Posted on 05/18/2007 5:07:34 AM PDT by NY.SS-Bar9
This woman is PO’ed at the immigration bill. I have to agree with her 100%.
Only a small percentage of fatalities are in small vehicles that are hit by bigger vehicles. Check the online FARS (The NHTSA fatal accident reporting system of all fatal accidents in the "US.) if you don't believe me. The major number of fatalities are in single vehicle crashes. Heavier vehicles have much more crush space, and are decidedly safer. Light vehicles have more than three times more fatalities per crash than heavy vehicles.
Those Priuse bruises are tough to deal with.
I lived in Saudi Arabia for five years during the 80s, and visited several other Arab countries. Saudi and the Gulf states already have a very high standard of living (economically). Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, etc are not in the same class, and could improve their standards of living. Unfortunately, many Arab states adopted socialistic measures after independence, in particular Syria and Iraq. Egypt is a little less socialistic since Nasser’s demise, but its massive population is poor, living on dirt floors. The same socialistic disease infected many third world countries in Latin America and Asia, and it may take a while for the success of South Korea, Taiwan, China and other East Asian countries (that shed or in the process of shedding their socialist economies) to come to the Middle East.
“The idea here is to help them by reforming their governance and giving them alternatives to the frustration that breeds terrorists and dictators alike.”
Political reform is tough in the Middle-East, just look at Iraq. In my opinion the cultural traditions of the Arab culture and Muslim religion do not encourage political pluralism. Islam never when through “The Enlightenment” and to Muslims the State and Religion are the same. Tolerance is no where near Western standards. Now that the Islamic terrorist extremists are trying to destroy the West and Israel, the conflict in the Islamic world will continue to destabilize any positive reforms. Even Turkey is going backwards.
See wbill's post #44; maybe you should ask him. ;O)
As for me, since I believe in a sovereign God, I give little or no consideration to crashing when choosing a car. If my or my loved one's number is called, no giant SUV is going to make any difference.
I routinely see incredibly light weight autos (F1, CART) run into things at up to 200 MPH without damage to the driver.
Cars can be made light and strong. You just need to work at it.
But thanks for your technical wisdom just the same.
Amen to that. My teenage son will concur I've made the point to him often that there are TWO pedals that use gas.
When I have to use the brake, it's because I failed the latest exercise in optimization. ;O)
Everyone on this thread is talking about "What happens when I run my (SUV, Armored Car, VW Beetle) into a Brick Wall at 30mph". I don't worry about that much, because I have control over what my vehicle is doing.
What I worry about much more is the moron behind me that's driving while juggling their cellphone, breakfast, IPod and simultaneously putting on their makeup and checking a map to get to their next client site. I figure that a bigger car protects me and my family from *them*.
My Dad used to drive a '58 Chevy. He got rear-ended by a Compact-Type Honda (not sure of the model, this was awhile ago). The Honda crumpled up like a beer can; Dad's Chevy had a small scratch on the bumper. I was sold on "solid" cars after that. :-)
He must have been going downhill to get that kind of speed.
That's fine. For me, as you might guess, it's not a car but God who protects me and mine.
Cars can be made light and strong. You just need to work at it.
The problem is that these cars are constructed a lot like crash helmets, in that they're designed to protect their contents exactly ONE time. They rely on crush zones and exotic materials to redirect the force away from the contents to dissapate the energy. If a motorcycle helmet falls off the seat of your motorcycle hitting the floor, there's a good chance that the protective EPS has been damaged, and every manufacturer recommends sending the helmet back for a "check up" after even the smallest impact. When one of these vehicles crash, some of the parts are reusable, but it usually requires a major rebuild and most of the passenger components need to be replaced.
Ever notice when there's a crash in F1 or Indy, the car usually breaks apart and the engine compartment often separates from the passenger components, all the while shedding parts? That's one of the ways these cars dissapate the energy of impact. While this could certainly be applied to passenger cars, do you think that you'd ever be able to afford collision insurance on a car that needs to be replaced after a 20MPH impact?
Mark
Unless, of course, you're in one of the wrecks.
Given what I posted, I really didn't think that I needed to specify a "/sarcasm," but here's one for you... /sarcasm Mark
“If a motorcycle helmet falls off the seat of your motorcycle hitting the floor, there’s a good chance that the protective EPS has been damaged, and every manufacturer recommends sending the helmet back for a “check up” after even the smallest impact.”
Actually, there’s almost zero chance of the EPS being damaged in that type of fall, because there’s nothing in the helmet with any mass to compress the foam. The risk is that the helmet’s shell might have been compromised by that impact - probably more of a risk with composite shells, as polycarbonate shells are incredibly tough and usually stay in one piece after impacts bad enough to kill the wearer.
What you say about foam is true where car bumpers, however. If you’ve been in even a minor collision involving the bumpers, even if they look basically fine, their usefulness may have been compromised. That’s because most of them use a similar open-cell foam for their impact-absorbing properties, which disappears after it’s been used.
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