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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: December 4th, 2023

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  • Im mostly pro congestion pricing but there are two things that make me sympathetic to some of the detractors.

    One issue is that well, the New York metro area as a whole is better than the rest of the country when it comes to public transit and getting people into the city. It is still has big gaps and holes. For example if you live west of the Hudson the metro north is not as complete as east and then you have towns in nj also not on the rail line. These people don’t have the means to be able to take public transit in a way that doesn’t add a significant, significant amount of time to their already long commute. And on top of that, they’re already paying pretty hefty tolls to get to and into the city on top of the car maintenance and the gas. And a lot of these people live in the far fringes of the metro area, not just because they are priced out of the closer, better connected suburbs, as well as the city itself.

    The other side of the argument is that the MTA is genuinely dysfunctional. Like it was only a few years ago that the governor decided to try and do a surprise visit to see the workers working overtime and found that nobody was there.The MTA is mismanaged in all facets. I don’t blame people for being skeptical that this money will be well utilized.

    That said, a large majority of people who are anti- congestion are just car-brained and do live near a convenient rail or park and ride and Would probably improve their own quality of life if they just took public transit instead of sitting in traffic every day.



  • I feel like the haters over exaggerate. Like they say that raytracing will never happen and shouldnt. Technology will eventually improve and methods get better. Saying never and getting upset that there is an option to toggle in a game that pushes graphics is wrong. Its silly to think otherwise.

    That said I think a lot of the hesitancy and fear comes from the worry that we will be moving forwards too quickly. As it stands the hardware that isnt just adequate with upscaling but good at ray tracing is like $1000-$2000. AMD cards are at a handicap as well. I think the fear is that the industry dives in too fast and abandons the old lighting techniques leaving people with lower end hardware behind or with a low setting that looks way worse than the older methods of lighting.

    I think the fear is unfounded though since consoles will always be the primary target and A) They use amd or nvidia’s mobile chip and B) they have to have a competitive price. As a result it will be a long while before we go all in on ray tracing.














  • I feel like the big issue is the difference in how it’s portrayed. In DS9 and even enterprise section 31 are the bad guys. They are portrayed as a shadowy organization that thinks it’s doing the right thing but when confronted gets in the way. In DS9 they even lose. Section 31 arent an example of the end justifying the means being a necessary evil, they are something from within for the idealistic federation to overcome and defeat.

    As a concept section 31 doesnt make a whole lot of sense lore wise because the federation is a paramilitary organization. Sure they are scientists, explorers, and philosophers at heart, but they are also very much a military Navy. We also see that starfleet does have a non section 31 intelligence complete with spies that go deep undercover get the trust of their enemies and sell them out. The federation knows the galaxy is a hostile place which is why they explore in heavily armed warships with a crew that follows a strict chain of command.

    I think part of the wish fulfillment and idealism of the federation lies in the implication that they are also very powerful and able and willing to defend themselves with great force. Even the cruise ship Enterprise D was able to take on multiple enemy warships at once and win.

    The major difference between section 31 and standard federation operating procedures seems to be their appetite for genocide and civilians.

    It is a thing that has made me nervous about this new project since it was announced. Section 31 appearing as a bump in the road for our idealistic federation members to deal with works and allows them to stay the badguy. Them as the protagonists of a show or movie puts us in a situation where we get told stories where the ends justifies the means. And they either do this by making the federation seem naive and incompetent(which they arent they have a prime directive where they sterilize all life on a planet) or it has them justifying some heinous crap.