NaraVara's recent activity

  1. Comment on Tesla's gear-shifting problems known long before Angela Chao's death in ~transport

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    No they were called that because if the back door opened even a tiny bit while the car was moving the air resistance would cause it to swing all the way open, and you can’t close it without...

    No they were called that because if the back door opened even a tiny bit while the car was moving the air resistance would cause it to swing all the way open, and you can’t close it without needing to reach out. Back then cars didn’t even always have seatbelts and the seats were basically vinyl benches so people could roll out when that happened. The name is a bit of gallows humor, like calling your motorcycle license an “organ donor card.”

    What you described is the safety feature they added in so that failure mode doesn’t happen.

    7 votes
  2. Comment on Tesla's gear-shifting problems known long before Angela Chao's death in ~transport

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    Minivan doors are great and any car, whose form-factor permits, should have them. Suicide doors too honestly. We have enough smart sensing frippery in our cars now that the risk of it opening...

    Minivan doors are great and any car, whose form-factor permits, should have them.

    Suicide doors too honestly. We have enough smart sensing frippery in our cars now that the risk of it opening while driving are nil.

    11 votes
  3. Comment on An influential economics forum has a troubling surplus of trolls in ~finance

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    There’s also lots of guys like Tyler Cowen, who are academic economists who do get taken seriously, but also get outsized say in the discipline by virtue of working in a Koch funded economics...

    There’s also lots of guys like Tyler Cowen, who are academic economists who do get taken seriously, but also get outsized say in the discipline by virtue of working in a Koch funded economics department.

    5 votes
  4. Comment on Tesla's gear-shifting problems known long before Angela Chao's death in ~transport

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    What? Minivans solved this problem by having sliding doors. And those can actually open and shut without worrying about clearance height above you or present difficulties getting out in a rollover.

    The Falcon wing doors do actually offer practicality. They can open in tight places a traditional door cannot and create a wider opening which was handy for my Elderly father to get in and out of.

    What?

    Minivans solved this problem by having sliding doors. And those can actually open and shut without worrying about clearance height above you or present difficulties getting out in a rollover.

    33 votes
  5. Comment on Indian government to impose ban on import, sale, and cross-breeding of twenty-three ferocious dog breeds in ~life.pets

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    The nippiness means they’re more likely to run after people and bite.

    The nippiness means they’re more likely to run after people and bite.

    2 votes
  6. Comment on Indian government to impose ban on import, sale, and cross-breeding of twenty-three ferocious dog breeds in ~life.pets

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    They carry diseases. If they can break the skin they’re a menace.

    But, seriously, banning the regular Terrier, which are typically so small you could kick them to the moon if you were attacked by one? Is that a typo by IBTimes? :P

    They carry diseases. If they can break the skin they’re a menace.

  7. Comment on India moves to implement controversial citizenship bill that excludes Muslims in ~humanities

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    It’s pretty similar to the US’ I think. It’s like 10-15 years of residency and, I assume, various checks on not accruing a criminal record and the like. Or you could just marry someone. But there...

    It’s pretty similar to the US’ I think. It’s like 10-15 years of residency and, I assume, various checks on not accruing a criminal record and the like.

    Or you could just marry someone.

    But there are various tracks to expedite it, mostly around incorporating Indians who were sent elsewhere under the British Raj. So there used to be a fast-track process if you were of Indian origin before Independence, so as long as your grandfather had a provable origin in India you could sort of repatriate yourself. But everyone who was gonna do that has by now and they’re starting to crack down on the various forms of “overseas” citizenship.

    2 votes
  8. Comment on India moves to implement controversial citizenship bill that excludes Muslims in ~humanities

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    Being as how India’s NorthEast has been in an active state of on-and-off insurgency for about a decade now, owing in very large part to domestic opposition to influx of undocumented people from...

    Being as how India’s NorthEast has been in an active state of on-and-off insurgency for about a decade now, owing in very large part to domestic opposition to influx of undocumented people from Bangladesh and Burma, then yeah they do have a sensible cause to want to prioritize political stability in the area. You know, because civil wars are bad. There happens to a big a one between the Meitei and Kuki happening right now, in fact. Most of these regions are clan and tribal lands that don’t have particularly strong property or land registry, so random settlements popping up can and often do explode into violence.

    people fleeing from genocide and still ongoing persecution? Well then, I guess it's totally okay and justifiable to exclude them but not non-Muslim refugees.

