News Stories

[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by GundamFan0083

I guess Land Rover probably has the lion's share of the off-roader market in Europe.
Then again, I'm not familiar with the European off-road market so I don't know.

Thank you both for informing me of how badly Jeep does overseas.

There's pretty much no offroad market in Europe. Why? There's no where to drive offroad...

Originally Posted by GundamFan0083

Yes, and it's not pretty what happens to the semi.
However, the point is that a Smartcar gets completely totalled by a semi (and is thus a death trap) when they get into an accident, as opposed to other larger vehicles that stand a higher chance of keeping your tush alive.

I chose a semi-tractor trailer over a train for the simple reasons that a train isn't on the highways and byways of most states, and they are very common on the roads, especially out here in the Western states.

Therefore the comparison is between a very common off-road SUV (which is on the smallish side for 4x4s) and the smallest modern car currently available, the smartcar.

Here's a video that shows just how dangerous the smartcar really is, and that's the point I'm trying to make here:

Not pretty.

Not necessarily a good comparison:
1. When you're in a small car you're more aware of road conditions as you "feel" less secure. Small cars get into less accidents.
2. Small Cars are more maneuverable-> less accidents.
3. Small Cars are closer to the ground-> don't roll -> performs better in a skid (though it weighs less). More of a problem with SUVs then a benefit of small cars.
4. Smart Cars are rarely used on the open road, instead they're primarily used in city driving, as you're aware, head on collisions are quite rare in city driving.

But in a direct collision the smart car will of course do worse. But I'd argue that small (and smart) cars don't get in as many accidents in the first place(primarily due to 1.)

[flying ^]

guess who's gonna turn the royal wedding into a royal nightmare

http://www.muslimsagainstcrusades.com/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...l-Wedding.html

maybe that sideshow is needed to get Americans to watch the royal event.

[Tsuyoshi]

Originally Posted by flying ^

guess who's gonna turn the royal wedding into a royal nightmare

http://www.muslimsagainstcrusades.com/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...l-Wedding.html

maybe that sideshow is needed to get Americans to watch the royal event.

Seriously, the crusades have moved on to another stage. These guys are still stuck in the middle ages and it sure as hell won't stop the wedding, and Godforbid, this marriage has nothing to do with any underground conspiracy.

(Good thing I'll be in Italy if shit hits the fan here)

[Bri]

Originally Posted by GundamFan0083

I guess Land Rover probably has the lion's share of the off-roader market in Europe.
Then again, I'm not familiar with the European off-road market so I don't know.

Not just Landrover, the Japanese brands are also very popular in the European off-road market. As DonQuigleone mentioned there isn't much of a pure off-road market for personal use. Most off-roaders are used as commercial vehicles.

Few years back American built trucks and SUVs were also quite popular in the commercial segment due to the favorable exhange rates. But that's pretty much over now as petrol has hit $10/gallon. Big petrol engines just can't compete with diesels.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6c3469c0-6...#axzz1K3zm6fI2

[killer3000ad]

'Restrepo' co-director killed in Libya

[Tiberium Wolf]

Swarming bees kill elderly Texas couple

This what you get when you don't call professionals to do the job. Seriously! Spraying an hive.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

Swarming bees kill elderly Texas couple

This what you get when you don't call professionals to do the job. Seriously! Spraying an hive.

See.. when the couple was much younger this wouldn't have been a problem (unless they were like my dad and used gasoline )... but these newer bees are "africanized" as some posters pointed out: crossbred and hybridized -- instead of escaping, they attack.

He just made the mistake of doing something *I* used to do 20 or 30 years ago.... smack it/burn it/smoke it/spray it. The bees react differently now.

[killer3000ad]

Malaysian government sends effiminate boys to boot camp

Sixty-six Muslim schoolboys in Malaysia identified by teachers as effeminate have been sent to a special camp for counselling on masculine behaviour.
.......
State officials say that, if left unchecked, the students - aged between 13 and 17 - could end up gay or transsexual.

[iLney]

Originally Posted by killer3000ad

Malaysian government sends effiminate boys to boot camp

I wonder if the boot camp involves some steamy stuffs to boost adrenaline

[FatPianoBoy]

Locking them up with a bunch of other effeminate boys is a great way to discourage homosexual behavior.

[flying ^]

Originally Posted by FatPianoBoy

Locking them up with a bunch of other effeminate boys is a great way to discourage homosexual behavior.

didn't turn out that way in some Brazilian prison...

[germanturkey]

http://yhoo.it/ezwHO6

Daughter of Tiger Mother makes it into Harvard and Yale. Suck it, parents who raise sissy children.

[Asuras]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/03/1...ape/index.html

Absolutely disgusting.

[Frenchie]

Originally Posted by germanturkey

http://yhoo.it/ezwHO6

Daughter of Tiger Mother makes it into Harvard and Yale. Suck it, parents who raise sissy children.

