If you can take the train, you don't need the damn car. Where these vehicles shine is locally, where there isn't an alternative. And don't tell me improve public transit, that's a red herring that's expensive, impractical, and won't work in 95% of the US.

If the auto industry hadn't destroyed the rail industry, that might not be the case. We'd probably not have as bad a problem with Global Warming if the rail industry had prevailed.

(and if my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle)

That sounds like a stockholder of Hertz/Enterprize/Budget/etc. :rolleyes:Agreed.

Bleeding heart liberal pinko socialist here ... and ... agreed.

Too much distance, not enough people, public transport just isn't economically viable.

The nice thing about self drivers, if you cut them off, they will stop or evade you. You can't count on people to do that.:haha:

I believe you meant sarcasm. That part was subtle and obvious.

Driverless cars means more jobs when we no longer need chauffeurs and autobody repair shops. That's not sarcasm. That's how jobs are created.

Unload the car. Then tell it to go park itself in the garage. Another feature that has long been demonstrated. But, like in all innovative products, it takes many years to get to market. Even cell phones that track the arrival of your bus were demonstrated over a decade before it became common in State College PA. Innovation takes that long.

A driverless car is inevitable. But many want to blame the machine rather than the source of most failures - the human. Did we not learn this from cars whose brakes did not work? Of course. Only reason those cars crashed in every case - human failure. Often followed by more human responses - lies or denials.

And again, the way to make jobs is to replace humans from mundane tasks. A car can drive itself to the car wash when it needs cleaning. Why waste a human minute?

OK, I know you folk in the East are not terribly concerned,
but here in the Pacific NW, and especially in Oregon, we are deeply
involved with cougars (mountain lions).

A few years ago that dreaded organization, The Humane Society,
launched a public campaign to put an end to the use of dogs (hounds)
while hunting cougars, etc.
Surprisingly, ,that public referendum passed, mainly by the
highly populated Portland, Salem, and Eugene voters.
The ODFW rules were changed, and since then have prohibited the use
of dogs in hunting cougars, bears, and maybe one or two kinds of other game.

It's always been legal in Oregon(with a hunting license) to hunt them,
but a single hunter or even group of hunters is very ineffective,
and many hunters are taken by the "thrill of the hunt" and
"reading the hounds" as the dogs chase and "tree" the animal.

So, hunters were outraged by the vote, and it's been a public fight ever since.
And now, a Bill has been introduced in the Oregon Legislature to nullify the public referendum.

Now in Oregon, that right there is a No, No.
Legislators often lose their next election if they vote to overturn a public referendum.

But now this... a string of 3 sightings of cougars in the PDX metropolitan area...(very coincidental ?)

KATU.com
6/1/13
ODFW to investigate cougar sighting near OHSU

*sniff* *sniff* *rat*

Trap, transport and release?

This could have gone in the Headlines thread, but the whole story is cool:

Far-Right Extremists Chased Through London by Women Dressed as Badgers

I am particularly heartened by the fact that while the BNP and EDL turned out about 50 people, the antifascists UAF and HNH turned out considerably more, and both were dwarfed by the protest against badger culling.

Turns out badger lovers tend to be antifascists too.

I can't find it now but there was also recently a situation where a dozen or so vaguely right wing types were protesting outside a mosque, so the Muslims put the kettle on and they all had a cup of tea and some biscuits and ended up playing soccer together.

Wow. Wisconsin has fans even in London: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIyixC9NsLI
... and hate of snakes.

shoot, shovel and shut up.

Hawkins was captain of the soccer team and a top student at her Dawsonville, Georgia high school, but a shitty car surfer.

Takes one for the team in the Darwin Award competition.

Teens make stupid mistakes. Their brains aren't fully developed yet. I see stories like this and hope it won't be my kids in the future.

A local kid died last week doing a similar stunt with a skateboard holding on to a car. Tragic. We didn't know him, but we know a lot of people who did, and they were all really bummed.

