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[Spanky]

Sunday 17 April 2016

Ford Mustang Day



The Ford Mustang, a two-seat, mid- engine sports car, is officially unveiled by Henry Ford II at the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York, on April 17, 1964.

That same day, the new car also debuted in Ford showrooms across America and almost 22,000 Mustangs were immediately snapped up by buyers.

Named for a World War II fighter plane, the Mustang was the first of a type of vehicle that came to be known as a “pony car.” Ford sold more than 400,000 Mustangs within its first year of production, far exceeding sales expectations.

The Mustang was conceived as a “working man’s Thunderbird,” according to Ford. The first models featured a long hood and short rear deck and carried a starting price tag of around $2,300. Ford general manager Lee Iacocca, who became president of the company in October 1964 (and later headed up Chrysler, which he was credited with reviving in the 1980s) was involved in the Mustang’s development and marketing.

The car’s launch generated great interest. It was featured on the covers of Newsweek and Time magazines and the night before it went on sale, the Mustang was featured in commercials that ran simultaneously on all three major television networks.

One buyer in Texas reportedly slept at a Ford showroom until his check cleared and he could drive his new Mustang home. The same year it debuted, the Mustang appeared on the silver screen in the James Bond movie “Goldfinger.” A green 1968 Mustang 390 GT was famously featured in the 1968 Steve McQueen movie “Bullitt,” in a car chase through the streets of San Francisco.

Since then, Mustangs have appeared in hundreds of movies. Within three years of its debut, some 500 Mustang fan clubs had cropped up. In March 1966, the 1 millionth Mustang rolled off the assembly line. In honor of the Mustang’s 35th anniversary in 1999, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating the original model. In 2004, Ford built its 300 millionth car, a 2004 Mustang GT convertible 40th anniversary model. The 2004 Mustangs were the final vehicles made at the company’s Dearborn production facility, which had been building Mustangs since their debut. (Assembly then moved to a plant in Flat Rock, Michigan.)

And

Bat Appreciation Day



Bats do a whole lot more than cruise the skies at night. They play an important role in balancing our ecosystem, eating harmful insects and acting as natural pest control. And although some people think bats are freaky looking, there are hundreds of reasons to love these flying mammals.

5 Fun Bat Facts For Bat Appreciation Day

01. Bats are the only flying mammals. Talk about bragging rights! These guys can cruise up to 60 miles per hour.

02. Bats use echolocation. Consider bats the dolphins of the sky. They use echolocation not for communication, but for finding food in the dark.

03. A quarter of all mammals are bats. There are over 1,000 bat species in the world, making up 1/4th of all mammals! However, over 50 percent of these species are declining, either already endangered or on their way.

04. Bats have only one baby per year. Similar to humans, bats typically only have one bat baby (called a pup) per year. Just like people, bats will occasionally have twins.

05. Bats often eat their body weights—daily. Insect-eating bats can consume over 1,000 insects every night. That’s one efficient mosquito trap!

Unfortunately, many once-abundant bat species in the U.S. are now endangered, and all of them are threatened.

Bats are way cool Ice.  i used to carry a slingshot and a baggie with some grape nuts cereal when camping and backpacking.  If the elevation and time were right, I could shoot a load of grape nuts into the air and watch the bats go after them. 

Spank