A Happy New Year Open Thread

by wj

Also Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, dōng zhì kuài lè (Happy Dongzhi Festival), Merry Pancha Ganapati, etc.

We're over due for a new Open Thread. And I expect most of us will have better things to do for the next week or two than come up with something substantive to tie one to. So here you go.

And here's hoping that all of you and your have a wonderful Solstice and a great new year.

Comments

[wj]

Just watched Ukranian President Zelensky speaking to a joint session of Congress. Multiple standing ovations as he made the case for continued partnership between the US and Ukraine. Truly an impressive performance.

[Girl from the North Country]

It was an impressive performance, because he is an impressive man. But I worried that his heavy accent and somewhat stilted delivery might have made him too difficult for many to understand. My moles tell me that on Fox Tucker Carlson and Glenn Greenwald were really badmouthing him: manipulative, using Christianity like that, waste of US money, etc etc. I really hope that public opinion in the US disagrees with them.

[Hartmut]

Nothing wonderful at the moment and Cthulhu is not calling either to make something of that.
My performance as a teacher-in-training has been reviewed VERY negatively (yesterday was the official performance review) and I currently see no means to really change that given the amount of time left and available. I hope at least the lots of you have a nice holiday.

As per regulations that ban white christmas around here all the snow (not that much to start with) that has illegally fallen has melted away and now it's raining with temperatures safely above zero degrees Celsius.

[Girl from the North Country]

Hartmut, I am very sorry to hear that, and really hope it is not getting you down too badly. Or at least that you can find something to cheer yourself up with at a time when all around you are eating and drinking themselves into a Christmas frenzy. Let's hope the next year will be better.

And, to all and sundry on ObWi: merry Christmas, and happy holidays of each and every stripe. And as for the new year, my last sentence to Hartmut stands for all of us.

[Michael Cain]

Temperature bottomed out last night at -17 °F (-27 °C for the enlightened; 246 °K for the thermodynamics folks). Our son tested positive for Covid, so we're all putting Christmas gatherings off until New Years. Have to take my wife to the surgeon next week for the final check before scheduling her cataract surgery. The Cain Family Trust is now a thing, ownership of our house has been transferred, and now I have like a zillion places that need to be notified of what to do in case I die.

Did anyone else get 503 Service Unavailable error messages during the last couple of days?

[wj]

On the other (not so happy) hand, here's what the House is looking like next year. One of the far right members is explicitly making a list of Senators who vote for the omnibus spending bill. And has vowed to try to block any bill with their name in it as a sponsor. To this extent

“I don’t care if it’s the perfect cure to whatever thing in the world needs to be solved,” Roy added. “Somebody else better introduce it as a House bill or under somebody else’s name.”

Well, nobody can say he's not being upfront about what he really cares about.

[wj]

Our son tested positive for Covid, so we're all putting Christmas gatherings off until New Years.

Definitely with you there. Our family dinner for 8 is down to 3. This, mind you, with everybody fully vaccinated -- so at least it should be mild for them And the week is young yet.

Also, did get the 503s for a bit.

[CharlesWT]

In the last few hours, the temperature here dropped about 25 °F to 18 °F.

I got the "503 Service Unavailable" for a while yesterday.

[nous]

Happy Solstice and all the rest to everyone.

Sorry to hear about your performance review, Hartmut. Observations are a crap shoot in my experience. It's hard, though, when so much is riding on a very limited and subjective measure. Here's hoping that you can find a way to counterbalance it.

[Girl from the North Country]

Yup, I got the dreaded "503 Service Unavailable" and Odnamrod too. Let's hope it doesn't herald more Typepad craziness.

Michael Cain: those temperatures are unimaginable for me (maybe because it's many years since I went to Switzerland for winter sports). Here's hoping delayed celebrations still bring pleasure and comfort, for you and for anybody who ends up in the same boat.

