Cool Picture Thread

[Mikey]

Like I said, I understand the disinclination to invest money from a limited pool of public funds against a rather rare eventuality. I just know that given my own life experiences, it would irk me to no end to sit home and miss work/school/whatever due to what seems like a very minor bit of weather.Even during Superstorm Sandy, I was insensate to the worst part - literally; I was unconscious in a hospital bed when the storm hit. Even then, considering how expansive and unprecedented the storm damage was, it still galled me that people were unable to get power, sewer service, governmental programs, etc., for two or three weeks.

To give you an idea of how prepared we are expected to be for snow, my township has enacted an ordinance that would fine homeowners for not having the sidewalks in front of their homes cleared of snow within 24 hours of the snowfall - excepting of course the physically invalid, etc.

BTW, snow tires and chains are very uncommon by me anymore. When I was a kid, some folks still changed their tires for the winter, but the advent of all-season tread patterns has largely put the kibosh on that. Snow chains are extraordinarily rare - many municipalities have regulations against their on-road use, as you mentioned, and we are equipped for snow removal well enough that even if they were legal, they wouldn't be worth the effort. Farm vehicles, emergency-services vehicles that are likely to encounter off-road use, and construction-equipment tow vehicles are usually the only users of tire chains.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Wow. Please forgive me if I sound incredulous, but this is completely alien to me. Around here, while we certainly don't get enough snow to b inured to feet at a time (like upstate New York,) we have both municipal/county personnel and equipment in place, as well as many private contractors employed by shooping-center landlords, parking lots, etc. Nearly every landscaper or property-management contractor has at least one or two plows for their year-round trucks, and selling plows and sand/salt spreaders to such contractors is a huge add-on business in truck sales.

Of course, when we get hit with 2 feet or so at once we tend to shut down for a day too, which no doubt provokes snickers and derision from folks like RK_Striker.

Two feet of snow's nothing to proverbially sneeze at up here, either. Admittedly I'd still be able to go to work as long as I keep up with the shoveling, and I usually do. And now with a snow-thrower it got an order of magnitude easier. Around here the plow guys can keep up pretty well. I may complain, but overall it could be a HELL of a lot worse.

[Graham Kennedy]

Like I said, I understand the disinclination to invest money from a limited pool of public funds against a rather rare eventuality. I just know that given my own life experiences, it would irk me to no end to sit home and miss work/school/whatever due to what seems like a very minor bit of weather.

Personally, it always made me extremely joyful.

So we can see what we're talking about, here's an example of what we would call pretty heavy snow. This is the road I live on. As you can see the road is covered, but it's just a couple of inches - those dark patches are the road surface peeking through. For everyone but my neighbour with the chains and maybe one or two with four wheel drive cars, this road was considered impassable. I certainly couldn't get up or down it in mine. I drove my car up to the top of the hill when I saw the weather report and left it there so I wasn't trapped.



Here on the right is the main road at the top of my road. As you can see, cars driving on it have slushified and somewhat cleared the snow.



And this is my house. My car isn't in front of it as it's up the hill. As you can see, my swine of a neighbour has no such troubles, lol.

Most of that snow was gone within 3-4 days. We haven't seen snow again in two years, looks like we won't be getting any this year either.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

That's... pretty much a 'nuisance' around here. I'd start my car up, let it warm and brush it down before going out.

[McAvoy]

That doesn't look too bad to me. Not something I'd drive in willingly though.

[Mikey]

Yeah, even if the road wasn't yet plowed we wouldn't even call that a decent excuse to be late for work.

[McAvoy]

Snow looks light too. So easy shoveling.

[Nutso]

5,500-year-old complete hand axe unearthed in prehistoric seabed in Denmark

Nearby footprints but no Dwarf.

http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-his ... ark-002363

[Nutso]

600,000 Russians waiting for Rammstein - 7th biggest concert ever. I don't know why there are Jamaican flags.

In case you wanted to know: Wikipedia List of Largest Concerts

[Mikey]

Wow, 600,000 people with such a sehnsucht.

See what I did?

[Vic]

Mikey

I see what you did there.

[Nutso]

So do I...because I Googled it.

[Nutso]

Amazing photo of captured World War I Allied soldiers representing 8 nationalities: Anamite (Vietnamese), Tunisian, Senegalese, Sudanese, Russian, American, Portugese, and English.
I assume this is left to right because that last guy has a pipe.

[Mikey]

He's also got a British-pattern helmet. Plus, there aren't too many native white folks in Sudan or Senegal.

[Nutso]

Star Wars: Prequel cast meets OT cast