In an urban area, where speed limits are typically either 25mph or 35mph, yes, that is special. (40 km/h and 56 km/h respectively)

This also explains the large number of other wrecks in the chase.

>My guess is the Tesla hitting one of the "street poles" (telephone pole?)

Normally these poles are called "utility poles", because most of the time they are installed & owned by the local power utility. There are folks in the electric industry that get down right bristly at the term "telephone pole". Telephone service is inferior (lower down the pole) to power, which is at the top of the pole. (Lowest of all, in every sense of the term, is cable TV service.)

Source: I work at a power company
 

Stumble/dollar is one of the best descriptions I've ever heard to rate drugs, just FYI. ;)

what??? no. 10k/10% is $1k/ month

1850, say, when personal happiness was a Natural Right?

Happiness was never a right. Pursuit of it was.

As long as you were legally a person and didn't need to ask your owner's or husband's permission?

Yes, as long as you were legally a person.

That a personhood was unjustly denied to some was a travesty, but it has nothing to do with my argument.

you being an idiot and driving your car over a pedestrian infringes on their right to the pursuit of happiness

Sure. And any such idiots ought to be punished — and have their right to drive a car suspended. But this has nothing to do with the preventive prohibition — which is what the license requirement amounts to.

You see, when it comes to behaviors that put others at significant risk

Risky driving — or drone-flying — can be prohibited. People engaging in it may lose their right to drive (or fly drones) at all — or be punished otherwise — that's fine and normal. What I do not approve of, however, is the preemptive requirement to have a government's permission to do anything.

why only punish the ones who were unlucky enough to have the negative outcome actually happen

Because determining, what's really risky and what is not, is only a little bit easier, than detecting a murderer before he kills...

Similarly, Amazon flying drones over residential neighborhoods sounds pretty risky to me

It does, huh? You don't mind the thousands-pounds piloted aircraft flying above your all day, you don't mind the trucks driving around all day (delivering the same stuff), it is the light drones, that keep you awake at night?

not sure this ban is such a bad thing until we can prove suitable precautions are being taken

That, right there, is the key to our disagreement. You want everybody, who wish to fly a drone, to prove, they've "taken precautions". I don't believe, you ought to have the power to impose such a requirement. The burden of proof ought to be on you.

Now, that was philosophical. Now comes the more practical. Amazon being the 800-pound gorilla, can afford to argue with the government — they can not be ignored. They even managed to get the USPS to offer Sunday delivery — though now it seems available to all.

But the FAA simply killed other attempts to use drones — such as for the delivery of flowers. The barrier to entry — to start competing with the incumbent behemoths — was upped, and we the consumers are losing. No wonder, Amazon aren't suing to overturn the FAA's decision — any favorable overcome would apply to all. They are merely asking for exception — for themselves. Crony capitalism much?

They need to ask permission because the FAA specifically banned such behavior last month.

Gone are the days, when pursuit of happiness was understood as a natural right granted to each human being not by their government, but by the Creator.

Today one must get a permission to drive a car, carry a weapon, perform in costume, or, indeed, to fly a drone.

And this prohibition does not even come from Congress directly — having usurped so much control over our lives over the last century, they are simply unable to deal with the minutiae and are forced to delegate more and more of the rule-making to the Executive-run agencies — such as the FAA.

You're just like Fox News now.

Sure. Because the honest and straight-shooting New York Times and MSNBC would publish — indeed, revel in — every piece of bad news...

As long a Republican can be blamed for it — justly or otherwise — of course...

Iraq, for example, was a "quagmire" in 2003 — when the enemy was defeated and on the run. And so it was in 2006, when only minor insurrections remained. But it is not a quagmire today — with the enemy having recaptured vast swaths of the country — the same sophisticated publication is advising us on how to avoid the disaster, not admitting, is has already happened — with the Nobel Peace Prize winner at the helm and a direct result of his decisions and orders.

I don't know about Acetaminophen, but I've heard compelling cases made that if Aspirin were discovered today it would be a prescription drug. Think of the side effects, the modern day "think of the children!" attitude, and pathetic need of the body politic to feel "safe" from any and everything.

As I recall, Windows 3.1 came with a driver for the case speaker to do sound. Quality was awful, and constantly had a high-pitched ring in the background - but it worked.

The day motherboards started coming with real sound chips built-in was the day I stopped buying sound cards. Good enough for me, considering the quality of speakers I used most of the time.

You wont be buying a sound-blaster....

Right, cause cheap/free VR certainly isn't of interest to the slashdot crowd.

Are you saying, VR pr0n is already available? Nope, not yet...

Seriously, though, it may be "of interest", but not so much interest, that it merits a mention every two weeks. Hardly news — neither for nerds nor for others.

Timothy ended that June 29 post about Cardboard with a promise that before long we'd have 'a video introduction to Cardboard with Google VP Clay Bavor

I thought, my karma entitled me to disabled advertising...

'latter' (as in, PBRs) not 'later'

sorry, cooled/chilled/solidified, shut off blower it melts.