Re: Emergency braking and bird anatomy [was: Re: DVD copying and CSS]
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
On Mon, Feb 23, 2004 at 12:20:20AM +0000, Pigeon wrote:
> > Or they drive a 4WD and
> > don't realize that anti-lock brakes operate as disc brakes except when
> > in 2WD.
>
> Don't get me started on 4WD drivers :-)
I am one, and I know how to drive mine. Hint: When you buy a new
vehicle, even if you think you know how it works, RTFM. Your
equipment will last longer and you'll enjoy your vehicle more if you
know how it all works.
> Pigeons - and birds in general - seem to be very good at avoiding
> collisions, except in the case where their ability to outfly almost
> any animal leads them to think they can outfly a speeding vehicle. Not
> always, though... one of my mates, walking down the street in a
> daydream, managed to swing his foot into an equally dozy pigeon, and
> propelled it into a girl's backside... she couldn't work out who had
> patted her rear.
Reminds me of driving in the Columbia River Gorge a couple winters ago
on the old highway, which is just two lanes wide and winds up and down
the gorge wall between Portland and The Dalles. It was a snowy, icy
night around 3AM and I didn't have chains (fun!), but I was broke and
I was getting $300 from a friend who absolutely needed to get through.
We stopped and got sodas at Multnomah Falls, out of a vending machine
that dropped a cup with a barn owl feather pattern on it. A few miles
up the road, in the center of the lane, was what looked like one of
the cups lodged in the snow. Well, just as I got 40 feet from it, we
discovered quite abruptly (we both yelled in surprise as I started
pumping the brakes but still skidding a bit, didn't have antilock
brakes, either, then) that it was an owl, which hit the top edge of
the grill and landed on the trunk lid. Looking through the rear view
mirror, the owl just sat for a minute scowling at us through the
window before taking off on its own. I felt really bad about hitting
the owl but glad that I didn't seem to do more than stun it for a
ocuple minutes.
- --
.''`. Paul Johnson <baloo@ursine.ca>
: :' : http://ursine.ca/
`. `'` proud Debian admin and user
`- Debian. Because it *must* work.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux)
iD8DBQFAOVkXUzgNqloQMwcRAlwdAJ9Mjd3YScC4ykhBWDY6GttKDmlfZwCgkQmV
MJOmitDqwjSCJTqoKaSm9xk=
=7iu7
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Reply to: