Posts by John Brown (no body) 25372 publicly visible posts • joined 21 May 2010
"No, of course not. They have then 2nd Ammendment that gives them the goddam right to own and use guns even if they are idiots."
My wife was watching some US TV program or other the other day. Some sort auction of abandoned storage units. One contained a piece of field artillery. Up on the screen popped a message stating that this 35mm anti-tank artillery unit was legal to own and operate by civilians in the State of Tennessee. Why FFS?!?!?
"when asked to provide a photo of something for a website or whatever, have taken or obtained a suitable photo in digital form, inserted it into Word and sent me the resulting document."
Or worse, put photos into a document and then scale rather than resize to fit the page layout they want so you get a many MB document that should only be a MB or 3.
"or are we going dark and we are all Terrans? "
Having been into SF for many, many years, and avidly reading even all the "golden age" stuff from before I was born, Terrans is a commonly used word for humans from Earth. This Johnny come lately Star Trek series using Terrans as a "bad thing" just doesn't add up or even impinge on my many memories of Terrans simply being a generic term.
..or be in a very elliptical orbit, with no atmosphere to cause drag no matter how close to the surface the perigee is. Just so long as the perigee doesn't coincide with any mountains! I'm sure there were contingency plans to dock so long as apogee was high enough and the command module had time to dock and still get to a return orbit.
"The number of humans to visit another world is getting smaller and that makes me sad. I hope the pioneering work Michael and others did will continue soon. RIP."
Absolutely this. It's sad how many of the early astronauts (of whatever nationality) have died since the moon landings and now will never be able to see a manned (personned??) landing again. Lets at least hope those still living get to see it again.
"The current shit state of electric cars could be fixed at a stroke if they were able to slope off autonomously at night to recharge somewhere sensible, and be back by dawn."
...and "rush hour" starts even earlier as all those cars leave their central charging hub to pick up their passengers with no home parking/charging, then do the same again after dropping them off at work or the shops. There may well be fewer of them if WFH become permanent for significant numbers, but the number of trips each car does will likely go up.
I learned some years ago that some people call Lane 1 the "lorry lane". It's taken hold so well now that some people seem to think lane 1 is only for lorries and so some car drivers don't or won't use it. I see it frequently, driving down lane 1 at 70mph then having to move over the lane 3 to pass the moron in lane 2 doing 60-65mph, then indicating back to lane 1. Even that doesn't seem to give them a hint.
"Now imagine you've got a car doing 37 MPH in the first lane, this means you'll have trucks coming up quickly and then needing to over take it or slow down, causing congestion."
Much of the A1/A1(M) is only two lanes wide and lorries passing other lorries is already an issue when one speed limiter is set slight different to another one. Just today, on the way home, I sat behind a lorry for well over a mile as he tried to overtake another on a slight incline. He never made it. By the time we crested the hill, the "slower" one started to pick up speed again and it took another mile or so before the "quicker" lorry eventually pulled back in behind the one he tried to over take. There was a line of vehicles behind me as far as I could see in my mirrors. Probably 5 mins delay caused by just one lorry and maybe 50 or more vehicles delayed. This can happen multiple times on the two lane stretches. There are two areas going north with an extra "crawler" lane and Southbound has two areas with 7am to 7pm curfews on the out lane for anything over 7.5t (that latter has made a good difference to journey times)
You're probably right, but I find it disconcerting to have my foot on the floor and nothing happening to the speed of the car. I also find cruise control a little uncomfortable too. I find I keep my foot hovering over the accelerator, which leads to more aches in the ankle. I have to consciously rest my foot on the floor and then feel nervous that I'm not in proper control.
"Luckily in UK it's difficult to get above 70mph for more than a feew miles, in fact let's be honest, the distance between towns is so short and the motorways so crowded, you are luck if you can get up 50 mph on most motorways, most days of the week, or even in the middle of the night if you use the M6."
Living North of the M62, I don't see a problem with maintaining 70mph for long periods on the motorway. The M62 itself, west of the junction with the A1 isn't fun, neither are the motorways around Manchester and up to maybe as far as Blackpool. North of there, no problem. Likewise heading into Humberside and North Linc motorways.
Maybe if WFH catches on permanently, the more rural areas might get a little busier as people from Darn; Sarf realise they can move to Northern countryside for much nicer housing and cheaper than a cupboard in the Big City.
To be fair, with aircraft speeds, 1000's of metres IS a near miss. Closing speed could easily be in excess of 1200mph so 1000's of metres might only be seconds apart. But of course, that is an incredibly rare occurrence and most aircraft autopilots don't take evasive action anyway. They just blare out alarms so the highly trained pilots can take over and take action.
"The notion that computer technology in its current state can safely steer a vehicle in any but the most carefully controlled situations is nuts."
Yes, there's not all that many roads where you want a car to be partially self-driving at only 37mph for any real distance. If they were prepared to certify it (and mucho testing!!) at 70mph for motorways, I might be a tad more comfortable with the idea.
"Could" is a versatile word.
True. It's not going to be in the car industry. These systems are not going to be after-market installed, leading to jobs. They'll be factory fitted, probably by robots, leading to...erm...fewer not more jobs as they automate as much of the manufacturing as possible.
Despite your downvotes, it's a point I and probably many others also noticed. It seems odd to specify a speed limit that is clearly a conversion from a "round" number of kph in an unusual mph figure. Especially when the UK has been putting of converting road signs to kph speed limits and km distance for years and is likely to keep kicking that can down the road for many years to come,
I suspect the downvotes were from people sick of hearing about Brexit, despite it affecting all our live now and for the foreseeable future.
