The helmet thing has been mentioned back
when Miral started her pilot education.
The ears were somewhat ‘in the way’…
That Gobi does not have that excuse is
IMO not debatable 😉
It should be mentioned (if not obvious) that I’m pro-helmet.
My brother was pressed into an accident by some incompetent
driver and without the helmet his head would have been
cracked open by that concrete pillar he head-banged…
(not to mention the road-rash he would have gotten by sliding
along the asphalt…)
I’m pro-helmet myself.
I just don’t think that it is a proper function of government
to protect people from the consequences of their own decisions.
In the Empire, if you want to ride without a helmet,
anything other than liability insurance will cost you more.
The problem, of course, is that the average motorcycle head injury
ends up costing someone over $1,000,000. And that someone is you
and me. And just educating riders on the importance of a helmet
doesn’t work, because everyone thinks, “I’m a better rider; it
won’t happen to me.” Or, as one wag put it, “You can lead a horse
to slaughter, but you can’t make him think.” To some extent, helmet
laws protect society in general, and not just the motorcyclist.
And I guess we could argue where the line between protecting the
citizen, and protecting the citizenry in general might be.
Because that’s the basis of libertarianism, right?
I always wear a helmet. And I have good medical insurance.
(The law in Texas is that if you’re over 21, you don’t have to wear
a helmet, as long as you have sufficient medical insurance.)
Well, I would, if my wife would let me have another two-wheel
motorcycle, instead of the four-wheel one I current have for fun.
But I DID wear one, when I rode.
And I do still have two helmets in my closet.
I ride, and I wear a helmet, even in states where I don’t have to.
“Protecting the public” can be, and has been, used as an excuse
to limit citizens far too many times. No thanks.
Freedoms cost, but it’s a price that free people have always paid.
I like having a lathe and milling machine, even though they’re
dangerous and could cause me injuries that are more expensive
to treat than I can afford.
I like riding a motorcycle, even though if I get into an accident,
it could cost six figures for the repairs, even with a helmet.
I like shooting sports, even though guns are dangerous to someone.
I enjoy a lot of things that, if something goes wrong, could cost the
public a lot of money.
Let’s ban wilderness camping and mountain climbing, rescue efforts
cost a fortune!
And so it goes. Eventually we’ll all live in padded cells and travel
inside nerf balls. At a safe 10kph, and only when travel is necessary.
There was a movie made years ago called “The Last Mimsy”
about people in the future were so “protected” that they wore,
for the lack of a better description, space suits. And because
of that humans lost all natural defenses. In the movie a scientist
sent back in time these teddy bears with the sole purpose of
collecting human DNA to recover our lost defenses. It’s a silly
kids movie, but it has a ring of truth.
We have this discussion on a regular basis with our New Zealand
and Australian National T Bucket Alliance (NTBA) members. They
have myriad hoops they have to jump through to drive a hot rod,
things no American would stand for. And yes, their government
says it is to protect the rodders, and the motoring public. So I
know where “the societal good” argument goes, in both the short
and long run. And that was my point; libertarianism requires
individual responsibility, and requires the acknowledgment that some
people will make bad decisions, and they may have to bear the
responsibility for those bad decisions, foregoing a bail-out from
the nanny state.
I knew you wouldn’t understand me.
I couldn’t care less for regulations and
I know there are none such in the Empire.
Just every sane person would wear a helmet
for themselves, and the caring cats wouldn’t
let a child like Gobi ride without one.
Wait, what? What’s to understand? You asked a question.
If you’re referring to my dissertations,
they were replies to Jan and TubT’s comments.
I never directly answered you.
“understand” .. no reafference. what question.?
there are rules,. But it’s your choice to follow it.!
. “sane person wear helmet.” ..
history is rife with the ‘sane’ NOT doing it right..
seat belts were free,. nope, to restricting..
helmets WWI trenches,. nope, didn’t do anything.
mask stops virus spread,. nope, cant breath..
and on and on,,,.!
caring cats..: “I don’t wear a helmet.” “why would
I make someone wear one.!?”
also,. i ride with a helmet.
IF i have a underage rider, not only helmet,
but full rider gear.! long sleeves, pants, and
boots. no exceptions.!
so,, i agree,. no helmet, no ride.!
