Best or worst idea? Getting a Velotaxi/Rikshaw for private use

[Monkey]

So as Lucifer rightly said, here in the UK our regular police officers don't carry guns. If needed, regular police officers can call for specially trained armed officers to take over a situation, which only really happens when they see someone with a gun, who should not have a gun (which is actually most people as guns are illegal to own or carry here, with only a few exceptions). In some places, regular police officers do carry tasers which, unlike guns, don't normally kill a healthy human being. I am aware that, in the US, guns are more prevalent both amongst criminals and amongst police officers (and the general public too for that matter). All I can say is that this is such a bad thing. It is even illegal here now to carry most types and sizes of knife. This has helped to reduce knife crime a lot. Of course there are some people who manage to get hold of knives or guns and commit crimes with them but, fundamentally, it helps a lot. In my opinion, the (old?) American amendment/constitution/whatever thingy that says that you guys have the right to bear arms, needs to be addressed and changed.

@kyle
The media do put bias on a lot of the information that they put out, it happens here too. However, so do the people that are in the media. In my experience, the people that do this the most are politicians and businessmen. We clearly aren't going to agree on our opinions of Elon Musk so I won't go on much more about him. What I will say is that, similarly to delinquent, I have had the misfortune of knowing several narcissists very well indeed. Musk is a narcissist. You, however, are not a narcissist; you don't see the bad in him because you are a better person than he is and so you refuse to believe that someone that portrays themself as he does could be so bad.

[Lucifer]

But if Elon Musk is such a terrible person and an an idiot, how can he attract the talent the ends up making stuff happen that is not easy to do. why has Boeing basically failed with starliner, but Dragon has been very successful?

Ozzy Osbourne. 'nuff said. You don't have to be a genius to be able to recognize talent. But I never said Elon was an idiot, I said he was an asshole.

Also, Falcon 9 has been grounded 3 times in the last three months, and currently only has a launch exemption because the rocket they just launched doesn't use the second stage the way the others did that has been causing problems.

why has no other companies come close to reusing an orbital rocket booster?

Because they needed someone to show it was possible, first. Like I said in my AA video on YouTube, the first person to do a thing isn't necessarily the best at that thing.

All that said, I love SpaceX, minus Elon and the sexual harassment/discrimination stuff that's going on.

I think too many people see oh it's a billionaire or oh it's a trump supporter and automatically judge based on either or both those two things.

I suspect you're forgetting who you're talking to, here. And I don't mean just me. Literally everyone else in this thread. Hell, delinquent and I talk regularly in IRC about EVs and Tesla and all that. Maybe you should come back to irc?

I'll also probably leave this thread untouched now, and remain the unicorn in the way I think or Musk vs the rest of you. with exception of I want to know what Lucifer / others think of that police body cam.

I don't watch body cam videos, especially if there's a graphic content warning. I'm trying to limit the amount of unnecessary trauma I have to deal with. But there's still an open question of "Why is not responding to a cop a violently arrestable offense?" If the cop has probable cause, he can just arrest. If he's fishing for information that'll give him probable cause, he should not have the power to coerce the suspect to cooperate. Cops aren't the ones who determine guilt or innocence in the first place. Their job is to determine if the preponderance of evidence suggests the person is guilty, take the suspect ALIVE, and then turn them over to the courts to determine guilt or innocence. So anytime a cop shoots somebody, they are failing at their most basic job, which is to take the suspect alive. For that reason, they need extreme justifiable circumstances to even take their guns out of their holster, and "I was scared" isn't good enough. They knew the risk when they signed up, if they can't handle the heat, they need to get their asses out of the kitchen.

We can get back to the Topic of getting an EV is awesome, and great to be able to displace the gasoline that is likely causing a lot of health issues.

I don't think people should avoid Tesla because they don't like Elon Musk. I think people should avoid Tesla because they try so hard to skirt regulations, including safety regulations, beta test their self-driving software on unsuspecting drivers, and generally still haven't figured out how to build a finished vehicle.

My money's on the Korean manufacturers ultimately leading the field here, and in the next 5-10 years.

[sinewav]

But if Elon Musk is such a terrible person and an an idiot, how can he attract the talent the ends up making stuff happen that is not easy to do?

Money. I used to work in research. Grant funding follows the 80/20 rule where 80% of funding goes to the same 20% of institutions. Private investing works the same way, it's why the giant index fund managers like Vanguard and everyone's 401k are all just investing in the the top companies. Once you already have money it really goddamn easy to make more of it. Also, because I used to work in research, I can't laud private companies on their "innovation" when most of it comes from public sector research. You think the guys in SpaceX just made a rocket engine one day without first studying NASA rocket engines? Give me a break.

