[–] 3 points 1 day ago

I'm not convinced they'll crash and burn. Fortnite still prints money. Limited-time skins and the continued existence of children still works. Plus, fortnite has hundreds of "games" within it at this point just from Epic, plus all kinds of user-created modes. It's pubg, it's roblox, it's Lego, it's hot wheels. Honestly more shocked that it sounds like this Disney venture is making separate titles and not just more fortnite modes.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago

    The car company told us why subways simply don't work well. Totally legit. The contract was also won in a competition called "who can make a good public transportation system", so pay no attention to the car company taking the winnings away from the train and bus companies.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    but I never would have said "hey hold on, I need to use an extra product before I eat my turkey sandwich".

    It's amazing how many things we completely fail to question. Your parents said or didn't say something, showed the action or inaction was completely normal, and then you autopiloted indefinitely until something is specifically called it out. I continue to find new things wrong with my dad's statements. It's... Infuriating when I figure it out. Usually happens when I go to say it out loud as fact to someone else. That triggers the internal fact check mechanism.

    This has been going on for decades.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago

    Adhd? "this is how... Sits". I bet your brain sent the command to type "my cat" but made a a cogntivie connection to house sitting based on the sound of your head voice is it tried to generate the sentence faster than you could type. Like it already voiced out to "sits" while your finger were still on "Ho". Idk, I catch a similar mistake weekly. Usually more like typing a homophone or like my fingers just start trying to sound out the word they thought they heard as my head voice has raced ahead.

    I'd love to learn more about how communication works in our brains and how it varies between modes. I could see fingers and voice being the same part, but does hearing route a different way? How similarly does the head voice work?

    Then, there's the part where something like 10 or 20% of the population doesn't even have a hear voice. And from there, those with the strongest head voice make micro movements of their vocal chords when thinking, while those with no voice make no movements at all.

    Fucking la gauge, how does it work

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago

    There's lots of delay causes. The trains have to be organized in a certain way for safety and stability, so it's rare to be able to have a perfect first in, last out arrangement. Heavy cars at the back and light cars at the front can cause a strongline derailment on curves. Heavy cars with little coupler dampening at the back and light cars with excessive damping at the front can cause a column buckling derailment on hard braking. Then there's weird slinky physics if dealing with slopes. And then from there, even after all that, it's not just an A to B trip. They stop, add cars, leave cars, send groups on other routes, etc. There's 30 cars going A to B, 40 cars going A to C, cars going B to D, C to A, F to J...

    I don't really see much new concern with crossings. Trains already cross roads frequently at high speeds with no effective means of braking in time to avoid a collision. Urban/suburban crossings should already have gates. Rural crossings are hilariously unguarded. I'm not even sure if they all have lights, let alone gates. I'd actually see a benefit to the increased crossing frequency coupled with decreased crossing times. Many collisions are the result of people fearing having to wait at the gate for 5+ minutes as a huge train crosses, so they race across to beat the train. Obviously, people will still try to beat the drone in the same way they accelerate through yellow lights, but maybe they'd be a little less inclined to do so. So, regrettably, the network already gets disrupted frequently. Railroads are very efficient at clearing incidents to reopen the track once all evidence is collected. Trains drive by while wrecked cars and spills are still there.

    For one of my local crossings, there's a weekly 10 minute crossing event. The train pulls through a road crossing, stops, reverses down a siding to pick up/drop off 2 cars, then forwards away, all while blocking the crossing of a major road. Seems like a good cooperative way to still service one of those few remaining sidings without making car drivers irate at trains.

    I'm not saying this is a valid business plan, but I'm failing to see how this is an "obvious" failure. They of course want to advertise as completely independent drones, but it'd be neat to be able to join a regular consist and get released to only drive itself the last mile.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago (4 children)

    Only the major yards are gravity-"powered" hump yards (the gravity does the sorting part, but a locomotive still has to push the consist up from the other side as they're decoupled). Most yards, the smaller yards trying to serve the last mile, are flat and require manual sorting with a locomotive, and often while blocking the rail line to all other traffic. Plus, they often can't sort the cars into the ideal shipping order because of dynamics in the train. One of the worst ways to order the cars is with autoracks (automobile carriers) up front and tank or steel coil cars at the back. Autoracks are very light in comparison and have long-stroke draft gear (coupler cushioning). Just slamming the brakes can cause a derailment with that arrangement with column buckling of the train. Or worse, lots of cars only ever get loaded in one direction, such as autoracks and tanks, so they're empty and even lighter on their return trip. They have to sort heavier cars towards the front or else they risk stringline derailment on curves while pulling.

    Yes, we're aware they need to do the first 99 miles to get to the last mile problem. The problem with rail, as defined by the market, is that trucks do the whole 100. And while yes, the majority of consumer goods rail traffic spent 2 months on the water, the majority of containers were not ordered for the end user or final sales point. They're warehoused at distribution centers, waiting to refill other DC's needs. Even Amazon is running full intermodal container trains across the country. It also completely ignores the vast amount of domestic/continental raw goods such as oil, lumber, vehicles, metals, trash, scrap, grain, plastic pellets, lethal chemicals, coal, and, apparently, orange juice.

    And I say this as someone that votes for trains. PSR does not solve much. It's a buzzword for hostile takeovers by investment companies that have no intent on improving infrastructure. It brought some improved shipping status decades later than every other mode of carrier.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 week ago

    The local government or utility may be able to help. Several lights in my area have shutter shades on them that help control sideways/upwards light and keep the beam focused on the ground. It's called "light intrusion" when someone else shine slight into your property

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    It's certainly a topic of interest to me, but I'd like to avoid the "spaceship pyramid" levels of conspiracy and the meatless text-to-speech summaries that will inevitably appear in my suggested feed(s). I thought I'd find it by now, given my feed has plenty of planes. I know it's a distraction, but I may as well be entertained while I continue waiting for the yanks to release the real files we're asking for.

     

    I'm afraid AI has surpassed me, as I still can't draw hands. Seriously though, I miss doodling all through school. I don't know where that free creativity has gone, but I'm working to bring it back. Some early jobs left me in a dark rut, but I've settled into a decent job, a career even, and feel a certain mental calm and freedom trickling in.

    I was aiming for something resembling a pose often struck by St Michael in depictions of him defeating demons. I don't have a goal for the actual identity of the figure, nor what they're doing. Ultimately, I want it to be triumphing over something. The end goal is to explore ideas for a tattoo. It already worked beautifully once, where I took a crude drawing to an artist with a style I liked, then watched them bring it to life with more talent and their own flair. I picked the elements, laid the composure, and outsourced the details to an amazing artist. What better meaning to a tattoo than "I basically made this"? With any luck, lightning will strike twice... Or more.

    crude marker drawing/outline of a humanoid figure standing in a mild lunge, holding a spear
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