Fog City Vs. ProGrip

og City vs. ProGrip Visor Inserts
The ProGrip visor insert is made by Plastiche Cassano S.r.l. in Italy and is new to the U.S.A.  It may be hard to find, but has been available in the U.K. for some time.  Fog City visors have been available for several years and are distributed by Modern World Ventures in California.  There is no country of manufacture listed anywhere on the Fog City packaging, so we're not sure where the product is made.  Isn't there supposed to be a law regarding country of origin for manufactured products?

Each of these visor inserts are applied on the inside of the helmet visor.  This may seem intuitive, but I'll bet more than one hapless motorcyclist has made the mistake of installing the insert on the outside of the visor.  The directions for both products aren't entirely clear on this point; so we figured we'd address the issue just for the record.

Each insert has a gasket around its outer edge, and the gasket includes an adhesive coating with a protective vinyl cover over the adhesive that must be removed prior to installation.  Each visor insert also has a thin film that acts as a protective coating over the lens and which also must be removed prior to installation.

The ProGrip visor insert is larger in the top-to-bottom (height) dimension than the Fog City visor.  The ProGrip measures 4" (102 mm) in height compared to the Fog City's 3-5/8" (approx. 92 mm).  This makes a big difference, as we found.  There just wasn't enough room in several of the helmets we tried for the ProGrip insert to fit on the inside of the visor without interfering with the visor's ability to close and seal correctly. 

The lesson here is that it's important to check the dimensions of the inside of the visor, between the top and bottom of the visor opening, to ensure that the ProGrip (or any visor insert, for that matter) will fit before committing to a purchase.  Unfortunately, the dimensions of the inserts are not readily available, which is strange, considering that this can be a make-or-break decision.

Installation
The helmet visor must be clean before the insert can be installed.  Each manufacturer suggests a particular cleaning method to ensure the best adhesion, so our best advice is to follow the instructions.  Don't forget that any fingerprints or dirt may end up trapped between the visor and the insert if the visor is not perfectly clean prior to installation.

Before the insert can be installed, the correct location on the visor must be ascertained to ensure that the insert will fit correctly on the inside of the visor without interfering with the visor seal.  Once the correct location is found, the outline of the insert is marked on the outside of the visor for use as a guide when the insert is applied to the inside of the visor itself.  To install the insert, the visor must be removed from the helmet.  The guide lines are used to line up the insert and the insert is installed by pressing the adhesive backing to the visor.

The ProGrip instructions call for masking tape to be applied to the outside of the visor and used as a guide.  It wasn't clear to us whether the tape should be applied so that the edges of the tape act as the guide or if the tape should be applied so that guide lines could be drawn on the tape with a pen. 

In any case, we didn't have any masking tape on hand, so we used a semi-permanent felt-tipped pen to mark the outside of the visor.  The ProGrip insert has a tan-colored protective backing that we peeled off to use as a template (photo left, below).

Marking the outside of the visor, using the paper backing from the ProGrip visor insert.	The Fog City insert comes with a template that is used to indicate the best position for installation.
Fitting the ProGrip insert to the inside of the helmet visor.	Peeling the clear protective backing from the insert.

Salt 'n Spice Blend

Salt 'n Spice Blend  Rating  13 Reviews: Read the Reviews This spice blend is similar to the recently discontinued Salt 'n Spice product.  It contains salt, pepper, onion, garlic and celery seed.  Makes 1/2 cup. Prep Time: 5 minutes
1/4 cup kosher salt 2 tablespoons McCormick® Seasoned Pepper Blend  1 tablespoon McCormick® Garlic Salt  1 tablespoon McCormick® Onion Powder  1 1/2 teaspoons McCormick® Celery Seed , crushed Mix all ingredients until well blended.  Store in tightly covered jar in cool, dry place.   Usage Tips: - Use this all-purpose seasoning as you would salt and pepper.   - It tastes great on scrambled eggs, potatoes, hamburgers, potato salad, and vegetables.

