Happy Atheist Forum

General => Politics => Topic started by: Tank on February 05, 2022, 11:23:50 AM

Title: Boris Johnson
Post by: Tank on February 05, 2022, 11:23:50 AM
Cut to 4:40 for the rant.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/opinion/boris-johnson-party-scandal.html
Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: Anne D. on February 05, 2022, 09:02:09 PM
Quote from: Tank on February 05, 2022, 11:23:50 AM
Cut to 4:40 for the rant.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/opinion/boris-johnson-party-scandal.html

Great takedown. And very entertaining.
Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: Icarus on February 12, 2022, 06:07:45 AM
NY Times has an impenetrable pay wall for news stories.
Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: Tank on February 12, 2022, 01:26:29 PM
Quote from: Icarus on February 12, 2022, 06:07:45 AM
NY Times has an impenetrable pay wall for news stories.

Sorry.
Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: jumbojak on February 12, 2022, 05:12:58 PM
Isn't he the fluffy blonde one that everybody likes?
Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: Tank on February 12, 2022, 05:21:51 PM
Quote from: jumbojak on February 12, 2022, 05:12:58 PM
Isn't he the fluffy blonde one that everybody likes?

Not everybody.
Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: hackenslash on February 13, 2022, 07:10:33 AM
Quote from: Icarus on February 12, 2022, 06:07:45 AM
NY Times has an impenetrable pay wall for news stories.

Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: billy rubin on February 13, 2022, 08:24:24 AM
can we borrow him over here for a bit?

Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: Tank on February 13, 2022, 02:19:34 PM
Quote from: billy rubin on February 13, 2022, 08:24:24 AM
can we borrow him over here for a bit?

Who? Boris? You're welcome to him!
Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: billy rubin on February 13, 2022, 03:25:28 PM
no

gah

the stupidity of privilege is something that we have plenty of over here. weve had politicians all over dictate draconian covid restrictions as part of their official duties, the matter of factly violate them themselves, in public. repeatedly.

the speaker of our lower house. the governor of california.

what is troubling is not that they violate the rules they create. that would be sort of understandable, if they tried to be sneaky about it. but they do it in the open, like boris, with no comprehension that openly showing that they live by a pattern of blind entitlement might catch them out or be percieved as egregious by the little people they disdain.

in america, we dont have resstrictions strong enough to rein in the oligarchs and politigarchs-- trump and elon musk will continue to openly flout rules that are strictly enforced for others. but you may be able to dump boris.
Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: billy rubin on February 13, 2022, 03:36:07 PM
just as an example of a simple disregard for the relevance of rules.

https://nypost.com/2022/02/01/tesla-recalls-54k-cars-over-autonomous-rolling-stop-function/

american oligarch elon musk is recalling 54,000 autonomous automobiles that his company programmed to roll through stop signs without stopping. in america, the law is that you stop at a stop sign, period. but tesla actually programmed the vehicles to run the stop sign if the algorhythm did not percieve an obstacle. given tesla's poor record of percieving pedestrians and emergency vehicles as obstacles, this programming was a public menace.

but under musk, traffic laws are optional. he has no perception of the utility of rules to maintain observance of reasons.

a small example of a larger problem.
Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: Tank on February 13, 2022, 05:02:55 PM
Quote from: billy rubin on February 13, 2022, 03:36:07 PM
just as an example of a simple disregard for the relevance of rules.

https://nypost.com/2022/02/01/tesla-recalls-54k-cars-over-autonomous-rolling-stop-function/

american oligarch elon musk is recalling 54,000 autonomous automobiles that his company programmed to roll through stop signs without stopping. in america, the law is that you stop at a stop sign, period. but tesla actually programmed the vehicles to run the stop sign if the algorhythm did not percieve an obstacle. given tesla's poor record of percieving pedestrians and emergency vehicles as obstacles, this programming was a public menace.

but under musk, traffic laws are optional. he has no perception of the utility of rules to maintain observance of reasons.

a small example of a larger problem.

