[worry]

When you get fish oil all over your (instrument)

[Mezla PigDog]

@Azath - I am scared to understand you but I am intrigued. You seem to run a very tight ship with how you organise your life. It seems exhausting, yet precise.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Mezla PigDog, on 01 May 2024 - 05:54 AM, said:

@Azath - I am scared to understand you but I am intrigued. You seem to run a very tight ship with how you organise your life. It seems exhausting, yet precise.

It's mostly habit, checking a few items off a daily list, and a few scheduled reminders. I aim to use as little "willpower" as possible. Just a few calculations to set it up.

[Nicodimas]

2nd boeing whisteblower died....was reading a stat American whistleblowers are caused harm 82 percent of the time. How many whistleblowers have dropped dead in just the last 10 years.you can read it if you care... Crrrazzy. Open and closed cases...

https://www.seattlet...stems-has-died/


Kinda random..cancer rates are how much higher in the past 3 years across the board.... Wild! Guess people dont really want to put it together though..head in the sand for sure.

Finishing up the movie dark waters right now ..good movie

This post has been edited by Nicodimas: 02 May 2024 - 03:47 AM

[Tiste Simeon]

Dang, King Théoden actor Bernard Hill died.

[Slow Ben]

I go to my fathers. And even in their mighty company I shall not now be ashamed.

[Abyss]

spiders

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Abyss, on 06 May 2024 - 01:32 PM, said:

spiders

Great news about spiders... Spiders Can Eat, Breathe, and Reproduce Underwater - The Atlantic

[Cause]

Work asked me if I would be willing to move to Boston. I am! Its the number 1 biotech hub in america, I have friends there and I think its a beatiful city. Nothing is confirmed yet and I have a meeting alter today to discuss it.

However now that it may actually happen I am forced to confront my grass is greener mentality. I am quite down on philly in general these days and Boston just seems a wealthier, cleaner more exciting city. I have been there a few times for work but my most recent trip it also kind of lost it magic. Normally I just enjoy the city but on my most recent trip it kinda just was. I also revisited the aquarium which I remembered fondly but on the revisit I felt underwhelmed (though I have been to a lot of aqauriums recently and it was overcrwoded.).

I also recently revisited SF and was also underwhelmed despite being so impressed the first time. Im now trying to decide if its a sign of my poor mood in general lately or if its the difference of the excitement of seeing somewhere the first time and travelling for work was exciting and now its common place.

___________________________

Also wow, what they say about San Francisco is true. Stepped out of my fancy hotel and immediately got asked for change by a homeless man. Nothing too unusual but later I drove past a street that had one homeless person walking, two homeless persons sitting, now a homeless person sleeping on the floor, and than suddenly I saw a small encampment on the sidewalk of at least ten homeless persons gathered together and cooking dinner over an open fire. Richest Country, richest state and one of the richest cities in the world and their answer is to just pretend its not there.

Also when I went to the planetarium they really did make it a point to explain which native tribes land the planetarium was built on. What is the point of this? Your not returning the land so is it meant to make us feel better for acknowledging or make us feel guilty?

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Cause, on 06 May 2024 - 02:46 PM, said:

Work asked me if I would be willing to move to Boston. I am! Its the number 1 biotech hub in america, I have friends there and I think its a beatiful city. Nothing is confirmed yet and I have a meeting alter today to discuss it.

However now that it may actually happen I am forced to confront my grass is greener mentality. I am quite down on philly in general these days and Boston just seems a wealthier, cleaner more exciting city. I have been there a few times for work but my most recent trip it also kind of lost it magic. Normally I just enjoy the city but on my most recent trip it kinda just was. I also revisited the aquarium which I remembered fondly but on the revisit I felt underwhelmed (though I have been to a lot of aqauriums recently and it was overcrwoded.).

Wealthier and cleaner yes, not sure about more exciting... at least after you factor in proximity to NYC, NJ, and DC (and all of the wonderful shootings, of course! and the armies of Trump loyalists spread throughout most of Pennsylvania).

