Having had to drive a bit more recently, oh my god the additional cyclists in the city make it stressful. I almost ran into one. It was my fault for starting to make a right turn on a red without noticing her in my side mirror. Also it was her fault for starting to run a red light (straight, not to the right), which is the kind of thing you don't look for as a driver. 360 degree awareness is just not always possible and cyclists (also motorcyclists who pull this kind of shit on highways) can't expect it.
But really this just an argument for more truly separated bike lanes. They'll make their lives and those of drivers better.
Saturday, May 12, 2018
But Will It Be Useful?
He's just blowing smoke but this is the basic question with so much of this stuff. Wow, a tunnel...and?
pods.
Elon Musk's first Boring Co. tunnel under Los Angeles is "almost done" and set to offer free rides to the public "in a few months," the CEO said late Thursday in an Instagram post.
"Super huge thanks to everyone that helped with this project," Musk said in a caption for a video racing through the tunnel. "Once fully operational (demo system rides will be free), the system will always give priority to pods for pedestrians and cyclists for less than the cost of a bus ticket."
pods.
Morning Thread
Echidne's blog doesn't suck!.
It's her annual fund raising week. If you can afford to do so, send her some turkee.
It's her annual fund raising week. If you can afford to do so, send her some turkee.
Friday, May 11, 2018
The Grownups
Having had to do a bit of minor childcare duties lately...um... these are bad people.
Even though people say that's cruel and heartless to take a mother away from her children?
I wouldn't put it quite that way. The children will be taken care of — put into foster care or whatever. But the big point is they elected to come illegally into the United States and this is a technique that no one hopes will be used extensively or for very long.
Time To Pay The Piper
That would be ECHIDNE. If you can afford to contribute a few scheckles, please do. Damnit, writers should get paid for their work. It's nice that Echidne shares her knowledge with us without expecting a return, but she should be able to earn expenses plus enough left over for a few truffles.
2018 is Bad
Lol 2016 you were just warming up.
LONDON — Police searching for Scott Hutchison, the lead singer of Scottish rock band Frightened Rabbit, confirmed Friday that they had located a body.
This Town
REALITY CHECK: For all the outrage of Michael Cohen $$ in on Trump — @JakeSherman and I have some truth talk in today’s Playbook. pic.twitter.com/o3MvMp1gJo
— Anna Palmer (@apalmerdc) May 11, 2018
Give me all your moneys so I can get me that sweet 2nd home in DE.
Thursday, May 10, 2018
It's The Price Of Land
It's more complicated than that...and really the issue in most places is that people don't got no money... but it certainly it isn't the price of bricks.
Move over, candy and flamethrowers. Elon Musk tweeted out plans Monday for yet another side venture: alleviating the nation's housing crisis.
"The Boring Company will be using dirt from tunnel digging to create bricks for low-cost housing," he wrote in a tweet about his nascent tunneling enterprise.
Dictionaries Will Save Us
Dark web: The portion of the Internet that is intentionally hidden from search engines and is accessible only with a special web browser.
— Dictionary.com (@Dictionarycom) May 8, 2018
Used in a sentence: Bari Weiss wrote in the New York Times about people she says are stuck on the dark web. https://t.co/6EcnGv3TOo
Do You Have A Copy Of Your Birth Certificate?
These things are silly because these documents are hardly standard and universal anyway [random bureaucrat squints: looks good to me!] but aside from that... do you?
Morning Thread
Me: I got connections. Wire me $100,000 on the first of every month.
Big Company of your choice: Okay.
See, easy peasy!
Big Company of your choice: Okay.
See, easy peasy!
Wednesday, May 09, 2018
It Was The Only Thing Holding Me Up
Maybe he didn't speak to you but he spoke to me and I am upset about this.
This Makes Perfect Sense
Late capitalism already great.
"After the inauguration, the firm hired Michael Cohen as a business consultant regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures," the Columbus Nova statement said.
"Reports today that Viktor Vekselberg used Columbus Nova as a conduit for payments to Michael Cohen are false. The claim that Viktor Vekselberg was involved or provided any funding for Columbus Nova's engagement of Michael Cohen is patently untrue.
"Neither Viktor Vekselberg nor anyone else other than Columbus Nova's owners, were involved in the decision to hire Cohen or provided funding for his engagement."
Angry Birds
For some reason I never remember that in addition to Spring basically being shit in this part of the country, the damn birds wake me up every day at 6 AM.
Modern Leper
One of the pasty white guy bands I post videos of regularly. Saw them about a month ago. Hope he's ok.