Many years ago, while I had stripes on my sleeves, I read an article
in “Aerospace Safety” written by the head of surgery and traumatology
at some big Maryland hospital. I will never forget the conclusion of
the article. This Doc said he could tell from a motorcyclist’s injuries
whether they were wearing a helmet or not. If they were wearing a
helmet their injuries were usually limited to their extremities. If they
weren’t wearing a helmet they often became organ donors.
I am all for disseminating such information far and wide.
Information is important in making personal decisions.
But it should still be just that – A personal decision.
For sure didn’t exist when the Cats first got to Terra/Jerico,
but I’d think some entrepreneur by now would have designed a helmet
to accommodate Catian physiology, and maybe Dogishuan and a few of
the other non-human Empire citizens. I don’t recall having seen any
right now, but I’d bet the Navy has appropriate evac suits for them
in case of catastrophic hull breach. And probably for doing regular
maintenance or construction in null atmosphere too. I’ll assume they
exist off-camera for now, until and if PC gets appropriate models to
work with.
The helmet issue comes down to a basic limitation of the 3D
imaging technology. I certainly could not construct such a
model. As PC mentioned below even putting a helmet over hair
like the Gopi character has would be seriously problematic.
they have cat ear helmet models. (not cheap.)
and about the only way to get it to work,..
is to replace the head with the helmet..
which makes “Awkward” scenes.
I had very wavy hair, I would gain about 3 inches of length if my
hair was wet. Or riding without a helmet, it either had to be cut
very short or be very long for it to lay down on my head. So going
bald was more of a gift 😉
way back in the 70’s when i first started to ride,. we called it
the cabin. but it was the grandparents farm,. we kids (17 an
younger). were shipped there for the summer (free labor),. to get
around 3 of us had motorcycles,. as kids we were “Required” to
wear helmets.. none of the kids liked that,. so they broke, lost,
threw away, or left ‘elsewhere’..
after the military i let my hair grow long (about 3 feet),, so it
went into a pony tail an helmet,. or i saw nothing trying to ride..
President Elect Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH Neanderthal B Woodman Domestic Violent Extremist SuperStraight
Didn’t Miral say even a beret was just too painful to wear?
Maybe it’s more that just shape, they may have sensitivities
around their ears that make any pressure painful.
the biggest problem, is online models..
i have at least 6 furry books with helmets..
medieval to sci-fi.. one looks like a Russian
padded tanker helmet with ear cutouts..
then there is the “Hair”…
the easiest way, is to remove the hair model
and put on bald..
That is an answer I can accept.
Just curious though, if you put a helmet,
you don’t need to draw hair,
so why is it a limitation?
The hair are invisible under the helmet.
But with CGI like PC is using you don’t “draw” anything. Everything
is composed of 3d models. “Hair” on characters is just another model.
Yes, for Gopi I suspect PC could put a helmet on but for the Cats the
ears are part of the model and would definitely stick up “through” the
helmet in much the same way they stick up through a character’s “hair”.
I don’t know the intricacies of how models can be “rigged” so that they
can be posed or how the “clothing” can be made to pose with the
character. The 3d modelling tool provided by Daz (the organization
which sells the models) allows for all that but I have neither the time
not (frankly) the inclination to acquire a facility in that software.
An old dog CAN learn new tricks but not nearly as easily or as
quickly as a young pup.
I just deleted over 100 spam comments without taking the time to
read them.
If you left a comment that doesn’t appear here, I’m afraid that you’ll
have to repeat it.
In the future, if you leave a comment that doesn’t appear, let me
know here in the comments and I’ll look for it before mass-deleting.
I have a smallish bladder (first cancer surgery) so even
the fizz sound when filling a glass with soda has me
dashing to the john… I don’t even want to think what
riding vibrations would do to it!
Okay, I saw the new vote incentive. Nice picture but other than
it reminding me of “West Side Story” I totally do not get it.
Head not working that great this morning.
It’s a play on my “Bad Bunny” comment Friday:
“Not that there aren’t a lot of bad people in
the Empire or it’s various kingdoms…
(Bad Bunny!) But their stories are usually too
mundane to be interesting, so I don’t tell them.”
