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[shadowinthelight]

I told Julie about the upcoming Tetris movie. Her brain is still rebooting.

[Jabberwonky]

I told Julie about the upcoming Tetris movie. Her brain is still rebooting.

I'd hoped you were kidding...but apparently not.

Unless the cast is made up of mostly native born Russian's, I'll be reluctant to see it.

[scantrontb]

Craziest thing is... The cop who was later called to the scene had already seen it happen. He had been watching through the CCTV camera mounted on the light before he got the call.

first, let me say that I'm glad your brother in law is ok...

that said, excuse my following rant...

and thus the lies are revealed... "Oh no, the cameras ONLY activate to take pictures of the intersections when the light changes from green to yellow, that way we only get pics of people who run red lights... No, it doesn't run continuously and log every second of every day, and get stored on some computer hard drive some where... no, no, no... we don't collect THAT kind of information..." yeah, right... if that was true, then why a VIDEO camera, instead of a still camera?... and WHY was that cop watching the camera in the first place? that implies that he was using the camera as an unofficial "gauntlet" for traffic stops, in order to figure out who to nail for some sort of traffic violation... (instead of three or four cops lined up behind a corner with another one out front taking radars of speeders, etc, as one cop goes out, the public see's one cop and thinks "since HE'S busy, i can get away with speeding a bit because he can't be in two places at once..." and then gets nabbed by the NEXT cop in line) and if THAT was what was happening, then he must have been nearby enough to actually MAKE those traffic stops, so why was he "later called to the scene" instead of HIM calling it in as "i just saw this accident, i am already rolling to the scene, oh yeah, btw, call for an ambulance asap." and if you say that he was in Dispatch watching the cameras, then he would NOT have been the same cop to go out into the field because that would not have been his job... the OTHER camera's that he was monitoring in the office are now going UN-watched during his absence...

no i'm not paranoid that "Big Brother" is out there, as i know that it's ALREADY here (you'd be surprised at the info already compiled on you from various sources and who's using it), and i can really care less about traffic cams, but i hate the duplicity in how they get the funding to put them in, in the first place, and then to where the logic travels to at it's fullest extent...

[lake_wrangler]

I told Julie about the upcoming Tetris movie. Her brain is still rebooting.

I'd hoped you were kidding...but apparently not.

Unless the cast is made up of mostly native born Russian's, I'll be reluctant to see it.

Meh... It can't be worse than the Angry Birds movie... (which I will never see, thank you very much...)

[Sgt. Howard]

I told Julie about the upcoming Tetris movie. Her brain is still rebooting.

I'd hoped you were kidding...but apparently not.

Unless the cast is made up of mostly native born Russian's, I'll be reluctant to see it.

Meh... It can't be worse than the Angry Birds movie... (which I will never see, thank you very much...)

I see 'Angry Birds' toys and references- I have no clue what it's about...

[lake_wrangler]

I see 'Angry Birds' toys and references- I have no clue what it's about...

It's a video game that came out as an app for "smart" phones. It seemed to have been popular for some time (I don't know if it still is, I didn't even bother reading the whole wiki page...), and now they've made a movie from it.
(They must be really hurting for movie ideas...)

[lake_wrangler]

Meanwhile, I came across this neat quote:

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.

[Hansontoons]

Meanwhile, I came across this neat quote:

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.

I like that. Though in my current situation, I'm not crying because it's over but I can still smile even though it happened.

Had six inches of water in house due to the amount of rain that fell in my area over a two-day period. I live near a lake/reservoir that had to release water due to the runoff entering. That combined with other watersheds doing the same thing turned my place into river front property that was actually a little too close to the river. There are others worse off than I am so I consider myself fortunate.

The water has receded and cleanup has begun. I've been through this drill before, almost 18 years ago. Now wait for insurance to cut a check and start to remodel! I was needing some new paint and carpet, kind of a tough way to get it though.

Just another event in life, could have done without it but you play what you are dealt and then work to be a winner!

[Hansontoons]

Ps: Jasper the dog is fine. She was a little confused while we were moving everything upstairs and her favorite couch across the street. But she is adjusting with the help of plentiful rawhide chews and ear rubs.

