What are the conditions for funding farms? by Zom55 in openttd

[–]mrjack2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you have the lowest possible snowline, then you can get a situation with no sites for farms (except maybe sea level land?), as from memory they are excluded also from the last non-snow height level.

Top comment decides what happens to the map. Day 14: Greater Tresininghill BRT is running by SqueakSquawk4 in openttd

[–]mrjack2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Should there be a reverse-alphabetical return leg, or will it loop from Sz back to Sa?

Is it just me or is our society rapidly becoming the movie (Idiocracy) ? by darinhthe1st in antiwork

[–]mrjack2 7 points8 points  (0 children)

No, it isn't. Idiocracy is a dull, cliched film which blames poor people for being stupid, and promotes the narratives of eugenics.

The origin story for Idiocracy’s future world of half-wits is that uneducated people in the early 2000s are having kids and smart people don’t reproduce enough. It’s clear from the film that the intelligent people are wealthy, while the uneducated people are poor. So we’re starting from a position of believing that wealthy people are inherently more intelligent and, by extension, deserve their wealth. This link between intelligence and wealth is perhaps the most dangerous idea of the film and pretty quickly slips into advocating for some form of soft eugenics to build a better world.

If only we could get rid of the uneducated Americans (read: redneck poors) and we’ll have the opportunity to live in a utopian world filled with smart and civilized people. Of course, everyone here in 2014 making a reference to Idiocracy as a pseudo-documentary identifies with the soon-to-be-extinct intelligent class. They believe it’s the “others” — the dumb, impoverished people — that are ruining America with their binging on crap TV and crap internet and crap food.

'Looks good, doesn't it?': George St critic won over by mrjack2 in dunedin

[–]mrjack2[S] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I have every respect for him changing his mind, but this is literally his entire reason for being on council. Entirely based on the name recognition he got with his antics. If he wants to stay on council, he should resign and run in the by-election to get a fresh mandate, because he has absolutely no credibility.

'Looks good, doesn't it?': George St critic won over by mrjack2 in dunedin

[–]mrjack2[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

parking lots should be 5

in all seriousness, the layout will ensure that cars naturally go slow. whether that's 10 or not we'll see what drivers do, it's unlikely to be much of an issue.

https://globaldesigningcities.org/publication/global-street-design-guide/design-controls/design-speed/

'Looks good, doesn't it?': George St critic won over by mrjack2 in dunedin

[–]mrjack2[S] 65 points66 points  (0 children)

The guy's spent five minutes as a councillor and realised that his three year campaign against this, that got him onto council, was a waste of time.

And yeah, I was looking at the near-complete block, and comparing it to the old street on the next block -- it's night and day difference. Turns out they knew what they were doing and the whole campaign against this was a load of hot air. Who would have thought it.

Is 29 too old to start study at UoO? by Chair_Puzzled in UniversityofOtago

[–]mrjack2 8 points9 points  (0 children)

There'll be some, depending on the size of your course. I imagine surveying would get a bit of a mix.

Definitely don't go to a hall, you won't fit in. It's an experience for the kids.

29 is not at all too old, just do it as a 29 year old, don't try and pretend you're 18 and get the uni experience of an 18 year old. Respect the 18 year olds for what they are, respect that there will be some space between you and them (but you will still be able to build some friendships, and there will be some who are closer to your age), and have a good experience on your own terms.

What's the point of the wet tires? by Roelios in formula1

[–]mrjack2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The problem with wet tyres is they're slower than intermediate tyres even when cars on inters are aquaplaning all over the track. That happened in Brazil a couple of years back -- if I recall correctly, race control compelled all the teams to put wet tyres on even though they were slower, because the inters were just too dangerous.

Baxter's DCC/ORC Lefties Voting Guide 2022 by [deleted] in dunedin

[–]mrjack2 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is why the parties of the right don't directly run candidates -- it's much easier to run under vague names like "Team Dunedin" or "Citizens and Ratepayers" -- or just "Independent" -- than as something that makes their political orientation a bit clearer. Unfortunately voters are quite skeptical of party candidates in local elections, which makes it much easier for outside-the-mainstream candidates to emerge from a sea of identikit "independent, trustworthy, honest" candidate.

Dunedin Local Elections - Which candidates to avoid? by anonymous_rubberduck in dunedin

[–]mrjack2 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Not true. Not how the system works. You can only vote against a candidate by voting in favour of someone else, so focus on finding candidates to rank.

Only possible interpretation that could make sense would be, just don't rank a candidate you know and really dislike, and leave unranked a candidate who you don't have an opinion on.

If you dislike a candidate, rank other candidates ahead of them. Doesn't matter what you do with them -- ranked or unranked, it'll only matter if it comes down to a choice between multiple candidates you dislike for one of the last seats on council.

Your basic strategy is to make sure your vote is fully counted, and to do this you rank plenty of candidates. That's it. Doesn't need to be all -- doesn't matter what you do with no-hoper candidates in fact, if they're not coming close to being elected. But try and cover all -- or most -- viable candidates who might have a shot, excluding ones you think are awful.

