memes

Ea Nasir is a really interesting case study of how one piece of information can be interpreted in two completely different ways.

One interpretation, and the one most people know, is that the authors of the clay tablets complaints are legitimate.

The other is that Ea Nasir kept them as a record of people attempting to harm his reputation. So he could remember who to avoid doing business with in the future.

I would give this merchant zero stars if I could

Awful copper

Worst trade experiemce of my life. I will not be returning

If only it were possible to transport humans and goods without a network of cameras invading everyone's privacy.

If only that was the natural state of the world for more of human history until just a few years ago.

Photo enforcement cameras are problematic for several reasons.

A) It has been shown that yellow lights with such cameras are very often set to a yellow duration briefer than generally accepted engineering practices to increase revenue *1

B) They discourage a rare misbehavior, actually running red lights, whilst causing another to become common. That is slamming on the brakes even when it isn't safe to stop. Exacerbated by A. Better slam on the brakes when it flicks yellow even if you are way too close to reasonably stop whilst going only the speed limit.

People who are caught up by it are almost always those who found themselves a bit too far into the intersection to safely stop. EG those who cross the threshold right as it is changing. There is for reasons of safety a few seconds between one light turning red and another green. At 30 mph (44 feet per second) someone will fully clear a 40 foot intersection in less than a second. That is to say the only people you catch aren't those who would have collided.

They are those

1. you fucked with the shorter duration yellow oops
2. people who hesitated because of 1 and slowed but ultimately decided to proceed thinking they can make it
3. People with poorer brakes and or dealing with rainy conditions reducing stopping time.

C) Most of the money goes to the contractor who owns the cameras. Essentially you are letting a private company prey on your citizens as long as government gets to keep the scraps.

*1 https://ww2.motorists.org/blog/6-cities-that-were-caught-shortening-yellow-light-times-for-profit/

As someone else pointed out, the traffic light itself isn't being affected, just the automated enforcement mechanism of the camera. We managed just fine without those.

Traffic enforcement cameras are one of the worst ways I can think of to coordinate traffic.

There is some political horseshoe theory that connects "People who cannot stand any kind of authority at all and start shrieking even when a forum mod removes their comments."

It's the weird far-left anarchists and far right libertarians finding common ground in wanting a society where mommy doesn't tell them to not run with scissors. Some of the "sovereign citizens" who make for hilarious Youtube content are sincere in their their irrational hate for any kind of rules and laws.

I have had enough dealings with these folks that I have a pretty strong opinion that nobody has been able to change, that these folks just have serious authority issues and do not give a shit about a broader society and are just mad at their parents.

They are the absolute worst people you could ever have as neighbors. I sometimes think we should drive them into the sea via mobs with torches.

edit: let me double down - if you get angry at the idea of authority (not considering the enforcers or management of that authority, which is a separate thing) you need to be driven into the sea via mobs with torches. We need systems and rules and taxes for a functional society. Work on changing the way that society enforces and motivates people to follow those rules instead of blindly lashing out at anything designed to keep people safe.

That can be done though street design. See: The Netherlands.

I mean this in a genuine way, why in your mind those are the two options available? Total anarchy without functioning transit or cameras pointing at drivers?

There are several different ways to control traffic. If privacy is an importanr factor for a culture, they'd rank privacy respecting alternatives higher.

They would remove the camera not the traffic light. I don't think that would cause an accident

The city I work for put up Flock cameras with specific instructions from Council that they were only to be used for identification of cars flagged in active warrants.

Within a week of their installation, police used the cameras to track the movements of someone who filed a complaint.

The US’ private companies

this is entirely the problem, because they're turning over info to ICE and other agencies and it's being used oppressively.

These aren't about speed anymore, they're all turning into auto license plate readers run by private corporations for an infinite surveillance dragnet

FDA, but yeah.

No, I just haven't seen any evidence red light cameras are effective.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/red-light-cameras-may-not-make-streets-safer/

Also I don't like everything being under camera surveillance, so I need a strong justification to be fine with more of it

Big problem with these is profit motivation. They are usually operated by a for profit business that the city contracts to. One of the cities near me had a few installed. The company made 5 million a year in fines, city ended up with pennies. The road is built like a 40mph road but has a 25mph speed limit only where the cameras are. There is no money to update the road to actually make it safer because it all goes to the company operating the cameras.

Just about $23 per camera where I'm at

Bright shiny copper is just under $4/lb where I am. It varies by location and what your recyclers will pay.

That's $27 of meth they wouldn't have had otherwise