Shanghai Disneyland will close in effort to contain coronavirus

Unless the law changed again, I think it is expressly permitted to ride in the bed of a pickup truck but only if your age is =>16.

I've been in two crashes where I totaled my car. Didn't really change my opinion any, in fact it cemented my preference to have the lap belt snug (and the shoulder belt absent, if possible).

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

RideMan said:

Unless the law changed again, I think it is expressly permitted to ride in the bed of a pickup truck but only if your age is =>16.

Which, if true, shows how silly, inconsistent and arbitrary it all is.

I never totaled a car or was ever even in a real crash or accident, but once when I was 18, I totally busted a buddy's windshield (in his big ol' Cutlass) with my head when we hit a tree on a back road at a relatively low speed.

Would have been a terrific social media moment (if it existed in 1991). Two perfect circular cracks/breaks - a big one where my head hit and a smaller one where my fist hit.

We still laugh about it to this day.

Unless it changed since this was published (June 2019) in Ohio, someone under age 16 can ride in the back of a pickup truck not driving faster than 25 mph.

The whole car collision thing doesn't really ring home. If you drive in a defensive manner, your risk of a collision is extremely low. At one point I trained defensive driving for a massive company with a large fleet. Once you start analyzing incidents and look at the training you realize quickly that the vast majority of incidents are avoidable.

This ties into my earlier thought about tech removing responsibility from the population. Just a couple quick thoughts on that. Someone who gets creamed because another driver ran a red light, those are almost always avoidable, green doesn't mean good, it means check both ways and then proceed. The tech in this case is the traffic signal, watch an intersection where the light is out, everyone is extremely vigilant.

Rear end collisions are also ones who everyone thinks are unavoidable, but the earlier post on the Miata shows what happens when you are aware of every direction around your vehicle.

If you drive with a sense of "what if" and always have space around your vehicle for a way out it is extremely rare that you will be involved in a collision. Oh, and don't trust turn signals, and always expect that everyone else is going to run into you.

IPDE, yo!

The rear end collision hits home. Whenever there's a sudden stop in front of me, I stop and pull off to the shoulder (or median if I can) if its clear. Even if there isn't a risk of someone hitting me. My son asked why I do that and I explain how you need to anticipate for any situation, even if it doesn't play out.

Jeff said:

I wonder if being in a car accident where your car was totaled changes your perception. It sure did for me.

I totaled the aforementioned Miata on a busy interstate in rush hour traffic. Hydroplaned, front drivers side quarter panel hit the left jersey wall and then pulled a 180 out into traffic (narrowly missing multiple vehicles, including a semi) and rolled backwards to a stop. Could have easily been squashed like a gnat.

My perception didn't change.

I, again, don't have too much to contribute because I don't really care, but the argument "I didn't wear a seat belt and I'm fine" is the literal example of survivorship bias. That's what everyone says because the people who died from not wearing seat belts aren't around to give the opposing point of view. (Blah, blah, survivable injury, blah blah, still speak out, blah...the point is still salient).

Back "on topic" though, turns out some people can get it twice? Yikes. (Although 5 confirmed reinfections out of 7 million confirmed infections isn't statistically meaningful...yet.)

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/10/12/92...oronavirus

Oh goody - we're back to math again.

I had more to add on the seatbelt thing, including my own accident, as well as the folly of the whole "we turned out okay" thing, but that's cool.

Like, rollercoasters and stuff.

OK so there's this girl I went to school with I was friends with her brother and she's not fine because her car landed on top of her and I'm pretty sure had she been wearing a seatbelt she would have stayed inside the car and the car likely then would not have landed on top of her...I wear seatbelts but unless you're close enough to me for it to be my business it's not my business so you do you...

And roller coasters and stuff...Saturday I witnessed what I'm sure was the most inefficient running of Cedar Downs ever. I know I get cranky and agitated when I'm in a mask and I should be happy the park was open at all but it just seems like it should not take over half an hour for Cedar Downs to run 3 cycles. I have never experienced that before, not even this season.

kpjb said:

FFS if you people start debating abortion here I'm going to come to your houses and hit you with a stick. A medium sized stick.

That's good as I don't intend to debate anyone on anything. For one, neither of us is likely running for office nor captain of the debate team. Two, almost no one debates to hear the other side. They only care if their argument seems to score some "interweb points". No one will change anyone's minds anyways. I just meant to point out that some may find government regulations, laws or mandates as over-reaching while others find it reasonable while even a 3rd group likely falls into both categories. The only question remaining is, how far is too far?

When you really look into it, an awful lot of government regulations, laws, and mandates are probably an extralegal overreach. Heck, we have a couple of States where the Governors have been told by their own Supreme Courts that their actions are illegal, but those rulings don't seem to have convinced said Governors to do what they must...

Perhaps you can see where I stand on your little continuum? 8-)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I sincerely do, RideMan. It's also funny that now the World Health Organization is saying that locking down is a last resort and not to be used indefinitely.

The US was never "locked down." It didn't happen. Some businesses were required to close and some are still restricted, but you were never banished to your own home the way they have in some countries. Let's not be dramatic.

I'm glad you said that Jeff because "lockdown" is a misnomer. Even in March and April as I was coming and going to work the traffic was sparse but I've never seen more people out and about walking, exercising, etc. I saw more families out in our community than I had ever seen before. Publix was being used as a field trip for families. I saw my dentist in person, my doctor on a virtual appointment, etc.

We took a mini vacation to the west coast (renting a house), saw movies at the Dolphins football stadium, and went down to the beach. We sold a house, bought a house, and moved.

Now, to be fair, lots of businesses were closed and that hurt people, no question about it. There is a middle ground but I'm not sure we've found it yet.

Throughout the summer, for every time Jeff mentioned dry humping I'm sure I mentioned we were under nothing more than a "stay at home suggestion". It irks me when people use the term quarantine and lockdown when talking about what we've experienced in the United States in 2020. To repeat myself again, at no time was I ever prevented from going to my local Krispy Kreme at 2am to get a dozen hot glazed donuts.

Stop with #quarantinelife

The states independently decided to "lockdown". From what I recollect, it was never a federal mandate, and never suggested by the WHO or CDC.