The lead singer of indie band Frightened Rabbit has been reported missing amid concerns for his welfare.
Breaking News From the Halifax Examiner
Documents show how provincial employees misled Halifax police in the FOIPOP security failure.
This story would never have come to light without a dogged, independent press. We need so much more of that, not just in Halifax, but all over the entire world. Kudos to Tim for sticking with the story and spending lots of money to get to the truth.
Go.Read.Subscribe.
This story would never have come to light without a dogged, independent press. We need so much more of that, not just in Halifax, but all over the entire world. Kudos to Tim for sticking with the story and spending lots of money to get to the truth.
Go.Read.Subscribe.
Tuesday, May 08, 2018
I Can't Wait
The grift in American politics is you do your time in "service" [god i hate that] and then you cash out. If you think this is not corrupt, America politics is surprisingly not corrupt!
No one explained this to the Trumpkins. Or maybe they did and they didn't care.
No one explained this to the Trumpkins. Or maybe they did and they didn't care.
Follow The Money
I've been a bit of a Russia "skeptic" and that I sorta thought My President was a bit right about one thing - going after election "collusion" was legally and politically not especially helpfully. What exactly is he being accused of?
But I also thought that if there's anything there...it's the money laundering.
But I also thought that if there's anything there...it's the money laundering.
Good Dumb Movies
There is an ur-Bill and Ted Movie that we all imagine that is much better than the actual Bill and Ted movies, but that we can imagine it means there was something there.
Once I wondered out loud on this sucky blog, as I do, why Keanu got so much work. I actually like Keanu but he wasn't *obviously* a box office draw based on numbers at the time I wondered this. Someone who said they were in the biz (probably true! can't verify) responded, basically:
He's nice to everybody, shows up on time, learns his lines, doesn't problematically drink or do drugs.
Following 1989's Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and 1991's Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, The Hollywood Reporter can reveal that a much-discussed third Bill & Ted installment – Bill & Ted Face the Music – is now firmly in the works some 27 years later. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are set to reprise their iconic roles as time-traveling metalheads "Ted" Theodore Logan and "Bill" S. Preston Esq.
Once I wondered out loud on this sucky blog, as I do, why Keanu got so much work. I actually like Keanu but he wasn't *obviously* a box office draw based on numbers at the time I wondered this. Someone who said they were in the biz (probably true! can't verify) responded, basically:
He's nice to everybody, shows up on time, learns his lines, doesn't problematically drink or do drugs.
Rings
Having spent some additional time in the suburbs lately I can say - holy hell what the fuck have we created?
I spent my late growing up years (after some stints in Australia and Switzerland and elsewhere) in what we would now call the exurbs but they aren't exurbs anymore. I mean, they are, sort of, but now they're more suburbs of the suburbs, which is to say suburbs without an urb.
The traffic is...intense. I don't mean rush hour traffic on the commute to the urb. That has long been true. I mean everywhere. All those country lanes that grew up to be paved roads and then...couldn't grow up anymore. They're just clogged. That cute bridge is now backed up constantly. No one seems to understand that maybe an additional traffic light would be good? Those 4 way stops are not.
I laugh at people who say driving in the city is hard. First, you don't have to drive. Second, yes, driving in and out of the city is a nightmare. Driving in it? Eh, don't do it, but it isn't hard.
I spent my late growing up years (after some stints in Australia and Switzerland and elsewhere) in what we would now call the exurbs but they aren't exurbs anymore. I mean, they are, sort of, but now they're more suburbs of the suburbs, which is to say suburbs without an urb.
The traffic is...intense. I don't mean rush hour traffic on the commute to the urb. That has long been true. I mean everywhere. All those country lanes that grew up to be paved roads and then...couldn't grow up anymore. They're just clogged. That cute bridge is now backed up constantly. No one seems to understand that maybe an additional traffic light would be good? Those 4 way stops are not.
I laugh at people who say driving in the city is hard. First, you don't have to drive. Second, yes, driving in and out of the city is a nightmare. Driving in it? Eh, don't do it, but it isn't hard.
Your Liberal Media
Just thought these tweets by NYT reporters that I saw moments apart should be preserved in baby blue amber.
My take on this, is it reflects the rise of Eric and Don Jr as executives at the company, who were more debt averse, having watched their dad go bankrupt by overextended himself. They shifted to a more cash-based business. https://t.co/c0nKhcGiv2
— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) May 7, 2018
Great piece by @bariweiss https://t.co/JKqe2tvcxI
— Sabrina Tavernise (@stavernise) May 8, 2018
So Basically Murder
I've long said I don't think "safety" is really the concern about self-driving cars in that if they work in a useful way they'll be safe, but that view didn't address the "actually they don't work but they're on the streets anyway" issue.
