Good insights. I hadn't heard of Johann Heinrich von Thünen's hypothesis but it's certainly what I observe from here in the boonies. (Tho I'd say additionally, cities tend to grow in optimal locations for transportation and water resources, which in turn attracts the first and second tier agricultures. Maybe these optimal-for-cities locations function as rancher repellent.;) )
And unless you're getting a horde of gate-crashers or already have insufficient seats -- who cares if there's one student more or less, or the occasional freeloader? It makes no difference to the bus route, it's still gotta go the same places and make the same stops.
When I was a student lo those many decades ago, we had ID in high school and college, but it was used solely for admittance to student-only affairs like dances and concerts. Basically, to keep party crashers out of special events.
Despite the lack of daily IDs, locked doors, or security guards, we all managed to survive and graduate.
Methinks it's not so much security theatre as the school systems getting into the helicopter-parenting business, because by now the helicopter-parent generation is also running the schools. And as we all know, our special unique little snowflakes might MELT if they were subjected to the Real World or left unguarded for a single instant.
My SoCal ISP (fixed wireless) was a one-man band, and he liked to talk about his work. One of the choice bits he shared: downloading costs NOTHING, due to the peering agreements among the backbones. Uploading costs 5 CENTS per GB.
Polls are wonderful things... they can be skewed to show anything you wish. Take the same gun poll in, say, New York City and El Paso, Texas, and you'll get entirely contrary results.
As others point out, NORMAL people readily distinguish fantasy from reality, including violent games and movies. A small abnormal minority may not.
Occurs to me that those calling for bans on a basis of "people become unable to distinguish game from reality" may themselves fall into that abnormal minority.
If it were true that "free speech is about being allowed to speak out against the government. It has nothing to do with advertising whatsoever", then it could follow that you'd have no right to speak out against advertising.
Be careful what you wish for.
Free speech is free speech regardless of what it's about. However, no one has the right to hold you captive and pour their speech into your ears. If your choice in transit is basically these trains, or shank's mare, you're effectively a captive audience, being forced to listen. And there's the problem.
Given their plans, I suggest counterspeech (which would be equally free, if you have that right): a noise generator that when pressed up against the train's frame, negates the advertising for the whole car.
And in my lifetime, I've watched unions put whole lines of industry out of business in the U.S., because union greed (which is to say, union-boss greed; workers tend to be more realistic) trumped the necessity of any business to make a profit to stay IN business. Tho personally I think this is just as likely to be an exit strategy for said union bosses... they go away rich, you go home jobless, and eventually we all pay more as that industry goes overseas and they discover they now have us by the balls. (Check the price of steel in recent years.. since it's gone entirely to China, price per pound has increased at about 3x the rate of inflation.)
Back in the olden days, before cellphones and pagers, doctors on call might leave word of their whereabouts with a secretary, who in the event of an emergency would phone the theatre, which would send an usher in to seek, and if need be call out for the doctor.
I like this scheme too. Makes it practical for works that produce little or no income in their early days, or have perhaps 15 or 20 years of profits, but makes it definitely not worthwhile to sit on 'em forever. Under such a scheme, Mickey Mouse would now cost several billion a year (if not more, I didn't bother to do the math) and certainly would not look like an attractive asset to Disney's shareholders.
Increasingly the case in the U.S. as well, with various agencies encouraging everyone to spy on and report on their neighbors. Lack of manpower is no obstacle so long as people still like to gossip, or can be fearbent into gossip.
Not so in Los Angeles, where in many areas the peripheral traffic jam is well in session by 6am and doesn't abate until 7pm or later. If I had to be in L.A. by 9am, I had to be OUT of my bedroom community, nominally an hour away, by 6am, and ready to jump to the alt-surface route at the halfway point if the freeway was already thoroughly jammed up by 7am.
Conversely, midmorning to early afternoon, and most of the night -- no problem! (Unless you're on the 405, which seems to have become a 24 hour traffic jam in recent years.)
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Good insights. I hadn't heard of Johann Heinrich von Thünen's hypothesis but it's certainly what I observe from here in the boonies. (Tho I'd say additionally, cities tend to grow in optimal locations for transportation and water resources, which in turn attracts the first and second tier agricultures. Maybe these optimal-for-cities locations function as rancher repellent. ;) )
And unless you're getting a horde of gate-crashers or already have insufficient seats -- who cares if there's one student more or less, or the occasional freeloader? It makes no difference to the bus route, it's still gotta go the same places and make the same stops.
When I was a student lo those many decades ago, we had ID in high school and college, but it was used solely for admittance to student-only affairs like dances and concerts. Basically, to keep party crashers out of special events.
Despite the lack of daily IDs, locked doors, or security guards, we all managed to survive and graduate.
