That was a bit of an exaggeration.:) She does have enough attitude to make you believe it could happen. I'm one of the few it doesn't work on though, but when she breaks out sharp objects, it's a good time to not be within range.
She's a really good friend, but we've had some fights in the past, where people anywhere near us run for cover.:) I have a bit of an attitude too, so it makes for a nasty fight when we both are unwilling to be wrong.
Without going into a pharmacological history, been there, done that, never had the same reaction from anything else.
And... I've eaten caffeine pills like candy, taken long road trips powered by code red mountain dew, jolt cola, or whatever the most caffeinated cold drink I could find at the gas station was. Shot back three energy drinks, and although ending up with an upset stomach, no headaches.
And when I make coffee, there's enough caffeine it so a hamster could power a city for about an hour (and then die of exhaustion).:)
I have time to burn on Slashdot, because I'm watching two things compile on servers, and I'm sitting at work. It's either write on here, or go for yet another smoke break.
But when I go home... wait. You're always home, aren't you? 30 years old, jobless, living in your mothers basement, just screaming out "I want a life", but really 30 seconds from putting that noose around your neck. Hey, who am I to talk you down. Make sure you make the rope short enough that your feet don't hit the floor.
I wish you the best. I'll be going home and having fun with friends, and maybe going out on a date, if I feel like it. That's something you can't do from your mothers basement, since you probably don't even have a car to drive if you could get a date.
Don't cry, it's ok. Now step off the chair. There you go. It'll all be over in a minute.
1) Someone wanted to go to Thailand and sample the wares on the gov't dime.
2) A (or several) politicians frequent there on the gov't dime already, and want to figure out which girls are safest, so their wives won't find out when they test positive later on. "Sorry honey, I don't know where I got HIV from" usually doesn't cut it.
They aren't really hookers, when you have your own private island casino, and they are your concubines.
That's a great life plan. You'll be satisfied whenever you want to be, and be able to turn a profit from the gamblers who come to your island to lose their savings.
Excuse me, I have to go buy a few lottery tickets right now.
They really didn't do all the great gory parts from the second book. Come on, that was a great torturous way to off a victim.
The third book showed that the first two books had a reason for the "dark passenger", and it gave more insight into who "he" was. That would never make it to TV. People who enjoy mythology would love it, but the Dexter show is more about crime scene science, with a serial killer / hero vigilante. Blood and guts from the bad guys. Blood and guts from the good guy. Not mythological gods and demigods interacting with humans.
I really enjoyed all three books. Too bad I don't watch TV much any more. It's just an occasional passing thing, so I can't really keep up with any shows.
I got lost with the Terminator series. I missed a few epsiodes, and since it became so entwined and soap opera-esque, trying to catch back up even after two or three missed epsiodes left me asking too many questions for it to make a lot of sense.
I did manage to catch up on watching Lost. I found the only good way to watch it is to miss a lot, and then watch a whole bunch of episodes in one sitting. That's how I got into it in the first place. I didn't start watching until mid way into season 2. I downloaded all the episodes, and we spent a marathon week watching several episodes a night until we caught up. Then waiting a week between episodes became unbearable.
Oh, you don't know my friend. Brunette, 5'4, 100 pounds, and can rip the limbs off a grown man if you piss her off enough. I try stay on her good side as best as I can.:)
You know, I've heard a lot of health nuts say a lot of things that they're spewing out of their cumulative asses. I frequently have the urge to light a cigarette, order a rare bloody steak, with a dark Irish beer, and a greasy side of something that'll disgust them.
The fun part is, I'm not overweight. Other than smoking, I appear healthy to any passers by.:)
Oddly enough, I would. As long as their testing regiment includes using the subjects in both the test and control groups during different periods of the study. Since I'm sure it would have to be double-blind, but I guarantee that I'll get headaches with it, and none without. That is unless they play rap music during the testing. Then I may have some bleeding from my ears.:)
Well, I know the migraines are easily reproducible for me. When I didn't know what the cause was, I was really confused. I'd drink whatever was put in front of me. Now, I don't drink diet sodas or tequila. Anything else is fair game.:)
I did sample testing, but I've also accidentally fallen into blind tests. I've gone to friends house, and they've poured me a drink. I didn't know until my head hurt, so I'd ask "was that a diet drink?" Nothing else that I've ever consumed has ever given me a headache quickly. Alcohol does it too, but that's usually from over consumption, and the headache comes later.:) That's easily mitigated by the consumption of large quantities of fluids before the headache comes on.
