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Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

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Re: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

#301

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

yks wrote: post #270
teruakohatu wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a non-American I have never understood why a people that values personal liberties are sometimes happy to be dictated to by housing authorities. I get it with apartment buildings with shared walls and communal property, but I just don't get why you would with suburban homes.

I wonder the same about zoning, can’t still wrap my head around it actually. Your neighbor dictating what you can or can’t do with your property is communism.

I don’t understand. You are ok with a coal plant or wind farm or slaughterhouse being built in a residential neighborhood? That doesn’t happen right now because of zoning.

Re: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

#302

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

hinkley wrote: post #201
vkou wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren't happy to be dictated to by housing authorities, it's just something they have to put up with in order to live. The cost of resisting is too high, so people end up picking their battles.

There is a surprisingly small overlap between walkable neighborhoods and HOAs. These are, in fact, battles you can pick. HOAs feel like living in an apartment but you're also the superintendent.

> These are, in fact, battles you can pick

In some sections of the US, you can’t buy a single-family home built after 1980 without being part of an HOA.

I’m not sure what that has to do with walkable neighborhoods?

Re: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

#303

Post by enobrev »

wenc wrote: post #86
thatguy0900 wrote: post #16

I actually was sitting outside a few nights ago and realized that there was no more fireflies, and I couldn't remember the last time I had seen one. I used to go out all the time during summer as a kid to catch them, they would light up whole fields. That was just like 15 years ago. Pretty sobering realization

I'm in Chicago (in a neighborhood close to downtown) and in previous years I'd hardly ever seen any fireflies. This year, they're everywhere -- in parks and even in trees on neighborhood streets. I understand fireflies are sensitive to light pollution. I can't imagine Chicago's any different from other major cities. COVID has people staying home a lot more but that has nothing to do with street lighting. I wonder wha…

I'm also in Chicago. I've noticed the same. We got those new LED street-lights last autumn and I was wondering if that had something to do with it.

Re: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

#305

Post by Greed »

calvinmorrison wrote: post #233
mikepurvis wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, but it's hardly a unique take: "Critics of HOAs have attacked them as a “tool for exclusion” that can encourage racial segregation. There’s no available data on the race of the owners of each particular house, so Clarke and Freedman couldn’t test this accusation directly. But they did compare the racial demographics of neighborhoods with or without HOAs, and found that neighborhoods with HOAs tended to be rich…

> that can encourage racial segregation. Unnamed critics state things "can" do things, while the following sentence shows there is no evidence. Then there is a follow up statement that the racial demographics show that HOAs tend to be richer (A major point of HOAs is to improve and maintain neighborhood values), and less diverse. The second part on its face might seem upsetting but, you'll find largely suburban commu…

Without commenting on the quality of the Bloomberg piece, exclusion is quite literally the reason that HOAs were created. The original, explicit, and completely legal purpose of an HOA was to exclude specific races and creeds and we cannot dispute that.

Argue devil's advocate all you like, but there are many HOAs with "No Jews, Asiatics, Blacks, or Mulattos allowed" still on the charter and "Whites only" written directly into the deed.

Wasn't that long ago, and many of the people who wrote those bylaws are still alive...

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Homeowner_association#/History

Re: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

#306

Post by longtom »

GordonS wrote: post #135
zackmorris wrote: post #109

The best thing we can do on a personal level is to stop using broadleaf weedkillers like Scott's Weed and Feed and other herbicides like glyphosate (Roundup). I've been doing handyman work at my boss's house during COVID-19 and he has clover growing in his yard. He has a fair number of bees, certainly more than on my end of town which is all chemlawns. It's arguably ok to use a little weed killer by hand on dandelion…

I never going the obsession with pristine lawns without clover, daisies, moss and such. I actually think it looks quite nice with some variation. My wife is militant about this, insisting that our lawn is sprayed with horrible chemicals at least once a year to kill off the clover, daisies and moss. Seems such a pointless thing to do, and very obviously not good for wildlife.

You can achieve a very homogeneous lawn without herbicides. Plenty of water, some aeration, some fertilizer, iron against moss, weekly lawn mowing and occasionally use a daisy grubber. Eventually the lawn will displace most weeds.

Re: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

#307

Post by foolinaround »

teruakohatu wrote: post #187
giancarlostoro wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my case its the HOA that cares.

As a non-American I have never understood why a people that values personal liberties are sometimes happy to be dictated to by housing authorities. I get it with apartment buildings with shared walls and communal property, but I just don't get why you would with suburban homes.

Exactly, I actually had to hunt to buy homes I wife would like that do not have a HOA.

I guess it is the 'community' aspect.

Most homes that do not have HOAs are on busy streets, which are less desirable.

Re: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

#308

Post by nine_k »

GordonS wrote: post #135
zackmorris wrote: post #109

The best thing we can do on a personal level is to stop using broadleaf weedkillers like Scott's Weed and Feed and other herbicides like glyphosate (Roundup). I've been doing handyman work at my boss's house during COVID-19 and he has clover growing in his yard. He has a fair number of bees, certainly more than on my end of town which is all chemlawns. It's arguably ok to use a little weed killer by hand on dandelion…

I never going the obsession with pristine lawns without clover, daisies, moss and such. I actually think it looks quite nice with some variation. My wife is militant about this, insisting that our lawn is sprayed with horrible chemicals at least once a year to kill off the clover, daisies and moss. Seems such a pointless thing to do, and very obviously not good for wildlife.

If one does not want their lawn to look like a piece of nature, they could as well remove the pesky plants and put some artificial grass, as used on football fields. Both pristine-looking and honest.

Re: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

#309

Post by pak9rabid »

teruakohatu wrote: post #187
giancarlostoro wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my case its the HOA that cares.

As a non-American I have never understood why a people that values personal liberties are sometimes happy to be dictated to by housing authorities. I get it with apartment buildings with shared walls and communal property, but I just don't get why you would with suburban homes.

Well in my case, I put up with it because it's where the better schools are for my son, so I choose the lesser of 2 evils.

Re: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

#310

Post by entropea »

spaetzleesser wrote: post #238
product50 wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are talking as if somehow non-Americans have access to more liberties across non-government entities in their lives. If anything, Americans treasure and enjoy the most freedoms across the widest gamut of institutions vs. non Americans.

I don't think that's true. Coming from Germany I feel that in the average US citizen living as an employee has less rights and freedoms than the average German citizen. In principle you can live a very free lifestyle in the US but you either have to have lots of money or check out from the lifestyle most people live.

That's true. If you want freedoms and rights in America, you're either not a part of the 'normal' American way of working and likely not making much money, or you're wealthy. Workplaces are authoritarian and remove a lot of rights when you walk in the door or sign into your computer, even doing surveillance on work devices that are further than simply asset tracking & data protection.
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