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Paper_jam

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Everything posted by Paper_jam

  1. The only thing I've hit was a cat, at night, about 30 years ago. I was driving at highway speed and it jumped right in front of my car out of nowhere. Made a "gong" sound on the chrome steel bumper of my 1970s Buick.
  2. Thanks! I'd love to see that scanned in an even higher resolution so I could read some of the finer details.
  3. My freshman year ('89) I had a rich roommate from Dallas (seeing a trend here) who pledged Sigma Nu. He had the most impressive vocabulary of racial slurs I'd ever heard. Also would openly brag about him and his buds going out to beat up homosexuals for sport. I can't say if all his frat bros were anything like him, but it sure gave me a bad impression. I know Sigma Nu got closed down not long after.
  4. My first electric razor was a Norelco from about 1979 (it was a gift for my dad but he never used it). It was a tank, I used it from 1986 until the late '90s. Never had to replace the heads or anything. But the electric razors made now seem almost disposable. The heads wear out in like a year, and replacing the heads costs 2/3 the price of a new razor.
  5. Yes, over DirecTV. Every few seconds the picture goes black (and audio is gone too). Given how 2020 is going it's probably interference from an approaching asteroid, or alien invasion fleet.
  6. Dallas just looked mediocre all over. Not many explosive plays. Running game lukewarm and inconsistent. Defense can't get the big stop on 3rd down. Key penalties at the worst possible times.
  7. As far as I can tell, you can get inspections if you want to, but the waiver on vehicle registration renewal is still in effect.
  8. That doesn't look like a car that's going to get much ass.
  9. It kind of kills me that the current regulations in F1 and Indycar mean we can never see cool, one-off designs like this. Part of me wishes the only design rules were: 1) Car must have at least 3 and no more than 8 wheels, unless car uses some type of levitation technology (which is allowed if you can invent it). 2) Car + driver race weight (at end of race) must be at least 1200 lbs and no more than 5000 lbs. 3) Car must be fully piloted by a human--no "autonomous driving" technology. Use any fuel you want, any engine displacement or tech you want (gasoline, diesel, electric, turbine, nuclear, rocket boosters), any kind of tires you want, any aero tech you want (active or passive). Take as many or as few pitstops as you want. I guess the concern is that this approach would kill the series by making the less-well-funded teams noncompetitive (and unwilling to participate). But at least we'd get to see what bleeding edge technology and design could really do. In terms of actual performance (speed) it seems race cars haven't made much progress in 20+ years.
  10. Pfft, this is a sloppy-looking, barely-Cat-1 squib that is moving too fast to strengthen much, why's everybody runnin' around like its Katrina II
  11. There may be some in the media who think they are doing the "socially responsible thing" by not covering the decline in hospitalizations, on the premise that the public will go right back to business as usual if there is even a hint that this thing is easing up. As to whether that kind of behavior is appropriate for a media entity is probably a subject for another board. But every day, every news organization makes decisions about what to cover and what not to cover. Sometimes they don't cover certain details or elements of a story because they've decided the information isn't relevant or would not be in the Best Interest Of Society.
