Johnny99.2

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• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  Glasshouse deals with war crimes, singularity, body modification, annoy the TERFs, murder investigation, space prison, oppressive milieu, and self-discovery. Also a John Varley "Eight Worlds" tribute novel, in which respect I think it is probably unique. Taking us off topic,...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  Really really interesting. Just to post the counter ( or possibly complementary ) argument: it may also have something to do with equality/not exiling the wife to the kitchen? Once the man sometimes cooks he doesn’t want to be sent...
• Commented on Go away, Muse, you're drunk (again)
  Professor John Adams of University College London has done quite a lot of interesting work on this over the years - as you make things safer people start to take more risk to compensate. If of interest pull that thread...
• Commented on Go away, Muse, you're drunk (again)
  So your hypothesis is: A) increased car safety measures (seat belts + wider vehicles) lead to a more hostile and dangerous environment for cyclist and pedestrians (faster cars taking up more road) B) a decrease in walking and cycling results...
• Commented on Go away, Muse, you're drunk (again)
  There is AMPLE evidence that daily exercise extends life expectancy considerably, that walking and cycling as modes of transport USED TO provide that, and that most people don't do anything like enough.” But what does this have to do with...
• Commented on Go away, Muse, you're drunk (again)
  “There is also evidence that (at least in the UK) 'safety' features have probably killed more people than they have saved, even ignoring the pollution aspects, because of the way they discourage walking and cycling, with the consequent reduction of...
• Commented on WTF
  You also said So it comes down to money. When the land cost gets high enough, think New York City, Tokyo, London, etc... and now down the street from me, well then it becomes economically viable Yet I can take...
• Commented on WTF
  I don't understand your point. Hungary, Poland, England, Italy, Turkey, France, and others to some degree are all getting into authoritarianism at various levels. All have to varying degrees constitutional protections against tyranny. Mostly around higher thresholds to clear to...
• Commented on WTF
  The big picture is the rise of fascism and the decay of belief in democracy in “the west”. Billionaires and obscure cults (crypto and Q) are symptoms. It’s not a coincidence this is happening as the fight against fascism slips...
• Commented on Strong and Stable!
  Take an English town or city centre (outside of central London which is relatively civilised) on a Friday or Saturday. Then add a constitutional right to carry firearms…. I also think the linked degree of subservience/ obedience to cops would...
• Commented on Upcoming blog outage
  Linked to this: Efficiency inversely correlates with resilience. The Accountants have got almost every organisation running on a knife edge of efficiency…....
• Commented on I can't even
  feel a little like it’s the very early 1900s and we debating horses and cars. There are people (correctly) pointing out that horses are flexible, don’t need refined fuel at specialist retailers, don’t need mechanics, can eat oats or, in...
• Commented on Abolish the monarchy!
  Alas true. “I know lots about this. So I must also be good at that”. I maintain Dunning-Kruger is like the patsy at the poker table. If it doesn’t ring true to you, you want to look closely at yourself....
• Commented on Abolish the monarchy!
  Ultimately, "Dunning-Kruger" is just a fancy term for people who are too ignorant to know they are ignorant. If you never met people like that, you must not get out much. Or indeed had the experience of studying something in...
• Commented on The impotence of the long-distance trillionaire
  “What is thegrayzone.com?” Depending on where you stand it’s either: a) a news site fearlessly picking up the stories that don’t suit mainstream media narratives. Tells the stories the western elite consensus doesn’t want out there. b) a Russian-funded misinformation...
• Commented on Bad news day
  “Undergoes” sigh. Autocorrect. I meant underdogs...
• Commented on Bad news day
  “Why now?” Because it’s rare for something to be so unambiguously wrong. It’s a full attack on a democracy by a vicious dictatorship. Innocent civilians being shelled in cities under siege. Plucky undergoes versus evil empire. And (regardless of NATO...
• Commented on Starship bloopers
  (Moving this on from being about the movies, noting the directive at the top of the blog) Entirely agree the humans see patterns that aren’t there (Exhibit A: religion). But isn’t that the point of any art? It’s the response...
• Commented on Starship bloopers
  And plenty of people (most?) who read Starship Troopers took it entirely at face value. As our good host points out you can also read into it something rather more complex. Books and films are creative. It’s art. You can...
• Commented on Starship bloopers
  Fascinating that people who appreciate the book is satirical while recognising that some take it literally can’t appreciate exactly the same is true for the film… (how anyone can watch Robocop and not recognise Verhoeven is more complex than the...
• Commented on Lying to the ghost in the machine
  "At this point, public transit becomes very useful as it is more space efficient." This is a massive understatement. Mass transit is dramatically better at moving people. Combined with grade separation [things on top of things] is a force multiplier....
• Commented on Central Banking on Mars!
  “HS2 is going to not only remove all the high speed express traffic, it's going to free up lots of train slots for commuter and freight movements.” But if that’s your goal just build a conventional train line (125 mph)....
• Commented on Submarine coming through!
  "their principles are failing, and Trump is the demonstration" It's not even quite this. I can't understand why you'd rather be an oligarch in Putin's Russia than Obama's (Biden's) America. Sure there is a (low) risk of some wealth...
• Commented on Countdown to Crazy
  Greg, the situation you describe with your wife is because she has a permanent job and employer who chooses to pay more than statutory sick pay for a while. These jobs are rarer and rarer and millions just go straight...