On Thu, 18 Feb 2016 05:22:28 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 02/17/2016 09:37 AM, Mr Macaw wrote:
I wonder if there's any truth in the rules that most truckers are
forbidden by their companies from picking up hitchhikers? I have had a
few hand signals from them driving past which looked like "sorry I can't".

Very much so in this country. We have 30 million lawyers in search of
work and they would have a field day if an unauthorized passenger was
injured. For most larger companies you're fired if you're caught.

Why don't you guys just push all the ****ing lawyers off a cliff? They're of no benefit to society.

--
Stupid laws, number 467: In America, it is illegal to put money in someone else's parking meter.

On Thu, 18 Feb 2016 05:26:59 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 02/17/2016 12:04 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
I do that in the UK all the time. If the car's facing the other way,
sometimes my subconscious swaps over and sometimes not, but I don't know
whether it has or not. So instead I just look for the steering wheel.

So do you get off bicycles on the wrong side too? I know the old Brit
motorcycles had the shifter on the wrong side until you got over that
foolishness.

I get on whatever side is easiest. But outside a car, you can't easily see in, so you get in the side that means you need to shuffle past the gearshifter.

--
BREAKFAST.SYS halted... Cereal port not responding.

On Thu, 18 Feb 2016 05:43:47 -0000, Don Y wrote:

On 2/17/2016 10:00 PM, rbowman wrote:
On 02/17/2016 09:26 AM, Mr Macaw wrote:

Incorrect, I activate ABS all the time. It means I'm fully utilising
the ability of the car.

Damn, I'm glad you're in Scotland.

It's a shame he doesn't also fully utilize his air bags!

Don't have those.

--
Before you set out on a journey, ring your local radio station and say there's a teerrible congestion on your road. Everybody avoids it and it's clear for you! -- Jack Dee

On Thu, 18 Feb 2016 06:03:26 -0000, wrote:

On Wed, 17 Feb 2016 22:00:51 -0700, rbowman
wrote:

On 02/17/2016 09:26 AM, Mr Macaw wrote:

Incorrect, I activate ABS all the time. It means I'm fully utilising
the ability of the car.

Damn, I'm glad you're in Scotland.
I think all of North America and half of great britaiin is glad the
idiot is in scotland.

You're one of those slow and careful *******s that gets in my way aren't you? Don't you feel guilty when you see 20 cars behind you trying to get past?

--
Before you set out on a journey, ring your local radio station and say there's a teerrible congestion on your road. Everybody avoids it and it's clear for you! -- Jack Dee

On Thu, 18 Feb 2016 04:04:04 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 02/17/2016 04:06 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
If you like Monty Python you should like Benny Hill.

I don't like either. They had a similar problem. Throw out a humorous
gag. Repeat it in case someone was reaching for the chips and missed it.
Do it once again for the really slow learners. And finally, just to be
sure, let's do it one more time.

I have a warped sense of humor but it leans to the 'if you snooze, you
lose' school that requires viewer participation. No 'Applaud Now' signs
please.

One of the few I remember from Python was some old charwoman on her
knees scrubbing the floor. As she recites here litany of woes and
lifetime disasters she sums it up with "but I never worked for Jews."

My memory of Benny Hill was an extended skit with a lodge pin, iirc,
fashioned from a banana and two apples. Momentarily funny but the sixth
time around you're screaming "I got it, ffs."

I liked the chases.

--
The way to a man's heart is through the left ventricle.

On Thu, 18 Feb 2016 06:53:56 -0000, Don Y wrote:

On 2/17/2016 9:04 PM, rbowman wrote:
On 02/17/2016 04:06 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
If you like Monty Python you should like Benny Hill.

I don't like either. They had a similar problem. Throw out a humorous gag.
Repeat it in case someone was reaching for the chips and missed it. Do it once
again for the really slow learners. And finally, just to be sure, let's do it
one more time.

