litchralee

joined 2 years ago
[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 hours ago

For timekeeping, you're correct that timezones shouldn't affect anything. But in some parts of law, the local time of a particular place (eg state capital, naval observatory, etc...) is what might control when a deadline has passed or not.

If we then have to reconcile that with high speed space travel, then there's a possibility of ending up in a legal pickle even when the timekeeping aspect might be simple. But now we're well into legal fanfiction, which is my favorite sort but we don't have any ~~guardrails~~ ground rules to follow.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 hours ago

To make a bike highway proposal more palatable in all corners of the state, Liias and the Senate transportation budget writers included a 10% tax on new electric bike sales, which was stiffly opposed by bicycle advocacy groups.

Though Liias relented some and narrowed the tax to apply to only the fastest, least regulated ebikes, he said he was “comfortable” with the tax overall.

“It’s a fair arrangement. You chip in and you get a system you can use,” Liias said. “It’s not that we’re taxing ebikes and investing it in something else.”

There's so much to unpack here. What "corners" of the state were so anti-cycling yet pro-tax that they were persuaded into agreement by a 10% flat tax on ebikes specifically? And while I get that ebike salsa are making up a larger part of overall bike sales, what does this mean for acoustic bikes? And what should happen to tax revenues if the cost of ebikes plummets due to, say, very welcome competition in the entry-level space?

Second, this is a state senator speaking about how the "least regulated" ebikes would be taxed. Uh, you're in the legislature. If such ebikes aren't being sufficiently regulated, that's a job for the legislature to fix. It is a tacit admission that they're not looking at the whole picture, either to write and enforce clear laws on what ebikes are or aren't allowed, or to bring those ebikes into the scope of the laws, and put them on equal footing from the law's perspective. Don't do halfway measures.

Finally, why would only ebikes pay to use a network which ostensibly serves all micro mobility users, electric or otherwise? It would be bizarre for an ebike to pay in but not an EUC, an acoustic bike, or even a Lime scooter.

As the article says, many states do have a state bike system. Here in California, we have ours numbered in the same scheme as US Highways, but they're almost always just paint on the ground or numbers on a map. If Washington can realize a system of connected, non-road adjacent paths for cyclist to use to get to existing trails and nature destination, that would substantially move the needle.

I would however warn against leaning too heavy in terms like "bike superhighway" or "bike freeway", which London UK did early on, before they standardized on "cycleway". After all, most people wouldn't find bicycling on a freeway to be very comforting, but the idea of a dedicated path to build connectivity -- rather than just another recreational path -- is a sound idea.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (2 children)

Up until the astronaut part, I was fully convinced that this is a law school theoretical question for an inheritance class, because that's exactly where the vagaries of "is she my sister?" would also arise.

Then again, if we include time dilation due to near-lightspeed travel, we then have to deal with oddball inheritance cases like if your sister dies mid-travel but then you also die. The Uniform Simultaneous Death Act adopted by several US States would only apply if the difference in time-of-death is within 120 hours, but the Act is silent as to which reference plane will be used, especially if your sister is considered to be traveling "internationally" due to being in space, thus not being in the same US state or time zone as you might be in.

So maybe the entire question is a valid inheritance case study after all.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

FYI, some domains can genuinely be acquired for an indefinite period, as the delegation has no expiration period. So long as the domain is kept in good standing (eg two working authoritative nameservers) and doesn't violate the parent domains' policies, it will persist. Granted, few people go through this rather-old process to get such domains but they do exist. See my earlier comment.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I mean, this guide would be applicable for non-electric bikes as well. Although I would argue that the electric air pump is superfluous, insofar that (e)bike tires should not be going flat on a daily basis. That said, topping up the air is well-advised on a weekly or monthly schedule, depending on how often it's ridden. And with that sort of frequency, using a manual air pump to add 0.3 bar (~5 PSI) is hardly a strenuous task.