Quote

Also wow, what they say about San Francisco is true. Stepped out of my fancy hotel and immediately got asked for change by a homeless man. Nothing too unusual but later I drove past a street that had one homeless person walking, two homeless persons sitting, now a homeless person sleeping on the floor, and than suddenly I saw a small encampment on the sidewalk of at least ten homeless persons gathered together and cooking dinner over an open fire. Richest Country, richest state and one of the richest cities in the world and their answer is to just pretend its not there.

Well, the Vision Pro isn't just pretending they're not there....

Quote

Also when I went to the planetarium they really did make it a point to explain which native tribes land the planetarium was built on. What is the point of this? Your not returning the land so is it meant to make us feel better for acknowledging or make us feel guilty?

To make progressives (or people who feel like they're progressives relative to these particular issues) feel good about themselves and the institution doing it. OTOH it's also partly social pressure---if others are doing it and your institution isn't, that may seem like making an anti-progressive statement (as well as being behind the times).

Quote

Indigenous leaders and activists have mixed feelings about land acknowledgments. While some say they are a waste of time, others are working to make the well-meaning but often empty speeches more useful. [...]

"The land acknowledgment gets you to that start," [...] For example, she used the land acknowledgment at the start of a lecture [...] "She put up a QR code for people to donate directly to the First Nations Garden," [...] "She literally paused so people could take pictures and create donations."

Indigenous leaders want land acknowledgments to really benefit their communities : NPR

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 06 May 2024 - 03:28 PM

[Lady Bliss]

I am so pissed off. For the SECOND time this week, I've almost been ran over in the crosswalk. I live in an urban area, and because this is a suburb of Dallas, there are very few pedestrians, but I still deserve some respect. The first time, luckily I saw the suv coming at me and stepped back. Even so, they passed only about a foot away from me. If I hadn't stepped back, I'd be dead or maimed. A nice guy even pulled over to make sure I was ok. Now today, some asshole nearly ran me over, honking his horn and pulled into the apartment complex next to mine where I admit I chewed him out. He said "I had a green light" to which I responded "Do you not know what a crosswalk light/symbol means?". It's not like I was Jwalking. If there hadn't been a fence between us I would have honestly beaten the fuck out of him. I may be older, but I am GenX and we fight dirty. Again, another driver pulled over to make sure I was ok. You know what? In both situations, the drivers were clearly not white but immigrants (you could tell by the accents). So immigrants give more a fuck about me than the natural born white American citizens (I saw the drivers, and yes they were crackers). I can't wait to get out of Texas. Other major cities in the US respect pedestrians more and understand the LAWS. Apparently this last asshole thought that because he had a green light, he had the right of way over the crosswalk light that said I had the right of way. Apparently he thinks he is better than me because he was driving.

Edit: yes I do have a grudge against entitled white Americans.

This post has been edited by Lady Bliss: 11 May 2024 - 10:03 PM

[worry]

Pedestrian deaths at the hands of automobiles are at a 40-year high, largely because of vehicle size. Exacerbating factors include the insane reduction in vision over the front of large vehicles, and an additional bump in reckless driving since the pandemic. There was a slight downtick in 2023, but again that's relative to modern era record highs. Apparently this is especially true for states below the sun belt, including Texas and much of California.

Which is all to say -- it's both a people and a policy problem, and it's bad news throughout most of the country, but wherever you go, head North! And yeah, statistically speaking, immigrants are significantly more law abiding and community-minded than U.S.-born folks.

My sister has reluctantly lived in Harlingen the past decade while her husband worked and got his degrees, and they are finally getting out this summer cuz he got a job in Maine.

[Lady Bliss]

I think the reason why immigrants are more mindful than Americans is because in other countries people actually do WALK. There is a reason why fat white Americans are a stereotype.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

worry, on 12 May 2024 - 03:33 AM, said:

Pedestrian deaths at the hands of automobiles are at a 40-year high, largely because of vehicle size. Exacerbating factors include the insane reduction in vision over the front of large vehicles, and an additional bump in reckless driving since the pandemic.