Yup. Though the same can be said of some popular US "cartoons"
(hmmm... perhaps they are trying to appeal to the same crowd?)

There was a series called "Buttons & Mindy" -- buttons being the family
dog and Mindy the precocious young toddler buttons was always trying
to protect (at HIS expense!).

The show was *so* formulaic that you can practically recite the next
line(s) from memory -- regardless of whether you'd ever seen this
episode!

One episode is produced entirely in FRENCH! (WTF??) I can't recall if
there were subtitles -- but, that's immaterial: the humor was that
you KNEW what was being said, EVEN THOUGH IT WAS BEING SAID IN FRENCH!

Watch an old Jacques Tatty film. That's in French, but you don't need the words. It's excellent quality.

--
The way to a man's heart is through the left ventricle.

On Fri, 19 Feb 2016 21:19:41 -0000, Tekkie® wrote:

Don Y posted for all of us...



On 2/13/2016 6:38 AM, Gene Yuss wrote:
On 02/13/2016 12:23 AM, Don Y wrote:
People zone out when driving. They get "acclimated" to a particular
set of stimuli -- then tend to ignore it.

If you want to be noticed, you have to stand out by "being different".
E.g., a headlight that flashes, etc.

This is the rationale for every tweek to the safety equipment (e.g.., now
center mounted brake lights *flash* when first applied; it's not enough
that they are UP HIGH, in your LINE OF SIGHT -- cuz you've gotten used
to seeing them there and now "tune them out".

Brake lights should broadcast a wifi signal that flashes the
smartphone screens of the texting driver(s) behind you when
you apply the brakes. Or is there already an app for that?

Ha! Or, "we interrupt this call to tell you that you're about
to *ss-end the vehicle in front of you. Please hang up so we can
autodial your insurance carrier..."

[Actually, I suspect there will be pressure for phones to
report the "their" speed of travel whenever they "notice"
a sudden, instantaneous change (decrease) in speed! Perhaps
not legislated but, rather, insurance company incentives.
Given how integrated telecoms are becoming with new cars,
it wouldn't be hard for the car to "tattle" on the driver.
IIRC, our owner's manual essentially says this -- though
in an obtuse way.]

The ECM knows all...

The ECM can be beaten to death with a hammer.

--
A Muslim was sitting next to Paddy on a plane.
Paddy ordered a whisky.
The stewardess asked the Muslim if he'd like a drink.
He replied in disgust "I'd rather be raped by a dozen whores than let liquor touch my lips!"
Paddy handed his drink back and said
"Me too, I didn't know we had a choice!"

On Sat, 13 Feb 2016 21:26:36 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 02/13/2016 12:23 AM, Don Y wrote:
If you want to be noticed, you have to stand out by "being different".
E.g., a headlight that flashes, etc.

Some bike riders install aftermarket headlight modulators that sort of
makes them warble, if that's a word to apply to a visual effect. That
may be illegal in some jurisdictions and certainly isn't wide spread.

I don't know how effective they are. After having people pull out in
front of me when I was driving a 13' 6" high, 65' vehicle with a bright
red cab and the headlights on. I find it safer just to consider my
fellow motorists as escapees from a sheltered workshop.

If you drive politely, you'll get on a lot better.

--
Watching his date from the corner of his eye while he poured her a drink, the young bachelor said, "Say when."
She replied, "Right after that drink."

On Mon, 29 Feb 2016 02:42:43 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 02/28/2016 12:49 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
But the slightest movement would send you on the wrong direction.

Much less than you would think. At speed a bike requires considerable
input to turn. There are many factors from rake and trail to tire
design, but there is also considerable rotational inertia. There are
exceptons like BMW boxer engines and the Moto Guzzis, but on most bikes
the crank, sprockets, wheels, and so forth are all rotating in the same
plane.

