Webpage of Brian Danger Hicks

Brian Danger Hicks posted a photo:

Brian Danger Hicks posted a photo:

Brian Danger Hicks posted a photo:

Brian Danger Hicks posted a photo:

Brian Danger Hicks posted a photo:

Brian Danger Hicks posted a photo:

Brian Danger Hicks posted a photo:

Brian Danger Hicks posted a photo:

Brian Danger Hicks posted a photo:

Seems like a lot of effort improving a grade crossing for tracks that are out of service

Brian Danger Hicks posted a photo:

Possible way to do white logo on model trains

Exact science, Mr Angier, is not an exact science.
	-- David Bowie as Nikola Tesla, The Prestige

<teferi> new york state's still run by three guys in a smoky room
<fo0bar> nevada's smoky room is cooler
<teferi> well, yes, it has to be air conditioned
<teferi> you're in a DESERT.

Most of the lie detector industry is based on, well, lies.
	-- Bruce Schneier

"If you have something that can happen, and something that won't
  necessarily happen, it's going to either happen or it's going to not
  happen, and so the best guess is 1 in 2." 
"I'm not sure that's how probability works, Walter."
	-- John Oliver interviewing Walter L. Wagner about the dangers
	of the Large Hadron Collider

thermally insulated glasses

Today while I was driving on the highway there was a car in front of me that kept hitting its brakes. For a while I couldn't figure out what was going on, beause the car in front of it didn't seem to be changing speed at all, and the car that was braking all the time didn't seem to be following that closely.

Then I realized that it was a Lexus, and the issue was probably the radar cruise control that you can get on a Lexus. I remembered hearing on Top Gear that it would activate the brakes to keep the distance between you and the car in front of you, and I have to agree with Clarkson's assesment that it is pretty stupid. If a car is cruising on the highway the brake lights should not be turning on. At minimum it makes someone think there is a problem where there isn't one, and it could make traffic worse since some people will instinctively hit their brakes when they see brakelights.

Nationally touring acts that I have seen live with accordion:
Weird Al
They Might Be Giants (x2)
Flogging Molly (x2)
The Hold Steady

Nationally touring acts that I have seen live without accordion:
Moby

I'm not exactly sure how that happened.

Modify the status message on some printers

So, I finally got around to reading the copy of Great Model Railroads 2009 that I picked up a while ago, and one of the articles starts out: "My HO scale Western Pacific laout began innocuously enough: I set out to build an accurate scale model of WP's famous Keddie Wye steel viaduct."

Let's be clear, there is nothing innocuous about building a model of the Keddie Wye. You've really got no one to blame but yourself.

So, in an unprecedented move, I am going to give a rental car review for a car that I did not rent or drive.

One of my coworkers was having problems with his serpentine belt, which led to problems with his water pump (or problems with his water pump that led to problems with his serpentine belt, it is unclear), so he had to rent two cars in the past few weeks. The first time he got a Malibu, which was by all accounts fine for a rental car and is not the subject of this post. The second vehicle he got was a Chevrolet Uplander minivan.

Now, GM no longer makes the Uplander, and I must say that was a good call, because it was pretty bad. Mostly I am going to bitch about the quality of the second row seats. The main problem is that the seats were incredibly narrow, about as wide as the seats on my RX-8, if you took just the middle part and removed all of the side bolsters, so about a foot wide at most. This is coupled by the fact that there are no arm rests anywhere on either side of these seats, so the end result is that the only thing preventing you from sliding off the side of this tiny seat is the seatbelt and your own reflexes. And as long as I'm complaining about the seat, I'm going to nitpick the location of the back ajustment (on the inboard side, sticking out between the seat and the back), which while I had no call to use, was nonetheless in the wrong spot. About the only thing not wrong with the seat was that it was cloth and not, say, vinyl.

The rest of the interior seemed rather on the poor side, but I'm not sure if that's because the interior is poor or if it can be blamed on the abuse a rental car gets. The main complaint my coworker had (other than it being a minivan) was that the mileage was poor, although from a quick check it looks like it gets about the same miles per gallon as his GTO.