Quote

While researchers have pointed toward vehicle size as a factor explaining America's high overall rate of pedestrian fatalities, several said they were skeptical that it explains much of the increase since 2009. That's because American cars were relatively large even before 2009, and the rate at which new cars replace existing ones is slow.

"In explaining the big run-up in pedestrian deaths, it's not actually a huge portion," [...] His research estimates that the change in vehicle types since 2009 is responsible for less than 100 additional deaths per year. By comparison, around 3,300 more pedestrians died in 2021 than in 2009.

Why Are So Many American Pedestrians Dying at Night? - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

The New York Times article also points out that "nearly all of this rise has come from pedestrian deaths at night":

Quote

What's even more perplexing: Nothing resembling this pattern has occurred in other comparably wealthy countries. In places like Canada and Australia, a much lower share of pedestrian fatalities occurs at night, and those fatalities — rarer in number — have generally been declining, not rising.

In America, these trends present a puzzle that has stumped experts

Spoiler

[...]

[Various plausible contributing factors have been considered.] Individually, any of these theories seems unsatisfying. But put together, it's clear that there's been a particularly American mix of technological and social changes over the past decade and a half. [...] Nighttime[...] has the potential to amplify so many of these new risks. [... For example, ] imagine distracted drivers in monster trucks on high-speed roads in the dark.

Why Are So Many American Pedestrians Dying at Night? - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

That article's from late December. IDK if any significant progress has been made since then (in explaining the increase that is---not actually doing anything to solve it, of course!).

Oh, and according to Freakonomics, "drivers who kill pedestrians are rarely punished". They cite another plausible-seeming contributing factor from a US professor of public policy who specializes in transportation (although it's only based on anecdotal evidence so far):

Quote

[Professor:] It's no surprise that people got more angry and a little bit more impatient and a little bit more hostile to other people during the pandemic. And I think that's affected driving. [...] It'll be interesting to see [...] if this decline in other-regarding behavior persists. I suspect it will.

Spoiler

[Interviewer:] You say you think that this other-regarding behavior has contributed to the situation, but is there evidence?

[Professor:] Not as far as I can tell, no. It's such a shame. But you can see, like, the rise in people yelling at airline attendants, right? It's all anecdotal but it's all pointing in the same direction. But this is a point of disagreement between me and some other transportation professionals. Some will say, "This focus on other-regarding behavior is a mistake. It's just the system." And I'm a systems girl. I really want us to improve our infrastructure. But at the end of the day, we need both. Safe infrastructure is not sufficient if the drivers are road-raged.

Why Is the U.S. So Good at Killing Pedestrians? - Freakonomics

But yeah, Worry's right that escaping the sun belt will probably help. You can also look at a map of pedestrian fatality rates.

[Lady Bliss]

It should be noted that in both situations I was wearing a white or pink tee shirt and it was in the afternoon. They could see me but just couldn’t give a fuck.

[Cause]

I lost access to my free Netflix account. Guess password sharing crackdown finally took me out. Been using a friends from South Africa’s for four years without issue. Not sure I want to spend the money to keep it.

————————————-

America just doesn’t give a shit about pedestrians. When I staid with cousins in the suburbs I walked to the shops once and then never again. Decided my life was too important. They don’t even build the streets with a sidewalk.

I remember contemplating if it was an oversight or done on purpose to prevent the riff raft from walking around.

[Cause]

It’s official! I will become a Masshole in 3 months or so

[Lady Bliss]

Cause, on 13 May 2024 - 11:21 PM, said:

It’s official! I will become a Masshole in 3 months or so

You are moving to Boston? If so just remember to call everyone bastards and use the word wicked to describe everything and you should fit right in.

[Tsundoku]

Don't forget to pahk your cah in the garahge. Like Australia really.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Cause, on 13 May 2024 - 11:21 PM, said:

It's official! I will become a Masshole in 3 months or so

Of course that's assuming you do manage to get out of Killadelphia alive. (Though I'd suppose they might be able to ship your remains to Massachusetts... perhaps for cryogenesis---if there's enough left of you that hasn't yet been scattered beyond recovery (at least by our current level of technology...).)

Boston Cryogenics LLC (boscryo.com)