If you think that there should not be a government run social media (and there should not be)...

That ALSO means we should not be funding any government media, like PBS or NPR.

If you disagree you have to distinguish what is the difference between social media and other media outlets.

Hahahah, reminds me of one bank claiming "Security is our highest priority!"

One small interactive play I attended a while ago was in a SciFi setting where I think we all started off as passengers of some kind... anyway in the briefing they gave us they reminded us all that "Your safety is their 7th highest priority" and never has something felt more real. :-)

Those who do not watch movies are doomed to live them.

Here we have someone literally making an AI MCP, as if they have never watched TRON!

What about a face is it that needs range information - the "R" in "lidaR"? Do people carry around models of someone else's face

Yes that is exactly how Face ID works, a 3D model of the face scanned with "infrared dots" - not exactly LIDAR, but similar.

However just as important is a big use of the rear LIDAR on phones - range finding for the camera! And 3D modeling a face in particular is precise focus on eyes, really useful in portrait mode.

There is also some use of 3D scanning of objects but I would say that's far less used than the range finding aspect (and the fact it does store a depth map with photos that can be used to apply artificially selective focus).

Tell me, which model of phone do you have which uses LIDAR?

From the link you provided:

The feature was later included in the iPhone 12 Pro lineup and subsequent Pro models.

So all those since I've had several since the 12 (always Pro or Pro Max models).

blinding them seems to fall outside the range of allowable behaviours.

In theory if you laid under a car just after it had driven the heat could kill you. Yet cars still exist.

There are all kinds of things that are allowed because the dangerous conditions are rare. Being close enough to LIDAR to get blinded would be one of them, it does seem pretty obvious to me as you say that if it could blind random passers-by on the street it would get banned... my original post is more worded about the rare case, that you get really close to the LIDAR unit to look at scratches in the cover or whatever, then is it a danger? It still seems like it might be but probably mostly not. I would personally try to be sure it was powered down before I got too close.

I hope not, many phones also use lidar.

That is true and in fact we are asked to stare into them for facial recognition... :-)

However, it seems like the LIDAR on a car would be quite a lot more powerful - the phone LIDAR has to reach just a few feet, I think car LIDAR is out to around 200 meters or more!!! That much more power makes me think looking right into it when really close, would be a bad idea - but I don't think it's powerful enough it would fry your eyes if you were just walking down the street and the car drove past. I was thinking it would be good to know so as not to look at the car up close around the LIDAR area for scratch examination for example until you knew it was off.

Or maybe they have safety features that if someone is close the LIDAR is disabled.

So if a human happened to look right into an active LIDAR unit, would it cause any damage to the eye? Even though it's not in a spectrum we can see, something powerful enough could mess with some parts of the eye.

I honestly don't know, anyone have an idea?

Well, let me see. Much less poison in food, clothing, etc.? Check.

Yes, but the U.S. is finally fixing that, thanks to Trump and RFK.

I imagine you must be pretty glad to see that!

Tap water is drinkable

That's an odd thing to say given that most of the tap water in the U.S. is totally fine. It's not like Mexico or a lot of other third world countries.

Good public transportation? Check.

Is it really better though?

The U.S. has good overall transportation in a lot of cities.

While at first glance Europe seems like they have good public transportation that is better, if you look carefully you'll see that public transpiration is optimized for tourists and so so only ever see the sparkling best of it.

But if you ever try to use public transportation in residential areas in Europe, holy cow is it a crapshoot with the possibility of LOTS of walking.

Less privacy intrusion and consequentially less identity theft?

But at what cost? Europe is the one that made us all have to click the idiotic cookie acceptance form for all web sites, forever.

Privacy is something you can control, there's no need for the draconian measures Europe introduces.

Also because of those measures you are LESS safe in Europe, for instance alternative app stores are allowed.

Health insurance for everybody? Check

But what good is it if you have to wait years for treatment, unless you... pay for extra insurance.

I would never want to live in Europe, it's swirling the drain and looks to be ready to cough up the next Hitler.

Are you saying bicycle lanes are a waste because they aren't used in the winter?

I would say YES to that.

A car can be used year round.

But they are a waste where I live....because no one uses the damned bike lanes hardly at all.

They took up good car road space for bike lanes that are rarely ever used ANY time of the year.

