JarJarJedi
Streamlined derailments and counteridea reeducation
User ID: 1118
JarJarJedi
1d ago
I drove a hybrid, many times (which made little difference), but I don't think I've driven an EV. Probably need to figure out a way to practice on one in a safe environment, just in case...
JarJarJedi
1d ago
I hate paying $100/m for pretty much anything. If it's not consumable/renewable (like water, food, power) I'd rather buy it upfront. I know how much money I have now, so I can figure out if I can afford it, but the future is always risky.
JarJarJedi
1d ago
Waymos are totally awesome, I always use them in cities which have them. All the convenience of Uber without some annoying guy trying to chat with you. It's a bit pricey but so far I can afford it, fortunately, and sometimes wait times are a bit long in busy places, so not ideal but quite good.
JarJarJedi
1d ago
Speaking of Teslas: I've probably not going to buy a Tesla anytime soon, but I've been offered Teslas by rental shops several times and I've so far declined, because driving an unfamiliar car in unfamiliar environment is kinda risky. So I wonder what's the experience of people that did drive it - is there any adjustment from driving a regular car that is needed? Can I just start it up and freakin drive or do I need some adjustments? How easy/hard is to get a hang of it from 0 experience?
Also, if I try it as a rental, what about range anxiety? I sometimes need to drive up to ~100 miles or more in such situations, of course mostly through urban-suburban landscape so there's always a gas station within 5-10 mins drive, but I have no idea about changing a Tesla. I remember some years ago I was out on a trip with friends, and the guy responsible for transport picked an EV (not Tesla, don't remember which one) and it turned out a minor annoyance to change it because a lot of nearby chargers had some kinds of "guests only" or "clients only" policies. I wonder what's the score on that now.
JarJarJedi
1d ago
Started a long-run re-read (or, rather, re-listen, as I am using audiobooks for that) of Nero Wolfe series. I've read many of them (some in originals, more in Russian translations) years ago, and decided to go back. So far I got through: Fer-de-Lance, The Rubber Band and The Red Box. Skipped The League of Frightened Men for now as the audiobook wasn't available, plan to fill up later. There's a lot of them spanning 40 years of Stout's lifetime, so I expect it to take quite a while to go through all of them (and of course I'll be taking breaks for other books) but so far the first three had been fun. It's a bit slower paced than our twitter age made us used to, but that's fine. I'll probably also pick up the next Dresden book sometime next month, but Ghost Story was kind of intense (in a good sense) and I don't want to ruin the impression by getting through too much too soon, so I'll let it sit down for a bit yet.
JarJarJedi
4d ago
Having a lot of hardware doesn't mean much alone - Saudi Arabia has lots of hardware but is completely inept at using it, losing to Houthis all the time. Whether or not US is going to involve itself is a big gamble - wars are expensive, but they are also very useful for uniting the nation. And Japan may use this chance to come out of the shadow on WW2 and reassert its role as a normal nation with normal military. Australia is unlikely to pay any substantial role, as far as I understand they're completely cucked by now. I think you're right that economical pressure and corrupting the society is probably more likely ways, but you never know...
JarJarJedi
4d ago
I agree with the point about Trump commonly making things too intense and making fireworks out of things that didn't need to be. It'd be nice if we had a person who is as bold and determined, but more of a diplomat than a showman. But to be honest, he wasn't treated fairly either - the idea of buying the territory, while certainly bold, is not crazy or impossible at all, and Denmark already was well on the way of granting it independence anyway. I'm not sure that'd actually be the best - I think the current solution is actually better for the US, keeping all the benefits and minimum responsibility - but certainly wasn't completely nuts as it was presented.
