Eating the Globe: Tanzania

Out of soul-crushing guilt for the workers at Amazon warehouses, we canceled Amazon Prime. So now, we go to the grocery store to shop, just like the Ancient Romans. I was at the local Safeway last night and spotted this generic Tanzanian coffee. It was pre-ground (I am used to grinding the beans myself) so I suspect I used too much coffee this morning when I made it.

Countries tried so far:
Africa: Algeria, Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe
Asia: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, East Timor, 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, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Vatican City
North America: Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, St Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad & Tobago, USA
South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela
Oceania: Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga

I want a Suzuki Ignis!

I passed a tiny Suzuki Ignis with Mexican plates on the freeway the other day. It's so cute!

And this car reviewer is great. Is he popular in the UK?

Slapping champion loses for the first time

Skunk ape and mermaids in Florida

Next holiday season, when the kids are a little older, we are going to resume my wife's tradition of spending Christmas in southwest Florida. I am currently reading a book about oddball Florida and I want to check these places out.

First, Skunk Ape Research Headquarters. It's basically Bigfoot in the Everglades.

Second, a mermaid show, straight out of 1950s Florida.

Pearl Jam Christmas song

Minivan shopping

We decided to check out minivans today. First up, the Chrysler Pacifica.

The dealer sells Dodges, Jeeps, and Chryslers. It's a weird and quiet showroom. They had a Ram Longhorn, two Chargers, and a four-door Wrangler on display. Apparently, FCA requires every dealership to have a children's area to help with sales.

We are looking at base models. The LX version (second from the bottom) is actually called the Voyager. It's around $31,000. The steering wheel was made of the cheapest plastic known to man. The engine was very quiet. It drove fine. My wife noticed the door handles felt like they were all going to fall off.

Next, we went to the Toyota dealer, The Supra was behind a velvet rope. No markup!

The showroom was odd. The Supra was the only car there. It was packed with employees-- greeters, salespeople, managers.

They didn't have the low spec L or LE in stock. So they showed us the sporty SE. It drove very heavy. It was around $42,000.

Finally, we went to the Honda dealership. This was one of two 2019 Odysseys left. There was a $3,000 discount and it ended up listing for less than the Pacifica/Voyager. The fit and finish and overall packaging was superior to the other two vans. And it sat lower and felt like it handled better too.

There was an old Honda racer in the showroom. It's tiny.

We are going to try a more upscale version of the Pacifica before we make our decision. We really like the looks of the Pacifica.

Car cylinder bingo

Earlier this week, I tweeted this:

Just realized @rchen’s Honda Beat is a 3-cylinder. So that means I’ve driven cars with 2 (i3 REx), 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 12 cylinder engines. Just missing 10 and 16 cylinder cars.

— Tamerlane's Thoughts (@TamerlaneBlog) December 18, 2019

And a fellow car nerd made this video in response:

Crowd cheering for dart player

I don't know anything about darts as a sport. I thought you're just suppose to hit the middle. This video is hilarious.

World's highest paid athletes

The world’s highest paid athletes (1990-2019) pic.twitter.com/0Skp8HuJIe

— Ken Rutkowski (@kenradio) December 12, 2019

Tabasco factory tour

I put hot sauce on nearly everything. And Tabasco remains my favorite. My first taste of red Tabasco sauce was as a child in Japan. A restaurant served spaghetti on one of those fajita skillets and I put Tabasco on it. I didn't try green Tabasco until the late 1990s, when I put it on my omelet at a Wyoming diner with a dirt parking lot.

Howard Stern interviews Hillary Clinton

This is an incredible interview. She opens up so much. She's even likable. Had she given this interview before the election, she might have won. But then again, she can only be this open because she lost. Intelligent, complicated woman.

Watch the entire 2.5 hour interview here.

Apathy would have been our president

Another election is coming up. I predict he will be re-elected.

New Bond film!

I'm excited, although I have zero recollection of the plots of the past Daniel Craig movies.

And here is an analysis of all the cars in the trailer.

Garmin Autoland lands plane by itself during emergency

I spotted a Nissan X-Trail

These were never sold here. Perhaps it belonged to Canadians visiting family down here.

