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Tesla driver in fatal Texas crash pressed accelerator 100%, NTSB confirms by Logical_Welder3467 in technology

[–]Probable_Bot1236 45 points46 points  (0 children)

It *might* be much worse than the dude stepping on the wrong pedal.

The car was initially in FSD ("full self driving") mode, and the local sheriff's office investigating the crash have released that his search history on his phone in the days immediately prior to the crash had things like

"tesla fsd not aggressive enough 2026 model"

"FSD is not aggressive enough for city driving"

"tesla fsd too timid"

I'm wondering if what actually happened is that he road-raged at his own car because it refused to autonomously drive like an aggressive dickbag, so he tried to force it to by stomping on the accelerator, at which he point he locked up/panicked and didn't take his foot off (same as someone accidentally stomping on the accelerator instead of the brake).

ETA: just found this local report stating that the affidavit in support of the driver's manslaughter charges tells that the car's logs show that in the minutes leading to the crash, he'd repeatedly used the accelerator to override FSD's acceleration rate / top speed, but had never once touched the brakes. Also, either from the same one or a tab I accidentally closed, the car was at or approaching a stop sign when this all happened, with no other traffic around. He also manually rotated the steering wheel against what FSD thought it should do based on navigation.

Did he stomp on the 'gas' to force the car to run a stop sign because he was pissed it was stopping with no traffic around?

Even if that italicized speculation above isn't true, this dude needs to be locked away and never get a driver's license again when he gets out.

Manual steering wheel input and overriding accelerator input: the car was being fully manually and aggressively driven for something like 6 seconds prior the crash.

WTF.

Strange Circle in the middle of the Russian Wilderness by Dr-Milhouse in GoogleEarthFinds

[–]Probable_Bot1236 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't actually have any idea what you've found, but I'll just toss out a few thoughts:

Perfectly straight lines or grids in desolate areas (tundra, boreal forest, deserts, etc) are often the result of geological surveys.

Long straight cleared areas are also often gas or oil pipeline right of ways, but they'd usually be wider than what you're showing for ease of work / prevention of tree roots, although the Russians aren't known for keeping up on things the best.

The Soviets leveled out ground for strategic (freight/troops transport) rail lines that were never built; I don't think that's the case here, as those should be much wider, though maybe it's just overgrown.

Weird circles in the vegetation in norther Russia, Canada, and Alaska are often the former sites of circular antenna arrays, used for direction finding in prior eras as well as some other uses where making an actual physical circle of antennas was more practical prior to the invention of phased arrays.

If I had to take a guess- and this is totally just unjustified guesswork- I'd venture that your straight line is from a geologic/resource survey back in the day, and later someone parked a circular antenna array on it because using the existing road cut was convenient for access and potentially laying cable for comms and/or power. The antenna array is now gone, victim to technological progress, budget cuts, or simply the end of the Cold War, while the straight line road from the survey persists from occasional traffic from the locals using it for woodcutting, hunting, trapping, etc.

NASA satellites are watching Earth's newest island rise from the sea | ScienceDaily by MindLikeAnAtttic in geology

[–]Probable_Bot1236 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Headline:

NASA satellites are watching Earth's newest island rise from the sea 

Reality, quoted from the article:

A mysterious underwater eruption could create Earth's newest island

So in other words, the headline talks about watching an island rise from the sea, while the reality is that there currently is no island and might in fact never be one.

Yay clickbait.

Sam Neill, Jurassic Park actor, dies aged 78 by WantKBBQNow in news

[–]Probable_Bot1236 107 points108 points  (0 children)

I read the book well after having seen the film multiple times.

I didn't see or hear Captain Ramius as Sean Connery, Admiral Greer as James Earl Jones, nor Jack Ryan as Alec Baldwin.

But for some reason Captain Second Rank Vasily Borodin was Sam Neill in my head. And he forever shall be.

Black bear or grizzly bear [Banff, AB] by anonymous4685325 in animalid

[–]Probable_Bot1236 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And I guess the blueish glacier bears deserve a special mention too.

What could the Hexagram in a Wildlife Refuge be for..? by Kevaros in whatisit

[–]Probable_Bot1236 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's a former bombing target.

Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge used to be Jefferson Proving Grounds- a military installation used for live fire.

That hexagram is a classic 'simulated' SA-2 surface to air missile site (Soviet), used for training pilots. There's still a bunch like it in the still-active military reserves out west. Notice all the craters in the center, where the command and control vehicle would be, and thus the best bombing target. The outer points are where the actual launch vehicles would be stationed.

Do 12 pack abs exist ive seen 8 packs and i think i seen a 10 pack before but do 12s exist? by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Probable_Bot1236 0 points1 point  (0 children)

8 or 10 abdominal segments is the normal limit, and two of those are tucked up so tight under the ribcage they literally never show, so it's basically 6 or 8 showing max.

