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Comment Re:They should upgrade the warning ... (Score 4, Informative) 526

If road/car safety was left to the "invisible hand" then people would still be driving around with "DIY LPG conversions"

If you had any idea how many DIY LPG conversions there are running around on the roads right now, you would apparently piss yourself. And besides conversions, it is hilariously common for people to do DIY propane systems on their diesels. Apparently it provides a power boost similar to a turbo, and propane is cheap these days so it's cheaper than using a turbo to burn more diesel. A grill tank goes in the bed or sometimes in a toolbox and gets connected with some more grill parts, like a grill regulator and nozzle. These systems are relatively trouble-free so long as they're installed such that the line isn't run someplace idiotic.

As well, you can get a propane conversion for pretty much anything carbureted for about $250, not counting the fancy tanks you have to have for road use.

I've run a 2.5 HP briggs and stratton four stroke by connecting a nipple to a camp stove (throwaway) cylinder and running a piece of 1/4 inch tubing into the carburetor. The nipple is based on a torch head that fell off, so there's a valve there. You can control motor speed by turning the valve, simple as that. The conversions use a vacuum-controlled valve, so the engine draws the fuel it needs and you control the butterfly in order to control the engine as normal. Anyone competent to turn a wrench can perform a conversion and again, there's currently significant cost savings in running propane. It's 2.50 per gallon-equivalent on one of the local reservations right now.

Comment Re:They should sue (Score 1) 526

The truth is that the wiring will burn unassisted. Like house wiring, it's jacketed with PVC, which emits massive assclouds of dioxin when it burns. Unlike house wiring, this is not mandated by code, it's simply cheap. There are places for fires to begin which don't involve fuel. Underhood plastics are hard to get going, but once they get going, they go alright. From there it's a short trip to burning/melting hoses and getting some fuel going. A fuel line is far from the only combustion hazard in a vehicle. It, however, is the part that really makes it exciting.

Comment Re:is this a dupe article? (Score 1) 526

Then again, I've been told by airplane mechanics that if automobiles were maintained to the same repair levels that are standard (and required by the FAA) for even private non-commercial general aviation aircraft that they would easily last 30-40 years and nearly a million miles.

Nominally true. You would also have to build them to aircraft standards. If you miss a rivet in an airplane you don't just throw up your hands and say fuck it, but a significant percentage of the pressure welds in a unibody are bad and nobody cares.

Comment Re:There is no free lunch (Score 1) 163

I would love it if I could pay for a social network to keep in touch with my friends and business contacts and it didn't spy on me and spam me and sell my information to all and sundry.

It's called your own website. Put up a site based on any CMS, say Drupal, and then have all your friends create accounts there. But if you're paying someone else to run a site, then by definition you're paying someone else to compile data on you. Then the government gives them a choice between turning over the data or going to PMITA prison.

Comment Re:Fuck the NSA (Score 1) 163

It's just the typical cycle. Rewind to the 80s, hippies passing out flyers on streetcorners warning of the trilateral commission's influence on American finance and people throwing them away saying "this looks like a bunch of bullshit". Forward to 2000, the trilateral commission's influence on finance and politics is a proven fact, and now we're looking at more groups like the Bilderbergers etc and people are saying "this looks like a bunch of bullshit" all over again.

We should string the tech company executives up alongside the politicians and bureaucrats. And when the revolution comes, apologists will also be up against the wall.

Sadly, when the next revolution comes, we will all be against the wall, because it will be due to massive collapse.

Comment Re:Strange (Score 1) 163

I have a safeway card so old it doesn't have a name. They look at my receipt and go "Thank you, Misterrrrrr...." and I say "You can call me THE BLANK" and take my receipt and go home.

But Google knows all about me :)

Comment Re:Strange (Score 1) 163

I hope a bitch (which is what she'd be) will check my credit score before dating, and save me some fucking trouble.

The issue of credit checks by employers is an ugly one, though.

The issue of housing is also an ugly one; it's illegal to be homeless, but you can still be denied housing. Compare to car insurance, where SOMEONE has to insure you (used to be GEICO, dunno who it is now.)

Comment Re:Strange (Score 1) 163

I am not thinking so much of software giants but Intel which forces you to relinquish your privacy with apparently no way to get around their backdoors.

Stop worrying about intel. AMD is including a TPM in their CPUs too, it has other purposes as well so it has another name but it's the same shit when you distill it. And all the ARM processors are also working on including them. Anyone who doesn't will find themself in a poor position when they're the only ones not permitted to play DRM video.

Comment Re:What about the Japanese casualties? (Score 0, Flamebait) 211

For all that I've no use for people who don't realize that, unlike many recent ventures, the US fought WWII for very good reasons, and probably saved millions of lives by doing so,

Pop quiz: Who sold the Nazis fuel and metal so that they could run around killing motherfuckers? Answer, the USA. We fueled the war deliberately, kept it going until Europe was in a shambles, then entered the war. It permitted us to reduce a bunch of our excess population, and come out of WWII with massive economic concessions that made us the world's #1 superpower.

Many of the rank-and-file had little choice but to "serve".

You always have a choice. You never get considered to be more moral for being unwilling to die rather than kill people. You're just selfish. Understandably so, but that changes nothing, especially for the people you kill.

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