1boringperson

I'm experiencing an odd convergence of cars and boobs lately.  Last week I pulled up behind a car which had a non-vanity plate of "44B00B1".  Which means somewhere out there is the person who was four behind them in line.  Their license plate, on first glance, says "44BOOBS"!

Today, I saw an oval sticker on the back of a car that said "Save the ta-tas!" over a pink breast cancer awareness ribbon.

Saw a Jeep Compass with a personalized tag yesterday. It read "N S E W".

The other day my car pool driver was pulled over for speeding. The initial conversation with the officer went something like this:

Officer: Do you know what the speed limit on this road is?
Driver: No. [A lie.]
Officer: It's 55. Do you know how fast you were going?
Driver: Not exactly. [Perhaps not technically a lie.]

I'm guessing at least 90% of police officers' conversations when they pull someone over for speeding goes something like this. But what happens if you're completely honest and pleasant?

Officer: Do you know what the speed limit on this road is?
Driver: I believe it's 55.
Officer: Um, that's correct. Do you know how fast you were going?
Driver: My speedometer said about 70.
Officer: Uh, yeah. My radar clocked you at 69.
Driver: Here's my license and registration. All the information is correct. I'm glad I could give you something to do today. It's always nice to see the police doing their duty.

How would a police officer handle this? Would he be speechless? Would he make you get out of the car to see if you were driving under the influence? I really doubt it would get you off with a warning, but I can't afford the fine to find out.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
     -- Clarke's Third Law (Arthur C. Clarke)

"Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
     -- Gregory Benford's Corollary to Clarke's Third Law

We had our car towed to the local dealership of the city we broke down near. (See previous entry. Yes, back to back entries again. Sorry.) They've rented us a Ford Taurus in the meantime. I noticed that the rear-view mirror didn't have one of those little tabs to shift it to night-time mode so the headlights behind you weren't blinding. It did have what appeared to be a pair of some form of light sensors, but I didn't give them much thought. Behind the mirror was a box. At the time I saw it, I presumed it probably contained a GPS transmitter so the dealership could track the car.

As dusk was approaching, we were still on the road (with a long way to go). It was just getting to the point where I wanted to figure out what to do about the mirror when it took care of itself. Literally! As a car approached from behind with its headlights on, the mirror darkened! Since it was still fairly light, the effect was just subtle enough for me to wonder if I was imagining it or not. After another couple cars passed us, I knew I was not imagining it.

This is cool! And it truly appears to be magic. There are no visible moving parts. I have no idea how the mirror actually works. All I know is that in early evening, it will darken some as a car with headlights on comes by from behind. Once night has fallen, it will turn completely dark, reflecting only the headlights. It will lighten if there are no headlights close behind you, but by then it's so dark you can barely tell the difference.

It stirred a vague memory of reading or seeing something about this, but I think it was very long ago. And I had thought PDA's were science fiction come to life. I think this has those beat.

We were going on a family vacation yesterday when our car broke down. I had managed to get to the top of an off-ramp before the engine completely died. It was comforting that about eight people plus a state trooper stopped to offer help in some fashion before the tow truck came. When I told an older man who'd stopped that the tow truck was on the way and several people had already stopped, he told me that stopped because when he'd broken down once, no one ever stopped to help him. I think my story may have restored his faith in people, too.