Popular tweets over Thanksgiving weekend

You vs the guy she told you not to worry about. #MacysParade pic.twitter.com/VfNiq6mck4

— Tamerlane's Thoughts (@TamerlaneBlog) November 28, 2019

I am looking for a clean E34 wagon. pic.twitter.com/d7cbWT32Lj

— Tamerlane's Thoughts (@TamerlaneBlog) November 29, 2019

That local white 9-4X is still for sale. What’s the worst thing that can happen if I get it? I had such bad luck with the 9-3 SportCombi, I feel like I have a large reserve of good karma. pic.twitter.com/5ewdzQRZXO

— Tamerlane's Thoughts (@TamerlaneBlog) December 1, 2019

Chinese icebreakers

For years, China had Xue Long (snow dragon), a Ukrainian built icebreaker. China just built its own icebreaker, Xue Long 2.

It's pretty impressive, although the narration was definitely written by a non-native English speaker.

Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone

This is a ludicrous place but I kind of want to visit it. It is an area along the border of Thailand, Laos, and Burma. A Chinese businessman controls 80% of it (the Laotian government has the remainder). There is a casino and you can buy all sorts of contraband stuff, from tiger parts to heroin to even more unsavory things. It's sketchy as hell.

World Leaders Cars (20)

181. Liechtenstein: Audi Q5. 2008 car: Audi A8.

182. Monaco: Lexus LS500h. 2007 car: Daimler.

183. Mongolia: Mercedes S-Class. 2007 car: Toyota Land Cruiser.

184. Mozambique: Toyota Land Cruiser. 2008 car: Toyota Land Cruiser.

185. San Marino: Audi A6. 2008 car: Lancia Thesis.

186. Sao Tome e Principe: Toyota Land Cruiser. 2008 car: BMW 7-Series.

187. Saudi Arabia: Mercedes-Maybach S600 Pullman. 2007 car: Maybach 62.

188. Tuvalu: Nissan Note. 2008 car: Mazda truck.

189. Tonga: Humber Super Snipe Pullman. 2007 car: London taxi.

Tally
Mercedes S-Class: 46
Toyota/Lexus Land Cruiser: 39
BMW 7-Series: 16
Lexus LS: 11

Audi A8: 10
Toyota/Lexus Land Cruiser Prado: 10
Mercedes Gelandewagen: 8

Chevy Suburban/GMC Yukon: 7
Audi A6: 2

BMW X5: 2

Jaguar: 2
Land Rover Discovery: 2

Mercedes-Maybach: 2
Range Rover: 2

Toyota Sequoia: 2

Audi Q5: 1Aurus Senat: 1
Cadillac: 1
Chevy: 1
Citroen DS7 Crossback: 1
Hongqi: 1
Honda Accord: 1

Humber Super Snipe Pullman: 1Hyundai Equus: 1
Hyundai Genesis: 1
Hyundai Santa Fe: 1
Isuzu MU-X: 1
Lancia Thema: 1

Land Rover Freelander: 1
Lincoln Navigator: 1
Lincoln Town Car: 1
Mercedes E-Class (old): 1
Mercedes E-Class convertible: 1
Mercedes GL: 1
Mercedes ML/GLE: 1

Nissan Note: 1Proton: 1
Rolls-Royce: 2
Skoda: 1
Toyota 4Runner: 1
Toyota RAV4: 1
VW Touareg: 1
VW Transporter: 1

Going out with Rich

View this post on Instagram

Had lunch with my car nerd friend @rchen as we celebrated ten years of friendship. #Bromance

A post shared by @ tamerlaneblog on Nov 20, 2019 at 3:44pm PST

On February 8, 2009, Rich first commented on my blog. It was about a Peugeot 604 that I spotted and photographed with my Motorola Razr.

We met for lunch soon thereafter and the rest is history. Yesterday, we went out to lunch to celebrate ten years of friendship, in his Honda Beat!

Highlights of my 10 yrs of friendship with @rchen:
✅ Mario Andretti/Aaron Rodgers ate all of our shrimp at Indy
✅ Radwood/TSA/bag of sugar-gate
✅ Accidentally signed up to drive an Aventador at the Quail
✅ Drove Citroen XM down from PDX
✅ Together pushed Vijay Mallya’s car pic.twitter.com/vu2pI9bkV6

— Tamerlane's Thoughts (@TamerlaneBlog) November 21, 2019

And here's a retrospective of co-piloting with Rich during all those Anti-Football Runs on January 1.

