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Fake IDs in the age of the internet

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Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#181

Post by dionidium »

FireBeyond wrote: post #178
dionidium wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it actually really is too spread out. My hometown of St. Louis once had an extensive streetcar network, that much is true; but you're missing a key point: that network was almost entirely within the 66 square miles of the original St. Louis City limits. The region is now spread far, far beyond those original borders. Only about 300k of the 2.8 million residents of greater St. Louis currently live within those lim…

Exactly like the sibling poster showed, there are multiple examples of this not being the case. Melbourne has 4.6M people in 3800 sq mi. It has a tram/light rail network of over 160 miles of track on 24 separate routes, and nearly two thousand tram stops. It runs a network of nearly 500 trams, and carries 200 million passengers a year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Melbourne#/media/File... To give scale to t…

I'm not convinced this would be worthwhile in the St. Louis suburbs as they exist today. For one, low population densities naturally diminish the value proposition of rail. But, second, the existing auto infrastructure is so good that people would likely still choose to drive.

Yes, I agree that we should strive for higher population densities and that we shouldn't have invested so much in automobile infrastructure, but given that this is where we are, people will make rational decisions.

That's what I mean when I say that we're already too "spread out."

By the way, on the off chance anyone's interested, here's a map of those original streetcar lines:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1W809wsAmB9GR3ZvyII...

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#182

Post by dionidium »

djsumdog wrote: post #173
dionidium wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it actually really is too spread out. My hometown of St. Louis once had an extensive streetcar network, that much is true; but you're missing a key point: that network was almost entirely within the 66 square miles of the original St. Louis City limits. The region is now spread far, far beyond those original borders. Only about 300k of the 2.8 million residents of greater St. Louis currently live within those lim…

This is really short sighted. If that original tram network was kept in place and upgraded, then money could have been spent on suburban rail networks. Excellent examples: Melbourne and Adelaide in Australia. In fact, Adelaide is pretty spread out and suburban, but it still has a nicely laid out (if a bit dated) train network). Melbourne didn't ditch their trams and now have the largest network in the world (and they…

This is really short sighted. If that original tram network was kept in place and upgraded, then money could have been spent on suburban rail networks.

I'm passionately in favor of your counterfactual. If we hadn't allowed so much low-density development, if we'd have kept and extended the streetcar lines, if we hadn't invested so much in automobile infrastructure, then we'd be in a much better position today.

But now we're faced with a confluence of factors that make getting to that counterfactual really, really hard. Those factors, collectively, are what I'm referring to when I say we're too "spread out."

"Spread out" isn't just about distance; it's about population size over a given area. It's about density, in other words.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#183

Post by ams6110 »

scardine wrote: post #177
_jal wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the car-orientation of the US would greatly benefit from a European-style approach to teaching kids about alcohol. I lived in Germany for a year as an exchange student when I was 16, the age at which kids can drink without a parent present. They can't get a license until 18. The vast bulk of kids there, in my experience, seemed to figure out sane drinking well before they got behind the wheel. Coming back to…

When I was 14 years old I engaged a vocational school maintained by the Brazilian national railroad company. There I learned a lot of metal working including welding and operating lathes. Spent 3 years there and ended up as a certified maintenance electrician for diesel-electric locomotives (never worked in railroads after that but several skills were useful both at professional and hobby situations). Now the laws ar…

7th grade shop class (ca. 1978) we were using drills, jigsaws, soldering irons, etc. We weren't allow to use the table saw but hand-held power tools were fine.

I don't think they even have shop in middle schools anymore.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#184

Post by [deleted] »

Analemma_ wrote: post #148
The_Hoff wrote: post #35

> The options for payment were Bitcoin and Western Union; since I’m neither a Russian hacker nor a Dark Web impresario, I opted for the latter. This is so frustrating for me to read. Western Union has its own set of problems and its users throw money away on fees, but why is cryptocurrency being thought of as a only being used by Russian Hackers and Dark Web impresarios?

