The Off Topic Topic

[derspiess]

I got the application for my Obamaphone today.  I'm going to call derfetus with it.  ALL. THE. TIME.

You don't get unlimited minutes.

[Ed Anger]

I'd give Seedy one of my numbers, but I'd rather not want to woken up at 3am asking me to break him out of his cell.

4am, the cat will call.

[CountDeMoney]

I got the application for my Obamaphone today.  I'm going to call derfetus with it.  ALL. THE. TIME.

You don't get unlimited minutes.

You do when you get enough phones, bwahahaha, etc. 

[garbon]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanbergara/chinese-people-try-panda-express-for-the-first-time

I like how the old people were like "yeah, of course doesn't mostly taste like chinese food but a lot of it is tasty" and the young people were like "we must have something negative to say about everything."

[Caliga]

I like Panda but lately the one by me has been constantly out of stuff.  I was there the other day and they were actually out of rice.  How can a fucking Chinese place be out of rice? 

[Barrister]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanbergara/chinese-people-try-panda-express-for-the-first-time

I like how the old people were like "yeah, of course doesn't mostly taste like chinese food but a lot of it is tasty" and the young people were like "we must have something negative to say about everything."

Yeah, that was kind of amusing for exactly that reason!

Fucking Chinese-American hipsters.

[Syt]

http://www.citylab.com/commute/2015/02/all-the-ways-germany-is-less-car-reliant-than-the-us-in-1-chart/385163/?utm_source=SFFB

The data come from a recent comparison of German and U.S. planning approaches led by transport scholar Ralph Buehler of Virginia Tech. Drilling down to the city level, Buehler and collaborators find more of the same driving trends in an analysis of two large metros from each country: Washington, D.C., and Stuttgart.

Both areas have similar economies, labor markets, core populations (roughly 600,000 people), regional planning organizations that outline local transport policies. Yet Stuttgart comes off as less car-reliant than D.C. on all sorts of measures. We've bulleted some of the highlights:

Car-ownership (per 1,000 people) — D.C.: 744, Stuttgart: 544
Share of all trips by car — D.C.: 81%, Stuttgart: 57%
Center city share of all trips by car — D.C.: 51%, Stuttgart: 44%
Suburban share of all trips by car — D.C.: 70-85%, Stuttgart: 60%
Periphery share of all trips by car — D.C.: 90%, Stuttgart: 70-75%
Short trips by car (<1.25 miles) — DC: ~66%, Stuttgart: <25%
What's especially notable here is that driving behavior in the remote periphery of Stuttgart is about the same as it is in the suburbs of D.C. To wit: the two most car-dependent suburbs of Stuttgart (Nürtingen and Geislingen) have shares of all trips by car roughly equivalent to the two least car-dependent suburbs of D.C. (Arlington and Alexandria): roughly 70 to 75 percent in each place. Meanwhile, walking and cycling account for 6 percent of trips in most D.C. suburbs, while in Stuttgart's most car-oriented areas these modes still account for more than a fifth of all travel.

So the suburbs of D.C. are basically as car-oriented as the cow pastures of Stuttgart. The map below lays it out pretty clearly:



National policy differences have clearly driven the driving gap. Germany has a tradition of coordinating transportation and land use efforts toward policy goals that stretch across levels of government, such as reducing sprawl, cutting emissions, and promoting public transit. Its narrow zoning laws are better suited to transit-oriented, mixed-use development, and in recent decades it's made a strong push at the federal level to fund transit initiatives.

The United States, meanwhile, tends to have a more fragmented approach that makes it tough to shift travel behavior at large. Policy goals are largely local in character and as a result can vary dramatically from place to place within a metro area: Arlington, Virginia, has promoted strong TOD, for instance, while nearby Fairfax County has tended to build parking lots beside rail stations. And while the D.C. metro area has done more than most in the U.S. to integrate fare payment methods across jurisdictions, it's still nowhere near as uniform as Stuttgart.

[CountDeMoney]

LOL, apples and oranges, man.

The post WW2 United States and its transportation model was framed around cheap fuel, cheap automobiles and that fact that people didn't live in the cities they worked in.
The post WW2 Germany and its transportation model was framed around trying not to invade shit anymore.

[Syt]

It appears there's a metal band from Germany called "Islay," like the Scottish island. Obviously, the songs on their self titled album are:

1.   Laphroaig   04:01   
2.   Dalwhinnie   02:46   
3.   Glenkinchie   04:52   
4.   Oban   03:23   
5.   Aberlour   03:42   
6.   Glenfiddich   02:37   
7.   Bowmore   03:53   
8.   Bruichladdich   04:15   
9.   Caol Ila   04:22   
10.   Jura   04:54   
11.   Lagavulin   04:17   
12.   Cragganmore   05:17   
13.   Octomore   03:16   

[Valmy]

What Scotch they were drunk on when they wrote those songs?

[Sheilbh]

RIP Sir Martin Gilbert
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11389474/Sir-Martin-Gilbert-historian-obituary.html

[Syt]

What Scotch they were drunk on when they wrote those songs?

Yeah, the songs are unfortunately not very good.

[The Brain]

All Romanians must fucking hang.

[alfred russel]

Syt, why do you think the source you posted shows fatalities per 100,000 of population for automobiles but not for bikes? Also, why do you think it doesn't show government expenditure as a percent of distance traveled?

[Syt]

Syt, why do you think the source you posted shows fatalities per 100,000 of population for automobiles but not for bikes? Also, why do you think it doesn't show government expenditure as a percent of distance traveled?

The fuck do I know?