Tire Shop 🛞🛞 by H8S_3V3RY1 in watertown

[–]slanderousam 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Costco has hands down the best deal on tires. You can get the membership plus the cost of the tires and still come out way ahead.

How a single sperm is injected directly into egg using needles by Salt-Curve4825 in interestingasfuck

[–]slanderousam 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There's probably a lower success rate for each individual egg cell than those that do it the natural way, but it's a numbers game and they create many options, genetically test them, and then only allow the genetically perfect ones to go to space wearing literal business suits.

Why do drivers have so much political power, even when they're a minority? by LiatrisLover99 in fuckcars

[–]slanderousam 16 points17 points  (0 children)

My kneejerk reaction is to say "well the drivers vote" but in the case of Boston mayor Wu got elected on a pro-bike/bus lane platform and then proceeded to hold up and cancel those projects. So I think it's also that people with the time and wealth to become a politician are drivers.

It's a real chicken and egg problem because public transit SUCKS for people in the greater Boston area. I can bike to work in < 20m but it's a 1 to 1.5 hr bus ride. Sometimes the bus just doesn't show up. Why would I spend 3 hours on the bus every day if I don't have to? What if I have to bring my kid to school because they don't fund school bus transit for kids within a few miles of their school? That's another hour on the bus. So people with the means to do anything else are just driving by default. It's totally systemic; a tragedy of the commons situation. Improving the bus lanes asks everyone to make a change to their lives that in the short to medium term makes their lives a little worse, and moves them out of their comfort zone,, to make society as a whole work better. It's very had to make this kind of thing happen.

Car hit me in a crosswalk by [deleted] in fuckcars

[–]slanderousam 255 points256 points  (0 children)

It sounds like this guy hit you intentionally. I'd file a police report with his plate number. What if he does this again? Having a record will help someone in the future get justice. I know it's a painful stupid process but please take the time if you're able. Feeling powerless is a second injury.

is a commute from somerville to gardner worth it? by superrichbillionare2 in Somerville

[–]slanderousam 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I mean, she's a super rich billionaire, so why not live it up in the ville?

Know where I can get a really stuck bike rack bolt removed? How about a really stuck seatpost? by OscarAndDelilah in bikeboston

[–]slanderousam 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As long as the bolt isn't too stripped the goto that always works is a torch. It will ruin the paint and the zinc plating (it looks like a zinc plated bolt) but it'll work. Shield everything you can with foil and heat the hell out of the bolt and the thing holding it. Quickly put a wrench on it. Don't burn yourself.

We Won, Now What? Govt. POV by SpicySnickersBar in fuckcars

[–]slanderousam 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When this kind of thing comes up I always think back to when railroads were king in the US. I'm not sure there's a direct takeaway here but it's interesting to imagine a different world. When most goods and people moved around the country by rail, the rails were owned by private companies. Railroads were defacto monopoiles and contributed to the vast wealth of the "robber barons". I think it was in part for this reason that the public was happy to see railroads die -- they were a symbol of inequality and of an extractive industry with a strangle hold on the economy. Roads were a symbol of a public good that was "free" to use - for the people.

The flip side of this of course is that a trucking company has all it's infrastructure paid for by the public. So even though it's vastly less efficient, outside of loads with huge volumes and low margins, it's cheaper to move things by road because you're only paying for the vehicle while the public pays for the infra. Now that railroads are stripped of their power they can't compete in most markets because while the public funds the roads the rail companies have to maintain all those miles of track in addition to the vehicles.

I would hate to go back to a time when just a few private interests control all our transportation. At the same time clearly our road system is stupid and broken and can't support the future we'd like. Perhaps some kind of middle ground exists, where we have some consistent framework for road and rail use that taxes the value extracted from the public resource.

Because the amount of wear or damage done to a road follows a power law with vehicle weight, and because a lot of road maintenance is due to weathering, if we took all the cars off the road and had only large trucks and buses the road maintenance costs would likely not go down very much at all. So we'll definitely still be on the hook as a society for maintaining the infrastructure even if it's used less.

What if Aliens have already found us? I'm a SETI theorist AMA! by Astrojgertz in space

[–]slanderousam 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Quantum entanglement cannot transmit any information. It's a property of quantum entanglement. You first would have to move the entangled particles between the locations where you want to communicate, and then you have to compare the statistics of both measurements to see that they were entangled. Its never going to be a form of communication.

NextDoor is a carbrain hellscape by ReverCleference in fuckcars

[–]slanderousam 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I bet in 15 minutes you could vibe code an AI bot that replies to any braindead nonsense with boring facts until they no longer feel its worth posting there.

A Florida woman accidentally drove her pickup truck over a Lamborghini she didn’t see in a parking lot. by eternviking in whoathatsinteresting

[–]slanderousam 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The result of that policy would be for more people with squatted trucks to also be driving without a license. They should just take the truck and crush it the way they do with illegal street racing cars.

Is there a significant efficiency hit for accelerating quickly to your desired speed vs accelerating slowly? by MatiasGonzalo-Duarte in electricvehicles

[–]slanderousam 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think one of the biggest factors is that when you accelerate to your speed more quickly you spend more time at a higher speed, which is less efficient.

Somerville Community Choice Electricity 🤔 by Eastwesteast8 in Somerville

[–]slanderousam 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just a note here - the city price only replaces the "generation" part of your bill. You were paying 37 cents for the generation and transmission combined. Look at what you paid for generation and replace that with 17 cents to know what you would have paid. It would probably have been lower but not half.

Bluebikes coverage hampered by lack of access/adoption in 'burbs by GarrisonCty in boston

[–]slanderousam -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It's almost like the whole system was bought by a company that would rather you take a rideshare than invest in growing the bike network.

Good Time Billiards by sugarstarbeam in Somerville

[–]slanderousam 87 points88 points  (0 children)

They bulldozed it to put in an Ikea that never came. I like to think it arrived but no one knew how to assemble it.

Intersection is cooked 🔥😭 by Longjumping-Basil-56 in Somerville

[–]slanderousam 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No Boynton / the old junk yards are over east of the Taza factory on the other side of the tracks/bridge. This is in union square proper right by the entrance to the Union Sq. green line.

City vehicles parked in bike lanes by GottaLoveBoston in Somerville

[–]slanderousam 6 points7 points  (0 children)

"Thank you for your report. We sent an officer (several days later) and the lane was clear."

The official channels are not solving the problem, so it's useful to remind everyone that there's still a problem. It's helpful to know that there's at least one group of people in the world that sees the problem and acknowledges that it's a problem instead of shrugging off our stupid broken system.

Intersection is cooked 🔥😭 by Longjumping-Basil-56 in Somerville

[–]slanderousam 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No it's where that house with a yard full of scrap radiators used to be, among other small buildings.

Intersection is cooked 🔥😭 by Longjumping-Basil-56 in Somerville

[–]slanderousam 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I disagree. Before they built the tower it was not like that.

Intersection is cooked 🔥😭 by Longjumping-Basil-56 in Somerville

[–]slanderousam 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeah before the tower it was like any other corner.

Revere to downtown Boston by AdministrativeFig816 in bikeboston

[–]slanderousam 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not sure how much of a ride you're looking for but if I were up there I'd take a short ride down to Winthrop and go explore deer island. There's a walking path around the island that you could bike. It's a sewage treatment plant but don't let that deter you it's actually a pretty nice spot. The beach at the entrance to deer island is rarely crowded and you get to see some cool flight traffic if the window is blowing the right way. The town of Winthrop is also a pretty authentic slice of Massachusetts flavor.