The Famous Sam-Pops Video

Sam pops!

IRM's UP 2-8-0 428 Gets Blown Down

This is the first firing since 1959 after many years of volunteer work and the boiler is being blown down to clear impurities and debris.

Firing up 428

Illinois Railway Museum volunteers prepare to lay the first fire on the grates of Union Pacific 2-8-0 steam locomotive number 428 in almost 51 years.

Kitty Frolic

Kittens playing. Not even weaned yet.

The Future of Bill Validation!

I thought this was pretty funny. This is at the payment station at the parking garage next door to my business.

It's a closeup of the part of the...   more I thought this was pretty funny. This is at the payment station at the parking garage next door to my business.

It's a closeup of the part of the machine that accepts cash...called a Bill Validator. What's funny is how, when it's ready to accept money, it sits there flashing a self promotional slogan, "THE FUTURE OF BILL VALIDATION!" I just think that's ridiculously funny.

It's the kind of garage where you get a card when you enter and pay just before retrieving your car.

Ordinarily it sits there with "BV INHIBITED" on the display. So after you insert the card and any discount coupon when the validator is ready to take money it starts flashing this promotional slogan "CASHCODE - THE FUTURE OF BILL VALIDATION" (although the leading C seems to be truncated the first time through). And look at the green LED's flashing where you put the currency in....it's like you're landing the shuttlecraft on the Enterprise! At the end after I have inserted a credit card elsewhere it goes back to "BV INHIBITED."

Can "Otis - The Future of Elevators" and "Kohler - The Future of Toilets" be far behind?

I did a little research and Cashcode is based in Ontario but they are a unit of Crane & Co. which used to make, among other things, toilets, but they sold off that business.   less