The no-show cars: a reader rant on mad concepts

Instigated by Harley Earl at General Motors in the late 30s with the quaintly named Buick Y-Job, show cars, or concept cars, were presented to an excited public eager for new things. As the world recovered from a depression and then a war, these vehicles pointed to a better future that many people believed in, including the people who produced them. And, although many of the concept cars of the 50s, with their Jetsons plexiglass roofs and notional nuclear powered engines seem ludicrous now, in their time they weren’t that cynical.

Partnership Premium 2030 - The results

Strate College in Paris, France, has released the final video of its Partnership Premium 2030 project created in collaboration with French automaker Peugeot. The culmination of a four month project, this most recent episode from Strate College covers the final designs and scenarios students presented to Peugeot's design staff at the firm's Design Center. The video features excerpts of interviews with the 10 student teams – each comprised of three students – on the French university's transport design course, who explain the rationale behind their chosen individual scenarios and the resulting concepts.

The Petersen Museum isn't going belly up

I hate writing columns like this, the kind where one media outlet calls out another's mistakes. There but for the grace of God go I and all that… But the shrieking and hysteria over the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles going to hell in a handbasket -- that's what the LA Times reported -- is over the top, and it's turned into a fiasco. Here's the background.