[Monkey]

My money's on the Korean manufacturers ultimately leading the field here, and in the next 5-10 years.

Very possibly. Some European manufacturers might be there too. Citroen, for example, have just released an electric car range. I guess only time will tell.

Also, because I used to work in research, I can't laud private companies on their "innovation" when most of it comes from public sector research. You think the guys in SpaceX just made a rocket engine one day without first studying NASA rocket engines? Give me a break.

This is very true and reminds me of a famous quote from I can't remember which scientist:
If I can see far it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants.

[Z-Man]

Newton was it who said that first, I think.

so what does everyone do, go 10 mph over, and if you don't you become a sitting duck and more of a road hazard.

This is such a prevailing anti-thought that I have to say it really loudly:
NO. If you stick to the speed limit, you are NOT a road hazard. The speeders are.
That includes going as slowly as that particular road allows. You are not responsible for people overtaking you in dangerous situations. They are.

Individually, on a case by case basis, kyle is right about Police/Citizen interactions. Yes, if someone is pointing a gun around in public, they are a danger to public safety and should be stopped, ideally without killing them, but that is not always going to be feasible. If a Cop stops your car because of a punishable offense, and you can't identify yourself, they can't just be expected to let you drive away (though they might, let you get away with a warning), even if a court would later find you innocent. Where it gets problematic is if bad Cop/Citizen interactions happen disproportionally often for easily identifiable population subgroups, as appears to be the case for black people.

As I've said I follow every Tesla/SpaceX event, press conference,

And they don't put an overly positive spin on what they're doing, you think?

I haven't seen a single lie or falsehood about Tesla/X/SpaceX/Musk in my media bubble. Stuff that later turned out to be fabricated. But: There is often a focus on the negative. Accidents with Teslas with whatever self driving technology was available active would be a good example, of course they get focus; millions of miles driven accident free are just not newsworthy, I guess.

the big media machine is good at making up stuff about someone, just to try to deimage someone.

Careful there. The "Big Media Machine" does not exist. There is no conspiracy, no unified intent. Of course there are unifying trends, group think, copying of content. But on the other hand, there are diversifying forces. Different people want different things from their media, there are many different niches to fill. I'm talking serious quality media, of course, that you ideally pay for, good journalism is not free. Tabloids and clickbait online sites can go to hell.

Tesla stock: Even Musk himself said the stock price is overinflated. It's a speculation item. So:

Is it wrong for me to think that that broker had a large sort interest in Tesla, and were scrambling to do anything they could just to get the stock to go down?

No, not wrong. Never trust a banker

My views on Trans have changed a lot over the last 10 years or so. I could go into the simple reason for my views if that's wanted, but if not I will not share.

My gut feeling says you probably should not share...
Thing there is, as Umberto Eco points out (and some Youtuber told me, I'm not that literate), Fascists need an enemy that is simultaneously strong and weak. It needs to be strong, so they can make people fear and hate it. It needs to be weak, so the Fascists can effectively fight it. It needs to be an enemy, so they can construct an 'us vs them' narrative. They can't use Jews openly anymore these days, Gays are also too accepted in the mainstream. So now the sophisticated ones put their sights on trans people. The blunt ones are on Muslims and immigrants. Immigrants funnily simultaneously want to live a lazy life on unemployment benefits (well, here in Europe, anyway) and take away our jobs. And sadly, even the blunt ones are successful. The knife ban Monkey talked about? We'll be getting one too, all because of an overinflated fear of Muslim Knife Terrorism. Which is a thing, don't get me wrong, but it's a tiny risk and the laws won't stop it one bit, they just give the police more reasons to stop and search you, especially if you have a skin color they don't like.

(I use the term Fascist above in the broadest possible sense, for simplicity. It also can apply to Populists and Reactionaries, no need for them to have the destruction of Democracy as a main goal)

[Lucifer]

Individually, on a case by case basis, kyle is right about Police/Citizen interactions.

Logically, sure. That's the problem with his argument. It's built solely on logic, not much in the way of fact.

If a Cop stops your car because of a punishable offense, and you can't identify yourself, they can't just be expected to let you drive away (though they might, let you get away with a warning), even if a court would later find you innocent. Where it gets problematic is if bad Cop/Citizen interactions happen disproportionally often for easily identifiable population subgroups, as appears to be the case for black people.

John Oliver covered this one this week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8ygQ2wEwJw

It's US centric, and the type of traffic stops he's talking about are pretty special to the US, so I don't know how much you see this in the EU/UK or other countries. It's the actual reality of what cops are doing on traffic stops that rebuts Kyle's argument, not the logic of either side.

[Z-Man]

Thanks. I knew stops with pretexts were a thing, finding any reason to stop a car hoping you find out about some other crime. Following a car just waiting for a minor infraction, that I only saw in a movie once. I did not know they are standard procedure. And I did not know air fresheners on the rearview mirror could be illegal...