Cruise Ship Sinks Off Antarctica

Cruise Ship Sinks Off Antarctica
Passenger Vessel First to Go Under in Region; All 154 Aboard Saved

By Monte Reel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, November 24, 2007; A01

BUENOS AIRES, Nov. 23 -- The first cruise ship ever built to ply the frigid waters off Antarctica became the first ever to sink there Friday. The red-hulled M/S Explorer struck ice, took on water as 154 passengers and crew members scrambled to safety aboard lifeboats and rafts, then went to the bottom.

The 38-year-old vessel was in the middle of a 19-day voyage when it sent a distress call early Friday morning after puncturing its hull. A Norwegian cruise ship rescued those onboard nearly two hours after they abandoned ship in subfreezing temperatures.

Smallish and with a hull designed to withstand ice, the Explorer pioneered a trade that opened up Antarctica's wonders to people other than scientists and explorers. Today about 37,000 people a year are experiencing the great frozen continent from tour ships.

The 91 passengers aboard the Explorer included at least 13 Americans, 23 Britons and 10 Canadians, according to Canada-based G.A.P. Adventures, which bought the ship three years ago. Along with 54 crew members and nine guides, they were taken to nearby King George Island, where Friday evening they waited be flown to the southern Chilean city of Punta Arenas.

"It was submerged ice, and the result was a hole about the size of a fist in the side of the hull, so it began taking on water . . . but quite slowly," G.A.P. Adventures spokeswoman Susan Hayes told theAssociated Press. "The passengers are absolutely fine. They're all accounted for, no injuries whatsoever."

It was the second time this year that an Antarctic cruise ship had to be evacuated. On Jan. 31, a Norwegian ship, the Nordkapp, ran aground near the South Shetland Islands and 370 people aboard were rescued.

Lloyd's List, a British trade publication that covers the shipping and maritime industries, reported Friday that the Explorer was found to have five deficiencies during an inspection in May by Britain's Maritime and Coastguard Agency. The inspection found fault with its search-and-rescue plans, lifeboat maintenance, watertight doors and fire safety measures. A previous inspection in Chile in March found six deficiencies, according to Lloyd's List.

The ship received a valid safety certification in October, according to Lloyds.

The National Geographic Endeavour, another Antarctic cruise ship, was about 52 nautical miles away when its crew heard the Explorer's distress call at 1:37 a.m. Friday. The captain of the Endeavour, Oliver Kruess, stayed in regular contact with the Explorer as he traveled at full speed toward the damaged ship.

At 2:50 a.m. the Explorer reported that it had lost propulsion and was drifting toward ice, Kruess wrote in an incident report filed Friday to Lindblad Expeditions, which owns the Endeavour. A 4 a.m. message said that power had been restored, but at 4:30 the ship reported that there was progressive flooding in its sanitary system and that passengers were in lifeboats.

Kruess was informed at 4:50 a.m. that the captain and the chief officer of the Explorer had abandoned ship. The vessel's engine could no longer be controlled and the ship was moving in tight circles.

After arriving at the scene about 6:30 a.m. with the Norwegian ship, the Nordnorge, Kruess took stock of Explorer from aboard his own vessel. It "was listing heavily to starboard at an angle of possibly about 25 degrees," Kruess wrote. "The water level on her starboard side was reaching the restaurant window level."

In subfreezing temperatures and calm seas, the passengers were moved onto the Nordnorge in less than an hour.

Nordnorge Capt. Arnvid Hansen told BBC television in a telephone interview that the passengers didn't appear to be frightened during the rescue. "They were a little bit cold and wet, but in good condition," Hansen said as his ship sailed toward a Chilean naval base. "We brought on board warm clothes and food and accommodations, so they are in a good mood now."

Built in 1969 and specifically designed for polar travel, the 246-foot Explorer was the first passenger ship to traverse the Northwest Passage, the normally ice-locked route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific through the northern islands of Canada.

The ship's relatively small size -- 2,646 tons -- allowed it to navigate among ice floes. Its hull had been reinforced to withstand collisions with ice.

"It's very sad -- I was hoping she'd be retired and become a museum somewhere," said Sven-Olaf Lindblad, whose late father built the Explorer and founded the company that became Lindblad Expeditions, a partner with the National Geographic Society.

