Nonsense. There are multiple clear corridors that public transportation makes perfect sense for. A high-speed rail line from Fort Collins down south through Denver, to Colorado Springs, and potentially as far south as El Paso, seems obvious.
The Utah North-South corridor, as well. A line going from LA-LV-St.George-SLC area also makes enough sense. Not to mention a line connecting Tucson-Phx-Prescott-Las Vegas (potentially going to Reno as well). A Seattle-Portland train makes sense. A whole PCH line makes sense.
I'm not a fan of the high speed rail hype in the US. As another commenter pointed out, many cities are very suburban. So residents would have to drive to train stations just to get on in many cases.
That's ignoring all of the implementation costs, which would likely be extremely high.
They’re only doing what other intelligently managed orgs are: defensive retention via compensation. With the labor force how it is, orgs that prey on precarious workers are in a game of musical chairs. Where do you want to be when the music ends?
The owner of IKEA is a dutch foundation. That's not the same as a charity. Still, IKEA's ownership structure is questionable and occasionally flares up as a matter of interest in the media.
Tell us you live in the suburbs without telling us you live in the suburbs (come visit some country folk, or work with construction crews on a regular basis to change that opinion)
Lmao, tell me you truck cosplay without telling me.
The vast, vast majority of construction sites don't need a dualie. Hell, half of them don't need a truck. I've seen and met numerous plumbers, electricians, and carpenters who roll up in a van. My uncle was a GC for 40 years. My other uncle was a union pipe/sprinkler fitter. My cousin is an electrician. My other cousin owns a roofing company, and my pops is an architect who regularly makes site visits. None of them owned a work truck. The only one who does own a truck is the roofer who got a Raptor for fun.
The majority of truck owners do not haul large cargo. The majority of construction workers do not bring tools requiring a bed each day. Lawn crews use trailers for their actually large equipment. With fewer and fewer exceptions each year, trucks are increasingly bloated emotional support vehicles for insecure and obnoxious turds.
While you were right in calling that an exaggeration, the only people who I've ever seen use a dualie for real work were all towing horses.
Yes a van is all you need for that. To say you don’t need dualies at all is a joke. What happens is that the dualies are used for heavy equipment but then they double as a vehicle for employees and are given to them as a perk. As such dualies are seen driving around without “being used” or sitting in driveways of McMansions. But thats simply because it’s used as a perk for employees. Very few people are dropping $80k for a f-250 or bigger for cosplay.
Sometimes they need the bed to haul things that a f150 is fine for but they need the cab space to take 6 people plus their gear between jobs
Really? I think he was very open in his admiration for some of the anarchists mentioned in The Rebel, calling Kaliayev & co, 'men of the highest principles' and refers to other anarchists' "profound considerations for the lives of others".
Not that I like social media or tech companies (I detest them). But it's not a special case. Media companies, cable companies, newspapers, etc. They've all enjoyed the ability to manipulate and 'guide' what people see and what opinions they form, for a long time. It's nothing new.
Really, it's extremely new. The feedback loop for old media was very coarse. They knew how many newspapers they sold and had an idea of who the repeat customers were. Editorial could be said to be linked to bumps in opinion polls, but only very loosely. Nobody knew how or if anything worked. It was all theories and snake oil and "conventional wisdom". The old adage was that 50% of marketing was effective but nobody knew which 50%.
For old media to have the same qualities as new media, newspaper publishers would have to know in real time if you were a new or returning reader, how long you spent reading page 32, which article you talked about with your friends, who your friends were, what their and your demographic profile was and then be able to serve up customised content within an instant based on all of those factors. And then say that they aren't responsible for any of it because they're just a platform.
Really, the only thing that old and new media have in common is that they are broadcasting words and images to the general public. The comparison ends there.
Yeah, what's the worst that old media could do? Print uncritical, false claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq than lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Never gonna happen. The US gov't will never willingly cede control of all the testing and missile ranges and the economic/military power projecion the islands provide it.
Frankly, from a realpolitik standpoint, I would be supremely annoyed at the government if it were to allow secession. It's really too valuable of a landmass to let go. Doing so would drastically alter the pacific theater as china continues a military buildup, threatens Taiwan, and manufactures islands in the south china sea.
couldn't maybe carving out the military parts and making the rest one huge reservation work? residents can retain dual citizenship, or however native Americans do things.
While the author rightfully decries the bloating of the Rav4, it's pretty close to a perfect size for a couple who consistently travels outdoors. Our '14 Subie crosstrek just shit its transmission out and we migrated to a used pre-facelift Rav out of necessity, being in a small city with little pub transport and poor infrastructure.
I just really, really wish a carmaker would make something that size, and put it on a real 4x4 platform. AWD is okay, but if you're really gettin' out there, sometimes you just need that extra capability. As of right now, there's basically no true 4x4 out there that has decent cargo space and isn't absolutely gigantic. New Jeeps are as big as old Hummers (which used to be considered massive), the Bronco has piss-poor cargo space for just how bloated the thing is. The 4Runner is getting bigger almost every year.
There simply are no worthwhile new, small, capable vehicles for sale. A Rav4 or Outback sized body-on-frame 4x4, with an 8 speed auto or 6-spd manual, good suspension, cupholders that fit a Hydroflask, and some sturdy roof rails and a hitch to hold a bike rack is the ideal outdoor vehicle, imo. Toss in the new niceties like wireless phone charger, CarPlay/Android Auto, and blind spot detection, adaptive CC, etc. to make paved driving a bit nicer, and you're golden.
Just as a note: The 4Runner (and related GX) haven't changed in size since 2004 (GX this year got larger).
They aren't "getting bigger every year"; they've stayed basically the same size for a very long time. The incoming Tacoma/4R is almost the same size as that 2004 model, and is a hybrid to boot with a true 4WD system. It's larger than the RAV4, but the gap has gotten smaller every time the RAV4 gets larger.
Source: Currently have a 2004 GX470, used to have a 2018 GX460, most of my friends have 4R's or Tacoma's. Note that my daily is a Mercedes Metris because my child is special needs; the GX has been in the family for a very long time at this point.
I wonder how much of this perception is based on the observer’s age. To me “trucks have gotten so much bigger than I remember” but what I think of as my formative car years were late 90s, so of course that is how it feels… it’s for sure true that rigs have ballooned since ‘95. It’s not necessarily true they have since 2015?
No, they absolutely have continued to. The new Tundra is an absolute monster.
The Toyota 120/150 platform trucks (FJ Cruiser, Tacoma, 4Runner, GX) are an exception to that trend, lasting from about 2003 to 2024. I think the new Tacoma/4R are pretty close to the same size, but the GX did increase a bit.
My formative years were the same as yours. Got my license in 1998, and I drove a 1979 Toyota truck that was absolutely TINY even compared to my 2004, but was the same size as the other mini trucks that were everywhere at that time (Mitsubishi Mighty Max, Toyota whatever they called it, Nissan Hardbody, etc.).
I'm in favor of anything that negatively impacts China. They are our greatest geopolitical enemy. Ban it. Ban Huawei products. Ban Chinese entities from any and all ownership of real estate or natural resources. Impose monetary limits on investments in pure financial instruments from their nationals. Make travel to the US more painful for their citizens. Punitively tax US companies who move their manufacturing to China.
The Utah North-South corridor, as well. A line going from LA-LV-St.George-SLC area also makes enough sense. Not to mention a line connecting Tucson-Phx-Prescott-Las Vegas (potentially going to Reno as well). A Seattle-Portland train makes sense. A whole PCH line makes sense.