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April 6th, 2014 | #41 | |
Switching to glide
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"When US gets nuked and NEMO is uninhabitable, I will make my way on foot to the gulf and live off red snapper and grapefruit"- Alex Linder |
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April 6th, 2014 | #42 | |
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April 6th, 2014 | #43 | |
Administrator
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Those knuckleheads can't even get HOV lanes to work. I could see the scenario you describe in the biggest cities, to an extent, perhaps, but even there that's a long, long time away. People aren't going to give up driving because a minority thinks they should, not without a protracted fight, as per guns. |
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April 10th, 2014 | #44 | |
Switching to glide
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Quote:
__________________
"When US gets nuked and NEMO is uninhabitable, I will make my way on foot to the gulf and live off red snapper and grapefruit"- Alex Linder |
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April 11th, 2014 | #45 | |
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Fortunately, as more facts emerge, the situation was less serious than I originally thought and posted. The Porsche was not brand new. It was a 2011 Panamera, and it did not roll. It merely ran off the road into a ditch and hit "several trees". My son exited the crashed car via the sun roof. He was not seriously injured, but went to the hospital for a CT scan, but the cause of his stupidity did not show up on the image. He's scraped and banged and friction burned from the airbags and broken glass, but I think he mainly went to the hospital to avoid the embarrassment of going back home and explaining what he had done, which was basically loose control of the car at high speed in some loose gravel on the right shoulder of a two lane road, cross to the left shoulder and loose control again, cross back to the right shoulder and go off into the ditch. He says he was going 80 or 90mph and the posted speed limit was 50. He was not drinking and somehow did not receive a traffic citation, which may be another the reason he decided to hightail it out of there to the hospital. It sure scared me when his sister called to say he was in the hospital, but was OK. I remember asking "If he's OK, why is he in the hospital?" But apparently he is indeed OK, and hopefully a slightly improved driver. My daughter's mother-in-law is apparently being a good sport about it, and claims to be happy to have a reason to buy a new car. |
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April 11th, 2014 | #46 | |
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My high school friend had his '69 ChevyII Nova stolen and stripped of all its goodies (custom engine stuff). He got the car back, and we rebuilt the engine with the insurance money. I was riding shotgun as we went out to an informal drag strip in an industrial area to test the car. As he slammed the shifter forward with his right hand to hit third gear, he pulled back slightly with his wheel hand and the steering wheel popped off, and he tossed it in the back seat and continued driving the car by pressing down on the nub of the steering column with the palm of his hand. The thieves had apparently damaged the base of the steering wheel during the theft. We drove home, or to a nearby service station by attaching vise-grips to the steering column. I don't know how fast a car like that can go in second gear, but when the steering wheel popped off it seemed to me like we were clipping right along. Anyway, when you mentioned holding a steering wheel aloft, this is the image that came to mind. I'll never forget it. He just paused for a microsecond holding the steering wheel aloft before tossing it in the back seat. |
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April 11th, 2014 | #47 |
Switching to glide
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Yeah, when the rear wheels break loose it always makes like very interesting.
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"When US gets nuked and NEMO is uninhabitable, I will make my way on foot to the gulf and live off red snapper and grapefruit"- Alex Linder |
April 11th, 2014 | #48 | ||
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The inefficiency of traffic controls always baffled me. What's the point of good gas mileage or smaller cars when one idiot crossing the street can stop hundreds of cars at a pedestrian-activated stoplight? Or maybe the pedestrian just pressed the button for the hell of it.