  12. Small asteroid making close approach on Nov. 2. Article says it "probably" won't hit us. (And it's only ~6-7 feet in diameter anyway). https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/22/us/asteroid-earth-november-2020-scn-trnd/index.html
  13. First: before diving into a telescope, consider a good pair of binoculars. You won't get the high magnification of a telescope, but they do a good job with looking at the night sky in general. Telescopes: There are many varieties. If you are mainly interested in looking at faint stars and star formations you probably want a reflector or Dobsonian type. Bigger is generally better, until you get to a point where it's too bulky to move around and set up. If you just want to look at planets and the moon, and brighter stars, a small refractor type may work. I find this type more convenient to move around and set up. However, inexpensive (small) refractors are best for brighter objects rather than faint galaxies or stars. Some scopes have motorized, computerized drive systems which, once calibrated and aligned, will help point the scope at the object you want to see. (Not as trivial an exercise as it sounds. Manually aiming a scope at a faint object using just the crappy finder scope that comes on most telescopes can be a little difficult.) The down side is, when that motorized drive and/or electronics fail out of warranty (and it will) it will turn the scope into a fancy looking, expensive brick. (Just happened to me.) Another frustrating thing about telescopes, especially inexpensive ones, is that their quality and usability right out of the box can be suspect. Plan on spending another $100-200 (or more) on upgrading accessories like eyepieces, the diagonal, focuser, etc. Here's a couple of link which may be useful: https://www.adorama.com/alc/0014311/article/A-Beginners-Guide-to-Telescopes https://www.ozscopes.com.au/choosing-a-telescope-html I hesitate to give any recommendations, partly because I don't know your budget and partly because I'm not sure what is "good" right now. I'm looking at the Meade StarPro series, which looks like it might be a decent no-frills entry level scope, but I'm pretty sure some parts will need to be upgraded immediately. https://www.meade.com/telescopes.html?experience_level=82&series=154 Also, Meade has a "Polaris" series that is similarly low priced. I suggest avoiding the Meade "StarNavigator" series as that's what I have and the motor drive just died on me. (But while it worked it was OK.) Celestron makes a line of scopes that you can mount your smartphone on, and using their app, it will help you aim the scope. Seems to require a good phone though, both in camera and in the phone CPU. And I have not seen enough reviews to be confident that it works well. https://www.celestron.com/collections/starsense-explorer-smartphone-app-enabled-telescopes I didn't even get to the difference between equatorial mounts and alt-azimuth...
  14. What if the wine bottle is placed on its side on a treadmill coated with liquid helium but the entire apparatus is inside a chamber insulated to adiabatic conditions...
  15. A yellow and red blob was right on track for me, but it dissipated into an ineffective light shower just when it got here.
  16. Fuck icemakers, water dispensers, and shit like $%#& wi-fi connectivity (jesus wept) for a goddamn fridge. I just want it to keep my shit cold.
  17. There were dark clouds on the horizon, but by the time they got to my house, they barely spat out enough to make my sidewalk damp.
  18. Gawdammit Austin is going to get dry humped by Hanna. No bueno.
  19. FWIW, my uncorrected distance vision is decent, but not 20/20, more like 20/30. For reading newspaper-size text on paper, I need glasses (I think they are x1.5 or 1.75) unless I have good lighting. I still passed the eye test (or so they told me) without too much trouble. Maybe I guessed at a few of the letters or numbers.
  20. The Texas Tribune coronavirus site is showing a big drop in hospitalized cases today (from well over 10,000 to 8858). I don't know if 1500+ patients were discharged since yesterday, or if it's just something glitchy in the reporting for today. Anyone know?
  21. Thinking about Hale-Bopp reminded me of something else--back then, I went up on Mount Bonnell to see it, and even though it's still in the city, just getting above the predominant city lights helped. So if you live near there and don't want to drive far out into the country, that might be an option that's better than the average back yard. But that was 20+ years ago.
  22. I have a smallish (102 mm) GOTO motorized telescope that's been sitting idle for a couple of years and tried to get it going last night, but the electronics and motor drive seem to be dead. How does something made with solid state electronics, that was working when you put it away, just up and die? But that being said, from looking at Hale-Bopp in '97, I found that a telescope (at least a small one) didn't add much over good binocs. It made a small fuzzy ball into a larger fuzzy ball.
  23. Jesus, is your friend the Hubble Space Telescope? Even looking back towards the Austin lights, I managed to see it for about 30 seconds last night (with binocs) before a thin cloud wiped it out. Was about 9:28 pm. Timing is somewhat important because you need to catch it when the light from sunset is mostly gone, but before the comet gets too low in the sky.
  24. No CR but some of our decision makers are making policy fully unencumbered by any consideration of data or otherwise being "fully informed."
  25. I tried to catch this Saturday and Sunday morning, but it was too hazy, then I tried last night and I could not pick it up out of the skyglow just above the horizon. A guy with us had a camera that was sensitive enough to get a faint image, but to the naked eye and binocs it was just too faint. If it was up to me, we'd have draconian laws and punishments to control light pollution.
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