I would rather trust a computer than most of the drivers I see on the road. I can't count the number of people I have seen driving too fast for the conditions and end up in the ditches and accidents.
My only question is how far up as there are different ass depths? I mean have you see some of the people in this country, I have seen rolls of fat going over elbows so that their forearm looks like a pendulum hanging out of a bell. On someone like that it would have to go a good 18 inches to even make it in their ass.
Just because the average age of a new Buick owner is dead doesn't mean they are un-American. Even the dead still fulfill their patriotic duty in Chicago and vote.
Especially down south, 10 years is even short up here in Minnesota where the freeze thaw cycle just destroys roads. The major roads nearest my house are all over 10 years old and haven't been repaved yet. Some of them have been patched in spots and are probably going to be repaved in the next few years. The most major road work that was done near me was this spring when a section of road was replaced when the water main under it burst last winter in a bad cold spell and made a sink hole. The hole will filled and quickly patched in January as a temporary fix and properly repaired in the spring when the weather permitted.
Have you driven a modern vehicle in a comparable class to that of the old american cars? A modern american compact car is better in every way to the ones from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s the same holds true for all other classes as well. They all put out more power, get better gas mileage, handle better, put out less pollution, last longer, better acceleration, higher top speed, and have more of the creature comforts. About the only thing I hear people complain about is the lack of style, when compared to cars from the 50s or 60s, and the difficulty of working on them. Maybe this will help you understand engine sizes for your proper US-sized blocks:
8.2 Liter = 500 cu in (in 1970 this engine first production year it produced 400 hp and in its final year of production 1976 produced 190 hp)
6.6 Liter = 400 cu in
7.0 Liter = 425 cu in
7.5 Liter = 455 cu in
5.0 Liter = Ford 302 cu in or GM 305 cu in
5.3 Liter = 327 cu in
5.7 Liter = 350 cu in
7 Liter = 427 cu in
3.8 Liter = 231 cu in
3.7 Liter = 225 cu in
3.0 Liter = 181 cu in
4.3 Liter = 261 cu in
4.1 Liter = 250 cu in
4.8 Liter = 292 cu in
4.0 Liter = 242 cu in
These are all actual historic 6 and 8 cylinder engines that were produced by US manufactures. Now granted these displacements are large by European standards but then the US cars that we made at the time were land yachts. Technology has come a long way since then and now in a lot of applications where a large V8 was needed a smaller V6 works and produces as much or more power as the old V8. If one looks at the smog motors of the late 70s and early 80s it is even possible for a modern small turbo charged 4 banger to put out more power than the old V8.
I assume that you mean a proper sized engine to the massive vehicle. By most Americans' standard I have a car with a small V8 engine (4.4L) while others have V8 engines that are at least 5.0 liters and as high as 8 liters in cars. People tend to buy the largest most powerful car they can afford unless they are trying to make a statement.
Don't worry I over heard one of my co workers complaining that they backed into something because their beeper wasn't working. By beeper they meant the reverse collision detector because they apparently thought that having one of those meant you didn't need to look behind you when going in reverse. You can try to make a better device but as a society we will create better idiots.
The problem is that people are stupid and don't maintain proper following distance. I do and have never rear ended anyone, but yet I have been rear ended.
As far as saving a squirrels life I take the approach that if the animal is larger than about 40 lbs or has horns I will avoid hitting it, otherwise its going off to the rendering plant. Most animals will avoid getting run over, but yet there are some in every group that seem to need to be taken out of the gene pool. A perfect example of this is the one squirrel I have actually ran over, I was idling through a state park campground and it couldn't manage to avoid a tire coming at it at about 2 mph. I wasn't aiming for it but it couldn't figure out what the hell it was doing under the my car and got ran over by the rear tire. Birds are much the same at proper highway speeds birds easily avoid cars but every once and a while one meets my car.