For in-the-field repairs, a compact manual pump is lighter, or even a CO2 cartridge inflator. But ahead of even those, many flats can be avoided through tire liners, which can deflect common perils like small nails. For an acoustic road bike, the rotating weight penalty can be substantial, but on an ebike, I think it's a great benefit overall.

[–] [email protected] 64 points 1 day ago (2 children)

PS: Reddit doesn't allow edit post titles, needed to repost

But this is Lemmy.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I think we had this question a while ago: https://programming.dev/post/26356684

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I'm also old, but I understand people do watch portrait videos. Sometimes a lot of them, in a single sitting. There's a popular social media app which exclusively has short-form portrait videos.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago (10 children)

Some charging pads also prop up the phone at an angle, making it easy to read the screen while also not having to hold the phone up. Most phones have their charging port on the bottom, so a phone stand couldn't be used while charging with a cord.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

This 100%. The other comments addressed the "should I withdraw?" aspect of OP's question, but this comment deals with "should I stop contributing?". The answer to the latter is: no.

The mantra in investing has always been "buy low, sell high". If the stock market is down, continuing your 401k contributions is doing the "buy low" part.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 days ago

A word of caution for anyone cutting out the slot: make sure there aren't other instructions, like capacitors, ICs, and NVMe drives in the way of where the PCIe card will be.

The manufacturers that have the slot pre-cut will have already reserved the space, but even then, it's on you to check that it's suitable for a x16 if they only reserved space for a x8 card.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago (3 children)
 

We live in a very strange timeline where the Ontario Premier is outdoing American governors on what constitutes "really dumb ideas". If you live in Ontario, I would urge you to watch to the end of the video and file a public comment during Bill 212's consultation period, ending on 20 November 2024.

https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-9266

 

The median age of injured conventional bicycle riders was 30 (IQR, 13-53) years vs 39 (IQR, 25-55) years for e-bicyclists (P < .001). Scooter riders had a median age of 11 (IQR, 7-24) years at the time of injury vs 30 (IQR, 20-45) years for e-scooter riders (P < .001) (Table 1 and Figure 3). As a group, those injured from EV accidents were significantly older than those injured from conventional vehicles (age, 31 vs 27 years; P < .001) (eTable 1 in Supplement 1).

e-Bicycles have lowered barriers to cycling for older adults, a group at risk for physical inactivity.9,10 Biking has clear-cut physical and cognitive health benefits for older adults, so this extension of biking accessibility to older e-bicyclists should be considered a boon of the new technology.22,23 However, as injured e-bicycle riders are older than conventional bicyclists, the unique safety considerations for older cyclists should be a focus of ongoing study.

There is a popular conception that ebikes are ridden recklessly on streets and sidewalks by youths, doing dangerous stunts, riding against traffic, not wearing helmets, and incurring serious injury to themselves and others as a result. This conception is often used to justify legislation to restrict or ban ebike use by minors. However, the data suggests quite the opposite, as it is older riders which are racking up injuries.

The data does not support restrictions on ebikes, but rather their wholesale adoption, especially for audiences which are at risk of inactivity or disadvantaged by a lack of transportation options. Ebikes are not at odds with conventional bicycles.

The California Bicycle Coalition offers this succinct summary:

“We think this backlash against e-bikes is the wrong direction for what we want for safer ways for people biking and sharing the road,” said Jared Sanchez, the policy director for the California Bicycle Coalition. “We don’t believe that adding restrictions for people riding e-bikes is the solution.”

They also have a page on how to fight against "bikelash", aka naysayers of bicycles and bikes: https://www.calbike.org/talking-back-to-bikelash/

 

As is their custom, FortNine delivers a two-wheeler review in the most cinematic way possible, along with a dose of British sitcom humor.

I'm not sure I'd ever buy one, but I'd definitely borrow it from a friend haha. I've said before that I like seeing what novel ideas people will build atop two wheels, and this certainly is very unique.

 

This September 2023 report by staff at the US Consumer Product Safety Commission compiles injury and fatality data involving micromobility devices, using data that was available at the time of publication. As the report notes multiple times, the aggregate data is fairly coarse and CPSC staff could only follow up on so many reports.

