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Ham Equity posted:Not sure what the best thread for this would be: I have a desk setup like so: The monitor (or most likely its power block) is probably producing a lot of electromagnetic static noise that's getting picked up by the speaker cables like an antenna picks up radio waves. if you move it physically farther away from the speaker cables you should notice that the noise lessens. You can reduce some of this noise by sticking ferrite chokes/rings on the cables. you could also replace them with better-shielded cables or just try wrapping them in aluminum foil.
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Oct 2, 2023 00:41
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Bucky Fullminster posted:Sounds like you should definitely try geo-caching. This coupled with an electric bike seems like a fantastic way to spend a day... How do I see what games are taking place in local parks? I was thinking of going to a game at the Minute Maid park. I also saw a billboard advert for the Ren Faire on 7th October so I'll definitely check that out.
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Oct 2, 2023 01:07
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BonHair posted:Talent is bullshit, the secret to all good creative endeavours is practice and more practice. Going out and getting some canvases and acrylic paints and brushes is pretty affordable for a hobby, and a good start is just doing it and seeing if you could stick with it. Bucky Fullminster posted:not that I'm qualified for anything, but It can absolutely help. Just get some paper. Start with pencils if you've got them, get some paint and brushes if you can, and have a go. Don't over think it just put poo poo on paper and see what happens. thanks, buds. i need something as an outlet, and I like to doodle. i have no talent whatsoever, but i can see paintings i'd like to make in my mind. i have lucid dreams a good bit of a time, and i'd like to try to recreate them, even symbolically. i like colors
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Oct 2, 2023 01:08
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Qubee posted:
You might have better luck in the Houston thread. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3032564&pagenumber=147&perpage=40 Houston is massive on a scale most people don't really comprehend. Depending on where you're staying, NASA is a 30 minute drive. Ren Faire is a little over an hour if traffic is on your side. And the public transportation is almost non existent.
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Oct 2, 2023 01:36
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Qubee posted:seems like a fantastic way to spend a day... It genuinely is. Many days, even. There are 3-4 million around the world, thousands in every city. It’s one of the coolest things humans have done. Everyone does it for free, for fun. I’m on the road but there is a subreddit and lots of YouTubes with more details to get started. I’ve had an article about it brewing for a while which I might try to finish off. The story of how it started is cool. The US had gps technology for years, but deliberately scrambled the signal so other people couldn’t use it. Then about 20 years ago they realised this was pretty stupid, and decided to stop scrambling it. Almost immediately someone recognised you could use it for a treasure hunt game and went and hid something in the woods. And it went from there. It’s a way of playing with satellites.
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Oct 2, 2023 04:40
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Ham Equity posted:The two speakers are plugged into my PC via an 1/8"/headphone jack to two 1/4" jacks. The speakers seem to have a problem with my widescreen monitor; they have a bunch of static, and when I do things on the widescreen monitor (play video, play a game, scroll the bar on a webpage, etc.) I can here the static changing/getting worse/better. Shutting off or unplugging that monitor makes the static go away. I've run into the same issue with the speakers plugged into the same power strip as the monitor and a different power strip from the monitor, with three different DisplayPort outputs, and with both the headphone jack on the back and the front of my PC case; what the gently caress is going on here? I do not have the same problem with my USB headset. Your video card produces a giant amount of EMF, and it shares a ground with the sound card on your motherboard. I have the same problem. You can solve it with a simple USB dongle dac like the cheapo Apple USB-C one. Grab an adapter if you don't have a C port, it's really a usb2 device anyway.
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Oct 2, 2023 05:07
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quote isn't edit
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Oct 2, 2023 05:07
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blight rhino posted:thanks, buds. i need something as an outlet, and I like to doodle. i have no talent whatsoever, but i can see paintings i'd like to make in my mind. i have lucid dreams a good bit of a time, and i'd like to try to recreate them, even symbolically. If you know what you want, you're 90% of the way, go out and do it! And as mentioned, talent is bullshit, practice is the secret that all "talented" people use. When you've done a few paintings, try to describe what's missing or wrong with them compared to your vision. That will help you get better, maybe with the help of a teacher.
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Oct 2, 2023 05:28
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There's this intersection in my neighborhood for which I'm curious about the rules of the road (the state of Georgia in the US). The intersection is pictured below. If two cars are traveling in opposite directions on Road A towards the intersection with Road B, both intending to turn onto Road B, I assume the car who will be making a right-hand turn has the right-of-way. This is evidently not how everyone in the neighborhood understands this intersection, as I've been that car and had to stop because the car making a left did not. Which is correct in this situation?