No, we don't have anything like that here. Cops will stop you if they see your light is broken (also for bikes...), but you get fined and that's that. Cops can be authoritarian assholes about it, of course. Speeders and some red light runners are typically caught with camera traps, you then have the measurement, time of day, license plate and a nice photo of their face on record, that's usually enough. They'll only chase you down and try to stop you if you're a real immediate danger.

Then there are routine screening controls, the cops will block a road, force it into slow single lane traffic, and pull out every nth car. The main function seems to be to remind everybody they need to have some basic tools with them: emergency medical kit, signal triangle to mark accident sites and a high visibility vest. And that cars are fit to drive. And I think they catch most of the drunk drivers that way.

Well, and right now, they're doing those on the eastern borders to catch Muslim Knife Terrorists. Of course, there they don't pull out cars randomly, they concentrate on suspicious looking people or cars where you could hide people in. If they find someone, they just send them back. Did I mention it's kind of pointless?

For most normal stops, the first thing the cops want to see are the car's registration papers, your driver's license is second, ID only if it's needed for a fine. And people don't get killed. Well, two cops got shot by poachers caught in the act one or two years back.


In Xitter news, my feed was getting empty, my last frequently posting follow now at least crossposts on Mastodon... so I made the experiment to unblock Musk and check out the algorithmic "For You" page again. It was not bad! It's far too much to even get close to reading all. For me, it was mostly game dev stuff. Some Nazis, but much more Nazi bashing. I learned that one of the old tech gurus, Robert C. Martin, is apparently a Muslim Hater. Oh well, good to know? Of course, a couple of Musk tweets got flushed in. Some about what the companies are doing: The robot army, his turn at accidentally inventing the bus (fair enough...), integrated flight test 5 maybe tomorrow (good!), Starlink being free of charge in the hurricane areas (if you have the equipment, and electricity, but good anyway). One conspiracy narrative post about Google being controlled by the extreme left because you can find news articles on there that make Trump look bad, and one equating immigrants with an invasion (Yikes!). I'm going back to blocking him and back to the follows only feed
So yeah, Musk puts himself out there all right... Note that just because this focuses on him doesn't mean I don't think other CEOs and Billionaires are not shit too.

[delinquent]

Some points of intrigue:

I am generally on board with the individual having the freedom to choose who they are, how they present themselves, etcetera. But to wade in to this argument on puberty blockers specifically, I don't think any nation truly has it right just yet.

Traditionally, blockers have been used to delay the onset of precocious puberty until the appropriate time. This has demonstrated a number of positive outcomes, not least an age-appropriate state of development. As for using them to delay the onset of puberty beyond an age-appropriate point, I haven't been able to find nearly enough comprehensive study on the potential outcomes. This has multiple implications - particularly around neural development, which is still a huge mountain of shit we don't know nearly enough about. Of course, there are all the other arguments that people have made, some more based in reality than others.

That alone, though, does not necessarily negate the potential emotional and mental wellbeing of their use in the scope of a well-rounded program to support a young person whom simply cannot be the sex that corresponds with what happens to be between their legs. That's where the grey area comes in - and one that we could have managed a great deal better.

In most minor health treatments, a doctor has a reasonable responsibility to ensure that the wishes and views of a child patient are heard and, within reason, met. This responsibility is not a hard definition, and it is up to the doctor to establish the capability of the child to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of a given treatment program.

The same, in my opinion, should apply here - children who are more capable of understanding the fact that "this shit might have consequences that we can't even begin to predict" and still wish to take that risk should, in my opinion, have reasonable access to this form of treatment. But, where a doctor is under the impression that the patient is unable to evaluate the risk, then I'd consider it appropriate for them to delay treatment and steer the patient into a learning environment that better informs them of what we know and don't know about this phenomena.

Obviously, this is not a perfect approach - some people are going to find that they disagree with their treatment outcomes. We're all human, after all - and thus each patient has the right to seek a second opinion. But blanket bans, or blanket permissives, do more harm than good - notably because they potentially inspire a black market of sorts, leading to persons obtaining treatment that may be improperly dosed, possibly compromised, and not part of a greater supportive schema.

Speeding

I'm in straight disagreement with the idea that police alone are the solution for traffic speed management.

Back in the 90's and throughout the 00's, the UK had a series of hard-hitting television and billboard advertisements intended to discourage speeding. These adverts were serious shit - depictions of horrific crashes and terrible injuries as a result thereof. They had similar adverts discouraging persons from driving whilst drunk.