Apparently they got grants for these things...and just put them in to spend the money without any study to see if anyone would use them in most places...at least in the US.

I do this *all the time*. I take the bus back from the supermarket with a week's shopping with absolutely no problems.

And cargo bikes have been a thing forever.

I dunno how you do it....I barely have room most times in my CAR to carry everything back from a trip to Costco.

I mean...how do you do this on a bicycle...I'm having a gathering with friends. I'm firing up my offset wood burning smoker....I'm going 2 whole briskets, 2-3 racks of ribs, a pork shoulder (for pulled pork)......and then well, things for side dishes, a few cases of beer, etc.

That's just for a one day gathering, I'm planning other stuff on our 3 day weekend this weekend.

How the hell do I get that all back and forth on a bicycle.

Hauling that from store to a bicycle, or a bus....then all the way from bus stop for front door....or on a bike....well, I'm not as young as I used to be, I could see a quick heart attack what with the summer heat already hitting 90F here daily with high humidity (I live in New Orleans area)....

And....this isn't just a scenario for a one day party...I like to get all my shopping done in one day for my week....I usually start by watching the grocery store sale ads, and hit 2-3 stores to get the sales, etc....I couldn't do all that on a bicycle....

I don't wanna shop every day....I do need some "me" time too you know, to do fun things....

oh yeah, and bitch about bike lanes again. Why not just get rid of the cars? They're just a misery generator that causes cities to be a stinking mess. The moment you let cars on the streets you get hobos shitting on your front door.

Err....the streets were built FOR CARS...it's just they are being nice enough to let bicycles on them too....

They weren't built for bikes....that's not their primary purpose.

Odd, because bikes are everywhere in Vancouver nowadays. Especially with e-bikes, lots of people are commuting to work by bike. Heck, many offices now have showers available for people who ride.

Sure, maybe 15 years ago when the bike lanes came in they were underutilized. But these days, Vancouver's bike scene is fairly active. Enough to the point those mass protest rides haven't happened in a number of years.

And in Vancouver, it's happening all year round.

Obviously Canada is quite different than the US in this....

Down here...nowhere near that participation of bike riders, especially for commuting.

I find most all bike lanes to me mostly empty all day....and it seems most US riders ride bikes for recreation and exercise..but fairly rarely for "real" transportation like going to work or shopping, etc.

I'm fascinated to hear some places of work actually have showers on premise for people to bathe at work?!?!

Seems an odd concept to me....and with weather extremes here, especially the heat I guess they'd be helpful for bikers in the US, but again, not something done here much that I know of....

So, are you on the clock while bathing at work?

I support bike lanes where they make sense, but did someone just establish a bike lane quote for city planners? Why are they suddenly putting bike lanes in places where no one uses them?

More than likely Federal grant dollars they had to use or lose...so, they spent it all and put lanes all over the place without any studies....

That's how most of these type things happen.

Right, because you don't benefit from bike lanes. They didn't go in for your benefit.

Where I live...the greater New Orleans area...they put TONs of bike lanes all over the place in NOLA proper and Metairie etc.

Seems a huge waste as that you almost NEVER see a bicycle using them....and they took out lanes of traffic making it more difficult to drive in areas....especially ones where they poured concrete 'curbs' to separate the bike lanes from the regular lane.

These barriers can be hard to see at night and it is easy to forget they are there and destroy your undercarriage driving over them....

It may work in places....and some places likely have benefitted having a safe place for bikes to ride, but putthin them everywhere apparently without study fscked things up around here.

And I like to ride a bicycle....and I still think they fscked things up.

Since COVID, I rarely carry cash, nor do the people I know and work with. It doesn't matter if pennies aren't minted anymore, because hardly anyone is carrying or using them. Practically everything is cashless.

Not where I live and travel or from what I see.

Hell, I love to carry and use cash for most everything I can that isn't online....I use cash in meatspace.

Personally, I'd be in favor of ending the Senate's representation of each state, two senators. It makes no sense for Wyoming, with half a million people, to have two votes, while California, with forty million people, has two votes.

No...because we are the United STATES of America.

Every state is equal...that's the way it was set up....and even today, in general you are a citizen of your state first....and citizen of the country second...

This compromise along with the Electoral College for presidential elections help keep that balance....and more populous states can't run roughshod over the less populous states.