Projects, interests, and pontifications of Joby Walker
One of the many things that is extremely annoying about the D&D site is the lack of an option to remember my login. The first time I try to access restricted content after restarting my browser, I get warnings that I need to login. This is D&DI not my bank account — there is no reason not to allow sessions to persist longer. Please get a clue and implement.
Watt’s Up With That brings us some interesting news:
The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is also sponsoring public debate on the validity of global warming science. The leadership of the society had previously called the evidence for global warming “incontrovertible.”
In a posting to the APS forum, editor Jeffrey Marque explains,”There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution.”
But the Goracle testified before congress that climate change due to anthropogenic global warming was the most certain scientific fact with the possible exception of gravity. Obviously the physicists are wrong.
While having dinner with some neighbors at Zeek’s Pizza, one of the neighbors was recounting an argument with their child. At the climax of the argument the youth used the most hurtful curse possible, “You don’t even believe in diversity!”. I couldn’t stop laughing, fortunately I hadn’t taken a drink or beer would have been frothing from my nose.
Woken up early because of lightning and thunder (though not at 2 AM like Alyssa) — unplugged a lot of equipment as the lightning was right on top of us. Then went back to bed — probably a bad idea because I woke up feeling worse.
Then this morning because it was raining and I was running behind I headed up to 75th and 15th to catch the 373 bus. While waiting, I noticed that the light was out and began alternating cringing and shaking my head because of drivers not paying attention (running the intersection, tailing, not yielding the right of way, etc). Then finally a woman in an SUV was t-boned by an elderly woman in an older Lexus. The SUV limped out of the intersection to park south of me (at the bus stop). The Lexus was left in the intersection. I called 911 and eventually summoned police, fire, and an ambulance. The woman in the Lexus was clearly disoriented — most likely because of the airbags (according to the first episode of Burn Notice the blow from an airbag will save your life but it’ll disorient you enough to have your hands cable tied to the steering wheel). A couple other witnesses came out — one a white woman driving West bound on 75, and two Latino men (not sure where they was during the accident, but they had a large truck for construction work). The primary Latino man was talking to the elderly woman trying to determine her condition and get her car out of the way — the last thing we needed was another accident.
By this time the SUV driver was out of her car on the phone (I believe to her insurance company, but possibly 911) asking if the Lexus driver needed an ambulance. When she got off the phone she came up to me got my info and started asking about fault. I indicated that to me the collision was entirely the fault of the Lexus.
The Latino men and I pushed the Lexus out of the intersection to the East side of the intersection on 75th — and the Lexus had to be told several times to apply the brakes to stop her car, and then several more times to put the car in park and turn the engine off. The female witness spoke with the Lexus driver some.
A fire truck showed up first and the crew dispersed to each vehicle. The lead firefighter spoke with the SUV woman, me, and the female witness — the Latino seems to have disappeared (probably had to get to work). Then the police officer arrived and started taking statements. After speaking with me and taking my info, he let me go.
Of course I missed both the 373 and 72, so I walked to work to the sound of thunder booming in the distance.
Lawless Metro bus drivers have been a constant problem in the University District. The most persistent example is at the intersection of 45th and 15th Ave NE — buses turning left to travel west on 45th regularly (many times a day) run a red turn-arrow light and block the intersection so that pedestrians and cars cannot pass. I and others have reported this issue regularly but no one at Metro cares. Today, I almost saw a couple people get killed by another lawless bus driver.
In the heart of the University District, University Way (”The Ave”) does not allow passing. It is fairly common for cars to try to pass a bus that is embarking/disembarking passengers — I always am extremely careful when exiting a bus and then passing in front of the bus to use a crosswalk. Today I saw a Metro bus try to pass an articulated bus that was embarking a passenger with limited mobility. The offending bus was a #30 — I wasn’t able to get a good look at the bus but the bus number was something like 3036 — but it was whichever one was at 45th and the Ave at 12:27PM today. As the #30 bus was accelerating by the parked bus, the driver of the parked bus had the presence of mind to lay on his horn to indicate to the rogue driver that he was about to run down some pedestrians in the intersection. The #30 stopped in time so that I (and all other King County tax payers) won’t have to pay for the wrongful death settlement.
Bus drivers have to put up with a lot of crap that they shouldn’t have to — particularly from passengers, but NOTHING justifies this kind of reckless behavior. This driver deserves to be fired immediately.