    Nobody is being sent back, they’re just not getting fast-tracked into citizenship and would have to go through the normal process that they do now.

    12 votes
  9. Comment on India moves to implement controversial citizenship bill that excludes Muslims in ~humanities

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    They’ve been coming in for years even before tensions exploded into full-on genocide. Plus, since it’s mostly undocumented, it’s pretty ambiguous how much is asylum seeking versus just economic...

    They’ve been coming in for years even before tensions exploded into full-on genocide. Plus, since it’s mostly undocumented, it’s pretty ambiguous how much is asylum seeking versus just economic migration.

    I think the year is just pegged to when the bill was first voted on. It’s been held up in administrative and constitutional challenges for a while.

    5 votes
  10. Comment on India moves to implement controversial citizenship bill that excludes Muslims in ~humanities

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    Not really. The lion’s share are from Burma and Bangladesh and they come through illegally. In the Northeast the central government’s reach into the countryside can be pretty tenuous at best, so...

    Not really. The lion’s share are from Burma and Bangladesh and they come through illegally. In the Northeast the central government’s reach into the countryside can be pretty tenuous at best, so there’s no good way to track. They don’t even have a great sense for how many native-born Indians there are there.

    7 votes
  11. Comment on India moves to implement controversial citizenship bill that excludes Muslims in ~humanities

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    There aren’t really significant populations of those coming into India at this point. The main group affected is likely to be Rohingyas from Burma, but India’s Northeast is already on the brink of...

    There aren’t really significant populations of those coming into India at this point. The main group affected is likely to be Rohingyas from Burma, but India’s Northeast is already on the brink of civil war from absorbing Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants so it makes sense that the government would want to staunch the influx in the name of political stability.

    10 votes
  12. Comment on American politics is undergoing a racial realignment – Democrats are rapidly losing non-white voters as the forces that ensured their support weaken in ~misc

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    I’m fine with banning certain aesthetics, because I don’t want guns in the hands of wannabe operator shitheads and the more we can do to keep them from getting into owning guns as a hobby the...

    I’m fine with banning certain aesthetics, because I don’t want guns in the hands of wannabe operator shitheads and the more we can do to keep them from getting into owning guns as a hobby the better.

    If we could design legislation specifically to keep guns out of those people’s hands without any functional compromise I’d count that as an absolute win. Paint them all pink and give them dildo grips if that’s what it takes.

  13. Comment on American politics is undergoing a racial realignment – Democrats are rapidly losing non-white voters as the forces that ensured their support weaken in ~misc

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    People propose what they think they can get passed. The intransigence of the gun lobby means all you’ll get is small potatoes, if that.

    Almost nobody is proposing a coherent licensure system. Usually it’s AWBs, red-flag laws, and further restrictions on CC.

    People propose what they think they can get passed. The intransigence of the gun lobby means all you’ll get is small potatoes, if that.

    2 votes
  14. Comment on American politics is undergoing a racial realignment – Democrats are rapidly losing non-white voters as the forces that ensured their support weaken in ~misc

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    No. It was a dead letter until the 60s when the gun lobby and Birchers pulled it out of their asses and seeded it into the judiciary through the Federalist Society. I also don’t think it would...

    Screwing around with a right in the constitution,

    No. It was a dead letter until the 60s when the gun lobby and Birchers pulled it out of their asses and seeded it into the judiciary through the Federalist Society.

    I also don’t think it would have 0 impact. But it’s hard to have a fact based discussion on any of it because gun nut lobbyists have literally disallowed Congress or the CDC from even being able to collect the data or study the impacts of policies in any systematic way.

    This is all before you get into the issue of current circulation

    Largely irrelevant. What’s likely to end up in the black/gray market is only a subset of that and there’s an 80/20 rule in terms of who owns them. (As in a TON of the guns are owned by a very small number of people). It’s fine if you only get some of the most egregious stuff at the first pass. Legislation is iterative, you can tweak things as you go.

    The majority of gun violence is suicide which is clearly mental health support

    No, access to guns dramatically increases likelihood of successful suicide and attempts at it independent of everything else. There’s a reason Amazon puts so much energy into one-click ordering. The more steps you put between thinking about a thing and following through on it the more opportunities people have to change their minds. Suicide is usually an impulsive act.

    As for mass shootings, they're an extreme anomaly in gun violence

    Yeah. There’s so much routine gun violence that the mass shootings end up being a small fraction of the incidences. But this isn’t the exonerating factor you seem to think it is. The same laxity around gun ownership and indifference to irresponsible and antisocial behavior by gun owners contributes to both. The mass shootings are the canaries in the coal mine.

