antimeria

Although I’m generally of the “cars shouldn’t go Herbie and start driving on their own” school of thought, stopping a runaway car really is, to quote Scott, “bush league material,” and although it’s certainly a bad look for Toyota, there are relatively few circumstances under which it should be fatal. So, if your car isn’t braking¹ or starts accelerating or solving crimes and talking back, here’s what you should do:

1. Shift into neutral for acceleration, or downshift for brake failure.
2. Apply the brakes. If your brakes are out, gently engage the emergency brake.
3. Hit your emergency flashers, find somewhere to pull over and kill the engine.

A friend volunteering in Senegal passes along this interesting tidbit from another Peace Corps Volunteer:

Senegal’s President Wade decided, in the face of the tragic events unfolding in Haiti, to offer the gift of mobility to earthquake victims. That’s right, he’s offering to “repatriate” (in his words) the people of Haiti to Senegal. Seeing as how Haiti was founded by freed slaves, he figured they might want an opportunity to resettle in their homeland. And he says he’s willing to give them an entire region (though, his aide emphasized, to be clear, it would be a fertile region and not the northern deserts. We volunteers are thinking he’s trying to take a chance to boot out the rebels in the southern forests and resettle them with imported Haitians. Honestly, I will never understand the man.)

Whatever his true motives are, I rather like the idea. As several bloggers have pointed out, the United States certainly could afford to let some more Haitian earthquake survivors into the country (And take a look at immigration policies in general, while they’re at it).

Today, the Sun reported that the “majority of the poor in the Baltimore region now live in the city’s suburbs.” This trend has existed for a while, and it fits my experience in Chicago, DC, and Baltimore–take your mass transit system of choice out towards the suburbs during rush hour, and the further you go, the higher the proportion of scuffed-up passengers gets. It also should be a reminder that a) major demographic shifts can happen pretty quickly, and b) a lot of these suburbs don’t have much of a safety net or many local jobs, having largely sprouted up as bedroom communities.

It also underscores the need for effective regional mass transit, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on that.

And of course, the news doesn’t change the fact that 23% of Baltimore’s 625,000-strong population fall below the poverty line, including over 30% of minors. So Baltimore still got problems.

It was wonderful seeing everyone in Chicago (and Iowa), but that’s not interesting to people who weren’t there. So instead, naked fully-clothed materialism!

The only downside: these shoes were designed by one of the All-American Rejects (I had to look up what AAR stood for).

An equestrian friend passed along this 2007 American Journal of Surgery study (PDF):

[H]orseback riding has been identified as a higher-risk activity than automobile racing, motorcycle riding, football, and skiing, and at least as dangerous as rugby. Equestrian riding also is considered to have the highest mortality of all sports, with an annual death rate of 1 per 1 million population. This reality is not surprising because a horse weighs up to 500 kg, moves at a speed of 65 km/h, elevates the rider 3 meters above the ground, and kicks with a force of nearly 1 ton. A horse also is more unpredictable than either a motorcycle or a racecar.

Don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys, and never buy your kids that pony.