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Re: Reciprocating Mass - Yesterday

I'm letting a friend borrow my Acadia for a couple of days. While he has that, I have his Mini Cooper. I had never driven one before... and, to be honest, it's not what I expected. It's certainly quick but I haven't driven a front wheel drive car in so long that I had forgotten about understeer. The clutch is also a lot more challenging than in my Miata.

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Funny, Interesting and Useless links - 2 days ago

And Ars Technica calls me an "Observant citizen": http://goo.gl/kCkvm

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Funny, Interesting and Useless links - 2 days ago

Here's my account of the bizarre hearing I attended yesterday: http://goo.gl/SKML3

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Local Unmentionables: Notes on YOUR corner of the world - 3 days ago

Today I attended a court hearing. It was quite remarkable. I called upon my long-lost high school debate team skills and took copious notes from which I wrote up a detailed story. That story will be posted on TechDirt tomorrow morning.

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Funny, Interesting and Useless links - 3 days ago

Don't watch this with other people around because anybody who can get through this video without tears isn't human. CBS News was interviewing an elderly woman who survived the tornado yesterday. It was amazing that she survived because her house and the entire neighborhood were completely flattened. Unfortunately, her dog was missing. During the interview, the dog starts crawling out from und

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Granberry's Parlor - 3 days ago

And the media wins again with their shitty coverage of this kind of thing. The earlier reports of this being caused by two refineries near Chicago shutting down were misleading in one very crucial way... there are three other refineries shut down as well, two of which are right here in the Twin Cities and together, those two are responsible for 70% of all gasoline sold here. Much of the other 3

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Granberry's Parlor - 4 days ago

The problem here is that the refineries that are shut down aren't actually in Minnesota and yet our gas prices went up the most. The refineries here are all functioning fine. I think the refineries are experimenting with margins. I think this is a test to see what the impact will be on demand with arbitrarily high prices. At "normal" margins, they can only sell so much gas during a given time

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Local Unmentionables: Notes on YOUR corner of the world - 7 days ago

The prices right now have nothing to do with cost factors. Oil prices have remained essentially flat. This is a somewhat more sinister situation. Remember the Enron scam where traders would order power plants to shut down just so it would trigger a price increase? Well, two separate refineries that serve this area suddenly decided to shut down for maintenance.

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Boss Bitch - 8 days ago

I am coming up on 7 years. Our company portal actually shows us our percentile... I have been with the company longer than 80.45% of the rest of the employees.

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Local Unmentionables: Notes on YOUR corner of the world - 8 days ago

I may be mistaken but I don't think regular gasoline is actually subsidized. The oil companies get plenty of government handouts but they also turn record profits every year so it's highly unlikely that the subsidies directly impact consumer prices. If all the subsidies were removed, current gas prices would still be well below production costs.

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Local Unmentionables: Notes on YOUR corner of the world - 8 days ago

That works out to be AUS$1.13 per litre. While it's cheap compared to a lot of the world, it's the sudden increases that mess up people's budgets. This is a 45% increase since January and they say it's going to continue rising until July.

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Boss Bitch - 8 days ago

For now my house is my oyster. I need to see if I can do my job effectively via a tethered internet connection through my phone, though. If so, I may spend some time working from my dad's cabin. For now, I'm just reading a bunch of documentation, trying to get up to speed on this new project.

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Boss Bitch - 9 days ago

It's a strange feeling... I packed my belongings in the car and handed in my security badge. I've spent 10 of the last 15 years working there. Now the new adventure begins.

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Local Unmentionables: Notes on YOUR corner of the world - 9 days ago

Gas prices around here were hovering around $3.89 per gallon yesterday. Today it has shot up to $4.19 at most places. One place by my house is $4.25. That's the highest I've ever seen self-service gas prices in the Twin Cities area.

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Boss Bitch - 10 days ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co_DNpTMKXk

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Boss Bitch - 11 days ago

Yes, all with the same employer although I will no longer be working at the same client site this time. In fact, I won't be working at any client site. I will be working on internal projects and I will be working from home.

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Boss Bitch - 11 days ago

The last two years have been a roller coaster for me employment-wise. I was supposed to get laid off at the end of June 2011. I was able to secure a new role at the last minute (almost literally... it was 45 minutes before my exit interview was supposed to happen). I was back on the chopping block this year with a scheduled end-date of February 28th. Again, I managed to secure a new (albeit s

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Funny, Interesting and Useless links - 13 days ago

We were always taught that glaciers moved slowly as they carved out the lake beds across Minnesota. Sometimes, they move fast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EyfEDKWscg

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Granberry's Parlor - 13 days ago

"I came here for an argument."

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Funny, Interesting and Useless links - 15 days ago

Go read this NOW! http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2013/05/depression-part-two.html

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Granberry's Parlor - 15 days ago

Quoteddt Good point. Sometimes that is the proper response in factual disagreements, though! ddt No it's not!

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Funny, Interesting and Useless links - 16 days ago

QuoteEl Jeffe Nimoy looks so old. But they do resemble one another. What ethnicity would one say they resemble? Nimoy has always struck me as odd looking, in a unique way. They claim to be Vulcan but a lot of nutjobs insist they're actually Romulan and keep calling for Starfleet to release a long-form birth certificate to prove it one way or the other.

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Granberry's Parlor - 17 days ago

http://www.popehat.com/2013/05/07/blog-post-youtube-comment-mississippi-supreme-court-order-whatever/ A Mississippi Supreme Court Judge chooses to use his dissent opinion in a stay of execution order to demonstrate his ignorance of federal law.

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Funny, Interesting and Useless links - 18 days ago

I don't know if any of you have been following the train wreck that is the Prenda Law porn-trolling case but the judge in California issued his sanctions order today: http://ia601508.us.archive.org/28/items/gov.uscourts.cacd.543744/gov.uscourts.cacd.543744.130.0.pdf It is a masterpiece of just-desserts and Star Trek references.

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Local Unmentionables: Notes on YOUR corner of the world - 23 days ago

Quoteddt Bitter? Nah. Disgusted? I try to be amused. But often fail. Why didn't you say so? That sounds brave and visionary! Here's another million!

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Reciprocating Mass - 26 days ago

Thinking about replacing the headlamps on my Miata with these 7" LED Sealed-Beam Headlamps. It's a bit pricey but all the reviews and discussions I've seen (with the exception of one detractor) say that these are better/brighter than HID conversion kits and they last 20 times longer than regular sealed-beams.

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Reciprocating Mass - 29 days ago

The only things about the Elio that I would like to see improved are the length (it's longer than my Miata) and the fact that it's not a convertible.

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Reciprocating Mass - 29 days ago

I was unfamiliar with the BSA Trike until now. That is fantastic. Oh how I would love to have something that looks like that with a modern engine and suspension system.

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Reciprocating Mass - 29 days ago

I really want to see what the Elio is going to be like. https://www.eliomotors.com/

by Cloudscout - Spork Central

Re: Click Click Click - 30 days ago

QuoteAlan Lehman I'm giddy with excitement. My most recent impulse buy is a used Canon 1d mk iv. It arrives Thursday. I've lusted after one of these since 'round about the time of the mk ii. And at 10fps, I'll likely put >1000 new frames on it this weekend at a soccer game. I'm starting to shop around for a camera to take on my safari in August. Not sure how much I want to spend, though.

by Cloudscout - Spork Central