[Girl from the North Country]

Open thread, so I thought this, from a piece by David Aaronovitch in the Times today about what may be a fashion (at least in fiction like The White Lotus and The Menu) for "cultural plutophobia", was a good description of e.g. the Elon Musk developments:

Over in the US Elon Musk has used his ridiculous wealth to transform himself into the most consequentially capricious human on the planet after Vladimir Putin. According to the US tech investor Chris Sacca, who knows Musk, he has become so rich and powerful that consequently “those around him [have] become increasingly sycophantic and opportunistic. Simply put, agreeing with him is easier, and there is more financial and social upside.” The result is the richest conspiracy theorist in the world doing whatever he likes with one of its biggest social platforms.

And even as we are bought and sold by this wealth and power, from football to property, we are beginning not to like it. I didn’t vote in Musk’s childish Twitter poll last week about whether he should remain as CEO of Twitter (he still owns it as a personal fiefdom). But users of the platform voted against him. Maybe after seeing The Menu or The White Lotus. So perhaps a star is just perceptible in the heavens and Yeats’s rough beast is waking up.

The Belshazzars of tech, speculation and oil should take note of the projections on the wall. But who’s going to tell them to look?

[Pete]

Temps rising here in the Northeast - 35F going up to almost 60F by tomorrow morning! Then plummeting to single digits within 24 hours. I heard on the news earlier that some place in Colorado saw a 40-degree drop in half an hour (hang in there, Michael)! Raining here, so when the freeze comes everything will be encased in ice. It'll be white-knuckles on whether the power gets taken out. On a positive note, the cold brings the sun and it will be a sparkling wonderland. I've just returned from the market and plan on going nowhere for the next few days.

Been out of the loop. Not sure what discipline you're pursuing, Harmut, but I've learned volumes from your contributions here, and I cannot imagine an institution (and a student body) that wouldn't be enriched by your knowledge and, importantly, your ability to convey it. Good luck to you!

And to all: Happy Whatever-you're-celebrating! Cheers!

[Michael Cain]

I heard on the news earlier that some place in Colorado saw a 40-degree drop in half an hour (hang in there, Michael)!

At my house, we went from 47 to 6 in just over 30 minutes. I was inside so it was only a line on a graph. Those sorts of drops are interesting to experience when you're out in it. Got caught in one once that arrived an hour earlier than the weather forecasters thought and I was still three miles from the trailhead when the drop started. Since it was Colorado, I had a stocking cap and heavy gloves in the knapsack :^)

Christmas Day will be back up to 50 because the Chinook is going to blow.

[Ugh]

The Joint Committee on Taxation's review of the audit of certain Trump tax returns is here, if anyone wants to read it (for some reason missing page 8 but it's in the tax press so not sure what happened there).

You will no doubt be shocked to learn Mr. Trump is a massive tax cheat, assisted of course by numerous (unnamed) advisors.

Poor Tiffany is once again the adult Trump child left out, not appearing in the report unlike her three older siblings, all of whom the JCT suspects received gifts disguised as loans and via other means. Runs in the family, I guess (except for Tiffany, the only smart one it seems).

[ral]

Dear Hartmut, let me second Pete's comment. Of course I know you only by what I have read here, but I'm sure he's right, you have much to contribute. Teaching is a hard job, I could never do it myself as a profession.

To "all my Internet friends," this has been a rough year for me as JanieM knows, but with some bright spots. May 2023 be a better one for us all.

[JanieM]

Seconding all good wishes for Hartmut, and sending encouragement in relation to whatever comes next.

Also seconding hopes for a better 2023. It has been a rough few years in a lot of ways and on a grand scale, but as ral reminds me, for some among us it's been extra hard personally.

Maine is supposed to get up to 60-70 mph winds over the next couple of days -- very unusually, the power company is trying to get out ahead of it and saying that we have to actively expect and prepare for outages. We just went through that *last* weekend, less expectedly, but at least now we're back in practice.

[Priest]

Tested positive Saturday, had to call my 93-old mom to say I would not be going to Florida for Christmas. She was disappointed, to understate greatly. But I have friends who dropped of food and supplies and have kept in touch. Lots of folks have it much worse.

Will have lows down into the teens here the next three days, bottoming out at 10 early Saturday morning. We haven't had a stretch like that here in a good number of years.

[CharlesWT]

We haven't had a stretch like that here in a good number of years.

Same here in north central Texas. The high for Christmas day last year wasn't many degrees away from the high for the fourth of July. It's about 11 °F now and may get into the single digits.