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Oct 2, 2023 14:03
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Whoever wants it more
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Oct 2, 2023 14:55
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Officially, the car turning right has the right of way. But in practice?greazeball posted:Whoever wants it more
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Oct 2, 2023 14:59
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hooah posted:There's this intersection in my neighborhood for which I'm curious about the rules of the road (the state of Georgia in the US). The intersection is pictured below. If two cars are traveling in opposite directions on Road A towards the intersection with Road B, both intending to turn onto Road B, I assume the car who will be making a right-hand turn has the right-of-way. It’s GA so each driver needs to wave the other through like “no you go ahead” until someone loses the battle of wills.
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Oct 2, 2023 17:30
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Based on the angles, it's possible that people turning left think they're kind of going straight
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Oct 2, 2023 17:42
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Should I be worried about the electrical situation in my apartment if the landlord just replaced two burnt-out bulbs in the hallway and they're already flickering like crazy?
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Oct 2, 2023 17:49
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Possibly, but the most likely explanation, I'd guess, is that the landlord bought cheap LED lights and either they were DOA or they're on a dimmer circuit that they aren't compatible with.
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Oct 2, 2023 17:56
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Are the new bulbs CFL/LED and are the lights on a dimmer switch? You can get lots of flickering by using fluorescents/leds that aren't specifically designed to work with dimmers. If that's the case you probably won't burn your house down. But you should bug the landlord about it regardless.
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Oct 2, 2023 18:00
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Thanks y'all. I don't think they're LEDs and it's not a dimmer switch just a regular on/off switch, but I'm not 100% on the first part. I will definitely bug them about it, they're pretty good about fixing (some) things around here.
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Oct 2, 2023 21:52
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blight rhino posted:thanks, buds. i need something as an outlet, and I like to doodle. i have no talent whatsoever, but i can see paintings i'd like to make in my mind. i have lucid dreams a good bit of a time, and i'd like to try to recreate them, even symbolically. Like BonHair said, it's really not about talent, it's about practise. Drawing and painting and stuff is really a bunch of skills that are learned, practised and improved like any other. It's just one of those things that looks effortless when good artists do it, because you don't see the zillions of hours of practice and previous art that led up to that point. Anyway, my point is: don't let "oh I'm not talented" hold you back! And if you do want to draw or paint better, lessons and practise will absolutely help.
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Oct 2, 2023 22:19
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Why does my neighbor spend more time idling and revving his motorcycle than actually riding it? It seems new and not like a beater that he's trying to repair. My best guess is that his wife doesn't want him to ride it and so he just sits and revs while daydreaming about riding the open road. Is there a more valid possibility?
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Oct 2, 2023 22:34
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regulargonzalez posted:Why does my neighbor spend more time idling and revving his motorcycle than actually riding it? It seems new and not like a beater that he's trying to repair. My best guess is that his wife doesn't want him to ride it and so he just sits and revs while daydreaming about riding the open road. Is there a more valid possibility? There's a special kind of rear end in a top hat that advertises ownership of a motorcycle by idling it in as noticeable fashion as possible. Maybe some mutated version of a mating call. I had a guy who would back his up to the outdoor patio at my local pub and idle it, exhaust pointed directly at the patrons, for like fifteen minutes. I think he might have been a forceps birth.
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Oct 2, 2023 22:40
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At American stop signs, do you really need to come to a complete stop? I've been doing it at every stop sign but sometimes, it's total overkill when the roads are empty, clearly visible, and there's absolutely no traffic nearby. Can you get in a lot of trouble for not coming to a complete stop? It seems especially silly when it's just me and one other person and I come to a stop, go, and then they can go.
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Oct 3, 2023 12:43
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Qubee posted:At American stop signs, do you really need to come to a complete stop? I've been doing it at every stop sign but sometimes, it's total overkill when the roads are empty, clearly visible, and there's absolutely no traffic nearby. Can you get in a lot of trouble for not coming to a complete stop? It seems especially silly when it's just me and one other person and I come to a stop, go, and then they can go. If there's a cop there and he feels like it, yeah, you can get a ticket for a rolling stop.
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Oct 3, 2023 12:50
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The safety reason behind coming to a complete stop is that if someone rear ends a car that's still rolling, it will fly out into the intersection. Now much of a difference that really makes is debatable, but you can get ticketed for it. And I guess it's always possible for some rear end in a top hat to come speeding up behind you.
