Fumesucker

Fumesucker's Journal

June 27, 2012

Life is like a box of chocolates..

June 24, 2012

Insight from TBogg's commentariat..

http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2012/06/22/rhode-island-blows-save-schilling-takes-loss/

Poster Crosstimbers at #28 nails it..

On almost every occasion, when I listen to what the ultra-conservatives or libertarians are complaining about, and let it stew and simmer down to it’s essence, it is that their freedom to dupe, cheat, destroy their fellow citizens is limited by government. Their concept of a nation is something like a fenced off Serengeti for social Darwinism. They squeal when they discover that they are just one of the wildebeests.

June 22, 2012

So there you sit with a bomb in your head..

http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2012/05/aint-gonna-let-nobody-turn-them-round.html

So there you sit with a bomb in your head.

It's a bomb which will detonate if you ever admit -- even for a moment, even to yourself -- that the Evil Libruls have ever been right about anything.

If detonated, this bomb will not only annihilate your identity, your ideals and your faith...not only destroy your standing in the community, the esteem of your friends, the respect of your spouse and children and, potentially, your livelihood...but it will also utterly humiliate you.

Should that bomb ever go off you would be forced to admit that you have gotten really, really important things terribly wrong for the last 10...20...30...40 years.

Read the rest of the piece at the link, it's really quite good .

June 21, 2012

Mandatory helmet wearing in cars would save many more lives than on motorcycles or bicycles..

2010 motorcycle deaths in the USA.. 3,615
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motorcycle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year

2010 bicycle deaths in the USA.. 618
http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/facts/crash-facts.cfm

2010 automobile deaths in the USA.. 32,885 - 3,615 = 29,270
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year

Assume for the sake of argument that half of all motorcycle/bicycle deaths in the US would be saved by a mandatory helmet law, that comes to a little over two thousand.. I think that estimate is a bit high myself..

Now assume that only ten percent of car crash victims would be saved by a mandatory auto helmet law, a number I think is at least fairly reasonable, over three thousand lives would have been saved in America during 2010.

If mandatory helmet laws make sense for bicycles and motorcycles (and by no means am I saying they don't) then those same laws make even more sense for automobiles in which far more Americans are killed and injured each year.

June 1, 2012

Portable computer; laptop, netbook, what have you for bicycle touring?

I'm planning on taking a two month or so bicycle tour in the fall and I'd like to stay connected online while I ride around the country. At the moment I only have a desktop so I will need to get some sort of portable computer.

In order of priority I will need reliable, lightweight, as big a screen as possible (it will be my entertainment while I'm tented up if it's raining; ebooks, videos, music), good battery longevity, compact size, largish hard drive for pictures and vids (I guess I could carry an external USB drive though).

I'd prefer Windows if at all possible and of course price is of some concern, I'd like to get something in the $200 - $250 range. Used isn't a problem, I was thinking of possibly some kind of used Apple laptop running Windows but my knowledge of that is just about nil..

Any suggestions, thoughts?

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Member since: Sat Mar 29, 2008, 10:11 PM
Number of posts: 45,851