Your 50.4 miles to the imperial gallon when converted to US gallons that is about 42 mpg. Now compared to my '97 540i with an automatic transmission and 216,000 miles on it that has averaged of 22.7 mpg (us) over the last 115,000 miles your number seems impressive. I don't know what year your 325d is but my car is probably heavier by fair amount and since you are in the UK yours is probably a manual where as mine has the automatic. So given that yours is a diesel, is lighter, and probably has a manual transmission 42mpg US isn't that impressive as I would probably have expected something more in the mid 40s not low 40s. Also to put things into perspective previous to the 540i I had a '96 318ti with a 5 speed manual that that got almost 40 mpg and before that I had an '85 528e that would consistently get over 40 mpg all of which were gasoline engines. Personally I would love to get a diesel BMW but they only recently started offering them for sale again in the US so it will be a while until I can find a used one.
There was a demand for diesel cars in the US but in the 80's our domestic auto manufactures flubed it and produced some truly awful diesel engines. The vehicles that were imported (Mercedes, VW) were diesels were good continued to sell. The problem is that most people's experience with a diesel engine is the crap put out by us manufactures during the 80's which was garbage so naturally they think diesels suck. Those who experienced an import diesel have generally been pleased with them.
To protect against this there is this little device that costs less than $5 at a hardware store. If you are getting pulled over by a cop you could activate this device thus making you not in violation of any law
I have had a similar thing between an older CD of Carl Orfs Carmina Burana and a newer one. The older disk was of a 1940's or 1950's recording where as the newer one was a recent recording. Even with the recording artifacts of the original reel to reel or what ever the original medium was the older version is mush better. This is another one where set the volume low since it hits hard. The newer copy is much more uniform but because of it is so much less impressive to listen to.
That I don't know but given how rulings are being made recently it probably would be ruled illegal if the laws don't already cover this. Isn't it comforting that when the spirit of the law benefits the individual the letter of the law is followed but when the letter of the law benefits the individual the spirit is followed.
I believe that there was a article recently that stated that streaming a Neflix movie is something like 1/20 the cost of mailing one. So provided you don't watch 20x more streaming movies than you do mailed ones Netflix comes out ahead.
In looking at how I consume media from Netflix I have basically been mostly a streaming customer since they have started expanding their selection. In the past year I have gotten 1 new DVD that I have gotten around to watching. I don't have cable and live in a low area so over the air digital TV is mostly out (I only get 2 channels now) so most of my "TV" is done streaming over the internet. My wife or I can watch most recent episodes of shows we like from Hulu, or directly from the networks, and for older shows and movies we can watch them off of Netflix. The $9 a month I pay is great for the all I can eat video buffet I currently enjoy, I don't even mind the commercials on the free Hulu or network sites since that is what you get when watching cable or over the air TV anyway. I would have had the internet connection I have anyway since I do push a lot of data in and out of my computer each month any way.
Hey the stuff I get through the USPS in general is in better shape than the stuff I get through UPS or FedEx. I have gotten a number of packages through UPS and FedEx that looked like they have been backed over by the truck, or had foot prints on them thankfully most companies who ship stuff pack them accordingly so I haven't gotten prebroken stuff. Now you can trot out that the USPS looses money, but they have to go and get approval from our congress critters to raise their rates, must deliver service to all locations on all weekdays and Saturday which is something that UPS and FedEx don't have to do. There are things government should do and does well, the problem is when it gets into things it shouldn't (saving car companies) or when they try to privatize things they shouldn't (security contractors).
I suggest that we overexpose the images. Most of the license plate readers are being designed to operate in the IR range, with modern license plates being more IR reflective. Simple solution would be to just overexpose the image by installing some IR LEDs. Since your car is already a 12v DC system doing this shouldn't be too difficult. Even multiwatt IR diodes aren't that expensive so for probably around $20-$30 you could really overexpose the image. Side benefit is that this may actually damage the camera if exposed to too much power since those cameras probably have a CCD sensor.