I forget where I saw these metrics, but after an advertising campaign, instances of drivers caught speeding or being intoxicated dropped significantly - even among younger drivers. I'd make the argument that whilst effective policing is important, it must be complemented by public awareness, and efficient road design that discourages drivers playing silly buggers. Nonsensically low speed limits also need to go - they need to be generally appropriate.

My money's on the Korean manufacturers ultimately leading the field here, and in the next 5-10 years.

I hope so. Korea has a very good track record with reasonably assured quality. I do have a gripe with the idea of chaebols, and with many other aspects of Korea, but they do seem to be making some progress - much like Japan is. I'd far prefer to drive a Korean car than a Chinese one. Who knows, though - the youth population of China today does seem to be a bit more willing to speak out about shit - or to simply not bother meeting the whims of the CCP that seem silly. Lying Flat was a fantastic form of protest - I wish we did stuff like that. We can't even put a general strike together anymore, and **** knows we wanted one during the worst days of Boris' government.

80/20 rule

Man **** I hate this so much. It's partly why I'm not even going to play the investment game. In theory, if I can get enough diversity in monthly business income, I can go without - but I'm taking a big risk there ngl. Ideally, I'd love to have the ability to bring more efficient, less destructive farming, transport, building methods etc around, but that shit takes time and money.

Also, I have firmly decided that if I ever get the opportunity to have my own building constructed, I'm going to push as hard as I ******* can to have it built out of stone and mortar. I hate modern architecture so much.

They knew the risk when they signed up, if they can't handle the heat, they need to get their asses out of the kitchen.

100%. As much as I have a problem with the manner in which UK policing is headed at times, I rather enjoy the fact that the vast majority of arrests are carried out incredibly professionally here. One frequently sees two or three coppers grabbing arms, and sometimes legs, and taking that individual down in a far more controlled manner. Hell, I've seen a copper arrest two people at once, pull them down over his leg, and still stop them from faceplanting the floor.

We do like to poke fun at coppers sometimes, but on the whole they are incredibly approachable in the UK. They seem to lack that whole "us vs them" mentality that I have experienced personally in the US. Except perhaps for the Met - but Londoners are a different breed in general.

And that's nothing compared to the coppers in parts of Europe and Norway. In fact, in Scandinavia specifically, I've found coppers to be incredibly friendly - not that I had particular cause to interact with them too often.

Anyway, far too much rambling from me. Luci is right Kyle - come back to IRC! It's bridged with the general chat in the tron discord, and soon enough I'll have the three-way bridge between discord, the retrocycles revolt instance, and IRC all set up. Including #armagetron-pickup on both OFTC and Libera!

[kyle]

I suspect you're forgetting who you're talking to, here. And I don't mean just me. Literally everyone else in this thread. Hell, delinquent and I talk regularly in IRC about EVs and Tesla and all that. Maybe you should come back to irc?

Anyway, far too much rambling from me. Luci is right Kyle - come back to IRC!

Yes I know I need to get back on there, I've somehow found a little extra time, not much though, where are you at, what's the good Linux client to use?

I don't watch body cam videos, especially if there's a graphic content warning. I'm trying to limit the amount of unnecessary trauma I have to deal with. But there's still an open question of "Why is not responding to a cop a violently arrestable offense?" If the cop has probable cause, he can just arrest.

That's actually why I placed the warning in there, just in case, basic premise of it, cop pulls someone over, clearly states it's for running a stop sign, she claims she did not, and that she did not have license on her, and failed to give the officer her name or anything, She won't get out of the car, by then another officer shows up and the remove her from the car and put her in cuffs. Turns out she also was driving with a suspended license.

I learned that one of the old tech gurus, Robert C. Martin, is apparently a Muslim Hater.

Interesting I met that guy about 5 years ago, quite an interesting guy. he did a talk on ethics of software, how we basically need something in place like Doctors have. Having met him, I could believe that statement, he was a bit odd.

My gut feeling says you probably should not share...

Ya, I'm going to go against what you said here, sorry, but I think you have my opinions wrong, and I'm not going to go fully into some of it.
But I don't mind trans people, I don't mind if they truly feel that they must transitions, but I worry that society and ideology is forcing transitioning on many people who would not be of the transitioning type. Gender ideology has been too much set into x is what men do and y is what women do, if you do y but are a man, you should transition or the other way around.

I also raise a big concern about how much pharmaceutical companies are playing into how the doctors help direct patients. I'm not sure if this is a US only thing or not, but pharmaceutical companies tend to give kickbacks to doctors if they put patients on certain drugs. It may not be super trackable, but my uncle was a Dr, and they would feed his family at baseball games and let them have a suit at it. This was in the early 2000's, but I'm pretty sure stuff like this still happens. I'm pretty sure there was a case in the last few years about this for a strong pain pill.
If that kind of stuff was removed from all Doctors, I think there would be less people on certain pills. also pills would cost much less.

