Recent content by y_p_w

There is no way school buses were safer in terms of fire risk. Tanks ruptured more easily, tank location was vulnerable, and emergency exits might not be mandatory. And that’s just the beginning. Reporting might not have as widespread. But there were notorious incidents. This one was of a...

I would assume that a kid who self buckles in will figure out how to unbuckle. My kid at one would point out not being buckled into a car seat. But even then, it’s about priorities. I wouldn’t consider it that hard for kids to learn buckling and unbuckling. I could handle a seatbelt when I...

Seatbelts have been cited by detractors as being more dangerous than the alternative for decades. Automakers fought mandates to install them, although they eventually didn’t fight mandatory use laws after a couple of decades where they were standard equipment. But the claims were about being...

There were some oddball times when airlines reimbursed nearly everything in addition to refunding the fare and then goodwill compensation (points and/or vouchers). Southwest had the infamous issues around Christmas 2022. They refunded fares, reimbursed for lodging, meals, and alternate...

There’s decent medical care on both the Dutch and French sides of the island. They even have two medical schools with teaching hospitals. https://ausm.us/ https://www.aucmed.edu/

Strangely enough, the store brands around here seem to be real ice cream. Not sure who makes them, although I think I can decipher the dairy plant code. I just got some Sunnyside Farms, which is a house brand shared between two supermarket companies - Raley’s and Save-Mart. I got it at a...

Many hope for a deep pockets buyer to weather cash flow, but that’s no guarantee. Sapporo bought Anchor Brewing but closed it anyways. Lagunitas was bought by Heineken, but I think they’re doing OK.

Again, how does it work for a class action where the plaintiffs could be on the hook for the defendants' legal costs? Would the potential costs be borne by anyone potentially in the class or just those who signed up? The thing about a class action is that by design, the vast majority of...

I don’t see how that would work for a class action. It would make it nearly impossible to sue for those without deep pockets, even for the most egregious and deliberate conduct. How would that work with a class anyways? Send everyone in the class a bill? Maybe liens?

Oh - there were the Dassler brothers Adi and Rudolf, whose factories went from making shoes to weapons parts. But they did supply shoes for the Hitler Youth. Also Jesse Owens. But after WWII Adi started Adidas while Rudolf went his own way with Puma.

They started off in San Francisco but moved to a large facility in San Leandro, just south of Oakland. Apparently they had excess capacity and were contracting that out for various beverages, including beer and mixed drinks. It’s reported that their lender cut them off and they can’t continue...

Sure. But the odor doesn’t really have anything to do with its effectiveness as a pesticide. It’s not an attractant (to lure bugs to their demise) nor a repellant. Paradichlorobenzene and naphthalene just happen to smell like that in gas form. If there was an odorless substance that...

They don’t need odor to kill moths and eggs. They sublimate into a gas and that gas is toxic to bugs. They don’t particularly work well except in a confined space like a bag/container/drawer. In a closet they tend to just vaporize quickly. The odor is just a characteristic of the chemical...

Nearly all the big names in fashion had a real person behind the name. It does get awkward if a named founder leaves a company. Calvin Klein sold his company over two decades ago but got paid as an advisor until a few years ago.

Having two counterbalanced cars makes it a lot easier to move compared to individual cars moved by a cable, which would also require a loop compared to a single unlooped cable. I would think it’s similar in principle to the tension in a spring loaded garage door. At least regarding reduction...