Pffft! I mentioned that in the comments off
the bat but PC wanted it to be the vote
incentive before anyone else seen it. So he
removed that part of my comment from Friday.
I don’t blame him, it’s an easy joke to spot.
Weird. I was seeing that this one had a music track. Clicking on the
play did nothing. Signed in, and then the play button responded, but
I couldn’t hear anything. That was a computer issue, for some reason
the sound module didn’t load. Fine. Rebooted. Now I have speakers
again, but the music track is missing for this episode.
It might be a browser issue,
or you don’t have the codex to run it.
I’ve had trouble with my browser not refreshing
a page if I load it more than once a day.
Firefox is bad for that,
I don’t know what you’re using Sam.
Miral may have clear line-of-sight well ahead, there is no solid
yellow “No Passing” stripe, and she may be passing someone.
Wouldn’t even have to be high speed — there were a lot of
Amish or Mennonite communities in this area before the Fall.
Some of them probably survived. Determined folk.
hover-text: Flying Free
Neat picture.
Great detail down to road texture.
Thank-you.
Great splash scene, I love how Gopi is smiling and
Mist is hanging on for dear life with her wings back
and clinging to Miral’s hair.
My opinion might be unpopular here,
but why don’t they use helmets?
The helmet thing has been mentioned back
when Miral started her pilot education.
The ears were somewhat ‘in the way’…
That Gobi does not have that excuse is
IMO not debatable 😉
It should be mentioned (if not obvious) that I’m pro-helmet.
My brother was pressed into an accident by some incompetent
driver and without the helmet his head would have been
cracked open by that concrete pillar he head-banged…
(not to mention the road-rash he would have gotten by sliding
along the asphalt…)
I’m pro-helmet myself.
I just don’t think that it is a proper function of government
to protect people from the consequences of their own decisions.
In the Empire, if you want to ride without a helmet,
anything other than liability insurance will cost you more.
The problem, of course, is that the average motorcycle head injury
ends up costing someone over $1,000,000. And that someone is you
and me. And just educating riders on the importance of a helmet
doesn’t work, because everyone thinks, “I’m a better rider; it
won’t happen to me.” Or, as one wag put it, “You can lead a horse
to slaughter, but you can’t make him think.” To some extent, helmet
laws protect society in general, and not just the motorcyclist.
And I guess we could argue where the line between protecting the
citizen, and protecting the citizenry in general might be.
Because that’s the basis of libertarianism, right?
I always wear a helmet. And I have good medical insurance.
(The law in Texas is that if you’re over 21, you don’t have to wear
a helmet, as long as you have sufficient medical insurance.)
Well, I would, if my wife would let me have another two-wheel
motorcycle, instead of the four-wheel one I current have for fun.
But I DID wear one, when I rode.
And I do still have two helmets in my closet.
I ride, and I wear a helmet, even in states where I don’t have to.
“Protecting the public” can be, and has been, used as an excuse
to limit citizens far too many times. No thanks.
Freedoms cost, but it’s a price that free people have always paid.
I like having a lathe and milling machine, even though they’re
dangerous and could cause me injuries that are more expensive
to treat than I can afford.
I like riding a motorcycle, even though if I get into an accident,
it could cost six figures for the repairs, even with a helmet.
I like shooting sports, even though guns are dangerous to someone.
I enjoy a lot of things that, if something goes wrong, could cost the
public a lot of money.
Let’s ban wilderness camping and mountain climbing, rescue efforts
cost a fortune!
And so it goes. Eventually we’ll all live in padded cells and travel
inside nerf balls. At a safe 10kph, and only when travel is necessary.
There was a movie made years ago called “The Last Mimsy”
about people in the future were so “protected” that they wore,
for the lack of a better description, space suits. And because
of that humans lost all natural defenses. In the movie a scientist
sent back in time these teddy bears with the sole purpose of
collecting human DNA to recover our lost defenses. It’s a silly
kids movie, but it has a ring of truth.
We have this discussion on a regular basis with our New Zealand
and Australian National T Bucket Alliance (NTBA) members. They
have myriad hoops they have to jump through to drive a hot rod,
things no American would stand for. And yes, their government
says it is to protect the rodders, and the motoring public. So I
know where “the societal good” argument goes, in both the short
and long run. And that was my point; libertarianism requires
individual responsibility, and requires the acknowledgment that some
people will make bad decisions, and they may have to bear the
responsibility for those bad decisions, foregoing a bail-out from
the nanny state.
