The Vent and Rant Thread

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

...Still missing....

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

something about earfunk is an incredible draw for cats. I used to think my kids were the worst pigs in the world, just discarding qtips wherever until I saw one of the cats happily trotting down the hall with their prize!

It doesn't seem to be just cats. Crystal ate my headphones when I first got her.

[wannabee]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Rant mode: ON

The Japanese government believes that if you are forced to stop at every third traffic light, it will cut down on speeding. Unfortunately, many drivers here try to beat the system and make it to the fourth traffic signal by making Jack Rabbit starts just as the light is turning green. Unfortunately, as many drivers are ticked off at having to stop at every third traffic light, they often RUN the tail end of the yellow, just as drivers coming from the side are leaving rubber tails as their light is getting ready to turn green. All to often it gets messy...

Rant Mode: OFF

Stitchawl

The Road and Traffic Authority syncronise the lights wherever they can. We have a road here that goes from Parramatta to the Hume Highway which must have about twenty sets of lights. A couple of times now, when starting at the first set with little traffic, when I have remained at the speed limit I have traveled the entire length without getting a red light.

[Bookpossum]

You were travelling at about 2.00 am? Or was it that most cars were on the various freeways?

I must say these make going in and out of Sydney much easier than it used to be. (I mean approaching Sydney from the south, as you would do too.) Sorry, I'm not complaining!

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by wannabee

The Road and Traffic Authority syncronise the lights wherever they can. We have a road here that goes from Parramatta to the Hume Highway which must have about twenty sets of lights. A couple of times now, when starting at the first set with little traffic, when I have remained at the speed limit I have traveled the entire length without getting a red light.

That sort of traffic light arrangement makes a lot more sense to me, and is the way one finds it in the US too. Here, we have massive traffic jams created solely by the traffic light set-up. You can be in a five kilometer jam, pass one finale light and have no more back ups afterwards. Usually one would imagine a traffic accident or road construction causing this same sort of thing, but here... it's just timing the lights to prevent people from speeding!


Stitchawl

[Rumpelteazer]

The council has programmed the traffic lights around and inside the inner city of Utrecht in such a way that it "discourages people to come into the city with their car". They're not only programmed that you're always waiting for a red light, they're also programmed so that they're on red for a long period of time and on green for a very short period of time.

The council wants to encourage people to either go to the inner city on their bicycle or by public transport. And although the buses always seem to have green lights, the traffic lights for cyclist are linked to the traffic lights for cars so you're always waiting, too.

Ten years or so ago the traffic pollution was really high on a particular stretch and they thought it was because of all the buses so they changed their route. The pollution is still very high and they don't understand why that is. I do. There are two sets of traffic lights not even 50 metres apart and they are notorious for always being red and only letting a few cars through when green, there are nearly always a long line of cars waiting to go by that stretch and all those cars waiting for long time emit a lot of nasty stuff.

[Stitchawl]

I like Singapore's answer to city traffic: you have to pay to bring a car into the city! Talk about discouraging the lazy shopper, this method has freed up S'pore's city streets to the point where you actually don't mind if you need to drive into the downtown district. Those who need to do so often, have an electronic debit device similar to what folks use for daily expressway tolls. Very, very effective, and the downtown area is much nicer to be in these days!

Stitchawl

[HomeInMyShoes]

^You'd be burned at the stake for suggesting that in most cities in North America.

Of course, I did just notice that an anagram of your name is: last witch!?!

[Rumpelteazer]

I don't know if the policy is in use in my city yet but a lot of big cities have the policy that older, more polluting vehicles have to pay when they go into the inner city. Mind you, I think it might be more useful to get less polluting buses too because the ones we have driving around now are not fun to cycle next to.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by orlok

Our boy cat, Minx, has an obsession with these (preferably used...). We have to keep our bathroom door shut now, or we find him rooting in the bin for them.

Arturo does too; he will actually fetch them, like a dog. He brings them back and asks you to throw them again so he can chase them.

After a half a dozen or so tosses, he gets tired of the game and quits.

[poohbear_nc]

Day 2 - ear buds still missing .....
Since all cats are eating heartily & playing & using the litter-box without screaming, I am assuming they were not eaten. I vacuumed last night - no sign of them.....

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Day 2 - ear buds still missing .....
Since all cats are eating heartily & playing & using the litter-box without screaming, I am assuming they were not eaten. I vacuumed last night - no sign of them.....

they'll turn up eventually. Strider is part crow and loves anything shiny. I have been losing a lot of jewelry of late some of which turns up in the kitty condo, some in the laundry basket, some on windowsills... very creative kitty

[Bookpossum]

Maybe they are festooned on a pot plant - that would be rather decorative!

[amward]

I can't believe that they would have eaten them all with no bits and pieces anywhere. I hope not for your sake, but I'm sure you would be finding chewed bits around if they had.

And my rant for the day.. why do reticulation controllers have to be so hard to set? I thought our old one was bad but the new one is nearly impossible.

[pdurrant]

My CyBook Opus has just died. For once, not the screen!

Somehow, it seems to have developed a fault in its charging circuit. I put it on charge this morning, and a couple of hours later it was very hot. Disconnected the power and battery (source of the heat(!) is seems). Waited for everything to cool. Dead as a doornail. Not even a flicker of an LED, no matter what combination of power, battery and reset button I try.

Luckily (given the circumstances) it's less than a year (less than six month!) since I bought it, so back to Waterstones it's going.

Back to my iPhone 3G for my reading for a while.

[Freeshadow]

Luckily it was still in the warranty time