That's not good at all. Having said that having 4 way stops in the middle of nowhere is ridiculous. Have you driven in the UK?
Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: billy rubin on February 13, 2022, 07:09:51 PM
i havent been on a road in the UK since edward heath. but if you mean roundabouts, i grew up with them in asia. the ones we have in america are bizarre. too small for one thing. and they turn the wrong way.

but the tesla technique was to look at the four way stop-- anywhere -- and run it if no obstacles were detected. in the past, a tesla was unable to identify a pedestrian pushing a bicycle, and killed one in california. they regularly run into parked police and emergency vehicles on public roads, because the algorithm cannot identify them. i have no idea whether a tesla would consistently identify a child in a zebra crossing. or a motorcycle. or a farming implement. or a horse drawn wagon. their record is imperfect.

but in flat western america the land is laid out under a platte system-- one mile grids, for hundreds of square miles. nobody stops at these rural crossings, because people are looking up and down the sides roads for traffic as they go. a tesla looks only at what is in the intersection, and a farmers pickup approaching the intesection at 50 mph from the side  will centerpunch the robot car if it doesnt stop at the sign.
Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: Tank on February 13, 2022, 08:10:00 PM
I was thinking more of the 'Give Way' or possibly 'yield' junction in America.
Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: billy rubin on February 13, 2022, 08:38:50 PM
which type are you meaning? stops or yields? we do have both. box junctions in the urban areas too which americans have difficulty with

personally i prefer unambiguous complete stops rather than any kind of yields, because i dont have to figure out what to do. theres a T-junction in my area that has a stop sign only at the T-- traffic from three directions doesnt need to stop but must yield to another direction based on which lane they are in. i have yet to figure it out consistently. in the dark to a stranger its quite dangerous.

what i try to do at any intersection is gauge my speed accordnig to other traffic and then make sure i reach the intersection last. doing that means i have control over the situation because i have made sure everybody else has the right of way over me. costs me a few seconds but keeps me safely out of ambiguous encounters.
Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: Tank on February 13, 2022, 09:31:43 PM
In the UK STOP signs are very rare and limited to blind junctions. All other junction have a priority road and traffic entering that road must 'give way' to the traffic on it but they don't have to stop if they can join safely. It would be interesting to see which style of junction is the safest.
Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: billy rubin on February 13, 2022, 09:56:06 PM
ah

i was mostly on a bicycle back when i lived in britain. american bicycle traffic is brainless.

in america surface roads in built up areas that cross at right angles generally get either a stop sign on the minor road, or a four way stop if the roads carry similar traffic loads. where a minor road enters a major at an angle there may be either a stop or a yield sign.

even out in the country, intersections between equivalent minor roads are seldom uncontrolled these days. used to be there were no signs at all and you would simply yield to the driver on your right. or play chicken with them.

in built up areas with signal lights different jurisdictions will decide whether you can even turn into traffic on a red light. some require you to wait for the green before you can turn into the road in front of you. i generally wait unless there is at least a quarter mile of empty road, as i take both sides of the roads turning and am not very quick about it.

roundabouts are being built in america now, mostly in the middle of the country. we dont do them well-- there are often puzzling lane restrictions leading into and out of them and they are generally very small. theyre built with sloping berms and paved surfaces, which is important because my truck is around 70 feet long, so going around them i drag the the trailer right over the top.

Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: Ecurb Noselrub on February 13, 2022, 10:49:00 PM
We have a round-about in our town and I like it. But I can see it being difficult for a big rig. 
Title: Re: Boris Johnson
Post by: billy rubin on February 14, 2022, 12:27:46 AM
theyre usually set up now so tractor trailers can drive over them. but the trailer does what it wants. you dont always have th eopportunity to be delicate.  i pulled a too-tight U-turn at a washington dc air force base a few years back, and dragged the trailer right across the flower beds in front of the guard shack. then i ran away.