I had a guy call me the Anti-Christ today. What did you do?

[Jonluw]

Anyway, in the US driver's training only has a specific training course for city and freeway driving. Overall only about an hour of on the road training is all that's required for a learner's permit (in Michigan at least, it varies between States), and honestly that's plenty. In the US close to all traffic accidents are caused by distractions or impairment, not lack of aptitude even among new drivers. I don't think Norway will do anything but waste money on these absurd requirements. As you say Scandinavian driving has some pretty harsh challenges, but a 5-hour training course still seems like a bit much.

The entire course isn't five hours.
That's one class.
A normal full course includes:
8 (optional) driving lessons à 45 minutes.
1 "step 2 guiding lesson" à 45 minutes (mandatory).
Mandatory safety course on a track (slippery surfaces and pedestrians and such), à 4 hours (A couple of these hours are spent driving to the track and listening to the teachers though).
1 "step 3 guiding lesson" à 45 minutes (mandatory).
"Step 4 road safety lessons": 4 lessons à 45 minutes theory and nine lessons à 45 minutes practice.

It apparently works though, since deaths in traffic per capita is a fair bit lower in Norway than it is in the states. (212 vs 36,000 deaths (total 2009) annually)

That, in a nutshell, is the case for the majority of roads out here. It may be different in the midwest and southwest where roads are flatter and straighter, but here in the southeast it's twist after turn after hill. Even if the lines allowed a pass you'd be insane to try it.


Of course, given that rush hour on my road is two cars going by in the span of an hour, it isn't that big a deal.

That might be part of why we're taught overtaking technique. The population in Norway is very spread out. We've got a lot of small farms and tiny villages spread out across the entire country, so there's a good deal of traffic at rush hour.
Although, when you're standing in a cork, overtaking people doesn't help.

I think it's balls that you can't order a car without [TCS, ABS, etc.]. I have a 26 year old pickup truck and I can stay on the pavement just fine, even in the snow, without nine tons of computers. It isn't difficult, and it boggles my mind that people require these systems if they want to get anywhere without eating an airbag.

If there's one thing I learned from the time I spent at the slippery tracks, it's that I prefer the way the car handles around a slippery corner with EBS and TCS turned off. But I've spent a lot of time trying to rein in out of control cars in car simulators in my life. At the very least, I think ABS is a good idea, since I don't trust your ordinary driver to be able to keep his cool and avoid locking the wheels in an emergency.

Annoyingly, my instructor's car (2012 Audi A4) didn't allow the driver to turn off ABS. Pretty irritating, since I'd like to get some proper wheel-lock going.

Pull the ABS fuse and it should 'fail'. You can also unplug the wheel speed sensors. The computers will go abloogywoogywoo and throw up several warning lights but it will drive just fine.

Don't know why he didn't do that. A bit much effort perhaps.
Or maybe those fuses are hidden under some material that makes them hard to get to *shrug*

Getting a license in Norway is expensive though. You'll be hard pressed to find any course cheaper than $3,000.

Lolwut? I only paid $500 for my truck. I can't imagine the logic that went into charging three grand for the license to drive. On top of that I understand good cars are hard to come by on a budget in Europe for some reason, where I can buy a reliable ride for half a grand you lot seem to end up with junkheaps for anything under 3500.

I don't know about the rest of Europe, but cars and the driving thereof is rather serious business over here.
I'm currently driving a slightly dented Mitsubishi Colt glx (can't remember the year) that my family boght used for ca. $1,700. Bought for the purpose of giving me something to practice in. Our ordinary car is an automatic, so it's useless. (For the record, our other car is a Citroën C4 Picasso that set us back ca. $50,000.)
The Colt got stuck in first gear 2 weeks after buying it, but the people who sold it to my family were kind enough to deal with that problem for us.

There are a lot of taxes and other expenses surrounding cars here. I think it has to do with the fact that the roads require a shitload of maintenance, and you need to drill through heaps of mountains to make them in the first place.

So to deal with this (and to reduce traffic accidents), they've among other things set up pretty hefty fines.
Say you're caught doing 52 mph in a 40 mph zone. That's $1100 from your pocket right there.
If you're caught going faster than that, they'll take your license, and if you do more than 70 mph, you'll go to prison.

