Just a meter maid parked illegally, blocking traffic, writing a ticket on a block with plenty of open spaces

jerkstate · 16 days

My favorite is when they drive down the bike lane while I'm trying to ride. They're seriously dangerous when biking.

gregbuckskin · 3 months

Dogs and cats living together? Mass hysteria!

gonzoblair · 3 months

Well, you can always use City Beer Store to feel better...

gonzoblair · 3 months

Just as a heads up, a car battery won't be strong enough to actually stun or shock a person, just like touching the ends of a 9 volt battery won't shock you either. (car batteries are 12 volts).

ZBogga · 4 months

Indeed, obedient children are more delicious.

SaltyChristian · 5 months

Trajan's lasted a couple millennia or so. Papyrus, not so much.

Maybe Comic Sans will be around in 2000 years!

sporazoa · 5 months

Not doubting this, but can you find a source on this somewhere? I'm relatively new to the bay area, and this seems fascinating (if somewhat discouraging).

grimace636 · 5 months

Yep, GPS can determine altitude.

grimace636 · 5 months

Not off the top of my head, but I'd estimate around -60 C. Please don't design pitot heaters based on my rough estimates :-)

grimace636 · 5 months

Indeed, good point. With dense enough clouds you'll eventually get water absorbing the radio frequencies. Maybe not a total deal breaker, but I wouldn't want to rely on such a system during terrible weather.

grimace636 · 5 months

Engineer here, with some experience with these systems. A couple issues with using GPS as a backup mechanism. GPS only tells you where you are at a given time -- any speed indication is calculated by the GPS receiver by subtracting your previous location with your current and dividing by the time between samples. If you're flying through a thunderstorm, you very likely have lost line of sight to your GPS satellites, so there's a good chance they won't work. So that's problem #1.

Problem #2 is that pitot tubes measure your indicated airspeed, which is different than your ground speed. A gust of wind will fluctuate your pitot reading, but not a GPS reading, and this would be important in a windy environment like this storm.

The biggest reason there aren't better backups is because pitot tubes have historically been very reliable. They are mechanically very simple and they have large electrical heaters within them to prevent icing. If your pitot tube ices over with the heater on, you probably didn't want to be in that situation to begin with -- it would be a very extreme environment in which to fly.

dtrainmcclain · 6 months

As an electrical engineer who's worked on power systems, I can confirm that all of these points are correct.

AngelaMotorman · 7 months

The first reason isn't a compelling reason to not enforce the law though. If I kill someone, I don't expect Obama to pardon me even though I voted for him. Presidents turn their backs on groups all the time when the group does something against the will of authority.

I agree with your second point, however Reagan was in charge of enforcing the law, not prosecuting infringements. Judges ultimately have the say in the arguing of illegal firings, not the executive branch. You can't really blame the leader of the executive branch for many judicial decisions.

AngelaMotorman · 7 months

This precedent is always brought up when discussing unions, as if once Reagan stopped an illegal strike all union power disappeared. Why should we be angry at Reagan for enforcing the law? Air travel is global infrastructure (and is regulated very heavily) and air traffic controllers are a large part of the safety system.

Strikes in manufacturing plants don't create a "peril to national safety." Almost no strikes can be classified by that. Reagan classified this strike as such a case. To say this is why unions lost power is a bit of an oversight.

What's the real reason? I don't know. I suspect it has something to do with unionized companies being somewhat less competitive than non-unionized companies, and that in the long run this puts unionized companies out of business. What's an example of a unionized industry that's thrived? Or a unionized company that's out-performed a similar non-unionized company?

darkname · 7 months

Does anyone know if Opera supports CORS yet?

darkname · 7 months

Does anyone know if Opera supports CORS yet?

Paedin · 8 months

Is there a Ralphs around here?

MEitniear11 · 8 months

So who stole the first seat!?

omniamutantir · 8 months

Whoa, that's one impressive strawman that is deduced from a few bumper stickers! Come on, if you generalize that much about people based on the crap on their car, you become just as judgmental as the people you're railing against.

b33rb3lly · 9 months

San Francisco has generally been too expensive for its previous demographic stereotypes in the last 15 years or so. The genuine hippies have since moved northward.

donjo · 10 months

Indeed -- the best way to get around the hilly areas are:

North and south: Franklin or Gough -- the lights are timed so you don't really ever have to stop. East and West: Pine or Bush, same situation.

adamater · 10 months

M as in Mancy

AvesAkiari · 11 months

Not necessarily mutually exclusive.

katehog · 1 year

Proof by anecdote?

irrelative

TROPHY CASE

irrelative

TROPHY CASE

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