5G’d

Being senile and old didn’t stop the last one, thanks Democrats

Smug preppy black man accidentally ends American empire by making bad jokes

Yes, there are some niche communities in /toy/, /ck/, /sp/, and /sci/ that I appreciated. It gives “old internet” vibe of niche hobby, slow forums instead of everything gets swallowed by the “everything app” that is reddit, Facebook and twitter.

Like for example, there is always thread about people showing photos and collection of their army men figures and dioramas. I personally don’t collect them and don’t participate in the discussions, but I like seeing people touch grass, play with army mens and post their photos posing the army men in their backyards, with sometimes hilarious scenarios and scripts. Same deal with /sp/, people coming together to dunk on Manchester United losing never gets old.

Sleepy Joe could never. Electric Donald dabs on the door hinges.

The longtail Yuba Kombi is $999 and fully manual, this is to my knowledge the cheapest new MSRP cargo bike in North America and it is just a normal bicycle with elongated rear rack. One can get used longtail cargo bike for $500-750 like the Yubas or Terns, but I highly doubt you can get a cargo bike with similar carrying capacity as fully manual Asian rickshaw for $500-750, unless someone in your area did a DIY welding project and decide to sell it on Facebook Marketplace.

The problem is that motorcycle by far has higher death rate per mile traveled in US roads, moreso than bicycle because US drivers are just so not accustomed to motorcycles, and the road infrastructure is not built for motorcycles.

Doing a simple things like unprotected left turn is sketchy AF on a motorcycle. You make your turn sign, look behind, can’t see through the tinted windshield of the cars behind you, and make your move, just hoping that the car behind you is not distracted by phone, fiddling with car settings, etc. Even when you are imposing yourself on a road, taking a whole lane, because how small your footprint is, some dumbass cars will still try to pass you. Even if you are not involved in a crash, the flying projectiles and debris from car crashes around you due to cars not knowing how to drive around motorcycles can take you out. Also a lot of multi-use bike paths purposely exclude gas motorcycle because how loud and fast they are (understandably, compared to ebikes).

I love dirtbiking, and the most dangerous part by far is sharing the road with cars going to the trails.

Also, the US had literally 40x GDP per capita compared to India, and still 20% lower gas price. Carbrains don’t realize how much of a state subsidized welfare queens they are.

Yuba is an american company and their frontload cargo bike still costs $6k upwards. I guess one of the problem is that cargo bike is bulky and unwieldy, unlike regular bikes. So if the cargo bikes are not assembled here, but assembled elsewhere and shipped in a container whole, then it takes a ton of space and shipping cost. And these days, the demand for cargo bike doesn’t quite justify having assembly line in the US. Damn, where is Trumpo tariffs when you need it, make American cargo bikes great again, put 500% tariffs on cargo bikes assembled elsewhere and pay people a living wage to assemble cargo bikes here.

I personally believe that riding on the sidewalk is more dangerous than riding on the road. You have high risk of getting T-boned by cars pulling out of driveways, they usually don’t look left/right for cyclist, scooters, and people on mobility devices on sidewalk. It is completely legal to ride bicycles on the road, you literally paid for the roads, you paid as much taxes as everyone else so make your presence known and assert your place on the road. However, I acknowledge this is me speaking from privilege, being able-bodied and having no kids. I’ll probably have second thoughts and similar consideration if I have to carry my kids on a cargo bike in US roads.

That aside, what kind of baffled me is that even in countries with excellent bike infrastructure like Denmark and Netherlands, cargo bike still costs an arm and leg. The industry justify the markup because in these places the cargo bike utility-wise is competing with a small car (people mostly use cargo bike to take their toddlers to school, buy groceries, and take items from hardware stores). This is somewhat fair, but the price is still preposterous compared to brandless cargo bike you can get in Asia.

Katy Perry was real life 30 Rock’s Jenna Maroney. Here are some of her literal quotes while in space

“It’s not about me, I’m here to talk about the world.”

She then sings

“We’re going to put the ass in astronaut.”

“for the benefit of Earth.”

Yes, that’s the thing. People who cycle simply for transport don’t sweat at all and don’t bother doing any physical exertions. This is why the most common commuter bikes in Denmark are the 3 speed internal gear hub upright bike with coaster brakes. You chat and joke casually with your friends on a bike lane riding side by side just like how you would chat on a car. Everyone is doing the same thing and traveling at same slow speed. In comparison, all cyclists in NA are tryhards.

This is also why I’m quite confident and safe cyclist in NA. I know road rules, right of way, I take a whole lane when necessary (so cars behind me have no choice but to wait until the road is wider to pass me), I don’t hide and cycle in sidewalks (which is proven to be more dangerous than being on the road), but I also don’t zip across traffic and be unpredictable. The noise cancelling headphones also helps so I don’t have to hear the occasional verbal insults hurled at me by angry carbrained Yankee.

