http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/07/dangerous-foods/
Wired’s got an article up on the foods you shouldn’t eat while driving. Some of it is fairly ridiculous – soup? chili?
My biggest problem with eating and driving has always been the mess, not only getting stuff on your hands but the possibility of dropping something on your shirt.
Here in Massachusetts, there are times and places when we let you drive in the breakdown lane. That’d be the one on the far right. So that means that the craziest drivers, the ones who are in such a hurry that they will go wherever they believe the traffic to be moving fastest, will either be to your far left or your far right. If you’re driving like a normal human being, you’re trapped.
It’s a common enough site – someone gets on at the offramp and then you watch as, without directional, they immediately coast four lanes over to get to the left hand lane, where they stay for the remainder of their trip.
It’s at this point that you have to be reminded of George Carlin’s oft-quoted line about traffic: “You ever notice how anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anybody driving faster than you is a maniac?” Truer words were never spoken about the passing lane – it’s ok for *you* to ride up somebody’s bumper, because he should get out of your way. But when somebody does it to you, it’s time for self-enforcing the speed limit. No one shoul go faster than me! They might get there before I do!
Anyway, bit of a rant there. The article seems to be about states starting to ticket people for misuse of the passing lane, and I couldn’t be more for it. Pass somebody. Then, when you can get back over into a middle lane, do so. If somebody wants to pass you on the left, no matter how fast you are going, *let them*. It’s as simple as that.
http://www.greencarreports.com/blog/1022211_prius-perks-in-peril-from-plug-in-privileges
I don’t really understand this article. Apparently there are retailers that offer “hybrid only” parking spaces. Fine, I can live with that (people who don’t care will simply ignore it). But the point seems to be that *these* perks are going away, to be replaced by similar perks for plug-ins (that’d be the purely electric cars).
How about this – any encouragement that gets people investing in the newer technologies, and thus driving prices down, which in turn encourages adoption, is a good thing.
Want to hear about my parking perk? When I ride my bike, I don’t need a parking space.
Well, technically I do. I call it “the cube next to mine.” But I never have to fight anybody else for it.
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/listarticle.aspx?cp-documentid=1069499
From wood paneling to talking cars, MSN looks at the worst auto fads of the last 50 years – including a few you’ll still see on the streets today.
I confess : One of my cars had that automatic seatbelt thing. I expect it came closer to killing me than saving me, as I lost track of the times I’d turn key in ignition while the door was still open and then have the seatbelt try to take my head off.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/08/economy.traffic/index.html
Less people with jobs == less people going to work in the morning == less traffic on the roads == good thing for you?
I suppose we see our silver linings where we can.
You could just as easily say “less people driving == less demand for gas == prices go up for those of us still driving”, too.
http://www.thedailydust.co.uk/2009/06/30/tube-drivers-to-read-out-shakespeare/
A new initiative will see tube drivers reading out classical quotes with their announcements.
The drivers are to be given a book of quotations that will include Shakespeare, Goethe and Friedrich Engels and are expected to read out quotes with their daily announcements to passengers.
I like it. The closest I ever saw to this in Boston was the overhead speaker guy in South Station who’d actually say “Good morning everyone … and have a nice day.” Hey, it’s Boston, sometimes it’s harder than Shakespaere to get good manners out of people! :)
[ I particularly like this story because I can post it on my other blog, too. ]
Had my first “ninja hybrid” experience yesterday. I’m crossing the street to get the mail, and I can see that there is a car coming. However, I cannot *hear* that there is a car coming. It is, indeed, a very weird experience the first time you become aware of it. You get none of the Doppler effect that tells you the rate of approach (like you notice most when a fire engine passes by). It’s like that moment while you’re watching television, and you immediately sense the difference between “no one is speaking at the moment” and “Hey, the sound just went out.”
I can understand now why this is so upsetting to bicyclists. I do not spend my entire ride looking behind me, nor do I have mirrors set up like in a car so I can always see behind me out of the corner of my eye. Instead I have to rely on my hearing to have at least some idea that there is *something* behind me. When I can’t hear it until the last second, I can imagine that as a scary experience.
(Strangely enough while listening to a Dane Cook special last night there was this strangely prescient joke:
“I heard a car!”
“Of course you did, they cover half the planet! If you hear a humpback whale, then you can warn me.”
http://lifehacker.com/5292782/master-the-art-of-web-commuting
Good article on Lifehacker about doing the telecommuting thing for real.
Personally I have trouble with the discipline of separating work and home. I can spend the morning on the phone or the laptop downstairs in my basement office, but it’s only a matter of time before I’m wandering up to the kitchen for a snack, and before you know it I’m playing with the kids, which means my wife will say “Oh, are you free?” and then she’s got chores for me….
