• 7 Posts
  • 166 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • LOL, what rhetoric? I’m generally of the opinion that voting is an end in itself in democracies, and wish we had mandatory/compulsory voting laws. If you live in a democracy there should be obligation to vote, and the citizens should feel confident that we are accounting for the will of the people. But with the electoral college and first past the post system, there are realities of outcomes. There are really only 2 possible outcomes of a presidential race. And if you live in a swing state your vote does a lot more to tip realize one of those 2 outcomes. So the motivation to vote should be to help achieve one of those 2 outcomes that you find more preferable. If you live in a state that is not even close, that is when you don’t have to worry much about your vote impacting the outcome and therefore have more latitude. I’ve voted 3rd party in multiple elections, but I did so in good conscious knowing I wasn’t impacting the outcome of actual leadership due to the area I vote in. In pure rational choice model, sure, your individual vote likely won’t matter (how often is a race decided by 1 vote?), but if the level of effort to vote is low, might as well do it just in case and for a sense of moral civic duty to a democracy.






  • Thanks for the checking. I think the whole argument is pretty wild and specious, and factually suspect, that someone died because a person couldn’t look up the cpr video on time. YouTube is not a platform that is meant to deliver on demand life saving training. In NYC all the restaurants and workplaces have signs up in designated areas with instructions on how to do cpr. I suspect someone is going to more quickly look up written instructions or infographics if they need to Google. But really, this just speaks to the importance in staying up to date on CPR practices and having school and HR classes that teach this on a recurring basis. Using this as an argument against all ads is kind of nuts.

    Also, the first step of most CPR instructions is call 911. So if you follow instructions, how are you watching a video on the phone? And can’t the operator coach you through the steps? https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/cpr/performing-cpr/cpr-steps





  • YouTube wants you to keep watching the videos. The more time you spend on the site the more ads you see. They care about finding the balance of acceptable ad load to maximize ad space, which requires a consistent user base. I have faith that this is their objective. Also, videos take time to load and a user hitting pause is unpredictable. A light weight display ad is probably the best technically feasible way to grab a user’s attention in that brief moment of hitting pause. Especially when pause means a user wants to mute audio to do things like take a phone call, a video would turn off users to the platform.


  • It’s the opposite. If you pause the video you the viewers are almost always looking at the screen. The pause button on a mobile phone or web browser is literally on the player. You are guaranteed to see it immediately after you push the button. You will see it when you un pause. These ads are display banners not video. It only takes a second to see the ad.

    Unlike video ads that just auto play, especially when the video player auto plays more videos, there probably is more probability you aren’t actually watching, unlike pause ads that require user activity and focus on the screen to push the pause button.






  • Yes, they are standing to board. Because the NYC train station is under ground (tunnels are needed to get under the river, the platform is also under ground like a subway. The platform for the tracks are very narrow. So a train will come in, it will disembark all passengers and change crew. During this time above ground passengers get in line to present tickets. They then walk downstairs to the platform and board the train. But because the platform is underground and relatively small, it is not a comfortable or safe place to wait to board while guests disembark.

    Platform for amtrak at Penn Station/Moynihan:

    I think that is correct about consider Amtrak like an international train like SNCF in France to TGV. It’s passenger focused, but generally for longer trips with people carrying luggage. We also have regional/commuter trains for rides less than ~90 minutes meant to get people to work in the city.

    For seating, it’s somewhat limited because of the size of the station, but it’s also right in the middle of new york city. If you are looking to sit for an extended period of time and the weather is nice, there’s public seating at bryant park or the squares or blocked off seats on broadway outside of times square. But NYC doesn’t have a ton of space, and the train station is designed to prioritize the train passengers.


  • Nice thing about NYC is that housing is a right based on the Callahan v. Carey ruling. Every person that asks for temporary shelter is supposed to have access to it. It’s not perfect, doesn’t have the funding or capacity to deal with the bussed in migrants, but it’s better than most cities/states. And it does more to address the issue directly than viewing benches as a crutch for the problem.

    But re the engineer question, I think Moynihan probably had a lot of engineers. And safety, security, egress, congestion, etc were considered in the design which is why they put seating around the perimeter and not the center of the hall.


  • That is dangerous in NYC. Penn/Moynihan Station is a terminating station. I’m guessing over 60% of the train capacity often unloads at Penn/Moynihan Station (assuming NE corridor from DC with stops in philly and other towns along the way). You can’t have passengers waiting to board obstruct that many people disembarking on a narrow platform. You’re thinking of suburban train stations that just quickly pass through, not a major urban station. Also, because it’s amtrak there’s a lot of luggage being carried which needs more space. Not to mention room for dedicated luggage service to move bags to baggage claim.