Consider some of this craziness:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8W0vqqhTuE

The really good (or crazy) riders can generate enough body english to
momentarily twist the bike off its axis but they had better let it
restore itself before it lands. Landing slightly sideways means more
plaster, more pins, and more screws in various body parts -- if you're
lucky. And that's all angular momentum. There are no contact patches.

No frost problems?

From my non-scientific observations, very few. For one thing, it's a
semi-arid climate. 15" of precipitation a year is on the high side. Then
you need a frost susceptible soil. Concrete slab construction is very
rarely used and asphalt is more flexible. That's not to say there is no
frost damage at all but compared to the roads back in the northeast it's
negligible.

The city street can get rough, but they're chipseal:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipseal

Chipseal is a wonderful technique. You pour tar on the road, dump
copious quantities of crushed stone, and let the traffic do the
compacting. Maybe sometime later they will come by and sweep up a few
tons of gravel that accumulates along the shoulder. Since it depends on
traffic to compact the surface, longitudinal ruts are a given. Coming to
a stop light on a bike you have to position yourself so you're not on
the high part in the center or reaching pavement with a foot without
falling over can be tricky. But it's cheap.

They occasionally use that here, it's crap. It destroys the bottom of everyone's car. They usually put up a temporary 20mph speed limit so you don't fling stones at other cars' windshields, but I don't care about someone else's windshields, so I go as fast as possible.

--
Aristotle believed wind direction determined whether a baby would be a boy or a girl.

On Mon, 29 Feb 2016 02:45:48 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 02/28/2016 12:47 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

Yes, we're overpopulated. That's because of our stupid child benefits
system. The government pays people to have kids! WTF?

There is a segment in this country that believes not fetus should be
left unborn. One it is born, they don't much give a **** about its
welfare. Considering minorities have a disproportionately higher number
of abortions, go Planned Parenthood!

A foetus is not a human.

--
tittynope, n. €“ a small quantity of something left over

On 03/06/2016 12:16 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

Never heard of Steven Rea. Just looked him up and I haven't seen any of
his films. Must be the wrong kind of films as I've watched plenty of
films.

I saw him in 'V for Vendetta', 'Michael Collins', and 'The Crying Game'.

He had an interesting career as a voice actor when the British
government banned the voices but not the text of republicans from being
broadcast by the BBC. Rea read Gerry Adams' parts. While the US has more
than its fair share of stupid legislation, that one took the cake.

On 03/06/2016 12:20 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
On Wed, 17 Feb 2016 03:08:26 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 02/16/2016 11:55 AM, Mr Macaw wrote:

They affected only themselves, WTF are you talking about?

I haven't followed it long term but when the news first broke there was
talk about the resale value plummeting. At least in the US it didn't
happen, and many drivers took the stance of 'It's running great. Like
hell you're going to fix it.'

Presumably they can't force you to return it.


I think not. They are persistent though. I still get recall notices for
a car that was totaled five years ago. It might be different in states
like California that require smog inspections but this state has no
vehicle inspections of any type.

On 03/06/2016 12:21 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

I believe a Rabbit = a Golf in the UK. I had a 1998 Golf (which said
Golf Rabbit on the documentation, and had a rabbit symbol in one window).

It's been an on again/off again thing in the US. My wife had a Rabbit
which was a Mk I Golf. Then at some point, they became the Golf, went
back to Rabbit for a few years, and I think they went back to Golf in
2010. Not a bad car but I always thought 'Rabbit' was a stupid name. Not
as bad as Tata's new offering that was briefly called Zica.

On Sun, 06 Mar 2016 22:19:10 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 03/06/2016 12:21 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

I believe a Rabbit = a Golf in the UK. I had a 1998 Golf (which said
Golf Rabbit on the documentation, and had a rabbit symbol in one window).

It's been an on again/off again thing in the US. My wife had a Rabbit
which was a Mk I Golf. Then at some point, they became the Golf, went
back to Rabbit for a few years, and I think they went back to Golf in
2010. Not a bad car but I always thought 'Rabbit' was a stupid name. Not

I heard something at some point that mine was a Golf Rabbit, and someone else's was either a plain Golf or something else like a Golf Plus. The rabbit had a different power output.