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Oct 3, 2023 12:50
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Qubee posted:At American stop signs, do you really need to come to a complete stop? I've been doing it at every stop sign but sometimes, it's total overkill when the roads are empty, clearly visible, and there's absolutely no traffic nearby. Can you get in a lot of trouble for not coming to a complete stop? It seems especially silly when it's just me and one other person and I come to a stop, go, and then they can go. If you're still rolling around Houston, yes. I got pulled over for it last week.
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Oct 3, 2023 12:58
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why does fedex route everything/most everything through its main hub, memphis? i have a quite vital overnight package i need from encino, ca. i live in tucson, az. how is it more efficient to have that package go from encino to memphis to tucson than having some much wider network that would allow packages in need of relatively short distance delivery to take advantage of the increased number of connections/edges.
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Oct 3, 2023 13:20
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That’s their model so they can guarantee overnight shipping. Pick up the packages and get them to an airport during the day, fly the packages to Memphis, sort all the packages at night in a giant operation, fly the packages out the next morning, truck them out the next day.
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Oct 3, 2023 13:51
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sure, and in ideal conditions, i see how it works. but what if there's a massive storm over memphis that delays flights for 4-8hr, if not longer? what if the airport's locked down for some security reason? now you've got tons of inbound flights delayed, and pretty much any overnight delivery on one of those will be late. bottlenecking your system like that seems like...bad logistics, no? don't you want as many possible connections to maximize random disconnections? obviously they can't connect every airport to every other airport, but you'd think they'd have branches between like la, phoenix, and sf. or ny, boston, and dc. or something rather than routing almost everything through memphis.
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Oct 3, 2023 14:36
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Qubee posted:At American stop signs, do you really need to come to a complete stop? I've been doing it at every stop sign but sometimes, it's total overkill when the roads are empty, clearly visible, and there's absolutely no traffic nearby. Can you get in a lot of trouble for not coming to a complete stop? It seems especially silly when it's just me and one other person and I come to a stop, go, and then they can go. The other answer you'd get from the car hate thread is that no one gives a poo poo about rules for cars, no one is gonna punish you for your actual actions in a car, only for your skin colour or whatever.
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Oct 3, 2023 14:52
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abelwingnut posted:why does fedex route everything/most everything through its main hub, memphis? i have a quite vital overnight package i need from encino, ca. i live in tucson, az. how is it more efficient to have that package go from encino to memphis to tucson than having some much wider network that would allow packages in need of relatively short distance delivery to take advantage of the increased number of connections/edges. FedEx's goal is to minimize their total operating costs. They've already got the central sorting facility in Memphis and moving to a different operating model would be very expensive, so they'd need some reason to believe that spending that money would pay off. So far they apparently haven't found it.
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Oct 3, 2023 15:36
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Qubee posted:At American stop signs, do you really need to come to a complete stop? I've been doing it at every stop sign but sometimes, it's total overkill when the roads are empty, clearly visible, and there's absolutely no traffic nearby. Can you get in a lot of trouble for not coming to a complete stop? It seems especially silly when it's just me and one other person and I come to a stop, go, and then they can go. just saying, this also goes for stop signs in other countries. The consequences of not stopping and getting caught can obviously vary wildly.
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Oct 3, 2023 16:15
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abelwingnut posted:sure, and in ideal conditions, i see how it works. but what if there's a massive storm over memphis that delays flights for 4-8hr, if not longer? what if the airport's locked down for some security reason? now you've got tons of inbound flights delayed, and pretty much any overnight delivery on one of those will be late. Incorporating even one redundant sorting location would double the number of planes they have to own and flights they have to pay for, plus two sorting operations, which involve a huge amount of space and machinery and labor. Also it would mean a lot more complication at the originating facility. In their current model it doesn't matter where a package is going, it goes to Memphis. Easy peasy. With more than one sorting facility, you would have to separate the packages at the origin based on which sorting facility they're going to, which requires labor, space, and time. Every origin would have to become its own little sorting operation. All this when you're under the gun to get things to the sorting facility in time for the overnight sort.
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Oct 3, 2023 17:45
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Qubee posted:I've never had someone so perfectly distill my entire existence down into one post and it is like finally understanding the meaning of life. I don't know why my brain is the way it is. I'll freak out about eating lots of rosemary but I'm okay with letting lint build up in a dryer. The Houston space center (which you mentioned) is really cool. I just went back in April, and there was a ton to look at and read. If you have the extra money to spend you can get a short tour of central command where the actual moon landing was managed. They recently restored it to how it looked, down to cigarettes in the ashtrays and old CRT monitors.