[Hartmut]

Forecast: +11°C to-morrow, possibly sunny (no guarantee).
Sounds like a candidate for the list of warmest Xmas days on record.

[Girl from the North Country]

Priest, that is a real drag. I hope you don't have it too badly, and manage to recover quickly. And that the "food and supplies" deliver some Christmas cheer.

ral: whatever has been happening, I hope the rough part is over and the bright spots predominate. And actually, I wish that for all of us, and for absent friends.

I'm off for a few days for a house party in Oxford, which is deserted at Christmas, and so you can wander around the beautiful streets and admire the amazing buildings with nobody else around - no students, no tourists. It is like a dream. A bientot, mes amis.

[CharlesWT]

At the moment southern and eastern seaboard state's electricity customers are taking a hit. Power Outage

[JanieM]

Thanks for that link, CharlesWT.

[hairshirthedonist]

My wife once put me in charge of the family Christmas card. The message I came up with was "Wishing you a felicitous holiday season and salubrious new year!" She nixed it and came up with something, um ... normal.

But you know what? I think it works here at Obsidian Wings. So I am now wishing all of you a felicitous holiday season and salubrious new year!

(Our high for today was just shy of 60 degrees at midnight. By 4 PM it's supposed to be 22 degrees with 24 MPH winds. It's supposed to go down to 9 degrees overnight.)

[Michael Cain]

...very unusually, the power company is trying to get out ahead of it and saying that we have to actively expect and prepare for outages.

I have become very spoiled after just two years with the power system where I live now. The municipal utility's distribution wiring is all buried. The non-profit power authority's transmission lines are pretty much the most over-engineered that I've ever seen. In the time we've been here, the power hasn't blinked enough to reset the appliance clocks even once.

The next several years will be interesting. The power authority's goal is to get to 100% no-carbon electricity by 2030.

[wonkie]

It's cold here in the Puget Sound but nothing to complain about compared to what the rest of you are experiencing. I do feel sorry for the animals. I have been putting warm water out for drinking--birds and squirrels etc. suffer from dehydration when it is cold--and lots of seeds and peanuts. I have to hide the food around back behind the house so that the deer and the Steller's jays gather back there. Otherwise, our dog is likely to kill us when we take him out the front door for his morning constitutional.

Teaching is hard. I did it for nearly twenty years. I think the only reason I got good evaluations is because I taught special ed, and they knew that no one else was willing to do my job. I am sorry that you are not having a good experience, Harmut. As others have said, you have been a good educator here and I always enjoy your posts.

I won't do the usually Merry Christmas stuff. Instead, I wish you all have heat, lights and food and that you and your families can stay healthy.

[wj]

And here's something visual for the season. (H/T my sister, who had this waiting in my inbox this morning.)
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/261842165823935161/

[Priest]

JanieM, just saw your Christmas pics over on BJ. Glad to finally put a face with the name :)

[JanieM]

Priest - lol.

It's a nice capture of the uncomplicated wonder that children are capable of.

[CaseyL]

wonkie - that's a good point about the water. I do put some nuts out - and the squirrels and birds have been taking them.

I just checked to see if I need to put more nuts out (yes) and things are thawing out: I'm hearing a lot of drip-drip-drip. Yay!

[bobbyp]

Going into an uncontrolled four wheel drift (aka slide) at 5 mph is a bit unsettling. Time for a hot toddy (well, any toddy) and my best to all for the holidays. Look on the bright side. Most of you will live through them.

what's that song? "Baby it's cold outside." brrr.

Cheers.

[Michael Cain]

Well, we only made it up to 5 °F today instead of the forecast 10. The NWS is still forecasting the downslope winds to start tonight and push us up to 40 tomorrow and above 50 on Christmas Day.

[JanieM]

@bobbyp -- Scariest skid I ever had was driving at night from Seattle to my cousin's house in Issaquah in a rented car. Tooling along -- not too fast, because it was a curvy hilly road that I wasn't familiar with -- but a lot faster than 5 mph because it was just raining a bit, right? -- and without realizing it I got to a high enough elevation for the rain to be freezing on the road.

