If you agree that certain strikingly gorgeous exotic cars double pieces of fine art, then the Alfa Romeo Berlina Aerodinamica Tecnica (B.A.T.) series is the only true automotive triptych. As such, RM Sotheby’s is working with Sotheby’s Fine Art Division to sell the B.A.T. series at the Contemporary Art Evening Auction event on October 28 in New York City. 

The story begins in the early 1950s, when Alfa Romeo first approached designer Franco Scaglione and coachbuilder Carrozzeria Bertone of Turin, Italy to create technical aerodynamic concepts following the legendary duo’s build of the Abarth 1500 experimental coupe. The relatively unimpressionable Alfa Romeo 1900 would serves as a canvas for Scaglione and Bertone as they penned and hand-built three one-off vehicles presented in 1953, 1954 and 1955.

The first, dubbed B.A.T. 5, is delightfully unrecognizable from its base car. Drastic elements include protruding pontoon fenders, a rounded nose with dual air vents, a flowing teardrop-shaped wraparound-glass cockpit, rear shoulders enclosed by leaning tailfins, and airflow-reversing rear wheel skirts. 

The B.A.T. 5’s radical design achieved a drag coefficient of roughly 0.23 at nearly 94 mph. For comparison’s sake, RM Sotheby’s notes that the Tesla Model S has a drag coefficient of .24, and Elon Musk has the advantage of wind tunnel testing and computer-aided design. Equally impressive is that a 43-horsepower 1.9-liter four-cylinder pushed the vehicle to a tested top speed of 123.6 mph.

The B.A.T. 5’s success spawned the created of the B.A.T. 7, which doesn’t stray far from the original but features narrowed front air intakes, a lowered hood, lengthened tailfins. This lowered the drag coefficient to .19, a figure that’s almost entirely unmatched by any past or present production vehicle. Weight was reduced as well, from the B.A.T. 5’s roughly 2,400 pounds to just 2,200 pounds.

Alfa Romeo B.A.T. 9

Alfa Romeo’s mandate for the final …read more

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The New Statesman’s World Review podcast with Emily Tamkin and Jeremy Cliffe.

On this week’s World Review from the New Statesman, Emily Tamkin in Washington DC and Jeremy Cliffe in Berlin, are joined by Courtney Fingar, editor of Investment Monitor, and Sommer Mathis, editor of City Monitor, to look at the geographical rifts that have emerged across America in the run-up to next month’s election.

Check out Investment Monitor here and City Monitor here. You can read Emily’s swing state story on Florida here and her column this week on the way the 2016 election haunts the current race here. Jeremy’s column on foreign policy under Biden here and the New Statesman’s special feature with Investment Monitor and Technology Monitor on US-China decoupling is here.

You can subscribe to the podcast on Apple here, on Google/Android here, or with this RSS feed: https://play.acast.com/s/world-review, or listen using the player below:

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Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

TACOMA, Wash. — A soldier based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord has been killed in an incident on base near Tacoma, Washington, officials said Thursday.

Spc. Skyler Oliver, 24, served with 1-2 Stryker Brigade, 7th Infantry Division, according to I Corps public affairs officials.

Officials only said the death was not training-related but said the cause of Oliver’s death Saturday, Oct. 17, is under investigation by the Army criminal investigation command, which is standard with unexpected service member deaths.

Oliver, a native of Roy, Utah, is survived by his wife, Courtney Oliver, and two young children.

Oliver’s mother, Janet Oliver, told The News Tribune he joined the Army in August 2018 and was assigned to JBLM in January 2019. She described her son as a loving husband and father and a cheerful outdoorsman.

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Mugshot of Christian Travis Ward, 48, who was arrested and booked into Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of multiple sex crimes on Friday, Oct. 23, 2020. | Salt Lake County Jail

SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake City School District employee was arrested Friday after police say he engaged in sexual conversations online with who he thought were teenage girls.

Christian Travis Ward, 48, who police said is an equipment repair technician for the school district, was arrested for investigation of enticing a minor by internet or text, dealing in materials harmful to minors and sexual exploitation of a minor.

Ward participated in an online conversation, which “quickly turned into sex talk,” with someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl in August 2019, according to jail affidavit. He asked multiple times for explicit pictures and sent an explicit photo of himself, the report states.

They never met in person, according to the affidavit.

In September, Ward is accused of engaging in another online conversation with who he thought was a 14-year-old girl. The affidavit states he attempted to arrange to meet up with the girl, asking “What store do you live by?” and “What school do you go to?”

The meeting never happened, the affidavit states.

Ward also asked for explicit photos and videos and sent multiple explicit photos of himself and one explicit video in that case, according to police.

Ward told police he had talked with who he thought were 13- and 14-year-old girls through various apps, the affidavit says. Police noted that as a school district employee, Ward would have had access to children through his job.

He was booked into Salt Lake County Jail Friday and was being held without bail.

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Shane Manu, 6, looks at a Halloween decoration at Zurchers, a costume and party supply store, in Salt Lake City on Friday, Oct. 16, 2020. | Yukai Peng, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — To trick or treat or not this year. That is the question.

