ominous_prime

Joined 16 years ago

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Comment · 8 months ago
It certainly makes sense as a proxy for competence across a diverse population for insurance purposes. You have a baseline of hard braking events that a competent driver may encounter under normal circumstances. If a driver routinely exceeds that number, they are either unable to correctly estimate closing distance and reaction times, which makes them higher risk for causing accidents, or they are driving abnormally aggressively, which also makes them a higher risk for causing accidents. If you consistently put yourself in situations where hard braking is required, it doesn't matter what your skill is, you've reduced your safety margins and an accident is statistically more probable. You said it correctly with "would've been safer to start building a distance buffer", that is the proxy the insurance companies want to use for risk assessment.

35 years without an accident on my record isn't because I'm a magnificent driver, it's because I always try to leave a way out for when something unexpected happens, because the unexpected _does_ happen.

The fact that some people may have the skill to drive more aggressively means nothing in the aggregate as far as insurance companies are concerned. If you are skilled enough to drive in that manner, you are skilled enough to avoid it as well. It's simply statistics.

Comment · 10 months ago
Comment · 1 year ago
It didn't, do what? I would consider the first 256 integers to be "small integers" ;)

> Converting a small integer value into an interface value no longer causes allocation

I forgot that it can also be used for single byte strings, That's not an optimization I ever encountered being useful, but it's there!

Comment · 1 year ago
Comment · 1 year ago
The only source that will respond Ford invented the car is a person who has no idea and is simply guessing the first name comes to mind. It can't really even be contested since Benz's and Ford's inventions are decades apart.
Comment · 1 year ago
yeah, "middle of winter" wasn't quite right, but the chances of a microburst during what is an otherwise already windy/gusty winter day are basically none
Comment · 1 year ago
I doubt there was a thunderstorm in the area in the middle of the winter
Comment · 2 years ago
Composite fiberglass materials aren't flexible because of their composite structure, the layers and resin are there to increase strength and stiffness of an otherwise extremely pliable material. Think about fiberglass cloth or pink fiberglass insulation, glass strands get very flexible as the diameter decreases.
Comment · 2 years ago
Even if an approach uses DME, depending on the aircraft or company operating procedures they still may not be using DME, because GPS is a valid substitute for DME in an approach and more convenient if you’re already otherwise using GPS RNAV.

In fact it’s quite common to shoot approaches that have DME specified fixes in an aircraft that doesn’t even have a DME transceiver.

Comment · 2 years ago
The FAA only knows when you last took the BasicMed quiz and attested that you will follow the rules. Getting a physical, storing the form signed by the doctor, and maintaining a valid drivers license are up to the individual.
Comment · 2 years ago
Cork has always been used is lots of shoe footbeds, Birkenstock just makes it visible.
Comment · 3 years ago
_maybe_ it makes a difference within the first few hours of training, but once one is able to land consistently the difference is negligible. The minor differences between different planes in general is far more noticeable than just high vs low (and "in general" most small planes land very similarly anyway)

The big reason for high wing bush planes is for ground clearance, and to avoid damage from debris kicked up by the wheels.

Comment · 3 years ago
Direct damage from combat sports can catch up to you eventually. CTE is pretty serious, but unfortunately you probably don't realize the extent of that damage until it's far too late.
Comment · 3 years ago
This is kind of patronizing to the pilots. There’s nothing particularly difficult about what they did, which has been practiced many times. They ran their checklists, and then landed the plane, and they did it well, just like any other qualified pilot should have. People need to stop conflating basic competence with heroics.

Age is always a factor in mechanical failure, but I’m sure this failure will be inspected in detail to try and avoid it again in the future

Comment · 3 years ago
Maybe? Anecdotal I guess, but I've met more plumbers with chronic knee and back problems than software engineers. But being a plumber in the US isn't too physically demanding, and makes OK money, so it's probably the example of disparity the GP was trying to highlight.

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