2011(?): Modified BMW E9

2012: Alfa GTV6

2013: M5

2014: 1981 Honda Accord

2015: 1988 Porsche 911

2016: Citroen XM

Thanks, man!

My kidney stone medical bill

American healthcare system, documented. 7-hour stay at an emergency room for a kidney stone. One CT scan, four doses of pain meds, a plastic container to catch the stone.

$17,687.48.

My insurance paid $7,868.33. The hospital wrote off $9,494.15. I paid $325.00 out of pocket. pic.twitter.com/cLKCwfmkQe

— Tamerlane's Thoughts (@TamerlaneBlog) November 17, 2019

2019 Japanese police parade

Breathtaking. H/t @rchen.

Ed's 1983 Mercedes 300D

This is a wonderful video by KBB's Micah Muzio, going over Ed's fast diesel.

Two top tweets from this week

Both regarding Acuras!

The ZDX was ahead of its time. pic.twitter.com/7rh7HMegZO

— Tamerlane's Thoughts (@TamerlaneBlog) November 11, 2019

Breaking: We spent 7 hours yesterday in a non-minivan/SUV and it was totally fine. pic.twitter.com/Xo0jWMv8Lj

— Tamerlane's Thoughts (@TamerlaneBlog) November 11, 2019

Eating the Globe: East Timor

Before I bought this coffee, I double checked that the coffee was indeed from East Timor rather than the Indonesian part of Timor.

This coffee, unlike other Teasia's offerings, was actually pretty tasty!

Countries tried so far:
Africa: Algeria, Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe
Asia: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, East Timor, 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, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Vatican City
North America: Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, St Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad & Tobago, USA
South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela
Oceania: Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga

1929 stock market crash

I need a 100 Series Land Cruiser badly!

My lease ends in March 2020.

Riding in a Waymo AV

Article here.

Documentary on driving in Papua New Guinea

This series is amazing. I've watched PNG, Congo, and Philippines already today.

Let's see what's going on in Hong Kong

A fireman got mad at the police for firing a tear gas canister at his truck.

Tweet of the week

I'm going to try something new. I tweet a lot more than I blog. So every week, I will post here the tweet that got the most interactions. Last weekend, I rented a Velar for a day in Orange County and posted my thoughts. Click on the tweet to see people's responses. And comment here if you wish.

Rental had 1,100 miles.
-two creaks coming from back
-there was a loose bolt/screw/ball bearing that would roll across dash every time I turned https://t.co/XirRTXxT8C

— Tamerlane's Thoughts (@TamerlaneBlog) October 27, 2019

Obama versus Trump speech styles

Now you know I don't often (if ever) post photos or videos of our current president. But this is pretty funny.

I have a kidney stone

During the power outage, at three in the morning, I woke up with the worst pain in my life. I have a kidney stone. I'm going to wait for it to pass. But if it doesn't, the doctor will pulverize it with soundwaves(!).

International students in Australia

Immigration: Top 10 Countries of Origin of International Students in Australia from 2002 - 2019 [OC] from r/dataisbeautiful

Every country's tourism slogan

Cool 8 minute piece about Chukotka

Economist article about Russia's Chukotka

Though I don't agree with the politics of The Economist, I do enjoy its stories about faraway places. Like this story. Chukotka is about as remote as it gets.

AOC endorses Bernie

AOC is the new voice of The Left. It's incredible to think that in May 2018, nobody had heard of her. This was her campaign ad to unseat an incumbent, out-of-touch, Democrat:

Yesterday, AOC endorsed Bernie in front of a record crowd (for this election cycle so far):

The evolution of Taco Bell hot sauce packets

The state of America

Brothers visit Chernobyl after 30 years

Conan visits Greenland

Who knew there were so many Mitsubishi SUVs?