Samantha Lundin said she plans to take her kids trick-or-treating on Halloween despite the pandemic because she doesn’t want fear to control her family’s lives.

“I feel that our kids deserve to see us be brave and not see how this is affecting us. Because if we let it affect us, then we let it affect our children. And they don’t need that,” the St. George mom said.

The new coronavirus isn’t likely to go away anytime soon, she added, but it’s important to not let it change everything.

Most Utahns think children should go trick-or-treating this year, though more believe that precautions should be taken, according to a new Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll.

The survey found that 33% of Utahns believe kids should trick or treat as usual, while 37% say children should trick or treat with health considerations, like wearing face masks and social distancing.

That’s compared to 25% of Utahns who believe children should not be trick-or-treating this year amid the state’s big spike in COVID-19 cases. About 5% said they’re not sure.

Pollster Scott Rasmussen surveyed 1,000 likely voters in Utah Oct. 12-17. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Lundin said her family will take precautions on Halloween as they’ve done throughout the pandemic, like washing their hands when they get home. They will also trick or treat as a family rather than with a larger group.

Because of that, Lundin said she won’t make her kids — ages 6 and nearly 4 — wear …read more

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Christopher Hovey wipes his eyes after rinsing his face and hair with a bottle of water at Taufer Park in Salt Lake City on Friday, Oct. 23, 2020. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News

A weekslong Salt Lake City initiative to connect the unsheltered with services takes a gentle approach

SALT LAKE CITY — Luis Lopez, standing outside his tent near Taufer Park on Friday, said he’s been homeless for the past eight years or so.

Lopez, 37, said he’s lived in Utah ever since he moved from Los Angeles when he was 16. He said he’s struggled finding a job, and has cycled in and out of jail and prison because of drugs. He used to live in the Road Home’s downtown shelter before it shut down last year and has been on and off the streets since. He’s tried to get housing, but he needs to get a new ID first.

“I want to get out of here,” Lopez told the Deseret News. “I’m tired of it, living on the street.”

But he’d rather camp than stay in one of Salt Lake County’s homeless resource centers, he said, because he’s not fond of crowds and the rules.

”It feels like a jail-type setting,” he said. “I’ve done enough jail and prison time, so I really don’t want to.”

So that’s what brought Lopez to what has become one of the largest homeless encampments in Salt Lake City this year, along 700 South near Taufer Park, where tents and tarps have amassed for months throughout the summer.

On-street camping and homelessness continues to be an issue in Utah’s capital, despite the millions state, city and county leaders spent on three new homeless resource centers that opened last year, and the $67 million Operation Rio Grande effort to clean up crime and drugs around the …read more

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Tara Westover, author of “Educated,” took part in a virtual Q&A session for Utah Valley University’s Presidential Lecture series on Thursday, Oct. 22. | Screenshot

“I’m breaking a big rule in the family, which is not to talk about it. I’ve tried to be as sensitive to the discomfort that that has caused as I can be, but ultimately, I still feel like it was important to do.” — Tara Westover on writing “Educated”

Several years ago, Tara Westover found herself at a crossroads with her family. What she wanted for herself — a formal education — stood in direct opposition to her entire upbringing.

The youngest of seven children, Westover was raised by survivalist parents in the mountains of rural Idaho. Her father was suspicious of the government and opposed to public education, so she didn’t attend school growing up. Instead, she had minimal homeschooling.

Eventually, with some guidance from an older brother, Westover combated these limitations and went on to attend Brigham Young University.

That opened up her world and took her down a path of higher education. It was this second world, Westover said, that gave her the strength to stand up to her first world.

“My family struggled a lot with violence and other kinds of abuse,” Westover said on Thursday, during a virtual Q&A session for Utah Valley University’s Presidential Lecture series. “And we did not in any way navigate that successfully and heal from it. And that’s a choice we made. Families don’t have to deal with it that way. But mine did.”

Noting that she couldn’t control the actions of her family members, Westover said she focused on what she could control, including her decision to separate herself from her family. And in 2014, she went on to accomplish something that at one time would’ve seemed impossible — …read more

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A surveillance image released by police shows a trailer with a body that was being transported for burial inside being stolen on Friday, Oct. 23, 2020. | West Jordan Police Department

WEST JORDAN — A trailer transporting a body for burial was stolen from a West Jordan hotel Friday morning, with the body still inside.

The U-Haul trailer and body were stolen at around 5:28 a.m. Friday, according to Tauni Barker, public information officer for West Jordan city. Both were found abandoned later in the day.

The thief detached the trailer from the family’s car, attached it to theirs and drove away, Barker said.

The body was being transported from Louisiana to Utah for burial, which was scheduled for Friday.

“The thieves are usually targeting what they view as something valuable inside,” said West Jordan Police Sgt. J.C. Holt. “They obviously didn’t know what was inside of this one.”

The trailer was found abandoned, with the body intact, Friday afternoon in a church parking lot in Kearns.

Police ask anyone with information about the thief or their vehicle, seen in a surveillance image released Friday, to contact dispatch.

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