Yeah, its often called a “gene drive”, there have been some attempts in a couple places. They’ve also looked at doing it with white-footed mice to stop ticks from spreading Lyme disease.
Before they were doing that, they were releasing irradiated male mosquitos by the millions. Radiated to make them sterile. They would then mate with females, but there would be no reproduction because their sperm was nuked. But the wild, fertile males would be crowded out of the mating game.
It’s basically the dating situation in Seattle right now.
Ragan
1581
My wife saw this in a parking lot earlier this week. Count the number things that could possibly go wrong.
- A lot of weight on the back, with the back squatting bad and the front being lifted up.
- Lot’s of snow, which means that it has been carrying that load for at least several days
- The 8ft ladder looks to be only held on by one strap and it is not looped through the ladder
- One good pothole and all that snow is going to end up on whoever is behind them
- The front overhang has to create blindspot
jpinard
1582
Jeez, that’s 1 lb. away from being a crushed roof.
Decent chance that’s front wheel drive also, so thats a twofer.
At least there is a caution flag attached to the back of the load!
Nesrie
1585
Hah I looked right over that. If I saw that thing on the road, I would do everything in my power to avoid being around it for long.
Truth. Up here, somewhat surprisingly, I’ve seen very little of this sort of OMG WTF IS THAT? driving around. When I do, though, I sometimes even just take an entirely different and less efficient path just to avoid being near the unholy abomination.
Nesrie
1587
It helps to have a truck driver as dad who taught me to drive, and the fact I’ve seen things fall off of and out of trucks on one of our main highways many times. A car battery that bounced right out of the bed of a truck almost took me out, but I avoid it by knowing what was to the right of me.
So many people under estimate what it actually takes to keep things where they’re supposed to be.
Driving home one night from an evening class I was teaching, I was on I-75 going south. The semi in front of me dropped a bare wheel–no tire on it–off his truck, never even noticed and drove on. The car in front of me hit it with the driver’s side tire, which blew out, and they swerved left into the concrete median divider and burst into flames. I got lucky: the wheel landed flat, and I straddled it in my Toyota Camry. It ripped everything under the car completely off–radiator gone, exhaust system gone, etc.–but it didn’t come up into the cab and it didn’t roll me or flip me. I had enough momentum to get to the side of the highway and called the cops and then insurance.
I also quit teaching night classes after that. Probably as close as I’ve ever come to dying.
Reminds me of people driving around with a mattress on the roof like this:
On the freeway from Southern California to Las Vegas I saw a mattress tied to a roof catch the wind and turn, ending up under the car. The friction quickly caused it to catch fire and the car was consumed within several minutes. Fortunately the occupants got out safely.
Nesrie
1591
Oh my God. Well I’m glad you’re here to tell the story. I had no idea that those pieces of tire you see all over the road could’ve done such damage… those are big ole tires for sure.
If I’m on the highway I’m slowing down and letting that car with the mattress get far ahead of me. Last thing I’d do is get close to it, even in another lane.
Yeah I was waiting for things to go horribly wrong.
That could easily end up killing people.
Nesrie
1596
It really isn’t funny. I don’t understand people watching that and laughing.
I understand how this happens though. It’s just not something people think through all the way. I’ve also been on the receiving end of having like five family members convince me to do something really stupid because… it will be fine.