The front one was a "Logitech Quickcam For Notebooks Pro". It was on sale at Fry's at the time.
The rear one... well... I don't really remember. That was the same one from the first trip, and it was a piece of crap then too. That's the one I had to put the lens from the sunglasses in front of so it could see in the daylight.
I was sending up the video frames with WebcamXP. The GPS data was from a the tornado tracker folks that I mentioned before.
The user interface (like, on my web site) was all me. I wrote the javascript to make it look somewhat like video years ago. It's just double buffering images and swapping them. Not a real fancy trick, but it looks smooth if you can supply it with frames fast enough in the back end.
I had my resolution turned way down. Something like 320x240 with high compression. In the city I knew it wasn't necessary, but once I was out in the middle of nowhere, the cell service was bad at best. No EVDO in the desert.:)
If I was going to do it more often, I'd write my own software. Since I do this like once every few years, it isn't really a priority.
I do have an RV that I'm building out (city bus conversion), so when I do that, I already plan on having 3 wide angle cameras so I can see around it while I'm driving (no squishing small cars 30 feet behind the drivers seat). I planned on streaming all of the cameras out, so anyone who's interested could not only see a hires camera in the front, but the view the whole way around. Since there's lots of space and power, I can have more fun with that. Besides the single regular camera in the front, I had planned a "night vision" security camera. The ones that see IR really well. A few IR spotlights in the front could illuminate the whole area, and no one would know.
I was looking for real "long infrared" cameras. My dad was a researcher with the military in the late 60's and early 70's, and had a few books published on it. That made me interested in them since I was about 5.:) Not too many kids get to learn about liquid nitrogen and dry ice at home on the government's dime.:) Unfortunately, they're still extremely expensive, and most require some pretty substantial cooling. It would be amazingly useful for road trips though. Imagine seeing EVERYTHING ahead, better than daylight. A warm body dressed in even camouflage would stand out. It'd be nice to see through a fog bank to know that there's a car, animal, or pedestrian in the way.
For now, I'm bringing home almost nothing (thanks to an ex and the IRS), so there's no budget for exotic cameras.
I'll preface this with... INAHN (I'm not a health nut), I'm just very aware of the bad things that I consume. I'm smoking a cigarette and drinking a tall glass of cold soda while I'm writing this.:)
"natural" products, that aren't manufactured, but just bottled, are ok, but rather rare in most stores.
"manufactured" products usually contain refined sugars, preservatives, artificial colors, etc, etc. The're all bad for you.
The human body isn't designed to handle refined sugars very well. It does ok with raw sugar, but only in reasonable quantities. If they used raw sugar in the quantity that shows up in most sodas, it's bad for you. There was a recent study (and review of historical data) that showed the instances of diabetes were virtually nil compared to now. The major contributor? refined sugars.
Caffeine free soda has more bad stuff in it, just not caffeine.
Diet or sugar free sodas have artificial sweeteners that are cancer causing (among other things). Myself, I can't drink any diet soda. Even just a sip, and I'll have a migraine for the next 8 hours. I've been very unhappy during road trips, if/when I stop at a drive through and they hand me a diet soda instead of the regular one I ordered. One sip, and now I have 8 hours of driving where it feels my brain is going to explode.
A 60mph accident could be survivable.
A 150mph accident probably wouldn't be.
I've been over 150mph, but I was far far away from any other cars. It wouldn't have been hard to screw up.
I did blow the tread off of a front tire at 120mph. That was less than pleasant, but I kept control over the vehicle, and didn't panic. I can't say the car survived quite as well. The fender from the lower rear part of the wheel well to the door was completely smashed. I did grow a new appreciation for steel belted tires though. They survived, and kept the inside layer of rubber intact, so I was able to roll to a stop, rather than spinning to one. I was just a little shaken. like, in the literal sense. The car was bouncing a lot as the tread ripped free. There was tire debris for about 1/10 mile.
Even at 75, that's survivable. I saw a girl lose her left front tire at 75mph. She had just bought the car, and they had put new tires on, but forgotten to tighten the lug nuts. My car was pelted with road debris, and she went mostly rolling (with the front right sliding) in a straight line, just off the road. I saw she was fine, so I followed her wheel about 1/2 mile, collected it, and brought it back. She had some rather unkind words for the dealer she bought it from (a buy here/pay here, of course).
