When stuck in traffic or driving behind some cars, I can. Not all cars, but yeah, I can sometimes. Asthma is funny that way.
Wow. I wonder, which such a sensitive schnoz, do you live in a state with any air pollution at all? I would think most days in LA, for example, the ambient air pollution would have a higher concentration of PM than the emissions of secondhand smoke that make it back to you from a car in front of you (not to mention the actual emissions from the car itself).
Well, the thing is, Richard, it’s rare enough that when I notice it, I remember it. Last time was about two weeks ago, coming home. All of a sudden, I coughed, and got this odd whiff of tobacco. It was the car in front of me. I thought that was pretty weird, too.
I commute in LA and can in fact smell cigarette smoke emanating from cars around me in traffic. I got a good whiff last week when some tremendous douche tossed his smoke out the window. I am also an ex-smoker.
(And the air pollution in LA isn’t nearly as bad now as it was in the '70s)
I am highly sensitive to the smell of cigarette smoke, especially at first. (I do adjust after a bit.) If the guy ahead of me at a traffic light is smoking, I will know. Occasionally I can smell it even while driving. (Only when I am behind the guy, of course; I am driving directly into his exhaled smoke.)
I can also smell other substances people may be using; sometimes even on their sweat. Crack cocaine is a good example of this, as it has a really sharp, sickly-sweet smell that gives me an instant sinus headache. Of course, I can also smell if a person had a pungent garlic meal in the past 24 hours: some things when metabolized come out through the pores.
Edit: I wonder if you could hide your crack addiction from me by eating a lot of garlic and curry. Hmm.
I guess you learn something new every day.
Huh. So it doesn’t smell like powder coke?
Lust4Life
Sure, there are jerks in the police just like anywhere else. It sounds like this guy may have had it in for the driver personally. The bad thing about it is when someone busts you for some crap charge like the windshield wiper bottle being empty, it is usually possible to fight it but it takes so much time and effort that it is usually easier to just pay the damn fine and go on about your business.
Having said that, I’ve always admired people that get their backs up and refuse to just roll over and play dead.
Regards
Testy
Well…this story seems more like a cautionary tale of what can potentially happen when some petty morons with a high school education get a little power.
msmith537
Why is the educational level of cops always used as a slam? Every time I hear this I wonder whether people assume the cops would be better liked if they all had doctorates or something. There seems to be an assumption that they are cops because that’s all they’re able to do and I don’t think that’s right and it doesn’t seem reasonable to me.
Regards
Testy
Also, 31% of local police officers are employed by a department with some type of college requirement for new officers. And this was of 1997, the percentage is no doubt higher now. The percentage gets higher in urban areas, and some places require BA’s for all cops (i.e. Portland, OR).
Richard Parker
Thanks, I had no idea. I wonder why they’re putting those requirements in place? It really doesn’t seem reasonable. Nice to have of course, but not really required as long as the guy is reasonably intelligent and willing to learn his job. Maybe the requirements have changed. I haven’t had any involvement with law enforcement since the '70s so that’s probably it.
Regards
Testy
The evidence is mixed, but some studies show that better educated police do a better job. This doesn’t strike me as a surprising result. The number of departments requiring college work probably isn’t higher because municipalities simply cannot afford it.
Richard Parker
It wouldn’t be surprising. It would be interesting to see what happens if the trend continues.
Regards
Testy
You really think a cop is just going to walk away when you refuse permission to search? If they ask to search, they are going to one way or another, either with your permission or some magical probable cause that they notice right after you say no.
This is incorrect. Videos were initially priced higher (like $80-100) to encourage people to rent instead of purchase. But any video or DVD can be rented by anyone as long as it isn’t copied. No special fee required.
“Studios wanted to ban rentals entirely, but the “first-sale doctrine” indicates that the first purchaser can do what he wants with a piece of intellectual property, so there was no legal ground to prohibit video rental” from here…