[GlytchMeister]

Totally random question, and I don't think it will be a big enough conundrum to merit its own thread (we shall see):

When a Force User from Star Wars wants to kill someone, why don't they just pinch off an artery in the brain? Or give them an anyurism? That can't possibly require very many newtons.

I mean, Vader's force-choke is impressive and everything, and I understand why he would use that to put the fear of Force into an insolent nitwit, but... In a real fight? Someone like Vader could easily kill whole armies with as much effort as squeezing a stress ball.

[Catawampus]

Totally random question, and I don't think it will be a big enough conundrum to merit its own thread (we shall see):

When a Force User from Star Wars wants to kill someone, why don't they just pinch off an artery in the brain? Or give them an anyurism? That can't possibly require very many newtons.

I mean, Vader's force-choke is impressive and everything, and I understand why he would use that to put the fear of Force into an insolent nitwit, but... In a real fight? Someone like Vader could easily kill whole armies with as much effort as squeezing a stress ball.

From what I recall in the movies, the seriously skilled Force users were always not directly taking part in fights (leaving it to their underlings to get things done), getting all emotional and flailing around wildly without giving any thought or planning to things, holding back either because they were toying with their opponents or because they were the "good guys", or else going up against other Force users (who would presumably be able to counter such moves). It might actually be a common tactic used by them, but we just never got to see any good opportunities for them to make use of it. Though the bad guy in the latest movie seemed to use his Force powers in some unpleasant way on captives to hurt them and get them to give him information.

Given how many times in the movies they seem to have not used the telekinetic aspects of the Force when they could have, it might also be something that takes a lot of effort and energy, requiring them to rest or "recharge" if they overuse it. It would be embarrassing to use up all of your Force power giving strokes to the enemy's cannon fodder, only to come up against their serious threats and suddenly find that you can't even stir up dust any longer. So they might be inclined to go with other means whenever they will do well enough.

And of course, you'd miss out on a lot of fancy action scenes in the movies if they did that.

[Dave]

I mean, Vader's force-choke is impressive and everything, and I understand why he would use that to put the fear of Force into an insolent nitwit, but... In a real fight? Someone like Vader could easily kill whole armies with as much effort as squeezing a stress ball.

The amount of mechanical force needed to yank a weapon out of an opponent's hand would be plenty to generate a concussion... just slap the guy's brain against the inside of his skull and he'd drop, out of the fight for hours... or, with a bit more force, permanently.

Or, for more subtlety... I wonder whether The Force could provide a small electrical jolt? Applied to the brain it could either trigger a seizure, or act as a tasp.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I have several head-canon reasons why this is the case...

First off, gross movements are quick and easy. See someone coming after you, push them back or knock the weapon out of their hand. Doing something as complicated as pushing on a blood vessel you can't see and whose location you can only infer based on your knowledge of their anatomy (which, by the way, changes significantly with each race, and HOW MANY races are there in Star Wars?) takes more effort and concentration. It's not just something you do on the fly. It also requires in-depth knowledge of that particular race's anatomy. Also, in virtually every case, force usage seems to be Line of Sight only. So no going after organs or blood vessels.

Second off, there's the other problem of Force usage. If you are Light side, you won't do it because it is a gross violation of the code of ethics. Can one? Maybe. Will one? No. If you are Dark Side, you lose yourself in your emotions. You don't think tactically, you respond emotionally. Which is why, one on one, while Dark Side *might* be stronger in terms of brute strength of Force, they always end up losing when a Jedi can think tactically.

Light vs Dark is not Good vs Evil, it is Logic vs Emotion. The danger to the Jedi is simply to not care about anything any more. The danger to the dark side is to lose yourself in your emotions. Then Luke was *SUPPOSED* to be Buddha and create the Middle Way, harnessing the power of the Dark but leashing it with the control of the Light. Blending the two into a ying-yang equilibrium.

[GlytchMeister]

I thought that was Revan... The one who used both the light and the dark.

Anyway, I'm not sure I'd buy the inefficiency of telekenises. Old, practically on his deathbed yoda was still able to lift a damn spaceship out of "my boot got stuck" swamp muck.