I know from the way the truckers drive, that they appreciate people like me (and I'd assume you) on the road.
I won't sit beside a truck. If he's going slow, but I don't have room to get all the way past him quickly, I'll stay in my lane, but behind his rear bumper. I won't accelerate up until there's room to get all the way past his nose. And if he should turn a signal on to move into my lane, I back off and flash my lights.
I've only ever almost had one incident with a big truck, and that was a simple mistake. I was overtaking in the left lane (in America), and he moved left without signaling. I heard over the CB another trucker yelling at him for it. So I spent a few feet driving in the grassy lane. Big deal. My car got a little dirty, and no paint was traded.:)
For 20 years of legally driving, and a few hundred thousand miles, that's not a bad record. I'd rather drive near big trucks (respecting their space, of course) than around cars. I don't carry a CB any more, just because there isn't much of a need.
My car has a lot of power. It also brakes very well. Many times, the safer option has been to bump the gas, and get around a problem. Where a driver is changing lanes, they may realize that they screwed up, and hit the brakes too. Now they've not only put their vehicle in front of you, but slowed down.
Sometimes, bumping the gas isn't the best choice though. That's where a DRIVER is required.
A long time ago, my dad decided that I didn't need to drive so fast. He put a sheet metal screw in the way of the throttle, so it couldn't go to WOT. I was leaving the neighborhood, onto a road where everyone speeds. I saw a nice large gap in traffic and pulled into it. When I pulled out, I assumed I could accelerate. I couldn't in time, and almost got creamed by a truck that didn't feel like slowing down for the car that just pulled out in front of him (me). The only reason I wasn't hit is because I yanked the car into the grass.
You don't always need 350+hp under the hood, but when you NEED it, you'll be thankful it's there.
I was driving my mom out to a funeral. She wanted to take some backroads. It was by her house, and she knows the roads better. The speed limit was 45mph. There was a car doing 20mph. I was 3rd in line, and the first two cars were holding about 4 car lengths apart. There were about 30 cars behind us, swerving and honking their horns. There were no really good places to pass, so I just kept watching. Finally, there was a good spot, where I had maybe 15 seconds to pass in. I took it. I was doing over 90 when I passed the front car. A few cars managed to get around when the occasional gap in oncoming traffic came. If we had stayed behind the other cars, a 20 to 30 minute drive (for that leg) would have taken an hour or more. If I could have only done 45mph, I would have never been able to pass. I'm sure someone would have tried though.
Have you ever had a car stop running while you were driving. Try it sometime. Mine becomes a 1.5 ton guided ballistic projectile.:)
I had what would be the likely be a similar scenario happen to me. I had just started a trip to meet up with someone. At about 11pm, in the middle of nowhere, just after coming through a few miles of dense fog, my engine started overheating. Not just a little mind you, I watched the gauge climb all the way beyond the indicated range. So I threw it in neutral, and shut down the engine. The trick is to NOT lock the steering wheel. Do that and you're screwed. Once the engine has stopped, and it's in neutral, put the key back to "on".
We were traveling at 75mph. I weighed my choices really quickly. I knew this stretch of road, and knew the exits are about 20 miles apart. (now 70mph) It was dark. There was heavy fog was just behind us. There are cars coming up behind me fast (65mph). I think we passed the last exist about 8 miles ago. I could stop and call for help. (now 55mph) I could stop, and walk back to the last exit, which would take about 2 hours. I could walk to the next exit which would take about 3 hours. (now 50mph) Anything involving the side of the road has a good chance of getting someone killed. or I could....
I put it in 5th gear, and popped the clutch. The temp was down to about 3/4 of the indicated range (about 190 degrees). I sped up to about 90mph, and shut down again. We repeated this exercise (50mph to 90mph) about 5 times to get to the next exit. Of course the 13 year old in the back seat was screaming "WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" the whole time. Damned drama queen.
We took the exit with the engine off. We rolled through the stop sign at the bottom of the ramp, navigated through truck stop, and took a spot close to the door.