As good as that sounds the character set allowed by license plates is very limited and in may states anything that covers, obstructs, or otherwise interferes with the reading of a license plate is illegal. Now if you wanted to have fun most license plate readers are being designed to operate in the IR range so you could have some fun and add some IR LEDs to your license plate illumination and really overexpose the image, and if powerful enough actually damage the camera. This modification would probably go unnoticed by most law enforcement, at least for a while.
Just how do you confront a video recorder? How do you prove it hasn't been altered? How to you prove the date/time is accurate? How do you prove who was driving?
Unfortunately you can't cross examine it but it will be entered as another piece of evidence just like CCTV footage or a readout from a radar gun. Now there have been people who have successful gotten evidence from other devices invalidated but it does take some effort.
Putting the grave 1984* issues aside. The best way this could be used would be know keep tabs on government workers especially politicians, but I doubt they will ever release that information.
I don't know if Massachusetts is a two party consent state for wiretapping, but if it isn't then there have been judicial rulings that support that you don't have a right to privacy in public
If he was really worried then he should buy firearms, mason jars, ammo, hand tools and then learn how to use them. In the worst case scenario that the gold bugs love to imagine gold is actually pretty worthless as in that society you can't really do anything with it. You can't eat it, you could make some things out of it but they would mostly be decorative as it isn't strong enough to be of use in a world without electricity, about the only thing it would be good for is casting into bullets as it is even denser than lead.
The people who think our economy is going to collapse should not be buying gold, but should instead "invest" in firearms, ammo, gun powder, primers, bulk lead, and casting equipment. Until I see lots of people starting to do this consistently, not like the nut jobs did when Obama was elected, I am not going to worry too much. The simple fact is that there isn't enough gold to go around to run an economy the size of ours. So if things get bad what am I going to want a pile of soft dense yellow metal or something that is useful like mason jars of food, firearms, tools. I guess I could cast some gold bullets, but other than that it isn't something that people need when things go to hell.
The unfunded liabilities are what, about 114 trillion?
Correct, according the the US national debt clock they are currently about 114 trillion. The problem with the concept of unfunded liabilities is that they are based on current spending and rates of increase projected out some arbitrary amount of time. Currently I think they are projecting these values out for 50 or 75 years. Projecting things that far in the future when it comes to government spending is basically worthless.
Ron Paul follows the Austrian school of economics. They believe that mathematical models and statistics can't be used to analyze economics, and that you cannot conduct tests are experiments to determine the validity of economic theories.
Actually you can't develop experiments to test the validity of economic theories since you really can't go and create the same initial conditions and rerun the great depression with different government actions to see what happens. If anything economics really is all about analysis since you just have a bunch of data and you are trying to predict what will happen if some action is taken.
It's actually not unusual for him to ally himself with the likes of Bernie Sanders (S-VT) and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), because he will come to the same conclusions they do for completely different reasons.
This should indicate something about the bill that they are voting on. If people who come from such different political perspectives can agree that a bill is bad or good then it is probably really is a good or bad bill.
as others have said, US was technically on the gold standard until 70s, this is how dollar became reserve currency of the world...
Paul B.
No we became the currency of the world after WWII because we bombed the crap out of the rest of the world. We took most other countries gold, and had them use the US dollar as their reserve currency since ours was still backed by gold and redeemable (by foreign governments) for gold.
Also during that time there was a run on "hard" currency since people were hording all the coinage they could since gold and silver coins would still be worth something regardless of what side won. It got so bad the both the Union and Confederate governments had to create fractional currency, also known as postage currency which was basically denominations of paper currency less than a dollar.