Oh, on a completely unrelated note, I saw someone driving a Lotus Seven replica of some sort earlier today. Probably a Caterham, but I can't be sure.

Well, I give them an A for effort. They still get a failing grade overall, but an A for effort.

Office for the Coordination Of Humanitarian Affairs,
Integrated Regional Information Network
503B Zik Avenue Garki Abuja
TEL: +234-7036487288
E-MAIL: richardgozneyoffice1@gmail.com
Attention:Sir,

The British High Commission in Nigeria,Benin Republic,Ghana and Bokinafaso
received a report of scam against you and other British/US citizens and
Malaysia,Etc. The countries of Nigeria, Benin Republic, Bokinafaso And Ghana
have recompensed you following the meeting held with the Four countries'
Government and various countries' high commission for the fraudulent activities
carried out by the Four countries' Citizens.

Your name was among those scammed as listed by the Nigeria Financial Intelligent
Unit (NFIU). A compensation has been issued out ATM CARD to all the affected
victims and has been already been in distribution to all the bearers. Your ATM
CARD was among those that was reported undelivered as at on Last Friday and we
wish to advise you to see to the instructions of the Committee to make sure you
receive your ATM CARD immediately.

NFIU further told us that the use of Nigeria and BeninCouriers was abolished due
to interception activities noticed in the above mentioned courier services in
Benin,Nigeria and Ghana and thereby have made a concrete arrangement with the
DHL Courier Company for a safe delivery to your door-step once the beneficiary
meets up the demand of the conveyance.

We advise that you do the needful to make sure the NFIU dispatches your ATM CARD
on Monday. Reply this e-mail to richardgozneydesk@gmail.com . You are
assured of the safety of your draft and availability. Be advised that you should
stop further contacts with all the fake lawyers and security companies who in
collaboration scammed you. Call me at: +234 703 648 7288 immediately to check if
the delivery date suits you.

Yours in Service,

Mr. Richard Gozney

CONSULAR

So, the story of this Great Turkish Bombard is pretty hilarious.

First off, the guy making it approaches Constantine XI if he wants to buy it, and Constantine says that even if he could afford it, he has no use for it. So the guy goes to Mehmed II and asks him if he wants it. Mehmed says yes and as soon as it is built it is pressed into service bombing Constantine's city. Of course, to get the thing to Constantinople it takes one hundred men to clear and reinforce the road for it, another hundred to keep it from falling over, and that's not even counting the 60 oxen that do the actual job of pulling it.

So, it finally gets to Constantinople, and they start firing three-quarter ton rocks at Constantinople, which of course makes some very large holes in the walls. Of course, the gun is so unwieldy that it takes hours to reload and by that time the hole in the wall it just made gets plugged up. But they keep firing and they keep filling the holes and then finally Constantinople falls, not because of the biggest gun in the world being fired at it, but because somebody forgot to lock the side door and the Ottomans walk in and take the city.

After all of this, Mehmed decides he likes the gun so much he gets 41 more and puts them protecting the Dardanelles. And the guns sit there. And sit there. And sit there. And then over three hundred years pass, the guns are now museum pieces, and now the British are coming. So somebody says, "Hey, lets dig out those superguns that our rotting in our museums and fire them at this British fleet." So they do. And the ancient guns still fire just fine and the British retreat because, hey, superguns.

Don't tell me that isn't funny.

I should visit this sometime

Hey Audi,
Since you seem to be doing it for anyone now, how about you give me a R8 for review? I promise not to drive it up on curbs.

Also, can you make it a manual?

"But those have holes in them."
"Those are colanders, dad."
	-- A father and son at Target, shopping for mixing bowls

Looks kinda neat, although fullscreen in firefox is a bit messed up

here i am assuming that the amount of radation needed to kill a human 
(10 Gy) is the same as the amount needed to kill a dinosaur.  IF SCIENCE
PROVES ME WRONG I WILL BE THE FIRST TO APOLOGIZE, AND THEN I WILL SAY,
HEY WHERE DID YOU GET THAT DINOSAUR
	-- Ryan North