I like Emilie Wapnick's process for doing this:
In order to let the past go, you must forgive yourself officially.
Feel the embarrassment or shame one final time. Really feel it
throughout your body. Next, tell yourself that everyone makes mistakes
and you know you that that outcome was not your intention. It was an
accident. Finally, make the decision to forgive yourself and do it. It
helps to even say it out loud.
From now on, it's OK. You are forgiven.
Every time the thought comes back, simply remind yourself that you
have already been forgiven, so there's no reason to feel bad anymore.
Then push the thought away.
One of my other big time regrets is not allowing myself to fail out of fear of my own shortcomings.
For years, I stayed in a comfortable place and didn't try to do
things I wanted to do. I wanted to travel after high school, but I went
to university close to home instead, because I was too shy to meet new
people, and I was afraid I couldn't make it in another city. After
university, I wanted to be a freelance writer, but I decided to find a
more stable, accessible job instead, because that was easier. There's
nothing wrong with wanting to live a stable, comfortable life, but I was
doing it for the wrong reasons: because I was afraid to fail.
Eventually, I got tired of this. I decided to find work I actually
enjoyed, travel more and live somewhere else. I made a ton of mistakes
along the way, and even when I did succeed, I felt like an imposter. Still, I think the bigger mistake was not trying sooner. Even if I failed, I would have learned from my mistakes much sooner.
Worrying Too Much About Other People
It's easy to waste time worrying about other people, too. Don't get
me wrong -- your friends and loved ones mean a lot to you, and you want
to spend time nurturing them. But we also spend a lot of time fretting
over problems that don't matter in the long run.
For example, I spent years getting annoyed with people who undermine me. I complained about them, tried to understand them, wondered what was wrong with me
that I inspired that kind of behaviour. Those habits always lead to a
dead end, because they didn't involve action. The older I got, the less
tolerant I became of this behaviour, and I learned to nip it in the bud.
I also indulged another time wasting emotion: jealousy.
I compared myself to everyone, wanted what they had, and felt
inadequate. Like most negative, destructive feelings, the first (and
biggest) step to overcoming it is understanding it.
I paid attention to my jealousy and what triggered it, then learned
that it was less about the other person and more about my own feelings
of inadequacy. In short, I embraced that jealousy.
Envy is a bit different, but it often comes from the same place, and
here's what writer Trent Hamm suggests in dealing with your envy:
The question is, why do you want it in your life? I like to use the
"five whys" when handling a question like this. Whenever I'm trying to
answer a "why" question, I repeat it five times, asking it of the answer
I come up with for each question. When you identify a particular strong
desire that you have, step back for a moment and break it down into
small pieces. Then, see if there isn't a way for you to address those
smaller pieces in your own life. Again, let's take that international
trip. What elements am I desiring when it comes to that trip? I want to
expose my children to different cultures…. The thing is, when I start
breaking that trip down into small pieces, I start seeing pieces that I
can easily incorporate into my own life.
Once you understand why you feel jealous or envious, you can take
action to take care of the problem, whether that means processing the
emotions or coming up with goals for yourself. Either way, that's a lot
more productive.
Most of us are probably guilty of all of these at some point, and
really, they're human nature. Regret is another big waste of time, so
there's no point in beating yourself up over these. The sooner you learn
from them, though, the sooner you can free up your time and energy to
live the life you want.
Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s 3 Golden Rules for Eating Sushi
Rule 1: Don’t even think about mixing wasabi into your soy sauce
That’s right – if the first thing you do when your sushi arrives at the table is to mix a lump of wasabi into your soy sauce, you’ve broken one of Morimoto’s cardinal rules before even tasting a bite of fish. That’s because the perfect-sized dollop of spicy green paste is already tucked into your sushi. “Trust me, don’t put,” Morimoto says. “I already put wasabi between the fish and the rice. The right amount.”