Skidded across the road and came to a stop at the edge of a slope and facing in the opposite direction from where I had started out.

Was very glad there was stuff in the way of a possible plummet to oblivion. Drove very very slowly the rest of the way to my cousin's.

Cheers to one and all ... deep freeze, wind, snow, whatever you're "enjoying" today. And better tomorrows.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

My automotive preferences are:
low center-of-gravity
all-wheel drive
Pirelli tires in warm weather, Blizzaks in cold.

Of course, with rental cars you don't get a choice: you ALWAYS get Pirellis when you rent in Italy, which is how I found out how great they are.

[wj]

My automotive preferences are:
low center-of-gravity
...

I've got no problem with a low center of gravity. But my big driver (sorry!) for a car is one where I sit up high enough to see traffic beyond the car immediately in front of me.

Which probably reflects this area having crowded freeways, but little or nothing in the way of icey conditions. Although, admittedly, the first rain of the season can make things slippery as the accumulated oil rises to the surface.

[CharlesWT]

One time in the middle of Arizona, in the middle of winter, in the middle of the night, as I was zipping along a smooth, clean, dry highway, I topped a small rise and was confronted with about a hundred yards of snow-covered road. Luckily it had been packed a bit with ruts that guided the 4,500 pounds of Mercury Marquis to the next clear stretch of road while I eased up on the accelerator and kept my foot away from the brakes.

[JanieM]

But my big driver (sorry!) for a car is one where I sit up high enough to see traffic beyond the car immediately in front of me.

As the driver of the sedan immediately in front of or behind you, I am constantly blocked from seeing anything at all. (I lived in a state full of pickup trucks. I know how this works.)

[JanieM]

I lived -> I live (proofreader on holiday)

Don't know what the answer is. I can't see to get out of parking spaces safely a lot of the time either. And of course the big semis, never mind the double semis, are a much worse problem than SUVs and pickup trucks.

[wj]

I suspect that the (unobtainable) answer is for all cars, including pickup trucks, to be the same height.

[byomtov]

Hello and a happy whatever to everyone.

Temperature here in Cambridge is 16F right now.

[Pro Bono]

Pedestrian fatalities in the US per capita are about four times those in the UK. Perhaps one should consider that when choosing one's car.

Unconnected to that, the temperature here in Cambridge is 9C right now, about 48F. Much hotter in my house because my father is visiting.

Have a merry 25th.

[Michael Cain]

I can't see to get out of parking spaces safely a lot of the time either.

Question from ignorance, because both our cars are old. Do the now mandatory rear view video cameras, which seem to be relatively wide angle, help with the backing out of a parking space problem?

[wj]

My current (used) vehicle has one. I haven't mastered using it. It's a pretty tiny picture, maybe a quarter of the rear view mirror. The quality of the image seems lacking as well. "Washed out" is how I'd describe it.

Overall even though I'm currently too stiff to twist very far, that's still a better mode than the camera.

[JanieM]

Michael -- my car is ten years old. It does have a rear-view screen feature, though I'm not sure what I have is what you meant. It’s bigger than what wj described, but it’s not very wide-angle, and it's useless a good percentage of the time regardless, because depending on where the sun is in relation to the car, sometimes you can't see anything in it at all. I ignore it in favor of keeping up my skills with mirrors. If it's not reliable (e.g. in relation to the sun), I figure it's better not to become reliant on it.

Maybe they have better ones now.

[JanieM]

Pedestrian fatalities in the US per capita are about four times those in the UK. Perhaps one should consider that when choosing one's car.

I dislike the proliferation of big honking gas-guzzling vehicles in the US, and I'd love to see an actual functioning public transportation system in this country. (I have spent a lot of time in the Boston area, where the subway system is ancient and vehicular traffic is a nightmare.)

But your comment (Pro Bono) seemed like a bit of a cheap shot, and a non sequitur to boot, unless you’ve got some actual data connecting type of vehicle with pedestrian death rates. Not to mention that per capita rates and per-miles-driven rates might be quite different.

*****

After a brief conversation with my pal Google:

This article mentions a number of factors that affect fatalities. Type of vehicle is nowhere to be found. An excerpt:

In other words, since 1970 we have gone from leading the pack in traffic safety to being at the rear of that pack.

