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Comment Re:roundabouts (Score 1) 181

They may save lives but the drivers here in the US can't seem to understand the rules of roundabouts. I've had many close calls on the roundabouts around my house; I steer clear of them now.

I live next to a roundabout myself, and we have the same problem - in rural Arizona. And it's not just clueless tourists from non-roundabouted parts of the US, but tourists from places like France, where traffic entering a roundabout has right of way. Our rule is that right of way goes to traffic already in the roundabout.

Comment Wired has a wokebot? (Score 1) 37

I subscribed to Wired from the very first issue until early this year. It was a great publication when Louis Rossetto was in charge, publishing articles about new tech with an overall attitude of "critical optimism." In recent years I lost interest as it slid into woeness. So now we know why.

Comment Re: Just one change would really speed Amtrak up (Score 1) 102

Perhaps conditions are better in the Northeast corridor, where Amtrak owns its own trackage. My experience is almost all west of Chicago. And yes, I have seen some California stations where there is a ramp on the platform that allows wheelchair passengers to self- board at one specific place.

Comment Just one change would really speed Amtrak up (Score 2, Interesting) 102

Everywhere else in the woe world, train doors open at the same level as the platform, allowing passengers to quickly step or roll on and off the cars. Amtrak doors open two feet above the platform, like the steamers in old movies. When a fat old person boards, station personable have to fetch a little plastic stepstool and delegate two employees to assist that person on or off the train as she teeters like a circus elephant on that tiny stool. Wheelchair passengers require a crane.

This single factor means a dwell time of several minutes at every minor stop. After a few statins, unanticipated extra dwell time means tha the train falls out of its contracted time slot on the line, after which it has to be sidelined for every single freight train to pass by. Because of this, some trains are routinely twelve hours late.

Comment Re:Right wing wants to keep all the violence for (Score 1) 95

that's because the right wing is inherently better at violence because they're better at command structures and you need a strong command structure to do effective violence, a command structure you aren't going to get rid of when the shooting stops.

And besides, we're the folks with most of the guns.

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