 

[silasbufu]

snip

I agree with these courses you are taking, even if some people don't seem to be big fans of it.

Any idiot can get into a car and step on the gas pedal.

It's not enough that we have insane drivers, but the roads are full of normal people who just can't drive for shit.

I wish the process of getting a license would be this severe in my country as well, because the roads are full of imbeciles.

 

[XandNobody]

Today, like most days, I had woken up late to go to my chemistry class, and as i was heading to my car i noticed a chipmunk crouching on top of one of my garden statues. It was a true sign the Anti-Christ had awakened. Then i read the OP and it was true! Then I continued about my day and had left over pizza.

Haha.

Wait, leftover pizza? I have leftover pizza in the fridge right now... That's no coincidence, it's another sign! OMGWTFBBQ

OT: Not too much, ran through some web-comics, checked my email, ate a hamburger, and had some beer. Not going to do much more than that either, bloody going to be 101'F/38'C today...

Thank you to whoever made air-conditioning a thing.

 

[Clearing the Eye]

Amusing how religions twist and corrupt their own language over the years. Makes me wonder how many people have actually read their own holy texts and not just "the gist."

 

[DaWaffledude]

I woke up, went downstairs and looked at this thread.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

I got told off for being nocturnal by my mum. I pulled an all nighter a few days ago and have been going to bed a 7am ever since.

 

[Offworlder_v1legacy]

Cleaned up my house for the piss up that will be occurring here tomorrow night, played Mass Effect 3, interneted, ate, umm, had a guitar lesson, and now I'm writing this. What an exciting day....

 

[Jonluw]

I've seen people lock up with ABS. It doesn't do much good, and it makes people far worse drivers than they would be if they knew that they couldn't just stomp on the brakes and get out of being stupid thanks to computers.

That's the kind of mindset the course aims to remove in the students. They teach you how to properly use ABS brakes to get optimum results out of braking, and actively stress that the system is not there to compensate for your poor skill.
I've never heard of anyone locking up with non-faulty ABS though.

automatics are useless for everything. The only people that should be driving them are the people who physically cannot operate a clutch pedal.

There's one thing I've found they're good for:
Teaching kids the rules of and how to move in traffic before they have the driving skill to be trusted with a proper car in traffic.
After all, the car moving by itself so long as the clutch is engaged can create some problematic situations in traffic for a newbie. Not to mention stalling.
It's a bit like practicing with an rc car beforehand.

The Colt got stuck in first gear 2 weeks after buying it, but the people who sold it to my family were kind enough to deal with that problem for us.

That's good, because spending 1700 on a car with a bad gearbox is a ripoff.

1700 is actually considered pretty damn cheap over here.
You need to understand that the economy is different here though. The average salary is >$50,000 a year, and if you earn less than $40,000 you're considered eligible for a welfare check I believe. Can't remember the specifics of this stuff.

The wages are high, so the prices are high as well. The last time I bought a pint of beer at a bar, it cost me $12.
And you won't find a bottle of wine for sale for much less than $16.

So to deal with this (and to reduce traffic accidents), they've among other things set up pretty hefty fines.
Say you're caught doing 52 mph in a 40 mph zone. That's $1100 from your pocket right there.
If you're caught going faster than that, they'll take your license, and if you do more than 70 mph, you'll go to prison.

That is absolute bullshit right there. Absolute bullshit. 12 over in a 40 is not a big deal at all.

I agree with these fines.
The kind of environments that are marked 40 mph are narrow roads with little sight around corners where you're expected to meet pedestrians walking on the (non-existant) shoulder, and bicyclists riding in your lane.

Considering the amount those 12 mph add to your stopping distance, I'd consider someone driving on these kinds of roads at 50 a major safety hazard.

 

[Bvenged]

I'm currently helping people out with their Xbox problems under the volunteer Xbox Support program. they're mostly connection-based issues I end up attempting to resolve, but worst-case scenario is I've diagnosed the problem for official support to fix.

All in the name of helping people out

Oh, and I've been called the anti-christ before. It humours me because it's an attempt to oust someone as morally wrong but non-religious individuals, in my eyes, can be a morally better person than the religious one who is insinuating hatred, slavery, [small]war, [sub]bigotry...[/sub][/small]

 

[Leemaster777]

I just looked up the whole "Oreo homosexuality" thing. You know what my immediate thoughts are?

