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I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

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Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#341

Post by perl4ever »

bradlys wrote: post #292
perl4ever wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Even if you try to give an example of someone coming up on your left at a 50+mph difference" 70 mph in a school zone? Not an issue if you just look both ways before crossing the street! Seriously (not that you sound very serious) every morning, I make a left turn out of my development onto a nominally 30 mph road where people go 40-45, and it's impossible to see very far to the left before pulling out. Given normal…

My example was mainly on a straight road because it's easy to understand. It applies to curvy roads where you won't see ahead too though. As someone driving, you should never drive faster than what you can see ahead and be able to stop in time. I kind of imagine what I'd like to call a "meteor" incident. Would I be able to stop in time if a meteor randomly crashed just outside of my vision ahead in a turn? If not - p…

"As someone driving, you should never drive faster than what you can see ahead and be able to stop in time. I kind of imagine what I'd like to call a "meteor" incident. Would I be able to stop in time if a meteor randomly crashed just outside of my vision ahead in a turn? If not - probably going too fast."

Seems like you've ignored what I just wrote in the previous comment. If I make a turn just as a car is barely out of sight, then at 40 mph there is just enough time to go before it hits me, assuming my car doesn't stall or something. If it is going much faster, say 80, then there would not be enough time. If I have no model of other drivers, and assume anything can happen outside my vision, which is what you seem to be expressing by the word "meteor" then there is no way I can make a turn in either direction safely at all, ever. The only way a person can deal with everyday situations is to assume roughly "normal" behavior (both in a social sense and in terms of physical law) and act accordingly.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#343

Post by HeWhoLurksLate »

TylerE wrote: post #322
ethbro wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I call this the subway train theory. I am nervous with one other person in my subway car. I feel completely safe with 5+ unrelated people in my subway car.

You shouldn't. I had my iPhone stolen on a nearly full DC metro train. Thief grabbed it out of my hands just before the doors closed and dashed.

Ouch. Sad anecdote.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#344

Post by hayyyyydos »

Interesting that there's an 18 character limit. In Australia, with the NPP (equivalent to UK's Faster Payments), your description can be up to 280 characters including, of course, emoji.

Out of curiosity, does Faster Payments allow you to pay to any other identifier (email address, phone number), or only bank account number? More importantly... does it support emoji?

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#345

Post by ALittleLight »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #330
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with hitchhiking is that you don't pick someone at random, someone decides to pick you up. If you pick a random person, they'll almost certainly be a normal, honest person. If you advertise yourself with a giant sign "I WILL GET IN YOUR CAR IF YOU STOP", then a small percentage of random strangers, but a large percentage of opportunistic criminals, will stop. I'd argue she got very lucky.

I have reservations about the explanation that a consistent positive outcome can be chalked up to pure luck. She may not know what she was "doing right," but I think it more likely she was doing something that helped foster positive outcomes.

You may want to consider the rates of homicide and rape in Mexico before determining that one person's experience of not being hurt is that compelling.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#346

Post by HeWhoLurksLate »

ericmcer wrote: post #300
lkrubner wrote: post #293

In terms of the kindness of strangers, I’m reminded of a friend who decided she wanted to hitch hike around Mexico when she was 18. She was poor but she wanted adventures. She wanted to get away from the beaten path, away from tourist traps, and go out into the rural areas so she could discover what Mexico was really like. Everyone who picked her up warned her that what she was doing was very dangerous. She was lucky…

I frequently walked home from work in Oakland at 1am when I worked a night shift. I always wore headphones too and people would tell me I was being stupid. After about a year and a half of this I was coming up a hill to a four way intersection when someone popped out from behind a fence just before I passed it, grabbed my shirt and stuck a gun in my stomach. He ended up being not the worst and let me keep my keys and…

Yikes! How did you get the gun out of your stomach?

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#347

Post by DoreenMichele »

ALittleLight wrote: post #345
DoreenMichele wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have reservations about the explanation that a consistent positive outcome can be chalked up to pure luck. She may not know what she was "doing right," but I think it more likely she was doing something that helped foster positive outcomes.

You may want to consider the rates of homicide and rape in Mexico before determining that one person's experience of not being hurt is that compelling.

I'm a woman who was homeless for nearly six years. Homeless women also are at high risk of being raped, which is one of the reasons you see relatively few women on the street compared to men.

I was never raped while on the street.

I also have lived without a car for more than a decade and accepted many rides from strangers. None of those rides ended tragically either.

I get told a lot I'm just lucky. It's a left-handed way of assuming a woman has no idea what she's talking about and can't possibly be competent.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#348

Post by fortran77 »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #316
SI_Rob wrote: post #51

Every so often my pessimistic tendencies get a healthy slap across the face by the actions of someone who took the high road when they easily could have chosen otherwise. It's a couple summers ago, at the height of the summer tourist season and I'm cycling up 4th ave SW in DC. Somewhere between the NASA HQ and the National Mall my camera bag - packed full with a fairly new DSLR, a few lenses, and a secondary cell pho…

I turned in more than one lost wallet or debit card to a librarian (or similar) while homeless. I didn't want to call them myself or whatever because I was homeless and I knew I was automatically suspect as a thief because of it. So I wanted someone the world would trust/believe to deal with it. Well before I was homeless, attempts to return wallets or found ID cards or whatever were consistently met with suspicion.…

I am 56 years old. I have never found a wallet or a debit card except one I found a card in a restaurant where I just hand it to a server.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#350

Post by thrower123 »

lewisjoe wrote: post #349

The first thing I do with a new wallet is to put a piece of paper in it containing my name and phone number. It stays there forever useless, until it gets lost. I stole the idea from a reddit thread.

This is a perfect use case for those free address stickers that you get in the mail.
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