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Oct 3, 2023 17:56
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Qubee posted:At American stop signs, do you really need to come to a complete stop? I've been doing it at every stop sign but sometimes, it's total overkill when the roads are empty, clearly visible, and there's absolutely no traffic nearby. Can you get in a lot of trouble for not coming to a complete stop? It seems especially silly when it's just me and one other person and I come to a stop, go, and then they can go. Even if you don't see any cars nearby, there might be pedestrians or bicyclists etc you haven't noticed who are relying on you following the predictable rules of the road actually stopping for their safety. So don't just blow through it. But sure while it is technically illegal tons of americans do the "rolling stop" thing where they tap the breaks to get near zero but don't actually come to a complete stop. BonHair posted:The other answer you'd get from the car hate thread is that no one gives a poo poo about rules for cars, no one is gonna punish you for your actual actions in a car, only for your skin colour or whatever. This is also halfway true. You probably won't get ticketed for a rolling stop but if the cop is bored or having a bad day or doesn't like how black you look or just wants to feel powerful then who knows. Just like any other traffic law that's technically on the books but de facto broken all the time, like driving 5mph above the speed limit. You might as well take the extra 0.1 seconds to do it properly. e: and of course the level of enforcement will vary a lot between different cities / police departments RPATDO_LAMD fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Oct 3, 2023 |
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Oct 3, 2023 18:15
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RPATDO_LAMD posted:Even if you don't see any cars nearby, there might be pedestrians or bicyclists etc you haven't noticed who are relying on you following the predictable rules of the road actually stopping for their safety. So don't just blow through it. Also if you are on a bike and do a rolling stop, drivers (who also do rolling stops at the same minimum speed) will angrily ask why you are such a scofflaw If you are on a bike and nowhere near a stop sign, people will still ask you, apropros of nothing, why all cyclists are such scofflaws who go through stop signs
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Oct 3, 2023 18:22
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Level of enforcement depends on the community - some townships rely on tickets for their budgets.
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Oct 3, 2023 18:32
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I keep forgetting to post this here. I'm doing some alteration to a cheap animatronic display. I just spray painted the original robe, which is just cheap nylon or thin vinyl or something plastic. In any event, it's now very stiff, and is kind of like a cheap poncho. Is there anything I can do do take some of the stiffness out? Could I run it through the dryer (low/no heat)? I'm a little concerned that putting it in the dryer might make some of the paint flake off and then become a staining issue for any clothes I run through there later.
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Oct 3, 2023 21:06
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Ironhead posted:You might have better luck in the Houston thread. Please note that traffic is almost certainly not on your side, especially at any time near 5pm (why, yes, I did wait in line for 45 minutes to get on the freeway last time I was in Houston, why do you ask?)
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Oct 3, 2023 23:20
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CzarChasm posted:I keep forgetting to post this here. I'm doing some alteration to a cheap animatronic display. I just spray painted the original robe, which is just cheap nylon or thin vinyl or something plastic. In any event, it's now very stiff, and is kind of like a cheap poncho. Is there anything I can do do take some of the stiffness out? Could I run it through the dryer (low/no heat)? I'm a little concerned that putting it in the dryer might make some of the paint flake off and then become a staining issue for any clothes I run through there later. I would not put spraypaint in my dryer, no. It sounds like it would cause problems, possibly including fire hazards. You might be able to just work the material back and forth with your hands, to add some flex to it, but that will likely also crack the paint. Ultimately, I don't think spraypaint was the right way to color the material in the first place.
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Oct 3, 2023 23:38
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hooah posted:We just got our daughter a Kindle Kids eReader. I've tried searching through the menus and online, but I can't figure out if this (or any Amazon eReader) lets you change the backlight color. Does anyone here know one way or the other? Only Paperwhite and more expensive options let you change the color of the backlight per: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/10/review-bigger-screen-and-better-lighting-make-for-a-nearly-perfect-kindle-paperwhite/ All of the new kindles (2022+) have dark mode (light text/dark background), and let you change the brightness of the light per https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-enable-dark-mode-kindle/ Bear in mind that e-ink is reflective, not emittive - e.g. if you want a warm orange color light to read by use a warm-orange-color lamp. The ideal situation is reading it in the same light as you'd read a paper book in which case you don't need the backlight on at all.
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Oct 3, 2023 23:47
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alnilam posted:Also if you are on a bike and do a rolling stop, drivers (who also do rolling stops at the same minimum speed) will angrily ask why you are such a scofflaw Why are they, though? I cycle to work and just about every day someone rides right through a red light, never mind a stop sign.
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Oct 4, 2023 00:10
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