• 4 Posts
  • 32 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 23rd, 2023

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  • You are being willfully obtuse. Atheists didn’t choose the definition of the word. Magic is a catch all for things that are not explained by a scientific process. Computing is not one of those things. You don’t understand computers because they are a black box. Therefore it is tempting to call the result magic. But you had better sure as hell hope that the effect of computers are reproducible, every single time, because if they are not, the world as we know it ceases to function.





  • I don’t think a generic building that is suitable for all purposes is possible though. Inevitably the needs of a housing unit and an office are fundamentally different, going all he way down to the plumbing. It wouldn’t make sense to build an office building with enough plumbing to easily become an apartment, or vice versa, because taking a down-the-middle approach could just as easily lead to a building that serves no useful purpose at all. It’s not “just” about the money. He goes into the plumbing issue in particular in great depth. I highly recommend watching the whole video





  • Unfortunately, I say this as a train lover. They require a lot more infrastructure than planes and will always be at a disadvantage because of that. You can set up an airport pretty much anywhere and make it reachable by pretty much anyone. Whereas with the train, you need a dedicated line from point to point that you will commit to maintaining through hell and high water.

    There’s also the problem that in many countries, we are deliberately neglecting our train infrastructure and not investing in high speed alternatives that could compete with an airline over shorter distances.

    All of these factors combine to make individual trips less efficient over train. I had to cross the United States this week. To do so by train would have taken me 4 days. Doing so by plane took me 6 hours. Nobody would choose a 4-day trip over a 6-hour one unless their goal is to look out the window a lot. Which is perfectly valid. But most people don’t look at traveling itself as the experience. And in this case, I had a particular event that I had to attend.



  • I’ll believe it when I see evidence that isn’t from some s***** underpowered camera held by somebody who didn’t even know how to focus the lens properly. Funny how camera technology has improved so markedly, but the quality of UFO sightings remains just as crappy as ever. Maybe that should tell you something about what to make of most of these sightings


  • To be clear on this, I AM an urban core dweller, and I LOVE it. I am never more than 15 minutes walk from a grocery store, and significant cultural events are right on my doorstep. But there are downsides, and I understand why it is not everyone’s cup of tea.

    Hate people? sucks for you, your only refuge will be your apartment. Clean freak? get used to some grunge, because there is oderous shit everywhere. Need to get to more sparsely populated areas? Expect to spend double the time on the road using transit, or pay through the nose to keep a garage with a car you barely use otherwise.



  • As much as I like this article, he glorifies cities too much. They have always been seen as places to get away from. Charles Dickens Victorian England portrayed in books like a Christmas story, and Oliver twist was absolutely a living hell. It’s only in the last 50 or so years that cities have actually become pleasant places to live again, and even then, the city dweller makes sacrifices.

    Have you ever tried living in the urban core? Be prepared to deal with cockroaches, inconsiderate out of towners who will leave everything from broken glass to s*** in the streets, and graffiti "artists"who believe it is their god-given right to scrawl whatever they want wherever they want it.

    When the suburbanite says he wants to get away from the city, there are legitimate things he is trying to get away from. I personally think these things are worth the cost, but will never sell the vision of the city on a lie.

    EDIT: to be clear to the downvoters I say this as somebody who currently lives in a near-ideal cityscape. In America at least, you need to be prepared to make sacrifices if this is the life you want to lead.