The Random thought thread

[octave]

What I am thinking is that it is very easy to speed at least partially through a school zone.   Usually, I have this mild panic near a school. Am I in the school zone yet? What time is it? Is it the school holidays?  I can see a place for speed bumps that only operate when needed. Also, speed bumps are unpleasant even if you travel over them slowly.  A road near me has about 6 speed bumps. I understand why, because it is a residential street that has become a throughway.   Travelling at the set speed of 40KPH, you still have to come to a crawl 6 times.  It certainly would be nice to travel the whole street at 40KPH without having to almost stop.  I don't think this is a wholesale replacement for the fixed speed bump (reverse or otherwise). Apparently, they have been adopted in Sweden and Iceland.    I believe there are other styles, but they broadly fit into the category of "dynamic speed bumps ", which I think was first developed to aid emergency vehicles. I don't necessarily see a case for mass adoption, though.

[nomadpete]

Alternatively, we could possibly improve the driving culture.

 

If motorists respected the safety of others, there would not be a need for these speed bumps.

 

Basically when we get behind the wheel, we suddenly act like we are ALL  great drivers, and we ALL know better than the experts who put up speed limits for proven good reasons.

 

I know because I AM a great driver (not like youse cretins).

[octave]

17 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

Alternatively, we could possibly improve the driving culture.

 

Sadly, most rules or safety features are designed for the idiots, and the rest of us just have to endure them.

[red750]

Many of the streets in our area have divided speed humps as shown below. If you are travelling at or below the speed limit, you can line up so that your wheels pass either side of the hump with no bump, or very little, like running over the cats eyes lane markers. These allow the buses and emergency vehicles to straddle them.

 

[Marty_d]

1 hour ago, nomadpete said:

Alternatively, we could possibly improve the driving culture.

 

If motorists respected the safety of others, there would not be a need for these speed bumps.

 

Basically when we get behind the wheel, we suddenly act like we are ALL  great drivers, and we ALL know better than the experts who put up speed limits for proven good reasons.

 

I know because I AM a great driver (not like youse cretins).

I know you're a great driver Peter, you wouldn't be able to make it out of your driveway if you weren't!

[nomadpete]

32 minutes ago, Marty_d said:

I know you're a great driver Peter, you wouldn't be able to make it out of your driveway if you weren't!

I'd say the same about your motocross track..... that you call a driveway.

[facthunter]

A saucer of Milk for both of you. Nev

[nomadpete]

Here's a random thought.

 

If the USA collectively had half a brain, they would immediately support Ukraine bigtime in exchange for some of their weapons development.

 

Otherwise the US weapons industry will lag far behind the rest of the world. 

 

Proven testing of missiles that utilise ground following flight at 40 mtrs altitude.... 

Proven testing of marine drones that make big submarines hardly necessary.... etc, etc.

 

[Marty_d]

But they don't. The Republican party have comprehensively proven that they have no brain at all, and the Democrats are a well-meaning but ineffectual mess.

[nomadpete]

20 minutes ago, Marty_d said:

The Republican party have comprehensively proven that they have no brain at all, and the Democrats are a well-meaning but ineffectual mess.

Oh dear. 

 

So, post Trump, when the political pendulum swings, will USA be condemned to many years of "well-meaning but ineffectual mess"?

 

I fear I might not live long enough to see the end of the show!

[onetrack]

The Americans could never possibly accept the idea, that some other country - especially an Eastern European one - designed and built better military weapons, than they do.

[facthunter]

TRUMP Himself said" America doesn't have Many Geniuses."  IF HE was a student of History He would Know the USA's ability to Produce a lot of STUFF was their Main advantage in WW2 and Hitler attacking Russia Unsuccessfully was how the war was won by OUR LOT.  Russia (USSR) lost most of the People and fighters. with the Highest casualty rate of anyone. Nev

[old man emu]

3 hours ago, facthunter said:

IF HE was a student of History He would Know the USA's ability to Produce a lot of STUFF was their Main advantage in WW2

The European theatre in WWII was won by the incredible manufacturing and agricultural production possible in the USA due to the USA being out of range of effective attack by the  European Axis powers. That's not to deny the contribution of the British. The Axis powers (really only Germany) suffered the direct opposite and so lost.

 

I reckon it was a bit different in the war against Japan since the problem there was to dig out the Japanese from their defensive positions. You could say that the Yanks in their land operatoins were working in spaces where there was not room to swing a cat. I think that one of the greatest manufactured item leading to the Allied victory in the Pacific was the very humble Marston matting which enable the Allies to establish air superiority very rapidly, and to be able to repair any bomb damage to runways very quickly.

 

Have you ever given thought to who started the war in the Asia/Pacific? Most people who don't know the histrory of the first 40 years of the 20th Century will blame Japan, but American corporate interests were very much involved in preventing Japanese economic development. The Asian/Pacific war was a trade war, not an ideological one like the Europena war.