Each safety device actually does lower insurance rates. My old 88 Ford Bronco II cost me $88 every 6 moths to insure but when I replaced it with my current 96 Jeep Cherokee my insurance dropped to $82 every 6 months. Same coverage same company but because the Jeep had an air bag and anti lock brakes it got a lower rate even though it has a vastly more powerful engine and is a nicer vehicle. This isn't fancy coverage but liability only but still it is a discount.
Actually they do come with turn signals, but they use special synthetic DOT 7 blinker fluid that is difficult to find and most oil change shops are unaware of this need as they can barely remember to change the oil filter. As this needs to be changed with every oil change the signals cease to function after a short time of neglect. This is much like the Lucas wiring harness smoke that people would in inadvertently let out of their older British vehicles.
Maybe the solution is to actually enforce the current traffic laws and pay attention to what they are doing the above problems wouldn't happen. We have all seen the blinker on for 15 miles. The worst is the people who don't know how to turn with the double left turn lanes and will turn into the inner most lane when they are in the outer most left turn lane. I have had a couple of people clip the back end of my old Bronco II who did this. I never cared when it happened to that vehicle and would care if it happened with my nice car as I have insurance. In the Bronco I would get out and we would have the talk and I would explain that I wasn't going to be filing an insurance claim but that if they wanted to I would be happy to get the police to file an accident report that shows the intersection with the lines marked for where you are suppose to turn. After that they don't ask for my insurance forgetting that Minnesota is a no fault state (I really wish they would change this).
Sounds similar to my old Bronco II that looked like it was going to start dropping parts most of the time people stayed plenty clear of that. Yet there were still people who thought it was a good idea to cut it off, or like one urban troubadour walk right out in front of it on an icy road. Guy wasn't even looking and decided to jay walk across a major street (4 lanes each direction including the turn lanes) and I had an idea that he was going to do this so I was already trying to stop but came within a foot of hitting him. Retard boy decided to curse at me calling me a mother fucker, ass hole, and so on while banging on the hood and I just went off, think Marine drill instructor. I doubt anyone had ever told this individual they were at fault and that they weren't a victim it doesn't hurt that I am bigger than most people so it adds to the intimidation factor. Problem is most people are just self absorbed ass holes more so when in their car so they assume that you will get out of their way and that when you change lanes you are encroaching on their road.
I would prefer a more forceful enforcement of their usage but that might be difficult without causing more harm. I am becoming convinced that there may actually be blinker fluid and that most cars need a refill because of the lack of blinker usage I see.
You mean you actually expected a politician to keep their promises? I take it you have never heard the joke. Q: How do you know a politician is lying? A: Their lips are moving.
There are very few who will tell you what they want to do and actually follow through on it. These ones are usually lumped into the loony category of their party. This is why I like to know their voting record which is much more indicative than what they say when they are out stumping.
I would argue that real issues are things that aren't in their personal life, you know like Clinton's, Cain's, Gingrich's, etc sexual escapades, their grades in college, weather or not they are a Muslim, Catholic, or Mormon, what color tie or shirt they are wearing, the quality of one's hair cut. This is the type of stuff that I lump into the BS category. Sprinkle in some wedge issues like abortion, guns, religion and you basically have an American election cycle. For real issues I would count things like, taxes, the deficit, the debt, military size, military deployments, foreign policy towards major international players, trade policy, you know the kind of stuff that they will actually be dealing with on a daily basis when president. Personally I could care less what kind of dog the president has, or where he takes vacation but that is the kind of political coverage we get. I would really like to know if we are going to have another president who is going to decide they want to start another war in the middle east or if they are going to enact trade barriers for imported goods from China like they do to US goods.
As much as I wish people would become informed on each candidate it seems that the BS that gets thrown around has more sway. There are too many people who believed (and probably still believe) that Obama is a Kenyan born closet Muslim raciest commie bastard (I think I got all the major unfounded accusations in there) that was thrown about in the last election. It would be nice if politicians would actually be clear on their stance but everything seems to be empty words, extremely general, or as vague as they can be. Every candidate is going to state that they are for jobs. They are going to have 3-4 paragraphs stating that they are pro jobs and some vagaries on how they would create them (for the Rs it is less regulations for the Ds it is through expanded government spending) but don't ever specify any details.