I will buy the different anatomy issue, and I can see how line-of-sight would make sense as well. And, yeah, a good Light-side-user (not just Jedi and with out there, there are all kinds of others) would never pop someone's brain arteries, and a "flailing emotionally" low-level dark-side-user would never even think to.

Hmm. Can you imagine if a Dark-Side user went into Tranquil Fury? All the emotion, none of the stupidity... That would be rather dangerous.

[Warrl]

The meta reason is, of course, that causing a man to abruptly die and fall over is not a good show on the screen - throwing him against the wall is better.

However, I've often had similar thoughts about various throwers of fireballs. And not just the energy involvement. You can kill a man with a nuclear weapon, or with a bullet. If you want to kill ONLY ONE man, the latter is clearly the better choice. Sure, the explosion is showy, but the little bit of heat, about like a burning candle, in just the right place, is far more often usable - including for non-lethal purposes.

[Dave]

The meta reason is, of course, that causing a man to abruptly die and fall over is not a good show on the screen - throwing him against the wall is better.

However, I've often had similar thoughts about various throwers of fireballs. And not just the energy involvement. You can kill a man with a nuclear weapon, or with a bullet. If you want to kill ONLY ONE man, the latter is clearly the better choice. Sure, the explosion is showy, but the little bit of heat, about like a burning candle, in just the right place, is far more often usable - including for non-lethal purposes.

Or, just bring him to the attention of a nest of Solenopsis vorpa a.k.a. the Sulawesi teleporting fire ant. Very low energy expenditure, nasty results.

As to the efficient use of energy to bring down an enemy... I'm reminded of Arthur Clarke's novel Childhood's End, in which the Overlord Karellen, the "Supervisor for Earth," points out that he can stop any war of aggression on Earth before it starts, with a simple device that requires about the same amount of power to run, and technical skill to operate, as a table radio. It creates an unstoppable tone within the ears of any selected human, sufficient to drown out speech and to prevent sleep... thus driving the subject into a complete breakdown within a matter of a few weeks.

Any human political leader attempting to foment a war or rebellion would be so dealt with.

[Alkarii]

Apparently the intersection where my sister's husband had his motorcycle accident was on the news again. Something about a study or something, trying to find out the deal with it, why there's a shitload of accidents there. That one, one to the north that's maybe about a mile away, and one to the east of the second, about the same distance away, all have tons of collisions there.

I have a theory for that: People are stupid and don't know how to drive.

(This is why we still don't have flying cars, by the way.)

[lake_wrangler]

I have a theory for that: People are stupid and don't know how to drive.

(This is why we still don't have flying cars, by the way.)

See? This is why we can't have nice stuff...

At this point, as a bus driver who sees all the stupid stuff people do on the road, I'm not sure I'd want flying cars to exist... Unless it was fully automated, and even then I'd be worried about a computer crash causing a very lethal real-life crash...

[ShneekeyTheLost]

We have the tech for hovercraft. They're just stupidly inefficient over roads that already exist and handling is a PITA because you no longer have friction. Decel is nearly impossible in a short time frame. You'd have to like install brake pads on the bottom of the plenum skirt and have them cut upthrust to generate any kind of realistic braking. Not at all user-friendly by at least an order of magnitude.

Plus, in addition to being inefficient as a method of propulsion over roads, and being a pain to steer due to no contact with the road, the fans will get clogged if you drive in dusty areas. So there's an enormous maintenance cost involved as well.

We can build it. We have the tech. In fact, I believe there are hovercraft ferries that cross the English Channel on a regular time frame. However, as a civilian individual transportation vehicle... not practical by any means.

[Dave]

We can build it. We have the tech. In fact, I believe there are hovercraft ferries that cross the English Channel on a regular time frame. However, as a civilian individual transportation vehicle... not practical by any means.

The English Channel hovercraft ferry service apparently closed down in 2010. It seems that the Isle of Wight line is the only remaining hovercraft ferry in Europe.

There are still hydrofoil ferry lines operating... similar fast service, but more boat-like design and operation.