Rule 2: Dunk carefully
“You dip the rice in the soy sauce,” says Morimoto, and laughs. “That’s wrong!” Yep, dipping your sushi into the soy sauce rice side down is another no-no. While the rice in poorly made sushi (or at least stuff that’s been sitting at the grocery store all day) may have a spackle-like consistently that’ll stand up to a dunking, professionally-trained sushi chefs spend years learning how to gently fold the seasoning into the rice without mangling the grains and releasing too much starch. The rice should be just sticky enough to hold together, but it’ll fall apart the second it touches liquid.
Rule 3: Eating sushi is a one-bite deal
See rule number 1: Each piece of sushi is designed to be a balance of flavors and ingredients, so if you eat one part at a time, you’re sacrificing the perfect bite. “Some people say I can’t eat this in one bite, too big,” Morimoto says. “Tell me which one is bigger: a hot dog, a hamburger or sushi? Not the sushi.”
“Better to trip with the feet than with the tongue.”
What It Means
If you trip with your feet, you can get back up again and carry on business as usual. We all make mistakes like this sometimes. It might be embarrassing, but only if you care greatly about the opinions of others.
If you trip with your tongue, you unleash more than just words. You share thoughts, desires, or perspectives that may hurt others. Once you’ve said something hurtful, you can’t undo it. There’s no getting back up; there’s only asking for forgiveness and hoping they’ll pull you back up.
What to Take From It
Think before you speak. Whatever you say, write, or tweet will be out there forever. You can burn pages, delete tweets and Facebook comments, but you can’t pull your words from someone else’s mind. So, while you may one day forget why you said such hurtful things, the world won’t. Don’t forget an earlier lesson that says it’s best not to speak unless you know for certain it’s something worth saying.
Should Lexus Follow The LFA Supercar With A Second Generation ?
The Lexus LFA supercar was almost beyond comprehension. Jalopnik
bossman Patrick George once described it perfectly “Its name stands for
Lexus ***king Awesome.” Lexus knows we want another one, but will they
ever build it? Well, it hasn’t said yes, but it hasn’t closed the door
either.
The Lexus LFA was far removed from any other car that
the Japanese luxury brand has made. It was a legit supercar, more
Ferrari than Lexus, with a price-tag of almost $400,000. Under the hood
was a screaming, naturally aspirated V10 that sounded like a Formula 1
race car.
Today it is still one of the rarest supercars you will ever encounter,
as Lexus only made 500 copies between 2010 and 2012. Some are
mysteriously still out there for sale as brand “new” cars.
Englishtown Raceway Abruptly Closes Its NHRA Drag Strip
For decades, Englishtown Raceway Park in New Jersey has been home to the
NHRA’s Summer Nationals. But today, the track announced it’s stopping
drag racing, effective immediately. Other activities at Englishtown will
continue, notably Club Loose’s drift events, but this is an abrupt end
to an era.
All quarter and eighth mile events are coming to an end, while dirt
bike, karting, road course and drift events will continue. The reason
for the closure of drag racing appears to come from the track leasing
out that area to Insurance Auto Auctions to store cars. Englishtown
previously held some of the thousands of cars flooded by Hurricane Sandy back in 2013, so this relationship isn’t coming out of nowhere.
A source familiar with the matter said that IAA recently came back and made an offer the track “couldn’t refuse.”
So
the end of drag racing at Englishtown doesn’t seem to be coming from
something falling through with the NHRA so much as car storage being
more lucrative.
Modern Cars Are A Nightmare That Will Soon Haunt Used Car Buyers Everywhere
As cars get stuffed with more and more technology, today's new cars are in danger of becoming all-but worthless as soon as a complex component fails, making the used car market a minefield
To cut a long story short, the bill was more than half
the trade-in value of the car. Parts for high-pressure injection systems
are expensive. If the bill had been for crash damage, my
insurer would have written the car off. These repairs aren’t driveway
tasks, either. Installing the injectors is no big deal (although the
rocker cover had to come off), but they need special coding and setup
that only a main dealer or specialist will have the equipment for. Even
if you ask your friendly local independent to do it, they’ll most likely
just send the injectors off to the same specialist you could have
visited yourself.