But blanket bans, or blanket permissives, do more harm than good - notably because they potentially inspire a black market of sorts, leading to persons obtaining treatment that may be improperly dosed, possibly compromised, and not part of a greater supportive schema.

I agree with that too, but there should be a way to flag a drug to make is something that should not be proscribed too often

Tesla stock: Even Musk himself said the stock price is overinflated. It's a speculation item. So:

That was years ago when it was trading above the level we are at now

[Lucifer]

Yes I know I need to get back on there, I've somehow found a little extra time, not much though, where are you at, what's the good Linux client to use?

I'm using Konversation again. I used Quassel for a little while, and it's great, but Konversation is the best, for me.

That's actually why I placed the warning in there, just in case, basic premise of it, cop pulls someone over, clearly states it's for running a stop sign, she claims she did not, and that she did not have license on her, and failed to give the officer her name or anything, She won't get out of the car, by then another officer shows up and the remove her from the car and put her in cuffs. Turns out she also was driving with a suspended license.

Again, I didn't watch it. Do you think driving with a suspended license is punishable by forcibly removing her from her car and putting her in cuffs?

I know the answer should be "no". I know this because I've talked to quite a few cops while driving with a suspended license. I've had this conversation recently with a cop, although I do have my license now, a couple of months ago, I didn't, and I got stopped. So there's two sides here. On the right side, which is my side, of course, you tell the cop, when he asks, I don't have a license. Or, in my case, it was a learner's permit, because I'd finally started the process to get my license back. Anyway, you tell the cop that you don't have a license. Trying to hide it, thinking you're going to get out of it, is silly.

But does that justify the cop forcibly removing you from your vehicle? I think not.

Yes, there are cops that will arrest you for driving without a license. I've never encountered that, in part because I pass as white (Italian-Americans are only honorary white people in the US), but also because I know better than to try to use deception to get out of anything with a cop. You tell them what they need to know, not what they want to know. That's it.

If cops were a good force in the universe, you could tell them everything like they're your BFF and you'd be fine. Obviously, this isn't the case.

I'm particularly skilled at talking to cops, and I've gotten pretty lucky. I've done things and been stopped for them numerous times that would have gotten a black or latino person arrested at the very least, and also possibly shot and killed. And I've walked away unscathed, in part because I'm white, but also because I can talk to cops.

I won't even go into the laws I've broken while talking to cops. This forum doesn't have the room for that discussion.

You didn't really expect someone named Lucifer to obey every law all the time, did you?

My gut feeling says you probably should not share...

Ya, I'm going to go against what you said here, sorry, but I think you have my opinions wrong, and I'm not going to go fully into some of it.
But I don't mind trans people, I don't mind if they truly feel that they must transitions, but I worry that society and ideology is forcing transitioning on many people who would not be of the transitioning type. Gender ideology has been too much set into x is what men do and y is what women do, if you do y but are a man, you should transition or the other way around.

I didn't even quote you because I had the same gut feeling Z-Man had. I'm pleasantly surprised.

There's a whole onion to unpack here. Yes, there are significant issues with people "identifying" as the opposite gender because they like to do things that fit the opposite gender role. Should they transition? That's a bit extreme, the answer's usually no. Keep in mind that I'm someone who drifts across the gender line pretty frequently. Gender roles have gotten pretty polarized in today's society. When I was a kid, a boy could play barbies with a girl and it would be seen as cute. Nowadays, boys get punished for it. It's pretty extreme.

What you call "gender ideology" is being dictated by the right. You know, conservatives, who want to make sure that only Real Men carry guns, and women do so because they need to protect themselves from the rapists on the right who carry guns. Yes, I'm not just suggesting that understanding conservatives means understands their gun fetish, I'm saying it right out. Over here on the left, "gender ideology" isn't a thing. Gender identity is, and we're also fighting against toxic masculinity, because that tends to drive girls who aren't men into thinking they are because they like to do the stupid shit that toxically masculine men like to do.

It's an onion. There's lots of layers.

Here's what it comes down to: there are, in fact, biological differences between male and female brains. Also, men and women are far more alike than they are different. So if a 10yo boy says "I like girl things, I must be a girl", he's most likely responding to toxic masculinity, and if you don't like this situation, you need to join in in stopping toxic masculinity. The reason we, on the left, are saying "Give him some space, let him wear a dress, see how he feels" is because we know that there's more to it than that. It may be a phase, it may not be. But there are too many people in graveyards right now who were told it's just a phase, and it wasn't. So give kids the freedom to express themselves as they see fit, without labels, and see who they grow up to be.