I knew you wouldn’t understand me.
I couldn’t care less for regulations and
I know there are none such in the Empire.
Just every sane person would wear a helmet
for themselves, and the caring cats wouldn’t
let a child like Gobi ride without one.
Wait, what? What’s to understand? You asked a question.
If you’re referring to my dissertations,
they were replies to Jan and TubT’s comments.
I never directly answered you.
“understand” .. no reafference. what question.?
there are rules,. But it’s your choice to follow it.!
. “sane person wear helmet.” ..
history is rife with the ‘sane’ NOT doing it right..
seat belts were free,. nope, to restricting..
helmets WWI trenches,. nope, didn’t do anything.
mask stops virus spread,. nope, cant breath..
and on and on,,,.!
caring cats..: “I don’t wear a helmet.” “why would
I make someone wear one.!?”
also,. i ride with a helmet.
IF i have a underage rider, not only helmet,
but full rider gear.! long sleeves, pants, and
boots. no exceptions.!
so,, i agree,. no helmet, no ride.!
Many years ago, while I had stripes on my sleeves, I read an article
in “Aerospace Safety” written by the head of surgery and traumatology
at some big Maryland hospital. I will never forget the conclusion of
the article. This Doc said he could tell from a motorcyclist’s injuries
whether they were wearing a helmet or not. If they were wearing a
helmet their injuries were usually limited to their extremities. If they
weren’t wearing a helmet they often became organ donors.
Enough said?
I am all for disseminating such information far and wide.
Information is important in making personal decisions.
But it should still be just that – A personal decision.
For sure didn’t exist when the Cats first got to Terra/Jerico,
but I’d think some entrepreneur by now would have designed a helmet
to accommodate Catian physiology, and maybe Dogishuan and a few of
the other non-human Empire citizens. I don’t recall having seen any
right now, but I’d bet the Navy has appropriate evac suits for them
in case of catastrophic hull breach. And probably for doing regular
maintenance or construction in null atmosphere too. I’ll assume they
exist off-camera for now, until and if PC gets appropriate models to
work with.
The helmet issue comes down to a basic limitation of the 3D
imaging technology. I certainly could not construct such a
model. As PC mentioned below even putting a helmet over hair
like the Gopi character has would be seriously problematic.
they have cat ear helmet models. (not cheap.)
and about the only way to get it to work,..
is to replace the head with the helmet..
which makes “Awkward” scenes.
Big bubble helmets.
I had considered that but had no idea
if it was possible, or practical.
Adding a helmet over hair like hers is almost
impossible when creating these images.
i love the “Anime Logic” of wearing helmets / hoods..
how the character puts more hair than helmet
(perfectly) into a helmet,, or.! takes off said helmet
an no helmet hair.
https://45.media.tumblr.com/8cadd5f995c4d2f1dee6a4140410ed83/tumblr_ms9xo6wlET1s079ezo10_400.gif
I had very wavy hair, I would gain about 3 inches of length if my
hair was wet. Or riding without a helmet, it either had to be cut
very short or be very long for it to lay down on my head. So going
bald was more of a gift 😉
way back in the 70’s when i first started to ride,. we called it
the cabin. but it was the grandparents farm,. we kids (17 an
younger). were shipped there for the summer (free labor),. to get
around 3 of us had motorcycles,. as kids we were “Required” to
wear helmets.. none of the kids liked that,. so they broke, lost,
threw away, or left ‘elsewhere’..
after the military i let my hair grow long (about 3 feet),, so it
went into a pony tail an helmet,. or i saw nothing trying to ride..
Somehow, I cannot imagine you with long wavy hair…..
Guess ya had to have been there.
😉
I would think the ears are the big problem,
as was discussed long ago.
Yes, even in the early days during Miral’s training.
The then Admiral Mistrial was talking about it with
her newly minted civy assistant.
Didn’t Miral say even a beret was just too painful to wear?
Maybe it’s more that just shape, they may have sensitivities
around their ears that make any pressure painful.
You’re right, I forgot about that.
