Disclaimer: I am an advocate of cycling, and an avid cyclist, and also a road racer for the last 10 years.
You aren't going to carrying a weeks groceries for a family of 3 or 4 back on bicycle.
On a normal bicycle, even with a rack on back and a basket on the handlebars? Maybe. Two is more likely. But note that there is such a thing as a cargo bike, and someone truly married to the idea of avoiding using a car as much as possible might well invest in one. If you live in non-flat areas or are quadricep-challenged, there's even cargo e-bikes. People with cargo bikes have even been known to move the contents of their entire households with them, furniture and all. Is it challenging when it's freezing cold and/or raining and/or blowing hard outside? Yes. Is it possible 100% of the time? No; if you're sick, or injured, you're calling for a car. But advocates of this 'lifestyle' make it work as much as they possibly can.
Here in the United States, we're a 'car-centric' culture, and as such there isn't as much cycling-friendly infrastructure to support bicycle use for such purposes -- let alone general acceptance by the public of cyclists in general, both of which are serious obstacles to using bicycles for more than just recreational purposes. In some places, like NYC, even the police are arguably anti-cyclist; I've heard tales of cyclists being stopped for no reason by police, forced off the bike, and the bike confiscated (unconfirmed, mind you). I've certainly heard of locked-up bicycles, clearly not abandoned, having their locks cut by police and the bikes confiscated, even though they weren't in any way a public nuisance or a threat to public safety. I've also heard tales for years and years of how in some counties of some states you just don't ride a bike at all unless you want to be found dead on the side of the road after being run down by a motorist (unconfirmed). In other places in the world cyclists are much more accepted and non-recreational use of bicycles is much more common, accepted, and possible for those who are so inclined. As you allude to, it's not for everyone though.
Face it: in first-world countries, obesity is becoming more and more of a problem, still, but airlines are making the seats closer together? They're shooting themselves in the foot. Of course the obesity problem needs to be solved, but airlines are letting those dollarsigns blind them to reality; if someone can't fit into a seat then it just isn't going to work. Also annoying people isn't good for profits either. I think people would be happier to pay a little more per seat and be comfortable.
I dunno about you, but I remember when 'trolling' actually meant something. These days, the vast majority of them just sling baseless insults and utter nonsense around, am I right? Seriously, they're not even trying anymore, and they're unfunny to boot. Sad. There used to be an art to it. Now it's about as interesting as a dumpster fire.
I didn't think it would come from Apple first, I thought it would come from Microsoft first, but here it is: You're being forced to run certain OS whether you like it or not. You were all warned of this, you chose to scoff at the warning and ignore it, and now you have to put up with the consequences. If this behavior is adopted by all motherboard manufacturers and OEMs then everyone is screwed.
The end of the internal combustion engine as a staple of ground vehicles is in progress, like it or not, and the age of the ubiquitos electric vehicle is dawning, like it or not. I, for one, think it'll be great; I've worked on ICE-based vehicles, in one form or another, my entire life, and let's face it: after a certain point in time, they became a real pain in the ass to deal with, both in complexity and in cost, even if you do the work yourself. Also, front wheel drive ICE vehicles with a manual trainsmission, replacing a clutch? Step 1: 'remove engine from vehicle'. That kills it for most home mechanics. Automatic transmissions? Over-complicated and expensive, and you can't rebuild one at home. And so on. I've never owned an electric vehicle yet, but I can just imagine how much less messy, complicated, and expensive they'll be to maintain, and with so many fewer moving parts, how little maintenance and repair they'll actually need.
Someone will now inevitably come along and point out how much it'll cost (at current prices) to replace all the battery packs in an EV. To that I say "So what?" As EVs become more and more ubiquitos, and battery technology and manufacturing techniques improve, as well as volume manufactured (and re-manufactured) increase, the price will go down, not up. At-home high-capacity charging stations will be more and more common in public places, and I'd imagine become a standard amenity when new homes are built (if not mandated in some states; California, I'm looking at you when I say that).
You can't even complain that they're slow. There'll be a new age of high-performance in the form of souped-up EVs.
The more big companies that get on board with this, the better.
Yes, statistically it doesn't do much good at all. But the control freaks and power-hungry types don't feel like peeing their pants out of anxiety when they can grip the general public as tightly as possible.
