God bless Lili St. Cyr!

Serious? No. I don't seriously expect really safe speed limits to be set up by any democracy that has so many motorists in it. But I do think that's what we ought to do. As a civilisation, we are killing our own children at an appalling rate, just so that motorists can catch up to the back of the next long line of stationary traffic a few seconds faster. In town, slow down.

Look at the scenario you described. A car doing the speed limit towards a marked crosswalk... it's such a familiar scenario that we forget to be horrified. Think about what we're doing here. We have footpaths across the street specifically for people to walk across. And then we have motorists driving straight at those footpaths, at such speed that it would literally be a crime to go any faster at all, at such speed that they couldn't possibly stop should anyone suddenly walk out on the path. These motorists expect everyone else in the world to pay attention, to stay out of their way. God forbid they themselves should slow down! They're 'doing the limit' and that makes it OK.

That limit is obviously much too high. It should come down. Twenty is plenty.

Then let's redesign those footpaths. At the moment there are raised paths either side of the street, and when the path runs across the middle of the street it is lowered. For the convenience of motorists, of course; otherwise they might have to slow down. Well, let them slow down! The path across the street is a pedestrian walkway just like the paths either side, so let's have it at the same height, for the convenience of people using wheelchairs, people pushing infants in prams, people with mobility issues. We'll put a gentle slope to either side of the path so that it isn't a nasty bump for motor traffic. Well, I mean - so that it isn't a nasty bump if the motor traffic is moving at a safe speed.

Yeah, speed limits are definitely way too high, you're right about that. 20mph in cities is plenty. Then you have a lot longer in which to notice people walking across the road, your brakes have much less work to do in order to bring the vehicle safely to a stop, and if you still fail to respond in time you'll do much less bodily harm to somebody.

Wake up, chump. Rapid charging is highly dangerous. Batteries which take a long time to charge are much safer. Any time you speed up charging, you get more heating and pressure buildup. Sorry, but TANSTAAFL.

Oh boy! An even better BOMB!

âoe...so you islanders can kick rocks.â

Sheesh. The line noise is really bad on your 1970 110 baud acoustic modem!

Chili has the other premier astronomy site in the world.

LOL. That's CHILE, chump.

A gas or diesel car's efficiency (and thus range) will have generally dropped well more than that by year 5.

Utter idiotic bullshit. My Golf TDI has now been on the road for 17 years, and gets exactly the same fuel mileage that it got brand new: about 45 mpg real-world. You're living in the 1930s or 1940s if you think annual tune-ups are a thing.

Oh for Christ sake. It's Java. Period. The same goddam language syntax as any other "edition" of Java. Why do you have to try to make it sound grand? Linux is written in C, not "Super OS Developer's Edition C". So it includes a whole lot of functions. So what.

You didn't answer the question. The question is, why can't the "platform" mumo jumbo just be furnished as add-on libraries?

they can't monetise it

You mean they can't FIGURE OUT HOW to monetize it.

You mean it only has a 1 in a million chance of recognizing you? I doubt very much if that is what you meant to say. Presumably you mean 1 in a million false-negatives!

'hybrid' can mean 'stop the engine at the lights'

No it can't. That's not a hybrid, idiot. That's a simple start-stop engine. Sheesh.

Biodiesel is NOT "vegetable oil". It is synthesized from vegetable oil and other bio sources by a complex chemical process of esterification. Idiots who burn SVO (straight vegetable oil) or WVO (waste vegetable oil) or any kind of "grease" in their diesels end up with a disgusting gooey mess in their expensive fuel injection system.

Even true biodiesel has its drawbacks. The viscosity isn't the same as the proper diesel fuel the engine was designed for. That matters when you're dealing with the 1000-bar-plus (15,000 psi-plus) fuel pump of a modern common-rail diesel fuel injection system. It gels and stops flowing at a much higher temperature, and the gelling is harder to deal with than normal diesel fuel gelling. The shelf life is shorter. It is harder on the fuel system seals. Completely unlike normal diesel fuel it is hygroscopic. Once it becomes contaminated with water, bacteria grow and rot filters. Most or all modern diesel engine designs are not rated for any more than 2%, maybe 5% at the most, of biodiesel mixed with regular diesel. The old 1980s-and-before designs were fine with 20%, 80%, or even 100% biodiesel, but those days are gone.

Biodiesel & Ethanol are boondoggles

I know that. You know that. Lots of people know that. You know who doesn't know that? Or, more likely, know it but would rather not admit it publicly? Legislators.

Legislators know a lot of things, but DON'T GIVE A SHIT.