If the idea of four-figure bills that you can’t reduce by
doing the spannering yourself doesn’t frighten you just a bit, it
should. Remember, my car is a decade old. Most cars that have been made
since then also have a high-pressure fuel injection system, with petrols
having joined the fun many years ago for the sake of efficiency. That’s
also far from the only palm-moisteningly costly part that could fail as
modernish cars age.
With surprise costs like these waiting to bend you over and insert a
large cactus into your darkest recesses, how long is it going to be
before any car outside its warranty period becomes a risk not worth
taking? If 12 months into ownership you’re smacked with a four-figure
bill, you might as well have bought new. Aftermarket warranties aren’t
worth the paper they’re written on (having had two myself and witnessing
first-hand the various infuriating get-out clauses), and with cheap PCP
and lease deals aplenty, used car ownership suddenly doesn’t look quite
as rosy as it used to.
Expand this to today’s cars. Is there something you’ve
got your eye on? Something you’d like to poach from the classifieds when
it gets old and cheap enough? Forget it, unless you’ve got big cash
reserves. Things like the complex electrics in modern swivelling
headlights or keyless entry systems, emissions-reduction systems, active
driver aids and more will be ridiculously expensive to fix. Why bother
at all? When the cars are a decade old, all this tech is just putting
your wallet at ever greater risk of being violated.
One answer, of course, is to buy even older cars; simpler
cars with simpler engines. Stuff from the early 2000s and
pre-Millennium. Simpler usually means cheaper to fix. How does the
saying go? The simplest solutions are often the best. When it
comes to car makers, this nugget of old-fashioned wisdom has long since
been forgotten. And used car buyers like us are the ones who’ll end up
paying for it.
Ford And Dodge Are Secret Best Friends, And Here’s Why
On the face of it Ford and Dodge are enemies; two sharks competing to survive in a shrinking sea, but in truth they'd be lost without each other
The mission for both of these iconic American brands is always
ongoing. Sometimes Ford has the advantage, sometimes Dodge, but these
two brilliant car-makers have yet again pushed each other to do truly
great things that they never would have done alone.
They work in opposition, but also together toward common
goals, advancing every market sector they compete in. They make the
buyer’s world better. For that, I make Ford and Dodge more than close friends: I’d almost call them brothers.
McLaren, unlike Ferrari or Lamborghini, won't build an SUV
McLaren's design chief is not into the SUV.
Lamborghini now has one, and Ferrari says it will introduce one by
late 2019 or 2020. But don't expect McLaren to taint its supercar DNA by
giving into the temptation to tap into the hot-selling sport utility vehicle segment.
"I'm not the first person to point out an SUV is neither particularly
sporty or utilitarian," McLaren's chief designer, Dan Parry-Williams, told Top Gear.
"It's not 'everything for a reason,' unless the reason is to clutter up
the streets," referring to a McLaren design mantra ("everything for a
reason", a nod to minimalism and purposefulness in the company's cars).
In other words, they're not going to build one since it doesn't fit with
the mission of the company: to build ultra high-performance sportscars.
All The Innovative Ways Dan Gurney Shaped Racing As We Know It Today
Winning Le Mans For America—And Tall Guys Everywhere
All American Racers started in 1966, but one of their earliest projects was one of their most legendary.
One problem: Gurney’s helmeted 6'4" body didn’t quite fit in the car, and thus, the Gurney bubble was invented to allow space around his head. The smooth bubble fit over the driver’s head to allow Gurney enough headroom to race.
Sharing The Bubbly
It’s always fascinating to learn who popularized different post-race celebrations. Long before we had donuts and shoeys, Dan Gurney started the now-ubiquitous habit of spraying anyone with reach of the podium with celebratory champagne.