Over the past 45 years, we have virtually stood still while our peers have zoomed ahead in the realm of traffic safety. Many of these countries have taken the long view and have tackled the hard, ingrained cultural, political and engineering issues that must be addressed to bring about sustained reductions in traffic fatalities. As a result, we now have traffic fatality rates per person that are three to four times greater than those in the best-performing peer countries — including Sweden, the UK, and the Netherlands.

Much of the disparity seems to arise from how we build communities and the types of roads we design and construct. In the US, we drive more than any other developed country in the world, which goes some way toward explaining the higher traffic fatality rates. But even when we correct for vehicle miles traveled, we still have higher fatality rates. What we are learning is that the countries with the best traffic fatality records are different from the US in the following ways:

a) they live more compactly,

b) their road design favors more vulnerable users such as bikers and pedestrians, and

c) they have enacted laws and regulations that also favor these vulnerable road users.

A chart on this page says that 2019 UK road deaths were 3.8 per 1 billion vehicle-km, while 2018 US road deaths were 7.3 per 1 billion vehicle-km. That's all traffic-related deaths, not just pedestrian deaths per distance driven, which I couldn't find in the time allotted.

Christmas Eve! Heh.

[CharlesWT]

According to ChatGPT:

What are some of the explanations for the differences in the per capita pedestrian fatalities in the United States and those in the UK?

"There are several factors that may contribute to the differences in pedestrian fatality rates between the United States and the United Kingdom. Some possible explanations include:

1. Road design and infrastructure: The United Kingdom has a higher percentage of pedestrian-friendly infrastructures, such as pedestrian crossings and sidewalks, which can make walking safer for pedestrians. In contrast, many roads in the United States are designed primarily for vehicular traffic, which can make walking more hazardous for pedestrians.

2. Speed limits: The United Kingdom generally has lower speed limits for vehicles, particularly in urban areas, which can help to reduce the severity of pedestrian crashes.

3. Vehicle safety features: Many newer vehicles in the United Kingdom are required to have advanced safety features, such as automatic emergency braking, which can help to reduce the risk of pedestrian crashes.

4. Driver behavior: There may be differences in the prevalence of risky driving behaviors, such as speeding or distracted driving, between the United States and the United Kingdom.

5. Societal attitudes toward walking and pedestrian safety: In the United Kingdom, walking is often promoted as a healthy and environmentally friendly mode of transportation, while in the United States, driving is more prevalent. This may influence attitudes toward pedestrian safety and the priority that is given to pedestrian infrastructure."

Keep in mind that ChatGPT will sometimes hallucinate facts if it doesn't have actual ones.

[CharlesWT]

Expand on item number 4.

"Certainly. Item number 4 refers to the possibility that there may be differences in the prevalence of risky driving behaviors between the United States and the United Kingdom. For example, speeding is a major contributing factor in many pedestrian crashes, and research has shown that drivers in the United States are more likely to engage in reckless or aggressive driving behaviors than those in the United Kingdom. In addition, distracted driving, such as texting while driving, can also increase the risk of pedestrian crashes. There may be cultural or societal factors that contribute to these differences in driving behaviors between the two countries."

[JanieM]

Keep in mind that ChatGPT will sometimes hallucinate facts if it doesn't have actual ones.

Gee, no human ever did that.

[nous]

So ChatGPT is basically a more readable Wikipedia without any of the references or accountability mechanisms.

What, me worry?

[Hartmut]

The problem is of course the pedestrians not the cars.

https://jensorensen.com/2022/12/07/truck-suv-frontover-blind-zone-cartoon/

I just wonder why the natural solutions (more guns and tax cuts for the rich) are not even hinted at.

But there is of course this classic:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DnjNvkSU4AE8Y8f.jpg

[liberal japonicus]

Just a quick note to say Merry Christmas to everyone. Hoping for a better year in 2023.

[CharlesWT]

Translate "I wish everyone at Obsidian Wings a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." into Chinese, Finnish, German, Japanese, Korean, and Latin.