Uh huh. And with the way things are going I wouldn't at all be surprised if anyone who made too much noise about 'laws' being broken bought a whole mess of trouble for themselves, like having their lives turned upside down by the DEA and ICE. Not that that's legal either, far from it, but that seems to be the country we're living in these days, especially under the current administration. The jackbooted thugs that tend towards law enforcement are having their day lately, if you haven't noticed.
Excuse me sir, but your comment really makes you sound like a selfish, raging asshole; was that your intention?
At last report 70000 acres have been decimated, an uncounted number of structures (including more or less the entire town of Paradise) and I'm sure there have been human deaths; yet you say this is all 'unimportant' somehow?
It's not where *I* live therefore it's unimportant
That's what you sound like; again: was that your intention? Perhaps you'd like to consider walking back your comment before someone gets the wrong idea about you, friend.
"Windows as a service" sounded like a good idea in 2015
Oh, HELL NO, this was never a good idea, and it will never BE a 'good idea', it's BULLSHIT. You buy a piece of software (I don't care if it's an OS or an application) it's yours and that's the way it should be.
The more shit like this that Microsoft does, the better I feel about moving away from Windows and onto Linux instead. Fuck Microsoft and their pay, pay, PAY FOREVER bullshit 'business model'.
Easier to program a machine to spread your propaganda and outright lies than it is for untrustworthy and unreliable humans to do it.
They betray what their fondest wish is: for all human subjects to be like robots.
Our technology has evolved many orders of magnitude faster than our species evolves, especially the hardwiring in our brains. In many ways we'd benefit from slowing down our technological progress (and even backing it up) until the human species can catch up to it. Unfortunately nature may do that for us and in the harshest way possible.
Did you completely miss the point about how more UV getting through the atmosphere creates more ozone (O3) at ground level, which is deadly to respiratory tissue? Do you have asthma? If so you'd have more asthma problems and a higher risk of lung disease, heart attack, and other pulmonary-related problems. If you don't have asthma you'd likely develop it, or just skip that step and go straight to getting a serious respiratory disease. Ground-level ozone is not amateur night shit. Go research the subject yourself if you don't believe me. That's why worrying about the ozone layer is important: ozone up there is good, at ground level is very, very bad.
I don't know why the Chinese government bothers to preserve this paper-thin pretense that they give a shit about how their citizens feel about anything and just get it over with: implant tracking chips in everyone from birth so they can be wirelessly tracked 24/7/365 for as long as they live. That's about where they're going with this. It's not like the average Chinese citizen, by now, doesn't already realize that they have zero privacy and zero rights of any kind anyway.
If successful maybe this will catch on all over the country, or even better, big businesses will see the writing on the wall and volunteer to pay to help solve the homelessness problem. We're supposedly the 'Greatest Nation On Earth', yet we have this absolutely shameful problem of people being homeless and/or hungry. Meanwhile, traditionally, The Rich (embodied in both individuals and corporations) sit by and do nothing, expecting The Poor and the Middle Class to ante up to 'fix' the problem themselves. Senseless and stupid. Like it or not, homelessness is a problem that has to have a solution that comes from the TOP, not near the BOTTOM, and if that means big profitable companies are forced to pay, then that's what needs to happen.
Why should you be forced to? Or do you want to live in a world like some post-apocalyptic 80's movie? Also if and when it comes to it it'll be much worse than you imagine, and oh by the way enjoy having to wear at least a filter mask all the time, if not a full-on rebreather, because UV is what causes ground-level ozone, which literally destroys respiratory tissue (you know, like your lung tissue?). It gets bad enough and all animal life on the planet dies.
We can stop human-caused global warming (maybe, if we, as a species, get our heads out of our asses and DO something about it -- small chance but better than none!) but would you rather die of solar radiation poisoning? Excessive UV causes skin cancer and ruins your eyes.
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Disclaimer: I am an advocate of cycling, and an avid cyclist, and also a road racer for the last 10 years.
You aren't going to carrying a weeks groceries for a family of 3 or 4 back on bicycle.