Yes, my car has power rack and pinion steering, power brakes, power everything. With the engine off, once you've drained the vacuum system down a little, the brakes get harder to work, but they're still effective. Steering takes a little more muscle, but it can be done. When you reach a stop, it's a bastard to steer though.:)
What had happened is, somewhere in the fog, there were some paper towels blowing around in the road. I never saw the white paper towels blowing around in the white fog.:) They must have been very close to the ground though. They got sucked up and covered my radiator. I cleared the radiator, put in about 3 gallons of water and antifreeze in that had boiled off during the exercise, and I let it run full of fluids, so it could cool down. Engines retain a lot of heat, so if put away very hot it can damage them. They like a chance to cool down slowly first.
Now, if that were a big diesel, AND their air reserves had run out, that could be a bigger problem, as they are almost entirely air powered. The suspension would go down, and the brakes would lock and/or fail. Steering should still work, but it'd probably be pretty hard. I've never tried to drive a big diesel truck with no power.:) The biggest I've ever driven were 3/4 ton trucks, and fullsize vans. They aren't that bad, but I prefer to do it in a car.:)
Well, I have hundreds of thousands of miles of driving experience. I've been in a few accidents. All were low speed accidents. All were where someone messed up around me. They ran a stop sign. They change lanes into me. They rear ended my stopped car. I've never had a high speed incident, and I've spent many more miles on high speed roads.
When I was a kid, I was taught to shoot right handed, because I am right handed. My right eye was strong at the time.
I was born with a cataract. It was the doctor's fault when I was delivered. He pushed on my right eye while I was being delivered. Thanks doc (asshole).
I went into the Army when I was 19. They recognized that my vision couldn't be corrected to 20/20 without cataract surgery. They don't do the surgery. They couldn't correct by any other means. I left the Army (honorably), and had the surgery done. Now that it's been done, I'm categorically denied from military service.
I have a lens implant in my right eye, that's been there for 17 years. I have increased color perception in the UV range in my right eye. I can see black lights as bright blue. It's kinda freaky, since I can see with one light a flashlight:) Since it's a fairly hard lens, it doesn't bend very well, so refocusing my eye at a distance simply doesn't happen.
Because of this, I have to use my left eye to shoot. I shoot pistols, rifles, and shotguns. I never got into archery. For pistols, I hold it in my right hand, and turn just a little farther so I'm looking through my left eye. I have learned to shoot with either hand, but it's difficult at best with most pistols set up to be right handed.
I shoot rifles and shotguns left handed. That always throws people. They'll see me pick up a pistol and fire as long as I want right handed, but as soon as I pick up a rifle, it's left handed. I can still switch hands, but at a long distance, my focus isn't great. But, with my 03A3, right handed, I put all the shots at 50 yards within about 3" of center. It's just better left handed.:)
Learning to be ambidextrous is a good thing. I don't know why more people don't force themselves to try. I can do almost anything with either hand, except write. For some reason, if I start writing with my left hand, without looking at what I'm doing, the writing turns out very well, but backwards.
Back in the day, I drove my car at the track on a regular basis, so I had installed a 5 point harness, and left my stock 3 point belt in place also. Mobility was limited, but was more than sufficient for driving. The only thing that didn't work well was reaching for the radio, because it was slightly too far. I could still turn my head each way to check blind spots.
The only reason I didn't use the 5 point harness every day is that it was more of a pain to use. I opted for the regular seatbelt most of the time, because it was one motion to wear it, rather than gathering the pieces into the buckle. That's something they could likely improve upon for the consumer market.
If you're properly restrained, you wouldn't hit a roll bar with your head. Which is worse, having a rollover accident, and having the roof crush down to the level of the hood, or rolling over and having your head potentially come close to the roll bars? How much worse is bumping your head against the roll cage, versus hitting your head on the car roof, assuming it didn't crush?
If you go to YouTube, you can actually see how well it does work. Look for sand rail crashes. There are plenty where people aren't wearing helmets, flip their sand rails, and walk away from it fine.
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Are you still here? You can't do anything right, can you?
That was a bit of an exaggeration. :) She does have enough attitude to make you believe it could happen. I'm one of the few it doesn't work on though, but when she breaks out sharp objects, it's a good time to not be within range.
She's a really good friend, but we've had some fights in the past, where people anywhere near us run for cover. :) I have a bit of an attitude too, so it makes for a nasty fight when we both are unwilling to be wrong.
Without going into a pharmacological history, been there, done that, never had the same reaction from anything else.
