On this day in 1962, Thomas Doty, a passenger on Continental Airlines Flight 11 from Chicago to Kansas City, ignited six sticks of dynamite in the plane lavatory causing a massive explosion. The plane broke apart and crashed killing all 45 people on board.

Doty, who was about to appear in court on an armed robbery charge, thought his wife could collect $300,000 in life insurance, about $3 million in today’s money. She did try to collect, but the insurance company denied her claim when Doty’s death was ruled a suicide.

I cannot imagine trying to do something like that, but sadly it seems that far too many people are capable. Yes, we know the saying “Desperate times call for desperate measures,” but acts like Doty’s are simply depraved. If one were willing to do the research, it is likely one could find a similarly heinous act to his for any day of the year, if not multiple acts.

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Changing gears enough to grind them…from this article on chevycarusa.com comes this picture (?) of the soon-to-be released 2025 Chevrolet El Camino. In all honesty, I have never been a fan of what they call “Utes” in Australia, but this vehicle looks cool to me.

Forget the twin triple-tailpipe configuration (although I think it looks great) and consider what it means: an Internal Combustion Engine, rumored to be a V-8, at least in SS spec. Unlike the 2025 Dodge Charger, which will first be released as an EV and then as an ICE-powered car, the scuttlebutt is that the El Camino will first be introduced with an ICE (maybe as early as November of this year) and then, perhaps, in EV and/or hybrid spec.

Whatever happened to Chevrolet and General Motors going “all-electric” by 2035?! Uh, it’s not happening, folks. Remember that, pretty much under the radar, GM has made/will make $2.3 billion in investments in new internal-combustion engines and the vehicles they will power. It’s very bad business to throw away that kind of investment without at least attempting to fully amortize it in addition to simply ignoring that most Americans do not want to buy EVs.

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I have always been interested in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Oh, do I have to explain?! They were two Roman cities buried in the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius. This Newsweek article is titled, “We’re Archaeologists at Pompeii. A Third of the City Is Still Undiscovered.”

Think about that…major archaeological activity has been going on at Pompeii since the middle of the 18th century, but a third of the city is still undiscovered. Largely preserved under volcanic ash, Pompeii gives us a snapshot of Roman life nearly 2,000 years ago. It was a town of 10,000-20,000 inhabitants, apparently many of whom were wealthy.

As I have written before, the best entertainment for me is to learn something. The mindless garbage that makes up the majority of material that passes for entertainment today disgusts me.

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Maybe it’s time for some humor from this Archon’s Den post:

 

My girlfriend left me today because I’m too insecure…

Oh wait, she’s back.

She just went to make a cup of tea.

 

I saw a man, sitting in Starbucks. No phone, no iPad, no laptop, just sitting there, drinking coffee, like a psychopath.

 

I took my wife out to a nice restaurant the other night.

She stopped me just as I was about to take the first bite and asked, “Don’t we need to pray first?”
I said, “Nah, that’s not necessary.”

She replied, “But we always pray before we eat at home.”
I said, “Yeah, but this chef probably knows what he’s doing.”

 

#TheDepravityOfMan

#TheReturnOfTheElCamino

#Pompeii