On a normal bicycle, even with a rack on back and a basket on the handlebars? Maybe. Two is more likely. But note that there is such a thing as a cargo bike, and someone truly married to the idea of avoiding using a car as much as possible might well invest in one. If you live in non-flat areas or are quadricep-challenged, there's even cargo e-bikes. People with cargo bikes have even been known to move the contents of their entire households with them, furniture and all. Is it challenging when it's freezing cold and/or raining and/or blowing hard outside? Yes. Is it possible 100% of the time? No; if you're sick, or injured, you're calling for a car. But advocates of this 'lifestyle' make it work as much as they possibly can.
Here in the United States, we're a 'car-centric' culture, and as such there isn't as much cycling-friendly infrastructure to support bicycle use for such purposes -- let alone general acceptance by the public of cyclists in general, both of which are serious obstacles to using bicycles for more than just recreational purposes. In some places, like NYC, even the police are arguably anti-cyclist; I've heard tales of cyclists being stopped for no reason by police, forced off the bike, and the bike confiscated (unconfirmed, mind you). I've certainly heard of locked-up bicycles, clearly not abandoned, having their locks cut by police and the bikes confiscated, even though they weren't in any way a public nuisance or a threat to public safety. I've also heard tales for years and years of how in some counties of some states you just don't ride a bike at all unless you want to be found dead on the side of the road after being run down by a motorist (unconfirmed). In other places in the world cyclists are much more accepted and non-recreational use of bicycles is much more common, accepted, and possible for those who are so inclined. As you allude to, it's not for everyone though.
Face it: in first-world countries, obesity is becoming more and more of a problem, still, but airlines are making the seats closer together? They're shooting themselves in the foot. Of course the obesity problem needs to be solved, but airlines are letting those dollarsigns blind them to reality; if someone can't fit into a seat then it just isn't going to work. Also annoying people isn't good for profits either. I think people would be happier to pay a little more per seat and be comfortable.
I dunno about you, but I remember when 'trolling' actually meant something. These days, the vast majority of them just sling baseless insults and utter nonsense around, am I right? Seriously, they're not even trying anymore, and they're unfunny to boot. Sad. There used to be an art to it. Now it's about as interesting as a dumpster fire.
Just because you can't get it to work doesn't mean it doesn't work. Fix your own shit and stop being such a Negative Nelly.
Oh look, the conservatives have mod points today! Someone on the Blue side of the aisle, please mod me back up? Thanks.
Gee whiz, what an insightful comment! Please, share more of your timeless wisdom with us!
I didn't think it would come from Apple first, I thought it would come from Microsoft first, but here it is: You're being forced to run certain OS whether you like it or not. You were all warned of this, you chose to scoff at the warning and ignore it, and now you have to put up with the consequences. If this behavior is adopted by all motherboard manufacturers and OEMs then everyone is screwed.
Kill your Facebook account TODAY! Help put the final nails in Zuckerbooks' coffin! Victory is within our grasp!
The end of the internal combustion engine as a staple of ground vehicles is in progress, like it or not, and the age of the ubiquitos electric vehicle is dawning, like it or not. I, for one, think it'll be great; I've worked on ICE-based vehicles, in one form or another, my entire life, and let's face it: after a certain point in time, they became a real pain in the ass to deal with, both in complexity and in cost, even if you do the work yourself. Also, front wheel drive ICE vehicles with a manual trainsmission, replacing a clutch? Step 1: 'remove engine from vehicle'. That kills it for most home mechanics. Automatic transmissions? Over-complicated and expensive, and you can't rebuild one at home. And so on. I've never owned an electric vehicle yet, but I can just imagine how much less messy, complicated, and expensive they'll be to maintain, and with so many fewer moving parts, how little maintenance and repair they'll actually need.
Someone will now inevitably come along and point out how much it'll cost (at current prices) to replace all the battery packs in an EV. To that I say "So what?" As EVs become more and more ubiquitos, and battery technology and manufacturing techniques improve, as well as volume manufactured (and re-manufactured) increase, the price will go down, not up. At-home high-capacity charging stations will be more and more common in public places, and I'd imagine become a standard amenity when new homes are built (if not mandated in some states; California, I'm looking at you when I say that).
You can't even complain that they're slow. There'll be a new age of high-performance in the form of souped-up EVs.
The more big companies that get on board with this, the better.
Between those two I can't remember the last time I saw an ad, and if I do uBlox will generally zap it for me if I point it at it.
