VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
No bio...
User ID: 64
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
21d ago
I've seen urban infrastructure advocates lament that the set of people on bikes is broad enough that serving all of them is difficult. Your "cyclists" want bike lanes to be wide and designed for faster speeds, and around here the equivalent group have even pushed against separate bike lanes in some places because they're often not designed or maintained for going closer to car speeds (30mph). I think there was hope that e-bikes and scooters might level that playing field, but so far they seem to get people to speeds way above their skill level and have gained a bit of a bad, although not irredeemable, reputation.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
21d ago
Both bike lanes and sidewalks independently have the problem that their users have a wide range of speeds --- try running on a crowded sidewalk, even before they have sharp sudden turns. Bike lanes try to fit roadies wanting to go 20+ mph, kids and grandmas going near walking pace, and e-bikes that have been poorly regulated and go car speeds.
Roads have slow-moving vehicles, but there are special rules for the (often requiring specific placards, lights, and sometimes escorts).
I guess I could point to the analogue of data infrastructure: in the past we had separate phone and cable TV infrastructure and a variety of broadcast radio and TV, but that has been moving slowly towards common switched packet infrastructure where everything is passed through a single, big data pipe. I guess the question I have is if there is a way to develop roads like switched packet networks. Something like autonomous vehicles that consistently yield to pedestrians and cyclists on the same roads. There are (potentially) enough efficiency gains from replacing safety margins for humans in the loop with intra-vehicle communication (ignoring the security and safety issues for this thought experiment) to allow efficient dynamic allocation of the space. It works today on sparsely used suburban roads: without sidewalks or bike lanes, a few local human-driven cars at local speeds can share the space with pedestrians and cyclists.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
21d ago
You know, I consider myself a modest advocate in favor of better transit infrastructure, but the "induced demand! Just add another lane bro!" partisans irk me because there really are more (diffuse) benefits to more total miles traveled --- not necessarily commuting to suburbs directly, but mobility is generally good, and I'm not convinced the measures they suggest will actually improve things.
Sometimes it's been tempting to take the "just add a lane, bro" meme featuring an American freeway (often I10 in Houston) and re-render it showing an equally wide road with all these subdivided sections for things they would otherwise like:
- Bidirectional 8 ft wide, ADA friendly sidewalk
- 8 ft wide cycle lane on each side
- lane width space for urban trees
- dedicated bus lane
- light rail/tram
- inter-city rail
- one actual car/truck lane in each direction
"Just add another dedicated lane, bro. This time it'll make them take mass transit or bikes." Although I personally would like more people to do that.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
21d ago
Given the other answers, I just want you to know that you're not alone.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
21d ago
Maybe this depends on your local demographics? Around here (historically known as a cycling-friendly locale), the average roadie is mid-20s to middle-aged, out for some exercise, and seems pretty interested in making it home safely. I've been one in the past, and the most dangerous stuff I've seen them do was (actual sanctioned and mock practice) races on open roads, where the biggest risks were clearly to each other, and the serious folks were pretty loudly insistent about actually yielding at yield signs where legally required and watching for cross traffic.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
21d ago
The bad cyclists are the ones who are committed to cycling as a lifestyle- either for fitness or for environmental reasons. Like, rules apply to you.
At least in my neck of the woods, the spandex-clad roadies and messenger-bag-toting commuters generally follow the rules of the road. Maybe they don't come to a complete stop at 4 way stops (frequently cars don't either!), but I rarely see them run red lights or disregard pedestrians (although there are relatively few of those here too). Large groups of roadies do sometimes run lights a bit (but so do cars), I suppose, but there aren't that many of those and they're pretty predictable altogether. Maybe it's different in more urban areas, but around here the biggest group of cyclists I'd complain about is when the local homeless decide to ride in the dark in dark clothes without lights and without a clear sense of self-preservation (the street one block over has a lower speed limit, less traffic, and a marked bike lane, maybe avoid the busy frontage road?).
In the same way that 90s CGI now sticks out like a sore thumb, I'll bet that current day LLM output is going to be glaring in the future.
Interesting idea! Although there is definitely CG from the '90s that still looks downright good. Jurassic Park comes to mind as a masterpiece, which largely worked because the artists understood what worked well with the technology of the time: night shots (few light sources, little global illumination) of shiny-but-not-reflective surfaces (wet dinosaurs), used sparingly and mated with lots of practical effects.
CG only became a negative buzzword when it got over hyped and stretched to applications that it just wasn't very good for at the time. In some ways it's improved since (we can render photoreal humans!), but it still does get stretched in shots that are IMO just bad movie making ideas ("photorealistic, yet physics-defying").
I could see AI slop going the same way: certain "tasteful" uses still look good, but the current flood of AI art (somehow all the girls have the same face, and I've definitely spotted plenty of online ads that felt cheap from obvious AI use) will be "tacky" and age poorly.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
23d ago
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
23d ago
relatively strong visuospatial skills (in the mental shape rotating sense)
I've put some effort into getting better at art within the last few years, and sometimes I think my inner shape rotator is actively hindering attempts to draw from life well. Proper shading is IMHO hard when you have strong sense of what the object colors should be: as a simple example the checker shadow illusion requires conscious effort to color properly.
