 Daring design never caught on but remains beloved automotive curiosity. 
Would you believe Jean Pierre Ponthieu, the inventor of this modular automobile, called it a pussycar? Seriously. Not because it was supposed to facilitate the owner's dating life but because it was miniature. We suspect it was a play on the word “pussycat.” Hey, he was French. Anyway, as an inventor Ponthieu dabbled in many areas, including animatronics and gun holsters, but cars are really his lasting legacy. He considered this one, which first hit the cobblestones in 1968, “the car of the year 2000.” Of the ten pussycars Ponthieu built, a few survive and are prized relics of mid-century retro-futurism—i.e. shit that was visionary but never caught on. In the case of Ponthieu's auto erotic, the main drawback is obvious—if you cracked up, which was always a possibility in French traffic, you'd spill out of it like a bloody yolk. Amazingly, this isn't even Ponthieu's most famous car. He also built the film version of the car used in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. That sounds somewhat sexual too, doesn't it? Don't blame Ponthieu. This time it's on Ian Fleming. More pussyrific images below, and video here.    
 It's all about natural balance. 
The Gaia theory suggests that organisms interact with the inorganic world to form a synergistic system that maintains the conditions for life on Earth. None of that has anything to do with Italian actress Gaia Germani, née Giovanna Giardina, save that she's part of that synergistic system, and a particularly good part. Her film career included the 1965 spy movie OSS 77—Operazione fior di loto, 1967's Bang Bang, and 1974's Seduzione coniugale, which we talked about here. This photo is from around 1970.
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1963—Gang Pulls Off Great Train Robbery
A fifteen member gang robs a train of £2.6 million at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, England. Thirteen of the fifteen are later caught, but some subsequently escape from prison, and one, Ronnie Biggs, is only recaptured in 2001 after voluntarily returning to England. 1974—Nixon Resigns
After two years of public outcry over the Watergate scandal, U.S. president Richard M. Nixon announces to a national television audience that he will resign, effective the next day. Vice President Gerald R. Ford completes the remainder of Nixon's term. 1947—Journey of the Kon-Tiki Ends
Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft the Kon-Tiki, smashes into a reef in the Tuamotu Islands after a 4300 mile (7000 kilomteter) journey from South America. Heyerdahl was attempting to prove—in rather circuitous fashion—that South American natives were descended from Pacific Islanders. 1945—First Nuclear Weapon Is Used on Hiroshima
Hiroshima is leveled when the atomic bomb codenamed Little Boy is detonated over the city by the United States. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and tens of thousands more die in the months and years ahead due to burns and radiation poisoning.
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