Try barely touching a cat’s ear.
It will get annoyed quickly.
You will bleed slowly.
the biggest problem, is online models..
i have at least 6 furry books with helmets..
medieval to sci-fi.. one looks like a Russian
padded tanker helmet with ear cutouts..
then there is the “Hair”…
the easiest way, is to remove the hair model
and put on bald..
That is an answer I can accept.
Just curious though, if you put a helmet,
you don’t need to draw hair,
so why is it a limitation?
The hair are invisible under the helmet.
But with CGI like PC is using you don’t “draw” anything. Everything
is composed of 3d models. “Hair” on characters is just another model.
Yes, for Gopi I suspect PC could put a helmet on but for the Cats the
ears are part of the model and would definitely stick up “through” the
helmet in much the same way they stick up through a character’s “hair”.
I don’t know the intricacies of how models can be “rigged” so that they
can be posed or how the “clothing” can be made to pose with the
character. The 3d modelling tool provided by Daz (the organization
which sells the models) allows for all that but I have neither the time
not (frankly) the inclination to acquire a facility in that software.
An old dog CAN learn new tricks but not nearly as easily or as
quickly as a young pup.
I just deleted over 100 spam comments without taking the time to
read them.
If you left a comment that doesn’t appear here, I’m afraid that you’ll
have to repeat it.
In the future, if you leave a comment that doesn’t appear, let me
know here in the comments and I’ll look for it before mass-deleting.
same.. when i mass delete,. i try an look..
but i might miss one..
Nicely done, sir!
I’m hearing Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild”.
“Get your motor runnin’
Head out on the highway……”
How’s it now?
Great! Now that song is stuck in my head…
(stops humming it for the 3rd time)
At my age, my riding style is more “Born to be mild”.
“Born to be mild”
LOL!
And yes, thanks for adding the music.
Works GREAT!
Heh, yeah, I doubt I’d be getting into trouble today,
even if I could ride…
The worst thing about biking at my age is
the vibrations make for many pitstops. lol
Ah, but that’s good for the kidneys, no? Or,
to plagiarize and paraphrase Frozen –
Let it flow, let it flow . . .
(ducks for cover)
I have a smallish bladder (first cancer surgery) so even
the fizz sound when filling a glass with soda has me
dashing to the john… I don’t even want to think what
riding vibrations would do to it!
Okay, I saw the new vote incentive. Nice picture but other than
it reminding me of “West Side Story” I totally do not get it.
Head not working that great this morning.
It’s a play on my “Bad Bunny” comment Friday:
“Not that there aren’t a lot of bad people in
the Empire or it’s various kingdoms…
(Bad Bunny!) But their stories are usually too
mundane to be interesting, so I don’t tell them.”
Pffft! I mentioned that in the comments off
the bat but PC wanted it to be the vote
incentive before anyone else seen it. So he
removed that part of my comment from Friday.
I don’t blame him, it’s an easy joke to spot.
oops! meant that for Bill.
Weird. I was seeing that this one had a music track. Clicking on the
play did nothing. Signed in, and then the play button responded, but
I couldn’t hear anything. That was a computer issue, for some reason
the sound module didn’t load. Fine. Rebooted. Now I have speakers
again, but the music track is missing for this episode.
It might be a browser issue,
or you don’t have the codex to run it.
I’ve had trouble with my browser not refreshing
a page if I load it more than once a day.
Firefox is bad for that,
I don’t know what you’re using Sam.
Using Firefox. Like I said, once I hit “Post Comment”, it appeared.
And . . . as soon as I hit “Post Comment” the Play button is back,
and it works just fine.
Out in the boonies, looks like _not_ a blind curve,
and traffic is much less after The Fall;
still twitched a little at crossing the yellow line :}
Yeah, I screwed that one up. And I was so careful to keep
her tires on the correct side of the line, too.
Only…it wasn’t.
As a former rider I caught that right
off but forbore to mention it.
And I didn’t notice, since that is the correct side for the UK!
Miral may have clear line-of-sight well ahead, there is no solid
yellow “No Passing” stripe, and she may be passing someone.
Wouldn’t even have to be high speed — there were a lot of
Amish or Mennonite communities in this area before the Fall.
Some of them probably survived. Determined folk.