mjbale116 (u/mjbale116)

mjbale116 commented on Hard-braking events as indicators of road segment crash risk research.google/blog/hard... · Posted by u/aleyan

presidentender · 9 hours ago

I got one of those dongles from my insurance company that plugged into the ODB2 port and reported my driving habits.

I was a bad driver. It would frequently beep at me to let me know that I had braked too hard. I was mystified. "What should I have done differently," I'd think, as I raged at the objective machine that judged me so.

The next time my brother came to visit, he called mom. "Oh, and presidentender is a good driver now." I didn't put the pieces together right away, but it turned out that the dongle had actually trained me, like a dog's shock collar.

The reason for my too-frequent hard-braking events wasn't speed, although that would be a contributing factor. It was a lack of appropriate following distance. Because I'd follow the drivers in front of me too closely I'd have to brake hard if they did... Or if they drive normally and happened to have a turn coming up.

Over the period I had the insurance spy box in my truck I learned without thinking about it to increase my following distance, which meant that riding with me as a passenger was more comfortable and it beeped less often. Of course since I'd been so naughty early during the evaluation they didn't decrease my rates, but I think the training probably did make me statistically less likely to crash.

mjbale116 · an hour ago

I have this image in my mind of a discussion taking place in a high speed rail possibly around 2100 where people will look back and say: "I cannot believe we had people driving 2ton steel boxes back in the day, I cannot even compute those micromorts"

mjbale116 commented on Every country should set 16 as the minimum age for social media accounts afterbabel.com/p/why-ever... · Posted by u/paulpauper

mjbale116 · a month ago

Re-posting an older comment of mine on the subject:

Here's a couple of arguments I had to deal with whilst expressing my support for electronics ban at schools including a blanket social media ban:

1) "Since when do we consider it OK for the government to intervene between the parents and their children and telling them whats good and whats not? They know best."

2) "Whoever does not want to use electronics at school grounds are free to do so who are we to constrain them? Also, forbidding things never works let them learn."

3) "I think you are underestimating children; if they see that what they are doing with electronics affects them in any way, they will stop using them. Lets give them some credit and let them make their mistakes."

All of which are anti phone-ban/anti-regulation/pro-liberal/freemarketeering masquerading as a product of independent thought.

mjbale116 commented on US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes reuters.com/world/us/us-w... · Posted by u/kpw94

roadside_picnic · a month ago

The key word here is "Wall Street". And this statement is playing off a popular misconception around corporate investors buying up American houses.

There has been a bit of a panic around "Investors buying up all the property!!!" With people often citing Black Rock and Blackstone as the main culprits. But most of the "investors" buying up property are individuals purchasing investment properties.

Here's an article on the topic from 2023[0], a bit old but my understanding is large institutional investment in residential real estate was already starting to cool down.

Black rock isn't buying up all the housing, your neighbors are.

I suspect this statement, and even if it becomes an actual ban, is largely to gain wider popular support around a largely imaginary concern people have.

0. https://www.housingwire.com/articles/no-wall-street-investor...

mjbale116 · a month ago

> Black rock isn't buying up all the housing, your neighbors are.

This is a common trope.

"It's not big conglomerates that buy and hodl the homes where families are supposed to live, its mom and pop investors so please be nice."

Having a home is not something to speculate with or leave it to the supposed "market forces".

Housing projects and regulation is what this country needs, yesterday.

mjbale116 commented on Dell admits consumers don't care about AI PCs pcgamer.com/hardware/dell... · Posted by u/mossTechnician

mjbale116 · a month ago

On the same note, whats going on with Dell's marketing lately?

Dell, Dell Pro, Dell Premium, Dell _Pro_ Premium Dell Max, Dell _Pro_ max... They went and added capacitive keys on the XPS? Why would you do this...

A lot of decisions that do not make sense to me.

mjbale116 commented on X's new country-of-origin feature reveals many 'US' accounts to be foreign-run hindustantimes.com/world-... · Posted by u/ourmandave

agentifysh · 3 months ago

X obviously isn't the only platform where this is taking place and it is curious as to why they rolled it back.

how open are you to a US citizen verified town square online? You'd have to scan your passport or driver license to post memes and stuff.

mjbale116 · 3 months ago

All I want to know, is whether I am talking to an actual person. And I also want that person to have a single account, not multiple ones

mjbale116 commented on NY school phone ban has made lunch loud again gothamist.com/news/ny-sma... · Posted by u/hrldcpr

ForgetItJake · 3 months ago

> All of which are anti phone-ban/anti-regulation/pro-liberal/freemarketeering masquerading as a product of independent thought.

I don't see what you're saying. Are you saying people must think the same things as you do for it to be independent thought?

mjbale116 · 3 months ago

> I don't see what you're saying. Are you saying people must think the same things as you do for it to be independent thought?

Indeed you don't; let me help you out then:

Arguments must be made in good faith; and when you hear anyone saying anything I mentioned above it is immediately obvious that they are not arguing in good faith.

If they think they are, then their decision making centre is compromised by cnbc and fox news and their opinion must be dismissed.

If anyone considers the above arguments valid and worthy of discussion, they need to exempt themselves from this discourse.

mjbale116 commented on NY school phone ban has made lunch loud again gothamist.com/news/ny-sma... · Posted by u/hrldcpr

chis · 3 months ago

It's so insane that they let things go this far. It could have been immediately obvious to those involved that cell phones in class would have immensely negative effects. I mean they talk about a lunch room "quiet enough to hear a pin drop"??

I think I learned half my basic social skills from lunch rooms in school. That time period is probably more important than any of the classes themselves.

mjbale116 · 3 months ago

Here's a couple of arguments I had to deal with whilst expressing my support for electronics ban at schools including a blanket social media ban:

1) "Since when do we consider it OK for the government to intervene between the parents and their children and telling them whats good and whats not? They know best."

2) "Whoever does not want to use electronics at school grounds are free to do so who are we to constrain them? Also, forbidding things never works let them learn."

3) "I think you are underestimating children; if they see that what they are doing with electronics affects them in any way, they will stop using them. Lets give them some credit and let them make their mistakes."

All of which are anti phone-ban/anti-regulation/pro-liberal/freemarketeering masquerading as a product of independent thought.

mjbale116 commented on The decline of deviance experimental-history.com/... · Posted by u/zdw

keiferski · 3 months ago

A big part of this IMO is that “money won”, for lack of a better phrase. There is no real concept of selling out anymore. Being shamelessly focused on wealth accumulation seems to be socially acceptable in a way it wasn’t fifty years ago.

Someone will probably say this is because current generations have less financial security, and I’m sure that’s a factor. But I think it’s a cultural shift that is much older and tracks better to the decline of traditional sources of values (community, cultural groups, religion, etc.) and their replacement by the easily understandable dollar. So it becomes harder and harder for a cultural definition of success to not mean financially successful. And being financially successful is difficult if you have deviant, counter cultural ideas (and aren’t interested in monetizing them.)

mjbale116 · 3 months ago

> A big part of this IMO is that “money won”, for lack of a better phrase. There is no real concept of selling out anymore. Being shamelessly focused on wealth accumulation seems to be socially acceptable in a way it wasn’t fifty years ago.

Fifty years ago you had Soviet Union.

An entity which provided an alternative to the US and Western Europe vassals freemarketeering shenanigans.

With the Soviet Union gone, and the communists in retreat, the Capitalists can shove their ideologies down the populace's collective throat.

It has already been established that "what we have here is the best system" and any failure to ascend in said system is a failure of the individual rather than the system's.

"Here is a feel good story of an immigrant that learned python and made it big in America, why can't you do the same?"