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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • most people are generally not ok with being tracked and surveilled. It’s only the fact that they aren’t aware of how wide spread a given system is that lets these things grow.

    With computers, phones and the internet, the surveillance is not super visible, or the implications of it are not so visceral. People always have this idea that they can just choose not interact with it. So it’s much less prominent of a worry for most people.

    But with a networked camera in a public space recording everything, able to easily map every trip someone makes by car (which is basically all trips in much of America). That sets off alarm bells. That’s an immediate “what the fuck? Who said you could do that?” From most people.

    Flock was betting no one would notice, or that no one would care. They’re so chronically online, tech business brained, that they failed to understand that most people see a meaningful distinction between the internet and the real world. This was inevitable, and now it’s a huge boondoggle and their company is probably cooked long term.








  • The question is: Is it the velocity of the object relative to the portal that matters or the velocity of the object in some other frame of reference?

    In the later case, we must ask how the portals at different angles don’t send objects flying off at the speed of the milkyway’s travel through the universe.

    The answer that requires the least assumptions and justifications is B.


  • It really depends on the part of the US. Amtrak is very reliable in the north east. Lot of the commuter train services are quite good as well. Subways and metros are pretty good in most of the north east as well.

    Amtrak is much more limited in its coverage on the west coast, but still ok from what I’ve heard. BART in the SF area has good ridership although it needs some more investment, LA is doing some big expansions right now as well.

    Chicago has a good but a bit old transit system as well. The Amtrak from NYC/DC to Chicago is a long but pleasant ride, about 18 hours; but this is to be expected given that the distance is 1146 Km (714 miles) which is about the same as Brussels to Warsaw, and most of the routes for that appear to be about 18 hours as well.

    I’ve heard some rumblings about projects in the Pacific Northwest, but it’s not really something to write home about as it stands. Needs more investment and not to have the projects price gouged by contractors.

    Some mid sized cities and towns all over the country will have decent bus services, some even a light rail or two, but it’s a coin toss.

    The South West, Mountain west, South East and Midwest (outside of Chicago and the twin citiest) absolutely atrocious, like, you are basically screwed if you don’t own a car. Like there are a few example of decent local transit systems in particularly big cities but their ridership and coverage are pathetic given the size of the cities and there aren’t any plans for serious expansions on the scale that needs to be happening. Regional rail is just… hope you like a 2 week train ride where you’re spending half the time waiting for 40 mile long trains full of gravel to pass.




  • megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zonetopics@lemmy.worldHong Kong housing complex.
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    2 months ago

    I mean, NYC has a fairly healthy level of pedestrian traffic in most areas. Times Square is mostly just full of tourists. I’m not as familiar with Tokyo but my understanding is a a lot of the more dense areas have a sort of 2/3 level layout of commercial, but there is level interconnects or they’re set up in conjunction with transit. So like, there are fairly large underground commercial strips at subway level, or sky bridges between blocks for 2nd story commercial.




  • megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zonetopics@lemmy.worldHong Kong housing complex.
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    2 months ago

    I don’t think that the first level would be enough TBH. Like; it would probably have to be 2 or 3 stories of commercial to serve just the bare minimum needs of that volume of people, and now half your commercial is off street level, complicating pathing from public transit.

    Also, it’s tennis, what I assume is racket ball, a swimming pool and a couple basket ball court, so I think it’s actually a pretty good variety of activities, but still, not enough space for the volume of people, if all the blocks around it were the same density and had different varieties of activity, there still just wouldn’t be enough recreational space for the volume of people, even if the variety was absurd between them all.

    Like, maybe the density is warranted somewhere like hongkong where the government is largely funded by land sales, so maximizing the density is important for making the land sale valuable enough to fund social services, but like, there’s just not enough visible recreation and comercial, maybe they’ve got a strip underground by a subway station or something. I’d be curious how they make this work.



  • megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zonetoLemmy Shitpost@lemmy.worldMen against bush
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    2 months ago

    So historically, lice and other parasites were a major vector for diseases like typhus. Particularly when a group of people were forced to sleep in close proximity, such as soldiers in barracks, refugees in tents, a community in a cold climate that would cram in to a single winter shelter, or travelers in a bunk house.

    Shaving hair in general was an important method for reducing transmission, as it reduced the space they could hide in. Regular washing of the body. Clean beds with frequently replaced fillers (like straw) and bed linings laundered regularly and between separate users.

    One reason many early modern soldiers are depicted as clean shaven was because it became a mandatory practice in many armies to minimize spread of disease. As regular washing, separated sleeping quarters, and regularly washed bedding was not practical for such a large group on the move. Even now, many militaries will shave new recruits to the scalp, to make sure they don’t bring any hair borne parasites in to the barracks. (Later on face shaving became extra important as a way to ensure gas masks would seal properly)

    Lots of ways this was mitigated. It’s fairly rare these days due to most people regularly washing, getting parasites like bed bugs or lice exterminated the moment they’re found, and beds that are much less suited to harboring them.

    But a lot of the hang ups around body hair are cultural hangers on from a time when this was a much more significant issue. In all likelihood it would become an issue again if society as a whole slackened on many of these practices at once.