And... I've eaten caffeine pills like candy, taken long road trips powered by code red mountain dew, jolt cola, or whatever the most caffeinated cold drink I could find at the gas station was. Shot back three energy drinks, and although ending up with an upset stomach, no headaches.
And when I make coffee, there's enough caffeine it so a hamster could power a city for about an hour (and then die of exhaustion). :)
Jealous much?
I have time to burn on Slashdot, because I'm watching two things compile on servers, and I'm sitting at work. It's either write on here, or go for yet another smoke break.
But when I go home ... wait. You're always home, aren't you? 30 years old, jobless, living in your mothers basement, just screaming out "I want a life", but really 30 seconds from putting that noose around your neck. Hey, who am I to talk you down. Make sure you make the rope short enough that your feet don't hit the floor.
I wish you the best. I'll be going home and having fun with friends, and maybe going out on a date, if I feel like it. That's something you can't do from your mothers basement, since you probably don't even have a car to drive if you could get a date.
Don't cry, it's ok. Now step off the chair. There you go. It'll all be over in a minute.
JW "sympathy was never my middle name" Smythe
I see a few likely reasons for this.
1) Someone wanted to go to Thailand and sample the wares on the gov't dime.
2) A (or several) politicians frequent there on the gov't dime already, and want to figure out which girls are safest, so their wives won't find out when they test positive later on. "Sorry honey, I don't know where I got HIV from" usually doesn't cut it.
3) ... well, I don't have a 3rd. :)
4) ...
(and the obligatory)
5) PROFIT!!!
They aren't really hookers, when you have your own private island casino, and they are your concubines.
That's a great life plan. You'll be satisfied whenever you want to be, and be able to turn a profit from the gamblers who come to your island to lose their savings.
Excuse me, I have to go buy a few lottery tickets right now.
If you didn't post AC, I could send them to you. But since you did, you're out of luck.
She's way too pretty, and way not hairy enough to be a wookie. Think model-ish attractiveness, with an attitude that could kill you if she's pissed. :)
Your PC has good taste. Congratulations. Mine just goes looking for ways into things it shouldn't be in.
Why does the LPR keep printing things that look like conversations to me, from P-1.
For those of us who like our women skinny, she's beautiful.
My apologies for those who prefer their women thick.
They really didn't do all the great gory parts from the second book. Come on, that was a great torturous way to off a victim.
The third book showed that the first two books had a reason for the "dark passenger", and it gave more insight into who "he" was. That would never make it to TV. People who enjoy mythology would love it, but the Dexter show is more about crime scene science, with a serial killer / hero vigilante. Blood and guts from the bad guys. Blood and guts from the good guy. Not mythological gods and demigods interacting with humans.
I really enjoyed all three books. Too bad I don't watch TV much any more. It's just an occasional passing thing, so I can't really keep up with any shows.
I got lost with the Terminator series. I missed a few epsiodes, and since it became so entwined and soap opera-esque, trying to catch back up even after two or three missed epsiodes left me asking too many questions for it to make a lot of sense.
I did manage to catch up on watching Lost. I found the only good way to watch it is to miss a lot, and then watch a whole bunch of episodes in one sitting. That's how I got into it in the first place. I didn't start watching until mid way into season 2. I downloaded all the episodes, and we spent a marathon week watching several episodes a night until we caught up. Then waiting a week between episodes became unbearable.
Oh, you don't know my friend. Brunette, 5'4, 100 pounds, and can rip the limbs off a grown man if you piss her off enough. I try stay on her good side as best as I can. :)
You know, I've heard a lot of health nuts say a lot of things that they're spewing out of their cumulative asses. I frequently have the urge to light a cigarette, order a rare bloody steak, with a dark Irish beer, and a greasy side of something that'll disgust them.
The fun part is, I'm not overweight. Other than smoking, I appear healthy to any passers by. :)
I'm enjoying this ride right down to the end!
