Posts by Rick Brasche

what bike are you riding?

I've test ridden the Zero S a couple months ago. I owned and daily commuted a Gen II FJR for 6 years. While I like the new Zero it comes nowhere close to out-pulling a 'Busa, or even the Feej with a much lower power/weight ratio.

Having the Zero loaded with the options I want puts it also $4K over the cost of a new FJR. I sadly sold mine because I could afford to only park and maintain one vehicke-no charging ports in apartment parking lots anywhere I can afford to live either.

Fun toy, but definitely not in the 'busa class. More like the Triumph Speed Triple. Which is a third the price last I checked. Can buy a LOT of fuel for the extra $10K.

Course that's also because for some reason, Zero doesn't get the government largesse Tesla does, or the entire Zero line would be actually affordable and I'd have one right now. Zero must not have enough politicians in the payroll yet.

Re: Cuppa included

put another stop on my wish list! :)

Re: Jackboots

sadly the Naugas were driven into extinction during the 70's so they aren't a viable replacement

people "believe" a lot of stuff.

check Facebook for examples. Chemtrails, military government conspiracies to create mind control vaccines, weather control, HAARP, you name it.

they stop all the time by themselves. Do you not see many cows not in constant motion until a "driver" stops them? Reality isn't a cowboy movie and a stampede, Earl.

Re: Hmm

this silliness is countered by the same comparison to saying Kennedy wouldn't be accepted by current Democrats.

Hillary Clinton cannot be determined as a "centrist" based on anything but the current message her campaign is trying to sell. Unless you believe Bill Clinton's entire Presidency was actually HER in charge, which then one could demonstrate an actual centrist position. But on her own actions, of which there are very very few (legal) accomplishments to work from, we've got nothing but advertising copy.

And as modern individuals, we should have learned in our childhood just how trustworthy advertisements actually are.

Re: Not what I expected...from the headline.

nice to see it wasn't only me-thought this was like using fossil DNA to recreate the wooly mammoth, but in big dino lizard form. My first though was the bronto burger.

WILLLMAAAAA!

the scary part is

when someone tells her that one can make reasonable boomstick materials from stuff found in the back of almost every Mexican (err, "undocumented") groundskeeper's work truck.

High nitrate fertilizer? stump remover? sulphur additive for pesticide dust? some irrigation pipe?

And that's before one hits Home Depot for the pool cleaning supplies.

good thing she's retiring soon. Discovering that her enemies (the Little People) had the capability for decades to do what she feared most, yet DID NOT in spite of all her shrill doomsaying excuses, might be more than her elitist mind can accept.

Re: San Francisco to Seattle, eh????

having done the San Jose to Olympia WA (closer than Seattle) run quite a few times, 14 hours is average.

Unless one is peeing in a water bottle and never stopping for charge, and going up the pass, and not encountering any traffic at all around Portland, this cannot be done at legal speeds to get the "average".

I might know individuals who might have done this run in under 12 hours and they might have been on motorcycles and quite possibly have exceeded 130mph in order to get that time. But I could be totally mistaken and not actually have been involved in such a thing. Maybe it was Brian Williams who did it.

Re: I'm so fsck'ing happy

they've "seen" this for years. and for some reason, "shades of grey" equals exactly the same "worst of everything except for a few bright spots"

and have been remaking the exact same theme hundreds of times in the last decade or so. Only difference is the level of dystopia.

Nowadays, a "golden age" movie with an actual position of optimism would be "edgy"...

Re: Last gasps of the battleship

don't forget the Landing Craft Support that was built in WWII. True littoral capability and rather impressive firepower for the size.

Disclaimer: my grandfather in law is William Mason so he's always "hassling" me to help with maintenance on this little gem:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_LCS%28L%29%283%29-102

Re: Smart kettle and an Aeropress

at work I just use a generic presspot and a cheap "heats the water till it boils then shuts off" water kettle. I don't mind "micro grit" and don't want to have to replace "micro filters" or anything else.

other than the "fancy" stainless steel micro coffee grinder (hand cranked japanese import) my whole "caffeine infrastructure" was $50 USD.

Re: Also in US?

LOL also comes in "New Clear Case".

Piers Anthony fans just got a chuckle outta that.

Re: I've already got the system beat.

careful, as soon as Buffet and a few of the really big "green energy" people know you've released a version of their little secret, you'll end up disappeared.

Unless it's already too late. :P

Re: Density

if they design for neutral buoyancy in heavier fluid, and it turns out to be lighter, aren't they headed straight to the bottom?

Wouldn't it be better to plan on the lighter medium, at least for flotation purposes, but concern with depth as the heavier one, hybridizing the two?

Re: Never mind the software...

makes translation flight a low speed affair. Unlike the Harrier, which could and did use thrust vectoring for VTOL and enhanced dogfighting capability to extreme effectiveness in the Falklands, the F35 is not going to slam the nozzles on to tighten a turn, nor possibly engage vertical lift to deal with loss of lift due to damage.

As an American I'd rather have seen an updated "Super Harrier" (which was kind of what Boeings much uglier entry into the contest was) which used the front engine intake in both modes and simply swivelled nozzles. With independent nozzle movement, computer controlled, some really odd flight maneuvers could have been done at any speed the airframe could support. Could've made the SU-27's Cobra Maneuver look like a skate-park trick.

But politics not need choose our defense systems on both sides of the Atlantic. And our bad decisions force yours. double down :(

close

you mean we now have Taxation Without Representation. We get taxed to build the infrastructure, subsidies and such to build the pipes Comcast et al laid, and Google wants to use that infrastructure without having to pay for their "extra popular" usage nor pony up for their own pipe.

Kind of like paying for auto companies that make cars 90% of the nation cannot afford, military hardware that is illegal for non-rich citizens to use, or giveaway programs that the productive 60% of society pays for but gets no use of.

Re: You are taking it seriously, that is your problem

he is however, doing his primary job: campaigning for the rest of his Party. Which has been the entire job of all party politicians since whenever.

Everything said or done is to either gain power for oneself within the Party structure or pay back that structure by doing whatever possible to get more of that Party in more positions of power.

Now considering his actual record, of how many SOTU promises broken, the only ones that have been carried out are those who have pretty wrapping but simply transfer more public wealth to private companies with unsavory crony connections.

Re: So does this mean...

if the food isn't good enough, your neighbors will know when you flatten your own house.

Re: Norks "Act of War"

yet similar declarations by Saddam Hussein, or Al Queda were not considered "credible" by opponents for any warlike activities in the Middle East.

Can't have it both ways.