dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️ @ dual_sport_dork @lemmy.world

Progenitor of the Weird Knife Wednesday feature column. Is "column" the rig

---

Read more

Posts

31

Comments

2,641

Joined

2 yr. ago

We'll just have to observe him carefully and see if he's able to complete a left turn without assistance. That'll tell us for sure.

I'm going to come at this from the wrong angle and suggest filtered earplugs, the flavor of which I'm currently using are these "motorcycle" oriented ones which are indeed also the ones I use when riding.

There are a zillion variants and rebands of these, and if they all look the same to you that's because you're right, and they are. Variants exist being billed as "concert" or "high fidelity" earplugs, or shooter's earplugs, or whatever the hell else. I noticed a few weeks ago Cabelas/Bass Pro is selling a set of plugs identical to mine but in different packaging and marketed towards shooters rather than riders. They all work the same way with a little plastic puck inserted in the middle that's ventilated, and with a tiny diaphragm in it.

Regardless of flavor, the deal with these is that they dampen sound quite a bit with the key distinction of not making you completely deaf while you're wearing them. They also do so while remaining discreet and not making you look like a berk, or as if you've got Airpods in. I've taken to using these for all tasks where I need hearing protection or want quiet, since I almost always have them on me anyway and they're the least uncomfortable type of earplugs I've found so far for long term use that don't also cost a mint. They're washable and my first pair has survived being worn basically every day inside my helmet for about three years running.

I am positive that the bug removal windshield washer fluid has never actually worked on bug splatters. Not even if you spritz them immediately when they happen, and even if you did you'd go through two gallons of the stuff per day. It's all marketing; I'm pretty sure they just take the regular stuff and dye it green instead of blue and charge three times more for it.

While we're at it, I have a bug/air deflector on the nose of my Subaru and I can report that it does indeed appear to work. My truck, conversely, is just a rolling brick and every bug in the county seems to wind up on its windshield. On the Scoob, they splat into the front bumper instead. Most of the ones above that presumably sail right over the roof, except the really big ones.

Bug strike volume overall in my area has not diminished noticeably since my childhood (i.e. it's still maddeningly incessant) but that sort of thing appears to be quite localized and I don't have to go too many miles before I wind up in areas that are eerily free of bugs.

In other news, my primary method of transportation is a motorcycle for much of the year and chiseling the little bastards off of your helmet daily -- or multiple times per day -- is just a fact of life.

Or possibly ten thousand spoons.

I've been summoned, just like Beetlejuice.

Yeah, print out that fuckin' telephone because we called it. Sometimes it sucks to be right.

Because it would be cool. There's not much functional reason. But having a gears and a clutch will also go a long way towards preventing people from stealing your car, and it's 100% effective on preventing people from asking to borrow it. For maximum japes you could possibly rig your motor controller's firmware such that it can simulate stalling, too.

From a semi-practical standpoint there may be something to be said for parking any old electric motor you can find in what used to be the engine bay and just hooking it up to the input shaft on the transmission so you can keep all of your existing differentials and axles and so forth, which may be handy on converting a (possibly compact) vehicle that won't have a ready made aftermarket conversion and without having to spend ages faffing around trying to kit-bash new axle mounts into it or find and weld new places to hang motors behind the wheels or between the axles.

Prime is already a protection racket. Sure, we could deliver your package on time but we won't unless you pay us extra to not artificially slow it down.

It's amazing how so many people still haven't realized this and dutifully pay for Prime because, "It's just so convenient!"

Oh, that's diabolical.

For similar reasons, I always kept Alabaster Potions around to sub out for the Meteor Shower (or Fireball, but Meteor Shower is more amusing). Pick white, you explode. Red, I'll just give myself 4,294,967,296 health.

You can pretty easily use yt-dlp to gank Youtube content, including just its audio. Either from this vid or whatever original it borrowed the song from.

Just Googling "youtube downloader" and clicking on everything you see is likely to land you with some malware...

You know, I have a deck that could theoretically legitimately cast this by turn 4. Less if you were willing to abuse Lotuses or Moxes.

Usually I just dump all of that colorless mana into a Meteor Shower, though.

Neon, of course!

For anyone wondering about where, just as an example, polyvinyl is: Polyvinyl acetate (i.e. PVA) is the stuff that wood glue is typically made out of. It's also the binder used for those bird seed bells.

...It does indeed dissolve in the water. In the rain, certainly, which any owner of a bird seed bell could tell you.

All of a true ninja's tools have multiple purposes.

...Yes?

It's the dessert of champions.

This works with Maraschino cherries, also. Helps you reach the bottom of the jar and keeps your fingers from turning red. Double bonus.

Said jar, by the way.

I propose the following amendment, then: If you cause harm to a two wheeled rider due to negligence and/or belligerence, you get busted down to a Vespa for a further 5 years.

In some places in the world you can give it a shot and see, but we don't have rear fog lights in the US. I've never seen one on any car designed for this market, and my Crosstrek just to name an example has a conspicuous filler panel over the hole where the rear fog light goes on the same model sold in other markets.

As to why, I have no idea. But we also mandate that front fog lights can't be configured so they can be activated without the main headlights on at the same time, which kind of defeats the purpose if you ask me. So maybe asking DOT regulations to make sense is a tall order.

Or on your motorcycle in 15.

Everyone with the usual compliment of legs should be forced to start on a motorcycle or moped. After 2 years of that we let you graduate to being in a box. Riding a motorcycle will force you to learn how to remain attentive and focused 100% on operating your machine, and when you're finally afforded the luxury of a roof and heat, not having to get rained and snowed on half the year, you'll really appreciate what you've got instead of treating it like the world owes you a car.