Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:41:19 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Gaylaxicon gets a hotel
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

At 10/7/2007 06:08 PM, you wrote:
>Mike Bartman wrote:
>
> > Which of us could get to Middleburg, VA quicker?
>
>The next time I want to get to Middleburg, Virginia or Adamstown,
>Maryland will be the first.  What is in those places?

There's a small sawmill in Middleburg and a friend in Adamstown.

> > For instance, the people who want to show that airline travel is
> > safest tend to use "passenger-miles" as their criteria, since most
> > airline flights involve many people and long distances.  Look at it
> > in other terms and the numbers aren't so good.
>
>Most people want to get to a particular place, rather than to travel
>for some particular number of hours or to take some particular number
>of trips.  If I want to get from my home to, say, the Denver Worldcon,
>and want to know the safest method, passenger miles are the appropriate
>measure.

If it makes you feel good to look at it that way, fine.  I'd be more
interested in what my chances of getting there and back alive are.

> > When I'm driving I have more control over level of risk.  I can
> > drive a large vehicle, or one with extra safety equipment.
>
>It's true that, all else being equal, in a collision the people in the
>larger vehicle tend to be safer.  Since not everyone can be in the
>larger vehicle, this results in a sort of arms race, resulting in
>ever-larger vehicles that make everyone else, especially cyclists and
>pedestrians, less safe.  Like military arms races, the only limit is
>bankruptcy.  How large a vehicle with how poor a gas mileage can you
>afford?

Mine is not the largest vehicle on the road by a long shot.  The bus
you ride in is much larger and gets much lower gas mileage.  I am,
however, a lot more agile in mine.

>A lot of so-called safety equipment doesn't so much increase safety as
>takes it from others.  For instance brighter headlights let the people
>in the vehicle see better at the expense of everyone else in the
>vicinity seeing worse.

Yep.  I've wondered if polarizing filters on the headlights, and
polarizing filters in the windshields or on the drivers, might not
help that problem.

> >> Come to PRSFS sometime.  You'll be surprised.
>
> > When and where?
>
>Unfortunately, you just missed two PRSFS events, back to back.  The
>regular second Friday meeting was moved to first Friday to avoid
>conflicts with some con.  And the semi-annual picnic was the next
>day, yesterday.  So the next meeting will be in about five weeks, on
>Friday, November 9th, at 8 p.m., at 811 Olive Drive, Silver Spring.
>
>Being the November meeting, "turkeys" (bad books) will be reviewed.

What are meetings like?  Who can show up?  Who does show up?

-- Mike B.
--
If you meet Buddha on the road to enlightenment, kick him!