Fondots

My gut says that most of the people who vote early have already had their minds made up for a long time and not much would change their vote one way or the other, otherwise they'd probably wait until the day of to see what new information might come to light in case it changes their mind.

And in general Democrats vote early in higher numbers than Republicans. This wouldn't do much to change how the Democrats vote (what are they gonna do? Say "well I wasn't going to vote for they guy anyway, but now I'm really not gonna vote for him?") but you would at least hope it would for some Republicans (though that might be wishful thinking.) Since more of those Republicans are going to be voting in-person it may have made sense to hold this back so it was still fresh in their mind when they actually go to the polls.

Just my 2¢ on the matter. Take it for what it's worth.

My friend forgot their umbrella at the office.

They nervously answered the phone.

They're a lazy motherfucker.

I gave my friend a hug and wished them a speedy recovery.

Any of those sound unusual, or like they're referring to more than one person?

Think of a pickup truck, you have a big engine and a cab up front, and then not much in the back except a big empty bed.

Most pickup trucks are rear wheel drive, so there's not much weight over those drive wheels. That can create some traction issues in rain, snow, loose sand, mud, etc. if you're not careful, it's not hard to spin your tires when starting from a stop, or oversteer hydroplane. Having some weight in the bed-cargo, sandbags, etc. can help a lot with that. They also have a higher center of gravity than most smaller vehicles so they're a higher rollover risk when that kind of thing happens.

Most people who drive trucks regularly are used to this in their vehicles and know how to compensate for it. It also helps to have some weight in the bed over those rear wheels- cargo, sandbags, etc. Or depending on what sort of 4wd system it has (if equipped, I'm not sure if home Depot rentals are 4wd or not) you may also be able to put it in 4wd to help, some are able to be driven on dry pavement in 4wd provided you stay under a certain speed, others should really only be put into 4wd if you're driving through significant mud or snow or similar conditions or you risk significant wear and damage to various vehicle component, or at least compromising some of the handling characteristics or increased fuel usage.

It's something most people should be able to learn and adapt to pretty quickly, but frankly I've seen how people drive, and I don't exactly blame the lawyers and bean counters for hedging their bets there. You can't know for certain what that person's driving experience is like, but since they need to rent a truck, it's probably a pretty safe bet that they don't regularly drive one, and may not know how to drive one safely in inclement weather.

One of the cars I learned how to drive in was my dad's rwd ranger. It's kind of shitty in any kind of weather, and it has occasionally struggled to get up some sheepish gravel driveways without some weight in the bed, even though other cars had absolutely no issues making it.

I haven't exactly spent a lot of time in Juggalo circles, but the few I have met have all been great people, the types of people who would literally give you the shirt off their back without a second thought. Generally not the brightest bulbs out there, but they also tend to be the rare type of person who can recognize that about themselves and are willing to seek out and listen to people who are more knowledgeable (unless we're talking about scientists and magnets) which is actually pretty amazing, that's not a common quality to find in any group of people

I generally kind of think of juggalos as those kids in school who were a little too weird to be "normal" kids, and not smart enough to be "nerds" some of them have some issues, maybe more than average, but most of them are just trying to get by with what they've got.

Centrifugal governors are possibly one of the origins of the phrase "balls out" or "balls to the wall" (although many say "balls to the wall" has to do with the ball-shaped handles on old aircraft throttle levers)

Also somewhat similar to governors are centrifugal switches, which are used in just about anything with an electric motor to disconnect the motor from a capacitor which gives the motor a little extra juice to get it going (I like this video for an explanation of how they work)

Is not potato man, is secret police. Such is life.

It's been a long time and I'm not sure of it's current state, but some friends and I used to have a blast play Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator (I think there's a couple other games out there now that are similar)

You kind of need the right setup for it to work well, a big TV or projector you can hook up to a computer and everyone needs their own laptop, etc.

The basic idea is- picture the bridge of the enterprise (or your starship of choice) you've got a bunch of people with their own consoles responsible for different aspects of the ships operation, the helm, engineering, weapons, etc. That's what you're doing.

I think at some point they added support for support fighters and such to accompany the main starship so if you have more people they have something to do.

We also made up a couple extra positions, like a captain who didn't really have his own console, he just got his own chair front and center and a fancy hat and gave out orders.

No, it's not besides the point because you can have issues with poor visibility and those light guns are not immune from breaking down, and then you'd really want your other communication and instruments to be functioning as they should.

Look, I know we're talking one in a million, worst case scenarios here, not situations that are at all likely to happen, just ones that theoretically could if Murphy's law goes into full effect, multiple people at every level drop the ball, and the planets and stars are all aligned just so, etc.

Radios are used for more than just comms like hearing other people talking on the radio. Gps, transponders, radar, and other systems rely on radio waves to operate, and so are potentially (however unlikely) susceptible to interference from other radio equipment.

There's a reason we have so many safeguards built in, sometimes those systems fail, sometimes multiple systems fail at once, and you don't want whatever you have left to go down too.

And yes, it can certainly interfere with ambulance comms, I work in 911 dispatch, we have some redundancy with the MDTs in their vehicles and smartphone apps and such, but those systems have been known to fail on us, leaving us with just radios to communicate with our field units. My agency's systems are a bit more advanced, but I've been to some rural areas where they're using pretty basic VHF/UHF radios that I could listen in and even key up and transmit on with a $30 baofeng (the frequencies they were using were a bit outside of what's legally permitted for ham radio use, but still within the capabilities of my radio)

I'm not anti gun by any means, and I also do think that most people under 21 are not responsible enough to be carrying firearms around most of the time in their daily life.

That said, I also don't like how we sort of have different levels of adulthood.

At 18 you're old enough to vote, get drafted, serve on a jury, be legally responsible for your actions and are considered an adult with all of the responsibilities and privileges that comes with that

Unless you want to buy alcohol, tobacco, carry a firearm, run for certain offices, etc. then you're not adult enough.

And put mildly, that rubs me the wrong way.

I don't necessarily disagree with the ages we set those restrictions at, overall I think they're fairly reasonable.

But I do think that it means that if they're not getting all of the rights and privileges as an older adult, they shouldn't be saddled with the same responsibilities.

I think younger adults need to be compensated in some way for the rights and privileges they don't get to enjoy. Lower taxes at least, maybe exemption from selective service (though I'd really like to abolish it entirely) until they're old enough to carry a firearm any other time, if they're not old enough to run for a particular office maybe their votes should count extra for those positions to ensure their voices are being heard, etc.

For what it's worth, many, maybe most (sorry, can't be bothered to look up the stats right now) nuclear plants in the US are already owned by some publicly traded company beholden to its shareholders who expect it to turn an ever increasing profit for them.

Not that it gives me the warm-fuzzies that that's the case, but it's not quite as big of a departure from the current situation as you're making it out to be.

If you're fucking around with your radio equipment doing something you shouldn't and end up causing interference on, for example, aircraft frequencies or emergency service radio systems, you could be a contributing factor to an airliner crashing or an ambulance not being dispatched in a timely manner and a patient dying because they didn't get to the hospital in time.

You didn't directly kill anyone, but you set up the circumstances that resulted in someone dying.