Mr. Gingrich's sorted past is of little consequence, that would be his personal life, what I care about is how he voted on various issues what his stance is, and if it has changed why. Personally to me it looks like he is a politician first and will do what is politically convenient at any given time.
As amusing as that would be, hell I would love to see a scorched earth campaign where it basically becomes a caricature of its self, it still would be the BS that seems to have too much sway over elections. Now all we would need is an American Idol setup where people can vote off each candidate for the party's nomination each week all culminating in the finally show which would be the general election with the results show the following day. It might actually be less crooked this way.
On a side note last week I saw a discussion in the British Parliament between PM Gordon Brown and the opposition coalition on BBC World and it was hilarious. They really go after each other even on a personal level.
How about it is an amusing dirty trick. I like the political horse race and I guess it is my spectator sport, but this is pretty dirty, but at the same time I find it amusing as hell. Gingrich isn't my candidate but tactics like this just distract from the real issues, but unfortunatly the 2 most important factors in an election tend to be BS and wedge issues to get your base out.
The agricultural subsidies for the south are cotton and tobacco, not corn and soybeans. Corn and soybeans are because of Iowa going first in the presidential primaries. This is also why we have ethanol subsidies for ethanol from corn. Also dairy subsidies are based off of how far you are from Eau Clair, WI so you now have lots of dairy farms out in California in what use to be desert.
But I have used a screwdriver as a dead blow mallet before, they also work well as pry bars.
If Craftsman's warranty on their hand tools wasn't lifetime no questions asked but instead lifetime for only correct uses I wouldn't complain when I break a screwdriver when I use it as a pry bar and they won't replace it, but I would complain when I break a socket when I put an 8 foot long pipe on the end of the ratchet and use it as a breaker bar and they wouldn't replace it. It comes down to how the device was advertised I buy craftsman tools because when I break them I know I can get them easily replaced and don't have to go through the hassle of warranty issues. If Craftsman started playing games like Sony does I would cease to buy their tools because the initial warranty was lifetime no questions asked and that is what I expect.
Most of the liability waivers I have signed are to cover things that are inherent risks, mostly when going to a race track (drag strip or road course) but those only cover things that are inherit risks. I can't sue the track if I roll my car, I can't sue if I get clocked in the head by an engine part from a dragster that just blew up. Those are risks I accept but if I rolled my car because of negligence of the track, like they didn't clean the track properly after the previous guy splashed his transmission, then I could sue because the didn't take reasonable precautions to prevent the accident. At least that is my understanding. As much fun as seeing a top fuel dragster or top fuel funny car blow up is when you are racing it is annoying as they take forever to resume because they actually do their due diligence for cleanup and preping the track so that it isn't a safety issue.
Instead of trying for a more unique format (3rd person action/strategy) they decided to go with the FPS format. That is what I liked about the older games is they were willing to try different things, granted the AI and graphics kind of sucked, but given how underpowered those machines were it becomes forgivable. I would have loved for there to be an actual update for Syndicate or Syndicate Wars using the 3rd person view where you control your agents but with more expansive maps, more interactions, better AI, and some improved graphics. But I guess that format would take more resources to create and might not sell as well as a more proven format like a FPS.
I take it you never set a civilian on fire and let them run through a crowd. On the US box for Syndicate Wars was the sub title: Corporate Persuasion Through Urban Violence
I played both the original Syndicate and also Syndicate Wars in my youth. Personally I would have loved to see a proper sequel in the 3rd person view where you control 1 or more agents. Syndicate Wars ran great on my 486 dx2 66 with 8MB ram, with modern hardware you could have more agents, larger levels better AI and improved graphics.
I have a small battery powered (5 min flight time weighs about 3 ounces) RC helicopter and I fly it in the park behind my house but then I don't fly it when other are around. I have been to the part of the county park where people fly the real model airplanes and helicopters with a friend who is into model aircraft and I wouldn't want to be hit by one of those methanol powered ones.
