@renatojj

Corporations already use force. They are more subtle about it than the Somolis, sure, that's an extreme example, but why do you think Foxconn employees commit suicide in such high numbers? They are forced to work long hours, the company forces them to live on-site, the company forces them to develop no social contact.

Companies in the States even use force on the government. They threaten to pull up stakes if a state won't change the laws to their liking. They pay billions of dollars to force their message down the throats of gullible people (such as yourself).

You want companies to have more freedom, to what end? Perhaps it would mean an increase in GDP, but a larger share of that GDP would go to a smaller number of people. If 95% of the people are worse off, 4% are the same and 1% do better, is that good policy? Look at Sweden, which has high taxes and strict laws governing how corporations must act. Are they suffering? Nope, the people are doing way better than America. Same for Japan. In spite of all their economic troubles, the PEOPLE of Japan are doing quite well. Americans? Not so much. One of the highest crime rates in developed countries, one of the highest infant mortality rates, near the lowest education and literacy levels, near the highest in poverty rates, near the lowest life expectancy. Is that the place where you want to live? More freedom for corporations means more gulf oil spills, more union busting, lower wages, lower employee benefits, more offshoring of American jobs.

Finally, China is not doing as well as most people suppose. Much of their economic boom has been real-estate driven and it is in a bubble which will make the US look like a joke by comparison. There are whole cities in China with space for two million people that are completely empty. All of it was driven by government legislation (ie. not free). In fact China has a much more restrictive business environment than America in many ways, they just have rock-bottom wages, a near endless supply of people and moderate education levels. That is why they're doing well (for now, we'll see what happens when their bubble pops).

>> ^rich_magnet:

It was nice to hear all the alarms - it gives you an idea of how far they're pushing the craft out of it's normal envelope. The "Stall, pull up, stall" on landing was a bit strange, however. Did it actually stall? It didn't look like it to me. Maybe the warning means "You're about to stall".


It was a sink rate and stall warning, with those combined on a short landing, I believe he was a stall. Granted, a landing is just a controlled stall, but I think he rode the line on this one.

It was nice to hear all the alarms - it gives you an idea of how far they're pushing the craft out of it's normal envelope. The "Stall, pull up, stall" on landing was a bit strange, however. Did it actually stall? It didn't look like it to me. Maybe the warning means "You're about to stall".

I see no tailgating here. He has not been following the car long enough for one. It is clear that as the driver pulls up behind him, the guy in front taps his break and it looks like its a fairly congested line of cars. Well no one slams on their break in these, they generally try and adjust their distance by letting off the gas which is what the cam-driver here was doing. It is hard to see but cars infront of him may also have stopped, or maybe he hit something on the road and went to stop?

Not enough information, but I can safely rule talegating as the problem, if this guy stops in the road cause someone is on his bumper for less then 10 seconds then he would have been dead long ago.

Holy crap people are stupid. Go watch the video... It defies common sense and gravity.

You can tell it is being lifted in the air because of the way the feet are. If it was a balancing issue, your feet would be on the ground one second, then in the air. In every case here, the dog brings his feet forward everytime they pull up on the string around his stomach.


Want to argue, well go look at the video.. If the spine was a rigid board pivoting around front feet, that isn't the case here, as the head and front feet stay perfectly still. Well ok, you say, he is just doing a front hand stand, well think about doing one yourself, you have to bend your legs and kind of spring into the air. This isn't happening in the video, someone is simply lifting the dog.

>> ^rgroom1:

Following way to closely, I counted maybe a 1 second gap IN THE SNOW.

wtf, the stupid ones never die!?


Exactly, If the truck in front hadn't pulled over he'd have had the choice of hitting the back of it, or hitting the on-coming truck. He couldn't stop in time to pull up behind the truck in front. I hate stupid people like this.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

That's a good point. Places like Jiffylube already seem to be run by robots. You'd just need some universal standards - like the oil cap has to be certain size and painted orange - etc.

Industry standards are something that is lacking in the autonomous car world. Definitely needed for things like platooning and new machine readable road markers.


>> ^ctrlaltbleach:

@dag
Couple things I was thinking about.
When it takes hold over most of the population I would expect mechanics and specifically oil and tire changers to be out of work as well. How easy would it be if they redesigned the engine a little so that an autonomous vehicle could pull up in a perfectly placed space where then a machine could change the oil, or tires, inspect and register the car or maybe even make a repair all according to its on-board computer.

@dag

Couple things I was thinking about.

When it takes hold over most of the population I would expect mechanics and specifically oil and tire changers to be out of work as well. How easy would it be if they redesigned the engine a little so that an autonomous vehicle could pull up in a perfectly placed space where then a machine could change the oil, or tires, inspect and register the car or maybe even make a repair all according to its on-board computer.

>> ^Payback:

>> ^Deadrisenmortal:
buh, buh, buh... I wanna go NEXT!
Wow! So many questions...
How long is it distance-wise?
How fast did it get going?
What is it there for?
Why were there no other cars on the track?
How do the cars get back up to the top?