Oddly enough, I would. As long as their testing regiment includes using the subjects in both the test and control groups during different periods of the study. Since I'm sure it would have to be double-blind, but I guarantee that I'll get headaches with it, and none without. That is unless they play rap music during the testing. Then I may have some bleeding from my ears. :)
Well, I know the migraines are easily reproducible for me. When I didn't know what the cause was, I was really confused. I'd drink whatever was put in front of me. Now, I don't drink diet sodas or tequila. Anything else is fair game. :)
I did sample testing, but I've also accidentally fallen into blind tests. I've gone to friends house, and they've poured me a drink. I didn't know until my head hurt, so I'd ask "was that a diet drink?" Nothing else that I've ever consumed has ever given me a headache quickly. Alcohol does it too, but that's usually from over consumption, and the headache comes later. :) That's easily mitigated by the consumption of large quantities of fluids before the headache comes on.
The front one was a "Logitech Quickcam For Notebooks Pro". It was on sale at Fry's at the time.
The rear one... well ... I don't really remember. That was the same one from the first trip, and it was a piece of crap then too. That's the one I had to put the lens from the sunglasses in front of so it could see in the daylight.
I was sending up the video frames with WebcamXP. The GPS data was from a the tornado tracker folks that I mentioned before.
The user interface (like, on my web site) was all me. I wrote the javascript to make it look somewhat like video years ago. It's just double buffering images and swapping them. Not a real fancy trick, but it looks smooth if you can supply it with frames fast enough in the back end.
I had my resolution turned way down. Something like 320x240 with high compression. In the city I knew it wasn't necessary, but once I was out in the middle of nowhere, the cell service was bad at best. No EVDO in the desert. :)
If I was going to do it more often, I'd write my own software. Since I do this like once every few years, it isn't really a priority.
I do have an RV that I'm building out (city bus conversion), so when I do that, I already plan on having 3 wide angle cameras so I can see around it while I'm driving (no squishing small cars 30 feet behind the drivers seat). I planned on streaming all of the cameras out, so anyone who's interested could not only see a hires camera in the front, but the view the whole way around. Since there's lots of space and power, I can have more fun with that. Besides the single regular camera in the front, I had planned a "night vision" security camera. The ones that see IR really well. A few IR spotlights in the front could illuminate the whole area, and no one would know.
I was looking for real "long infrared" cameras. My dad was a researcher with the military in the late 60's and early 70's, and had a few books published on it. That made me interested in them since I was about 5. :) Not too many kids get to learn about liquid nitrogen and dry ice at home on the government's dime. :) Unfortunately, they're still extremely expensive, and most require some pretty substantial cooling. It would be amazingly useful for road trips though. Imagine seeing EVERYTHING ahead, better than daylight. A warm body dressed in even camouflage would stand out. It'd be nice to see through a fog bank to know that there's a car, animal, or pedestrian in the way.
For now, I'm bringing home almost nothing (thanks to an ex and the IRS), so there's no budget for exotic cameras.
Actually, it's right.
I'll preface this with... INAHN (I'm not a health nut), I'm just very aware of the bad things that I consume. I'm smoking a cigarette and drinking a tall glass of cold soda while I'm writing this. :)
"natural" products, that aren't manufactured, but just bottled, are ok, but rather rare in most stores.
"manufactured" products usually contain refined sugars, preservatives, artificial colors, etc, etc. The're all bad for you.
The human body isn't designed to handle refined sugars very well. It does ok with raw sugar, but only in reasonable quantities. If they used raw sugar in the quantity that shows up in most sodas, it's bad for you. There was a recent study (and review of historical data) that showed the instances of diabetes were virtually nil compared to now. The major contributor? refined sugars.
Caffeine free soda has more bad stuff in it, just not caffeine.
Diet or sugar free sodas have artificial sweeteners that are cancer causing (among other things). Myself, I can't drink any diet soda. Even just a sip, and I'll have a migraine for the next 8 hours. I've been very unhappy during road trips, if/when I stop at a drive through and they hand me a diet soda instead of the regular one I ordered. One sip, and now I have 8 hours of driving where it feels my brain is going to explode.
Probably. :)
A 60mph accident could be survivable.
A 150mph accident probably wouldn't be.
I've been over 150mph, but I was far far away from any other cars. It wouldn't have been hard to screw up.
I did blow the tread off of a front tire at 120mph. That was less than pleasant, but I kept control over the vehicle, and didn't panic. I can't say the car survived quite as well. The fender from the lower rear part of the wheel well to the door was completely smashed. I did grow a new appreciation for steel belted tires though. They survived, and kept the inside layer of rubber intact, so I was able to roll to a stop, rather than spinning to one. I was just a little shaken. like, in the literal sense. The car was bouncing a lot as the tread ripped free. There was tire debris for about 1/10 mile.
