Ah, yes, the original ultra-luggable.
7,153 karma · joined April 17, 2008
You're never going to escape government surveillance, but you can take steps to prevent advertisers from hoovering up every last bit of personal data that they can.
In my culture, there's a strong push against being constantly online.
Phones must be kept in a backpack or otherwise stowed during social occasions, unless absolutely necessary.
Ideally, you turn them off, stuff them in a Faraday bag, and leave them in your car. Or just leave the phone at home.
Correlated to this is a focus on rebuilding some atrophied skills: getting around without Google Maps, being alone without needing the constant distraction of Youtube, etc.
The idea is that humans are not meant to live a life constantly mediated by an electronic nanny, and that you also need to maintain the skills to get along without one.
Related to this is a preference for physical media, or at least digital media over which you can exercise some control.
Walking around the store, looking at all the covers to try and figure out what we were going to watch. Usually, you had seen a preview for any given movie, or had at least heard about it, but there was still a lot of "rolling the dice", especially if the actor was famous: I saw Battlefield Earth because the cover looked cool and I liked space sci-fi, but the movie itself made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Many people don't know that the Soviet constitution guaranteed freedom of speech[1] (Article 125[1]), provided it was "in conformity with the interests of the working people, and in order to strengthen the socialist system"
Same goes for other socialist governments: the People's Republic of China (Article 35[2]), the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Article 67[3]), the German Democratic Republic (aka East Germany, Article 9[4]), and so on.
Of course, the reality was and is lengthy imprisonment for "free speech" against the government or ruling class.
"Free speech, except for [exceptions that are nearly infinite in scope]" is a key feature of socialist governments, as is justifying the imprisonment of dissidents and undesirables as "fighting anti-democratic forces" and "preventing the spread of misinformation".
Moreover, socialist governments are very clear that they are democracies; it's often in the name (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), and also frequently appears in speeches, official documents, etc.
Their commitment to "democracy" isn't just words-on-paper, either! Voting is usually either mandatory or "strongly encouraged", although you can only vote for a Party-approved candidate, and the outcome of elections is basically pre-determined.
[1] https://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/36cons04....
[2] http://www.npc.gov.cn/zgrdw/englishnpc/Constitution/2007-11/...
[3] https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Peoples_Repub...
[4] https://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/1999/1/1/33cc8de2-3c...
His channel has a lot of other really great stuff on general electronics as well.
You have 240 V at the panel, but you only run half for each common circuit.
Stadiums that can only be used by a handful of local professional athletes? Hell no.
Stadiums that are part of local public infrastructure are a different story.
Facilities that can be rented in-full or in-part for a nominal fee by any resident in the community, and/or that during unused times are a center for community fitness? Hell yes.
Every city or ward in Japan has some kind of community center, and most of them have gyms and other fitness facilities, and overall they compare well to for-profit gyms -- which, admittedly, are absolute shit in Japan across the board, public, private, or otherwise[1]
[1] The average gym in Japan consists of approximately ten million treadmills and one squat rack, the latter having a reservation system, and being about as easy to book as an appointment with Elon Musk.
For a fully mobile senior requiring no additional care, you're looking at a minimum of USD $3500/month at an assisted living facility. Add in any nursing needs, and that number will quickly go north of $5k/month. Once you start heading towards your late 80s, that number again quickly doubles.
Note that this does not include medical care, diapers, clothing, a phone, etc.
And this is the bottom of the market. A higher-end home will run double if not more.
In Japan, there are homes for every income tier, from "nothing more than a government pension" on up. Sure, the lower-end homes aren't great, but they beat homelessness by a wide margin. And these are private businesses, not government-run facilities.
Difference being that HP won’t shoot me for buying a printer from Brother.
Still quite an achievement, but would be nice to see a more authentic engine option.
The average small child can't say what Dad's phone number is, or even his full name. Young kids have really limited awareness of their surroundings, and can get lost very easily. Add multiple kids into the mix and it can be a real challenge to keep them all together when you're out.
It’s also fair to mention that the lot sizes are drastically smaller: 1/16 of an acre is on the larger size here, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anything bigger that isn't in the middle of nowhere.
For context, 1/16 of an acre is around 2500 sqft, so that's smaller than the average American house.
And, if you have kids and move to the middle of nowhere... great, now your kids have nobody else their age to play with.
Japanese homes typically don't have backyards, and the small yard you do have is typically not fenced-in, which kinda sucks with young kids.
When you look at ingredient labels in Japan or Germany, you see a short list of what you would expect, plus maybe a preservative.
In the US, you see an entire chemistry lab: artificial colors and flavors, bizarre substitutes for real sugar, oils that a hundred years ago would not be considered fit for human consumption, and so on.
You may have noticed, walking around Tokyo, the lack of children. I certainly do every time I'm there -- I live about two hours away in a bedroom community, where you absolutely do need a car to get around.
Most Tokyo families have one and only one child.
Out where I live, where 1000sqft+ houses are the norm, three or more is not uncommon.
US energy policy has entered the chat.