I'm a cyclist, both on-road and off. One day, while on a trail no less, I was coming down a really steep hill hitting around 30MPH plus. I'm on the right side, no one else is around, it's the middle of the day etc. Near the bottom, some kid, who was on the other side of the trail by himself on the bench, gets up, runs across and stands directly in front of me.

Lucky for him I have better reactions but I certainly could have killed the kid if I hit him. In regards to the skater, I understand his side a lot better because I've had this happen to me. Given his level of concern for the boy, I'm pretty sure before doing the tricks he checked to make sure no one was in his path. And then suddenly, errant child out of no where.

Also, having 2 daughters I can also say she's a shitty ass mother. I see stuff like this happen often when the parents are completely off in lala land because they don't want to care for their child and "want a break". And the mother comes up saying "you hit him on his birthday?!" As if that makes any difference except, WHY THE HELL DID IT TAKE YOU SO LONG? She causally walked over the from the pavilion, which her son was running away from and never once checked on her child. I have become Flash Gordon the moment I hear either one of my kids get hurt. I have leapt over benches, tables and other people.

So yeah, I agree, mother of the year and I hope that kid grows up and finds someone who actually cares about him.

I call shenanigans.
Let's do some math...
5 billion panels at approximately $10K each at (far less than) today's prices for regular home panels which may be as low as $500 each when on sale, purchased in bulk, and discontinued models (note his panels are 12'x12', which is approximately 15-20 normal size panels spliced together) This means JUST the panels for his idea would cost over $50 TRILLION (at the insane discount price I described). This does not include instalation (labor and hardware), inverters, wireing, transmission, super-glass coating, heater, LED setup, .... All this is usually at least 2/3 -3/4 the cost of a solar system without super-glass, so lets be stupidly kind again and say his system can be put together at the same cost per watt as a cheap home system (which is insanity, it would cost 10 times that per watt or per square foot at least, probably more like 100 times with the super glass), that comes to >$150 TRILLION. Then you need to completely redesign cars (even the already electrics) to capture and use the electricity, another huge, ignored cost of this system. Just an educated guess, it seems like a realistic number for this entire nation wide system would likely be well over $3000Trillion. Get real.
Also, in what world are most roadways not shaded, it's not the one I live in.
And I guess we won't be driving at night anymore, or should we spend another $100-$1000 trillion to line the roadways with batteries?
They answer the comment 'you'll just slip off when it's wet' with 'it's nearly as stong as steel'. ? Perhaps they think sliding off the road is fine, I don't.
They imply they think they're system is cheaper than asphalt, or soon will be. That's just plain wrong under the best (or worst) of circumstances.
The entire 'pressure plate' idea is just stupid, it ignores the energy used to push the plate down, which is the same as constantly climbing a steep hill, or really more like constantly driving up stairs.
Get your broom people.

Indeed, we have snow and ice on the ground for alt least 40% of the year and i have only had this problem once for the entire 15 years i have been driving.
And that was on a steep hill with the worst conditions ever imaginable (solid fresh ice with about 3 inches of loose snow on top).

Fail videos are so ubiquitous that one can usually predict the outcome based upon the setting and props involved. Ramp/pond/bike, guy on roof/folding table on ground, skateboard/stairs, skateboard/park bench/handrail, skateboard/steep hill, merry-go-round/motorcycle, large group of people posing for picture/dock/platform/stage, rope swing/lake, rally car/rally, idiot(s)/fire, idiot(s)/fireworks, concert/stage diver, cat/slippery counter, dog/slippery floor, pickup truck/guy riding something attached to pickup by a rope, park/parkourer parkourering, motorcycle/ramp, motorcycle/wheelie, poser/posing with animal, person buried in sand/dog, inattentive jogger/signpost, ridiculously expensive luxury car/just drivin' down the road, car/trolley, car/bus, car/train gate, car/other traffic control devices, singer/national anthem... etc.

I still like watching them, though. The misfortune of others can be very entertaining (as long as no one gets seriously hurt).

>> ^zeoverlord:

Where i live there is snow for at least 4-5 months a year and buses get up steep hills just fine.
It could be because we put actual snow tires on them.


Which makes lots of sense when it snows for 4-5 months a year. If it snows for 2-3 days a year, snow tires are a waste of time and money.

Where i live there is snow for at least 4-5 months a year and buses get up steep hills just fine.
It could be because we put actual snow tires on them.

Is that considered a steep hill?

Also - love the guy who missed the bus at :36, on the left.

This is a good example city planning *failure. Roads should curve up steep hills.

Come on. What more do you want. Cheese, a very steep hill, people running. I *beg thee, lookie here.

>> ^StukaFox:
So I live on this really steep hill in Seattle. Last year, the hill became a sheet of ice after a week's worth of snow compacted. And I said this phrase easily a dozen times to people attempting to drive down the hill:
"Don't go down the hill, it's all ice."
And the various responses I got were:
"Fuck you!", "I got four wheel drive!", "Stop telling people what to do!", "I have a Subaru!", "Fuck you!"
All of which were usually followed by:
"... stupid asshole telling what to do I can drive on ice OHFUCK!" -- WHACK!
Moral: lulz, schadenfreude!


I told a guy (not you, not Seattle) "thanks, I'll be alright". Then I went over the crest, down the ice-covered street, past the dozen or so crashed cars, stopped at the bottom, signaled, made a left onto a busy street.

I had studded tires on my truck.

So I live on this really steep hill in Seattle. Last year, the hill became a sheet of ice after a week's worth of snow compacted. And I said this phrase easily a dozen times to people attempting to drive down the hill:

"Don't go down the hill, it's all ice."

And the various responses I got were:

"Fuck you!", "I got four wheel drive!", "Stop telling people what to do!", "I have a Subaru!", "Fuck you!"

All of which were usually followed by:

"... stupid asshole telling what to do I can drive on ice OHFUCK!" -- WHACK!

Moral: lulz, schadenfreude!

That is ridiculous. Wouldn't call it a cliff, though.

It's more like a steep hill

"Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era — the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant. . . .
History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of “history” it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time — and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.

My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights — or very early mornings — when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder's jacket . . . booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change) . . . but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that. . . .

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .

And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark — that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."

That's Newton Road, near the heart of the city of Auckland. It gets very busy. The camera doesn't really do the angles justice here. It makes it seem as though it's very flat, when in fact it's quite a steep hill. The cars coming from the right side of the screen are facing downhill, with 2 lanes of cars coming towards them uphill. The right-hand lane of the uphill stream often blocks the view so you can't see what's in the left-hand lane... hence people get impatient and make 'mistakes'. It is a horrible intersection. I find the right turn onto Newton from Upper Queen Street (the road the camera is looking down) MUCH scarier, you have to look across 4 lanes of traffic in both directions.

Would be awesome if this video helped in getting something done about it.

*actionpack for obvious reasons. Nice to see the guy about 3 seconds from the end who clearly didn't have his helmet on right.

The water jump ramp thing reminds me of seeing some kids doing that up at the cottage years and years ago.

It was a perfect spot - they came down a steep hill and off a short pier, then off a ramp getting some good air. Their splashdowns were much more graceful, mind you.