This isn't some trolley problem wank, this is just what happens when your concept doesn't work. You have to dial down the safety provisions because otherwise your dumb car is going to be bad. I mean bad in the sense of not being very useful. Killing people is, also, too, bad.
Uber has concluded the likely reason why one of its self-driving cars fatally struck a pedestrian earlier this year, according to tech outlet The Information. The car’s software recognized the victim, Elaine Herzberg, standing in the middle of the road, but decided it didn’t need to react right away, the outlet reported, citing two unnamed people briefed on the matter.
This isn't some trolley problem wank, this is just what happens when your concept doesn't work. You have to dial down the safety provisions because otherwise your dumb car is going to be bad. I mean bad in the sense of not being very useful. Killing people is, also, too, bad.
He Died On Teevee
Another funny thing about Trump (ok he is president so nothing can really be funny) is that he likes really awful TV characters, like the equivalent of C-list Love Boat guests. Rudy has less charisma than I do.
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump is growing increasingly irritated with lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s frequently off-message media blitz, which has included muddying the waters on hush money paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels and making claims that could complicate the president’s standing in the special counsel’s Russia probe.
Trump has begun questioning whether Giuliani, an old friend and former New York City mayor, should be sidelined from television interviews, according to two people familiar with the president’s thinking but not authorized to speak publicly about private discussions.
Time For Another Blogger Ethics Panel
There really is just this 'lol of course conservatives all corrupt nothing matters" attitude these days.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt placed a polluted California area on his personal priority list of Superfund sites targeted for “immediate and intense” action after conservative radio and television host Hugh Hewitt brokered a meeting between him and lawyers for the water district that was seeking federal help to clean up the polluted Orange County site.
Monday, May 07, 2018
I'm So Behind On Nerd Things
I did not see the last guy with a hammer movie so I haven't yet seen the 300 superheroes save the universe movie. I hope that Deadpool movie is good because I am horrible and really loved the first one.
There Are No Options
And certainly not if these incompetents are in charge of "Brexit".
I was going to excerpt a bit of this article but it's gibberish because the whole process is gibberish.
I was going to excerpt a bit of this article but it's gibberish because the whole process is gibberish.
DFW
I liked Infinite Jest but it was the only David Foster Wallace book I ever read. It was clever and different and this sucky blog's name is a reference to/from it. Now that I am older and wiser (two steps forward, 1.9 steps back as always) I get a bit more how it is, despite its additional cleverness, another entry in the "justifying why men suck" genre. That doesn't make it bad, but I do know now that my life would have been better spent reading good novels about other subjects by people who were interested in other subjects. Of course the exploration of human frailty is a standard thing in fiction, but "because boners" has maybe been done enough.
Also he was bad.
Also he was bad.
Impeach
Trump is never going to be impeached. This is not a comment on what should happen, just on what will. I don't know why people perpetuate this fantasy.
Dems in the House with subpoena power will make things interesting, but impeachment will never happen (neither the House trial nor certainly not the Senate conviction).
Dems in the House with subpoena power will make things interesting, but impeachment will never happen (neither the House trial nor certainly not the Senate conviction).
Rudy
The fetishes of our political press are...weird. I know everybody says "oh, well, Rudy made us feel better when he walked around on camera on 9/11" and fine I don't have any interest in arguing about that. But he was always an absurd character and he never deserved to be treated as he was.
Morning Thread
The Celebrity Presidency. As long as people are talking about you, it's all good. Never mind what they are saying. It's the buzz that counts.
Or so says Giuliani over at the Washington Post.
Or so says Giuliani over at the Washington Post.
Sunday, May 06, 2018
They're On Teevee
There a million ways that The Donald has this bizarre 80s mindset, but one of them is genuine admiration for the people (even the ones who he thinks are mean to him) who are on teevee. Everybody TV personality, though playing themselves, is playing a character, and whatever their histories, Smart Lawyer Guy or Expert Doctor or Former Military Man, are just characters. If you've watched that much TV you should... get that. And people who tout titles that are a bit of a stretch - Judge Smith, esquire Ph.D MD DVM - probably don't quite live up to the billing. It's a show.
Pirro had interviewed during transition to be the DAG, and was rebuffed. People around Trump were concerned he would try to appoint her to SCOTUS https://t.co/PbxRohNBbw
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 6, 2018
Old Man Waddles Down The Street
Very inconsiderate of them to put all those tempting subway stops all along the race route.
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