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4 Revolutionary Riddles

bmacs27 says...

What if you ran it backwards... IN TIME!

newtboy said:

In that case, averaging your speeds would lower the average speed, not raise it, since lap two would be a negative distance, but not a negative time, so a negative speed in the equation.

4 Revolutionary Riddles

Trigger Happy Cop Attacks Private Investigator

bmacs27 says...

I think this is similar to many victim blaming conversations. You are trying to offer practical advice to avoid confrontation with police. However, you have to admit that even if you are polite and respectful, escalations happen, particularly for people of color. When your expectation is that no matter your behavior, this encounter is likely to lead to you taking a ride in a cruiser, frustration and defiance are at least as natural a response as the officer's nerves. The man certainly had more available evidence that his day was going to end badly than the officer had evidence of imminent threat and justification for the use of force.

MaxWilder said:

My point is that we have become accustomed to these dangerous escalations because of bad training, so much so that they are getting predictable, not justifiable. Even so, I still think there are elements we can't see about the situation from this single point of view video.

Pardon me for trying to have some nuance. Next time I'll rant about crooked cops and avoid implying that the issue might not always be perfectly clear.

The Bayesian Trap

Woman almost hits biker by merging, gets caught by cops

bmacs27 says...

IANAMD. My understanding is that contrary to intuitions, deceleration on a motor cycle is more dangerous than acceleration. Maintaining stability is your primary concern, less so velocity of impact. You also don't want to be overtaken by faster traffic, you'd rather see your threats. My friends who do ride motorcycles tell me they are taught to drive aggressively by default. I don't think braking is your first instinct in tight quarters.

bareboards2 said:

Well, I did ask you to correct my observation if it was indeed wrong.

Tell me why he couldn't slow down though? Couldn't he have slowed down? Let her pass? Move to the left to protect his exposed leg and then slowed down?

Like I said, I'm not a motorcycle rider. In a car, I would have slowed down and inched left as I did so. Is that not an option on a motorcycle? At those relatively slow speeds they were driving?

I just watched it again, and I gotta say -- it sure looks to me like he could have slowed down to protect himself. AND I see this with the eyes of a car driver, not a motorcycle driver. I could be wrong.

Any motorcycle drivers out there who can chime in and correct me?

Debunking Gun Control Arguments

bmacs27 says...

It's been a while since I posted. I also rarely spew politics on the Internet anymore, but the arguments in the video are just weak.

Most gun control arguments amount to a bunch of cherry picked statistics, and then a complaint about other cherry picked statistics supporting the other argument. For example, you can't cherry pick the Chicago argument, that's just showing a lack of nuance, but let's go ahead and cherry pick the Australia and CDC arguments.

There was a ban on assault rifle sales in the US. Violent crime has dropped since it was repealed. How's that for a cherry picked argument?

Chaos's reasoning is aligned with my own. The issue is cultural, not legislative.

I'm also particularly peeved about the defense of a free state argument. I believe in the second amendment for this reason. You can't hold a block of houses with f16s. You do it with boots on the ground worn by soldiers bearing arms. To me, the second amendment is one of the last remaining checks on executive authority in this country. Tell the black panthers that bearing arms did nothing to protect them against abuses of state. Any policy maker considering a radical and unpopular extension of executive authority (ahem, Trump) needs to consider the logistical ramifications of an armed populace, wielding millions of firearms, the locations of which are unknown. That's a deterrent, plain and simple. Spend all you want on the military. The military is made up of people just as hesitant to wage war against their own countrymen as you or I. Especially so if there is a real possibility they are putting themselves at considerable risk in the process.

Computer color is broken

bmacs27 says...

The only thing I would add is that the inverse gamma encoding has more to do with band width than disk space. It's about how many gray levels you can send to the monitor per draw frame.

Computer color is broken

bmacs27 says...

You would be surprised at how many people get this wrong. I'm actually amazed this video even exists. I preach about this all the time to deaf ears.

Now That's A Fantastic Video Game Ad

3D Display Projects Images Into Mid-Air (No Screen)

bmacs27 says...

Well... It was the same demo. They haven't updated their display art in any event. The resolution doesn't even look any different. Also, I'm not sure physics has changed. Making little plasma explosions in the air is typically pretty loud.

EMPIRE said:

You saw it 10 years ago. What makes you think it still operates under the same conditions? 10 years is a whole age of technology ago.

3D Display Projects Images Into Mid-Air (No Screen)

Bowling Ball and Feather dropped in largest vacuum chamber

bmacs27 says...

Isn't like the slinky?

lucky760 said:

Seems like no one else noticed or cared, but why is it that in the zero-air environment when they did the release the tiny "strands of feather" (I don't know what each little thread on a feather is called, if anything) looked like they were getting pushed back by air?

Am I seeing things?

It must be a hoax. They're probably on a sound stage where they faked the whole thing. Probably not even a real bowling ball.

Sam Harris: Can Psychedelics Help You Expand Your Mind?

Parov Stelar - Beatbuddy Swing (performed by takeSomeCrime)

bmacs27 says...

He certainly incorporates electro. I don't see any real jazz or swing in their style though.

Besides, I thought the natural order of things was for American black people to invent things which are promptly bitten by European white people and subsequently marketed back across the pond as the next European invasion or whatever. Seems to me Europeans haven't invented new style since Beethoven.

billybussey said:

Although I like to watch this guy dance this is an obvious knockoff of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqYhuwu614Y

and

http://videosift.com/video/Wizard-Of-Meh-pogo

He's been biting those french kids style for 7 years now. I wish american white people would make up something new for once.

10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman

bmacs27 says...

Some would argue 1868... But the courts didn't even begin seeing it that way until 1971. If you're talking about the ERA then I think you have your tense wrong. Don't go yammering about Scalia either. He's a fossilized troll, little more.

People aren't sick of women wanting to be treated with some respect. They are sick of it being elevated above all other issues for transparent political reasons. It's a "get out the base" strategy just like race baiting is for the right. Hyperbolic concern over cat calling falls squarely in the politics of fear and division. "Don't go outside or the evil men (read: your republican husbands) will make you feel uncomfortable." I'd like to think the democratic leadership could move past that.

Yogi said:

So this started at as a sort of coherent argument and then went into Clinton '16?

What in the world are you talking about? People are sick of women wanting to be treated with some respect are you nuts? Do you know the year women were granted equality under the Law? Just tell me the year, and I'll leave you alone.



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Beggar's Canyon