Pretty much. Men speed more for example and drive under the influence more often. High mortality risk on those.

Women however tend to be a bit more distracted when driving; they use their phones more often behind the wheel for example. There’s also particular situations that simply happen more to women. I.e. they go grocery shopping and are distracted by the kids in the back seat and hit another car or object in the busy parking lot.

That’s also why innovations like backup cameras and parking sensors are great at reducing those sorts of accidents. But still: tell the wife to put the phones away if she’s driving. For everyone else’s safety too.

There absolutely are a lot of them; it’s great that they finally feel comfortable to be themselves.

We saw the same thing with gay people. I’m an 80’s kid. When I was young, gay was something you saw on TV and in the movies. There ‘were no gay kids’ at the schools I attended. Because that was simply not something that you could admit to being.

Earlier this year I met a teen girl at work who casually mentioned her girlfriend. I was delighted that kids these days are comfortable enough in their own skin to just say that to someone they just met. That was not a thing when I was her age. It’s nice to see how far we’ve come.

Honestly, she won the only real thing that matters: actual attention and fame. I couldn’t tell you who won the medals. But I’ll definitely remember her performance for years. She’s now famous, whether she wants to or not. I’d lean into that if I was her.

Neat, I’ve never heard of those. Unihertz makes one with a projector in it… that’s wild. I’d be hesitant to buy a phone that’s sold on AliExpress though, I’d assume OS support wouldn’t be that great.

You did say “I love meat, let me assure you”. That’s pretty proud.

Fair enough, I can see how you’d read it that way.

How can you be concerned about growing meat consumption in other countries? “Gee I sure hope people don’t act like me, that’d be concerning!”. Rules for thee.

Yep, it’s hypocritical, and I accept that. But it’s still a cause for concern, considering the broader context.

Over the past decades, we’ve seen a global rise in living standards. Especially in countries like China and India, which represent a significant chunk of our global population.

China’s poverty has fallen dramatically over the past decades. The average Chinese person is now much better off than they used to be. If you look at poverty figures, you’ll see a nice little ski-slope: back in 1990, effectively 98 percent of Chinese wereliving below the current poverty line. In 2019, that was down to below 16 percent.

Same thing for India: a dramatic poverty decline since the 1980’s.

If you’re at least somewhat aware of economics, you’ll understand that an increased standard of living also leads to more consumption: people can now afford cars, they can afford to travel, they can afford more food - which includes meat.

China is already the world’s largest meat consumer - but there’s a catch: they’re lagging in per-capita consumption. Experts predict that with increased urbanization and rising income levels, Chinese people are going to eat more and more meat. Because they can finally afford to do so.

Meat consumption is also on the rise in India. While there’s certainly plenty of Indians who don’t eat meat on religious grounds, actually over 70 percent of the population does eat meat.

So, see why I’m worried? Because they’re going down the same path towards overconsumption that we ware. Is it hypocritical to say to a no-longer-impoverished Indian or Chinese person that they shouldn’t want meat, cars or shiny new phones? Yes. But one can also hope that they learn from our mistakes in that regard. Overconsumption is going to have a profound impact on the scale of those two countries.

That’s not to mention the antibiotic crisis where treatment resistant bacteria are developing in animals due to overuse in livestock. Or the development of animal flus like birdflu, corona virus, swine flu, ebola etc etc, which emerge from consuming animals.

Those are certainly things I’m worried about. Especially considering recent history regarding covid. God only knows what meat production is like in some countries, and I shudder to find out. It’s only going to get worse if producers try to fill that increased demand.

You’re doing so much good, why not do the little extra step of going vegan? It’s so easy nowadays. Good for you, good for the planet, good for the animals. There’s no practical downside?

Well, honestly, at some point it gets really tiring to shoulder the burden of basically everything. I’m using a computer to type this, my previous post was on a phone. They both contain lithium, cobalt, coltan and other materials, a lot of which get mined with either exploited workers or outright slave labor. The clothes I’m wearing were probably made by an exploited worker in a sweatshop. And you can keep going on and on and on. There’s really no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism, as any economics professor will point out.

So on some days, I like to enjoy a nice burger. Even if it might not be good for me or the planet.

God yes. I absolutely HATE that phones got slimmer and slimmer while also consuming more battery - which can’t be swapped like the good old days.

I’ve got giant hands. Give me a phone that’s AT LEAST twice as thick with a battery that lasts at least three days.

