davidl@tekig.UUCP (David Levadie) (12/21/84)
---------- My favorite trick is to turn on my brights (day or night) and amuse myself with aiming my left headlight into the side rear-view mirror of the slug in front of me. One can stay amused for some time attempting to maintain the proper angle to reflect the light directly into the slug's face. They almost inevitably pull over after a while. The disadvantage to this for me is, I will invariably leave my lights on when I park my car, if I have turned them on in sufficient daylight to render the instrument panel lights invisible. However, I just bought headlight-warning relays for all my cars, so that may change... I am convinced that 90% of driving humanity is in a state of torpid unawareness when driving, being preoccupied with sex, the radio, their job, politics, or whatever chatter is going on in their mind. I'm not sure many of them even fully realize they driving down the road in a car. I watch left lane slugs carefully to see if they ever even LOOK in their rear-view mirror. Almost all of them don't, leading me to conclude that they don't even know anyone is behind them. Actually, my sympathies rest with the person who suggested the 20mm cannon. There is a flaw in this approach, however. Your car will invariably be damaged by the shrapnel. I think a 3 or 4KW CO2 laser aimed at one of their tires would be a lot more effective in just getting them out of the way, and giving them a day 's amusement, gratis. I'm not so sure it's technically unreasonable, either -
doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (01/03/85)
> I am convinced that 90% of driving humanity is in a state of torpid > unawareness when driving, being preoccupied with sex, the radio, their job, > politics, or whatever chatter is going on in their mind. I'm not sure > many of them even fully realize they driving down the road in a car. My home state of Arizona does not require that slower traffic keep to the right, nor that a slow-moving vehicle on a two-lane road pull off when practical to let the cars behind go past. Add in a bunch of two-lane roads, the Phoenix area being the retirement capital of the West, and the huge number of construction vehicles (gravel trucks, road graders, you name it) needed in a booming area, and you have a mess. To make it more frustrating, the "normal" speed limit on city streets is about 35MPH, with 45 being common on the big boulevards. In this environment, I have come to the conclusion that most drivers just don't understand that THEY are part of TRAFFIC. To them, "traffic" is all of those other cars. Even the professional drivers, such as the gravel trucks, drive 20MPH down a 50MPH two-lane road during rush hour for as many miles as they need, even though they drive the same road every day and should know better. Funniest thing I ever saw was a line of cars backed up behind a bozo who wanted to make a left turn. This line was more than half a mile long. The bozo couldn't make his turn because he was being blocked by an equally long line of cars backed up the opposite direction, behind another bozo wanting to make a left turn. Know why HE couldn't turn? Yep, the back-up from the first bozo. From the length of the lines I would guess that the situation had existed for at least 10 minutes. I wonder how much longer it lasted... Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!doug
hav@dual.UUCP (Helen Anne Vigneau) (01/04/85)
<*munch*> => Actually, my sympathies rest with the person who suggested the 20mm cannon. => There is a flaw in this approach, however. Your car will invariably => be damaged by the shrapnel. I think a 3 or 4KW CO2 laser aimed at one => of their tires would be a lot more effective in just getting them out => of the way, and giving them a day 's amusement, gratis. I'm not so sure => it's technically unreasonable, either - Actually, a laser can be quite effective without destroying the car in front of you. My SO and I had a fair amount of fun with his 5mW HeNe laser plugged into the cigarette lighter via an inverter. You'd be amazed at how fast that red light gets the yo-yo in front of you to pull over!!! *grin* It's also a good bit of fun to shine onto those reflecto-signs (speed limit, etc.), as well as to chase pedestrians down the street (just shine it a few feet in front of where they're walking, and watch them try to figure out what's going on and where it's coming from). Of course, you have to be careful not to get it in their eyes--not easy when you're in a moving vehicle. Helen Anne Vigneau Dual Systems Corporation