Exactly. Most people park facing into a parking bay because they are crap at reversing in. They often don't seem to realise that reversing out is more dangerous because, depending on what is parked next to you, you might be half-way or out of the space before you can see other traffic or pedestrians.
"I don't advocate the use of LSD at all but I do think it has it's merits and probably needs some proper research."
I'm pretty sure the US government, especially the CIA, did some serious long term testing of LSD and various other drugs of that type. There doesn't seem to be any public recommended uses for any of them coming from official circles.
..which was really a very stupid thing to do. Clearly the "micro-dose" of LSD blurred his judgement. LSD is still illegal, no matter the dose size. A secret is no longer a secret if you tell someone.
Maybe next time he could just try holding his breath. Some people claim a certain level of hypoxia can clarify thinking too. On the other hand, some also claim the same for "shots" or pure oxygen have the same effect.
Personally, I think most of these claims rely more on the person trying it out believing in the hype rather than an actual effect.
A1(M) closed after A167.
Not helpful when the A167 has FOUR junctions with the A1 about 20 miles apart (Newton Aycliffe, Chester-le-Street, Gateshead (The Angel) and Newcastle)
Admittedly, it could only really be one of the first two, since by Gateshead and Newcastle, it's just the A1, not the A1(M). (For those who don't know, much of the A167 used to be called the A1 many years ago, winding through all the towns and villages of the North East, including crossing the Tyne bridge right through the city centre, hence the multiple junctions with the "new" A1.)
"Other signs are placed on approaches to junctions to tell you that you should have changed lanes some time ago, and it's now far too late to do anything about it."
York outer ring road on the northern side used to be like that. They widened the road so there was two lanes approaching the roundabout. It was pot luck whether the left lane was left only of left/straight on and/or the right lane might be right only or right/straight on. Only the left OR the right would allow straight on but the signage was well down the two lane stretch and if you didn't already know then you could be stuffed during rush hour when buses and lorries blocked the view of the sign in the distance. It took a few years, but they did eventually put signs up at the point the single lane split into two.
"During the Civil War the term evolved again to loosely define anyone from the Northern US fighting for the Union side of the conflict. Today, Southerners still refer to Americans from the Northern States as Yankees.[*]"
And when you look at a map of which States were Confederate and Union, even using the terms "northern" and "southern" becomes a bit of a misnomer when labelling the sides.
There are also crossroads in London marked No Right Turn, but those who are keeping an eye on the signs will see a left/right/right sign at the junction before so where the No Right Turn is, you already took the earlier Left then went right-right and go straight over to the right turn you wanted. Clear?
"As for the video, it clearly shows people driving on both the left and the right sides of the road, presumably in contravention of USA road regulations,"
It is marked "how NOT..." and it was produced by the construction company. It even looks like it's not finished yet. Markings and road signs don't seem to be in place yet.
"Here in the NE* we have a penchant for roundabouts with lights that always operate. 5am on a Sunday? Yep, you can be stuck at two sets on a single roundabout."
That's one of the few things the US seem to have done right. During quiet periods, traffic lights flash amber, meaning proceed with caution.
One of the few things we get right here in the UK is the use of "part time" traffic lights on certain roundabouts. They only operate during rush hour, outside those times they switch off and it's back to normal roundabout rules. It's be nice if that, or the flashing amber for "normal" light controlled junctions, could be introduced here (although I'm not sure how since we already have flasjing amber on Pelican(??) crossings with a subtly different meaning.
"i don't mind roundabouts at least they can keep the traffic flowing."
Depends on the traffic flows. If you put a roundabout in and the predominant flow is straight over, the traffic coming from the sides can't get on when it's busy. A well flowing roundabout, especially during busy periods, relies on reasonable numbers of vehicles wanting to go right to break up the "straight over" flow. It also requires drivers to indicate properly thus giving joiners a chance to get on when they see a leaver coming around and turning off at "their" entry point. And drivers who know how to watch for said exiter instead of just watching the traffic from the right!!!
Why, yes, funny you should ask, it IS one of my bug bears. :-)
I'm not sure where it was now, somewhere in NE England, there was a weird split 4 way junction. Split in that the road crossing the main road didn't line up on left and right. The answer? Two pained mini-roundabouts. But they were so close together that there was on a single lane between them. If you got two vehicles coming from opposite directions both turning to their right, there was no room for them leading to the inevitable shouting, horns blaring, bumps, scrapes and out right head-on collisions. I think they eventually painted the two roundabouts into one elongated blob-like shape.
Yes, I know it well, from many years ago. I think roundabouts were seen as the panacea to all things congestion related when the "new towns" were being created. Washington is nearly as bad. (remember when Washington was all marked out as numbers, District x, y z instead of places having names? The numbers of people getting lost was just hilarious!)
"Hemel Hempstead's magic roundabout"
I remember the first time I came across that. It was a little confusing, but I played it safe, being still a little inexperienced, and went the long way around, just treating it more or less as a big roundabout. That monstrosity at Swindon on the other hand, is enough to give the heebee geebies to even the most experienced driver on first coming across it!
Oh, don't worry about a hard border. She said it will be alright. There'll be a bi-lateral agreement to allow free movement of people and goods, just like it is now. Of course, she's also planning on joining the EU too so it'll all work just peachy. Like wot it has in NI. It should be interesting for farmers who's land straddles both sides of the border too.
"Each space was provided with two tiny alcohol wipe sachets to clean everything with afterwards."
Really? A roll of cheap kitchen towels and an anti-bacterial/viral spray gun costs pennies from the local "cheap" shops like Aldi or Lidl and should last a week or three quite easily. If they really are only providing a couple of alcohol wipes per desk, that might be a dereliction of their "Duty of Care" to their employees.
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