251–260 of 284 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are a lot more middle of nowhere locations than there are exurbs in the US.
Yeah, I should've said "exurbs and beyond".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Okay I'll bite. Why?
Onsite power, generators, parking for cars, a big tower for RF, satellite, security, etc. A perfect office normally and set up perfectly for disaster response when the earthquake eventually hits. Being able to get $0.95/ft2 NNN on Pioneer, and taking an entire building, so each employee has 500+ square feet... Imagine being the only place with real comms, security, and competent people (i.e. non-government), just lik…
This is the guy you're talking about, right?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can take steps to reduce carbon emissions in cars (smaller car, drive more efficiently, etc), but you can't with planes other than not flying. Luckily, it's in the best interest of airlines to reduce emissions since that means less jet fuel and more profits.
Indeed, this is true. Thanks for this. The realization that it is also in the best interest of an airline to reduce emissions, especially as the price of oil increases, really helps make me feel better. Not flying doesn't really reduce emissions though... Those planes are going to fly whether or not you are on it.
This is an extreme example of tragedy of the commons type thinking. Why bother doing anything because someone else will do it anyways?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A ford explorer can stop on a dime. A fire truck cannot. A fire truck also has a blind spot equivalent to 3 ford explorers.
If the blind spot were really a child safety factor, then the sight of a UPS or FedEx truck would terrorize parents across the world. I'll also bet that his fire truck can stop better than you think, especially if he has left the ~500 gallon water tank empty.
On the other hand a new tender (or water pumper) CAN stop on a dime, as its brakes are based on it carrying three to four thousand gallons of water, so when it is empty...
Is there some sort of crazy game of one-upmanship in the USA as to who can drive the most impractical gas guzzler? First it was stretch limos, then Hummers, then Hummer stretch limos. I wonder if we're gonna see stretch limo fire trucks… Edit (since I'm being downvoted): The story is cool, I just find the fact that he's driving it daily to work completely retarded. What the hell I consider driving a car to work to be…
I sold my car and got the Humvee of bikes, it can carry two loads of firewood, or two kids, or a kid and the plants we got at the garden store. Most of America is batshit crazy but in Portland, Oregon the no-car lifestyle is catching on. Hopefully other cities too. Bike photo! https://mobile.twitter.com/jchris/status/312728928919896064
You're joking right? Portland was nauseating. Filled to the brim with smug hipsters who apparently share your sentiment: that the rest of us are insane for having a car to travel to work/home/vacations etc.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a European I don't understand the american fascination with impractically fhuge cars for every day commuting. Okay I get it, you want a big car for that roadtrip or vacation. Understandable, I do too. But for everyday stuff? My hatchback does perfectly fine around town ... hell, it does perfectly well on most vacations and long drives too.
Im a European, well British anyway.... Something occurred to me today regarding Americans and big huge stupid cars... I was watching the NASCAR earlier and there was a throwaway comment about some driver's sponsors being "local". By local they mean 60 miles away. Now to a Brit, maybe other Europeans, 60 miles feels like anything but "local". So, I get the impression that we don't understand the sort of scale of trave…
Waiting for the follow-up article: whether the pumps really work, how well they work, whether it came with a firehouse (and if not, how much those cost+shipping), and fun things you can do with a big jet of water. Actually, I'd think you'd need a bit of training to operate a firehose (assuming the sellers showed you how to operate all the buttons and levers). But once you have all the safety aspects down, you can go…
Using the deck gun is another matter altogether, and is not something he's likely to be able to do other than emptying a swimming pool:
Most combination nozzles on a deck gun are designed to control flow rate between 750gpm and 1250gpm at 80 psi.
A Pierce Arrow typically has a 750 gallon tank, so you have around a minute run time on the deck gun before its empty (and a fire engine pump is not something you want running dry).
You can set up hard suction (to draw from a non-pressurized source), but its debatable a) whether you can get sufficient flow at all from the vacuum alone, let alone b) while filtering the water sufficiently (because stones, mud, silt, trash, fish don't go well through a fire engine pump) at a rate to run the deck gun.
Sadly, it's not likely to happen without being hooked into a hydrant. You might be able to run a handline or two, but that's about it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If someone wrote about their experiences travelling the world, would you make a similar criticism? After all, they are flying, which causes a lot of extra carbon emissions. Or is the fire truck particularly bad for some reason?
As a European I don't understand the american fascination with impractically fhuge cars for every day commuting. Okay I get it, you want a big car for that roadtrip or vacation. Understandable, I do too. But for everyday stuff? My hatchback does perfectly fine around town ... hell, it does perfectly well on most vacations and long drives too.
"According to Polk's data, the large mainstream sedan segment has plunged from a 5.8-percent share of the US car market in 2008 to just 3.5 percent in 2012. That sales drop is enough to put this most American of car bodystyles behind the minivan segment, a market whose own sales slide has been comparatively well documented."
http://www.autoblog.com/2013/03/24/large-car-market-witherin...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Im a European, well British anyway.... Something occurred to me today regarding Americans and big huge stupid cars... I was watching the NASCAR earlier and there was a throwaway comment about some driver's sponsors being "local". By local they mean 60 miles away. Now to a Brit, maybe other Europeans, 60 miles feels like anything but "local". So, I get the impression that we don't understand the sort of scale of trave…
I drive a 2012 Subaru Impreza. Before that I drove a 2001 Hyundai Accent and before that a 1997 Kia Sephia. All of those are small cars, maybe it is because I am from The Netherlands but I never considered a large car, they slurp gas like it is going out of style and I want something compact that I can park almost anywhere. What I do like is that even with a small circle of friends it is almost guaranteed that you kn…
I have a Renault Twingo (3.4 meters long), and before that I had a Maruti 800 (3.2 meters long).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Twingo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_800
That's what I consider a small car :) . My father had a Fiat 600 (the original one), and now has a Suzuki Maruti Alto/A-Star
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Alto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_600
The current best-selling car in Uruguay is the chinese-made Chery QQ
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Onsite power, generators, parking for cars, a big tower for RF, satellite, security, etc. A perfect office normally and set up perfectly for disaster response when the earthquake eventually hits. Being able to get $0.95/ft2 NNN on Pioneer, and taking an entire building, so each employee has 500+ square feet... Imagine being the only place with real comms, security, and competent people (i.e. non-government), just lik…
For anyone interested in the crazy live blog of the Katrina aftermath from the guy holed up in his ISP in New Orleans, start here: http://interdictor.livejournal.com/2005/08/27/ This is the guy you're talking about, right?