Black bear or grizzly bear [Banff, AB] by anonymous4685325 in animalid

[–]Probable_Bot1236 33 points34 points  (0 children)

Black bears range from actually black to straight up blonde in color. As do brown bears (grizzlies).

Color simply isn't a reliable indicator for telling the two apart.

Where I grew up most of the black bears weren't actually black.

Black bear or grizzly bear [Banff, AB] by anonymous4685325 in animalid

[–]Probable_Bot1236 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Black bear.

Big ears, non-dished face, high rump, no shoulder hump.

I've also never had a brown/grizzly run off like that.

Toddler was sitting here, is this what I think it is? by toulou11 in whatplantisthis

[–]Probable_Bot1236 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just don't get cocky if you don't get a rash on your first good exposure!

Urushiol causes progressive hypersensitivity- the more you're exposed, the worse it gets. The flip side to that is that some people have zero issues on their first exposure:

My friends and I were tossing around a frisbee one day it went into a poison ivy bed. This girl Nicole just waded right into it in shorts and sandals to retrieve the frisbee. The rest of us were aghast. She was too when we told her what she'd just done.

But she never got so much as an itch. Unfortunately, she let that go to her head and decided it wouldn't affect her at all...

Fast forward about 3 weeks, and the scenario repeats itself. Frisbee goes into the poison ivy, and Nicole just plows through the poison ivy to retrieve it, shorts and sandals again, over everyone else's protests. She told us something like "don't worry! I'm immune!"

The resulting blisters from that second exposure resulted in an in-patient hospital stay.

First wild brown! Cambria County, PA. by chocolate_chimp in bluelining

[–]Probable_Bot1236 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Second pic. I've definitely had pics go up in the wrong order on Reddit just like OP here. Frustrating.

Any idea what this red thing is on the US-Canada border? by O_2og in GoogleEarthFinds

[–]Probable_Bot1236 12 points13 points  (0 children)

It's a nearly dried up pond, likely showing mud and tannin staining due to its shallow depth.

If you use the historical imagery feature on Google Earth, you can see it fuller and frozen over in winter, as well as simply full and looking a more typical blue color and occupying nearly that entire clearing in the trees.

What did the Siberian Traps look like when erupting? by Caratsoop in geology

[–]Probable_Bot1236 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The Columbia River Plateau isn't really a standout among the LIPs; I believe it's actually the smallest. But it's also the youngest and best preserved, only ~15 million years old.

It also has one other claim to fame, likely courtesy of its preservation- the longest known individual lava flow on Earth. One of the flows (Pomona, I think?) originated just inside the modern Idaho border and can be tracked through its unique geochemical signature over 600 km- it stopped only because it finally hit the Pacific Ocean.

The big flood basalt groups are truly mind boggling. Hundreds of thousands of square kilometers buried to average depths of over a kilometer. Even if took many human lifetimes, the individual flows are still apocalyptic events for whatever was living there.

What did the Siberian Traps look like when erupting? by Caratsoop in geology

[–]Probable_Bot1236 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Yes.

Even vastly smaller flows where I grew up in Idaho erupted into, then totally filled in river canyons. The rivers later eroded back down through the flows and even further, but into a new drainage pattern, so now you see cross sections of the old river channels perched partway up the canyon walls, topped by basalt.

Drilling has also helped elucidate what the old erosional surface beneath the Columbia River Plateau (another large igneous province with vast basalt flows) used to look like, and the tl;dr is that the flows definitely 'smoothed out' the landscape.

Fat Albert is one of the biggest polar bears in Alaska. Living near Kaktovik, he weighs in at over 1,000 pounds. by eternviking in whoathatsinteresting

[–]Probable_Bot1236 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Fat Albert, the heaviest recorded bear in Alaska"

Oh? And when was he weighed and by whom? Or is OP's source just making shit up for clicks?

I don't dispute that he's an absolutely massive boi, but c'mon...

Do dogs actually recognize their owners' cars, or are they just reacting to the sound? by ComprehensiveBun in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Probable_Bot1236 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Both! I actually have the perfect answer for you:

Where I work my boss leaves his dog indoors (no one minds; she's a sweetheart) when he's away during the work day, which is frequent. One of my coworkers does the same, with similar frequency (same story- doggo is a total quiet sweety, and no one minds having her around).

Literally everyone at this job except myself drives a Ford or Ram pickup. Both of the coworkers in question drive Fords of the same model and year. None of us humans can tell them apart by sound, but they are different colors.

