the studio behind Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, announced a new animated feature and animated series: Carmen, inspired by race car driver Carmen Jorda

She was introduced to motorsport at a young age with cart racing, then raced in GP3, Indy Lights and the Le Mans Series.

It was recently announced that Jorda will be Alpine’s head of F1 Academy to lead female driver mentorship initiatives including supporting Alpine’s F1 Academy entry in 2026.

F1 Academy is a women-only Formula 4 championship series aimed at creating a pipeline for aspiring women drivers. It replaced the W Series for women, which lasted three seasons before shutting down after 2022. "I think the F1 Academy is a great step. It's serious and it's structured and creates a pathway for young women to reach the highest level in motorsport. People won’t be pointing at a girl at the racetrack now."

https://www.animationmagazine.net/2025/12/zag-races-ahead-with-animated-womens-motorsport-project-carmen/

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a69442794/lotus-development-driver-childrens-book/
https://www.johansens.com/inspiration/carmen-jorda-on-travel-sustainability-and-the-perfect-holiday/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Jord%C3%A1

https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/opinion/sunday-read/cooking-in-strasbourg/articleshow/21237148.cms

https://youtu.be/lk3EW7rgaws

plow driver Alaina Denton is one of twelve plow drivers who work for the NYSDOT between Ray Brook and Keene. She is the only female driver in the crew, a fact that Denton takes pride in.

Denton discovered her passion for big machinery while studying at CV-TEC, a trade school in Plattsburgh, where she made the National Technical Honors Society. 

Snowplowing runs in Denton's family. Her uncle Harry worked for the DOT for nearly 40 years, and her father is still on staff.

Driving a plow is like driving a tank, Denton explained, both are big and slow. She eased her way up to cruising speed, about 35 miles per hour.

"Always double check your mirrors," she said, driving west on Route 73 towards Lake Placid. "You never know when somebody is going to come flying up the middle lane and you’re coming right over because they do like to fly through here.”

Winters in the Adirondacks can be long and demanding for plow drivers. "Last year we got called in, I think, forty days straight in a row," said Denton. "We work really long shifts, but you end up getting used to it after a while.”

During winter storms, the DOT is staffed 24 hours a day. Denton is on the A shift, so she works from 1 am to 1 pm. The B shift covers 1 pm to 1 am.

Years ago, there was a nationwide shortage of plow drivers. Today, the DOT said it does not have any staffing issues. The state employs about 3,500 snow and ice staff who plow about 38,000 lane miles around New York State, not including the thruways.

In the summer, the DOT staff in the Adirondacks remain focused on the roads- they fill potholes, dig ditches, and build culverts. That work has changed as the climate has gotten warmer and wetter.

Winter work has changed as well. There’s been a push to reduce the use of road salt, especially in the Adirondacks, where data shows it's polluting waterways and drinking wells. New technology now helps plow drivers regulate salt much better, including the use of salt brine on the roads before a storm.

The plows are also changing. As Crowningshield explained, they’re now incorporating reactor blades that bolt to the plows.

"They are approximately 12 inches long, they’re individual blades that contour to the road, and it scrapes more of the snow off so you can put less salt out," said Crowningshield.

This is Denton’s third winter driving a plow, but her precision and confidence make it seem like she’s been doing it a lot longer.

As she navigated the twists and turns of Cascade Pass at 35 miles an hour, a line of cars formed behind her. Denton said that used to stress her out, "but then I realized- take your time, they can wait. You’re making sure their roadway is safe.”

No amount of plowing can keep roads completely clear of ice and snow, especially during a winter storm, so Denton said drivers, too, need to slow down, give plows room, and don’t pass them, especially not on the right.

https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/52703/20251202/ride-along-with-a-young-woman-plow-driver-during-a-winter-storm-in-the-adirondacks

I walked through CTN Expo today (annual Burbank artists convention, 17th year) and spotted this great car chase scene Mariam created!

https://miriasqa.myportfolio.com/

https://www.instagram.com/miriasqa/

she does a lot of beautiful work, her painting of the mosque in Tripoli is gorgeous! click the links! 

The reformist President of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, who campaigned on openness to the West before the Israel/Iran 12 day war in June, is speculated to possibly try to change the regulations to allow women to be licensed,

Elizabeth Hawley and her legendary blue VW Beetle

Elizabeth lived in Kathmandu for about 50 years, and is an institution in the field of Himalayan mountaineering. 

Despite never having climbed any mountain, she is the only person in the world able to certify, based on climbers' accounts, whether expeditions have achieved their objectives.

https://explorersweb.com/remembering-elizabeth-hawley-the-sherlock-holmes-of-himalayan-summits/

https://andrea8000.blogspot.com/2010/04/eccoci-finalmante-pronti-partire-da.html

66 Fairlane that took place in the Great Race, part of the Jessi Combs Foundation, the Creator Race Team

Sharon Tate on the set of Eye of the Devil, 1965.

