I’m pretty sure there are other exceptions

This “shaming” or the “shit storm” is usually (and I think here too) just some Incels commenting on Instagram. As Instagram optimizes for maximum engagement, the stupidest and most controversial take is always at the top of the comments, that’s how we end up with these idiots getting their platform. And these “news sites” then make a big deal out of a few losers also as engagement bait. This whole system is fucked

I guess we’re screwed

I know it as “Seitdem das Deutsche Reich besteht wird die Schraube rechts gedreht” (“Since the German Reich was founded, the screw has been turned to the right”), I always assumed it was because many things were standardized between the German states after unification and that this was one of these things, but I can’t find any reference to that.

Goodbye?

And this criticism of ‘the greens only show up every 4 years’ is in bad faith.

No, it’s really not. The Mayor of Galesburg, IL, a town of 30.000 is the highest office any green politician holds in the US. This is fucking ridiculous.

By their own admission, only 130 Greens are currently in office in highly influential positions such as Zoning Board of Appeals Alternate or Cemetery Trust Fund Committee. This party is a fucking joke. And that’s the party whose presidential candidate accepts an invitation from Putin.

… why?

How is that a better solution than using another messenger app?

Not if your goal is to reach net zero emissions at some point

There are definitely use cases for battery-electric trains:

• We have these in Germany usually in areas with low traffic. E.g. if a train line is only serviced a couple of times a day, it’s more cost-effective to carry the batteries with you than to electrify the line.
• Another use case are train ferries. They are the reason why Germany also had Diesel-powered high-speed trains for a while.
• Another challenge in Europe is the lack of harmonization of power supplies of train lines between countries. In cross-border traffic, trains have to be adapted to work with different energy supplies. Battery-electric trains can add flexibility for these scenarios. E.g. Germany uses AC 15 kV 16.7Hz, the Netherlands DC 1.5 kV on low-speed and AC 25 kV 50Hz on high-speed lines. When a train goes from the Netherlands to Germany, it disconnects from the Dutch system and reconnects to the German system on the fly. For a moment in between, the train loses power. If the train lacks momentum or has to stop unexpectedly, the train is stranded and has to be pushed over the border by another train that is independent of the power supply.

The Shinkansen is absolutely great and I love traveling in Japan by train, much better experience overall than Germany. That said, there are still so many things that are oddly outdated. Like, why is there no app to book tickets? Even when booking online, physical tickets are still needed and have to be collected at the train station.

Now with the typhoon a lot of connections were cancelled. Hundreds of people had to go to physical counters to exchange their physical tickets to cash. Because there’s an emergency schedule on some lines, the ticket machines don’t work and customers have to go to counters to get tickets. Even Germany is more digitized than that. Granted, Germany has a lot more experience with cancelled train connections…

It’s like, Japan was ahead of everyone else and just stopped there. Still a great experience but it could be so much better with relatively little effort.

I don’t quite share your sentiment. Although FDP tends to yap a lot about car infrastructure, investments into train infrastructure in Germany are at a record high. Still far too low, I agree, but it’s not getting worse. And I don’t see AfD joining any government on national level anytime soon. Also, cycling infrastructure is more a local topic and most cities are still center-left. Outside of cities I don’t see biking infrastructure improving either, though.

Because most people have their phone on vibrate 100% of the time. I had a OnePlus and my slider got stuck. Couldn’t change the setting for 2 years but as it was stuck in vibrate, it didn’t matter anyway.

IDs are not routinely checked when voting in Germany at least. But there’s no voter registration necessary because everyone is registered with their municipality and automatically gets their voting paperwork sent home. You just need that paperwork to vote, no ID. I wouldn’t change that setup because giving poll workers ways to refuse voters is not a good thing.

Btw. I’ve never had to wait in line for more than a minute to vote. Voting booths are usually in walking distance (might be different in very rural areas) and each accommodates maybe 250 people for the day.

Also, there are polling stations in prison. The right to vote can’t be taken away.

I still fail to see the point. Then don’t use Epic? You can get the game from the website, you need exactly 0 launchers for the game