After winning Le Mans in 1967, Gurney was handed a magnum of champagne and just couldn’t help himself. Gurney explained, as quoted on the All American Racers website:
I was so stoked that when they handed me the Magnum of Moët et Chandon, I shook the bottle and began spraying at the photographers, drivers, Henry Ford II, Carroll Shelby and their wives. It was a very special moment at the time, I was not aware that I had started a tradition that continues in winner’s circles all over the world to this day.
The bottle was initially given to Life photographer Flip Schulke, who captured the madness before ducking from the spray and proudly displayed it in his home for many years. But given how the champagne spray went viral long before “going viral” was a thing, Schulke eventually gave it back to Gurney and the All American Racers shop.
America’s Best Run In Formula One
Dan Gurney also did something no other American driver in an American-built race car has done outside of the Indianapolis 500: win a Formula One race. Gurney’s team was the Anglo-American Racers for his F1 run due to the British Weslake V12 they used, but the Eagle Mk. 1 car itself was built in America, as Gurney’s team’s own design.
The Gurney Flap
Gurney’s other namesake contribution to motorsports was as simple as bolting some aluminum right-angle to the trailing edge of a race car’s rear wing, yet it changed the game for aerodynamics.
The Gurney flap worked so well that Unser then complained of too much understeer from the extra downforce at the rear, forcing Gurney’s team to modify the front of the car to match. Later, McDonnell-Douglas utilized the concept for lift on aircraft, and other race teams started to copy it.
What it does is simple: airflow behind the flap forms a pair of vortices that deflect air going over the wing-and-flap combo downwards, creating precious downforce that sucks the rear of the car to the ground and allows for faster cornering speeds if the front aerodynamics are a good match.
Adding a Gurney flap is still a simple, inexpensive aerodynamic tweak used by racers today.
Why Liberty Walk Made The Most Outrageous Lamborghini Miura Ever
This is a one-off promotional car, so don’t send them emails asking for one. The story behind the car a typical one.
Toshiro
“Toshi” Nishio, Sales Manager at Liberty Walk, kindly explained the
story of this curious car to me. “Kato-san has always wanted a Miura,
but finding one is quite difficult,” he said. That’s understandable—who
wouldn’t want a Miura?
“One day Kato-san went to a few random car
shops and found a Ford GT40 (replica) for sale. This gave him the idea
to make himself a Miura,” Toshi said.
From idea to creation it took about six months. They stripped the Ford
body off and put their own custom Miura body on top of the chassis,
overfenders and all.
Kato-san could’ve easily made this replica without the overfenders, but
where’s the fun in that? As always he wanted to combine his love of
classic Japanese cars and this classic European exotic. From the outside
with the stance and overfenders to distract the eye, it’s quite a
convincing replica. The black color does help hide some of the doubt.
The car isn’t fully complete yet; air suspension will be the next thing
to go on this “Miura.” While the chassis and engine are from a GT40,
some “modifications have been made to the engine.”
Warren Buffett Says This One Simple Habit Separates Really Successful People From Others
This iconic Buffett quote is
powerful advice for business and life in general. “The difference
between successful people and really successful people is that really
successful people say no to almost everything.” The crux of this quote
is for people not to get too distracted by nonsense and focus on the
main goal at hand even if other ambitions seem promising.
Apple chairman, CEO, and co-founder Steve Jobs agreed with Buffett’s
message about keeping your eyes on the prize. “People think focus means
saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on,” Jobs said at the Apple
Worldwide Developers’ Conference in 1997. “But that’s not what it means
at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there
are. You have to pick carefully.
Christian von Koenigsegg on tires, record speed and watchmakers
We talk to the man himself at the Detroit Auto Show.
When asked about the future of the auto industry, Koenigsegg seemed
surprisingly confident that his cars will have a market in the future.
"Look at the watch industry," he said. "In the '70s, digital watches
came in and nearly cleaned out mechanical watches. But there are still
watchmakers around." His point is that the market has shifted, but there
will always be a customer base for a premium product. "Some people just
prefer to wind a watch themselves."
