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Good morning: Sending Sicilian Saturday vibes your way. I dropped off a rental car to board my plane in the States while it was flurrying. That is the hydrofoil that goes to Malta. I think that - where I am standing - I am a hair south in latitude compared to Tunis, the capital of Tunisia! But this is still Europe ... sort of. Walking along the beach in a small town I spotted this - the new and the old.

February 9th and its place in history ... I always give this one a thought when I look at the calendar. The good: Today is the day that the Boeing 747 first took to the sky in a smooth as butter departure from Paine Field in Everett, WA where it was assembled. This makes for one helluva "feel good" moment in time. - - - - - The bad: Today is the day that, 55 years ago, Los Angeles had its "famous" Sylmar earthquake. Clearly, this was the inspiration for the original version of the 1974 film "Earthquake." The Northridge earthquake took place on MLK Day in 1994 got more coverage because media improved. The latter quake seemingly did a lot more damage. Northridge sits in the middle of the San Fernando Valley while Sylmar sits at the top end of the San Fernando Valley, where Los Angeles really thins out and sits at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains foothills. The commonality is that in both quakes, at least one of the really long concrete overpasses connecting the freeways I-5 and CA 14 collapsed. Every time I've driven under it or next to it, I've remarked that that is one really long span (CA 14 terminating and feeding cars onto I-5 southbound into the Valley and L.A.) - - - - - 1971 high ramp collapses at I-5 and CA-14 1994 high ramp collapses at I-5 and CA-14 (same interchange) The Los Angeles area went 23 years between its 2 major earthquakes. San Francisco had its historic 1906 quake that turned the then younger city into rubble, not having one again until 1989 - the Loma Prieta earthquake. The most severe fault in the state (the San Andreas) goes through San Francisco, while it crosses where the mountains end and the Central Valley begin some 50 to 60 miles north of Los Angeles. When you grow up around this, you seemingly familiarize yourself with all these facts and figures.

Or the old and less old...that BMW X5 is at least 20 years old. Not sure what the little car on the trailer is.

Very cool, seems Chinese EVs are here being compared by American companies so that hopefully we do not fall too far behind. A Xiaomi EV was spotted in America, and a US maker might be behind it

Kia just showed off in Brussels their Global release of the EV3, EV4, and EV5 GT editions. Full details are here. Kia electrifies Brussels Motor Show with three new GT models: EV3, EV4 and EV5 | Releases | Official Media Site NEWSROOM