I haven't ruled out that mental shape rotating might be useful at some future point, though. It seems like maybe it'd be helpful drawing without reference.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
23d ago
Is January 6th the only time that's worked?
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
23d ago
that people who disguise themselves as other races are not really an issue
It is maybe less of an issue, but it does come up from time to time. There have been several prominent fake Native Americans within the last few decades. There are fewer examples, but not zero, for other races.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
23d ago
people breaking into the country's main legislative building
I could point to the 1954 Capitol shooting, in which Puerto Rican separatists (Americans) fired 30 rounds in the House of Representatives chamber, hitting five representatives. Their sentences were commuted by Jimmy Carter in 1978 and 1979.
Or the 1983 bombing of the Senate, done by a self-described "Armed Resistance Unit" protesting US involvement in Lebanon and Grenada. Their sentences were commuted by Bill Clinton in 2001.
Or the 1971 bombing of the capitol done by Weather Underground, whose leadership largely escaped any criminal charges and went on to be professors in universities throughout the country.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
23d ago
Didn't Obama have some very distant claim to descent from ADOS through his white mother? His father was African-(not-American).
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
23d ago
Whether or not those conservatives should be required to pay taxes towards your seen-as-elective medical treatments is probably also a sticking point. That one comes up with abortion too, and has with birth control in the past --- I'm not sure if anyone beyond Hobby Lobby really cares quite as strongly there these days.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
24d ago
I think it's at least worth considering the other direction too. "What jobs are not currently worth paying a human to do, so nobody does them?"
One place that IMO would be unsurprising (and is probably happening, if quietly) is ML for trash sorting. It's not really worth paying someone to pick recyclable cans from the trash can (something something minimum wage and homeless people redeeming bottle deposits, but that isn't really at-scale anyway), but it seems like something AI could do without hazard pay.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
25d ago
It seems it really depends on what you do with it. If you borrow from your children to build a something that gets a positive return after interest, it seems like a win still. There are legitimate business reasons to take on debt that aren't fatal spirals, and for various reasons printing cash looks more like printing shares, which can also be a positive.
The general question of which debts are useful is not trivial. And it doesn't just apply to debt: spending your capital assets for this isn't really much better even if it doesn't accrue interest.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
25d ago
I remember people expressing existential concerns about the party that last lost an election for at least a few decades now. It's never quite materialized as-promised, but your intra-party gang fight model does sound familiar from 2008, 2020, and maybe 2004 and 2016. Being the opposition is easy: governing is harder.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
27d ago
But I say this as someone who remembers original Facebook where you just got a feed of stuff your friends posted, in chronological order, without the site itself trying to guess what you would find most engaging/catering to your worst impulses directly.
I remember this era as well (Facebook recently "shared a memory" old enough to vote). My dark-ish take is that very public efforts for "trust and safety" failed miserably because the median user looked at the drama that was strongly associated with "trust and safety" and decided that the site felt neither trusted nor safe for sharing going forward. Maybe it was inevitable, but it felt like a decent chunk of it was an own goal on the part of the social media companies.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
27d ago
Are we honestly supposed to believe that a people requested from foreign stock a new ruling class?
There are recorded instances of something like this happening: the Glorious Revolution, Texas seeking US annexation, or Napoleon III in Mexico.
Frequently it seems to be "please invade us to replace our rulers with better ones."
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
28d ago
"Big Beautiful Bill"
Does anyone know why they named it to have the same acronym as Biden's "Build Back Better" plan? It feels like a deliberate choice, but I'm not sure why.
I know Musk has in the past been accused of tweeting keywords in other contexts to maybe confuse search terms, but I can't think of any good other reasons.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
28d ago
I'm pretty sure that's a tankie slogan from those that see things like the concept of private property as too far right. Maybe also an element of out group/far group dynamics, or referencing Stalinist and Maoist purges of the inteligencia and such. I don't have any friends that attend such things (that I know of).
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
28d ago
Heh, I remember a page linked from HN of a similar vintage that was giving away what was at the time a couple fractions of a penny in Bitcoin (IIRC 0.01 or 0.001BTC when 1BTC was a couple pennies). At the time it didn't seem worth the effort, so I didn't create a wallet. If I had done so, it'd at least be worth my while these days.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
28d ago
I know millennials who bought in (youngish, but out of college) at that interest rate. Post-2008 was an interesting time for most of a decade. Also very quietly, I suppose: their equity is also up 200% or more.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
28d ago
what you programmers call The Big O.
Somewhere in a coding boot camp, the drill sergeant is calling for a trainee to "Show me your Big O Face!" /s
American cities are also much warmer than most of Europe. I think there might be a mismatch there, because the Sunbelt is too hot much of the year for cycling to be enjoyable. It's much easier to dress for cold than for Phoenix summers.
Are there any tropical or subtropical cities with respected bike infrastructure? Maybe Shanghai back when China was bike-dominant?
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