Incentive Much?

Hang on a second. Let me get this straight. Citizens of Birmingham, UK did such a great job stepping up to meet the city council's recycling goals that said environmentally concerned council distributed 720,000 congratulation pamphlets? Isn't that kinda like thanking local drivers for reducing gasoline consumption by throwing a lit match into a tanker truck?

Some people may be distracted from this by talk of the £15,000 worth of publications that contain the wrong Birmingham's (AL) skyline, but not me. The fact that they were printed in the first place is obviously more insulting. Next time, how about you print up one pamphlet and just have everyone pass it around and share?

The classic pizza party ploy always got my fourth grade class pretty fired up for whatever they wanted us to do. Or, in the US at least, you could get around 373 kegs of beer with that $28,000. Not sure how your beer unit conversions work over there, but one beer for 52,600 people is a pretty nice reward...

• BBC NEWS :Chiefs admit Brum skyline mix-up

A Finely Choreographed Brain Hemorrhage.

Holy Bejezus. What in the world was going on here that you decided to create the traffic control equivalent of a black hole? My brain is swelling up just trying to figure out what is sposed to happen in this thing. But that may be because everyone is driving on the wrong side of the road. Be warned, spend too much time thinking about this and your brain may explode. I have no idea what would happen if I came across one of these in a car. I guess I'll just avoid Swindon like the traffic circle plague.

• SwindonWeb - Swindon Life - Magic Roundabout Swindon

Put A Sack Of Bricks In The Trunk.

I've often thought that we need different classes of license for driving. Like some people would be relegated to driving only between 3-6 in the morning every other Thursday, while others would be restricted to special low speed tunnels constructed under every city. I know, lofty goals, but you gotta have dreams. Well the UK is thinking of instituting another type of licensing policy. This would require more training as a car's weight to power ratio drops. I think mostly they're getting tired of people crashing up Veyrons; something no one likes to see. Extra lessons would include how to properly set up for turns and handle the frothy power-crazed beasts they've laid out for.

Of course your ratio changes based on the weight of the car, so you might be in an odd situation where you're licensed to drive 4 of your fattest friends around, but not to drive yourself to the store. Heck, that sounds like some great carpool legislation right there. See that? I'm so full of good ideas, they just fall out of my brain.


Sample Weight to Power Ratios:

1. Formula One Racer - 1333 lbs (with balast and driver) / 750hp (mandated smaller V8 engines) = 1.78 lb/hp
   
2. Bugatti Veyron - 4162 lbs / 1001 hp = 4.16 lb/hp
   
3. Porsche Carrera GT - 3043 lbs / 612 hp = 4.97 lb/hp
4. Corvette Z06 - 3132 lbs / 505 hp = 6.2 lb/hp
5. Dodge Viper - 3380 lbs / 535 hp = 6.32 lb/hp
6. Lotus Exige GT3 - 2050lbs / 271 hp = 7.56 lb/hp
7. 2007 BMW M3 - 3386 lbs / 420 hp = 8.06 lb/hp
8. Audi RS 4 - 3634 lbs / 414 hp = 8.78 lb/hp
9. Boxster S - 2987 lbs / 295 hp = 10.1 lb/hp
   
10. WRX Sti - 3351 lbs / 293 hp= 11.44 lb/hp
    
11. Honda S2000 - 2835 lbs / 240 hp = 11.81 lb/hp
12. BMW Mini Cooper S GP - 2579 lbs / 214 hp = 12.05 lb/hp
13. Mitsu Evo IX - 3086 lbs / 255 hp = 12.10 lb/hp
14. Mazda RX-8 - 3029 lbs / 237 hp = 12.78 lb/hp
15. Acura RSX Type S - 2775 lbs / 210 hp = 13.21 lb/hp
    
16. VW R32 - 3256 lbs / 241 hp = 13.51 lb/hp
17. 2006 BMW 330ci - 3450 lbs / 255 hp = 13.53 lb/hp
18. Celica GTS - 2500 lbs / 180 hp = 13.89 lb/hp
    
19. Lotus Elise S - 1896 lbs / 134 hp = 14.15 lb/hp
20. Miata MX-5 - 2414 lbs / 170 hp = 14.20 lb/hp
    
21. Acura TSX - 3318 lbs / 200 hp = 16.59 lb/hp
    
22. VW Jetta TDI - 3197 lbs / 90 hp = 35.52 lb/hp

• Exotic car owners need 'therapy' - Autoblog