I have three kids, and they're all adults, and they were given that freedom. I have some stories, and my oldest is still struggling for various reasons, but last I heard, she was transitioning to male. For me to be who I am, and for me to keep referring to her as a "she", there's obviously a lot more to this story, which I'm not going into. The point here is that I'm well familiar with the actual issues here.

I stand by my statement that there is not an epidemic of kids telling teachers they identify as the other gender, and schools are forcing them to transition. That is a strawman raised by conservatives, which Elon Musk supports and ensures they have a voice.

I also raise a big concern about how much pharmaceutical companies are playing into how the doctors help direct patients. I'm not sure if this is a US only thing or not, but pharmaceutical companies tend to give kickbacks to doctors if they put patients on certain drugs. It may not be super trackable, but my uncle was a Dr, and they would feed his family at baseball games and let them have a suit at it. This was in the early 2000's, but I'm pretty sure stuff like this still happens. I'm pretty sure there was a case in the last few years about this for a strong pain pill.
If that kind of stuff was removed from all Doctors, I think there would be less people on certain pills. also pills would cost much less.

At the risk of sounding cynical, this has been going on for a long time. There was a case about opioid addiction that was similar to the tobacco cases in the 90s where the family running the company were held personally liable for the opioid epidemic. So this is nothing new. I don't think gender transitioning drugs have been a part of this, but I could be wrong.

It's always been wrong. Back in 2000 when I crashed my first motorcycle, one of the doctors I talked to literally offered to write me prescriptions for me and my friends, even offering for me to call at any time, day or night. So this is nothing new, and it's always been wrong.

I was trying to joke with coworkers tonight where I wanted to say that alcohol commercials should have the same warnings that pharmaceutical drugs get in commercials.

Yes, this is a US problem. It goes away when we have nationalized healthcare.

But blanket bans, or blanket permissives, do more harm than good - notably because they potentially inspire a black market of sorts, leading to persons obtaining treatment that may be improperly dosed, possibly compromised, and not part of a greater supportive schema.

I agree with that too, but there should be a way to flag a drug to make is something that should not be proscribed too often

There is. The system is broke. However, the conservative politicians that your buddy Elon Musk supports are hoping to remove those, as well. That's your guy, Elon Musk, supporting Project 2025.

Tesla stock: Even Musk himself said the stock price is overinflated. It's a speculation item. So:

That was years ago when it was trading above the level we are at now

It's still way overinflated. A few others are, too. We're headed towards a crash.

[delinquent]

I'm using Konversation again. I used Quassel for a little while, and it's great, but Konversation is the best, for me.

Hexchat! It's technically out of support, but I like the interface. It's minimal, without losing information.

I did briefly try KVIrc though - it was ok, but not my favourite client. Fantastic scripting ability though.

Suspended licence...

...But does that justify the cop forcibly removing you from your vehicle? I think not.

Forcibly? Traumatically? Not at all. However, here, driving whilst unlicensed is grounds for the vehicle to be taken off the road, because driving without a license is a traffic offence. Usually, though, a driving licence is suspended (we say disqualified driving) for cause - dangerous driving, getting too many points for repeated driving offences, an accident caused by intoxication, that sort of thing. The process is normally, assuming the driver doesn't make off, quite civilised, and doesn't necessarily necessitate an arrest - an honest mistake, for example, such as a very recently expired license, will usually be met with some discretion.

You didn't really expect someone named Lucifer to obey every law all the time, did you?

But blanket bans, or blanket permissives, do more harm than good - notably because they potentially inspire a black market of sorts, leading to persons obtaining treatment that may be improperly dosed, possibly compromised, and not part of a greater supportive schema.

I agree with that too, but there should be a way to flag a drug to make is something that should not be proscribed too often

No. No no no no no. Setting expectations by metrics on medications is the one thing you simply cannot permit within the scope of healthcare. Evaluate what is being prescribed, yes, but legislating hard and fast limits on prescriptions is a sure-fire way to immediately throw a huge percentage of patients reliant on medication to the wolves.

Lucifer mentioned nationalised healthcare. Yes - this does solve the problem, but making that happen in America... not an easy task. My approach would be to start applying pressure on healthcare providers to become non profit organisations. We actually have another category of business here in the UK, called a Community Interest Company - which is a company that seeks profit to some degree, but by means of processes that benefit... well, the community. Establishing something like that, assuming it doesn't exist already, would be a huge step in the right direction. Enough of the shareholders and whatnot expecting huge returns from holding stock in human wellbeing.

And god help you if you come after our nhs, ya wankers

[Z-Man]

Just to add a bit to what I said about German cops: Don't take what I said as claiming there are no cop related problems here. Cops can be as racist or otherwise prejudiced as the next guy. And we have a bit of a systemic problem with police brutality; an indicator of that is that in the police statistics, when a cop beats you into submission, that counts as violence AGAINST the police. Political activists are the ones suffering most there. Sure, victims can sue, but good luck when the only witnesses are other cops.

