121–126 of 126 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This website cost me a weekend once :-)
That and the website of the desert hunter who found the crashed SR71 should come with some rabbit hole warning labels. :)
(I would check, but I've stuff to do and I've already been down that rabbit hole once.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Risk compensation [0] has been studied and gets a lot of press because it tickles that combination of psychology + counter-intuitive result + play into narrative that people suck. As far as I know, though, most modern studies show that while there is some amount of risk compensation (people engage in riskier behavior after adopting a safety apparatus), the compensation is less than the benefit of the safety measure.…
Risk Compensation has its worst effects when the prior risk itself is concealed by the technology. IIRC anti-lock braking doesn't drive up accident rates for those who grew up with it (all cars they drive have ABS, that's just how cars work as far as they're concerned) but it did for those for whom it just made loss of control mysteriously vanish in their new car. They would think "I guess I'm just good at driving" a…
That's why Return Link Messages in the Galileo network are so interesting. Basically, there's a super low bandwidth message channel embedded in the GNSS data stream. Its sole purpose is to tell beacons "We saw your beacon and we're responding to it".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a funny story from the 80s in which a cargo ship crew was awarded an exorbitant sum of money from the Royal Navy when one of their Harrier pilots got disoriented and, running out of fuel, chose to land on a van parked on the deck of the ship...
Wow! Thanks for sharing this. For others who found that interesting and wanted to know more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alraigo_incident
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, I had no idea the USA is so sparsely populated. As someone from a purple region on that map (having lived near Aachen and Amsterdam), I can't imagine what it's like to be more than a few minutes driving away from the nearest occupied house or named road. The most alone I've ever been was probably in a German forest and that was almost certainly still within hearing distance from other people, if not immediately…
It's a pretty interesting and important point. I think that it plays a central role in individual beliefs on politics as well: If you live in an area of high density, people are your problems and it probably makes sense to you to generally limit their freedoms in favor of government control and general law and order. If you live in an area of low density, you're immediate problems are generally not people, may be mor…
Interesting thought, I had not considered the more vs less regulating thing in this way before.
Specifically about gun ownership, perhaps rather than a general allowance or prohibition on gun ownership, maybe it makes sense to allow those that work in rural areas to carry? Or just that you need some sort of license? It's not as if there exist no guns in Europe: there are gun clubs where people go to, uh, shoot I guess? Not even sure. They have a license and can keep all sorts of guns at the club, at home, and (locked away) on the direct way from and to there. Hunters carry hunting guns into the forest. And of course police that brings guns where ever. Edit: Oh, and look at Norwegian gun ownership. While that's hunting guns that are somehow different, they don't seem to have the issues that the USA has with guns there. /edit. So we also just adapt the rules to whatever is practical, it's not an outright ban on anything with gunpowder.
From what I read about research/statistics on general population gun ownership, generally it's better not to allow it, but that does not mean I can't understand that you carry one in your situation or that I think there shouldn't be an exception for that.
> I'm constantly faced with disdain from urban folks who like to insinuate that rural people are just stupid and ignorant.
I was thinking about this a bit, trying to figure out if I may have that bias as well. Sure, those who work with their hands are typically less educated, but generally working in a rural area (without saying whether you work some physical labor job)... for all I know it's a high tech job building wind turbines or whatever. But then, I guess we don't have so many "rural people" so I wouldn't know it from real life. I do know of the stereotype from books that have "backwards villages".
Some interesting thoughts, thanks for sharing!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a pretty interesting and important point. I think that it plays a central role in individual beliefs on politics as well: If you live in an area of high density, people are your problems and it probably makes sense to you to generally limit their freedoms in favor of government control and general law and order. If you live in an area of low density, you're immediate problems are generally not people, may be mor…
This may be the first comment I've read from someone speaking in favor of general gun ownership that I've upvoted. Interesting thought, I had not considered the more vs less regulating thing in this way before. Specifically about gun ownership, perhaps rather than a general allowance or prohibition on gun ownership, maybe it makes sense to allow those that work in rural areas to carry? Or just that you need some sort…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How about if a judge gets to decide if they are required to be force-enrolled in to a class that teaches safety in similarly fitting situations and/or some quantity of community service from a list of activities that are fitting of rehabilitation and improving the commons.
Those would enormously prohibit calling in, more than money for many people due to the potential public embarrassment, let alone the time, extra required PTO and potential cognitive load from the legal situation.