 

https://www.vintag.es/2015/11/20-awesome-behind-scenes-photos-of.html

Audrey

 

https://are2.tumblr.com/post/12944933817

"Mom's Family Car"

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1243564627800278&set=pcb.1243564774466930

Hello Betty!

 I have no idea WHY she's posing with a street sign. But I am sure she'd like us all to drive safely, like the sign says

at age 14, Victoria got a Jeep Wagoneer Limited to fix up, and by her 17th birthday, had it fixed and painted!

It was hers, a $2,500 gift from her dad. Her first car. 

"She had no clue. When she asked what that was sitting in the driveway I said, 'That's your new Jeep!' She didn't really say much, not for a while," her dad recalled.

Lol, she thought dad was going to hook her up with a newer stylish Wrangler 

"I figured maybe I'd get a Jeep Wrangler, but when I saw this, I really thought it was something he was fixing up to sell. I guess I expected one ..." she paused, "not so old."

Her dad fine-tuned the 360 V8 engine and replaced the suspension, brakes and steering system. He installed a six-inch lift kit and 33-inch tires mounted on the original wheels.

Mann figures he's got $10,000 invested in the 40-year-old Wagoneer. He said it drives smooth and "will go straight down the road smooth at 80 miles an hour."

Victoria got her driver's license and has been proudly driving her Jeep for about a year. At 17, her opinion of the relic has shifted since the day she first saw it.

"My friends think it's awesome, and they can hear me coming because they know the sound it makes," she said, describing the loud V8 roar.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/cars/news/2025/10/11/restored-1983-jeep-wagoneer/86646102007/

Rose Simpson earned her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, then wowed the art world with her 85 Chevy El Camino art car. This is her 2nd art car, a 64 Riv, and it's going to be in her exhibition at San Francisco’s de Young Museum

“I learned to drive when I was 11 and bought my first car when I was 12,” she says.

When Simpson returned home from RISD, she enrolled in automotive science to learn collision repair and classic-car customization and met artist Jeff Brock, (builder of Bombshell Betty https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/11/i-finally-found-brocks-bombshell-betty.html the 52 Buick Super Riviera that has set seven world speed records at Bonneville)

“Jeff was incredibly influential,” says Simpson. “I wasn’t studying collision repair so I could build something to go in a museum. That was not the intention. I was there to build cars so that I could cruise. But Jeff said, ‘Why don’t you build [an art] car?’ ”

“Rose is one of my favorite human beings I’ve ever met,” says Brock, “I’m honored to have been there and been part of [creating Rose's 1st art car], but at the time, I thought, Oh, you crazy woman. You’re taking on way more than you can handle. The car she started with was a wreck. It was so sad how much damage was hiding under the paint, and the more she dug into it, the more I felt bad for her. It was so hard to even get it to the point of being a blank canvas.”

https://www.altaonline.com/culture/art/a65875713/rose-b-simpson-art-cars-de-young-museum

near Rubidoux Avenue in Riverside (California) is a war-surplus Curtiss Commando converted into a house in 1947. It was built by two women, Cheryl Williams and Jean Sutherland, who needed affordable housing after the war.

A later owner, Larry Schulte, bought the property from Sutherland's daughter approximately 40 years ago. He lived in the plane for many years until it became uninhabitable

https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/zz0002r5dn
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_e_abbott/26821049330

https://elpoderdelasgalaxias.wordpress.com/2025/04/06/curtiss-c-46-commando-resting-places-xciv/

https://www.sbsun.com/2017/09/04/from-snow-white-to-the-hobbit-these-5-inland-houses-sure-have-odd-and-cool-themes/

Miss Seat Belt of 1966.... thank you Raymond!

 Why so many Miss Seat Belt promotions? 

Because car makers were not required to install seat belts until 1966, and the govt put a lot of pressure on the public to start putting them in old cars, for safety, after that, but didn't make it a law to use them every time you drove, until the 80s. 

New York started in 1984, with only the front seat occupants. By 1996, all states required the use of the seat belts. 

A lot of people REFUSED to wear the seat belt then, because so many people had survived crashes by being thrown free of the smashed/crashed car, and they know they would have died if they had been wearing a belt. Yes, my uncle Tom survived smashing his 55 Chevy because he was thrown free. 

Well, don't fall asleep at the wheel, and you won't crash. 

Ya know? 

https://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/categories/category/cars

the Revolution of Cassandra, interesting graphic novel about sisters delivering supplies in central America, in a duece and a 1/2, with a Rosie the Riveter on the door

filmmaker Eric D. Howell’s screenplay The Revolution of Cassandra placed in the top three of the Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest in 2018

in a “pre-Barbie” Hollywood, as Howell describes it, the bold female-centered themes were seen as too risky, and the project was unable to get traction in Hollywood.