--
Peter is listening to "Aerosmith - Living on the edge"

On Sun, 06 Mar 2016 22:10:20 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 03/06/2016 12:20 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
On Wed, 17 Feb 2016 03:08:26 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 02/16/2016 11:55 AM, Mr Macaw wrote:

They affected only themselves, WTF are you talking about?

I haven't followed it long term but when the news first broke there was
talk about the resale value plummeting. At least in the US it didn't
happen, and many drivers took the stance of 'It's running great. Like
hell you're going to fix it.'

Presumably they can't force you to return it.


I think not. They are persistent though. I still get recall notices for
a car that was totaled five years ago. It might be different in states
like California that require smog inspections but this state has no
vehicle inspections of any type.

Nothing at all? Not even annual test for the lights and tyres?

--
It's not the dress that makes your bum look big honey, it's the 30 cakes you ate yesterday.

On Sun, 06 Mar 2016 22:04:17 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 03/06/2016 12:16 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

Never heard of Steven Rea. Just looked him up and I haven't seen any of
his films. Must be the wrong kind of films as I've watched plenty of
films.

I saw him in 'V for Vendetta', 'Michael Collins', and 'The Crying Game'.

He had an interesting career as a voice actor when the British
government banned the voices but not the text of republicans from being
broadcast by the BBC. Rea read Gerry Adams' parts. While the US has more
than its fair share of stupid legislation, that one took the cake.

We banned one of your political parties? WTF?

Mind you we seem to be considering banning Trump.

--
In 2005 eight Brits (All Scottish) cracked their skulls while throwing up into the toilet.

On 3/6/2016 3:26 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

iirc in 'Small is Beautiful' Schumacher talked about the inefficiencies
of two lorries passing each other on the motorway as each carried
biscuits from their city to the other city where the cities were 100
miles apart. When I was trucking I'd load carpet in LA, take it to
Dalton, GA, load Georgia carpet and take it back to LA. They're 2100
miles apart. The transportation industry in the US is utterly insane. To
succeed as a parcel carrier you need a lot of planes, trucks, and
warehouses.

I assume courier prices are per state over there? For example over
here, if I pay to ship a parcel by courier it's the same price to go
from anywhere to anywhere in the UK, apart form the North half of Scotland.


They usually go by zones. The zones being a radius of X miles.

Regular mail is a flat fee. For 49 cents I can send a letter to my next
door neighbor or to a friend 3000 miles away.

On 3/6/2016 3:32 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

We don't have roads with speed limits that high unless they're motorways
(freeways) with seperate carriageways for each direction, i.e. 2+ lanes
West and 2+ lanes East.

I guess your roads are longer straights, in which case I don't foresee a
problem. If you can't se far enough ahead to complete the overtake,
don't overtake, or encourage the granny to pull into the next layby.


In the cities probably not much different than yours. In some of the
western states you can go 100 miles of perfectly straight road.


Sunrise and sunset are particularly bad. I avoid driving into the sun
wherever possible.

Don't you have visors and sunglasses over there?

When the sun is low in the sky, like this time of year, you can get hit
where it is below the visor and even sunglasses don't help much. May
not be as bad at your latitude, but it is possible to have a couple of
seconds of blindness at the right time and angle.

On 03/06/2016 01:26 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
I assume courier prices are per state over there? For example over
here, if I pay to ship a parcel by courier it's the same price to go
from anywhere to anywhere in the UK, apart form the North half of Scotland.


