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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • Nuclear energy is a terrible idea in both a physically (climate change) and socially destabilizing world.

    Even Gen4 proliferation-resistant reactors still represent a lethal threat in the event of a release of fissionable materials into the local environment. Building a nuclear reactor without a cast-iron guarantee that there will be a supply of engineering staff, components, materials and clear strong regulation to keep it running safely is a surefire path to disaster.

    Whilst the technology and physics behind it are well understood, we have shown time and again in a few short decades of utilizing this technology that we lack the responsibility in our administrative structures to properly manage the risks.

    It would take just one full-on reactor meltdown or disaster to poison an entire continent. We have consistently demonstrated that we cannot responsibly assume that risk, which is why there is opposition to nuclear power.

    If you want to avoid bad things from happening, do not deploy a dangerous technology and instead focus on what we can do. Renewables are more than capable of providing for our energy needs, and the big kicker here is that they can do so without putting the literal power “off” switch in the hands of the grid or plant operator.


















  • NYC’s cyclists (of whom I know many) need to follow traffic laws.

    Those laws are there because people need to act predictably on the street. When a red light becomes a mere suggestion for cyclists, motorists eventually start treating them as such as well. Monkey see, monkey do.

    …and getting t-boned by some douchecanoe driving a car when you have the light is commonly fatal for a cyclist.

    There was an uptick in utterly shitty driving from 2019 onwards in NYC, and the police stopped all enforcement actions even in egregious cases… then the roads became, and largely remain, a free-for-all. I’ve seen some attempts recently to start clearing the mess up, but too often NYPD are ignoring these dangerous road users… or hiding their license plates and being offenders themselves.

    …and this is before you’re fighting for space in a the bikelane with some drunk+stoned asshole on a moped.

    I’m fully in favor of delivery professionals being required to have a license and display it at all times when on the clock. They should also be required to have specific insurance, and a highly visible personal identifier when working. They should also get automatic Union representation and a living wage.

    Anything more powerful than a class-C e-bike should have a license plate, and if not it gets taken and destroyed, or auctioned to a more responsible owner. Sales of these vehicles without a registration needs to be illegal. Anything more powerful than a class-C e-bike found in a bike lane should be impounded on the spot. Running a stop sign or a red light should get you a ticket, regardless of what wheels you’re on. Going the wrong way down a one way street should get you a ticket.

    It doesn’t help that NYC doesn’t have the space and largely practices “maximum-conflict” street design… but that’s just the slow, shitty entropic action of self-serving interests pushing communities around, and they react very slowly. It takes (usually multiple) fatalities for anyone to wake up and actually do anything about it.

    Also wear a damned helmet.