I’d absolutely carry a large Motorola brick phone style if those were still viable today. They do make retro gimmick phones like it, but you really do need a smartphone for a lot of specific apps.

Meh, I wouldn’t say proud. I’m just not going to change it. If you don’t want to eat meat, don’t.

I’ve got solar panels, I ride a bicycle, don’t fly, don’t have a car, I recycle everything properly, I conserve water, and generally try to consume less whenever possible.

Is meat bad for the planet? Sure. But by and large, I don’t think me eating meat three times a week is going to have much effect. I’m much more concerned about people elsewhere on the planet discovering the joy of meat, like growing consumption in China.

TIL there’s vegan slurs. Don’t think I’ve ever been called something specific for being pro-meat. And I do loooooove my meat-based diet, let me assure you. No vegan slur would ever change that.

That’s some quality plausible deniability right there. Flared base and everything.

That’s definitely ending up in someone wearing a dog collar…

Here’s the way I see it: to most people, that word is not linked to a disability. It’s just a word to describe bewilderment or exasperation at someone, something, some situation. It’s not intended to be hurtful.

I have a disability as well. I see about twenty percent of what normal people see. I’m pretty much blind without my contacts or glasses. I don’t get offended when someone uses terms like ‘short-sighted’ or when someone says ‘are you blind?’ to someone else. We also use seeing metaphors quite a lot if you pay attention to them. I’m not offended by it, because I know the language is not intended to offend me.

I’ve also worked with people who had actual mental disabilities. And trust me, most of them know damn well when something’s intended as an insult or when it’s just metaphorical use.

Airbus is Ableist!

Couple years ago, I visited a historic grand prix that featured classic F1 cars. They also had open pits, so you could walk up and ask questions and literally stand next to the cars.

I was standing next to a 70’s F1 car when they performed an engine test. I was wearing thick, professional earplugs and the biggest Peltors you’ve ever seen. When they fired that thing up, I lasted all of five seconds before I walked out. At that point, it was no longer sound but sheer pressure. You could feel it in your chest.

As for how the mechanics do it? Easy, they’re all deaf as a post. Even the best earpro can’t prevent that kind of hearing damage, especially if that’s your chosen career. If you’re worried about good earpro not being enough, best advice is to put distance between you and the object/career path involved.

Usually I’d call someone like that a hypocrite, but considering he took two bullets… I understand why he wouldn’t want a repeat of that experience.

That’s an awesome set; the Polaroid OneStep SX-70 camera.

https://www.lego.com/en-nl/product/polaroid-onestep-sx-70-camera-21345

It actually has a really neat feature where you can push the red shutter button and it actually pops out a cardboard ‘photo’. They tweaked it to perfection; it doesn’t shoot out fully, but instead sticks out just partly like the real camera. They went through a lot of iterations of that mechanism in order to get it just right.

It’s an awesome set for photography nerds.

You CAN in fact more or less do this for real: photographing a mirror from a straight on perspective without the camera visible.

https://youtu.be/ZlaeWRMYwGg?feature=shared

Basically, you need a special tilt-shift lens that distorts perspective to where it looks ‘straight on’ while the camera is actually off to the side or down below. If you do it correctly, the viewer won’t even notice anything’s missing.

These lenses are primarily used for architecture photography to prevent ‘leaning buildings’. They can also create really cool miniature effects. It’s quite a useful bit of gear, but also rather expensive because it’s such a niche lens.

That sounds like a scary one; you’d almost be tempted to think you suddenly dislodged a brain tumor or things like that :D

I know that feeling. I once woke up and had a plugged left nostril. Stuck a pinky in it to explore and out came a giant, solidified blood slug about 4 inch long. Apparently I’d had a spontaneous nosebleed during the night.

Here you go :D

https://programming.dev/comment/7612443

There’s also good fun in derailing a thread :D

The other day I commented on a post that used an ‘internet pirate’ stock image. Mentioned how I’d seen a guy with an eyepatch on the street that day and how rare that was.

Someone ended up sharing a neat little story about getting poked in the eye with a sword and how a kid called him a pirate. That all added fuck-all to the topic at hand, but it sure was collectively entertaining.

Most people are guilty of that to some extent. You want to make a good response, but end up overthinking it and moving on. Which is a shame. God only knows how many awesome comments end up in the digital wastebasket.

Besides, what’s the worst that can happen? Who really gives a fuck about downvotes anyway.