Yes I know I need to get back on there, I've somehow found a little extra time, not much though, where are you at, what's the good Linux client to use?

I'm using Quassel because it's split up to the quasselcore backend I can have running 24/7 on a server and the quasselclient frontend which runs everywhere I care about.

I learned that one of the old tech gurus, Robert C. Martin, is apparently a Muslim Hater.

Interesting I met that guy about 5 years ago, quite an interesting guy. he did a talk on ethics of software, how we basically need something in place like Doctors have. Having met him, I could believe that statement, he was a bit odd.

He is an interesting fellow and I envy you! One of the authors of the Agile Manifesto. A great speaker to be sure. I won't let his current political views get in the way of valuing his expertise. (Won't rush to buy any of his books, though).

But I don't mind trans people, I don't mind if they truly feel that they must transitions, but I worry that society and ideology is forcing transitioning on many people who would not be of the transitioning type.

I'm relieved as well, and yeah, we need to take care that does not happen. Transitioning should be offered to those who really are unhappy with their bodies. It should not be near the top of a self discovery checklist... "Try painting! Or meditation! Maybe do HRT to grow some boobs!" I don't think anyone wants it there, so we should be good.

That's actually why I placed the warning in there, just in case, basic premise of it, cop pulls someone over, clearly states it's for running a stop sign, she claims she did not, and that she did not have license on her, and failed to give the officer her name or anything, She won't get out of the car, by then another officer shows up and the remove her from the car and put her in cuffs. Turns out she also was driving with a suspended license.

Again, I didn't watch it. Do you think driving with a suspended license is punishable by forcibly removing her from her car and putting her in cuffs?

I watched it to the point where it got bad. It should not be a reason. Around here, the car would probably be impounded, she'd get a fine for running the stop sign, and an extension to her license suspension. No need to strictly verify her ID, without paying the fines, she won't get her car back, that should be enough. Still, you have to get her out of the car.
Obvious open questions: Did she really run the stop sign? We had it some pages back that what people commonly do on stop signs is considered not stoppy enough by the law. Why was she stoppend and not the five others doing the same in that minute alone (Wild guess, if it was a busy corner)? What was the license suspension for? It may have been a legitimate reason, but maybe not, and she was annoyed that this shit happened to her yet again.
But yeah, assuming the stop reason was legit, given her non-cooperation start to finish, from the bits shown, I don't see a way the officers could have done much better. They could have warned her some more about what would happen (and risk her trying to escape with the car, which would have ended worse). But ultimately, it was always going to end with her getting out of the car, and at some point, by force.

Lucifer: Apart from passing as White, you also had another advantage: You told the cops what they needed to know, what they would have found out anyway (but not more!), voluntarily. That's, like, rule 3 of the handbook, after 'stay calm' and 'do as you're told, and only as you're told'.

My approach would be to start applying pressure on healthcare providers to become non profit organisations. We actually have another category of business here in the UK, called a Community Interest Company - which is a company that seeks profit to some degree, but by means of processes that benefit... well, the community. Establishing something like that, assuming it doesn't exist already, would be a huge step in the right direction.

That plan sounds like what we have here. Well, half of it. We have many different healthcare providers called "Krankenkassen", they are supposed to operate without much profit, and they operate under the solidarity principle. Everyone gets the same basic treatment costs covered, of all medically necessary procedures, but lower income people need to pay lower insurance fees. The providers compete over the height of the fees and extra services they may provide, and of course the customer service experience. Freelancers and high income people are allowed to opt out of that system and instead get their healthcare from a private insurance company, which has benefits. You usually don't get a better treatment, but most doctors will have you wait less for appointments, and some doctors treat privately insured patients exclusively. IMHO, we could do well without the second half. Opt-out solidarity isn't really all that solidary.

[kyle]

Thanks for the IRC suggestions, I'll try to spin one up this week

Obvious open questions: Did she really run the stop sign? We had it some pages back that what people commonly do on stop signs is considered not stoppy enough by the law. Why was she stoppend and not the five others doing the same in that minute alone (Wild guess, if it was a busy corner)? What was the license suspension for? It may have been a legitimate reason, but maybe not, and she was annoyed that this shit happened to her yet again.

I believe this stop was late night or early in the morning, so not a lot of traffic, and thinking about it, it was likely a bit targeted, potentially knowing licences suspended, To quote Elon on the Tesla fleet data, only 99% come to a full stop at a stop sign, most people believe they stopped, especially when no one is around when they get to around 2-5 mph, So yes the question still is out, did she just all out run it, or did she get down to a low speed and continue, because she thought noone was around.