Nevertheless, the report offers some rather interesting insights on e-scooters, hoverboards, and ebikes, although at 42 pages, some might prefer to just read the Executive Summary -- which is just 4 pages -- and skim the figures and tables.

Some of my takeaways from the report:

  • ER visits for e-scooters have been at least double that of ebikes, although ebike data was below the reporting minimum so that data was estimated (page 10)
  • E-scooters and hoverboards ER visits by female/male are 35%/65% and 55%/45%, but ebikes are disproportionate at 24%/76% (page 12)
  • Two-thirds of hoverboard ER visits are for 5-14 year olds, the largest group of any age range for any micromobility device (page 13)
  • The vast, vast majority of ebike ER visits were incurred while riding on a public road or public property. No surprise there. (page 14)
  • July has the most ebike ER visits (14% of annual total), and January/February the least (3% each of annual total) (page 15)
  • The report has a whole section dedicated to e-scooters, starting at page 17
  • One-third (32%) of treated e-scooter injuries indicated the rider was carrying or holding onto something, with 61% indicated not holding, and 7% unspecified (page 21)
  • 13% of treated e-scooter injuries indicated the rider was wearing a helmet, with 51% unspecified (page 22)
  • Between 2017 and 2022, using available data, CPSC found 104 deaths related to ebikes. These deaths skew heavily male (84 deaths) and 25+ years old (87 deaths) (page 23-24)
  • 58 of 104 ebike deaths involved collisions with motor vehicles, the leading cause. The data does not specify whether the ebike or motor vehicles or both were in motion at time of collision (page 25)
  • 8 of 104 ebike deaths involved pedestrian collisions, composed of six pedestrians and two ebike riders
  • 2 of 104 ebike deaths involved fire by the ebike batteries
  • 18 of 104 ebike deaths involved collisions with terrain, roadway features, or wayside obstacles (page 25)
  • Of 59 ebike injury reports that CPSC staff followed up, 28 identified fire hazards, the leading cause. 24 of 59 involved non-brake mechanical issues, such as bicycle components failing or detaching (page 28)
 

Additional coverage: https://www.sacbee.com/sports/outdoors/article286750940.html

USDA press release: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/tahoe/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD1168193

A new trail in Tahoe National Forest in California would permit Class 1 ebikes, after the Forest Service (part of the US Dept of Agriculture) concluded that:

Class 1 e-bikes are equipped with a motor that provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling and ceases to provide assistance when the e-bike reaches the speed of 20 mph. Studies completed during project analysis indicated that Class 1 e-bikes are similar to traditional mountain bikes in terms of components, relative speeds and impacts to trails.

The inclusion of Class 1 e-bikes as an approved use on the trail expands access to individuals that may not be able to walk or ride a traditional bicycle as far or long.

As the new trail sections to be constructed would create a 72 mile (115 km) route, ebikes will prove useful to those hoping to make the full trek as a day trip. Other trails parallel to or intersecting this new trail would remain subject to their existing rules regarding ebikes, equestrians, and automobiles and motorcycles.

 

I'm trying to remind myself of a sort-of back-to-back chaise longue or sofa, probably from a scene on American TV or film -- possibly of the mid-century or modern style -- where I think two characters are having an informal business meeting. But the chaise longue itself is a single piece of furniture with two sides, such that each characters can stretch their legs while still being able to face each other for the meeting, with a short wall separating them.

That is to say, they are laying anti-parallel along the chaise longue, if that makes any sense. The picture here is the closest thing I could find on Google Images.

So my questions are: 1) what might this piece of furniture be called? A sofa, chaise longue, settee, something else? And 2) does anyone know of comparable pieces of furniture from TV or film? Additional photos might help me narrow my search, as I'm somewhat interested in trying to buy such a thing. Thanks!

EDIT 1: it looks like "tete a tete chair" is the best keyword so far for this piece of furniture

EDIT 2: the term "conversation chair" also yields a number of results, including a particular Second Empire style known as the "indiscreet", having room for three people!

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