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I would rather trust a computer than most of the drivers I see on the road. I can't count the number of people I have seen driving too fast for the conditions and end up in the ditches and accidents.
My only question is how far up as there are different ass depths? I mean have you see some of the people in this country, I have seen rolls of fat going over elbows so that their forearm looks like a pendulum hanging out of a bell. On someone like that it would have to go a good 18 inches to even make it in their ass.
Just because the average age of a new Buick owner is dead doesn't mean they are un-American. Even the dead still fulfill their patriotic duty in Chicago and vote.
Especially down south, 10 years is even short up here in Minnesota where the freeze thaw cycle just destroys roads. The major roads nearest my house are all over 10 years old and haven't been repaved yet. Some of them have been patched in spots and are probably going to be repaved in the next few years. The most major road work that was done near me was this spring when a section of road was replaced when the water main under it burst last winter in a bad cold spell and made a sink hole. The hole will filled and quickly patched in January as a temporary fix and properly repaired in the spring when the weather permitted.
Have you driven a modern vehicle in a comparable class to that of the old american cars? A modern american compact car is better in every way to the ones from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s the same holds true for all other classes as well. They all put out more power, get better gas mileage, handle better, put out less pollution, last longer, better acceleration, higher top speed, and have more of the creature comforts. About the only thing I hear people complain about is the lack of style, when compared to cars from the 50s or 60s, and the difficulty of working on them. Maybe this will help you understand engine sizes for your proper US-sized blocks:
8.2 Liter = 500 cu in (in 1970 this engine first production year it produced 400 hp and in its final year of production 1976 produced 190 hp)
6.6 Liter = 400 cu in
7.0 Liter = 425 cu in
7.5 Liter = 455 cu in
5.0 Liter = Ford 302 cu in or GM 305 cu in
5.3 Liter = 327 cu in
5.7 Liter = 350 cu in
7 Liter = 427 cu in
3.8 Liter = 231 cu in
3.7 Liter = 225 cu in
3.0 Liter = 181 cu in
4.3 Liter = 261 cu in
4.1 Liter = 250 cu in
4.8 Liter = 292 cu in
4.0 Liter = 242 cu in
These are all actual historic 6 and 8 cylinder engines that were produced by US manufactures. Now granted these displacements are large by European standards but then the US cars that we made at the time were land yachts. Technology has come a long way since then and now in a lot of applications where a large V8 was needed a smaller V6 works and produces as much or more power as the old V8. If one looks at the smog motors of the late 70s and early 80s it is even possible for a modern small turbo charged 4 banger to put out more power than the old V8.
I assume that you mean a proper sized engine to the massive vehicle. By most Americans' standard I have a car with a small V8 engine (4.4L) while others have V8 engines that are at least 5.0 liters and as high as 8 liters in cars. People tend to buy the largest most powerful car they can afford unless they are trying to make a statement.
Don't worry I over heard one of my co workers complaining that they backed into something because their beeper wasn't working. By beeper they meant the reverse collision detector because they apparently thought that having one of those meant you didn't need to look behind you when going in reverse. You can try to make a better device but as a society we will create better idiots.
The problem is that people are stupid and don't maintain proper following distance. I do and have never rear ended anyone, but yet I have been rear ended.
As far as saving a squirrels life I take the approach that if the animal is larger than about 40 lbs or has horns I will avoid hitting it, otherwise its going off to the rendering plant. Most animals will avoid getting run over, but yet there are some in every group that seem to need to be taken out of the gene pool. A perfect example of this is the one squirrel I have actually ran over, I was idling through a state park campground and it couldn't manage to avoid a tire coming at it at about 2 mph. I wasn't aiming for it but it couldn't figure out what the hell it was doing under the my car and got ran over by the rear tire. Birds are much the same at proper highway speeds birds easily avoid cars but every once and a while one meets my car.
