One important difference: in the US you get a license by memorizing a few signs and traffic laws. They will tell you "driving is a privilege, not a fundamental right" but in practice it's treated like a right unless you get multiple DUIs or something (even then, a few years later - or less - the irresponsible adult can re-apply). The result is lots of unskilled drivers on the road, including those with more than enough experience to know better.

It's regrettable but the more the USA continues down its current commercial and philosophical path, the more people tend to do the minimum even when the minimum (in this case, of skill) is grossly inadequate. It doesn't take much effort to gradually get just a little better at something day by day, but it does take an awareness that one should do so. Here driving is widely seen as nothing more than a means to an end, not something in which to invest any skill because the lives of oneself and others may depend on it. Actually almost everything is viewed that way. It's the same reason in computing, there are so many permanent newbies - they managed to avoid accidentally picking up any new knowledge day by day even when a computer is an important tool without which they can't earn a living.

So unsurprisingly, I see unsafe practices every day I drive. Also, stupid unnecessary shit like tailgating 2 inches from the other guy's bumper with two open passing lanes is unfathomably popular. On a related practice, I have no idea why it's so important to get beside somebody and carefully maintain the exact same speed, even though to appear there they had to initially move faster, but I simply cannot drive a few miles down an interstate without seeing it, even during low-traffic hours like 4am. I think it's just a mindless "go with the flow, do what everyone else is doing" herd mentality -- that's consistent with what I see elsewhere in this culture. It could also be some psychology of feeling powerless in one's own life, causing them to want to control others by blocking passing lanes and creating hazards. Also, during heavy rain, many don't seem to understand that visibility is vastly improved by not hanging out in the massive backwash from 18-wheelers; this is really not difficult to comprehend, but to do so, one would have to be aware enough to consider it.

As I entertain no delusions about controlling what other people do, my main goal while driving is to keep as much distance between myself and others as I can. They can drive in tightly clustered packs with no room to maneuver (and sometimes, terrible visibility) if that pleases them. Whether it means speeding up or slowing down, I'll be the guy between the nearest two packs.

Please educate me if I am wrong, but I understand that in most European nations, acquiring a license means you actually have to demonstrate skill with maneuvering the vehicle and it's not nearly so easy. The failure rate for license applicants is significantly higher, and since driving means we're talking life and limb, that sounds quite reasonable. If you have only driven in Europe you might even find my descriptions difficult to believe, but I promise you I see this and worse every day.

TL:DR right? I really think it boils down to culture. The USA once had a culture that promoted responsible adulthood but that was a long time ago. What's promoted now is convenience and the idea that nothing is ever one's own fault. The focus has shifted from responsibility to a childish concern about fault-and-blame that prevents so many from learning that cause precedes effect. It's really amazing how many things boil down to that. Ergo, what works great in Europe might not work here, even if it really should be that way. Would you offer unlimited liability coverage to these people? While I don't normally advocate using technology to solve social problems caused by human stupidity and irresponsible adults, I really cannot wait until fully autonomous self-driving cars become mainstream.

We'll Know, now. See, there are two astronauts who happen to be twins. And they have sent one astronaut into outer space and the other astronaut will stay here on Earth. As time passes on board the International Space Station, we will see whether NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly develops strange new neurochemistry the likes of which humanity has never before seen, or if he stays normal like his brother Mark. Time will tell whether this theory about the brains of people in space twisting and contorting in untold seemingly impossible ways holds water or not.

Maybe this is all an elaborate test to make sure that the paper wasn't computer-generated content (something that apparently has made it through peer review before).

I was going to wait and hold my thanks until after I actually had the operation done and my "transition" complete, but right now I feel like a complete idiot so here goes: thank you, science, for twisting my brain in a knot.

I'll go right down in the basement and haul up my holographic projector, I'm sure the wife won't mind if I borrow the kids' sleep chamber cryo unit to fire up the display. After all, how can they mind since they're all holograms? Ha, ha! Clever people we are these days.

Yes, I've been wondering when they were going to get around to building the operating system for that machine all of us ran out and bought in 1974 or whenever. I knew it was a good investment. Everybody said, "no, dude, don't buy the holographic projector, there's no O.S. for that, yet." But I just punched them in the god damned groins and ran away laughing because I'm a genius.

I'll have to dig it out of my giant mountain of 3D glasses and virtual reality headsets and body hoists, but that will give me an opportunity to sort them all by decade. Maybe they will make an operating system for the VR things or 3D glasses next, who knows, it's Microsoft -- whose motto is, "If It's Further Away From the Command Line Then It's The Future, We Will Guarantee You That Much."

Hopefully this return to common sense and keeping our high-tech up to date with actually running software signals that very soon Microsoft will publish the first operating system that runs entirely on teledildonics. Then we can call customer support and ask them why they're fucking us so bad!

Do you deny that liberty tends to erode over time? Or did a hallucination cause you to falsely believe I wanted to get rid of all government?

br
If neither of those is true, then I cannot understand what motivated you to write that post. It looks like a knee-jerk response to someone else's conversation.

There are four things government is in a position to do better than anyone else: military defense, law enforcement, public works, and the erosion of liberty.

In some ways the idea of sleep supplements is very enticing, as we could do a lot more if our bodies didn't need to rest for at least 1/3 of each day. Misusing Adderall is along a similar vein, where the purpose is to stay productive and keep your mind sharp for longer than is usually possible. If there were no negative effects this would become a common practice and acceptable, rather than an addiction that needs to be treated.

it's so awesome seeing these old-timey side show barkers peddling snake oil from their wagons.

"my goodsh are the REEEAAL goodsh!"

"no god damnit he's a liar, he sells poison!"

"snake oil is the best poison money can buy!"

"see that, he's just after your money!"

"you heard it here first, folks, he's giving his away for FREE!"

"no wait a minute!"

I have a phone with an FM receiver active (it uses the headphone cord as an antenna) and this thread got me wondering about things like emergency radio, "scanners", etc. I ended up finding some old threads in other forums with people who found that this phone model's FM rx is in a chip that also has tx capability. But Broadcom doesn't want to share the pin outs and it looks like the threads all died. HTC EVO 4G if anybody's interested. This is along the lines of transmitting for a number of meters, of course, not for communication at a distance.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think most cell phones don't have the power supply to transmit FM broadcast band several miles away, let alone the antenna. And if you can't reach across several miles then what is the emergency purpose of the FM rx/tx capability? Anybody nearby is probably going to be similarly affected by said disaster. If you're worried about being separated from loved ones during a tumult, then you're probably going to want to be able to scan for them over a large area.

I'm just not sure what the argument is for having a bunch of underpowered FM rx/tx going on in the middle of a disaster.

Now, if you really want this to go through, what you have to do is find a disaster where all of the following can be clearly shown to be true:

a) numerous people died
b) there was an internet or mobile outage or lack of signal
c) it can be shown that the lack of internet or mobile outage of lack of signal contributed to the untimely deaths
d) it can be shown that a little FM rx/tx would have saved their lives

Just one such occurrence could actually get you want you want. No company likes to be the actual literal bad guy, and these dormant rx and tx capabilities would start showing up a lot more often.

Still I don't think it will get any better than walkie-talkie across a few dozen meters.

Let's say there's a rescue team after you and you need to transmit your location details. If they're that close, you can yell. If you're under a bunch of debris, you're not transmitting very well any way. If you're thinking triangulation and mapping a bunch of blips of potential victims, well they already have GPS operating.

I'm just not seeing the point.

Sure thing. All it will cost him is his life savings plus whatever debt he incurs.