So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[2jakes]

.....My VW beetle starts in all kinds of weather every time.

The "all kinds of weather" you get in SoCal anyway, eh?

I rarely had any trouble starting my air-cooled VWs, even the ones with the 6 volt electrics, even in the Seattle winters. (Which admittedly ain't anything nearly so severe as what they get in Minnesota, say.)

I've visited SoCal, but have never driven a VW beetle there at all,
so I can't answer your question.

 

[Stearmen]

This conversation has me researching just how much more dangerous motorcycling is vs. car travel.

The statistics per distance travelled (typically measured in deaths per hundred million miles travelled) are downright shocking. The studies I've looked into over the past hour or so indicate that motorcycle fatalities per distance travelled vary between 27 to 35 times higher than that for car travel -- not 27 to 35 percent higher, but 27 to 35 times higher, so 2700 to 3500 percent higher.

It remains true, thank the god of your choice, that most motorcyclists will never suffer a serious injury on account of their two-wheeled travels. And the stats indicate that riders over the age of 40 are about half as likely to die on their bikes as are their younger brethren. So it appears that improved judgment more than makes up for diminishing senses and motor skills.

Stay alive, friends.

I have heard that for years, but it just doesn't seem to translate to my life experience. I think of the couple of people I have known that died riding motorcycles, two actually suffered massive coronaries, then crashed, the Doctors in both cases stated that they would have died soon even if they were not on motorcycles, so not because of any undo stress! Then I think of all the people I know who have been killed, or suffered lasting effects from car accidents. I my self have been involved in at least seven car crashes, never my fault. I am still suffering from pain in my wrist and left shoulder, from my worst t-bone!

 

[Stearmen]

Every day is a risk. Getting out of bed is a risk. So is staying in bed. And we'll all end up dead eventually.

Remember, most people die in bed. So if you never go to bed, you have a pretty good shot at immortality!

 

[GHT]

But it's not as bad as a coworker.
He has to blow into a tube so that his car can determine
the alcohol content in his body before the engine starts.

New Mercedes now come with a red button which you press if you should break down. The button triggers a message to Mercedes in Germany via GPS, Mercedes then diagnose the fault through the diagnostic plug, via the tracker, they then contact the nearest dealer, who sends out a recovery with all the spares needed to get you going. All done quicker than I can type this. Helpful or scary?

 

[Zombie_61]

The one all about living with toddlers, right?

Of course! What other kind of forum would have discussions about people running around naked?

 

[Siggmund]

The repetitive grinding and clatter of skateboards at midnight outside my bedroom window drives me nuts.

 

[BlueTrain]

That has to mean you don't live in a retirement community!

My late father-in-law had a pilot's license and had seat belts installed in his cars long before they were standard equipment. So says my wife. But he didn't insist that they be worn around town, only on long trips. Naturally they were aircraft-type seatbelts, wider than the ones that came on cars. I don't think the logic of only wearing them on long trips was particularly sound, however. One car I had that had lap and shoulder belts, a 1968 or 1969, I think, had a soft cover n the part that went across your shoulder and chest, which I guess was a nice touch. It was a Rover 2000TC, a very classy and now very rare car. My late Ford Escort had automatic seat belts, which I guess was a clever idea but it could be amusing at times.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Now, it happened. Supermarket changed my beloved, storebrand bio-fairtrade instant-coffee (100% Tanzania-coffee).

They lowered the price from 4,99 EUR to 3,99 EUR, changed from plastic-can to glass and I thought: Oh oh, bad sign?? Now, it's a mix of Papua New Guinea, Tanzania and Uganda. BUT, luck under the circumstances! The new mix isn't that fruity, as the clean Tanzania, but the taste is similar.

Now, I will enjoy my last can of the clean Tanzania, before starting the new cans.

 

[sheeplady]

Isn't it that most fatal accidents occur within 20 minutes (or miles maybe?) From your home?

My parents never got in the habit of automatically buckling their seat belts... they often forgot. They weren't available when they were kids. Myself, however, I do it without thinking. Reflecting on this many years ago, when I got my daughter her first bike (basically a push trike, she wasn't old enough to pedal by herself yet) I bought a helmet. At 4, she won't get on her bike or scooter without a helmet, and won't let her little brother either. So perhaps it's worked and become automatic.

When I was in high school a kid that was in middle school was biking on the road and hit by a slow moving car (less than 30 mph). (The kid looked over his shoulder at the car and veered out into the cars path, driver was not at fault.) The helmet saved his life. So we wear bike helmets.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I knew two kids growing up who got broadsided by cars while bike riding, and they ended up with exactly the same injuries -- a broken leg and a broken arm, with the arm broken in the same way both times. In both cases they landed on their sides, not their heads, which I think demonstrates something about the physics of bicycle accidents. I knew a lot of kids who got banged up on bikes to a lesser degree than these, but the only head injury was the time my sister went over the handlebars and landed on her face.