Methinks it's not so much security theatre as the school systems getting into the helicopter-parenting business, because by now the helicopter-parent generation is also running the schools. And as we all know, our special unique little snowflakes might MELT if they were subjected to the Real World or left unguarded for a single instant.
http://www.freerangekids.com/
My SoCal ISP (fixed wireless) was a one-man band, and he liked to talk about his work. One of the choice bits he shared: downloading costs NOTHING, due to the peering agreements among the backbones. Uploading costs 5 CENTS per GB.
Pascal can be fairly self-documenting too. If you have half a clue what it's supposed to do, you can puzzle it out.
I have some sunglasses that screen UV but not infrared. If I wear them in bright sunlight, I get sunburned eyes.
(If you're wondering what use they are then, they're good for foggy conditions. But sun? Not unless you like having sore eyes.)
Polls are wonderful things... they can be skewed to show anything you wish. Take the same gun poll in, say, New York City and El Paso, Texas, and you'll get entirely contrary results.
Let's try that with one of the items listed in the long-ago inciting post:
Giving a child a swimming pool for a present is not inherently dangerous; leaving a filled pool where children can access it is.
Oh, the old PEBKAC problem.
True enough, but I think the Founders understood that today's miscreants may be tomorrow's government, hence made no restrictions.
As others point out, NORMAL people readily distinguish fantasy from reality, including violent games and movies. A small abnormal minority may not.
Occurs to me that those calling for bans on a basis of "people become unable to distinguish game from reality" may themselves fall into that abnormal minority.
If it were true that "free speech is about being allowed to speak out against the government. It has nothing to do with advertising whatsoever", then it could follow that you'd have no right to speak out against advertising.
Be careful what you wish for.
Free speech is free speech regardless of what it's about. However, no one has the right to hold you captive and pour their speech into your ears. If your choice in transit is basically these trains, or shank's mare, you're effectively a captive audience, being forced to listen. And there's the problem.
Given their plans, I suggest counterspeech (which would be equally free, if you have that right): a noise generator that when pressed up against the train's frame, negates the advertising for the whole car.
Remembering that our eyes and ears are the product being sold TO advertisers -- I'd be good with it *provided* I was paid a commission.
As it stands, we're being farmed for harvest and sale to those advertisers, and have about as much say in the matter as livestock at the feedlot.
Try starting a restaurant, or worse yet a fast-foot cart, in a heavily-regulated area. You may find it difficult (somewhere in http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2000/03/ there's a long tale of licensing woe that's all too typical) or even impossible ( http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121022/13153120790/george-mcgovern-why-politicians-who-havent-built-business-are-bad-regulating.shtml )
It hasn't hit the software industry yet, because there's as yet no good way to impose "standards".
I actually use the thorn in my everyday handwriting. It's easier to write than th, at least if you have degenerative handwriting disorder.
And in my lifetime, I've watched unions put whole lines of industry out of business in the U.S., because union greed (which is to say, union-boss greed; workers tend to be more realistic) trumped the necessity of any business to make a profit to stay IN business. Tho personally I think this is just as likely to be an exit strategy for said union bosses... they go away rich, you go home jobless, and eventually we all pay more as that industry goes overseas and they discover they now have us by the balls. (Check the price of steel in recent years.. since it's gone entirely to China, price per pound has increased at about 3x the rate of inflation.)
Back in the olden days, before cellphones and pagers, doctors on call might leave word of their whereabouts with a secretary, who in the event of an emergency would phone the theatre, which would send an usher in to seek, and if need be call out for the doctor.
It did. All scores are now zero. ;)
See also
http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/18/I/13/242
[today's captcha: "falsely"]
I like this scheme too. Makes it practical for works that produce little or no income in their early days, or have perhaps 15 or 20 years of profits, but makes it definitely not worthwhile to sit on 'em forever. Under such a scheme, Mickey Mouse would now cost several billion a year (if not more, I didn't bother to do the math) and certainly would not look like an attractive asset to Disney's shareholders.
Increasingly the case in the U.S. as well, with various agencies encouraging everyone to spy on and report on their neighbors. Lack of manpower is no obstacle so long as people still like to gossip, or can be fearbent into gossip.
http://brownfieldagnews.com/2013/05/17/luetkemeyer-wants-hsus-irs-investigation-investigated/
There are better articles but this was the one I could find offhand.
Likewise... Seamonkey is the last usable browser (well, once I install Prefbar).
Not so in Los Angeles, where in many areas the peripheral traffic jam is well in session by 6am and doesn't abate until 7pm or later. If I had to be in L.A. by 9am, I had to be OUT of my bedroom community, nominally an hour away, by 6am, and ready to jump to the alt-surface route at the halfway point if the freeway was already thoroughly jammed up by 7am.
Conversely, midmorning to early afternoon, and most of the night -- no problem! (Unless you're on the 405, which seems to have become a 24 hour traffic jam in recent years.)
True enough, tho public perception has been perhaps more destructive than reality. :/