For the majors like UPS and FedEx it's a zone based system:

http://www.moynetworks.com/ebay/ups/index.htm

For ground transportation, the zones make sense. For air, it get's
bizarre. Amazon offers two day delivery for Prime members and almost
always lives up to it. I'd preordered a CD and it was shipped last
winter. I'd have never noticed but Amazon sent an email saying it would
be late. Out of curiosity I checked the tracking. It had been shipped
from California to Louisville, KY. That's over 2000 miles, while I'm
only 1200 miles from the shipping point. Then there was an abortive
attempt to bring it to Illinois. I assume the plane couldn't land so it
went back to Kentucky. The next try was 1500 miles back to Billings, MT.
Two more bounces and it was on a truck out for local delivery.

Even for ground, the routing depends more on the hub terminals than the
shortest path.

There are small courier companies but they are very specialized. They're
something a private citizen would deal with very rarely. If you want
something shipped you take it to the local UPS store.

On Sun, 06 Mar 2016 22:50:34 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 03/06/2016 01:26 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
I assume courier prices are per state over there? For example over
here, if I pay to ship a parcel by courier it's the same price to go
from anywhere to anywhere in the UK, apart form the North half of Scotland.


For the majors like UPS and FedEx it's a zone based system:

http://www.moynetworks.com/ebay/ups/index.htm

For ground transportation, the zones make sense. For air, it get's
bizarre.

In some cases here, airmail to another country is cheaper than land mail within the UK!?!

Amazon

[spit!]

offers two day delivery for Prime members and almost
always lives up to it. I'd preordered a CD and it was shipped last
winter. I'd have never noticed but Amazon sent an email saying it would
be late. Out of curiosity I checked the tracking. It had been shipped
from California to Louisville, KY. That's over 2000 miles, while I'm
only 1200 miles from the shipping point. Then there was an abortive
attempt to bring it to Illinois. I assume the plane couldn't land so it
went back to Kentucky. The next try was 1500 miles back to Billings, MT.
Two more bounces and it was on a truck out for local delivery.

Even for ground, the routing depends more on the hub terminals than the
shortest path.

I like reading the comments on the online tracking when it goes to the wrong hub and someone gets irritated when they have to correct the mistake.

There are small courier companies but they are very specialized. They're
something a private citizen would deal with very rarely. If you want
something shipped you take it to the local UPS store.

We don't really have stores. Although some couriers have pickup and dropoff points, which are just a corner shop that's paid to do it. I just pay the extra £ and have it collected form my own house, usually by Shirley who lives just down the road from me, as she works for one of the local couriers.

--
The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.

On 03/06/2016 01:28 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

Ireland is a silly little lump on the West, you might aswell call it UK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiGFc_LnMs4

The West's awake...

On Sun, 06 Mar 2016 22:43:42 -0000, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 3/6/2016 3:32 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

We don't have roads with speed limits that high unless they're motorways
(freeways) with seperate carriageways for each direction, i.e. 2+ lanes
West and 2+ lanes East.

I guess your roads are longer straights, in which case I don't foresee a
problem. If you can't se far enough ahead to complete the overtake,
don't overtake, or encourage the granny to pull into the next layby.


In the cities probably not much different than yours. In some of the
western states you can go 100 miles of perfectly straight road.

No problem overtaking there then.

Sunrise and sunset are particularly bad. I avoid driving into the sun
wherever possible.

Don't you have visors and sunglasses over there?

When the sun is low in the sky, like this time of year, you can get hit
where it is below the visor and even sunglasses don't help much. May
not be as bad at your latitude, but it is possible to have a couple of
seconds of blindness at the right time and angle.

Sit higher in your seat, use polaroid sunglasses, or slow down.

I did actually crash into a car once due to low sun. I had accidentally gone via the outskirts of Edinburgh when travelling south, and didn't expect to have traffic lights in the middle of a ****ing roundabout (stupid pointless idea to use both, Edinburgh council don't have a clue how to design roads). I was entering the roundabout and my light was green, but I had to stop quickly to avoid someone who did the same as me (without the excuse of the sun as it was behind him). Being put off by that, and then going round to have the sun in my eyes, I ploughed straight into someone entering from the opposite side.