Each safety device actually does lower insurance rates. My old 88 Ford Bronco II cost me $88 every 6 moths to insure but when I replaced it with my current 96 Jeep Cherokee my insurance dropped to $82 every 6 months. Same coverage same company but because the Jeep had an air bag and anti lock brakes it got a lower rate even though it has a vastly more powerful engine and is a nicer vehicle. This isn't fancy coverage but liability only but still it is a discount.
Actually they do come with turn signals, but they use special synthetic DOT 7 blinker fluid that is difficult to find and most oil change shops are unaware of this need as they can barely remember to change the oil filter. As this needs to be changed with every oil change the signals cease to function after a short time of neglect. This is much like the Lucas wiring harness smoke that people would in inadvertently let out of their older British vehicles.
Maybe the solution is to actually enforce the current traffic laws and pay attention to what they are doing the above problems wouldn't happen. We have all seen the blinker on for 15 miles. The worst is the people who don't know how to turn with the double left turn lanes and will turn into the inner most lane when they are in the outer most left turn lane. I have had a couple of people clip the back end of my old Bronco II who did this. I never cared when it happened to that vehicle and would care if it happened with my nice car as I have insurance. In the Bronco I would get out and we would have the talk and I would explain that I wasn't going to be filing an insurance claim but that if they wanted to I would be happy to get the police to file an accident report that shows the intersection with the lines marked for where you are suppose to turn. After that they don't ask for my insurance forgetting that Minnesota is a no fault state (I really wish they would change this).
Sounds similar to my old Bronco II that looked like it was going to start dropping parts most of the time people stayed plenty clear of that. Yet there were still people who thought it was a good idea to cut it off, or like one urban troubadour walk right out in front of it on an icy road. Guy wasn't even looking and decided to jay walk across a major street (4 lanes each direction including the turn lanes) and I had an idea that he was going to do this so I was already trying to stop but came within a foot of hitting him. Retard boy decided to curse at me calling me a mother fucker, ass hole, and so on while banging on the hood and I just went off, think Marine drill instructor. I doubt anyone had ever told this individual they were at fault and that they weren't a victim it doesn't hurt that I am bigger than most people so it adds to the intimidation factor. Problem is most people are just self absorbed ass holes more so when in their car so they assume that you will get out of their way and that when you change lanes you are encroaching on their road.
I would prefer a more forceful enforcement of their usage but that might be difficult without causing more harm. I am becoming convinced that there may actually be blinker fluid and that most cars need a refill because of the lack of blinker usage I see.
You mean you actually expected a politician to keep their promises? I take it you have never heard the joke.
Q: How do you know a politician is lying?
A: Their lips are moving.
There are very few who will tell you what they want to do and actually follow through on it. These ones are usually lumped into the loony category of their party. This is why I like to know their voting record which is much more indicative than what they say when they are out stumping.
I would argue that real issues are things that aren't in their personal life, you know like Clinton's, Cain's, Gingrich's, etc sexual escapades, their grades in college, weather or not they are a Muslim, Catholic, or Mormon, what color tie or shirt they are wearing, the quality of one's hair cut. This is the type of stuff that I lump into the BS category. Sprinkle in some wedge issues like abortion, guns, religion and you basically have an American election cycle. For real issues I would count things like, taxes, the deficit, the debt, military size, military deployments, foreign policy towards major international players, trade policy, you know the kind of stuff that they will actually be dealing with on a daily basis when president. Personally I could care less what kind of dog the president has, or where he takes vacation but that is the kind of political coverage we get. I would really like to know if we are going to have another president who is going to decide they want to start another war in the middle east or if they are going to enact trade barriers for imported goods from China like they do to US goods.
As much as I wish people would become informed on each candidate it seems that the BS that gets thrown around has more sway. There are too many people who believed (and probably still believe) that Obama is a Kenyan born closet Muslim raciest commie bastard (I think I got all the major unfounded accusations in there) that was thrown about in the last election. It would be nice if politicians would actually be clear on their stance but everything seems to be empty words, extremely general, or as vague as they can be. Every candidate is going to state that they are for jobs. They are going to have 3-4 paragraphs stating that they are pro jobs and some vagaries on how they would create them (for the Rs it is less regulations for the Ds it is through expanded government spending) but don't ever specify any details.
