My Sig Sauer P229 has an integrated safety that immobilizes the firing pin unless the trigger is being pulled. This protects from accidental discharge in the case of a dropped weapon. In addition, it features a decocking lever so you don't have to unsafely "thumb" the hammer up.
A police officer's duty weapon still sees plenty of rounds passed through it, as they go to the range often for training and qualification. This introduces wear and tear to the inside mechanicals (and in this weapon's case, electronics), as well as lots of smoke, grime, etc.
How are these electronic bits going to hold up to cleaning solvents? People do use solvents to get the lead and carbon deposits out of the mechanics of the weapon...
Well, the 101 Freeway is a US Highway, and not part of the Interstate Highway System. the US Highway system (white shield, rather than red / blue shield) had a completely different numbering scheme which was convoluted as all hell, which is why they decided on a logical scheme in the 1950s for the Interstate system.
Cameras can be disabled with a $4 tool from a hardware store, or a $0.50 brick.
Living, breathing cops are a bit harder to deal with, and if you do try to deal with them through the use of a $0.50 brick, you're likely to get several $0.30 9mm slugs returned in your direction at great velocities.
"Look, we live in a very dangerous world. We know there are people who want to take away our freedoms." - Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Yeah, Mayor. So lets beat them to the punch and take away those freedoms through draconian laws and big brother camera systems before the turrorists can! That'll teach em!
The issue with all of that, is that people are stubborn.
Portland, Ore. has been adopting all kinds of policies that people refer to as "car-hating" policy. They've spent billions on mass transit, they've spend tens of millions on bike paths, they've been densifying neighborhoods so people can live closer, etc.
The net result has been the same amount of traffic, a light rail system that stops every 4 blocks downtown so that it takes you 40% longer to get where you're going in comparison to if you drove and dealt with the traffic, streetcars that you can literally walk faster than along the same route because they don't have traffic signal pre-emption, and towers full of empty condos that are too expensive, and nobody wants.
All of that planning, and they still need to build a $3B bridge to deal with the 5+ hours of traffic jam going over the Columbia River to Vancouver, WA. Of course, it would be far less expensive if Portland wasn't demanding that Vancouver take an extra $1.5B of light rail that Clark County voted down twice. Portland also wants to put congestion tolling on the new bridge, which will result in people commuting from Clark County going east to I-205 to cross the river instead to dodge the toll if it's too expensive.
Same amount of cars will still be driving the roads, but moving congestion from one route to another longer one, and using more fuel to do it. That's the Urban Planner way lately.
If the next XBox must be always connected to the Internet, then it must not be purchased by me.
Fuck that noise. Consoles are supposed to be something I can fire up and play on quickly. If I have to screw around with making sure that Time Warner isn't sucking ass before it will let me at the content I've already purchased and have locally, then this is just as worthless as the DRM-riddled bullshit that EA puts out and gets burned by every single time.
No, they aren't limited to that. However, light rail installs usually don't have a separated right-of-way for 100% of their distance, so you have to increase headway due to traffic interaction.
Heavy rail usually has a completely separate right-of-way, which allows for faster headways.
People will get a hamburger if they want a hamburger. People don't drive on a road simply because it's there - they drive on a road because they need to get somewhere it goes. In your comparison, you assume that 100% of the population need to use a road, just like 100% of the population need to eat. That is incorrect.
If you don't build a freeway and people still need to get to that place, they will do it via surface arterials or neighborhood streets causing the neighborhoods to become much less safe due to through traffic that should be on a freeway. The "induced demand" argument is centered around this unmetered traffic that is already happening being put into the proper place, once that place has sufficient carrying capacity.
If you expand a rural section of I-71 between Columbus, OH and Cincinnati, OH, cars don't magically appear to fill the expanded capacity; nor does Washington Courthouse, OH start becoming a suburb of Columbus with people driving 50 miles each way to commute.
The Interstate numbering standards are not random, nor are they some secret. Here's how they work:
1- or 2-digit freeway = primary route even last digit = east / west route odd last digit = north / south route 3-digit freeway = loop or spur route from 1- or 2-digit primary route 3-digit freeway, even first digit = loop route 3-digit freeway, odd first digit = spur route 1- or 2-digit freeway numbers are numbered ascending, starting west to east for odd numbered routes, and south to north for even numbered routes. Thus, I-5 on the west coast and I-95 on the east coast; and I-10 across the southern US and I-90 across the northern US. 3-digit freeway numbers are unique per state. Thus, California, Oregon, and Washington all having a 405 loop route that connects twice with I-5. Interstate 105 in Oregon is a spur route that goes from I-5 to a downtown terminus in Eugene.