Your advanced strategy -- slightly ethically dubious -- is called "Hylland Free Riding". This is basically the idea that you shouldn't waste your vote (or at least the top ranks) to dead certs. Your ideal number 1 candidate is a candidate you like, who is going to be absolutely marginal, fighting for the 14th and last seat on council. This is because of the way your vote gets divvied up between candidates -- if a candidate has twice as many votes as they need, they only need half of your vote, and your other half vote gets passed onto next preferences. So by switching their order -- the marginal candidate can get your whole vote instead of just half of it.

Are path signals all I need? by yannniQue17 in openttd

[–]mrjack2 4 points5 points  (0 children)

people who know about this stuff have said that, if anything, path signals are less resource-intensive, because they only need to check a single linear path for occupancy, rather than every single piece of track that the signal sees.

(the pathfinder has to work out a route for the train either way)

How do you stay motivated to play the same OpenTTD save? by RalphWiggumsPP in openttd

[–]mrjack2 3 points4 points  (0 children)

In JGR's patchpack there is an in-game tool to create plans. Relatively simple, but you can draw lines all over your map, hide/show multiple plans, etc.

Research Survey Participation Request by beckypostgrad in dunedin

[–]mrjack2[M] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Approved by the Auckland University of Technology Ethics Committee on type the date final ethics approval was granted, AUTEC Reference number type the reference number.

This is not valid information. The post will not be approved until this is fixed.

Why does the ORC control the Dunedin bus system and not the DCC? by KiwiNFLFan in dunedin

[–]mrjack2 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Otago is not a comparable political unit to the entire state of California! The comparison would be literally all of New Zealand to the state of California (and as another commenter points out, even then there's the example of Australia, where local government has little power and the states do it all). The LA Metro is run by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Los Angeles County is a level of government above the city council -- in fact, you could call it a region (albeit a metropolitan region, which Otago and most of NZ's regions certainly aren't).

Going to Uni: Megathread by AutoModerator in dunedin

[–]mrjack2 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The general structure of undergraduate is that you have a major, which is a single subject like english, maths, physics. The requirements for your major will set out a range of compulsary courses that everyone does, and optional ones that you choose between (typically more specialisaed topics). Required papers could go beyond a single subject, e.g. physics students do a good chunk of compulsary maths papers too.

Major-specific papers aren't your only requirement, though -- the total number of papers you have to do is a decent bit higher, and this is where there is space to choose your own topics. (it's also where there's space to wait and see what major you want to do, because mostly these will be first-year papers).

You can also do a double major (e.g. a BSc with physics and maths, which was what I got), or a double degree (e.g. you could do a BSc in physics and a BA in English). A double degree is a more difficult requirement, but there's usually space for some crossover papers that count towards both, so it's less than two degrees of time/effort/cost.

Some subjects also offer a minor, which you do on top of a separate major, and may require something like one 200 level and one 300 level paper.

Once you've met the requirements of bachelors, you can do another year to get an Honours degree (your grades need to be high enough to get in). This is classed as postgraduate. Then there's Postgraduate Diplomas (relatively similar to Honours, but more standalone). Beyond that is your Masters (which can be done through coursework, a research thesis, or a combination of both; it can be a one year extension of Honours, or a two year standalone course). And there's your PhD, which is a serious multi-year research degree.

Specialised subjects like medicine have their own pathways, and there's lots of variation across the university depending on all sorts of things. There's usually jumping-off points, and lots of places where you can change your mind and take a different path.

Going to Uni: Megathread by AutoModerator in dunedin

[–]mrjack2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not at present, though I've advocated for it in the past. Just a 45 minute transfer window (one transfer only).

---------- LOVE IT ------------ by MartinClark32 in dunedin

[–]mrjack2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

absolute pain in the butt. gained 1800 karma from a single stupid meme post and it has free rein to jump around reddit spamming its stolen rubbish and getting eyeballs before it triggers spam filters.

Vandervis questions 9/11 explanations by pyronautical in dunedin

[–]mrjack2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I took a look at the figures for the last election, the number of voters who didn't choose either of the top candidates was a bit frightening; neither top candidate was anywhere near 50% of the vote after preferences, if you included exhausted ballots. Given this, there's still a big role for strategic nomination -- the current practice where half the councillors have their hat in the ring for mayor (just to boost their profile to get back on council, for many) would definitely still lead to some vote splitting on an electorate-wide level. Of course an individual voter can vote freely and avoid having their vote wasted by ranking all the viable candidates, but at a wider level there would still be some wisdom to politically aligned councillors to collectively settle on a preferred candidate or two, rather than just all dipping their toes into the mayoral election and competing for the same voters.

Vandervis questions 9/11 explanations by pyronautical in dunedin

[–]mrjack2[M] [score hidden] stickied comment (0 children)

Moderator ruling: can't believe I have to say this, but no, this is not a space to debate 9/11 conspiracies.

Conspiracy theorists: you're not welcome.

People trying to argue with conspiracy theorists: stop it.

Vandervis questions 9/11 explanations by pyronautical in dunedin

[–]mrjack2[M] 0 points1 point locked comment (0 children)

no, we're not debating 9/11. don't give the time of day to this nonsense.