mdchaney
mdchaney t1_ja876q8 wrote
Reply to comment by mmmmmmBacon12345 in ELI5: Why does farming equipment require such low horsepower compared to your average car? by thetravelingsong
To add to this - the old Volkswagen 4 cylinder engines put out around 55HP. Your normal modern car is 200HP and up. That engine was in the Beetle as well as the microbus. Neither vehicle was a barn burner, but could eventually get up to 60MPH. But after you got to that speed it would be fine. I used to also drive a 1980 Ford Mustang with a 6 cylinder engine that put out around 90HP. The post-muscle-car era had some pretty anemic engines, but we got around.
mdchaney t1_j9uu5ln wrote
Reply to comment by XYZZY_1002 in Ruby Falls Cave, Chattanooga, Tennessee. [OC] [2442x3256] by kgd6578
Just make sure you're in line behind me, it'll buy you some time.
mdchaney t1_j9u1ocv wrote
Reply to comment by XYZZY_1002 in Ruby Falls Cave, Chattanooga, Tennessee. [OC] [2442x3256] by kgd6578
Bless you. And pray for my wife as you now know what every trip through Chattanooga will be like for her.
mdchaney t1_j9u1jpe wrote
Reply to comment by CleverDuck in Ruby Falls Cave, Chattanooga, Tennessee. [OC] [2442x3256] by kgd6578
When I used to cave, it was amazing how far back in a cave bats would go. We'd hear those little wings flapping and they'd fly right by your head and do a little doppler effect thing as they went the other way.
mdchaney t1_j9u18x4 wrote
Reply to comment by dobeast442200 in Ruby Falls Cave, Chattanooga, Tennessee. [OC] [2442x3256] by kgd6578
There's a story here. Ruby Falls is inside Lookout Mountain, and at the base of the mountain there's a big cave by the Tennessee River. Right now, it's beside the railroad tracks that run between I-24 and the mountain. The original plan was to build a shaft from up on the mountain to that lower cave so they could open it for tourism. They started drilling the shaft and barely nicked the cave where Ruby Falls is. I think the hole was about a foot in diameter. But air pressure differences made air blow out of it so they realized it was a sizable cave system. After exploring that cave and finding the waterfall they realized that was going to be the cave to tour. I think the elevator actually goes all the way to the other cave.
mdchaney t1_j9u0o02 wrote
Reply to comment by AstroStrat89 in Ruby Falls Cave, Chattanooga, Tennessee. [OC] [2442x3256] by kgd6578
I recommend you visit them some day. Ruby Falls is a bit overdone - they have lights and all that to spice up the waterfall, but it's still one of those things that is just amazing to look at. Rock City is just a really nice garden with great views. There's also the Incline Railway, railroad museum, and a bunch of nice stuff in downtown Chattanooga. It's an old-school tourist trap, but the touristy stuff tends to be classy. We went there on vacation 45 years ago when I was a kid, and my wife and I still go there some since we're a couple of hours away (living in another tourist trap).
mdchaney t1_itqvmhc wrote
Reply to comment by myaberrantthoughts in Rather than heralding a new era of prosperity for rural and remote regions, remote working, inspired by the pandemic, is exacerbating the global urban-rural divide in the digital platform labour market by giuliomagnifico
Starlink will really help a lot of that. In my area (middle TN) the electric utility has partnered with a telecom company to run fiber to their entire service area. That is opening up a lot of somewhat rural areas to gig up/down, which is a game-changer.
mdchaney t1_ja8emzg wrote
Reply to comment by Bonzi777 in ELI5: why do grocery stores in the US keep such a large inventory? Aside from being prepared for episodic panic buying like toilet paper or bottled water, is there an economic reason to do this? How much of the food ends up going bad? by DrEverythingBAlright
I have to explain to people all the time there is no "in the back" for the most part. The fresh areas (dairy, meat, produce, bakery, deli) *might* have something out of customer sight that hasn't been shelved yet, but if they're out of a can of soup you'll have to wait until a truck brings another. People imagine that a grocery store has some huge stock room in the back that they use to replenish the shelves, but that's just not the case. If an item is on sale they might keep some extras around, but other than that what you see is what you get.