"Here are translations of the phrase "I wish everyone at Obsidian Wings a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" into Chinese, Finnish, German, Japanese, Korean, and Latin:

1. Chinese (Mandarin): "我希望黑曜石之翼的所有人度过一个愉快的圣诞节和新年快乐"

2. Finnish: "Toivon kaikille Obsidian Wingsilla Hyvää Joulua ja Onnellista Uutta Vuotta"

3. German: "Ich wünsche allen bei Obsidian Wings ein Frohes Weihnachtsfest und ein glückliches Neues Jahr"

4. Japanese: "オブシディアン・ウイングスのみんなにメリークリスマスと新年おめでとう"

5. Korean: "옵시디언 윙스의 모든 분들께 기쁜 성탄절과 새해 복 많이 받기를 바랍니다"

6. Latin: "Omnes apud Obsidian Wings felicem Nativitatem et felicem annum novum opto"

[Hartmut]

The German is correct but the Latin should start with Omnibus (dat.) not Omnes (acc.). Otherwise everyone would be among the wishes not the target of the wishes.

[Hartmut]

Looks like Charles did not close *bold* tags.

[CharlesWT]

Yes, I intended to only embolden the first sentence. :(

[Taken care of. -- S. Claus]

[CharlesWT]

Google translates the Latin text back word for word of the English text.

[Pete]

"The German is correct but the Latin should start with Omnibus (dat.) not Omnes (acc.). Otherwise everyone would be among the wishes not the target of the wishes."

ROMANI ITE DOMUM!

Teachers gonna teach. :-)

Merry Christmas, all.

[CharlesWT]

Taken care of. -- S. Claus

Thanks!

The translation capability is emergent. The language model wasn't created with the intent that it could do translations.

[CharlesWT]

Missed one!

Greek: Θα ήθελα να ευχαριστήσω όλους στα Obsidian Wings ένα Καλά Χριστούγεννα και ένα Χαρούμενο Νέο Έτος.

[bobbyp]

I suspect that the (unobtainable) answer is for all cars, including pickup trucks, to be the same height.

Pure communism is the obvious, but (unobtainable) answer, demonstrating again that we can indeed realize the answer, but simply choose not to.

Merry Xmas to all.

[nous]

Went to the San Diego Zoo again today - our Christmas plan the last four years. Crowds are small and ethnically mixed of various non-Christian stripes. Traffic is as light as you will ever seen in Southern California.

Experimental, from-scratch posole in the instant pot for tonight.

Be well, y'all.

[JanieM]

Crowds are small...

My family and I went to Disney World once on Super Bowl Sunday (it just happened to be the Sunday we were in town). It was the least crowded I have ever seen it.

(Disney is not particularly my thing, but I have a relative who works there, so I've been there a few times.... Although not, at this point, for many years.)

[Pro Bono]

But your comment (Pro Bono) seemed like a bit of a cheap shot, and a non sequitur to boot, unless you’ve got some actual data connecting type of vehicle with pedestrian death rates. Not to mention that per capita rates and per-miles-driven rates might be quite different.

It was unseasonal at best. I was mildly triggered by what I saw as an implication that dangers to others don't matter.

Here's an article, with a link to a paper, about the danger to pedestrians of large, high vehicles.

[JanieM]

Thanks, Pro Bono. Will read the article when I'm properly awake.

Cross-culturally, Happy Boxing Day...... ;-)

[Michael Cain]

The big vehicles are also an increased danger to bicyclists. They have largely chased me off of the main streets here, even where the bicycle lanes are generously sized. Not because of close calls I've been involved in, but just general observation. They're not just higher, they're wider, reducing the margin for error. Their drivers seem more inclined to clip across the bicycle lane when it's on the inside of a curve. (For that matter, they seem more likely to cut across the yellow lane markers when those are on the inside of curves as well.) This in a city noted for the relatively large number of cyclists.

At least the city has recognized the problem, and modified their plans for bicycle lanes and sidewalks to create an actual physical separation from the traffic lanes where possible.