But he refused to let the story languish on his hard drive. Drawing on his experience making short films, Howell decided to treat Cassandra in the same way but explore a different platform: he raised funds through private investors, hired a team of living, breathing artists, and began the challenging process of adapting the screenplay into a graphic novel.

It debuted at Comic Con 2025

https://revolutionofcassandra.com/graphic-novel

https://www.facebook.com/REVOLUTIONOFCASSANDRA

https://blog.finaldraft.com/former-big-break-top-3-finalist-pivots-from-screenplay-to-graphic-novel

1931 at the future site of Lake Mead, Loretta Young, Roscoe Turner, and the Gilmore Lion airplane

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=24231725669779212&set=p.24231725669779212&type=3

3 years on the road, living and traveling in a new upgraded Tacoma, living the dream

She estimates that she has spent over $50,000 on the renovations.

Costs included purchasing a camper, adding solar power, replacing the truck bed, upgrading the suspension, new tires, customizing a bumper, and installing an electric cooler.

When the truck was ready, Kaye decided to journey the Pan-American Highway, starting in Denver. The highway stretches from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina.

Since living and traveling in the truck full-time, Kaye has visited Mexico, every country in Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and parts of Argentina. In total, she’s been to over 20 countries so far.

“Ever since I started traveling, [I learned] life is just too short. You don’t have to go and quit your career to travel the world but whatever your dreams and goals are in life just start now and everything else is just figuring out a goal,” she says.

Kaye says when she was younger, it was her dad who taught her that she was capable of anything.

“I grew up with my dad raising me and telling me every day ‘You can be anything you want when you grow up and you can do anything,’” she says. “He was 57 when he passed away, so he never even got to retire. His passing taught me how to live life because you never know how much time you have in life.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/21/millennial-bought-truck-full-time-travel-takeaway.html

compliments to Rebecca McHugh on her success in the mobile gourmet foods business in Wrexham! She's started out small, with a horse trailer instead of a food van, her coffee business is 'Meet me in the Morning'

After achieving a first-class degree in hospitality, founder Rebecca McHugh returned home with the dream of creating something ‘proudly Welsh.’

”I wanted to create a sustainable cafe to showcase Welsh hospitality and produce. I couldn’t afford a lease on a cafe so I hoped that by starting small and mobile, I could build something that could be transferred into a cafe when the money allowed.

 https://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/24255251.meet-morning-brings-mobile-coffee-wrexham/

after a decade of nursing, Desiree Hill pivoted away from the Atlanta commuting, (3 hours a day wasted stuck in traffic) and a high stress job, to start a garage far closer to her home. Today, Hill is the owner of Crown's Corner Mechanic — an auto repair shop in Conyers, Georgia

Hill started fixing cars in 2019 with no prior mechanic or entrepreneurship experience, teaching herself through YouTube videos and involving her family. Her 10-year-old daughter recently built a motor, and her son is a mechanic in the U.S. Army, stationed in South Korea for the past 3 years. 

In her first year, 2020, she bought, fixed and sold 38 cars, which made her around $100,000 she says.

In June 2021, Hill decided to additionally work on other people's vehicles as a mobile mechanic, traveling to customers to fix their vehicles. She spent a "couple thousand dollars" on her business license, auto tools, website, advertising and billing software, she says.

Hill brought in about $13,000 as a mechanic in six months, she says. She documented her repair jobs on TikTok, which brought a wave of new clients her way. In Spring 2022, she stopped flipping cars and rented a garage at a local repair shop to keep up with demand, and quickly outgrew that space, too.

In September 2023, Hill began renting Crown's Corner Mechanic's 9,000-square-foot space, initially receiving two months prorated before paying $6,375 monthly. She brought on a mechanic, a welder and a towing professional, each renting space in her shop, covering about half of the now $6,566 monthly rent. "It was the smartest thing I could have ever done."

In the meantime, she plans to keep growing her clientele through social media and one day get a mechanical engineering degree, preferably through a flexible, online program.

https://www.instagram.com/crownscorner_shemechanic (it's a hoot, Desiree is a riot!)

https://www.facebook.com/SheMechanicCrownsCorner

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/05/31/crowns-corner-mechanic-founder-how-i-quit-my-nursing-job-started-a-business.html

https://www.the-sun.com/motors/14383710/crowns-corner-mechanic-auto-shop-georgia/

there is so much to enjoy on this C10/R, of the ingenuity and innovative ways to create necessary upgrades from original 1971 Chevy truck panels, like the hood scoop/former hood, and rear air dam/former tailgate... all draped over a 1999 Craftsman series race truck

via https://www.facebook.com/reel/1041376884690482 and 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/streetlegalstockcars  from Nicole Johnson's YouTube series where she has a really cute/cool gimmic: " I want to drive everything"

Ya got to appreciate the moxy!