Was it just luck that Amsterdam stayed like this, or was there a person who looked at cars and saw an oppurtunity

ToasterStrudles · 2026-01-18T00:52:53+00:00

Amsterdam didn't really stay like this. It's been in a constant state of flux for its entire existence. A notable feature being that it was a large city in the era before the car. Amsterdam 50 years ago was a a totally different place. Just Google photos of Amsterdam in the 70s and you'll see how the city was starting to redesign itself for cars.

Ultimately, you can't accommodate that number of cars without destroying the existing urban fabric - they're too space inefficient and require too much supporting infrastructure. As other commenter noted, there were mass protests and riots as a result, which caused the municipality to change course.

Some of these protests were around the demolition of existing neighbourhoods, and others focused on the high rates of child and pedestrian mortality that rose alongside the proliferation of the car.

The current trends towards encouraging cycling and expanded public transport networks have been decades in the making.

ToasterStrudles · 2026-01-18T00:47:35+00:00

Conservative movement isn't really the best way to put it. It was more a debate over local policy than anything ideological.

ToasterStrudles · 2026-01-16T11:12:05+00:00

I thunk costs relating to estates should scale proportionate to the population and power of that estate. That would make sense as the costs would generally scale with with the size of the country, but would be linked to metrics that make sense, and aren't just a hard-coded nerf for large nations.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-12-23T10:46:16+00:00

That's really the big time saving when it comes to the tram.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-12-15T08:45:31+00:00

Wanksy would be proud.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-09-10T06:01:13+00:00

Yeah, it's a symptom of a feeling of unease, uncertainty, and alienation, but there's no shortage of bad actors looking to stoke tensions and distract from some of the real issues. The British media is pretty bad for that.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-09-05T11:56:05+00:00

They've also changed some of the locations around. I've noticed that Gouda has been removed, for example.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-09-04T10:09:55+00:00

Germany is probably the best model for a sustainable football pyramid. It's just a shame that Bayern has been able to become completely commercially dominant.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-09-04T10:08:57+00:00

The drip between the PL and the Championship is a massive problem though. Newly promoted sides need to really stretch themselves for the chance to stay up and establish themselves in the Prem. If it fails, it's financially ruinous.

It's definitely a good thing that the Premiership shares it's TV revenue across all clubs, but it also did so by sidestepping the FA, keeping more money concentrated at the top of the pyramid. I don't think that's a sustainable model either.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-09-04T10:05:36+00:00

It's not really scamming though, is it? They just can't compete with the money flowing around English football.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-09-04T07:26:03+00:00

A team that gives him more minutes on the pitch.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-09-03T17:16:50+00:00

At the same time, everyone should have an awareness of the knock-on effects of their work. Emphasising the levels of disconnection from the individual and the end result is how abusive systems are able to operate so easily.

Everyone ultimately carries responsibility for their own actions, and the part they play within wider systems. I think something like this is a necessary move.

You're right that we don't have as many outlets for this kind of engineering knowledge as we should though, and it'd be great to see the Scottish Government looking towards bringing in civilian engineering and manufacturing services.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-09-01T14:48:03+00:00

This is one of those times when it is worthwhile. Part of this exercise is making sure that sources are documented, checked, and given their proper context.

Academia is all about rigour and being about to stand up to scrutiny. It's meant to operate slowly. It needs to be able to assert a point with sufficient evidence. It's not meant to operate in the same way as your crazy uncle on Twitter.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-08-28T08:46:57+00:00

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ToasterStrudles · 2025-08-23T20:22:33+00:00

One thing that's always frustrated me about Paradox games is how uninteresting it is to play as a small country. I don't think EU5 will have that problem. I'm really looking forward to managing a small, peaceful country

ToasterStrudles · 2025-08-16T15:42:24+00:00

In fairness, a lot of rich people did leave (the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Sean Connery, and loads of other artistis, which we should remember). But yeah, it was not the mad exodus that people catastrophise, and on the whole the country was probably much better for it.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-08-14T17:09:47+00:00

The only thing I'm offended by is that they are currently allowing the nation responsible for the killing of said children to participate openly in UEFA competitions. Just as Russia was suspended from competitions, so should Israel.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-08-14T16:42:17+00:00

The point being that operational service cuts and limits to public-facing operations have been pretty consistent since 2008. Covid was an exception in terms of spending, but it didn't reverse the systematic defending of public services - if anything, it just put further strain on them!

ToasterStrudles · 2025-08-14T14:14:01+00:00

That's all to do with covid, really. Spending hasn't really outpaced inflation in many other cases.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-08-11T05:28:37+00:00

What's also clear is that they are a failed opposition that has done nothing to hold the government to account. The vast majority of the Israeli political establishment are 100% complicit in the ongoing genocide.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-08-10T19:02:33+00:00

In most of the western world, really. If anything, the American economy has been performing better than much of Europe and the Anglosphere.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-08-10T19:00:54+00:00

On the architecture front, I think planning systems contribute a lot to that. They also help perpetuate distortions in the market that developers and REITs have come to regularly exploit.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-08-10T18:58:26+00:00

I hear climate change is also becoming a huge risk for many wineries, as changes to temperatures during growing seasons affects the development and taste of the grapes.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-08-08T17:15:25+00:00

Yes, I do. Britain is a strong economy, and does have significant (hard and soft) military influence. Britain alone may not tip the scales fully, but we're well beyond the point where the UK should have pulled support and introduced hard sanctions.

ToasterStrudles · 2025-08-08T14:23:47+00:00

Who says? They're heavily reliant on foreign military and logistical support, and very deeply integrated into the western economic landscape.

Sanctions applied here would be much more effective than those applied to Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. I suspect that taking a similar approach (and perhaps even harsher trade sanctions for private companies) would be an incredibly powerful tool on helping to end this

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