"God, I wonder what a cookie like that would taste like. Mmm... gay cookie."

Anyways, I have no strong feelings about the actual controversy itself. While I support Oreo, the backlash against it is pretty textbook, just magnified because of how known the Oreo brand is.

And I haven't done shit today, I only woke up an hour ago. I've eaten an egg, fiddled with my Transformers, and watched some videos on TGWTG. That's about it.

 

[Nash]

I've woken up, watched some Big Brother, had a late breakfast and I'm just about to get a shower.

Super exciting.

 

[Broax]

I just thank "god" that European christians aren't so outspoken and a little more acceptant (or at least passive) of other people's choices... I'm not gay... I don't care about gay people. Not caring as in, I don't give two fucks about what they do... If they want to love, get married, adopt a kid, etc. feel free to do that. Even the latter being so polemical after seeing so many horrible straight parents I really feel that at the very worse a gay couple can't do any further harm. And yeah, I think they are entitled to the same amount of respect and opportunities straight people get (not "deserve" as they don't really need to do anything to "earn" it. To deserve respect is like being a good dog that deserves a treat).

As for Oreo, I really think it was a publicity stunt but if every major corporation had this kind of publicity stunts the world would be a much better place.

As for you being anti-christ... I don't really see a problem in that. If you're christian I do understand such a statement might hurt, other wise calling my anti-christ is like calling me "male" or "human".. It's a fact which I don't really care about. I'm as much anti-christ as I am anti-anchovies. Eat'em if you got 'em... None for me, though...

 

[JoesshittyOs]

Well, I said thank you to a woman who just said "hey thanks for cleaning up in here guys", right in front of an extremely attractive girl.

Shining moment in my life.

 

[Bassik]

Stopped a cult of space fungi from opening a portal to Yuggoth, allowing their planet-bound brethren to our world.

On an unrelated note, I got a high fever and have been sitting around the house all day while passing out/falling asleep (How can you tell?) from time to time.

Totally unrelated.

 

[AntiChrist]

In response, I was told that I'm the Anti-Christ. Well, not exactly in those terms, what he actually said was that I'm proof that it's the End of Days. However, that's close enough for me. It's official. I'm the Anti-Christ.

So, what'd you do today?

This town ain't big enough for the both of us...

Draw.

 

[Strain42]

I was at Lowes once, and I had to do the electronic signing dealy when I paid with a credit card. This sweet old lady behind me suddenly saw me writing and piped in with

"Hey, you're left handed like the president and the devil."

I wasn't offended, I wasn't mad, I wasn't...anything. I was just kinda confused if anything. She didn't sound like she was saying it with any kind of bitterness in her tone. If she'd complimented my shirt in that tone it would've been very nice.

 

[Dominus Nox]

I was referred to as Jesus all night at a comedy night.

Does that mean we're meant to fight or something? Or have an earth shattering game of Scrabble?

Maybe? I'll be honest, I used to be big into Revelation theory, but I kind of can't be arsed to bother with predicting the future anymore. I think I get to stomp around the Earth for awhile with Satan, and then you show up and back-hand us into a fiery lake.

Easy as. Do we want to set a date or something for the back handing, or just play it by ear?

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Actually, he's technically correct. Leviticus was written for the priesthood, in the first place, and shouldn't be regarded as part of normal Jewish law, as it concerns itself with the the laws for the Levites and the laity.

Secondly, Jesus was being more than a little coy in Matthew 5:17. When He says He came to fulfill the law and the prophets, He means He is going to enact the spirit of the law as it was always meant, rather than the stringent letter of law enforced by the Israeli council. This is supported by the fact that there are far more instances of Christ breaking Jewish law than of Him following it, and of the tearing of the Great Veil which separated the common man from the portion of the temple where the priests conducted their business.

Leviticus 18:1-5 'The Lord said to Moses, ?Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ?I am the Lord your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.'

Seems pretty clearly said that these laws laid out in Leviticus 18 are for all Israelites, not only the Levites.

Matthew 5:18 'For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.'

How is anyone supposed to interpret this statement as "enact the spirit of the law as it was always meant, rather than the stringent letter of law"?