 

[sheeplady]

Besides over the handles, there's the "as you fall" (or more accurately, slide) hitting your head against an object. Knew someone who once fell into a tree when his bike slid. He also once went over his handlebars. Needless to say, his helmet after going over his handle bars on a dirt path in a forest was enough to make me sold on helmets for life.

(The one guy was a mountain biker and would go out for very long very wild treks. He wasn't particularly accident prone.)

 

[Trenchfriend]

Besides over the handles, there's the "as you fall" (or more accurately, slide) hitting your head against an object. Knew someone who once fell into a tree when his bike slid. He also once went over his handlebars. Needless to say, his helmet after going over his handle bars on a dirt path in a forest was enough to make me sold on helmets for life.

(The one guy was a mountain biker and would go out for very long very wild treks. He wasn't particularly accident prone.)

Gladly, the version with wenting over the handlebar and flying against german lanterns, too. Real classic, here.

 

[BlueTrain]

When I was in Germany in the 1960s when I was in the army (a long time ago), we were given lectures about watching out for bicylists on the highways. Mostly they were all older people, too, and not kids. Invariably they were dressed up, too. In fact, we weren't allowed out of barracks without being dressed in coat and tie ourselves. Times change.

 

[tonyb]

Isn't it that most fatal accidents occur within 20 minutes (or miles maybe?) From your home?
...

I haven't researched it, but it seems likely that most accidents would happen where you do most of your driving, and, for most of us, that's within a fairly short distance from home.

Another factor may be what I read about in a New Yorker piece a few years back: We are less cautious in familiar territory. We have covered some route on hundreds or thousands of occasions without incident, so we sense no danger there.

That NYer story mentioned how suburban cul-de-sacs were among the more dangerous places for real little kids to be playing, this on account of those little tykes being beneath a driver's rearward visibility, and that said driver, having backed out of his driveway thousands of times without crunching a kid, isn't on guard against it.

That was a few years ago, before rearview cameras and automatic braking became more common.

 

[Stearmen]

When you get free HBO and decide to record one movie, only to find the satellite signal was messed up. Only saving grace, I discovered it in the first five minutes instead of the last five!

 

[2jakes]

So trivial, yet it ticks me off!

When the "Man of Steel" was not....
according to Shuster & Siegel.

From Superman #1 summer 1939.

And it was Max Fleischer who gave "Suppie" the
power to fly.

Before that, he was just a grasshopper in blue tights
leaping mostly from building to building.

There's more, but I'm too ticked off to continue!

 

[Touchofevil]

The repetitive grinding and clatter of skateboards at midnight outside my bedroom window drives me nuts.

Sounds like aperfect spot to encourage the neighborhood dogs to leave their business.

 

[Touchofevil]

I haven't researched it, but it seems likely that most accidents would happen where you do most of your driving, and, for most of us, that's within a fairly short distance from home.

Another factor may be what I read about in a New Yorker piece a few years back: We are less cautious in familiar territory. We have covered some route on hundreds or thousands of occasions without incident, so we sense no danger there.

That NYer story mentioned how suburban cul-de-sacs were among the more dangerous places for real little kids to be playing, this on account of those little tykes being beneath a driver's rearward visibility, and that said driver, having backed out of his driveway thousands of times without crunching a kid, isn't on guard against it.

That was a few years ago, before rearview cameras and automatic braking became more common.

And that is why children should play in their backyard. Or at the very least in their front yard (under supervision) and not in the street.

 

[LizzieMaine]

So trivial, yet it ticks me off!

When the "Man of Steel" was not....
according to Shuster & Siegel.

From Superman #1 summer 1939.

And it was Max Fleischer who gave "Suppie" the
power to fly.

Before that, he was just a grasshopper in blue tights
leaping mostly from building to building.

There's more, but I'm too ticked off to continue!

I always preferred the original Siegel and Shuster Superman to the Big Blue Boy Scout he became in the 50s and 60s. His vulnerabilities made him much more relatable, and his unwillingness to put up with any crap from anybody made him admirable. After his creators got muscled out the door by Jack Liebowitz's goons, Superman lost his -- ah -- kishkes.

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ Even as a kid, I realized that a superhero needed a weakness to be interesting. Otherwise, he could do everything without fear and never lose - which quickly becomes boring. Kryptonite served that purpose for Superman, but what I've learned from you and 2Jakes and some of my own reading is that he originally wasn't as "super" as he became.

Do you know when kryptonite was introduced as a weakness and if it was done so after he became so "super" as they realized they needed a weakness to keep it interesting?