> and its users throw money away on fees, Have you seen the transaction fees for Bitcoin lately?

[deleted]

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#185

Post by ams6110 »

Someone1234 wrote: post #130
mootothemax wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The mass use of fake IDs of this sort is a bizarrely American problem. In the UK, you're considered an adult at age 18. Most (aside from the unfortunate 17-year-olds) university students can legally purchase alcohol, smoke, or gamble if they so choose. In the late 90s, when I was 16-17 and doing my A levels in the South East, plenty of people had fake "Prove It" cards and the like. If you wanted to grab a drink at a…

That's one thing the scrapped national ID Card scheme may have helped with. A lot of teens aren't learning to drive in the UK anymore due to the high cost and quality of public transport in cities. So they by extension don't get a driving license until well into their 20s (if at all). So their choice was either, as you said, take out your passport (dangerous/impractical) or use a fake ID. That's why they had to creat…

Most(?) US states have an "ID" card option you can get instead of a driver's license. It's official proof of age etc. but does not confer any driving privileges, and it's a bit less expensive. No need for the Feds to have to manage this.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#186

Post by InitialLastName »

sandworm101 wrote: post #141
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In college students will a mile or several to/from parties or over the course of a night party hopping. Not walking everywhere is more of a social norms issue. In college towns you see many more non-students walking everywhere. People expect people to walk everywhere in college towns and consequently you don't get bothered by the cops for walking around after a reasonable hour unless you're doing something stupid. In…

I would add that for any young female, in any town, walking a significant distance home from the bar after a night of drinking should be avoided.

I wish we could build a world where nobody had to be afraid like this.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#187

Post by throwaway18917 »

sotojuan wrote: post #128
Someone1234 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst part is that teaching kids about alcohol safely at home, European style, is ILLEGAL in much of the US, meaning that social services might come take your kids if they discover you gave them a glass of wine at Christmas. I grew up in Europe. I was planning on letting my kid try a small glass of wine with food in their early teens. But doing so in the US, I actually risk jail and loss of parental custody. Let…

It boggles my mind that outside my small social bubble, people around my age (23) spend their whole weekends drunk. I'm not out to stop them and I accept their choices, but I wonder if it's also a result of our alcohol culture. Most people can't seem to enjoy just one or two beers.

I'd rather be drunk with them than hang out with you and risk falling off that high horse.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#188

Post by sandworm101 »

InitialLastName wrote: post #186
sandworm101 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would add that for any young female, in any town, walking a significant distance home from the bar after a night of drinking should be avoided.

I wish we could build a world where nobody had to be afraid like this.

That would be like surfing without fear of sharks. If we are going to give alcohol to people, if we are going to allow them to surf, then we must acknowledge that drunk people sometimes do stupid things. Like shark encounters, sometimes those stupid things get people hurt. I don't want to sound like I'm blaming victims, but if we are going to allow people to drink we must acknowledge associated risks. Young drunk girls should not walk home at night. No daughter's father would say otherwise.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#189

Post by arprocter »

Apfel wrote: post #151
arprocter wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK is pretty relaxed. If you're 16+ you can drink beer, wine or cider with your meal if it's bought by an adult. And in that scenario it would be rare to be asked to prove you aren't 15

I'm a 28 year old British man who is still regularly id'd. It's not all that relaxed in my experience...

I think it depends a lot on the town you're in and how old/young you look

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#190

Post by xkcd-sucks »

The_Hoff wrote: post #35

> The options for payment were Bitcoin and Western Union; since I’m neither a Russian hacker nor a Dark Web impresario, I opted for the latter. This is so frustrating for me to read. Western Union has its own set of problems and its users throw money away on fees, but why is cryptocurrency being thought of as a only being used by Russian Hackers and Dark Web impresarios?

Also, why isn't Western Union thought of as only being used by illegal immigrants and Craigslist scammers?
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