Some communities have dealt with this enforced idiocy: http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-448747.html Quote:
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The model would neither be possible in Asia, where the drivers are acknowledged to be among the worst in the world. |
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May 25th, 2017 | #49 |
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[this Eric Peters writes good stuff, he's the main car guy posted at LewRockwell.com. his point is cars, and ever more so tractors, are becoming DCMA software that you more rent than own. they want to force you into their system for any changes or fixes]
Nothing Runs You Like a Deere. . . By eric - May 23, 2017445963 How long before they bring back prima nocta? It’s a serious question. Other aspects of feudalism have been part of everyday life for so long now we hardly notice them – and even consider it normal – just as the peasants of 500 years ago probably did. For instance, just like the kings of 500 years ago, Uncle claims ownership of all land under his jurisdiction; we are merely tenants who are suffered to rent the land for as long as we continue to pay the annual tributum. We are allowed to use the land as the sovereign sees fit – and not otherwise. If we use it in ways forbidden, the king – whoops, Uncle – will punish us. He can also just take it from us via another noxious doctrine – that of eminent domain. But until recently, we at least owned our incidentals – the small-potatoes stuff, like the clothes on our backs. Our cars. Our tractors, certainly. Not anymore. Not if it’s a John Deere tractor. When you buy one, you’re actually purchasing an “implied license for the life of the vehicle to operate the vehicle.“ Basically, a rental contract. With the difference being that even when the rental is paid off, you are still bound by the contract. Yes, really. It has to do with two things – the code that runs the tractor (yes, them too) and the ownership claims to that code asserted under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). You may recall the ruckus that erupted about a year ago when the car companies floated the idea that even though you bought their car, it was still their code that ran the thing – and this code remained proprietary. That is, their property. To “tamper” with anything that could conceivably affect the code, their lawyers proposed, would violate both the warranty and copyright laws. Effectively making the car not your property, no matter the name on the title. A DMCA exception was granted for cars – but probably only because of the rictus of outrage that erupted; rightly so. Tractors, on the other hand. . . Probably because there are fewer farmers – and most of them are wholly owned subsidiaries of massive Big Ag cartels, working the fields on behalf of Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland, et al. But not just them, either. When you buy a Deere, you must sign a licensing agreement (see here) that contains what amounts to the rental agreement. It basically says that you – the “owner” – will not perform unauthorized repairs or modifications; that you will only permit an authorized Deere technician to touch “your” tractor. This comes in mighty handy when you are out in the field cutting hay and something breaks and you need to get the thing running again right now . . . not next Thursday, when the Deere dude can schedule you an authorized appointment. Naturally, this is all about the money. That – and the control. The money part is objectionable – but at least it is just the normal human lust for gain. The car companies have been trying for years to force you to spend money at the dealership by making cars so complicated that almost no one without a mechanical and electrical engineering degree and some very righteous tools can successfully perform anything more involved than an oil change – and they are working on that. The next step was to not use open source code to run the computer (ECU) that runs the car and then restrict access to this “proprietary” code by making it readable only by one of their diagnostic machines. Without the ability to read the code, figuring out what ails a computer-controlled car is almost impossible. Independent shops now often have to spend huge sums to buy the authorized diagnostic equipment and that cost often exceeds what they can make performing repairs. Hence it’s not worth buying the machine. Hence, they cannot repair that particular brand of car. Off to the dealership you go. The third step was to use legal threats and mumbo-jumbo – the DMCA – to make it illegal to even try to repair the car yourself, unauthorized. Touch the car and you void the warranty. And if that’s not enough to dissuade you, then maybe they’ll sic the cops on you or “copyright” violation. It’s what they had in mind, certainly. And Deere – and makers of other non-DCMA-exempted things with computers and code – which is becoming just about everything, down to toothbrushes, too – surely intends the same. The better to mulct you with, my pretty. But the control part is the most loathsome. It is part of the synergistic bum’s rush – you can almost feel the walls closing in – toward a neo-feudal, company town kind of life in which you never own anything, control almost nothing and spend your days toeing the line and doing as you are told. Even if you avoid debt, you still must constantly pay eternal rent to remain on “your” land, in “your” home. If you have kids, you will be instructed how they’ll be raised; your job is to serve as kind of wet nurse/chauffeur. Your car will soon drive itself – according to programming imparted by others – your owners. And forget about having a peek under the hood. An alarm will probably be triggered, an environmental or saaaaaaaaaaafety SWAT team summoned. Short of Going Amish, I see no way out. https://ericpetersautos.com/2017/05/...ns-like-deere/ |
May 26th, 2017 | #50 |
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 3,465
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Businesspeople always favor indentured servitude and, if they can come out on it, slavery.
Automation would mitigate this long-standing problem. Automation has its own problems, of course. The Japs prefer automatons to immigrants. That's why there will be a Japan 100 years from now.
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August 18th, 2017 | #51 |
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Posts: 1,149
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As Sales Plunge, GM Might Cancel Six Car Models
by Wolf Richter • Jul 20, 2017 GM is getting whacked harder than any of the major automakers by the industry-wide plunge in car sales, as Americans switch in ever larger numbers from cars to “trucks,” which include pickups, van, SUVs and crossovers. In the first half of 2017, GM’s car sales in the US plunged 19%, and in June 38%. The rest of the industry (without GM) booked declines in car sales of “only” 10% in the first half and 9% in June. http://wolfstreet.com/2017/07/20/gm-...2020/#comments |
August 29th, 2017 | #52 |
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 1,149
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The problem?
They haven’t been selling cars as fast as years past… and the inventory of unsold new cars is exploding! Just In 2017, car sales are down 70% in some segments. And while the car dealerships would love it if everyone would buy a new car at full retail price… The fact remains that they’ve been forced by a huge backlog of inventory to quietly advertise massively discounted deals online. http://www.thedailylifer.com/buy-a-b...=4725&off=1773 |
November 8th, 2018 | #53 |
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eric peters, always a good read on govt pushing unwanted e-cars on public thru destructive subisidies
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/11/...are-on-wheels/ |
February 5th, 2019 | #54 |
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peters on chinese entering US market in big way
https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2019...nese-take-out/ |
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