There are a few oddities in the system due to an early convention that allowed a "directional prefix" in a name if a freeway split, this has been abandoned causing abnormalities in numbering. Example: I-84 used to be I-80N before being re-signed, and now I-84 is actually south of I-82 in Eastern Oregon / Washington. There are other oddities too, but they are few in comparison to the rest of the system.
I've never bought into the induced demand argument.
There is a finite amount of cars, and a finite amount of trips being made. Just because more freeway capacity opens up, it doesn't mean that people start randomly driving to places they don't need to go - they were still going to be going there regardless of if the freeway was built / expanded. They were just doing it on unmetered neighborhood streets before.
Wouldn't we rather have those cars on the freeway, rather than clogging up neighborhoods?
Even after the Sequester, they still have more money than last year, to do the same job. Why are the wheels coming off this year, when everything was perfectly fine last year?
Why do I have a feeling that the planes leaving Reagan National, a short car drive from the offices of the Congress critters that voted for this piece of shit, aren't experiencing nearly the delays of other airports?
Slashdot Mirror
Extra points for being funny and topical at the same time.
Cost of orbital flight for one person in 1962: $1.6B in 2010 dollars
Cost of orbital flight for one person in 2014: $0.0002B in 2014 dollars
There's a bit of downward pressure on the cost, so we might see it in our lifetime yet, depending on where you are on the actuarial tables.
If your microwave doesn't turn on because the door is open, you just eat 5 seconds later than you otherwise would have.
If your gun fails to fire when you need it to, you may not eat ever again.
Comparing the two is ridiculous.
My Sig Sauer P229 has an integrated safety that immobilizes the firing pin unless the trigger is being pulled. This protects from accidental discharge in the case of a dropped weapon. In addition, it features a decocking lever so you don't have to unsafely "thumb" the hammer up.
My biggest issue is that if the technology exists, it's only a short hop to the technology being required.
The most irrational creature in the world is the one that runs for public office.
Here in gun-loving Ohio, that would get his concealed carry permit revoked if he was caught by law enforcement.
In Ohio, you must always carry in a holster. Even if it's just wedged in the door pocket in your car.
A police officer's duty weapon still sees plenty of rounds passed through it, as they go to the range often for training and qualification. This introduces wear and tear to the inside mechanicals (and in this weapon's case, electronics), as well as lots of smoke, grime, etc.
How are these electronic bits going to hold up to cleaning solvents? People do use solvents to get the lead and carbon deposits out of the mechanics of the weapon...
Well, not so much these days.
I have my stash of .357 SIG to keep me going until this stockpiling craze ends though.
Well, the 101 Freeway is a US Highway, and not part of the Interstate Highway System. the US Highway system (white shield, rather than red / blue shield) had a completely different numbering scheme which was convoluted as all hell, which is why they decided on a logical scheme in the 1950s for the Interstate system.
Cameras can be disabled with a $4 tool from a hardware store, or a $0.50 brick.
Living, breathing cops are a bit harder to deal with, and if you do try to deal with them through the use of a $0.50 brick, you're likely to get several $0.30 9mm slugs returned in your direction at great velocities.
"Look, we live in a very dangerous world. We know there are people who want to take away our freedoms." - Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Yeah, Mayor. So lets beat them to the punch and take away those freedoms through draconian laws and big brother camera systems before the turrorists can! That'll teach em!
The issue with all of that, is that people are stubborn.
Portland, Ore. has been adopting all kinds of policies that people refer to as "car-hating" policy. They've spent billions on mass transit, they've spend tens of millions on bike paths, they've been densifying neighborhoods so people can live closer, etc.
The net result has been the same amount of traffic, a light rail system that stops every 4 blocks downtown so that it takes you 40% longer to get where you're going in comparison to if you drove and dealt with the traffic, streetcars that you can literally walk faster than along the same route because they don't have traffic signal pre-emption, and towers full of empty condos that are too expensive, and nobody wants.
All of that planning, and they still need to build a $3B bridge to deal with the 5+ hours of traffic jam going over the Columbia River to Vancouver, WA. Of course, it would be far less expensive if Portland wasn't demanding that Vancouver take an extra $1.5B of light rail that Clark County voted down twice. Portland also wants to put congestion tolling on the new bridge, which will result in people commuting from Clark County going east to I-205 to cross the river instead to dodge the toll if it's too expensive.