Mr. Gingrich's sorted past is of little consequence, that would be his personal life, what I care about is how he voted on various issues what his stance is, and if it has changed why. Personally to me it looks like he is a politician first and will do what is politically convenient at any given time.
As amusing as that would be, hell I would love to see a scorched earth campaign where it basically becomes a caricature of its self, it still would be the BS that seems to have too much sway over elections. Now all we would need is an American Idol setup where people can vote off each candidate for the party's nomination each week all culminating in the finally show which would be the general election with the results show the following day. It might actually be less crooked this way.
On a side note last week I saw a discussion in the British Parliament between PM Gordon Brown and the opposition coalition on BBC World and it was hilarious. They really go after each other even on a personal level.
How about it is an amusing dirty trick. I like the political horse race and I guess it is my spectator sport, but this is pretty dirty, but at the same time I find it amusing as hell. Gingrich isn't my candidate but tactics like this just distract from the real issues, but unfortunatly the 2 most important factors in an election tend to be BS and wedge issues to get your base out.
The agricultural subsidies for the south are cotton and tobacco, not corn and soybeans. Corn and soybeans are because of Iowa going first in the presidential primaries. This is also why we have ethanol subsidies for ethanol from corn. Also dairy subsidies are based off of how far you are from Eau Clair, WI so you now have lots of dairy farms out in California in what use to be desert.
But I have used a screwdriver as a dead blow mallet before, they also work well as pry bars.
If Craftsman's warranty on their hand tools wasn't lifetime no questions asked but instead lifetime for only correct uses I wouldn't complain when I break a screwdriver when I use it as a pry bar and they won't replace it, but I would complain when I break a socket when I put an 8 foot long pipe on the end of the ratchet and use it as a breaker bar and they wouldn't replace it. It comes down to how the device was advertised I buy craftsman tools because when I break them I know I can get them easily replaced and don't have to go through the hassle of warranty issues. If Craftsman started playing games like Sony does I would cease to buy their tools because the initial warranty was lifetime no questions asked and that is what I expect.
Most of the liability waivers I have signed are to cover things that are inherent risks, mostly when going to a race track (drag strip or road course) but those only cover things that are inherit risks. I can't sue the track if I roll my car, I can't sue if I get clocked in the head by an engine part from a dragster that just blew up. Those are risks I accept but if I rolled my car because of negligence of the track, like they didn't clean the track properly after the previous guy splashed his transmission, then I could sue because the didn't take reasonable precautions to prevent the accident. At least that is my understanding. As much fun as seeing a top fuel dragster or top fuel funny car blow up is when you are racing it is annoying as they take forever to resume because they actually do their due diligence for cleanup and preping the track so that it isn't a safety issue.
Instead of trying for a more unique format (3rd person action/strategy) they decided to go with the FPS format. That is what I liked about the older games is they were willing to try different things, granted the AI and graphics kind of sucked, but given how underpowered those machines were it becomes forgivable. I would have loved for there to be an actual update for Syndicate or Syndicate Wars using the 3rd person view where you control your agents but with more expansive maps, more interactions, better AI, and some improved graphics. But I guess that format would take more resources to create and might not sell as well as a more proven format like a FPS.
That might be fun.
I take it you never set a civilian on fire and let them run through a crowd. On the US box for Syndicate Wars was the sub title:
Corporate Persuasion Through Urban Violence
I played both the original Syndicate and also Syndicate Wars in my youth. Personally I would have loved to see a proper sequel in the 3rd person view where you control 1 or more agents. Syndicate Wars ran great on my 486 dx2 66 with 8MB ram, with modern hardware you could have more agents, larger levels better AI and improved graphics.
I have a small battery powered (5 min flight time weighs about 3 ounces) RC helicopter and I fly it in the park behind my house but then I don't fly it when other are around. I have been to the part of the county park where people fly the real model airplanes and helicopters with a friend who is into model aircraft and I wouldn't want to be hit by one of those methanol powered ones.