JarJarJedi
4d ago
America is still America of "Tear down this Wall!" and Hollywood and WW2 and the Berlin Airlift, at least on the right, but Europe isn't the Europe of ancient culture, quest for freedom and resistance to evil. It decided the sins of colonialism are so great that they warrant civilizational suicide, and if the population is not on board with this, it has to be oppressed for their own good. The relationship changed because Europe changed. And tbh, in America right now the relationship with Europe is not bothering anybody much for that exact reason - the right just doesn't see how it can benefit America in its current circumstances (the left wants what Europe wants, but they don't need any allies in that really). Europe is certainly not very willing to defend even itself, let alone help US to do any would police things like getting rid of Iranian nukes. Speaking of which, Europe needs Hormuz open much more than the US does, as far as I can see, but they don't seem to be inclined to do anything substantial about it. So the question is - how much this relationship is working for America anymore?
JarJarJedi
5d ago
The modern first world has a very, very strong norm of borders not moving, for obvious reasons
That's not exactly true. Turkey took North Cyprus in 1974, still keeps it, and now is a NATO member and almost became a EU member. There are a bunch of other changes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_border_changes_%281914%E2%80%93present%29 None as big as Greenland, but it absolutely has been normal to negotiate the possibility, and it has been occasionally also performed by force without serious consequences too (see Turkey).
JarJarJedi
5d ago
But that's nonsense, Denmark knows what the danger is - this territory is far from Denmark and they can't defend it having a whole military as big as one army division (not to talk about the means to sustain long-distance military campaign ). US, OTOH, has the means and the desire to defend it. But they want some goodies for it. Trump wanted to buy the territory wholesale because it sounds cool. But the second best is to get the same benefits of the sovereignty - freedom of movement, freedom of military deployment, freedom of exclusion of others, freedom to mine the resources - without paying any money at all, but Denmark gets to keep the nominal title. The danger is being forced into the same deal by somebody like China - maybe not now, but in 10-15 years - who gives much less attention to European sensibilities than the US does.
Could Trump do it by "asking nicely" - i.e. doing the same in secret rather than in public? Yes, he could, but then he wouldn't be Trump. As I noted here many, many times, the "long time allies" aren't that much of an allies anymore, and become less of an allies every day, so not much loss. Maybe this particular show wasn't, strictly speaking, necessary, but not much lost here.
JarJarJedi
5d ago
I would say there are two types of Good Things - one is indeed costing too much, such as universal unlimited healthcare, or giving free house to every person that doesn't have one. The other is just plain impossible - such as original communism (stateless post-scarcity society where everybody voluntarily works for everybody else's good) or abolishing the police and not having crime rates shoot up. The former ones are somewhat boring, the latter ones, being untethered from any reality on the ground, are visionary and inspirational. That's what people who see being untethered from reality as a benefit flock to. These people are almost impossible to dissuade - since their conviction never rooted in any realistic assumptions, providing them evidence would just convince them you are a hater.
Hasan Piker is every bit as much of a rabid, malevolent extremist as any literal National Socialist,
He is a National Socialist, just for a different nation.
JarJarJedi
6d ago
Maybe they just try to be part of your life, and that's the way they know how to connect?
It appears clear to me that the insurance market to handle AI product liability claim will emerge very fast. Just as other methods ensuring such liability will be limited to "reasonable" sizes - either by contract, or by lobbying, or by corporate lawyering (aka "don't sue me, sue this cardboard cutout that legally is responsible for everything") so the industry will find ways to deal with it. Also: If real genuine honest FSD ever appears, I think it will drop the accident volume very significantly, because most of the accidents are caused by people being distracted, tired, drunk, stoned, or plain stupid. If we can replace Joe who just wants to get home from the pub and is absolutely sober of course after only a mere sixpack of beer, and Joan who can perfectly drive, check her email, converse on facebook and film her latest tiktok, thankyouverymuch, with robot driver that has the danger level even of an average attentive driver, the rest of the accidents - caused by mechanical failures, road malfunctions, severe weather events, etc. - I think would be quite manageable. FSD doesn't even really need to be perfect - there just needs to be enough FSD vehicles around so that the likelihood of somebody behaving in a stupid way and requiring everybody else to be perfect is low. All current stats include drunkards and idiots. How would they look without them?
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