[JanieM]

From Pro Bono's link:

While larger vehicles protected their own drivers and passengers, they offered no benefits to motorists on the whole. Overall, Tyndall’s analysis found no statistically significant relationship between vehicle types and weights and deaths of people driving or riding in cars. But Tyndall did find “some evidence” that larger vehicles improved occupant safety. The result is a twisted arms race where people may try to purchase a larger car to protect themselves, with pedestrians and occupants of smaller vehicles suffering greater fatality risk as a result.

In Tyndall’s words, this finding “suggests that driving a larger vehicle offloads fatality risk from the occupants to other road users.”

From a GWB-era press conference with Ari Fleischer:

Q Is one of the problems with this, and the entire energy field, American lifestyles? Does the President believe that, given the amount of energy Americans consume per capita, how much it exceeds any other citizen in any other country in the world, does the President believe we need to correct our lifestyles to address the energy problem?

MR. FLEISCHER: That's a big no. The President believes that it's an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policy makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one.

The force with which that exchange hit me at the time can perhaps be guessed from the fact that I kept track of the quote for all these years.

*****

Pro Bono's "unseasonable" comment hit me the wrong way at the time, but there's no doubt that there's a deep strain of American thinking that is based on the Zero-th Amendment to the Constitution, so built-in that it never needed to be stated, which goes something like this:

The right to offload risk onto someone else shall not be infringed.

This is the foundation of gun-nuttery. It's what the woman relied on who stood in the center of Belfast, Maine, during the early months of the pandemic and screeched, "I'm not responsible for your health." Or the preacher in Maine who refused to go along with Covid restrictions, and the couple whose wedding he officiated, an event that caused, directly or at second hand, at least eight deaths. (At least that's how it was reported at the time. Not going to dig for a link.)

The gene for caring for the collective (oh, that word!) is not prominent in American DNA.

(As a footnote, I was tempted to use the phrase "arms race" in response to wj's original comment about wanting a higher vehicle. Glad to see it used in the Vox article. Not that I'm 100% on board with the article, either, but I'm not going to go back to the theme of pundits using statistics at the moment.)

[nous]

My favored adjustment to buying habits would be for insurance companies to calculate their insurance rates for cars not on the cost associated with the vehicle being insured, but rather on the net cost to all involved in a collision with that model of vehicle. That way the cost of safety would no longer be externalized onto the smallest party involved in a collision. Would go a long way towards nudging the public towards smaller vehicles.

[wj]

I was tempted to use the phrase "arms race" in response to wj's original comment about wanting a higher vehicle.

If I'm to get a less high vehicle (note, by the way, I never asked for wider, heavier, etc.), the overriding priority is: headroom. If there is a smaller car out there with a high enough roof that I am not expected to sit with said roof at eyebrow (more often cheekbone) level, I haven't encountered it.

The world is built for short people. However little those short people believe it. But at least it's better than in medieval times. Ancient buildings in Europe are practically inaccessible.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

"Ancient buildings in Europe are practically inaccessible."

Defensive architecture to keep the barbarian hoards at bay!

Just like the helicity of spiral stairs in Europe is set up to advantage right-handed defenders on higher levels above right-handed attackers.

USian staircases have opposite helicity, because "defending with swords" was no longer viable by the point when structures with spiral staircases were being built, and the builders didn't have local models to copy.

[JanieM]

The world is built for short people. However little those short people believe it. But at least it's better than in medieval times. Ancient buildings in Europe are practically inaccessible.

I am under the impression that ancient buildings in Europe were accessible enough to the people who built them. Lots of data on this page. To wit:

Over the last two millennia, human height, based on skeletal remains, has stayed fairly steady, oscillating around 170cm. With the onset of modernity, we see a massive spike in heights in the developed world. It is worth noting that using skeletal remains is subject to measurement error with respect to the estimated height and time period.

[Michael Cain]

Ancient buildings in Europe are practically inaccessible.

Ever tried to get around in an old diesel-electric submarine? Just going through on a tour, it was obvious you needed to know which foot to lead with and when to duck in lots of places. Standard patrol length in one of them during WWII was 42-56 days.

I remember the chapter in Hawaii where the high school kids did a report on the accommodations in the ship that brought the first group of missionary couples to the islands. Made the subs seem roomy.