Yes, people fall and eat shit, even with robust cycling infrastructure. Drunk cycling is a thing in Denmark, and beyond 12am a lot of people cycles in zigzags going home from bars. There are no rule against drunk cycling because it is way safer than drunk driving, and public sector workers are annoyed at drunks who take public transport. Every other week or so drunks will fall off into the canals etc., especially on this bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inderhavnsbroen that was built wrong, off the most famous bar street/harbor in Copenhagen, Nyhavn. The bridge was the biggest public infrastructure scandal in Denmark (they miscalculated the length, so the bridge doesn’t connect and they have to add zigzags, which caused drunk people to crash and sometimes fell off bikes). These accidents are all taken with humor by most people, and Copenhagen is still amongst the safest city for cyclist.

Here’s the thing, for commuting and transport most people cycle slowly. In Denmark the speed of traffic for cyclist is usually not more than 10 mph (because you have to accommodate the elderly, kids, people in cargo bikes delivering packages, parents carrying their kids in cargo bikes, etc.) and it is pretty hard to get seriously hurt cycling at 10 mph even if you crash into utility pole head on. Even amongst bike commuters in NA, a lot of people want to cycle fast “to get workout” done in the morning then take a shower at work - this is by far the least safe way of commuting because you are exerting at near physical limit and likely not paying attention to traffic.

It is clear to me that the true menace is not other cyclist or stationary objects, but cars, more importantly cars that are not used to cyclists. There are safety in numbers, a group of cyclists is more visible than individual cyclist zipping in and out parked cars on side of a street. The only way to get more people to cycle is to provide safe cycling infrastructure, and I’m only one person, so in my own way, to get my co-workers to advocate or at least strongly think about these things is to show up at work not wearing helmet and being belligerent.

I appreciate the good-faith argument you and many other people brought up. But I think it is a matter of cultural perspective. Let me try to explain the other way around. In North America, and other English speaking countries (UK, Australia, New Zealand), cycling is first and foremost a sport. With “sports” you inherently internalize two things: (1) inherent risk of physical injury and (2) wearing sports gizmos to mitigate the risk of physical injury. Furthermore, the cost of injury is fully on the person doing the sports as personal responsibility (broke your leg playing soccer? well, noone forced you to do soccer).

Where I come from (Copenhagen, Denmark), cycling is a utilitarian mode of transport. This is how I grew up culturally. You see not only young adults, but people of all ages, from literal 6 years old toddler to grannies cycling, predominantly without helmet. It is a simple efficient, and unglamorous way to get from point A to point B. Yes, of course, even in cities with safe cycling infrastructure like Copenhagen, or Netherlands everyone will be better off cycling with helmet. But this is putting the emphasis the wrong way. Cycling, and bike lanes in general should be accessible to everyone (including mobility assist vehicles), and as a collective we have to demand more inclusive, safer cycling infrastructure so toddlers and the elderly can feel safe cycling in a bike lane.

I feel agitated when I, coming from a city where cycling is inclusive and accessible for all, am told off by people who never lived extensively outside North America that I have to wear all kinds of gizmos, helmets, reflector vests, multiple reflectors, side mirrors, side mirrors glasses, helmets with side mirrors and lamps otherwise I am not a responsible person. I’m not wrong, it is North American urban planning that is wrong. I’m an experienced and confident cyclist, I never been in any cycling accident and I’ve spent almost a good 5-10% of my life on bicycle, I’ve been commuting since I was a kid, cycling by myself to grade school. I follow road rules and feel like I’m comfortable with the inherent risk of eating shit on my own. If I got hit by a car, most likely it is the drivers fault, and maybe from the accident the city will develop a safer infrastructure. My co-workers always say that they are for cycling infrastructure, but it is not only yay or nay, it is how bad they want it. Maybe being argumentative about not wearing helmet, and explaining that it is North American urban planning that is wrong, and there is a better way for the city and kids who grew up in the city will put demanding safe cycling infrastructure up higher on my co-worker priority list.

Just FYI, BTW

Skeletons are hilarious. They always look like they are smiling and having fun, regardless of what they do. You see a human skeleton inside crocodiles mouth and they are still laughing and having a blast.

When you say the first element of a matrix, first implies one and not zero. This is how linear algebra was invented (on paper, by a human mathematician), taught, and passed down to fellow humans.

Starting indexes at zero stem from the lineage of C programming and binary nature of computer. For example,

Computer memory addresses have 2^N cells addressed by N bits. Now if we start counting at 1, 2^N cells would need N+1 address lines. The extra-bit is needed to access exactly 1 address. (1000 in the above case.). Another way to solve it would be to leave the last address inaccessible, and use N address lines.

This is why, math and physics people who learn linear algebra and matrix calculus learn to index at 1 (on a piece of paper) while computer science programmers index at 0.

MATLAB is for matrix calcs. Matrix indices start at 1, fight me. Given a matrix X of m x n size, you write

Matlab has many issues, amongst other accessibility (which can be remedied by piracy), closed-software, but as a program designed to do computational matrix manipulation, starting at index 1 is literally correct. This is how you learn matrix indices in intro linear algebra. How is it make sense then you use a software to assist computation and start indexing at 0, while you write the equations and indices on a piece of paper you start at 1. CS majors go home.

Sir, with all due respect your numbers are wrong. It was 20,000 children killed like 6 months ago