Lindblad said Friday that he didn't yet know the exact cause of the accident. "I'm perplexed that a hole of that size could have caused that much damage," he said. Lindblad worked aboard the Explorer with his father in the 1970s.

Tours on the Explorer cost about $10,000 per person, according to online travel companies that book the voyage.

With a crew that included marine and avian biologists, geologists and naturalists, the ship left the southern Argentine port of Ushuaia on Nov. 11 and headed toward the Falkland Islands, South Georgia island and the Antarctic Peninsula.

More than 37,000 people boarded Antarctic cruise ships during the 2006-07 high season, which ran from October through March, according to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators. That was an increase of more than 20 percent.

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$2500.00 Car will not be made

Tata Motors Scraps Factory for World's Cheapest Car on Protests 

By Vipin V. Nair

Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Tata Motors Ltd., India's biggest truckmaker, abandoned its newly built factory for the world's cheapest car because of violent protests by farmers, hampering plans to start selling the $2,500 vehicle this year.

Tata Motors will move equipment and machinery from Singur in West Bengal state to a new location to be decided later, Chairman Ratan Tata told reporters in Kolkata yesterday. The company has yet to evaluate how much of the 15 billion rupees ($319 million) invested in the project will be lost, he said.

``We have taken this decision because we do not see any change on the horizon,'' Ratan Tata said. The company will strive to meet this quarter's deadline for Nano sales, he said.

Shifting to a new site may hinder Tata's challenge to Suzuki Motor Corp., maker of more than half the cars sold in India, before new entrants including Renault SA start selling low-cost cars. Ratan Tata, 70, conceived the Nano project to lure the nation's 45 million motorcycle and scooter owners to upgrade.

``It's a big setback for Tata Motors,'' said Gaurav Lohia, an analyst at KR Choksey Shares & Sec Pvt., who has a ``buy'' rating on the company's stock. ``I expect the production and rollout of the Nano to be slowing down.''

Tata Motors fell 9.15 rupees, or 2.7 percent, to 330.5 rupees in Mumbai trading yesterday before the announcement. The shares have declined 54 percent so far this year, compared with the benchmark index's 38 percent drop.

Land disputes, protests by environmental groups and delays in getting government approval have stalled projects across India including a $12 billion steel plant planned by Korea's Posco.

Trinamool Congress

Tata Motors on Aug. 29 halted construction of the factory and threatened to pull out of the site after local political party Trinamool Congress party rejected compensation proposals by the West Bengal state government for farmers.

In August, at least 2,000 men and women, mostly illiterate, protested in front of the Tata Motors factory at Singur, about 1 1/2 hours north of Kolkata. The Trinamool party blocked roads to protest the land compensation package for the farmers.

The party didn't oppose the 600 acres of land where the Tata Motors plant was under construction, according to its leader Mamata Banerjee. The balance of about 400 acres of land acquired for vendors must be returned to farmers, whose livelihood was taken away by the plant, she said.

The Communist-led government in West Bengal state had said it was ready to compensate farmers by returning about 70 acres (28 hectares) of land already given to Tata Motors and its component-makers. The state also offered to increase the cash payments by 50 percent for the people who gave their land.

`Integral' Project

Tata Motors had said the project was ``integral'' and the plant couldn't be constructed without vendors getting facilities.

``The Nano is a unique project,'' said Tarun Das, chief mentor of theConfederation of Indian Industry, the country's largest business grouping. ``Any forced change to its plan of implementation will delay the launch of the Nano and also impact the cost,'' Das said in a statement Oct. 2.

Tata Motors last month said it's ``actively'' looking for alternatives to the factory in Singur. The automaker got an offer for 1,000 acres of land and other incentives from the southern state of Karnataka, Managing DirectorRavi Kant said Sept. 18.

Sri Lanka, India's neighbor, also offered land to Tata Motors to set up the Nano factory, the nation's Investment Promotion Minister Sarath Amunugama said.

One of two cars sold in the country is made by Suzuki's local unit Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. In comparison, Tata Motors controlled 13.9 percent of the market in the year ended March 31, making it the nation's third-largest automaker.

To contact the reporter on this story: Vipin V. Nair in Mumbai atVnair12@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 3, 2008 18:18 EDT