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Cake day: May 15th, 2019

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  • China also had a couple of twists. At least parts of the West have general counterparts to these problems.

    Some cities had infrastructure built out ahead of demand. Many of the cities did start filling up with people, which is great. However, the infrastructure aged well ahead of when it was used. So some of the infrastructure is coming due for expensive maintenance, often without a solid tax structure to pay for it. Readers of Strong Towns will recognize this general pattern of overbuilding without building a solid foundation, but it just has a Chinese character to it.

    Linked to that is a growing debt crisis at the local government level. The most current estimate I could find is 94 trillion yen (US$13 trillion). Many infrastructure investments were made that are projected to never be paid off in their lifespan. Again, Strong Town readers will recognize this general pattern.

    Going from pure speculation, I wonder whether they might have been able to avoid some of the problems with aging unused infrastructure by setting aside land and right-of-way. Here in Portland, when they were planning the I-205 freeway, one concession to transit and bike advocates was to set aside a right-of-way for a transit way and a bike path. That particular concession was made around 1975. The bike path was built immediately. The northern end was used to extend the preexisting light rail to the airport on September 10, 2001 (great timing) as part of the Red Line. The southern end became part of the Green Line later.



  • pingveno@lemmy.mltoMemes@lemmy.ml*insert "bomb them" sound effect*
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    2 days ago

    Every single person on the planet is aware of climate change

    I’m still trying to get my husband’s uncle to get off his easy out of “well I guess it’s happening, but humans didn’t cause it.” He, along with a lot of other people, are in an echo chamber. Obviously plopping pigment on monuments isn’t going to do shit to convince them, but I don’t know what will.







  • This is so hard to answer because so many of these things you don’t miss it until it’s gone. I’m going to say physical keyboards. Like, not that physical keyboards will disappear entirely, but I think they will continue to get much, much less common. I think a lot of people will miss the tactile advantage of a good keyboard, though.

    One thing I think we’re in for a rebound on is how we deal with batteries. Currently, the paradigm for many devices is that manufacturers put a rechargeable battery in and that’s it. When the battery wears down or breaks, the device is done too. This can’t go on forever. It’s creating too much e-waste, expense, and pollution.

    I think the deal that customers are getting from streaming services is probably too good to last, in general. It’s already starting to degrade, with companies all going to start their own streaming platforms with smaller and smaller catalogs. You have to really plan for what you want to see. The rise of exclusive shows really damaged things. Vertical integration like that hurts competition.



  • The Palestinian Authority has no claim to any mandate from the Palestinian people.

    Same for Hamas. The last election was held so long ago that the majority of Palestinians were not born yet and the vast majority could not vote. There simply is no remaining democratic mandate.

    bi-religious or secular successor state

    There are currently more Muslims in the borders of Israel-Palestine, and I doubt they’re in a forgiving mood. I think there is a good chance that a unified state would turn into a Muslim state. I don’t think it’s unfounded to say that the current situation of a large Muslim population that is essentially disenfranchised is entirely to the liking of Israel’s leaders.








  • Wall Street Journal: Mueller Doesn’t Find Trump Campaign Conspired With Russia

    That was Bill Barr’s summary of the Mueller Report. The news article you posted was written with zero knowledge of the actual report. When the actual report was released later, the summary was criticized as trying to form a false narrative that intentionally omitted important pieces of the report. He was spinning it to provide cover for his boss, in effect. Much of this rested on Mueller not declaring Trump guilty of a crime, but as was described in the report, this was always considered to be outside of the scope of Mueller’s appointment.