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Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

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Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> particularly telling of a billionaire's mindset when the fines are too small to matter It’s telling that billionaires are human? Fines being too small to matter are a phenomenon across the income spectrum. From delivery drivers dancing with New York meter maids to American tourists ignoring overseas traffic rules, the notion that inadequate fines stop deterring and become merely a nuisance is well know.

Yeah, imho lots of people need reminding that billionaires are just regular joes with a very large bank account. With all the regular joe's faults. Would be useful to remember that if Musk or Bezos say something, it may have the same chance of being right as what a delivery driver would say.

Or on average less empathetic and moral than regular joes... It is pretty hard to get to be billionaire without at least something average people would consider immoral.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a very deceptive video/article (at least the first half above the paywall). It is true that a few of these sats will have to come down each day, but the video is of a booster failure/explosion, not a normal planned obsolescence sat re-entry. And re-entry is part of the cleanup plan . All satellites responsibly launched need a plan to deal with possible orbital waste. By decommissioning in this way, we're redu…

> And re-entry is part of the cleanup plan Polluting the upper atmosphere with copper, aluminium and other compounds with unknown consequences is hardly a cleanup plan

if you combine all the fallen starlink satellites and the debris/waste they produce in a year, it comes down to about less than 0.1% of what the earth receives from space in the same year

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#83

I think the big picture here is much more important. If tunneling technology is radically improved, we're going to see massive improvements in urban living, including: • Cleaner air at street level because vehicle exhaust stays underground and can be filtered, which would have massive health and environmental benefits • Quieter cities with most traffic noise eliminated • Cooler temperatures since asphalt and vehicle…

You think, in america, that someone would pay for putting all of our roads underground? No. They simply want to put a very tiny number of roads underground because even a catastrophically expensive tunneling project is cheaper than negotiating with all the people who own the actual land you would rather pave a road or rail through.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#84

The tricky thing about environmental regulations is that they are crafted and utilized by NIMBYs to block any infrastructure development. Even if, on balance, the infrastructure is a net positive. It's not clear if these violations actually represent a real environmental hazard or are more reflective of NIMBY degrowth sentiment.

This is a company owned by the same guy whose other company is dumping huge amounts of pollution into the air around Memphis, TN. And when asked they basically said “no we aren’t.”

Something tells me it’s not NIMBYism.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#85
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The truth is somewhere in the middle. Many regulations are terrible and serve as a huge hindrance to innovation, and effectively restrict certain things to only the already-massively-rich entrepreneurs. However, (IMHO) there are a lot of regulations that are important and absolutely should be enforced up front. Finding the right balance is kind of impossible, and I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater,…

>> >Many regulations are terrible and serve as a huge hindrance to innovation What is an example of a regulation that was a "huge" hinderance to innovation? Looking at the past 40 years of the US technological progress and the only thing I seen hindering innovation are the tech companies themselves through monopoly, monopsony, patents, and regulatory capture. (Unless the last one is what you meant, but that's a regul…

Most regulations are meant to limit a person or organization's ability to do something, which almost by definition will limit creativity and potential innovation. The challenge is getting the right balance of freedom and regulation that people are suitably protected while also allowing for innovation. And, of course, that balance exists in different places for different people.

Complete de-regulation of a sector, say banking or medicine, would certainly encourage a lot of innovation. A lot of people would also be hurt in the process.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#87
post #3

All this so a handful of passengers a week can wait for the extremely small pool of vehicles in a dusty hole

Have you ridden the existing Vegas tunnel? Tens of thousands of riders when I was there and not a spec of dirt. Very far from perfect, but a long way from useless.

There were tens of thousands of riders _when you were there?_ Or there were tens of thousands of riders over the lifetime of the system?

Most videos I've seen recently show a system that, while functional, typically only has a handful of vehicles running simultaneously, each with carrying capacity for one party of up to 3 people.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#88

I think the big picture here is much more important. If tunneling technology is radically improved, we're going to see massive improvements in urban living, including: • Cleaner air at street level because vehicle exhaust stays underground and can be filtered, which would have massive health and environmental benefits • Quieter cities with most traffic noise eliminated • Cooler temperatures since asphalt and vehicle…

You think, in america, that someone would pay for putting all of our roads underground? No. They simply want to put a very tiny number of roads underground because even a catastrophically expensive tunneling project is cheaper than negotiating with all the people who own the actual land you would rather pave a road or rail through.

It really depends on the legal framework governing land use, e.g. do cities have the right to use the land beneath properties. And of course how affordable tunneling becomes.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#89
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> >Many regulations are terrible and serve as a huge hindrance to innovation What is an example of a regulation that was a "huge" hinderance to innovation? Looking at the past 40 years of the US technological progress and the only thing I seen hindering innovation are the tech companies themselves through monopoly, monopsony, patents, and regulatory capture. (Unless the last one is what you meant, but that's a regul…

Out of curiosity, have you ever attempted to create something from scratch and bring it to market? Not as an employee, but as someone trying to figure it out? Your work history will impact the way you view this issue IMO.

Yes. 28 years ago I founded a small a software company (4 employees) that made test software for a Tier 1 automotive vendor's ECUs. I sold the IP to them in 2007. Next question? Or do you think my background makes my opinion invalid for another reason?

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#90
post #3

All this so a handful of passengers a week can wait for the extremely small pool of vehicles in a dusty hole

[flagged]

They aren’t just trying shit in the real world, they are literally boring holes into it causing significant harm to people and the environment.
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