NeuronautML

I don't know why OP is getting downvoted. This comment is correct. The economies of freight on rails are predicated on scale. The bigger the train, the better. It only requires a few locomotives that have the biggest maintenance costs. Cars are unpowered and require less maintenance. A train can transport thousands of tons. An average mid-size train in Europe would carry about 2000 tonnes of freight.

To add an electric motor per ton of cargo transported (as detailed in the article) adds an excessive amount of overhead costs to the cargo transported, in upfront costs, maintenance and environmental impact, making it less competitive than a regular freight line. With the space of the same infrastructure and probably the same investment, you could instead run a freight line, especially considering the distance between Osaka and Tokyo. Over time, the freight line wins out over the individual one ton self-propelled cargo wagons. Remember, every propulsion system breaks down and requires new parts and fixing. The more of them there are, the more complex your transportation system becomes, thus more expensive. An equivalent to a mid sized freight train in pods would require about 2000 electric motors, as opposed to one or two dedicated electrical locomotives.

They should instead improve the trains to be able to run mostly automated. This requires track sensors and advanced signaling.

They won't. Anything on a bullet train line needs to go at a speed of a bullet train. If it goes slower, it slows down the bullet trains on the line.

Cargo does not require bullet train speeds, only passengers do. The added expense does not translate to a better service. Cargo is not time sensitive like people are, so usually freight trains go under 100 km/h. This requires a whole lot less infrastructure and a whole cheaper locomotives and wagon compositions, as locomotives and wagons that go faster are more expensive and require more maintenance.

No, i meant field medic. As in, giving first aid in helicopters or trucks as they drive away ferrying the wounded from the front lines, brought by their comrades. These are jobs that traditionally they don't give to women. They put women in the hospitals on the back and use men in the transportation and first aid, although sometimes women do volunteer to do this job like it happened in Ukraine.

As for a mechanic, if you're fixing an anti air system or a tank, you're pretty much next to the frontlines. You're just not shooting at the enemy, but you're still shot at by artillery or missiles. Combat engineers would be shooting at the enemy, but maintenance personnel are not. Those are specialized military personnel, not draftees. They're not deployed to push a frontline or defend a position, so they're not really combat roles. Although I'm not completely sure about it and if someone knows more about this than me, I'd sure like to learn about it.

Being in medical doesn't necessarily mean you will be taking care of shredded soldiers. There's tons of jobs in medical, such as ressuply of medicine cabinets, transportation of medical equipment to and from medical rooms, transportation of sick people in medical beds, post operation medicine, feeding and bathing soldiers, etc. If you've got a weak stomach, they don't want to put you in a position where you would pass out, then they have to take care of you too. But i can appreciate that it's hard on women too, of course. Nobody deserves the misery that war brings.

When you're drafted though, you're screwed whether you're a man or a woman. My father volunteered when my country was at war and they started drafting people so he could avoid the frontlines and got a real nice job working in long range radar maintenance. I think I'd probably do the same if i were in that position. You get to pick where you go if you volunteer.

Any person who, on grounds of conscience, refuses to render military service involving the use of arms may be required to perform alternative service.

So men can refuse service at arms, but they can't refuse service, so how is that better ? Either way you're still drafted into war. Possibly into medical service as well. So it's not harsher, it's the same or worse, because you could be drafted to maintenance near the front lines, whereas medical is usually a ways back. Or as a woman you could volunteer to maintenance, logistics or recruitment before being drafted, then you're not forced into medical. You're likely not even put near the front lines as a woman.

So your statement that it is harsher on women is not correct. It's actually quite insensitive for the men who die in the front lines for the country.

You mentioned popcorn lung 3 times already and i did look it up and i think you don't understand what popcorn lung is, so i will write it for whoever is reading because i didn't know either.

Popcorn lung is a colloquialism for an illness named bronchiolitis obliterans, caused by diacetyl, a product found on early black market vapes that has been banned or discontinued for nearly 10 years now. Most clear market vapes already had discontinued the use of dyacetyl because they knew of the health risks, but only black market vapes were using it as a means to save money.

