With an older car with simple wiring, a switch wired in series with the starter that was hidden is an easy trick.  But with modern cars, I wouldn’t go that complex.  Just wire a keyed switch to the fuel pump.   Get in the car, put a key in a hidden spot and turn it and the car runs fine.  Don’t and it won’t build…

Years ago, my Data Processing 101 professor taught us to cut about a quarter inch off of the bottom of a check. That way, the reader couldn’t read it and the check had to be handled manually, taking weeks before it cleared. It was back in the time where the local electric bills mailed out were on punch cards. He told…

Thomas Hobbes had an interesting take on an inverse Ship of Theseus thought problem — while the original question was whether a historical ship is still that ship even if, after centuries every plank in it has been replaced at least once, Hobbes asked the question that if a second ship was created from the discarded…

Could be worse

Yeah, I’m in the “It’s too cute to be true” category. Given how the 2CV is such a wheezing underpowered deathtrap, I don’t believe it’s capable of handling any upward incline in fourth gear. “It’s rising 1 foot per 1000 feet! Quick! Downshift to third!”

Of course - that is why they were moved around. That processing was done in a central location, not the branches. With the data written to mag tape which was ALSO physically shipped to clearinghouses for processing. The Federal Reserve Bank was one of those clearing houses, twice a week that bank would send the out of…

Of course given the turnover in the membership, it’s questionable if the band called “Journey” today is actually Journey. Neal Schon is the only member left from the 1970s.

Instead she just kept giving him money, faithfully. But he got caught, so who’s crying now?

“wheeeeeeee”

It’s ethically problematic to buy Chinese goods, though it’s nigh impossible in 2024 to find tech items that aren’t partly or wholly assembled there. While I can’t not buy an iPhone for these reasons, I can absolutely boycott a tens of thousands of $’s automobile made in an autocratic country with a garbage human…

“Hey, if the FAA wants to actually be able to tell airplanes what they can and can’t do, then it’s up to Congress to create those rules, in accord with the Founding Fathers’ vision of air travel.”

Chesterton is really the only stop I use in Indiana, its reasonable for options, on/off ease, etc. But yeah, the 80/94 stretch to the IL border is tough, and taking the Skyway/Toll Road route isn’t any better.

As someone who frequently travels between Chicago and Michigan, I am going to second the NW Indiana comment. Terrible stretches of interstate clogged with trucks and perpetually under construction, and if you aren’t stuck in a 10 mile traffic backup you’ve got to deal with people driving 90+ in clapped out Altimas and…

Was Illumination rushing, or were they dragging?

Very Batmobile-y, needs to be black.

Needs more cow

Probably right. When he was in charge, either as a director or because the movie wasn’t getting made without him, he kept the age difference pretty reasonable.

Yeah, that’s an exception. But I also forgot Rene Russo, who is a year older than him. (How is she 70?????)

Starting with Untouchables, which was Patricia Clarkson and where he started having some clout, let’s look:

Sean Young (No Way Out)- 4 years younger
Susan Sarandon (Bull Durham)- 10 years older
Amy Madigan (Field of…

Yeah, but I still thought it was funny in context.

Rabin’s back? Rabin’s back! Nobody mention jellybeans—we don’t want to scare him away!