Even at 75, that's survivable. I saw a girl lose her left front tire at 75mph. She had just bought the car, and they had put new tires on, but forgotten to tighten the lug nuts. My car was pelted with road debris, and she went mostly rolling (with the front right sliding) in a straight line, just off the road. I saw she was fine, so I followed her wheel about 1/2 mile, collected it, and brought it back. She had some rather unkind words for the dealer she bought it from (a buy here/pay here, of course).
I know from the way the truckers drive, that they appreciate people like me (and I'd assume you) on the road.
I won't sit beside a truck. If he's going slow, but I don't have room to get all the way past him quickly, I'll stay in my lane, but behind his rear bumper. I won't accelerate up until there's room to get all the way past his nose. And if he should turn a signal on to move into my lane, I back off and flash my lights.
I've only ever almost had one incident with a big truck, and that was a simple mistake. I was overtaking in the left lane (in America), and he moved left without signaling. I heard over the CB another trucker yelling at him for it. So I spent a few feet driving in the grassy lane. Big deal. My car got a little dirty, and no paint was traded. :)
For 20 years of legally driving, and a few hundred thousand miles, that's not a bad record. I'd rather drive near big trucks (respecting their space, of course) than around cars. I don't carry a CB any more, just because there isn't much of a need.
It happens a lot.
My car has a lot of power. It also brakes very well. Many times, the safer option has been to bump the gas, and get around a problem. Where a driver is changing lanes, they may realize that they screwed up, and hit the brakes too. Now they've not only put their vehicle in front of you, but slowed down.
Sometimes, bumping the gas isn't the best choice though. That's where a DRIVER is required.
A long time ago, my dad decided that I didn't need to drive so fast. He put a sheet metal screw in the way of the throttle, so it couldn't go to WOT. I was leaving the neighborhood, onto a road where everyone speeds. I saw a nice large gap in traffic and pulled into it. When I pulled out, I assumed I could accelerate. I couldn't in time, and almost got creamed by a truck that didn't feel like slowing down for the car that just pulled out in front of him (me). The only reason I wasn't hit is because I yanked the car into the grass.
You don't always need 350+hp under the hood, but when you NEED it, you'll be thankful it's there.
I was driving my mom out to a funeral. She wanted to take some backroads. It was by her house, and she knows the roads better. The speed limit was 45mph. There was a car doing 20mph. I was 3rd in line, and the first two cars were holding about 4 car lengths apart. There were about 30 cars behind us, swerving and honking their horns. There were no really good places to pass, so I just kept watching. Finally, there was a good spot, where I had maybe 15 seconds to pass in. I took it. I was doing over 90 when I passed the front car. A few cars managed to get around when the occasional gap in oncoming traffic came. If we had stayed behind the other cars, a 20 to 30 minute drive (for that leg) would have taken an hour or more. If I could have only done 45mph, I would have never been able to pass. I'm sure someone would have tried though.
Have you ever had a car stop running while you were driving. Try it sometime. Mine becomes a 1.5 ton guided ballistic projectile. :)
I had what would be the likely be a similar scenario happen to me. I had just started a trip to meet up with someone. At about 11pm, in the middle of nowhere, just after coming through a few miles of dense fog, my engine started overheating. Not just a little mind you, I watched the gauge climb all the way beyond the indicated range. So I threw it in neutral, and shut down the engine. The trick is to NOT lock the steering wheel. Do that and you're screwed. Once the engine has stopped, and it's in neutral, put the key back to "on".
We were traveling at 75mph. I weighed my choices really quickly. I knew this stretch of road, and knew the exits are about 20 miles apart. (now 70mph) It was dark. There was heavy fog was just behind us. There are cars coming up behind me fast (65mph). I think we passed the last exist about 8 miles ago. I could stop and call for help. (now 55mph) I could stop, and walk back to the last exit, which would take about 2 hours. I could walk to the next exit which would take about 3 hours. (now 50mph) Anything involving the side of the road has a good chance of getting someone killed. or I could....
I put it in 5th gear, and popped the clutch. The temp was down to about 3/4 of the indicated range (about 190 degrees). I sped up to about 90mph, and shut down again. We repeated this exercise (50mph to 90mph) about 5 times to get to the next exit. Of course the 13 year old in the back seat was screaming "WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" the whole time. Damned drama queen.
