Saturday 11 July 2015

Link Tank 11/07

Couldn't resist the pic of the 14-wheeler.

Public health loves lung cancer

The new totalitarians are here

Teen had sex with another teen, so a judge tore his family apart

"Why should sugar concern us more than other foods?"

How virtual reality porn could bring about world peace

Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger could be banned within weeks

New Zealand just worked out how to run your car on beer (pic)

Denver opens the first marijuana friendly movie theatre

Robot wars: Japan v America 

KFC launches pizza with fried chicken crust

Brawling badgers


5 comments:

nisakiman said...

That's one hell of a rig shown on the link to the NZ biofuel article - four axles each on tractor unit and trailer. I bet those trailer tyres scrub some when he's executing a tight turn. When I drove interstate in Aus, the norm was a 6x4 tractor unit pulling a tri-axle trailer (apart from the areas where road trains were allowed to operate). I guess they must have higher gross weight limits in NZ to justify running those extra axles.

James Pickett said...

Isn't that an 18-wheeler..?

nisakiman said...

It's all become a bit confusing.

The term '18 wheeler' was coined for the archetypal American semi-trailer rig, and referred to the number of tyres on the road - two on the steering axle, four each on the two drive axles and four each on the two trailer axles. Nowadays, the trend is to have those big fat tyres on the drive and trailer axles, rather than the twin tyre sets that were traditionally used. The situation is further confused by the fact that European trucks tend to use tractor units with only one drive axle, but which are very often hooked up to tri-axle trailers, which I personally think is dangerous, as in the wet there is a tendency for the three axle trailer to try to steer the two axle tractor unit, particularly when descending a steep hill. You have more control over the whole rig if you also have three axles on the tractor unit (two drive and one steering, normally, although I have seen that configuration reversed on the tractor unit, with two steering axles and one drive).

When describing truck configurations, I find sticking to numbers of axles more useful than 'wheels'.

nisakiman said...

Re Denver opens the first marijuana friendly movie theatre

What gives with the 'smoke-free' legislation? If someone goes in to watch a movie along with all the stoners sparking up spliffs and lights a cigarette, what will happen? Will he be pounced upon and thrown out (prosecuted?) for smoking tobacco? And what about e-cigs? Will they be sanctioned while pot is not?

Yet another unexpected descent further down the insanity of Alice's rabbit hole...

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Combustion of every material known to man produces TSNAs in varying quantities, the two exceptions are marijuana 'magic smoke' which apparently is perfectly harmless, and tobacco which produces smoke more lethal than mustard gas according to 'public health'. Of course, there is no combustion involved with e-cigs but sections of PH scream that people must be 'protected' from that too, so combutible pot good, water vapour bad. The cognitive dissonance is stunning at times. ;)