Lucifer mentioned nationalised healthcare. Yes - this does solve the problem, but making that happen in America... not an easy task. My approach would be to start applying pressure on healthcare providers to become non profit organisations. We actually have another category of business here in the UK, called a Community Interest Company - which is a company that seeks profit to some degree, but by means of processes that benefit... well, the community. Establishing something like that, assuming it doesn't exist already, would be a huge step in the right direction. Enough of the shareholders and whatnot expecting huge returns from holding stock in human wellbeing.

All healthcare companies can only make I think 15% max profit, anything over that has to be redistributed back to the people paying for it. I'm actually more opposed to this, to me this means any elective surgery, ends up getting heavily subsidized. Sorry, I think Your Mom, should pay for her own Boob job, unless cancer had effected it.

Even though I am fine with tarns in general. I strongly feel that we were given a body, sure we can experiment with it that can change others perceptions of us, change our mindsets through the drugs. I think that should be at your own expense. I feel like you should learn to be happy with the body you have, self love, and as a child I think you should be taught to love yourself, I believe that helps your mental stability later on in life. And No Lucifer, I'm not saying teachers are teaching this at school, like Elon says, but I do think some might be embracing it in kids, but that still is a very small minority. I don't think the laws that went in to effect that allows teachers to not tell parents about this, should be in place, a parent has every right to know. It's their child that they are raising, not the school/states. As a child you are still growing and exploring idea, I don't care if a boy puts on a dress or paints their nails. Maybe this goes back to me being a dumass until probably after I started playing tron, wait maybe I still am one . I really feel my senior year of high school or first year of college was a huge growth for me, or I head someone called this your coming to experience, where you finally wake up and notice the world around you a bit and how it interacts. Looking back though before that point before that time, I think I could have been bullied or swayed easily into transitioning if it were as popular as it's become, that's where I fear for putting kids on blocker, maybe there is no danger in them, but I feel like it could also contribute to more physiological damage. But anyway that's where I believe more in nurture than nature,

He is an interesting fellow and I envy you! One of the authors of the Agile Manifesto.

Clean code, though I never really read it, the parts I looked at basically followed the practices that I found to be good.

[sinewav]

I feel like you should learn to be happy with the body you have, self love, and as a child I think you should be taught to love yourself, I believe that helps your mental stability later on in life.

Ah, there it is. You have this opinion about trans people because you aren't able to understand what people with gender dysphoria go through. Everything you are saying falls into the "thanks I'm cured" bucket of useless platitudes. You can't self-love your way out of gender dysphoria any more than telling someone "stop being depressed, dude" can cure their major depressive disorder. And regarding who pays for it, if it improves someone's well-being then I'm all for helping them. Rather that than use my tax dollars to blow up Palestinian kids. But hey, I know you're a "Libertarian" that somehow wants cops to have more power...

[Lucifer]

All healthcare companies can only make I think 15% max profit, anything over that has to be redistributed back to the people paying for it. I'm actually more opposed to this, to me this means any elective surgery, ends up getting heavily subsidized. Sorry, I think Your Mom, should pay for her own Boob job, unless cancer had effected it.

That's not "elective surgery", that's "cosmetic surgery", and isn't covered by health insurance. Elective surgery is surgery that isn't an emergency and can be scheduled. My ex-wife had "elective" surgery that was life-saving. She was getting blood transfusions from the ER to get her through to when they could finally do her "elective surgery". Also, curious why you went for "boob job" on that. What about vasectomies?

Even though I am fine with tarns in general. I strongly feel that we were given a body, sure we can experiment with it that can change others perceptions of us, change our mindsets through the drugs. I think that should be at your own expense. I feel like you should learn to be happy with the body you have, self love, and as a child I think you should be taught to love yourself, I believe that helps your mental stability later on in life.

Why not just will the tumor away? Maybe it would make more sense for you to look at it as similar to an autoimmune disorder, because gender dysphoria is pretty much different parts of your body at war with each other. 2/3 of transgender men experience phantom limb syndrome for a penis they never had. I don't know how many transgender women feel the same thing about breasts, I can only tell you I feel that way from time to time.

This is more than looking in the mirror and just not liking what you see. It's like if you looked in the mirror and you saw a lizard person standing where you're standing, doing what you're doing, saying what you're saying. It's horrifying, day after day. After transitioning, a person will typically have the same sorts of insecurities that can be addressed with simply getting more comfortable with your body. Before transitioning, your body is at war with itself.

And for people who deal with this every day, it's life or death. I got lucky, I don't need to transition. I don't even know what I'd do if I had to deal with these kinds of feelings 24/7.

This is all why, at the end of day, random IT guys shouldn't be setting healthcare standards. Go fix your computers or program your website or whatever and let the medical professionals decide what's best for their patients.