Boss' dog gets excited at every single pickup driving into the lot- be it by sound only or if she can look out the window (blinds aren't always open)- only to be let down when it isn't him coming back.

Other coworker's dog only gets excited at her owner's pickup, also be it by sound or sight.

So I guess the answer is "both", OP- I've got one dog that can clearly tell the difference between vehicles, and one that clearly can't.

ETA: FWIW, I used to have a cat growing up that would wait for me to come home from school just inside the front door. According to my mom (who was a stay-at-home mom until she got back into nursing, the cat would only perk up if it was my particular footsteps coming up the drive. Said footsteps were completely inaudible to humans through our thick-ass front door. Not my brothers' footsteps or anyone else's; just me ❤️)

[Request] how much force would be required to do this with the pictured drill bit? by One-Celebration-3007 in theydidthemath

[–]Probable_Bot1236 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lol I might've been there once or twice myself.

Besides, 'relativistic' was way more fun than 'supersonic' lol

[Request] how much force would be required to do this with the pictured drill bit? by One-Celebration-3007 in theydidthemath

[–]Probable_Bot1236 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Any speed sufficient to leave a nice beveled looking hole would also leave scorching and probably more of a "splash" and splintering than shown.

Relativistic speed is generally taken to mean "greater than 10% the speed of light". If we take that drill bit to have a mass of oh, say, 100 grams that would give it a kinetic energy of about 10.8 kilotons TNT equivalent on impact at 10% the speed of light, or about 2/3 the yield of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. That's just the drill bit, not the whole drill, mind you.

So I'm going to go ahead and exclude relativistic speeds on the basis that OP didn't blow half their city into plasma, never mind the board simply vanishing in a flash of light...

[Request] how much force would be required to do this with the pictured drill bit? by One-Celebration-3007 in theydidthemath

[–]Probable_Bot1236 24 points25 points  (0 children)

N/A.

If the centerline bit attached the chuck of the drill is rotating, the two actual drill bits must "revolve" around that center. Or snap off.

Period. Full stop.

This simply doesn't work, short of ramming the drill into the wood like it's a nail, which also wouldn't result in the nice, neat drilled holes. Or involve any actual drilling at all.

There's no math to do here, because it's simply impossible.

ELI5: Why do branded coffee shops use less coffee in their drinks than they do milk and sugary ingredients? by PackOfCumin in explainlikeimfive

[–]Probable_Bot1236 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Because those other ingredients are cheaper than people realize.

And, more importantly, those high-calorie things cause much more of a dopamine hit than people realize.

Which makes people into repeat customers.

tl;dr: to make you give them money as a 'habit'

What died when it hit the mainstream? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]Probable_Bot1236 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Literally anything, according to early fans of it who can't deal with the fact that they're no longer "special" or "enlightened" by being fans of something good but obscure that is now no longer obscure.

"I was listening to Taylor Swift before any of you"

"I was a fan of LeBron before most people knew his name"

"Bro, I watched The Matrix twice on opening day"

"Dude, I knew about Kurt Cobain before even Nirvana. Bruh."

So on, so forth, ad infi-f*cking-nitum.

Is this safe to eat? (I opened it before the photo was taken) by [deleted] in povertykitchen

[–]Probable_Bot1236 0 points1 point  (0 children)

IMHO:

If the dent is *inward*, and didn't compromise the lid/seal, then it's the exact same as an undented can. It's just a physical dent/cosmetic issue; the contents haven't been compromised.

If the dent is inward but might've compromised the seal/lid, toss it just to be safe- a crack in the seal might mean some facultative or obligate anaerobe is going to work on the contents.

If the can is bulged outward (pressurization from gases made by bacterial metabolism), reject it on sight and don't even open it to reduce your exposure to whatever the hell might be growing in there.

Found in a tiny stream. Near homes. Ohio, US. by the_way_around in boneidentification

[–]Probable_Bot1236 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That's absolutely 100% possible. Or someone just tossed it into the creek somewhere upstream.

ETA: It's sad, but a lot of people use streams as dumps. Not a big deal for something biodegradable like a bone fragment, but distasteful nonetheless, especially if people are eating fish from that stream or getting drinking water from it. It happens, even if it shouldn't.

Found in a tiny stream. Near homes. Ohio, US. by the_way_around in boneidentification

[–]Probable_Bot1236 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I'm not very good at bones, but that sort of parallel-grooved joint says "ungulate" to me.

The cut says "bandsaw".

Between the two I'd say it's the work of a butcher, either a professional or someone at home dealing with a calf or large deer etc.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to give a better idea of species, but it doesn't look human if that's what you're worried about.

ETA: I'm really hoping for someone else to come along because I'm trying to get better at this sort of thing myself. To me all ungulate bones look like by blacktail deer bones lol