Pasi takes me outside. A stepped boardwalk leads down from the back of the reception area to the sea marsh. Reeds brittle in the wind. The sea is frozen solid, yellow plates of ice piled among the bulrushes. Across the bay, passing in and out of visibility as the blizzard moves, are the outlines of three nuclear power stations. The third and most distant is mosque­like: a terracotta dome from which rises a minaret tower.

Because the Trail 429 is single-chainring specific, Pivot has been able to widen the main pivot and bottom bracket area (which holds a longer crank axle, to work with the wider rear end).

That mass reduction helps the twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 engine’s 542 horsepower and 568 lb-ft of torque feel closer to the more burdened W-12′s 626 ponies and 664 lb-ft of torque than the numbers might suggest. The V-8′s peak torque arrives only a few hundred rpm higher in the rev range than does the W-12′s at a still commendable 1960 rpm, giving it plenty of off-the-line punch. Bentley claims that the V-8′s zero-to-60-mph acceleration lags behind the W-12′s by 0.3 second, which should put it at a still very quick 3.6 seconds if our test of a W-12 coupe is any indication. Pairing that with the ability to drop the top, which also adds more than 350 pounds, should increase the 60-mph dash by about 0.2 second.

“The certifications offered by FNGLA and the National Association of Landscape Professionals mirror LMP’s desire to promote the landscape industry as a viable profession for those individuals coming into the workforce and those whom are looking for a career outside of traditional fields," Vickers said.

An in-depth approach towards global Automotive Shift Lever market players will help all market players in the process of analyzing the recent market trends and essential commercial enterprise strategies.

Holmes Beach: Police trying to find the rightful owner of a prosthetic ear that washed up on their beach got a happy phone call from South Carolina on Thursday. Holmes Beach Police Sgt. Brian Hall said a woman called saying the rubber ear that police posted on Facebook belongs to her husband. Hall said the Beaufort couple was vacationing in the Tampa Bay area when the man went swimming. She said he was trying to put the ear in his pocket for safekeeping when “a wave knocked it off his hand.” The police department posted a photo of the left ear, saying a local resident found it in the sand Saturday after the “World’s Strongest Man” contest on Anna Maria Island. Prosthetic ears can cost thousands of dollars. Hall said the department will mail it to South Carolina. “We will put it in box. I hope nobody sees it and freaks out,” he said.

A picture taken above the Nitro+ shows the two outside 92mm fans, which spin counter-clockwise, and the 80mm center fan that turns clockwise. Gigabyte employs a similar scheme to ensure the airflow from each fan is complementary, rather than creating unhelpful turbulence between them. Under the fans, a two-part sink stretches from one end of the PCB to the other. Three 8mm and two 6mm heat pipes connect the pieces. One more 6mm pipe loops around in the fin array sitting over AMD’s Vega 10 GPU. And two flattened 6mm pipes draw heat from the voltage regulation circuitry, dissipating it through a pair of auxiliary sinks.

“He said wherever he turned it would go. He never had to use breaks, it would go exactly where he turned it and he felt safer in it than in a two-wheel drive tractor. Of course, all four-wheel drives are that way; they’ll go where you turn it. That was the first thing people who had never driven a four-wheel drive noticed,” Birkey said.

“When he’s feeling really well, I’m guessing he’s out there 30 hours a week, maybe more,” Steve estimated. “That’s what he does.”

The Duke’s current tires are the Michelin Power RS, a street tire that we’d only sampled on the track and that we’d been itching to try out on the street. We’ll give an update on them after we’ve logged more miles, but our impression is that they are every bit as fun on the street as they are on the track. As with my first impression of the tires, they do slow the steering a little compared to the Q4s but not in a problematic way. So far, they’ve got a few hundred street miles plus one track day, and they appear ready to go significantly longer. 

Back over the bridge from the island. Salt marsh at either side of the bridge. The sea in shattered pieces. A blue letter-box on a white pole. Boulders big as houses among the pines, between the birches. My headlights making tunnels in the dusk ahead. Birches, pines, birches, birches. Everything frozen.

While the ease of installation and the quality of the Silencer Bracket was exactly what I’d expect, the Pillion Seat Cover seems cheaply made. Yes, its style perfectly matches the rest of the bike when viewed from a distance. A close inspection, however, reveals some inconsistencies in the surface from the injection molding process. Still, it earns a B while the exhaust bracket is a solid A. The back of the Duke is transformed with the addition of just these two parts. Also, if you’re not interested in replacing the muffler, the shapely stock muffler looks much better when it is no longer obstructed by the passenger peg.