I raise you with Times article about Finland's educational system.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by germanturkey

http://yhoo.it/ezwHO6

Daughter of Tiger Mother makes it into Harvard and Yale. Suck it, parents who raise sissy children.

Great students != high-earning junk of the society who care only for their next paycheck.

Each kid is different, some are more adverse to discipline, while others are more submissive. Nonetheless, these parents think they know best, so we can only feedback to them when they create another Akiba slasher.

Every child has his/her own talent. There are certainly plenty of kids in where I live who do well in school but completely suck when it comes to doing work - I know it because I met tons of them throughout my entire national service. A-grade for Physics and can't even apply the concept of forces to removing a stuck cartridge from a hot machine gun?

[sa547]

Originally Posted by Frenchie

I raise you with Times article about Finland's educational system.

That was quite an interesting look into the Finnish educational system. But what works in Finland will need some tweaking elsewhere.

From http://forum.evageeks.org/viewtopic.php?p=451907#451907

Personally, an educational system's success is largely dependent on how well the teachers are being treated and trained. In my country, teachers are being underappreciated, in a system where education is given a short shrift by the pols, which is why most of the high-school grads couldn't speak, read or write English properly. Hell, I'm seeing more televisions than public libraries.

I'd like to see the current secretary of education to look into this, because the literacy rate here is going down. However, to make the Finnish model work in practice, this needs the full cooperation of society and government.

[ganbaru]

Homemade bomb found at mall near Columbine high
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...73K01W20110421
He/they really choose his/their day...

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Homemade bomb found at mall near Columbine high
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...73K01W20110421
He/they really choose his/their day...

I don't mind if the pipebomb takes out Jack Thompson or some bastard lobbyist claiming that violent games influence school shootings, but putting that at a mall will seriously injure innocent people too, and it is going to give more ammo to those assholes who advocate for sunbeams and rainbows in mentally retarding games.

Then again, sometimes I wonder if such acts are actually needed to constantly remind parents to build rapport with their kids. Like what Marilyn Manson said in Bowling For Columbine :

I wouldn't say a single word to them, I would listen to what they had to say. That's what nobody else did.

And some good news :

Special Report: How Singapore lost Down Under in ASX bid

I am glad the deal fell through. I don't mind the Aussies being our junior partner *evil*, but merging two exchanges over here is purely dumb and dumber. And here are the reasons :

1. China's economic and political clout - Politically, China doesn't like Australia. And for all sorts of reasons they would cook up some hoo-hah to undermine their economy and trade. If China plays manchild, Singapore gets affected too. And a significant part of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Filipino forex are interwined with Singapore and vice-versa. How about crippling the entire SEA's financial ability because China doesn't want to get along with Australia (simply because they are "Westerners")?

2. Australia has a different export-orientation - Aussie has a high mix of service and manufacturing industry. Singapore's is largely service. When a service industry is crippled as technology rapidly replaces manual work, the combined damage can hurt both countries as the manufacturing sectors of Australia has to flow money into Singapore while ALSO taking care of their own. This is dangerous for both countries.

I would rather Singapore and Australia form a trading and forex coalition if they want to better battle competitors (like increasing each other's Index with more of each others' companies, pegging each other's currency closer to each other's or even be similar like Brunei's, but that is rather unrealistic). An exchange merger is no way when it removes the economic shielding on the citizens on both sides.

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

Yes, but Europe gets this Ford Focus.

And you can tell by the tires, that it is anything but a rally car.
Its still a nice car, but what goes these days as a rally car is completely... well, lets just say the last road car with rally feeling was the Lancer Evo 9.

Originally Posted by Vexx

Any time you mix "light" and "heavy" it isn't going to go well.... more trains, fewer 18wheelers? (that's going to happen naturally if gas/diesel hits $5/gal in the US anyway).

I'ld also include the frame/bumper height problem. If you have a very low car, you almost always end up under the tires of a heavy truck (no matter how heavy the car is).
But a lower car has a better cW value which is important if you want to drive fast and/or economical.

And I've seen something interesting on the Autobahn, the relation of the car's height and the car's width and the height of it's balance point define how well it can handle gusts of wind from the side (this becomes even more important when driving very fast, because the correcting motion will be very long then).

Another interesting thing is the car's stability which is dependend on several things (e.g. height of balance point, chassis stiffness...). However, if the chassis is bad the height of balance point really does not matter much, for example in my mums old car driving at a speed of 95 mp/h (150km/h) made me feel as insecure as driving 167 mp/h (270 km/h) in my new car (both rather low cars of admittedly very different quality).

The smart cars for example have an okay chassis but by comparison a high balance point, so they will not handle too well, which can make the difference in an emergency crash avoidance maneuver.

[Xellos-_^]

http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/201...hats-an-order/

Instead, Sarkozy has decreed from on-presidential-high that many companies—privately owned and operated companies--will simply have to give their employees bonuses

someone form France want to explain this?