impulse

Too Many Words

If you get hit by lightning (like the story last week), snag a downed power cable or get hit by a truck with no brakes, it doesn't matter how much experience and common sense you have. You're a gone pecan on a scooter. Probably just a minor irritation in a car or pickup. Helmets improve your odds by about 40%. 4 wheels and seat belts improve your odds by a factor of 20-40. Not 20-40%. That's 20-40 times safer in a car than a scooter per km traveled. 2000-4000% safer. That's what Oz and US studies determined.

Normally, I'd suggest everyone get a dash cam in LOS. I'd make an exception for this guy.

Possibly the very bar he bought for her. That's a common theme. Need more details here...

I used to get pulled over at random inspection points around Bangkok when I drove my vintage diesel Mitsubishi Cyclone. One of the cops would hop in and tap the throttle, with another watching the tailpipe. If I spoke Thai, they'd have probably let me tap the throttle. (Or "rack" as appropriate for diesels) Then they'd send me on my way.

I think I just got a nibble.

There's a difference between old plans and actually putting them into fruition. Sound policy.

4 wheels, 2 tons of steel and seatbelts would have definitely saved him. Yeah, yeah, I know. Economic factors and all. My heart sincerely goes out to him and his loved ones. But this is yet another data point and cautionary tale for those of us who do have a choice. Stay safe out there.

They just need to make one that looks like Katherine Ross, and I'm onboard.

He should have kept trolling for another year or 2.

They are. You'll never eliminate the illegal ones. Just reduce them. And hopefully improve the QA.

Simple solution would be to only sell the vaping tax stamps to the usual suspects, then arrest anyone who sells vapes with no tax stamp. Double bonus... They'd reduce the number of dodgy vaping products where nobody really knows what they're puffing on. The same monopoly(s) would dominate the vaping industry, just like they do most of the other vices that are taxed to death. Hopefully, they'd do a better job of QA than what we see now.

Before you buy a septic tank, you should do a perc test. You may need 20 acres and a $100,000 leaching field if you're trying to build on rocks. It's complicated.

I think he also mentioned that Canada, with a tiny fraction of the US population, has just as many measles cases and Europe has 10x as many as the USA. But Orange Man Bad. Personally, I think it's related to unvetted immigration from the 3rd world. Does that make me a racist?

I'm hoping she just needs a little time to get her legs under her.

To the extent that the taxes represent the prorated cost of connecting a homesite to the power, water, roads and sewers, fair dinkum. But when they start adding fees for "environmental impacts" and others, that's when they prevent building. All that vacant land north of SF? It'll cost a big fortune to get water, sewer, roads and power up there, and that's if they even have spare water to allocate. Which California probably doesn't. I'm sitting on a vacant lot in East Texas that I bought on EBay for peanuts. But if I want to build, I have to pay a sewer connection fee, a water connection fee and a power pole connection fee. That's about 20x what I paid for the lot. Still cheap in the scheme of things, but I'll probably end up selling it to one of my "neighbors" who may want a bigger yard (and who, according to GIS satellites, have encroached on my lot).

I never thought I'd live to see the day that McDonalds was an expensive indulgence.

There's also lot of guys nostalgiac for the good old days when you could clear a 5 year overstay at the airport on your way out and be back in Thailand in time for the weekend. And stay for years on tourist visas and border runs. But time moves on. I think a lot of the newfound angst is the fact that you can't just fob off immigration and get away with it with a few baht fine any more.

Maybe. But until that's corrected, purchasing a home will be an elusive goal for a burger flipper. And, bad news. It'll never be feasible in most of the country for a burger flipper to buy a home. Unless Mickey D burgers start selling for $50.

That's a beautiful boat. Love the classic lines. I hope they can rebuild it.

They're going to have to hold a gun to my head if they want me to take a booster. I still haven't recovered from my 2nd Pfizer about 4 years ago. Probably never will. I'd have to be an idiot to take another.

I didn't say it was. But it's a compromise. You get safer conditions, but at higher prices. Part of the reason for higher prices are functional smoke detectors and higher balconies. They cost money.

Probably because they also sell the food to the franchisees. And tightly control the operations as a condition of becoming a franchise.

But you can get drunk back in nanny land and you won't fall over a balcony. They're designed to be idiot proof. And if you do fall over one, you can sue the snot out of the hotel.

And it's refreshing that one of the parties allows dissent in the ranks. Had a Dem done the same to Biden, there would be a mass effort to get him/her out.