Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Radial Profiling?

You probably thought I was kidding a couple weeks ago when I said I would be posting new Deep Thoughts with greater frequency this year. WRONG! Fresh off a trip to sunny San Diego I am re-energized and ready to tackle the great mysteries of society. Really, I was just happy to escape the multiple feet of dirty snow back in Philadelphia.

The idea for this post came while driving amongst the sand dunes of the Namib Desert in Namibia during the Cheifet family vacation back in May. Eric and I were discussing the natives and the Deep Thoughts just kept getting deeper. You'll see why in a second. Also, remember this was concocted by two engineers so it may get a bit nerdy.

I have to warn the readers about this Deep Thought, it's gonna be a little sensitive to some. We may touch on some subjects that typical readers find offensive. So be warned. Actually, now that I think of it, this post isn't offensive at all. If anything, it supports the accused's case with concrete, scientific evidence. Finally, to defend myself and to continue my running theme here at Jordon's Deep Thoughts -- It's my blog, if you don't like it then don't read it.

Ok, so on to the juicy stuff.

Everyone who can drive or has seen an episode of "Cops" knows that minorities are targeted by the police. The police always deny this saying they are just doing their job but anyone with half a brain feels sorry for the countless minorities pulled over on the side of the road for what probably was nothing. Am I being politically correct so far? Ok, good.

So to take this a step further, it is a common site to see minorities with "rims" on their cars. Translation: they like to put big tires on their cars. Personally, I think it looks really stupid but if you dig a bit deeper, then us "common folk" could learn a thing or two from people who put big tires on their cars. If you didn't know, your car's speedometer and odometer are calibrated to the factory size tire. These gages know that if the tire spins a certain number of revolutions in a certain time that you have gone a certain distance at a certain speed.

Now, something interesting happens when you put bigger tires on a car. Basically, you are fooling the gages into thinking that you are travelling slower than you really are. For example, when the speedometer reads 65 mph, the vehicle is actually traveling 70 mph...unbeknownst to the driver. Also, when the odometer says you travelled 1 mile you actually travelled 1.5 miles. This is great for the resale value!

So what does all this racially-laced jargon mean? It means that it's not the minorities fault they are caught for speeding, it's the tires. A simple "radial tolerance" program might end years of injustice perhaps?

That bad pun was free of charge.

Where My Readers Are...

Visit http://www.ipligence.com