Without knowing a thing about it...
-It's got to be a good 3-4 km.
-Didn't look faster than 50km/h (30mph)
-Making money or having fun, depending on what side of the cash you're on.
-No other cars for the same reason there's only ever 1 car on any roller coaster. Collisions.
-I'd think you slide it off at the bottom and head back up the tram with it under your arm. Repeatedly.


Don't you guys don't know Sommerrodelbahnen? :-)

They are very popular in Alps' tourist regions (i.e. Austria, Switzerland and southern parts of Germany). I'd go so far and say every ski area has at least one of them. They serve a single purpose: entertain tourists in summer months.

Nearly every time there's other cars on the track. That's why its not so easy to go down without braking. most of the time you have some mom with their kid (usually there's one and two seated cars) in front of you. So braking is not a question of braveness but of collision prevention ;-)

Mieders is one of the longest tracks but a bit more boring compared to others which offer 360 curves etc.

The carts get pulled up on a seperate track, on older tracks you wear seatbelts, some have racing car like "H" belts and the newest and fastest have the same metal "bars" that roller coasters have. the cars cannot slip of the track because it's built something like that:

__cccc
cccccccc
cccccccc
cc_TT_cc
ccc__ccc

Where "c" is cart and "T" is track, "_" can be ignored ;-)

The only downside: A ride usually is pretty expensive.

It seems to me i just got a promising business idea for the US :-D But i guess those tracks are not popular in the Rockys etc. because you guys have 12 months of snow in your ski areas i assume whereas in most ski areas of the alps ski season is from early november to late march.

Was this really about a Prius driver vs what looked like to be some sort of Avalanche driver or was it an over dramatic woman bitching about some dude in a big truck pulling up next to her and idling in what seemed to be a relatively empty portion of a parking lot?

Disregarding the "environmental" concerns between the two opposing vehicle factions, what the dude did is still considered rather rude. He could have parked anywhere, but chose to pull up next to the two parked Prius(i) and sit at idle. From the way the wife got all bent out of shape, the 'lanche couple seemed every bit as entitled as the woman. True colors were thrown around by both parties here.

1. He can park anywhere he chooses. Fine.
2. He can idle his truck as he pleases. Fine.
3. She could have chosen to pack up and move. Fine.

Ultimately, he had every right to be a douche and she had every right to return said douchiness back, but this could have easily been avoided by a little considering for "the next guy." Instead, it's like a giant troll video about fat, bitchy Prius drivers vs marketing/horse owners and their Detroit awesomesauce.

*pulls up a chair

Nice to hear of your progress and especially of delayed gratification. I guess the moral of the story is... just do p90x Maybe I will.

In reply to this comment by deathcow:
Hello... i struggled... part of it was a 20 lb loss, which helps... but still I struggled and for many weeks could do only 1-3... then, cant explain it, they just turned on. After I finished the 90 days I still couldnt belt em out, but a couple weeks later I went back to the bar and just started whipping them out.


In reply to this comment by EDD:
That's impressive progress, I'm jealous. I haven't concentrated on pullups and I've heard a lot but know very little about p90x. But I'd sure like to start working on them someday soon. Right now I can only do 5, with kipping. Were there any breakthroughs for you that you can share? Mostly just keep at it, right?

In reply to this comment by deathcow:
i went from zero to 12 fast full arm extension pullups over the last 90 days... p90x again

It looks like she is in pull ups, yet she goes after a sheep. That tool needs some sharpening

Hello... i struggled... part of it was a 20 lb loss, which helps... but still I struggled and for many weeks could do only 1-3... then, cant explain it, they just turned on. After I finished the 90 days I still couldnt belt em out, but a couple weeks later I went back to the bar and just started whipping them out.


In reply to this comment by EDD:
That's impressive progress, I'm jealous. I haven't concentrated on pullups and I've heard a lot but know very little about p90x. But I'd sure like to start working on them someday soon. Right now I can only do 5, with kipping. Were there any breakthroughs for you that you can share? Mostly just keep at it, right?

In reply to this comment by deathcow:
i went from zero to 12 fast full arm extension pullups over the last 90 days... p90x again

the tea party viewed government as being the intruder while OWS views wall street but i submit they are one in the same

I agree. There are some areas of real common ground that exist between these two very different groups. I have always maintained that OWS - as a group - is simply mad at the wrong target. They really should pull up thier camps right now and decend on Washington DC.

But the problem is as I stated above. The Tea Party is comprised of 'average people' that go across the spectrum. OWS is composed mostly of college students who favor leftist causes. Mixing 'average america' with 'angry, left-wing college students' it is like mixing oil and water. They may have a couple points of commonanlity, but they are very different in many other respects and start diverging rapidly. For example - OWS is being supported by the Communist Party as well as National Socialists (yeah Nazis). The average american can't and does NOT want to have anything to do with such radicals, but the OWS crowd seems OK with them.

I hope those who rallied with the tea party will join hands with those in wall street (and italy,greece and ireland) and make such a ruckus that they make politicians pee themselves in fear.

That is simply going to be impossible when the OWS guys keep behaving badly. The Tea Party wants nothing to do with the hedonism, radicalism, and other shenanigans that OWS accepts as par for the course. That's what I mean when I say OWS is never going to go anywhere until they clean up thier act.