Mildly interesting

[Doctor Phibes]

We had a cat who had to have her fur shaved, and her skin was the same pattern underneath

[jon-nyc]

Insert Brazilian wax joke here.

[Axtremus]

[AndyD]

[taiwan_girl]

[Axtremus]

• Possessing a satellite phone or Global Positioning System (GPS) device in India is illegal and can result in fines, detention, or arrest."

Source: https://travel.state.gov/en/international-travel/travel-advisories/india.html

The GPS ban is surprising. Pretty sure there are like a billion smartphones in India that have GPS receivers which technically makes them GPS devices.

[Mik]

Hard to understand.

[jon-nyc]

Everyone intuits that they’re more dangerous but wow.

I bet bikes are even worse though.

[jon-nyc]

Bikes aren’t worse - about 79 per billion.

Fortunately I ride trails almost exclusively.

[Mik]

Bikes are 10 times more dangerous than cars? Surprising.

[jon-nyc]

Not to me it isn’t. You’re just so vulnerable. The slightest contact can be fatal, especially if you fall toward the road

[Mik]

That's why I don't ride on roads anymore. But then I have a bike trail at my side yard, and a 90 mile one two miles away.

[jon-nyc]

Yeah I can take my trail up 50m without riding on a road. And can go 400mi to Buffalo and have 85-90% be trail.

[jon-nyc]

The 50mi from the Bronx to Brewster used to be the Putnam Railroad, in service from 1881-1958. I get it at Ardsley, less than a mile from my house. I can take it up 40mi to Brewster or down about 12.5 to Van Courtland Park in the Bronx without leaving paved trail.

Further south I’m maybe a mile or three on roads until I get to the trail along the west side highway that takes me to lower manhattan.

Up north there’s a few miles of road at Brewster until I’m on trail again for another 50 miles to New Palz.

Plenty, in other words.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Mik said in Mildly interesting:

Bikes are 10 times more dangerous than cars? Surprising.

I think that stat is a bit misleading, since bikes are a lot slower than cars. Arguably a better statistic is deaths per time spent traveling.

[LuFins Dad]

I think 40% of those deaths are cardiac associated from Lycra cutting off blood flow.

[jon-nyc]

The Grappler, a new device used to stop high speed chases.

Link to video

[Mik]

That’s great

[LuFins Dad]

Meh… Not sure that I care for them forcefully stopping a stolen car in the middle of a busy highway like that.

[jon-nyc]

I don’t think it’s so forceful if the guy doesn’t try that shit at the end. The net catches it, and you bring it to a stop by putting the brakes on the cop car.

It seems to me the safest approach besides just giving up the chase altogether.