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Your 50.4 miles to the imperial gallon when converted to US gallons that is about 42 mpg. Now compared to my '97 540i with an automatic transmission and 216,000 miles on it that has averaged of 22.7 mpg (us) over the last 115,000 miles your number seems impressive. I don't know what year your 325d is but my car is probably heavier by fair amount and since you are in the UK yours is probably a manual where as mine has the automatic. So given that yours is a diesel, is lighter, and probably has a manual transmission 42mpg US isn't that impressive as I would probably have expected something more in the mid 40s not low 40s. Also to put things into perspective previous to the 540i I had a '96 318ti with a 5 speed manual that that got almost 40 mpg and before that I had an '85 528e that would consistently get over 40 mpg all of which were gasoline engines. Personally I would love to get a diesel BMW but they only recently started offering them for sale again in the US so it will be a while until I can find a used one.
There was a demand for diesel cars in the US but in the 80's our domestic auto manufactures flubed it and produced some truly awful diesel engines. The vehicles that were imported (Mercedes, VW) were diesels were good continued to sell. The problem is that most people's experience with a diesel engine is the crap put out by us manufactures during the 80's which was garbage so naturally they think diesels suck. Those who experienced an import diesel have generally been pleased with them.
That is basically because their passenger car Diesel engines from the 80's were their gasoline engines from the 80's made to run on diesel.
To protect against this there is this little device that costs less than $5 at a hardware store. If you are getting pulled over by a cop you could activate this device thus making you not in violation of any law
Typically an alternator that is correctly functioning will put out about 15v. If your alternator is only putting out 12 then it is time to replace it.
But those obstruct reading, or cover the license plates so they probably did run afoul of the law.
I would also add getting my foot stuck to the floor to that list since they never clean theater floors it seems like.
I have had a similar thing between an older CD of Carl Orfs Carmina Burana and a newer one. The older disk was of a 1940's or 1950's recording where as the newer one was a recent recording. Even with the recording artifacts of the original reel to reel or what ever the original medium was the older version is mush better. This is another one where set the volume low since it hits hard. The newer copy is much more uniform but because of it is so much less impressive to listen to.
That I don't know but given how rulings are being made recently it probably would be ruled illegal if the laws don't already cover this. Isn't it comforting that when the spirit of the law benefits the individual the letter of the law is followed but when the letter of the law benefits the individual the spirit is followed.
I believe that there was a article recently that stated that streaming a Neflix movie is something like 1/20 the cost of mailing one. So provided you don't watch 20x more streaming movies than you do mailed ones Netflix comes out ahead.
In looking at how I consume media from Netflix I have basically been mostly a streaming customer since they have started expanding their selection. In the past year I have gotten 1 new DVD that I have gotten around to watching. I don't have cable and live in a low area so over the air digital TV is mostly out (I only get 2 channels now) so most of my "TV" is done streaming over the internet. My wife or I can watch most recent episodes of shows we like from Hulu, or directly from the networks, and for older shows and movies we can watch them off of Netflix. The $9 a month I pay is great for the all I can eat video buffet I currently enjoy, I don't even mind the commercials on the free Hulu or network sites since that is what you get when watching cable or over the air TV anyway. I would have had the internet connection I have anyway since I do push a lot of data in and out of my computer each month any way.
Hey the stuff I get through the USPS in general is in better shape than the stuff I get through UPS or FedEx. I have gotten a number of packages through UPS and FedEx that looked like they have been backed over by the truck, or had foot prints on them thankfully most companies who ship stuff pack them accordingly so I haven't gotten prebroken stuff. Now you can trot out that the USPS looses money, but they have to go and get approval from our congress critters to raise their rates, must deliver service to all locations on all weekdays and Saturday which is something that UPS and FedEx don't have to do. There are things government should do and does well, the problem is when it gets into things it shouldn't (saving car companies) or when they try to privatize things they shouldn't (security contractors).
I suggest that we overexpose the images. Most of the license plate readers are being designed to operate in the IR range, with modern license plates being more IR reflective. Simple solution would be to just overexpose the image by installing some IR LEDs. Since your car is already a 12v DC system doing this shouldn't be too difficult. Even multiwatt IR diodes aren't that expensive so for probably around $20-$30 you could really overexpose the image. Side benefit is that this may actually damage the camera if exposed to too much power since those cameras probably have a CCD sensor.