Moreover, dyacetyl was not being used in nicotine vapes, it was being used in Cannabis vapes, as such, no exclusively nicotine products vaper who used store bought liquids was ever exposed to popcorn lung. So maybe you should read up on what popcorn lung is, before posting several comments about it. I don't vape but i have family members who quit smoking because of vapes and i don't appreciate your blatant misinformation about them. If there are legitimate criticisms of vaping, by all means post them, but this is a falsehood you are propagating.

In Europe i haven't met anyone in my circle of friends and extended circle who doesn't completely hate Israel and zionism. I don't push my views on anyone, especially the younger teen family members, but i was pleasantly surprised to see them saying they were going to an anti israeli protest.

The only people who currently have any support for Israel are boomers and even they are going from "supporting Israel right to exist" to "everyone is in the wrong" stage right now. This is highly anecdotal at this point but i hope we're seeing a shift to acknowledging evil where evil is.

It's fine if you're careful. I never got Lasik because you can only get it once and it only lasts 10-15 years until your eyesight degrades again. Then it's back to glasses or contacts. Especially after 45-50 when it really goes downhill.

I skipped Lasik because my yearly contacts cost is 120 €, which over 15 years would net me 1800€. Lasik was quoted to me at 5000 € for both eyes. You could be a statistical fortuity and it lasts more than 15 years, but considering you get used to something it's not permanent and have to change back i figured might as well stick with lenses.

There's also orthokerathology, which is some rigid contacts you use only when sleeping that shape your eyes for up to 48 hours so you see well. They're more expensive than contacts, cheaper than lasik and much safer because you only sleep with them. Alas, i can't wear those because my astigmatism is too high for current technology, but i hear they're getting better with it.

FYI if you use contacts (from https://www.allaboutvision.com/contacts/acanthamoeba-keratitis.htm with some extra tidbits from other websites i found while getting informed about this)

Never use tap water with your contact lenses. The FDA has recommended that contact lenses should not be exposed to water of any kind.

Do not swim, shower or use a hot tub while wearing contacts. If you do decide to wear your lenses while swimming, wear airtight swim goggles over them.

Soak your lenses in fresh disinfecting solution every night. Don’t use a wetting solution or saline solution that isn’t intended for disinfection.

Always wash your hands before handling your lenses.

Always clean your contacts immediately upon removal (unless you are wearing disposable contact lenses that are replaced daily). To clean your lenses, rub the lenses under a stream of multipurpose solution – even if using a “no-rub” solution – and store them in a clean case filled with fresh (not “topped off”) multipurpose or disinfecting solution.

Wash your case with solution and not tap water.

Replace your case at least once every 3 months with a new one.

And if you do get a red eye with a burning sensation and blurry vision that does not go away and you use contacts, do remind your doctor that you're specifically worried about acanthamoeba and would like to make sure that you're not at risk, as this woman visited several ophthalmologists every 2 days and not one of them thought about it. The treatment was eye drops. Now she is blind and needs a transplant.

And it's been greatly eroded recently when the powers that be determined some genocides are ok and others are not. A long-standing pattern of selective rules application, ranging from matters of nuclear disarmament, trade sanctions on places for no reason, land seizure for military bases with no permission and indigenous displacement, land seizure for colonization, indiscriminate civilian murder, detention and torture with no trial or accusation, sex crimes against civilians, application of tactics of terrorism and so on.

On the other side, indiscriminate land grab invasions, war crimes, sexual crimes on civilians including children, concentration camps, destruction of civilian infrastructure, genocide and so on.

It feels nobody really needs to follow any rules anymore. Everybody is violating international laws and the conventions that separate us from the worst of the worst evil and it's disheartening. It's whoever is the strongest does whatever they feel like with impunity, mostly, and everyone else just shrugs along. We absolutely suck as an intelligent sapient species at a global level and it's a shame to be what we have become.