--
Bad command or file name! Go stand in the corner.

On 03/06/2016 01:29 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
My satnav will take account of it taking longer to turn right (or left
in the US), but I'd certainly never bother including it in a manual
calculation, that's just madness.

I do it automatically almost every morning. There is an intersection
with lights for straight through and two left turn lanes. I've never
figured the rhyme or reason but the left hand lights go green sometime
after the straight through light, but the time is variable. If I turn
left on the light, then I have an unimpeded right turn. If I go straight
I then have a left turn that may or may not require waiting for ongoing
traffic to arrive at the same 4-way stop as the other route.

So, approaching the intersection I have to determine which route will be
faster. Since there is a construction company nearby, I also take into
account which lanes have the fully laden gravel or concrete trucks.

On Sun, 06 Mar 2016 23:02:11 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 03/06/2016 01:29 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
My satnav will take account of it taking longer to turn right (or left
in the US), but I'd certainly never bother including it in a manual
calculation, that's just madness.

I do it automatically almost every morning. There is an intersection
with lights for straight through and two left turn lanes. I've never
figured the rhyme or reason but the left hand lights go green sometime
after the straight through light, but the time is variable. If I turn
left on the light, then I have an unimpeded right turn. If I go straight
I then have a left turn that may or may not require waiting for ongoing
traffic to arrive at the same 4-way stop as the other route.

So, approaching the intersection I have to determine which route will be
faster. Since there is a construction company nearby, I also take into
account which lanes have the fully laden gravel or concrete trucks.

Yes if there's a particularly bad junction that you've experienced before you might avoid it. But I would never go to the point of planning it in advance.

--
Paper clips are the larval stage of coat hangers.

On Sun, 06 Mar 2016 22:55:53 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 03/06/2016 01:28 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

Ireland is a silly little lump on the West, you might aswell call it UK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiGFc_LnMs4

The West's awake...

I hate that style of music. Funnily enough my sig contains something better.

--
Peter is listening to "Aerosmith - Living on the edge"

On Sun, 06 Mar 2016 22:35:50 -0000, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 3/6/2016 3:26 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

iirc in 'Small is Beautiful' Schumacher talked about the inefficiencies
of two lorries passing each other on the motorway as each carried
biscuits from their city to the other city where the cities were 100
miles apart. When I was trucking I'd load carpet in LA, take it to
Dalton, GA, load Georgia carpet and take it back to LA. They're 2100
miles apart. The transportation industry in the US is utterly insane. To
succeed as a parcel carrier you need a lot of planes, trucks, and
warehouses.

I assume courier prices are per state over there? For example over
here, if I pay to ship a parcel by courier it's the same price to go
from anywhere to anywhere in the UK, apart form the North half of Scotland.


They usually go by zones. The zones being a radius of X miles.

Regular mail is a flat fee. For 49 cents I can send a letter to my next
door neighbor or to a friend 3000 miles away.

I guess with letters, the sorting is more effort than the carrying, as you get 1000s of them in a truck.

--
Peter is listening to "Aerosmith - Living on the edge"

On 03/06/2016 01:30 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

I've not heard of anything in that entire paragraph.

No 'Downton Abbey'?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downton_Abbey

There's a common belief that the Germans ship their second rate batches
of beer to the US. Perhaps the Brits sell their less that successful TV
shows to the US PBS for the American Cousins to lap up?

'Jack Taylor' is a flawed private investigator in Galway. I enjoy it but
it gets mixed reviews. Glen's Irish accent isn't up to snuff and most of
it is filmed in Bremen, presumably because it's cheaper than Galway. It
fit's in with the US technique of filming series a long way from where
they supposedly are set using British or Australian actors.

On 03/06/2016 01:32 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

Don't you have visors and sunglasses over there?

Don't you ever have to drive directly into the sun?

