Hotspur

Hotspur , 5 months ago to news in Proposed CA bill would electronically restrict cars from going 10mph over speed limit

I read the article, it definitely doesn’t bother to think about how something like this would be implemented, but certainly seems to be referring to a dynamic Limiting system… good luck.

Hotspur , 5 months ago to news in Proposed CA bill would electronically restrict cars from going 10mph over speed limit

I haven’t read the article, so just spitballing here: I have to assume the approach here is to electronically govern the engine to go no faster than the highest speed limit. I don’t know what the limits are in California, but where I live that’d mean the car would be limited to 80mph. If it was electronic, it could be adjusted if then limits were changed.

Otherwise, it’d be insane, and require the crazy infrastructure you describe. And they simply don’t have the money or the wherewithal to build an actual coverage that would allow the limiter to dynamically scale all the time.

Alternatively, I suppose you could imagine a hybrid system—ie an overall limited engine to the max limit, and then some sort of transponder that would throttle the limit down if you were near an important speed limit zone, like a school, which they could manage to deploy a transmitter at… still seems technologically challenging for the state to really pull off consistently though.

Either way, yeah not a fan or including more required tracking tech in vehicles. I don’t think I’d really hate a reasonably limited car—I really can’t justify needing to drive over 80 ever really, even in an emergency, but it would drive me insane to have the car just magically throttling down whenever it thought it was time to. See

Hotspur , 5 months ago to worldnews in Extreme Radiation Hazard in Marshall Islands, Critical Airspace Warning Issued

Yeah that’s certainly what it seems like.

Hotspur , 5 months ago to worldnews in Extreme Radiation Hazard in Marshall Islands, Critical Airspace Warning Issued

The radiation warning is near a different atoll, so hard to say if the above is related or not, but it’s kinda blowing my mind how limited reporting is on the subject. It feels like it’s being suppressed in English language media.

Hotspur , 5 months ago to worldnews in Extreme Radiation Hazard in Marshall Islands, Critical Airspace Warning Issued

An article from 2019, highlighting the risks of this thing becoming a problem: latimes.com/…/marshall-islands-nuclear-testing-se…

Hotspur , 5 months ago to worldnews in Extreme Radiation Hazard in Marshall Islands, Critical Airspace Warning Issued

This is a garbage website/source, but adds some more context:

www.msn.com/en-us/weather/…/ar-AA1mOoN9

Apparently a big concrete dome where loads of radioactive shit from old tests has cracked due to weather/climate related wear and tear.

Hotspur , 5 months ago to memes in This is the master race...?

Alternatively, it’s a clever way to disguise himself. Be a fascist dickbag at work, but vacation as just another bald Estonian dude.

Hotspur , 5 months ago to news in Texas refuses to comply with Biden administration's cease-and-desist letter about border access

I remember that. Such a weird and excellent name for a loony military operation.

Hotspur , 5 months ago to news in Texas refuses to comply with Biden administration's cease-and-desist letter about border access

Basically exactly what I think also—it’s not an activity that just stops at some arbitrary point, it’s a power negotiation. They’ll push it as far as they can.

Hotspur , 5 months ago to news in Texas refuses to comply with Biden administration's cease-and-desist letter about border access

Look I agree—I doubt very much they have a real intention of seceding—it would be a shitshow—but they do do things to float the spectre of secession. But I agree it’s about extreme states rights, and leading by example, since among the red states, Texas has the largest GDP after California in country (or perhaps they’re more now, not sure depending on gas/oil stuff)

The gdp thing is the same reason that there is a marginal Californian secession movement.

Hotspur , 5 months ago to news in Texas refuses to comply with Biden administration's cease-and-desist letter about border access

I mean I’m sure plenty of Texans have no desire to succeed. But there are multiple real actions that suggest the state has it in mind: separate border enforcement forces, isolated power grid, the Texas rangers/trooper or whatever they’re called. It may all just be maneuvering/bluster, but when you see the state power structures trying to create Amon Bundy-standoffs it does make one wonder.

There also nascent secession movements elsewhere, California has a visible one.

Hotspur , 5 months ago to news in Texas refuses to comply with Biden administration's cease-and-desist letter about border access

Yeah I mean that’s fine, but you’d run the same risk there with bluff-calling and standoffs. Like clearly Texas is trying to bait the feds into either rolling over for a cheap win, or doing something that they might be able to use to spark something more significant. Not sure which is worse, but I know which one will look more weak/will incite further escalators acts on Texas’ part.

Hotspur , 5 months ago to news in Texas refuses to comply with Biden administration's cease-and-desist letter about border access

I mean, they are occupying a section of the border of the entire country, and denying, through threat of violence, the federal government/military access to said border. At some point, this simply has to be read as insurrection, and put down. A country only gets to exist and enforce laws by virtue of the implied violence (physical or otherwise) that it can leverage to back it up.

Of course there are complications to this, like the thought that steamrolling these troopers would then spark a greater revolt. But when you have a state doing things like this, particularly a state that has made it abundantly clear they desire to secede and have prepared for secession, I think you need to play hardball. This could be either by forcibly bringing them back in line through state violence, or giving them what they want, in such a way that it ends up being a pyrrhic victory; imagine aggressive border protocols and removal of free travel along the Texas border, intense tariffs and duties on Texan goods, etc… honestly a Texit could be quite beneficial for the country, shifting congress balances somewhat. Add in some statehood’s for PR, Guam and DC and now you’re really cooking with gas.

Who knows though, I’m still finding it hard to believe that the Jan 6 insurrectionists weren’t mowed down in machine gun fire when they penetrated the capitol, so clearly my expectations of government reaction and what actually happens have some daylight between them.

Hotspur , 6 months ago to news in Man arrested in slaying of 16-year-old cheerleader found dead in bathtub of Texas apartment

It’s probably just accidental, but when I see actual news headlines like this, I wonder if they were purposely meant to be wrong, so that it would confuse and catch your attention, driving engagement. I literally thought they had arrested a dead guy in a tub for my first two scans of the headline. And now I’ve commented on a link to it, etc. it’s just kinda hard to believe it’s accidental since they’re writing professionally, and have tools at their disposal that can prevent this like editors and software checkers.

That said I suppose the other explanation is that they’re using software to produce their stuff, and in such a quantity/so few employees that this kind of weirdness just slips through all the time.

Hotspur , 7 months ago to worldnews in US nuclear sub offers show of force in the Middle East

From another article I read, this is a nuclear-powered sub, that is one of a handful that has been retrofitted from ballistic middle duty to cruise missles. So basically it’s a cruise missle platform. The headline is playing a little fast and loose for effect.

Also worth considering that subs that launch nukes are assumed to be out, patrolling in enough areas to ensure last-word MAD deterrence, so you can just assume that US nuke-launching subs are already able to strike most major population centers and don’t need or want to broadcast their specific location (unless, like, a very intelligent former president specifically puts their location on a new broadcast for clout)