Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder2.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: William Hyde Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Re: Awfully quiet in here... Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2024 23:46:36 -0500 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 110 Message-ID: References: <1efd1717-3e51-3fc4-1408-a5296f06b1ef@example.net> <5f1024bb-1145-580f-2f01-b62a2b7736eb@example.net> <1df82b2a-efb7-54cd-bf34-795a47929cc7@example.net> <5ha4jj19ria2jt50om4ln34b69j5ojg4gk@4ax.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 05:46:34 +0100 (CET) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="36f803e464ea1cb831dc90b271f1fcd5"; logging-data="1521542"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX189SU7w9/g8CLOy22D1CiFj" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:91.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/91.0 SeaMonkey/2.53.19 Cancel-Lock: sha1:8LlY+zPWf/AiMmGcGWgUgZnA5V8= X-Antivirus-Status: Clean X-Antivirus: Norton (VPS 241111-20, 11/11/2024), Outbound message In-Reply-To: Bytes: 5703 Lynn McGuire wrote: > On 11/11/2024 1:42 PM, William Hyde wrote: >> Paul S Person wrote: >>> On Sun, 10 Nov 2024 15:06:22 -0500, William Hyde >>> wrote: >>> >>>> D wrote: >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> On Sat, 9 Nov 2024, Cryptoengineer wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> On 11/9/2024 4:04 PM, D wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> On Sat, 9 Nov 2024, Paul S Person wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> So if not having a lot of people around is a good thing, Wyoming >>>>>>>> would >>>>>>>> probably work. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Do you think I would be allowed to wear a cowboy hat and walk around >>>>>>> with a gun in Wyoming? That would be a strong incentive! >>>>>> >>>>>> For citizens who meet the other requirements for firearms possession, >>>>>> yes. You don't even need a permit. I'm not sure about green card >>>>>> holders. >>>>>> >>>>>> pt >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Hooray! =D Yet another dream that the US would make come true! It >>>>> truly >>>>> is the land of the free compared with shitty old europe which I >>>>> passionately hate so much! >>>> >>>> >>>> Some years ago Duke University ran a job search for a senior scientist. >>>> >>>> An American scientist resident in Denmark was flown in and gave an >>>> exceptionally good talk.  At dinner the conversation turned to his life >>>> in Denmark, and he seemed very happy with it. >>>> >>>> So told him that, while I was not myself on the search committee, I >>>> thought it was almost certain that he'd be offered the job and asked if >>>> he would take it. >>>> >>>> "Absolutely not!" he said, puzzled that I would even ask. >>>> >>>> So opinions differ. >>>> >>>> Duke is in Durham, NC, possibly too warm for your wife.  And it has >>>> lots >>>> of sidewalks to attract liberals, though as I found in an October walk, >>>> ankle-destroying breaks in the sidewalk can be obscured by colourful >>>> autumn leaves. >>> >>> Saves the city from having to fix the sidewalks: out of sight, out of >>> mind. >>> >>> Well, until they get sued, anyway. >> >> Halifax was the exact opposite.  They fixed sidewalks which were >> perfectly fine.  The reason being that the city is mildly corrupt, and >> people wanted those contracts. Still, they were a pleasure to walk on. >> >> For contrast, sidewalks on the Dalhousie campus in Halifax were a >> positive danger, but never fixed as the University always had >> something different to spend its limited cash on.  Like office >> redecoration for administrators. >> >> An elderly retired professor died from a fall owing to broken >> sidewalks at A&M.  The site was taped off, but not repaired in the two >> years before I left Texas. >> >> Some years ago there was a competition in Toronto to find the oldest >> bit of sidewalk.  The winning pavement was dated 1918 and was in >> perfect shape.  It was, however, under a bridge and thus somewhat >> sheltered. >> >>> >>> (The local university once install a road bump that injured five >>> people, one of whom died. The fifth, who didn't die, won a $16M >>> judgement against them. Only then did they remove it and replace it >>> with something less dangerous. Never underestimate the power of a >>> lawsuit payout to change minds.) >> >> In Texas the payout would have been limited to 500k. >> >> I wasn't hurt enough to consider suing Durham.  Besides, if one >> demands low taxes one gets low service, and I can't sue the voters, >> can I? >> >> Caveat Pedestrem. >> >> (Someone correct my Latin, I'm sure that's wrong). >> >> >> William Hyde > > Texas damage lawsuits are limited to $500K plus actual economic damages. >  I am not sure how the economic damage of a death would be calculated > but it could be in the millions for taking care of dependents. In the case of the man whose head was run over by an A&M vehicle, 500k was the limit. It made quite a stir on campus at the time. I'm happy to hear that things have improved, to some degree. William Hyde