How does it work 2...because I can't find the first one

[Liniah]

So, on some highways in PA, including the Turnpike, there are signs that say 'Speed Enforced by Aircraft'. Now, when I see these it makes me think of hovercraft zapping speeders with lazers, but I highly doubt that that's how it actually works. Anyone know the details of what they really do?

[DV8]

I googled it, because I was quite curious after reading your post, and I came up with this. It seems like a really weird way to go about things.

[sinsual]

There are timing marks painted every 10th of a mile that can bee seen by the pilot. When you pass a timing mark he starts a stopwatch. When you pass the 10th mark, he stops the watch and uses math to figure out your speed.

The other method, if they are using a helicopter is to match your speed and convert it from windspeed to mph, snap your pic with the windspeed reading for evidence. The only state though that I know of that uses that method is California. Most others use small planes with the stop watch method. Nevada tried Instant on radar but a lot of variance was found since the plane's actual speed could be different then what the gauges were reading based on tail or head winds. Not to mention the angle of the rader could cause variance also.

This got covered aggressively when Wisconsin ticketed the motorcyclist for speeds in excess of 200mph. The problem was that the bike, physically, could not exceed 200mph as it was built. The officer in the aircraft came under fire since the alleged speed was also along some curvy sections of roadway that would have seriously hampered the speeds the bike was traveling. The officer claimed to have timed him on multiple straight stretches over a 30 minute period. Which brought up another issue, a bike running at 200mph, would have exhausted its fuel load within 30 minutes.

[Marius]

There was a really good article in Car & Driver a couple years ago about the aircraft speed enforcement.

[3278]

Due to the expense of keeping a plane or chopper in the air, they do this less often than they used to around here, but they used to keep a chopper over the major expressways, watching for people going clearly faster than the flow of traffic [and/or timing as Sin expounded upon] which would then call for a car, either to set up a trap or to simply stop the vehicle, depending on the location of the patrol car in relation to the speeder.

And the reason you couldn't find the last one is probably because it's here.

[Liniah]

Ah, damn, I knew there was one somewhere.

[Jeff Hauze]

Here's a stupid one. When you pull up local showtimes for a movie from google, how are those getting there? Submitted to google via database? I ask, because I've seen a bunch of community theaters list some old classic film that they show like one time a week. I get seeing the big megaplex listings there, since they already provide that info for other places (or their own theater chain's website), but the tiny little theater in my hometown? Weird.

[Bishop]

Google has really smart spiders. Really really smart. Like SRSLY SMRT, man.

[DV8]

Here's a stupid one. When you pull up local showtimes for a movie from google, how are those getting there? Submitted to google via database? I ask, because I've seen a bunch of community theaters list some old classic film that they show like one time a week. I get seeing the big megaplex listings there, since they already provide that info for other places (or their own theater chain's website), but the tiny little theater in my hometown? Weird.

My guess is that there's a company that collates information from a bunch of different sources and offers that as a web-service and unlocks that information to whoever subscribes to it -- in this case Google. How does the database get filled? Perhaps these small community theaters are part of a larger collective that takes care of it? I think this type of information is just pushed up the chain, gathered, collated and distributed. I doubt those little cinemas and theaters supply them directly.

[Jeff Hauze]

Yeah, the megaplexes locally seem to use their automated ticketing systems to simply have all the showtimes collated nationally for that particular theater chain (which is then sent to Google/Hollywood.com/etc through whatever third party, I guess). It's just one of those weird things I've never seen before, you know? Like, where would you find advertisements for that kind of company or know who to call to get hooked into it? (Funny answer: Check on Google.)

[3278]

You know, I have no idea how this works. Apparently it's not voluntary, because Google's forums are covered with managers at theaters who are upset that their showtimes are wrong, or that their theater stopped being listed for four months, or whatever. The only thing I can think is that it's scraping the data, but if that's so, why is it so often incorrect?

[Van Der Litreb]

I have a hypothetical question, based on a purely hypothetical situation. Let's say that I drank a bottle of gin on Saturday night and only felt marginally inebriated until the moment I stepped outside into the freezing cold, at which point I felt like I'd been hit with a sledgehammer. Once inside again (20 or so minutes later), I was [more or less] fine again. What causes alcohol to, hypothetically, affect me more in a situation like that? I assume it has to do with my blood (with alcohol) being pumped around at a different rate.

[Jeff Hauze]

It's the Drunken Viking Giant effect. It's something to do with the mitti-chlorines that all giants possess. When it's cold, they shrivel up and the booze gets strong in the Vikings.

[Van Der Litreb]

Hm, I guess that makes sense.

[Jeff Hauze]

I'd imagine it has something to do with the temp. If the outside temp is low, I seem to recall from long ago high school health classes, that your blood pumps more (and closer to your outer layers of skin and such) to keep you warm. Potentially more alcohol being pushed through your blood more quickly (and closer to nerve endings in skin and such)? Maybe something like that?