One Of You Maniacs Really Bought A BMW E30 M3 For $102,000
You really did it. One of you maniacs out there actually spent a hot $102,000 on a 1989 BMW E30 M3 with 35,000 miles.
Bring A Trailer auctioned this car
with 35,562 miles to be precise. Does that alone explain the selling
price? No. No it does not. For that, I would need to consult an expert
on mass hysteria, or an expert in the hive mentality.
Kering, the French parent-company of world-famous luxury brands, plans to distribute 70% of its ownership in Puma to its shareholders. One of these thing is not like the others: Gucci, Puma, Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta.
A look at the longer-term effects of driving a car with automatic stop-start
[T]he larger question among car nerds and the general public alike is whether these additional stop-start cycles hurt the engine.
That’s the question Autocar asked in a recent article about stop-start and the long-term impact on a car’s engine. According to their conversation with Gerhard Arnold at Federal Mogul,
“A normal car without automatic start-stop can be expected to go
through 50,000 stop-start events during its life time.” But with
automatic stop-start that number can increase tenfold, Arnold says.
The root of the problem lies with the crankshaft making
metal-to-metal contact with the main bearings, which happens every time
the engine shuts off and stops lubricating those bearings with oil. That
causes wear. But as stop-start proliferates, so too do new materials,
technologies and lubricant additives that help engines withstand the
added burden.
The question remains whether the manufacturers
implementing stop-start are also adding these technologies to maintain
durability. Some may be doing it better than others. As Autocar states,
only time will tell. But in the meantime, Autocar also reminds us that these systems do indeed reduce fuel consumption as well as the resulting emissions from that consumption.
Playmobil's New Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Will Solve Your Mid-Life Crisis For Way Less Than $200,000
Playmobil suggests this $45 set is targeted at kids aged four and up,
but it’s probably going to be even more popular with the 40 and up: even
if they’re not suffering from a mid-life crisis.
This Is The First Thing Most Self-Made Millionaires Do Each Morning When They Wake Up
They do things like meditation.
They do things like brainstorming — they’re brainstorming over
obstacles, problems, issues that they are having either in pursuing
their dreams or their goals or in their business or in their career.
They’re also reading what I call facts. They’re studying facts. And the
reason to why they study the facts is they do this so that they can
maintain their knowledge base and improve their knowledge base. They’re
also trying to read uplifting, motivational, inspirational things to get
them in the right mindset and this is so important.
You quickly realise that at Spoon, nothing is by accident.
What looks like a nice way to fill an empty workshop wall is actually a
demonstration of how the Civic, S2000 and NSX actually share very
similar dimensions despite being completely different cars. Careful
forethought informed by years of experience.
The Porsche Macan Outsold the 911 by a 3-to-1 Margin Worldwide in 2017
Crossovers: Can't live with them, can't live without them.
We already knew Porsche had itself a banner year
in the United States in 2017, but the newly-released global sales
numbers paint a more detailed picture about what's powering the P-Car
expansion. And what do you know: It's all about small crossover SUVs,
with the Porsche Macan accounting for almost 40 percent of the company's worldwide sales and outselling the iconic 911 sports car by a 3-to-1 ratio.
They
say nothing in certain in life except for death and taxes, but whoever
writes those idioms may want to consider adding the world's ceaseless
appetite for soft-roading crossovers to the list. Of the 246,375
vehicles sold by Porsche around the globe in 2017, a full 97,000 of them
were Macans, an increase of 19 percent compared to the previous year.
In comparison, the Porsche 911 line sold just over 32,000 units
worldwide.
Look at the ones for sale in Australia.
They’re actually not a bad deal, and what you get in return is
essentially a Subaru Legacy wagon, with the addition of a 264-horsepower
engine out of the regular Subaru WRX. Plus some sporty bumpers and
everything. It’s a great looking car, too.