On 03/06/2016 02:35 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
On Thu, 18 Feb 2016 05:22:28 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 02/17/2016 09:37 AM, Mr Macaw wrote:
I wonder if there's any truth in the rules that most truckers are
forbidden by their companies from picking up hitchhikers? I have had a
few hand signals from them driving past which looked like "sorry I
can't".

Very much so in this country. We have 30 million lawyers in search of
work and they would have a field day if an unauthorized passenger was
injured. For most larger companies you're fired if you're caught.

Why don't you guys just push all the ****ing lawyers off a cliff?
They're of no benefit to society.


Considering many of the career politicians started out as lawyers, that
would be a win-win.

On 03/06/2016 02:36 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
I get on whatever side is easiest. But outside a car, you can't easily
see in, so you get in the side that means you need to shuffle past the
gearshifter.


In my car, that might involve losing a testicle or two. Something a
friend and I noticed was in films from the '30s and 40's the actors
often entered or exited from the off side of the car. It certainly was a
lot easier in the era of bench seats but still looked odd. My friend
opined it might have made for a better or easier camera shot.

On 03/06/2016 02:52 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

They occasionally use that here, it's crap. It destroys the bottom of
everyone's car. They usually put up a temporary 20mph speed limit so
you don't fling stones at other cars' windshields, but I don't care
about someone else's windshields, so I go as fast as possible.

They don't bother with the temporary speed limits here. More work for
the chip repair businesses so it's good for the economy, Bastiat be damned.

On 03/06/2016 03:34 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
On Sun, 06 Mar 2016 22:04:17 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 03/06/2016 12:16 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

Never heard of Steven Rea. Just looked him up and I haven't seen any of
his films. Must be the wrong kind of films as I've watched plenty of
films.

I saw him in 'V for Vendetta', 'Michael Collins', and 'The Crying Game'.

He had an interesting career as a voice actor when the British
government banned the voices but not the text of republicans from being
broadcast by the BBC. Rea read Gerry Adams' parts. While the US has more
than its fair share of stupid legislation, that one took the cake.

We banned one of your political parties? WTF?

Republicans, as in Sinn Fein.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4409447.stm


Mind you we seem to be considering banning Trump.

Ignore it and it will go away. That's worked so well in the past.

On 03/06/2016 03:34 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

Nothing at all? Not even annual test for the lights and tyres?

No. Again it's an anecdotal personal observation but if anything I see
fewer rolling wrecks than in states with rigorous inspection requirements.

It may be like vehicle insurance. One study found that states with
rigorous requirements for insurance have the same percentage of
uninsured drivers as states with no requirements at all.

On 03/06/2016 03:35 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

Regular mail is a flat fee. For 49 cents I can send a letter to my next
door neighbor or to a friend 3000 miles away.

Then there are the flat rate boxes... A sometimes do business with a
firm that sells cast lead bullets. They ship in the flat rate boxes.
With a careful selection of 9mm and .45 bullets you can get close to the
70# limit in a medium size box. I'm sure the mail handlers love those.

On 03/06/2016 04:03 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
I guess with letters, the sorting is more effort than the carrying, as
you get 1000s of them in a truck.

I never got into the rates involved but when I was trucking several
times I loaded Avon (a cosmetics manufacturer) product in Chicago and
delivered them to post offices. Apparently it was less expensive to use
a private carrier for the long leg and the PO for local delivery.

On 03/06/2016 03:53 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

I like reading the comments on the online tracking when it goes to the
wrong hub and someone gets irritated when they have to correct the mistake.

I'd ordered a motorcycle tank repair kit and was tracking it. Things
were going well until it got to Denver where it was noted the package
was leaking and was returned to the sender. Since the kit consisted of a
phosphoric acid etch and an epoxy based seal coat, I wondered which was
leaking.

There had already been delays in shipping so I canceled and purchased
the materials locally. Like most of my hardware store expeditions, what
I bought had nothing to do with its intended use.

