Alonso out!

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Esto empieza. Primer día de test para las 500 millas. De 11:00h a 13:00h y de 15:00h a 18:00h estamos en pista. @mclaren @kimoa @indianapolismotorspeedway @indycar #indy500 #66

A post shared by Fernando Alonso (@fernandoalo_oficial) on May 14, 2019 at 7:27am PDT

Had I actually followed IndyCar, would I have known that there was actually a chance that Alonso wouldn't make it into the Indy 500?

According to reports, Alonso's McLaren:

• did not have a steering wheel just before testing in Texas;
• was painted the wrong orange, and sat in a paint shop for a month;
• had the wrong tire sensors and thus failed to notice a puncture before a qualifying run;
• had gearing for 227.5 mph instead of 229 mph;
• had wonky suspension setup because of failure to convert from metric to American!

What the fuck?!

Orlove drives an Alpina Z8

Oy!

Eating the Globe: Uganda

Other than a Haitian food truck, I have exhausted my international options in the San Francisco Bay Area. So when I had to go to Los Angeles yesterday for work, I decided to try something not offered up here: Ugandan cuisine!

This is by far the strangest venue. The restaurant is inside a lady's house across from Van Nuys High School. It's just a regular single family home. The only difference is there are a lot of tables and chairs in the large backyard and the kitchen has two stoves.

There was no menu. The lady just served me what she was cooking. The goat in the bowl was amazing. It was smoked first and then stewed. The plate was carbo-licious. First, we have chicken plov. That's what she called it, plov. That's a big hunk of plantain on top. Then we have some triangular pancakes which were very much like Chinese bing. Except it had a peanut flavor. On the top left is a sweet potato smothered with a rich peanut sauce. It was really good, but it was too much. Three big tablespoons of that could be a meal in itself.

This experience was like no other. It's definitely not for everyone, but if you are curious, here is a professional review of the place.

Countries tried so far:
Africa: Algeria, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe
Asia: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen
Europe: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Vatican City
North America: Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, St Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad & Tobago, USA
South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela
Oceania: Australia, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga

2019 Jaguar XJR575

I was looking at my local Jaguar dealer's inventory (don't ask) and came upon the XJR575. I had no idea this thing even existed.

Next car: Fuel cell?

I just learned about the Hyundai Nexo today. It's a fuel cell SUV that comes with $13,000 worth of free hydrogen. Fortunately, in California, we have a decent fuel network. There are three stations within 15 miles of us.

Here is the Nexo:

And some stats for comparison:

Toyota Mirai fuel cell: 0-60 in 8.9 seconds, weight 4,075 pounds, price $58,500

Honda Clarity fuel cell: 0-60 in 8.1 seconds, weight 4,134 pounds, price $58,490

Hyundai Nexo fuel cell: 0-60 in 9.5 seconds, weight 4,116 pounds, price $58,300

State of the boy's Hot Wheels collection

Before the boy was born, I accumulated around 50 Hot Wheels cars. I kept them in the garage and slowly, one by one, gave the cars to him. I gave him the last one this week. He has lost or misplaced approximately a third of them.

I had this afternoon off and since rain was predicted, I took the boy to find some new cars. First, we went to the mall. Now that is a depressing place on a weekday afternoon. And surprisingly, the mall did not have a toy store. We then went to Target, and their selection was awful. Other than a Charger and a Viper, all the other Hot Wheels there were "pretend" cars.

We ended up at one of the local drug stores that has a reputation of carrying decent cars, and we ended up with the red Civic hatchback in the middle.

Tour of Guantanamo Bay kitchen

Buying a used car online through Carvana

While walking with the boy around the block yesterday, we saw one of these Carvana Isuzu flatbeds drop off a white Kia Soul for one of my neighbors. I asked the friendly tow truck driver and he told me about the company. It's basically Carmax, but it's all done online, and they deliver the used car at your door!

Raph Orlove drives the original M5

Stratolaunch flying

This is the largest plane ever. Its purpose is to launch rockets into low earth orbit.