SPOTD #147

With the beginning of a new administration comes the completion of the SPOTD's 7th year.

I've been on a Popular Mechanics kick lately. Their website is fantastic, and very diverse in terms of what they write about. You can visit PM here.

Today's phrase:
The periodic change in presidential leadership is one of the strengths of our system. Even if the person in question is not your top choice, change in government is quite often a good thing.

Actual:
El verdadero progreso consiste en renovarse.

Phonetic with emphasis on bold syllable:
Ell vair-dah-dare-oh pro-gray-so con-see-stay ain rain-oh-var-say.

Translation:
True progress comes through renewal.

Bugatti Beauty
Want a really old car? Its only $4.3 million. I used to have this car in Matchbox form and it was one of my all-time faves. I recently found it in a box of old things I'd saved. I gave it to Joseph and it promptly disappeared. Así es la vida.

20,000 Leagues
I've written several times about advancements being made in the non-military personal submersibles market. PM has an article about how new technologies are making it easier for the personal submarine to become a reality. Pretty cool.

Movies
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Written about at IRF.
King of Kong: I wrote a brief review here.

Prince Caspian: The followup to The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe was pretty good. I love the books, and neither movie has really matched the source material, but it was a fun movie. The characters were fairly thin, even the ones from the previous film.

Space Chimps: A fairly enjoyable computer-animated film. Clearly inferior animation than Pixar or Dreamworks, but Joseph III loved it, so other kids probably would as well.
In terms of upcoming movies, this is a link to some merchandise for Where the Wild Things Are. This is a classic book, one that I've enjoyed reading to Joseph. I hope it turns out to be a good film,

Common Cleaners
This is a great resource about common household items that can make excellent household cleaners, also from Popular Mechanics.

All Dressed Up...
In an interesting sign of the decline of automaker fortunes these are various photographs of vehicle stocks around the world. I'm not sure how typical some of these things are.

Link of the Day
This video is PHENOMENAL