    2 votes
  15. Comment on American politics is undergoing a racial realignment – Democrats are rapidly losing non-white voters as the forces that ensured their support weaken in ~misc

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    Yes. Generally what passing a law would do is establish a legal definition. And they’re also pretty clear on what they’re trying to ban, which is stuff like bump stocks, extended mags, pistol...

    There is no legal definition of “assault style weapons”

    Yes. Generally what passing a law would do is establish a legal definition.

    And they’re also pretty clear on what they’re trying to ban, which is stuff like bump stocks, extended mags, pistol grips, etc.

    Even if it is on the level of aesthetics that’s not the worst thing, a big part of the toxicity of American gun culture is the focus on appealing to mentally unwell macho dorks. So making guns less appealing to those people would actually help, in the same way banning cigarette cartons from having cartoon characters on them was part of cutting down on smoking.

    They need to constrain where and how gun companies advertise too.

    4 votes
  16. Comment on American politics is undergoing a racial realignment – Democrats are rapidly losing non-white voters as the forces that ensured their support weaken in ~misc

    NaraVara
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Usually the complaint is that “assault rifle” isn’t a technical term. It’s just one of those random “gotchas” to derail the conversation while adding nothing productive. Like “Hurr it’s magazine.”...

    Usually the complaint is that “assault rifle” isn’t a technical term. It’s just one of those random “gotchas” to derail the conversation while adding nothing productive. Like “Hurr it’s magazine.” Everyone knows what’s meant by it. I’m an economist and I’m not over here being like “hurr you have understand calculus before you’re allowed to have opinions on whether you feel financially stable.”

    6 votes
  17. Comment on Why is the discourse on Tildes so much nicer than most places on the internet? in ~tildes

  18. Comment on American politics is undergoing a racial realignment – Democrats are rapidly losing non-white voters as the forces that ensured their support weaken in ~misc

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    It is definitely generational, but I’m not really sure if it’s a generational cohort thing or just a “your perspective changes as you get older” thing. Probably a bit of both but hard to say what...

    It is definitely generational, but I’m not really sure if it’s a generational cohort thing or just a “your perspective changes as you get older” thing. Probably a bit of both but hard to say what the percentage split is.

    3 votes
  19. Comment on American politics is undergoing a racial realignment – Democrats are rapidly losing non-white voters as the forces that ensured their support weaken in ~misc

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    There will never be someone like McCain though. The party’s pickled itself in crazy. 90% of the gun industry is based on fear mongering so that’s just the water we’re swimming in. Aside from that...

    There will never be someone like McCain though. The party’s pickled itself in crazy.

    It's not even something the left fully agrees on. I think there should be gun control. I think 90% of the gun control proposed is outright insulting to everyone involved. Just utter ignorance and fear mongering to make it look like they're going to do something.

    90% of the gun industry is based on fear mongering so that’s just the water we’re swimming in. Aside from that though, the main proposals are universal background checks, gun licensing, and a national registry/database. I fail to see what’s insulting or ignorant about that.

    15 votes
  20. Comment on Why is the discourse on Tildes so much nicer than most places on the internet? in ~tildes

    NaraVara
    Link Parent
    Yeah that’s one of those things where I think people get confused as to what’s a healthy norm to carry as a society vs. a healthy norm to have within a communal space. Tone policing is a problem...
    • Exemplary

    Yeah that’s one of those things where I think people get confused as to what’s a healthy norm to carry as a society vs. a healthy norm to have within a communal space.

    Tone policing is a problem when tone is used to invalidate someone’s perspective or opinion, because those people exist in the world and they deserve to be happy so you should try to figure out what’s going on underneath the nasty tone so you can get at the kernel of a good point they might have.

    But a communal space only works if everyone in the community participates in keeping the space healthy. If you don’t police for tone, you lose the space. The space isn’t the society, that’s just the specific space where you’re all hanging out. You are allowed to, and should, cultivate whatever vibe you want in your space.

    Big social media platforms, like Twitter and Facebook, have megalomaniacal aspirations so they try to conflate themselves with the public sphere as a whole. They are not the public sphere. The Internet is the public sphere. And it needs lots of small, different spaces in it where different communities can all settle on the norms and boundaries that are healthiest for that specific community.

    76 votes