Same amount of cars will still be driving the roads, but moving congestion from one route to another longer one, and using more fuel to do it. That's the Urban Planner way lately.
If the next XBox must be always connected to the Internet, then it must not be purchased by me.
Fuck that noise. Consoles are supposed to be something I can fire up and play on quickly. If I have to screw around with making sure that Time Warner isn't sucking ass before it will let me at the content I've already purchased and have locally, then this is just as worthless as the DRM-riddled bullshit that EA puts out and gets burned by every single time.
No, they aren't limited to that. However, light rail installs usually don't have a separated right-of-way for 100% of their distance, so you have to increase headway due to traffic interaction.
Heavy rail usually has a completely separate right-of-way, which allows for faster headways.
The premise of your argument is incorrect.
People will get a hamburger if they want a hamburger. People don't drive on a road simply because it's there - they drive on a road because they need to get somewhere it goes. In your comparison, you assume that 100% of the population need to use a road, just like 100% of the population need to eat. That is incorrect.
If you don't build a freeway and people still need to get to that place, they will do it via surface arterials or neighborhood streets causing the neighborhoods to become much less safe due to through traffic that should be on a freeway. The "induced demand" argument is centered around this unmetered traffic that is already happening being put into the proper place, once that place has sufficient carrying capacity.
If you expand a rural section of I-71 between Columbus, OH and Cincinnati, OH, cars don't magically appear to fill the expanded capacity; nor does Washington Courthouse, OH start becoming a suburb of Columbus with people driving 50 miles each way to commute.
My "sport touring" motorcycle's 60MPG shits all over the pretentious "hyper miler" Prius owners here in Ohio. And I have way more fun while commuting.
The Interstate numbering standards are not random, nor are they some secret. Here's how they work:
1- or 2-digit freeway = primary route
even last digit = east / west route
odd last digit = north / south route
3-digit freeway = loop or spur route from 1- or 2-digit primary route
3-digit freeway, even first digit = loop route
3-digit freeway, odd first digit = spur route
1- or 2-digit freeway numbers are numbered ascending, starting west to east for odd numbered routes, and south to north for even numbered routes. Thus, I-5 on the west coast and I-95 on the east coast; and I-10 across the southern US and I-90 across the northern US.
3-digit freeway numbers are unique per state. Thus, California, Oregon, and Washington all having a 405 loop route that connects twice with I-5. Interstate 105 in Oregon is a spur route that goes from I-5 to a downtown terminus in Eugene.
There are a few oddities in the system due to an early convention that allowed a "directional prefix" in a name if a freeway split, this has been abandoned causing abnormalities in numbering. Example: I-84 used to be I-80N before being re-signed, and now I-84 is actually south of I-82 in Eastern Oregon / Washington. There are other oddities too, but they are few in comparison to the rest of the system.
Hope that clears it up.
I've never bought into the induced demand argument.
There is a finite amount of cars, and a finite amount of trips being made. Just because more freeway capacity opens up, it doesn't mean that people start randomly driving to places they don't need to go - they were still going to be going there regardless of if the freeway was built / expanded. They were just doing it on unmetered neighborhood streets before.
Wouldn't we rather have those cars on the freeway, rather than clogging up neighborhoods?
You do realize that the "light" in light rail doesn't refer to vehicle weight, right?
It's short for "light capacity rail" - meaning that you have 2-3 cars per rail vehicle and 10+ minute headways per train.
To properly deal with congestion with a rail solution, you need heavy capacity rail, which has 4-minute headways and 8 cars per rail vehicle.
Hey, at $20m/freeway mile, he just bought 13 feet of roadway! He, and 11 other cars can sit on his car-length segment in traffic now!
Wait... did someone just say that CalTrans is... good?
Does. Not. Compute.
In a study from the University of Southern California, they say that LA Freeway construction costs are roughly $20M per mile.
So his $50k buys him 13 feet of roadway.
What no one has explained yet:
Even after the Sequester, they still have more money than last year, to do the same job. Why are the wheels coming off this year, when everything was perfectly fine last year?
Why do I have a feeling that the planes leaving Reagan National, a short car drive from the offices of the Congress critters that voted for this piece of shit, aren't experiencing nearly the delays of other airports?
Makes too much sense. Won't possibly work.