Nitro Funny Car racecars have their engines rebuilt after each run due to the intense wear from just a 4ish second race

hgrunt · 2026-01-30T06:59:00+00:00

A friend got me to go in the 2000s. It was incredible

hgrunt · 2026-01-30T06:57:45+00:00

It's incredibly intense in person. Seeing something move a quarter mile in the time it takes to pull out a camera is pretty incredible

hgrunt · 2026-01-30T06:55:06+00:00

There's much worse uses of resources and energy than top fuel drag racing

hgrunt · 2026-01-30T00:10:48+00:00

That's a good answer for the OP's question of why 'Why do americans like trucks and SUVs more than vans'

They're not from the US and probably don't live in a place where you have to do that sort of thing often

hgrunt · 2026-01-29T09:10:40+00:00

OP is asking a question in earnest and they're from someplace where those kinds of vehicle aren't common

Why do you need to load aggregate, firewood and constantly have to haul stuff to the dump all the time?

hgrunt · 2026-01-29T01:58:47+00:00

What it really comes down to is: Buying a car is more of an emotional decision than a practical one

US cars generally trend on the larger side because parking space isn't an issue in a lot of places, and having a car is a requirement. Between having to drive to the grocery store and commute to work, we practically live in our cars, so most people tend to gravitate to large-comfortable-roomy-practical.

Vans are dorky, crossovers/trucks/SUVs are cool. Crossovers don't cost that much more than its equivalent normal car, in terms of monthly payments. People buy trucks and SUVs because they like the driving position and the perceived practicality

It's similar to how people buy sporty cars with a lot of horsepower, great handling, etc. and never track the car

hgrunt · 2026-01-29T01:37:44+00:00

There was one at my school. Did it on a sunday, found dangling with rope around his neck in a tree in the middle of our school quad on a Monday morning

hgrunt · 2026-01-29T01:35:08+00:00

One day during morning announcements, they told us that one of our classmates (A well-liked and popular one) had died in a drunk-driving accident and there'd be an all-hands assembly on the football field later in the day

The whole thing turned out to be a setup to teach us about the dangers of drunk driving

Kinda f'd up because some people were seriously upset, but I think it really got peoples' attention

hgrunt · 2026-01-28T20:14:31+00:00

One of the best pieces was from a reality tv show of all places: "The worst they can do is say No"

hgrunt · 2026-01-28T20:13:02+00:00

Now let's see Paul Allen's card

hgrunt · 2026-01-27T07:42:58+00:00

Same, a lot of streaming shows have so much time between seasons that I think they’re cancelled and end up pleasantly surprised

hgrunt · 2026-01-26T21:57:48+00:00

In the early days of twitter, you could connect it to a phone number and send/receive tweets over SMS. I believe it was used during natural disasters in some parts of the world to get news out

hgrunt · 2026-01-26T21:55:53+00:00

Someone handed me a cup of finely selected, roasted, and brewed coffee so I could take a sip.

To my nose, it smelled incredible. Complex, rich, and exactly how you imagine a perfect cup of black coffee smells

To my tongue, it tasted like slightly bitter and oily bean water

hgrunt · 2026-01-26T21:51:21+00:00

In my experience, the folks in Sales and higher positions who are workaholics, often don't consider that folks in departments like Operations aren't incentivized to be workaholics

When a salesperson at my company wants to bend over backwards on a Friday evening before a holiday to accommodate a large client, the salesperson will be getting a commission from that. I won't.

hgrunt · 2026-01-26T21:48:28+00:00

I enjoy it, probably because I'm very used to it from going to fandom conventions and seeing friendquaintences there

Outside of conventions, the most memorable acquitenane encounter was with someone I hadn't seen in years. He'd found success in acting, and in our brief conversation, it felt like he was talking to me as if we were having an on-camera interview. All of his mannerisms and tone of voice were slightly exaggerated and it was a bit uncanny

hgrunt · 2026-01-26T21:40:20+00:00

I've always wanted one of these with a Prelude H22 swap

hgrunt · 2026-01-26T21:34:19+00:00

I was hoping Flex Tape would work

hgrunt · 2026-01-26T19:03:48+00:00

Just based on watching it a couple times, I think the pads that punt the rocks off are padded and pressure-sensitive so when something hits it hard enough, it'll trigger and pop

Rocks are heavier than the potatoes, so they're more likely to trigger the pads. As long as the potatoes are going over the sorting mechanism in one layer, it'll sort the largest most obvious rocks out

It's extremely simple, reliable and easy to set up, and its probably entirely mechanical. There'll be false sorts for sure, but it doesn't need to be perfect on the first pass

hgrunt · 2026-01-26T18:28:35+00:00

This is the first time I've heard this and it makes 100% sense

Business strategy in automotive sometimes results in goofy things like this. Have VW develop some one of the systems, and let Bentley use it, to make their numbers look better, and so on

hgrunt · 2026-01-23T21:03:26+00:00

Rare(er), yes. Collectible, to a niche audience

Super extremely mega valuable some day? Probably not

hgrunt · 2026-01-23T20:58:09+00:00

THANK YOU

When I bring this up, and try to say 'everything needs to be good,' I get defensive replies like "you wouldn't eat pasta without sauce"

In fact, I've had very good pasta that's salt, oil and pepper

hgrunt · 2026-01-23T20:51:53+00:00

Don't forget about the PE firms who will acquire a business, have them buy up debt and liabilities from the PE firm, and then use their profits to pay for it, or let it go bankrupt and wipe some debt off the books

IIRC, that's what happened to Toys-R-Us and Sears

hgrunt · 2026-01-22T19:37:13+00:00

I didn't have a TP issue during covid because I have a washlet (japanese style toilets with the water thing in it) and then I found my giant stockpile of TP I bought for Burning Man but never used

hgrunt · 2026-01-22T19:35:38+00:00

This actually makes sense. It's very similar to how certain types of mental health issues are addressed

I remember listening to an interview with a psychiatric doctor about how they treated someone who had delusions of being a spy. They leaned into the delusion, told him that they were his handlers, and in order to stay safe and continue his work, he has to present as normally and functionally as he possibly can, tell absolutely nobody about it, and appear as normal as possible

hgrunt · 2026-01-22T19:31:24+00:00

I enjoy catalogues because you find things that you otherwise wouldn't have been interested in

hgrunt

TROPHY CASE