Hell yes. It's obvious that the job of a parent isn't over at 18. There is no 'child safety cap' for teenage activities other than vigilant and involved parents. I've read that the human brain isn't fully developed in the decision making areas until about the age of 25. I'd be willing to bet that 20,000 years ago (and earlier, obviously) lackadaisical parenting led to the culling of the herd with those types of parenting approaches. Now we have a whole new set of concerns to take the place of cougars, dire wolves, and other dangerous beasties.

It is sad.

In many places around the world, the parental tie isn't actually cut until the parent dies.
It's still common for men to live with their parents after marriage even in this country if they are second generation immigrants. It makes financial sense, especially if they work in a family business. Free childcare, shared bills, communal cooking and the parents are looked after in old age.

Certainly my Grandparents still lived in Nanny Doyle's house after marriage, it was only WWII that got in the way. My Nanny always said it was a mixed blessing. Auntie Alice lived with her parents until they died, as was expected of a spinster. The War changed many expectations as councils built new houses in new places and suddendly families weren't on the next landing or down the hall. And freedom and privacy, once tasted, are hard to take back.

These concepts were discussed in previous threads: Creative Gun Control Proposal
And elsewhere in:
Guns don't kill people ....
Watching the Republicans - Runaway Train
Creative Gun Control Proposal
Fears and other emotions are found when a prefrontal cortex has not yet learned to controls a child's emotional brain. This function does not appear until after 16. In some, it does not develop until 24. The text books also say some never fully form a prefrontal cortex. Then facts and numbers remains illusive and rrelevant to emotions inspired by advertising and other brainwashing methods.

This discussion continues farther in science and law. Does someone whose prefrontal cortex never fully developed or clearly shows signs of damage (and therefore subject to emotional outbursts)- is it really Constitutional to apply the death penalty to such a person? Since an adult without or with a minimal prefrontal cortex is an adult who is still a child. Therefore entertains their emotions rather than think logically.

And finally:

I think the overwhelming majority of people in prison and on death row suffer from poor impulse control.

That is very likely. I spend my days with a lot of children who have poor impulse control. It can usually be learned, but less likely if a child's life is chaotic. Don't let the frontal lobe argument be a cop-out for poor parenting. Teens will do dumb stuff but they can usually be parented to a point that keeps them from becoming a societal nuisance.

Before 16, kids are taught and therefore memorize what is and is not acceptable. The parent trains them similar to how a dog is trained. That process is completely different from another brain function that has decisions (and impulse control) from logical thinking (often referred to as higher brain functions).

Ironically, ScienceNow (on PBS) is replaying reports on how animal and child brains operate. How, for example, a child (who later has lower SAT scores) could not control an impulse to take one piece of candy. Decision was easy. Eat one candy now. Or get many candies in a few minutes. Only children who later demonstrated better formed intelligence were able to wait.

Meh. Part of that is conditioning too.

If I was told NOT to eat something, I would never have eaten it, no way.
Because I would have been terrified of the repercussions.

If I was told I COULD eat it, but it would be better if I waited, I would have eaten it. Because grown-ups lie.

We knew you could not trust anyone over 30. Today, it means we cannot trust anyone over 77 (Deja vue Nam).

Maybe this isn't so weird, but it is remarkable. China is planning to build a canal through Nicaragua. And Nicaragua just approved it. $40 Billion.

China is flexing its muscle. Building a bigger better canal than the Panama canal and controlling it for the next 50 years.

Only $40 billion? That number is many times too small. Suggesting these are only speculators; not serious builders.

Articles say there have been at least 3 attempts in the past to build a canal through Nicaragua, and none succeeded. Apparently the fractured political climate in Nicaragua is not conducive to getting big projects done. That's why I made sure to say they were "planning" a canal. We will see.

That's the price of the shovels... China will provide all the hand-laborers.

Panama is so skinny, it seemed like Nicaragua would be much more difficult to cut through, but spending a couple minutes in Google Earth shows it actually wouldn't be so bad.