On 03/06/2016 04:03 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

I hate that style of music. Funnily enough my sig contains something
better.

I'll agree that one is slow and boring to play. I prefer something with
a better melody:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGEuMxQDW04

Whoever filmed the video seemed to have been captivated by Joan.

On Mon, 29 Feb 2016 01:33:55 -0000, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 2/28/2016 7:05 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:

Some of us do buy inexpensive economical cars, many of us like larger
more luxurious cars with lots of goodies. I drive about 23,000 miles a
year so I want to do it in comfort. Fact is, I can spend a lot less
and
still get to my destination. My choice was luxury.

If I was you I'd buy an old gas guzzler. Cheap fuel, no depreciation.
Don't care if I crash it.


Your choice, of course. I could easily have found reasonably reliable
transportation for $40,000+ less. I like satellite radio, climate
control, heated steering wheel, all sorts of technology. I'm planning
to to die broke.

You can get second hand cars with technology in them.


Yes you can. I bought many a used car earlier in my life. Once I was
able to do so, I chose new cars equipped exactly the way I wanted. I
know it is not a good investment but that is not a factor in my
decision. For the price I paid for my present car I could have bought
five serviceable used cars.

If no one ever bought a new car you'd eventually run out of used cars to
buy. I'm doing you a favor.

So are people who leave 2 second safety gaps. It lets me cut them up.

--
Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the **** happened.

On Mon, 29 Feb 2016 20:34:53 -0000, Muggles wrote:

On 2/29/2016 2:24 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 2/29/2016 3:13 PM, Muggles wrote:

The difference is in this situation, it was only a few months old, and
it's a requirement here to have full coverage insurance on cars that age
if you are making payments on it.

The insurance company is required to restore the vehicle to top
condition with that sort of car insurance. It wouldn't matter if the
car was 4 years old. If it's still financed and payments are being made
on it, and it's insured for full coverage, the insurance company will
fix it.


Unless the cost to fix it is more than book value. Then they give you
the value no matter how much you owe. Some people carry gap insurance
to cover the difference.

One insurance company is advertising they will pay for a one year newer
car if you total yours.

I've heard if the insurance company says it's totaled they'll do what
you mentioned. Seems insurance companies differ slightly on those policies.

I just pick the cheapest insurer. I pay £130 ($184) a year for my car insurance.

--
In 1839, the imperial Chinese commissioner Lin Zexu wrote a letter to Queen Victoria warning that, unless the British stopped supplying opium to China, he would cut off rhubarb supplies to Britain, killing everyone through mass constipation.

On Mon, 29 Feb 2016 22:34:56 -0000, SeaNymph wrote:

On 2/29/2016 4:13 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
On Sat, 13 Feb 2016 17:24:32 -0000, Muggles
wrote:

On 2/13/2016 1:01 AM, rbowman wrote:
On 02/12/2016 09:24 PM, wrote:
The edge does NOT go away. Wheather a bike or a car, SOMETHING is
occupying the road ahead coming your direction. Hitting a car head on
isn't going to do any less damage to you than hitting a bike - - -

Considering I'm the guy on the bike, I'd prefer some moron didn't hit me
head on, or what is much more common, blissfully make a left hand turn
in front of me because they 'didn't see' me. Car drivers only see other
cars. Anything smaller than a minivan is off their radar completely.
They *might* notice a headlight, but if it's just one little headlight
in a stream of DRL's, they're going to ignore it.

A lady in a mini-van looked straight at a motor cyclist coming towards
her in the opposite lane and still turned left in front of him. The guy
on the motor cycle ended up laying the motor cycle down on it's side and
he got injured. She did stop at that point and took responsibility for
her actions.

Women were never designed to operate motor vehicles.

Really? Can't say I'm surprised you'd post that.

I've operated many motor vehicles, including motorcycles and dirt bikes.

But badly.

--
You know you're getting old when:
Your friends compliment you on your new alligator shoes and you're barefoot.