Food tour: Lhasa under Chinese rule

Recently, I've been watching Mark Wiens eat his way around the world. He just visited Lhasa, under Chinese government supervision. I've never seen footage like this before. It's quite disconcerting to see a fully loaded Range Rover in front of the Potala Palace. And every store sign has Chinese words and red flags. I think it's safe to say the Tibetan spirit has been completely broken.

i3 being charged by a Honda generator

As you may know by now, we are going through some pre-emptive power shutdowns. This tweet is making the rounds, and it's actually from 2014 in LA. H/t to Dogs!

Viral photo going around titled “As seen in Silicon Valley....” #poweroutage pic.twitter.com/ozZnvtRuWk

— Heather Blanchard Tapia (@poplifegirl) October 9, 2019

Tristan da Cunha's Inaccessible Island

I was reading an article about plastic garbage and came upon a place called Inaccessible Island. It's a part of Tristan da Cunha.

Here is the island:

Here is Tristan da Cunha:

Foreign troops marching in China's 70th National Day parade

The list of countries is telling. The leaders who showed up is telling. And Xi pressured a lot of them to wear goofy baseball caps.

Afghanistan

Belarus

Cambodia

Cuba: The new leader looks so modern and young compared to the Castro brothers.

Egypt: Sisi showed up.

Fiji

Kazakhstan: Nazarbayev showed up. I thought he retired.

Kyrgyzstan

Laos: The first lady has Imelda Marcos sunglasses.

Mexico: So neutral.

Mongolia: No mounted archers.

Pakistan

Serbia: Remember when NATO "accidentally" bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade?

Tajikistan

Vanuatu: !

Venezuela: Maduro dared to leave his country.

Russia: But Russia is not last alphabetically.

1982 Seiko TV watch

CO2 contributors, 1751 to 2017

Hongqi speeding on the freeway

This is supposedly the model that carried Xi during the China National Day parade yesterday. H/t SanchezF40 and Ramon.

View this post on Instagram

This is awesome. The engine really sounds like M120.

A post shared by 平庸的Yunce (@yunce_liang) on Oct 1, 2019 at 12:04am PDT

Car art video

The richest person in each state

More Darien Gap news coverage

It seems a lot of Africans and South Asians continue to cross the Darien Gap. Here is a piece by the BBC.

And here's one by a Christian network.

The piece shows the Medellin bus station where I boarded, along with the drive to Turbo. As you may recall, I was on the bus with a small group of South Asian men, but I didn't have the guts to talk to them. Here they were, at a meal stop. I wonder where they are now.

Let's talk FD RX-7

It all started with this example I spotted in traffic earlier this week. Hands down, it's the most beautiful car of the 1990s.

Other than the exhaust, everything looks original. It’s very base model looking yet it’s gorgeous. pic.twitter.com/EDUJYMp1mx

— Tamerlane's Thoughts (@TamerlaneBlog) September 16, 2019

Then, I saw this video on Jalopnik. Orlove and his boss drove one at the Duncan Collection in rural Virginia.

Then I read up about it on BAT. I assume you wrote this, Alan?

Finally, another video of the RX-7. Funny (not funny) story about the presenter. I met Mike Schlee at the only car launch event I have ever attended, for the 2014 Corolla in San Diego. I bumped into him at the bar and he was super nice and welcoming (he's Canadian, after all). He works for Subaru Canada now.

Jaguar XJ220 racing in America

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I have a love-hate relationship with DeMuro's videos. He has access to some pretty rad and rare cars and spends a lot of time on obscure bits like the door switches and rear view mirror. But something about the presentation just rubs me the wrong way.

Well, when I saw that he reviewed an XJ220, I HAD to watch it.

But what's even more fascinating is that there was a racing series in America in the early 1990s to promote the car. Retired racers were invited to drive them, and many of them got wrecked!

I know I've seen four in real life, maybe more. At Vijay Mallya's private collection, the Imperial Palace (Las Vegas) museum, the Marconi down in Orange County, and the Maserati museum in Riverside.

Most frequent causes of death by weather-- map

Eating the Globe: Rwanda

I continue to try coffee from around the world. The Rwanda coffee was meh.

Countries tried so far:
Africa: Algeria, Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, 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, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Vatican City
North America: Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, St Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad & Tobago, USA
South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela
Oceania: Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga