The EPIC WIN Thread 3: SON OF EPIC

Enresshou

Enresshou

I was just selected to participate in the Detroit Zoo's Portal to the Public mini-fellowship! I get to attend several mini-fellowships at the Detroit Zoo geared towards helping me connect to the public with my research, and then get to participate in multiple informal events to engage the general public about science. Considering that communicating what, exactly, we do is an extremely important skill (and one you receive literally zero official training in), I'm really excited!

Plus, since I haven't been to the Detroit Zoo before, I get to see animals!
 
Enresshou

Enresshou

PatrThom said:
When you gonna be there? There's an opportunity waiting...

Also, while you are there, you really should plan a trip to visit Holiday Market in Royal Oak. It's only two blocks away and I'm sure you'll find plenty of interesting things.

--Patrick
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I'll be there October 14th, November 18th, and December 13th for the workshops; I'm not sure when the public events are, but they won't be til 2015.

And thanks for the heads up on the Holiday Market! That looks absolutely awesome to check out; I'll give it a try.
 
Gared

Gared

Awesome photos @Hylian. I was really hoping to get up to Rainier this year (since it's almost a stone's throw away), but with the exceptionally drawn out process of launching this software that we still haven't launched, I've been on "no vacation allowed" mode since sometime around April.
 
Zappit

Zappit

Staff member
Had bus duty this afternoon. One of the mothers standing nearby shouts out, "Omigod, she's right out there!" I whip around, and there's a two year old that had wandered out into the car line for pickup. I ran out into the parking lot, and grabbed her before she could get hurt. The kid's mother, who had been strapping her infant's car seat, hadn't seen what happened, and gave off a bubbly, "Oh, she's mine!" As I was leading the toddler back to the waiting area.

Right after that, the school's new vice principal comes out, and the other teacher on duty with me immediately starts telling him about my save. Felt pretty good, but I can't help but think that's a situation that's going to be repeated...
 
Jay

Jay

Adam said:
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

*huff huff*

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

My new car has arrived!

View attachment 15999
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They did a shit job with the paint job. They missed some spots.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
I had the same experience when I sold my Wrangler for a Mini Cooper S. The Jeep forums I frequented told me I was going to triple my insurance, and that premium gas was going to balance out the MPG. Both are incorrect. My insurance dropped by a significant amount, and being a nerd, I showed mathematically that the vast MPG difference makes the fuel cost enormously lower, even at $0.20 more a gallon. Even at $0.50 more a gallon.

That latter point about premium vs MPG gets repeated all over the web, and it's pretty easy to disprove. Believe it or not, I didn't get much argument back on the Jeep forum. Most of the members surprisingly went, "Oh yeah, okay. It's still not a Jeep." True, but what I gave up I get back in zippy fun.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Ah, I'd forgotten that you were coming from a Jeep. Yes, the mileage improvement should make up for the difference in price, I thought you were getting at best an incremental improvement in MPG but a vast increase in price. My 2004 6-cyl gets about 27MPG (11.5km/l) so for me the premium premium would be significant. Also, since my car is domestic and fairly common (and large), the insurance rates are not that high. I do know that when I compared the two, the increased insurance/projected fuel costs made the payment possibility of buying an Impreza impossible (rather than merely painful. I was willing to suffer a little pain).

--Patrick
 
Adam

Adam

I actually shocked that the Wranglers cost so much to insure, but considering it's the Unlimited it makes sense. Essentially a big tank. And it's not a gas guzzler, it's a gas IV.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Don't forget that (at least around here) a surprisingly large portion of the "how much does this cost to insure this vehicle?" is based on the average amount of medical care needed by an occupant of that vehicle in an accident.
So insurance prices on things like Wranglers get marked up because they're lousy about protecting occupants in rollovers, etc.

--Patrick
 
Null

Null

PatrThom said:
Don't forget that (at least around here) a surprisingly large portion of the "how much does this cost to insure this vehicle?" is based on the average amount of medical care needed by an occupant of that vehicle in an accident.
So insurance prices on things like Wranglers get marked up because they're lousy about protecting occupants in rollovers, etc.

--Patrick
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Which is part of the reason supercars are so expensive to insure. Yes, there's a whole lot of "people drive recklessly in high performance cars", but there's also a lot of "the carbon fiber and aluminum this car is made of will ignite like a road flare if you get in an accident."[DOUBLEPOST=1411071444,1411071396][/DOUBLEPOST]
Chad Sexington said:
Scotland is still part of the United Kingdom!
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That's very fortunate for the Scots.
 
B

BErt

I'm with you, man. The beer you grow up with stays with you. I'll always have a soft spot for Stroh's even though it's now made by some suck-ass-crap factory owned by Pabts.
 
Fun Size

Fun Size

Chad Sexington said:
HERESY

Alternatively: You've just never had real beer. /snob
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I hated the taste of beer when I was younger. My sister was a huge beer snob and insisted on continually making me try them until I could find one I liked. In the end, I settled on "This one sucks less than the others, so I guess I'll drink this". In hindsight, I never really enjoyed a single one (except maybe a local brewery, but that's because they were more sour and wine-like).

Also in hindsight, I can see where some of my worse habits were not only encouraged genetically, but culturally as well.
 
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