As good as that sounds the character set allowed by license plates is very limited and in may states anything that covers, obstructs, or otherwise interferes with the reading of a license plate is illegal. Now if you wanted to have fun most license plate readers are being designed to operate in the IR range so you could have some fun and add some IR LEDs to your license plate illumination and really overexpose the image, and if powerful enough actually damage the camera. This modification would probably go unnoticed by most law enforcement, at least for a while.
Just how do you confront a video recorder? How do you prove it hasn't been altered? How to you prove the date/time is accurate? How do you prove who was driving?
Unfortunately you can't cross examine it but it will be entered as another piece of evidence just like CCTV footage or a readout from a radar gun. Now there have been people who have successful gotten evidence from other devices invalidated but it does take some effort.
Putting the grave 1984* issues aside. The best way this could be used would be know keep tabs on government workers especially politicians, but I doubt they will ever release that information.
I don't know if Massachusetts is a two party consent state for wiretapping, but if it isn't then there have been judicial rulings that support that you don't have a right to privacy in public
If he was really worried then he should buy firearms, mason jars, ammo, hand tools and then learn how to use them. In the worst case scenario that the gold bugs love to imagine gold is actually pretty worthless as in that society you can't really do anything with it. You can't eat it, you could make some things out of it but they would mostly be decorative as it isn't strong enough to be of use in a world without electricity, about the only thing it would be good for is casting into bullets as it is even denser than lead.
The people who think our economy is going to collapse should not be buying gold, but should instead "invest" in firearms, ammo, gun powder, primers, bulk lead, and casting equipment. Until I see lots of people starting to do this consistently, not like the nut jobs did when Obama was elected, I am not going to worry too much. The simple fact is that there isn't enough gold to go around to run an economy the size of ours. So if things get bad what am I going to want a pile of soft dense yellow metal or something that is useful like mason jars of food, firearms, tools. I guess I could cast some gold bullets, but other than that it isn't something that people need when things go to hell.
The unfunded liabilities are what, about 114 trillion?
Correct, according the the US national debt clock they are currently about 114 trillion. The problem with the concept of unfunded liabilities is that they are based on current spending and rates of increase projected out some arbitrary amount of time. Currently I think they are projecting these values out for 50 or 75 years. Projecting things that far in the future when it comes to government spending is basically worthless.
Ron Paul follows the Austrian school of economics. They believe that mathematical models and statistics can't be used to analyze economics, and that you cannot conduct tests are experiments to determine the validity of economic theories.
Actually you can't develop experiments to test the validity of economic theories since you really can't go and create the same initial conditions and rerun the great depression with different government actions to see what happens. If anything economics really is all about analysis since you just have a bunch of data and you are trying to predict what will happen if some action is taken.
It's actually not unusual for him to ally himself with the likes of Bernie Sanders (S-VT) and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), because he will come to the same conclusions they do for completely different reasons.
This should indicate something about the bill that they are voting on. If people who come from such different political perspectives can agree that a bill is bad or good then it is probably really is a good or bad bill.
I take it you have never heard of debasing the currency like the Romans use to do with theirs.
as others have said, US was technically on the gold standard until 70s, this is how dollar became reserve currency of the world...
Paul B.
No we became the currency of the world after WWII because we bombed the crap out of the rest of the world. We took most other countries gold, and had them use the US dollar as their reserve currency since ours was still backed by gold and redeemable (by foreign governments) for gold.
And I spent all of my mod points today someone get this man a +5 funny. In my opinion Peter Sellers greatest role.
Also during that time there was a run on "hard" currency since people were hording all the coinage they could since gold and silver coins would still be worth something regardless of what side won. It got so bad the both the Union and Confederate governments had to create fractional currency, also known as postage currency which was basically denominations of paper currency less than a dollar.