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   Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 12-Jan-2025 04:59:37 JST Charlie Stross

   • Cory Doctorow
   • Teedi P.
   • Oggie
   • la tierra de nuestros nietos

   @utopiarte @pluralistic @Oggie @CaffeinatedBookDragon @tierranietos VW Beetles? The original kind are illegal here. As for the new model, I live a 500 metre walk from the milestone at the centre of a capital city. Everything I need is within a 15 minute walk—main line railway station, specilist delis, a couple of shopping malls and department stores, multiple supermarkets, gyms, doctor's surgery, libraries, buses and trams to the airport and regional teaching hospital …

   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 12-Jan-2025 23:10:44 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Teedi P.
     • Oggie
     • la tierra de nuestros nietos

     @CaffeinatedBookDragon @utopiarte @pluralistic @Oggie @tierranietos One of the most epic bits of gaslighting in recent years is the far-right attempt to portray "fifteen minute cities" as some kind of ghastly utopia. They're the exact opposite—and it's just bullshit being pushed by fossil-fuels lobbyists.

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     Teedi P. (caffeinatedbookdragon@nerdculture.de)'s status on Sunday, 12-Jan-2025 23:10:45 JST Teedi P.

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Oggie
     • la tierra de nuestros nietos

     @cstross @utopiarte @pluralistic @Oggie @tierranietos

     Lucky. I live out-county, outside Houston. A 15 minute walk would get me to a dollar store &a few gas stations either direction. Hell, I'd have to DRIVE about 15 minutes to even get basic groceries either direction, too. I'm so far out in the sticks I can't get pizza or grocery delivery, and Uber would be crazy costly (if any wanted to even come out this far).

     I swear my small town basically grew up around some churches and gas stations, just a pass-through place where some folks decided to live instead of move on. And taxes go up because they're trying to "keep it small", and we don't even have an urgent care clinic or ER while other towns around us have 2 or 3 each. I like living out county because I can plant what I want in my yard & no HOA to breathe down my neck, & town is boring as hell without much opportunity. The worst trade-off, though, is if I don't have a working car, I'm stranded.

   • Embed this notice
     Cory Doctorow (pluralistic@mamot.fr)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 00:03:58 JST Cory Doctorow

     in reply to

     • Teedi P.
     • Oggie
     • la tierra de nuestros nietos

     @cstross @CaffeinatedBookDragon @utopiarte @Oggie @tierranietos

     Yes.

     And...

     https://locusmag.com/2023/05/commentary-cory-doctorow-the-swivel-eyed-loons-have-a-point/

   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 00:44:10 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Teedi P.
     • Oggie
     • la tierra de nuestros nietos

     @pluralistic @CaffeinatedBookDragon @utopiarte @Oggie @tierranietos TLDR: just because Those Guys are Wrong it doesn't follow that their opponents are Right. (I still think the big mistake was allowing automobiles to operate on the public highway without requiring a man to walk 50 paces in front of each of them carrying a red flag at all times.)

   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 04:21:22 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Teedi P.
     • cpm
     • Oggie
     • la tierra de nuestros nietos

     @cpm @pluralistic @CaffeinatedBookDragon @utopiarte @Oggie @tierranietos Neither of my SCOTTISH novels was set in London! (But there was a time-critical dash in "Rule 34" by a police car which gets to break the automatically imposed speed limit when it's got lights and sirens going for an emergency call.)

   • Embed this notice
     cpm (cpm@spore.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 04:21:23 JST cpm

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Teedi P.
     • Oggie
     • la tierra de nuestros nietos

     @cstross
     That's interesting

     was it in one of the New Management novels, that a time-critical dash thru London in a cab, wherein one of our protagonists complained about speed-limiting infrastructure was a bad thing?

     or was it in Rule 34?

     Honestly, I thought you were in the 'automobiles first! All else be damed' camp

     shame on me!

     @pluralistic @CaffeinatedBookDragon @utopiarte @Oggie @tierranietos

   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 04:42:39 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Teedi P.
     • cpm
     • Oggie
     • la tierra de nuestros nietos

     @cpm @pluralistic @CaffeinatedBookDragon @utopiarte @Oggie @tierranietos Not to worry, first attempt Ace made at a cover for "Halting State" (again, a SCOTTISH crime novel) they used London Metropolitan Police iconography and Big Ben! (I got slightly opinionated … like putting an LAPD patrol car in Time Square.)

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     cpm (cpm@spore.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 04:42:40 JST cpm

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Teedi P.
     • Oggie
     • la tierra de nuestros nietos

     @cstross
     Oh
     man

     I'm sorry!

     Guess I should go back & re-read everything so far!

     Lol!

     OK

     I accept!

     looking forward to it!

     great ride
     &
     thanks very much for your work

     @pluralistic @CaffeinatedBookDragon @utopiarte @Oggie @tierranietos

   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 04:53:52 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Teedi P.
     • Oggie
     • Nicovel0 🍉
     • Amro has been
     • la tierra de nuestros nietos

     @amro @Nicovel0 @pluralistic @CaffeinatedBookDragon @utopiarte @Oggie @tierranietos I got rid of my last car in 2022: a Volvo V70 from 2006, so about the last model year to come with a CD player but no AUX input, never mind USB/satnav/3G/telemetry snitchware bullshit. Didn't meet new emission standards and I'd stopped driving during COVID lockdown, so …

   • Embed this notice
     Amro has been (amro@todon.nl)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 04:53:53 JST Amro has been

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Teedi P.
     • Oggie
     • Nicovel0 🍉
     • la tierra de nuestros nietos

     @Nicovel0 @cstross @pluralistic @CaffeinatedBookDragon @utopiarte @Oggie @tierranietos

     Can I just thank everyone in this thread for the most meandering interesting conversation I've read this year.
     I feel a strong obligation to tell that my car would do well on the mean streets of Manchester and is electronically stunted enough to be surveillance free. The Toyota Yaris Verso is a Japanese Tardis on wheels.
     Please keep this up ❤️

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     Nicovel0 🍉 (nicovel0@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 04:53:54 JST Nicovel0 🍉

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Teedi P.
     • Oggie
     • la tierra de nuestros nietos

     @cstross @pluralistic @CaffeinatedBookDragon @utopiarte @Oggie @tierranietos this is why I’m in favour of bollards: they work 24/7 even when the network is down, don’t spy on anyone, 0 power requirements, and mete out instant justice to offenders.