Yes, statistically it doesn't do much good at all. But the control freaks and power-hungry types don't feel like peeing their pants out of anxiety when they can grip the general public as tightly as possible.
Uh huh. And with the way things are going I wouldn't at all be surprised if anyone who made too much noise about 'laws' being broken bought a whole mess of trouble for themselves, like having their lives turned upside down by the DEA and ICE. Not that that's legal either, far from it, but that seems to be the country we're living in these days, especially under the current administration. The jackbooted thugs that tend towards law enforcement are having their day lately, if you haven't noticed.
At last report 70000 acres have been decimated, an uncounted number of structures (including more or less the entire town of Paradise) and I'm sure there have been human deaths; yet you say this is all 'unimportant' somehow?
It's not where *I* live therefore it's unimportant
That's what you sound like; again: was that your intention?
Perhaps you'd like to consider walking back your comment before someone gets the wrong idea about you, friend.
Hear, hear, brother!
Viva la Linux! Join The Resistance today and take back control of your computer!
(..no, I'm not joking, I'm dead serious)
"Windows as a service" sounded like a good idea in 2015
Oh, HELL NO, this was never a good idea, and it will never BE a 'good idea', it's BULLSHIT. You buy a piece of software (I don't care if it's an OS or an application) it's yours and that's the way it should be.
The more shit like this that Microsoft does, the better I feel about moving away from Windows and onto Linux instead. Fuck Microsoft and their pay, pay, PAY FOREVER bullshit 'business model'.
Easier to program a machine to spread your propaganda and outright lies than it is for untrustworthy and unreliable humans to do it.
They betray what their fondest wish is: for all human subjects to be like robots.
Our technology has evolved many orders of magnitude faster than our species evolves, especially the hardwiring in our brains. In many ways we'd benefit from slowing down our technological progress (and even backing it up) until the human species can catch up to it. Unfortunately nature may do that for us and in the harshest way possible.
What's the bee under your bonnet about, that I haven't fallen down and worshipped you?
Fuck off.
Hear, hear!
Did you completely miss the point about how more UV getting through the atmosphere creates more ozone (O3) at ground level, which is deadly to respiratory tissue? Do you have asthma? If so you'd have more asthma problems and a higher risk of lung disease, heart attack, and other pulmonary-related problems. If you don't have asthma you'd likely develop it, or just skip that step and go straight to getting a serious respiratory disease. Ground-level ozone is not amateur night shit. Go research the subject yourself if you don't believe me. That's why worrying about the ozone layer is important: ozone up there is good, at ground level is very, very bad.
I don't know why the Chinese government bothers to preserve this paper-thin pretense that they give a shit about how their citizens feel about anything and just get it over with: implant tracking chips in everyone from birth so they can be wirelessly tracked 24/7/365 for as long as they live. That's about where they're going with this. It's not like the average Chinese citizen, by now, doesn't already realize that they have zero privacy and zero rights of any kind anyway.
If successful maybe this will catch on all over the country, or even better, big businesses will see the writing on the wall and volunteer to pay to help solve the homelessness problem. We're supposedly the 'Greatest Nation On Earth', yet we have this absolutely shameful problem of people being homeless and/or hungry. Meanwhile, traditionally, The Rich (embodied in both individuals and corporations) sit by and do nothing, expecting The Poor and the Middle Class to ante up to 'fix' the problem themselves. Senseless and stupid. Like it or not, homelessness is a problem that has to have a solution that comes from the TOP, not near the BOTTOM, and if that means big profitable companies are forced to pay, then that's what needs to happen.
Why should you be forced to? Or do you want to live in a world like some post-apocalyptic 80's movie? Also if and when it comes to it it'll be much worse than you imagine, and oh by the way enjoy having to wear at least a filter mask all the time, if not a full-on rebreather, because UV is what causes ground-level ozone, which literally destroys respiratory tissue (you know, like your lung tissue?). It gets bad enough and all animal life on the planet dies.
You're a complete and total idiot if you really believe that.
We can stop human-caused global warming (maybe, if we, as a species, get our heads out of our asses and DO something about it -- small chance but better than none!) but would you rather die of solar radiation poisoning? Excessive UV causes skin cancer and ruins your eyes.