We took the exit with the engine off. We rolled through the stop sign at the bottom of the ramp, navigated through truck stop, and took a spot close to the door.
Yes, my car has power rack and pinion steering, power brakes, power everything. With the engine off, once you've drained the vacuum system down a little, the brakes get harder to work, but they're still effective. Steering takes a little more muscle, but it can be done. When you reach a stop, it's a bastard to steer though. :)
What had happened is, somewhere in the fog, there were some paper towels blowing around in the road. I never saw the white paper towels blowing around in the white fog. :) They must have been very close to the ground though. They got sucked up and covered my radiator. I cleared the radiator, put in about 3 gallons of water and antifreeze in that had boiled off during the exercise, and I let it run full of fluids, so it could cool down. Engines retain a lot of heat, so if put away very hot it can damage them. They like a chance to cool down slowly first.
Now, if that were a big diesel, AND their air reserves had run out, that could be a bigger problem, as they are almost entirely air powered. The suspension would go down, and the brakes would lock and/or fail. Steering should still work, but it'd probably be pretty hard. I've never tried to drive a big diesel truck with no power. :) The biggest I've ever driven were 3/4 ton trucks, and fullsize vans. They aren't that bad, but I prefer to do it in a car. :)
Well, I have hundreds of thousands of miles of driving experience. I've been in a few accidents. All were low speed accidents. All were where someone messed up around me. They ran a stop sign. They change lanes into me. They rear ended my stopped car. I've never had a high speed incident, and I've spent many more miles on high speed roads.
That's exactly what he needs to do.
When I was a kid, I was taught to shoot right handed, because I am right handed. My right eye was strong at the time.
I was born with a cataract. It was the doctor's fault when I was delivered. He pushed on my right eye while I was being delivered. Thanks doc (asshole).
I went into the Army when I was 19. They recognized that my vision couldn't be corrected to 20/20 without cataract surgery. They don't do the surgery. They couldn't correct by any other means. I left the Army (honorably), and had the surgery done. Now that it's been done, I'm categorically denied from military service.
I have a lens implant in my right eye, that's been there for 17 years. I have increased color perception in the UV range in my right eye. I can see black lights as bright blue. It's kinda freaky, since I can see with one light a flashlight :) Since it's a fairly hard lens, it doesn't bend very well, so refocusing my eye at a distance simply doesn't happen.
Because of this, I have to use my left eye to shoot. I shoot pistols, rifles, and shotguns. I never got into archery. For pistols, I hold it in my right hand, and turn just a little farther so I'm looking through my left eye. I have learned to shoot with either hand, but it's difficult at best with most pistols set up to be right handed.
I shoot rifles and shotguns left handed. That always throws people. They'll see me pick up a pistol and fire as long as I want right handed, but as soon as I pick up a rifle, it's left handed. I can still switch hands, but at a long distance, my focus isn't great. But, with my 03A3, right handed, I put all the shots at 50 yards within about 3" of center. It's just better left handed. :)
Learning to be ambidextrous is a good thing. I don't know why more people don't force themselves to try. I can do almost anything with either hand, except write. For some reason, if I start writing with my left hand, without looking at what I'm doing, the writing turns out very well, but backwards.
That was an excellent speech. I ran it as a news story a few months ago.
I don't know about that.
Back in the day, I drove my car at the track on a regular basis, so I had installed a 5 point harness, and left my stock 3 point belt in place also. Mobility was limited, but was more than sufficient for driving. The only thing that didn't work well was reaching for the radio, because it was slightly too far. I could still turn my head each way to check blind spots.
The only reason I didn't use the 5 point harness every day is that it was more of a pain to use. I opted for the regular seatbelt most of the time, because it was one motion to wear it, rather than gathering the pieces into the buckle. That's something they could likely improve upon for the consumer market.
If you're properly restrained, you wouldn't hit a roll bar with your head. Which is worse, having a rollover accident, and having the roof crush down to the level of the hood, or rolling over and having your head potentially come close to the roll bars? How much worse is bumping your head against the roll cage, versus hitting your head on the car roof, assuming it didn't crush?
If you go to YouTube, you can actually see how well it does work. Look for sand rail crashes. There are plenty where people aren't wearing helmets, flip their sand rails, and walk away from it fine.