ShadowZone

Nope, Austria. I can imagine they have the same problem in Amsterdam as we have here in Vienna.

No, no and no. In our country, there’s a loophole in traffic regulation allowing for anything under 25kph on bike paths if it’s electric powered. This resulted in a super dangerous situation for normal cyclists. I commute by normal bike and believe my it’s terrible:

• food delivery guys switched to electric scooters (think Vespa) and clog bike paths. These things are way too heavy in case of a collision with a pedestrian or cyclist.
• the 25kph speed limit is not observed! Either the manufacturers don’t care or the drivers tweak their rides.
• the acceleration is way too sudden. Even a regular E-Bike needs to ramp up to speed. And you see when the driver engages his drivetrain by way of them moving their legs. With a throttle you just have a lump of mass that suddenly jumps forward. Super unpredictable.

So now we basically have way too big, way too heavy and way too quick objects on bike paths endangering everyone else.

There needs to be strict mass limits for vehicles allowed on bicycle paths. There need to be acceleration limits. There need to be mandatory checks for pedal-less ebikes. If a bike from a manufacturer is found that can exceed the speed limit, there need to be existentially threatening fines. Because their products are threatening lives!

This. When I got my CPR training, the consensus was: if you hear or feal something crack, don’t stop. Messing up is better than doing nothing.

Except for the unicorn, your last paragraph is my reality. Oh and it’s five weeks vacation, actually. My wife even has six. Sick days not included. Those are all part of the universal health care we have.

38h work week btw. Rarely overtime.

Pokari Sweat.

I survived on that stuff when I did a one week Kebdo training camp in Japan. It’s fantastic!

If you like grounded sci-fi that elicits a “it could happen in a few years” vibe firmly rooted on Earth, check out William Gibson. Most of his stuff is excellent, but “The Peripheral” and its followup “Agency” are recent highlights. From his older stuff I very much enjoyed “Virtual Light” the most. More than his acclaimed “Neuromancer” (he invented the word cyberspace in 1982 and popularized it in this 1984 novel) even.

Neal Stephenson - “Seveneves” One of my all time favorite sci-fi books. It is set mostly in space, but very realistic and never leaves the Earth’s influence. Time setting is basically now or a few years from now.

Also by Stevenson: “Anathem” Marvellous alternate universe story with a few twists. It’s on Earth, just … different.

If you wanna go for the classics (1960 roughly), look into Stanislaw Lem. “Solaris”, “Eden” and “Transfer” all left a lasting impression on me.

Yeah. And adaptive cruise control is something you have to pay 900 Euro extra via the in car shop on some models. Models you already paid 50k Euro and more for.

Andy Weir’s second best book after “The Martian” in my opinion. But not by far, it was a great read and I enjoyed every page of it. Rocky for intergalactic president!

What the heck are you on about? When we went into full work from home at my former company, productivity went UP.

There’s studies showing that companies forcing their workers back into the office suffer huge brain drains and cannot hire as fast as more flexible employers.

https://fortune.com/2023/08/01/research-damaging-results-mandated-return-to-office-worse-than-we-thought-rto-remote-work-careers-leadership-gleb-tsipursky/

The people have spoken.

Current day Russia is an authoritarian oligarchy. Nothing communist about it.

This was the solution that worked for me as well. Thanks!

I admit it: I’m a lurker 99% of the time. I do partake in the up- and downvoting though.