I'll never get how people can get used to living in America, let alone like it.
I asked my wife's aunt how to get to the nearest supermarket, and got an "oh, it's just 3 miles away, you'll be there in a blink of an eye".
Only 3 miles to get to the nearest grocery shop?? You know that I could be on the other side of Amsterdam if I drove 3 miles from my home - and on the way I'd bump into at least 30 different grocery stores?
And I've heard folks say "my office is actually quite near, just a 30 miles drive". If I drove 30 miles I'd be nearly in Belgium or Germany! I guess I'll make sure not to get lazy anymore about my 5 minutes cycling commute to my office...
And the state of public transport is something indecent even for a developing country. I've seriously seen better train and bus connectivity in Bangalore and Kyiv than between San Jose and San Francisco.
And let's not even get started with the cycling infrastructure. Sometimes you see these barely 1 meter wide bike lanes pop out of nowhere, and disappear a few meters later, and on the way they may be dangerously crossed by turning lanes for vehicles. No wonder that I haven't seen a single cyclist so far.
And how can you ever get used to having your neighbourhood's mall as the only place to go and meet people, with no parks, bars or public spaces within a walking distance? I've asked some friends where they usually like to hangout with their mates, and got answers like "we like to go to this place 15 miles from here". That's approximately the distance between Amsterdam and The Hague! I can't even imagine having to pick up a car and drive so long just to have a beer with friends.
And let's not forget kids. Most of the cities in Europe have a playground or park within 500 meters, anywhere you are. It's quite common for kids to walk or cycle there on their own. But those are apparently rarities on the other side of the pond. Kids apparently need to be driven around for all of their childhood, they are forbidden in most of the cases even from walking alone in their own neighbourhood without either being hit by a car or some zealous neighbour calling the cops for minor abandonment. And then people wonder why European kids are generally more independent?
Sure, there are exceptions too. Namely, downtown Manhattan, San Francisco, Washington and Boston. But those are all cities built before 1900 and the car tyranny. Everything else is just so badly designed, so badly isolated, so dull and so alike, and every place requires to replace your legs with wheels and tires, that I really struggle to see in suburbia anything that even remotely resembles an American dream.
I've never paid much attention to these things before, but my 3-year-old kid on his second trip to America has been quite an eye-opener. When asked by my mother what he saw in America, he candidly said "lots of cars and roads".
#NYT#MAGA#liarwinsdebate#biden#TrumpLies
NYT calls for Joe to quit and says the liar won the debate. As a high school history teacher who teaches debate I call the ediors out for their hypocracy. In order to win a debate, we usually commit the “sin of omission,” not giving certain, valid information that could help our opponent. If we tell an outright lie, we lose all credibility. Outright lying repeatedly is a sign of depravity and lack of moral fiber. The calls should be for trump to drop out not Biden.
Every time my posts go viral by mastodon standards, I get mean-spirited replies from strangers who then inform me that I cannot criticize them because they're autistic. I'M ALSO AUTISTIC. WE'RE ALL AUTISTIC. THIS IS THE AUTISM SOCIAL NETWORK. IF YOUR REPLIES ARE REGULARLY UPSETTING THE PEOPLE YOU'RE SENDING THEM TO, THE PROBLEM IS NOT AUTISM
This is the #Scotus headline at talkingpointsmemo.com. I don't know why it isn't the headline at the NY Times and the Washington Post and everywhere else. It’s certainly accurate. The Supreme Court is granting itself powers not anticipated by the framers, who thought Congress and the executive branch had a role to play.
Ab dem Punkt ab dem arme Menschen sich bei jeder Aktion von ihren noch-so-kleinen moralischen Implikationen Gedanken machen müssen, doch ein jeder reicher Mensch keine Konsequenzen fürchtet oder beachtet, so haben wir die Endstufe des Kapitalismus erreicht: das Drängen von neoliberalen Gedankengut in selbst die Köpfe der Menschen die es nur schadet.
For nearly all of my life, I've known how I was going to die. Not from cancer, or diet, or drink, but by being crushed under a car. I will be mangled and bleed out painfully. The driver, distracted on their phone, will say that I "came out of nowhere". The police and the DA will call it an "accident". There will be no consequences of any kind. Except for my death, of course. [...] https://jwz.org/b/ykV3
@jwz non-cyclists that are confused by activism think that activists are attracted to cycling, when the reality is that becoming a cyclist very quickly radicalizes one into becoming an activist. Nothing crystallizes strong opinions as being frequently threatened with death by at best indifferent and at worst aggressive and antagonistic people.
@notjustbikes don’t know if you mentioned this before in one of your videos, but apparently Spain has introduced 30km/h speed limits on most urban single lane roads back in 2021, decreasing the number of traffic deaths considerably. I’m in Salamanca now and it seems to be working fine, most drivers stick to the rules and 30km is also the speed limit on most double lane roads in the city. https://www.surinenglish.com/spain/speed-limits-towns-20220517101946-nt.html
@hayify surprisingly that didn't come up in any of my research on 30kmph cities, but it's great to see!
I think like most thing urban planning, switching to 30kmph speed limits gets a lot of pushback, but when it's actually implemented things go fine and the majority of people like it.
@notjustbikes yeah, i agree. I have been perfectly happy with the decrease to 30 in Amsterdam. Feels a bit weird on roads that weren’t designed for it but you get used to it and it definitely feels a lot safer.
The Internet Archive is hiring a Director of Platform Engineering. In my opinion, this is the most crucial and important position we have had open at the company in some time. The right person in this position is not just helpful, but a make or break key between success and merely acceptable levels of technological advance for the archive. It's a non-profit level of pay but the work is world changing.
The irony is not lost on me that the Internet Archive went out of its way to acquire the physical versions of millions of books and loan them out carefully and in a limited way, and is facing a near-extinction-level event over it, while for-profit and VC-backed companies are just stealing people’s content and making up excuses to validate the bad behavior.