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Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

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Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#111
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 1995 Honda Civic is the most stolen car in America. At least, it topped the list when I last looked into it as a result of my brother in law having his 1995 Honda Civic stolen from the third floor of a casino parking garage in Las Vegas. This was on Christmas, and his car was full of the presents that he and his family had received that year. They were covered with a blanket and it's unlikely that the thieves kne…

It doesn't take 8 hours to drive from Vegas to Reno. I had my brother's Tahoe stolen out of a hotel parking lot in Vegas. (I bought him a new truck.)

Eight hours, five minutes accordibg to Google Maps. Of course when my brother-in-law drives it turns into a nine hour drive, and my sister-in-law finishes in seven hours, but then her speedometer doesn't work.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it makes it harder for people to accept their own non-ideal bodies as beautiful That's because usually (if not always) non-ideal bodies are not beautiful. I feel like there's a giant disconnect between people like you (sweeping generalization, no offense intended) and people around me. You see a girl with some extra weight and you may think she should ignore it, and hop on a computer. Here, most (yes, most) of the gi…

(note: This is incredibly OT. I think it is perfectly reasonable for HiGear to have models on hand to use in the photo shoots with the cars. This just addresses social points of general objectification) | You see a girl with some extra weight and you may think she should ignore it, and hop on a computer. Here, most (yes, most) of the girls go to the gym and exercise. And few would argue that isn't a healthy behavior.…

Assuming that wanting to look good is the product of low self-esteem doesn't seem very reasonable.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#113

I felt worse for these guys until I read to the end of the letter and found out about the "HiGear girls". It's not quite as bad as I thought because they don't seem to "rent out" these models like they do cars; I guess it was just a publicity thing. But still, having revealing pictures and even stats (measurements) of the women is pretty much the definition of objectification. FOLLOWUP (responding to comments): I'm n…

> Things that reinforce the societal ideal that women's value comes from being conventionally attractive is much more deeply damaging than most people realize.

AFAIK being conventionally attractive comes from being a healthy individual. For a long time we were selecting our mate by (in large part) how healthy he/she is, and getting rid of that habit wouldn't to any good to humans long term, I guess.

(In fact, it would arguably do more good if such ‘objectification’ was common for men.)

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#114
For me, their main problem is that they relied on traditional bank accounts and government-certified IDs to check identities. And we all know those ID's are easy to fake. Collaborative consumption needs a stronger identity, certification and reputation platform, one that does not isolate reputation profiles into silos and doesn't rely on unscalable certification authorities. And that's exactly what we are working on with peertru.st

So if you are interested in this, let us know. This is the first pillar after all: http://blog.kodesk.com/2011/11/01/the-three-pillars-of-colla...

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#115
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(note: This is incredibly OT. I think it is perfectly reasonable for HiGear to have models on hand to use in the photo shoots with the cars. This just addresses social points of general objectification) | You see a girl with some extra weight and you may think she should ignore it, and hop on a computer. Here, most (yes, most) of the girls go to the gym and exercise. And few would argue that isn't a healthy behavior.…

Assuming that wanting to look good is the product of low self-esteem doesn't seem very reasonable.

The desire isn't. Going to extreme lengths to fulfill it could be.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#116
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's completely unrelated. The only topic this is related to is, "Why do people care so much what women do, of their own free will, with their bodies?"

Because there is a long history of sexism like this (that hasn't gone away) and sometimes its hard to figure out what actions are ok and what are part of the ancient régime.

So, your solution is to ban women from being objectified, regardless of their opinion? Only women though, as they have a long history of being objectified.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#117

I felt worse for these guys until I read to the end of the letter and found out about the "HiGear girls". It's not quite as bad as I thought because they don't seem to "rent out" these models like they do cars; I guess it was just a publicity thing. But still, having revealing pictures and even stats (measurements) of the women is pretty much the definition of objectification. FOLLOWUP (responding to comments): I'm n…

> I like seeing racy pictures of girls as much as the next guy, but displays of women like this, especially right next to and in the same format as rental listings, encourages societal ideals that are at the root of most of the gender-related problems in our society

Well, it can very easily go both ways. Just in the last week I was asked by 2 different women (rather smart, otherwise) about "how much I earn". I honestly didn't know how to explain to them that at this early point in getting to know someone how much the person in front of you earns has no significance whatsoever.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#118
They should remain in business, but add a fingerprint requirement. This would stop criminals from pretending to be law-abiding citizens. Documents and identities are easy to steal or forge, but in-person fingerprints that match those documents are much more difficult to forge.

Edit: This is why background checks without fingerprints are not very meaningful. The check may be on a clean identity, not the criminal.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#119

I felt worse for these guys until I read to the end of the letter and found out about the "HiGear girls". It's not quite as bad as I thought because they don't seem to "rent out" these models like they do cars; I guess it was just a publicity thing. But still, having revealing pictures and even stats (measurements) of the women is pretty much the definition of objectification. FOLLOWUP (responding to comments): I'm n…

[deleted]

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#120

I felt worse for these guys until I read to the end of the letter and found out about the "HiGear girls". It's not quite as bad as I thought because they don't seem to "rent out" these models like they do cars; I guess it was just a publicity thing. But still, having revealing pictures and even stats (measurements) of the women is pretty much the definition of objectification. FOLLOWUP (responding to comments): I'm n…

Well, c'mon, can we be real here? If a guy is paying $600 to $900 to rent a car for a few hours, he's probably trying to get girls or close a business deal. People don't do that just to hang out with their buddy, unless they've got silly-money, in which case they just own their own cars. Also, some of the shots were rather tasteful (others, not so much, but this one for instance) - http://www.higear.com/images/our_co…

That's just perpetuating stereotypes that (i 'd like to think) we are now over with: Fancy cars make men rich, Girls drool over money, Cars are penis extensions. This was a service for douchebags, I 'm glad there weren't enough of them to keep it running.
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