[wj]

And here we see that the "two cultures" -- or, if you will, "flyover country" -- is not a phenomena unique to the US.
https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2022/12/26/big-swathes-of-the-country-are-critically-underserved-france-film-and-flying-in-our-transport-special
Also discussed: the challenges of getting rid of automobiles. Even in a country which is seen, here, as having a really enviable train system.

[CharlesWT]

France is really putting the squeeze on travelers. From banning cars in Paris to banning short-haul flights.

[wj]

France is really putting the squeeze on travelers. From banning cars in Paris to banning short-haul flights.

Given how good public transport is inside Paris (in my experience), banning cars in the city doesn't seem like that big a squeeze.

Your link says that "short-haul flights" means those where the train journey is less than 2.5 hours. So, not distance, but travel time. Given airport wait times, not to mention time to and from the airport, that means that total travel time will increase . . . not at all. Again, not clear how that is a big squeeze on travelers.

[CharlesWT]

People must have reasons for taking short-haul flights or there wouldn't be any.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

"People must have reasons for taking short-haul flights or there wouldn't be any."

Because the previous/next leg of their trip is a long-haul flight, and airlines make it cheap & easy to combine them, as opposed to "arrive by train/Metro".

IIRC, CdG has a good Metro connection, and a TGV station, but Orly is a pain.

[wj]

IIRC, CdG has a good Metro connection, and a TGV station, but Orly is a pain.

Sounds very like here. Getting to SFO on public transit is a snap, even from the East Bay. But getting to Oakland Airport on public transport is a pain from anywhere.

[byomtov]

IIRC, CdG has a good Metro connection, and a TGV station, but Orly is a pain.

Well, maybe, but avoid connecting through CDG if you can help it at all. IME it's a terrible airport. (Avoid JFK, too).

[wj]

Sometimes Christmas dinner conversations wander into the most unlikely topics. For example, the one here touched on something California is embarking on. A green initiative, in fact.

The idea will perhaps come as no surprise to the folks up in Washington, where it started. Nor those in Colorado, Oregon, or Vermont, which have already moved on it. California's reputation for leading the way on such things being sadly overblown.

What we are doing is adding an option. Heretofore, there were three options for dealing with a dead body: burial, cremation, or donation. Burial is basically a waste of space; tolerable in very rural areas, but much less so in large urban areas. Cremation is energy intensive; 'nough said. And while the need for donations exceeds the supply of donations, it is nothing like enough to handle a significant portion of the total supply of corpses.

So we are adding composting. Including allowing use of the resulting compost for agriculture.

Now, when someone boasts about "going green", the obvious response is "Forget about putting your money where your mouth is. Are you willing to put your body on the line?"

[JanieM]

People as compost -- Pete Seeger wrote a song about it.

I do understand the problem in cities, but I like cemeteries, so -- a dilemma. Maine, at least, is one of those rural places where there's still plenty of room for burials. I bought burial rights at the green cemetery that my local land trusT established last year after five or so years of preparation.

No embalming, no materials that won't rot into the ground in time, no vault, etc. etc. That's what I've always wanted, and I'm glad the land trust got it all worked out before I needed it.

[wj]

Late breaking news here. In a school board race in Oakland, the previous third place finisher has just been notified that he actually won!

Oakland uses ranked choice voting for local races. It seems that the algorithm they programmed tossed a couple hundred ballots where no first choice was picked, but second and third were marked. So from 41 votes behind the second place finisher, he moved up a place with the missing second choice votes, and into first with subsequent choices.

Note the the candidate did NOT contest the results. The local election board managed to stumble across the problem all by themselves.

[Pete]

If I'm not mistaken, Soylent Green was, technically, a "green initiative".

[CharlesWT]

And it was set 49 years in the future in the dystopian year 2022.

[GftNC]

An important piece from today's WaPo by Margaret Sullivan on how the press should cover Trump, and in fact all politicians, after what they have learned (or should have learned) from their failure in (and since) 2016. As she says, they did not adjust to a new phenomenon, which required a completely different approach from the one that was the unexamined norm in the past, and this had (and continues to have) democracy-damaging consequences:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/10/12/margaret-sullivan-how-media-should-cover-trump-next-campaign/