You'd want to cut a canal to Lake Nicaragaua. It's 12 miles from the Pacific to Lake Nicaragua, and you have to use locks to get up over a 1,200 foot mountain range and back down again to the lake. I'd guess about 50 locks total there. The lake is something like 100 feet elevation, and is about 30 miles from the Atlantic. But there is this nice wide meandering river that could be dredged. With a couple locks put in around rapids where it drops the 100 feet to the sea, it's really pretty doable. It is nowhere near as bad a location as I first suspected.

So there was the news yesterday that the supreme court ruled in Myriad Genetics that you can't patent genes that are naturally occurring. That pleases me, but it means that other genetically engineered genes can still be patented if they are new and man-made, so it's not a huge game changer.

The weird news part of it is that Justice Scalia agreed with the ruling in most ways, but wouldn't agree with some of the nitty gritty molecular biology because it conflicted with his personal (presumably religious) beliefs.

The part about "naturally occurring" human genes vs synthesised DNA" is going to lead to legal confusion.

To the layman, it may seem clear-cut, but when you get into DNA vs cDNA, retro-viruses,
"normal" vs "mutation" and/or "birth defect" and, animal genes vs human genes, etc.
it gets very murky very quickly.

In reality, this is probably more of a political than a legal (constitutionality) decision.
It satisfies those of us who object to someone patenting "my genes",
and yet saves the companies who have invested in creating lab tests.

And since it is a 9-0 decision, it's going to stand for a long time.

You're gonna get Monsanto testing kids at school randomly then suing the parents...

Agree, it's murky. All involved parties think they've won, which is an immediate red light. Allowing Myriad's patents to stand where they've introduced a few new nucleotides has opened Pandora's box. This is NOT a victory for those who oppose the patenting of human genes. Frankly, the battle was lost when patenting of ANY genes was permitted.

eta: arrgh, foot3, you always manage to say what I meant to say but with wit! I should just wait until you post.

Thanks Ortho, You're a peach among peaches.

Hmmm... think I'll go read up on Pirate Party literature. Between this patent nonsense and the lack of a 4th Amendment those guys might be well positioned.

Man dressed as giant penis attacked; woman in vagina costume tries to intervene.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013...n_3472550.html

My faith in humanity is partially restored.

But not in Apple, they still blow filthy, diseased donkeys.

*groan*

He's such an attention whore, I wouldn't even give him a passing glans.

Even after he has been so briskly circumambulatory ?

I think I Spotted Dick in the desserts section of the supermarket.

Speaking of Dick ...
Man high on Mushrooms rips off part of penis

Horseshit, he wasn't fucked up on mushrooms. :headshake

Probably a typo. Should've read "He fucked up his mushroom."

http://arstechnica.com/information-t...id-of-viruses/

Somewhere between :lol: and :facepalm:


Okay, Joe, once you've burned all the mice, I want you to open up the hard drives and manually change all the ones to zeros. Just to make sure...

but, how do you know how many terrorists were foiled because of our vigitant* overseers?







* look it up, what am I? a dictionary?

Imma gonna flip some tags, only got aaaaaaagggggghhhhhhhhhh


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-1...police/4811246


I'm pretty sure I visited this thrift shop on the way North on the Eclipse trip.

Zen, your intro to that article made me laugh out loud!

Only in Australia.

Australia. Made when God was cranky after the apple-eating shmendriks.

Godwin's law comes to fast food in Thailand
 

Hitler Fried Chicken

Or to quote the interwebs, "What this is I don't even."

It is a bit of a thing in India too. It is very WTF? to me. Someone should explain to these chaps that, by Nazi standards, they are untermensch.

Well they already had the swastika incorporated in their culture, and I guess the Japs were a much bigger concern than the Germans.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-1...ls-man/4819078

It's the final sentence that is the kicker.

Made it to 45 with an asbestos roof.
It was going to end badly sooner or later.

Canadian man apologises after drunkenly swimming to Detroit (and most of the way back).

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2013/07...detroit-river/

:jig:

not so fast....
Attachment 44988


He is an ass.

See? If I'd listened to my ninth grade literature teacher I might have been on the same page w/you.:neutral:

awww.. :comfort:

hey, let's :beer: