amelia

Yeah but this one fits perfectly with your photo, I think the other ones are just similar.

Pretty sure it's these ones:

https://origoshoes.com/en-eu/products/minimalist-barefoot-shoes-for-women-the-retro-sneakers-white-natural-leather-gen3

Bzgl. Ladestandardisierung: Ampler hat jetzt das erste E-Bike mit USB-C-Ladebuchse rausgebracht und ich find's mega (und eigentlich etwas schockierend, dass es so lange gedauert hat bis es jemand macht).

Wie geil ist das, dass ich auch bei Freunden mal mein Rad laden kann indem ich einfach deren Laptopnetzteil ausleihe, bzw. einfach ein kleines 100W USB Ladegerät mitnehmen kann statt so einen dicken Trafo-Klotz mit 2 Kabeln.

Nothing. I thought if I just waited long enough it would magically reappear, but it didn't. Maybe I'll find it if I move out of this apartment one day. Guess I'll buy a new one for now.

Yeah, I get that, and I think this is somehow a cultural difference. I didn't mean to tell you that's not what you're supposed to do, sorry if it came across like that. I just thought it was interesting that to me, the whole idea of saying the pledge seems so strange, it reminds me of saying a prayer, and that somehow doesn't match my understanding of a democratic system. I'm from Germany, by the way. We grow up with a very different relationship to our state compared to the US. I think it changed a bit in recent years (and I'm a bit undecided whether that's a good thing or not), but when I was a kid, basically only nationalists and neonazis waved the German flag (that changed with the soccer worldcup in Germany in 2006). My school curriculum was filled with the crimes of the Third Reich, and I think what I took away from that was to never just worship or even trust a state or government just because it's you own, because it may actually be or turn evil. And that it's your responsibility as a citizen to not let that happen. Of course I do feel connected to my country and my culture, but I'm just very unfamiliar with the kind of connection that (many) Americans seem to have with their country. Again, I'm not trying to say it's wrong per se, but to feel such an emotional connection to a democratic state that is meant to be shaped by the people for the people does feel feel a bit off to me, in the sense maybe that I see a risk of it leading people in a wrong direction. I don't know. I hope that makes it a bit more understandable. I'd actually like to hear your opinion on that. Is my point of view understandable for you, or does it seem just as strange to you?

It sounds bad for the city cores though.

I meant that cars would move out of the city, not people. I live in Germany where the statistics is that 57% of people own a car. In my city the percentage is 48% so that's already lower than average and in the city centre districts it's only around 30-35% of people owning a car. I would say that is a pretty normal distribution for German cities. That difference between inside and outside the city would just get bigger and I see no problem with that. The reason is already that public transport in the city is decent, people use bikes a lot, and parking is difficult and expensive (my city just increased parking prices in public resident parking zones to 360€/year). We need better public transport and better bike infrastructure and car numbers should go down in total, but I would still appreciate a shift of cars into rural areas. At least there is enough space to park them. In the city they're just taking up way, way too much valuable space. And they're loud and they smell (both getting better with electric ones, to be fair).

Very interesting thoughts, thank you. I would guess that the percentage of people owning their car would decline rather than increase, especially in the cities, but I had never considered the factor that the travel time itself will be less inconvenient and people might be okay with longer commute times. I guess it's possible that overall, these two factors more or less cancel out, and then the number of cars would stay the same but they would move more to the suburbs and rural areas, and out of the cities. That still doesn't sound so bad.

Any way, I don't think self-driving cars should replace public transport, but complement it. Politics and society need to steer development in that direction. While I personally look forward to self-driving cars, currently my energy goes into fighting for better bike infrastructure und better and cheaper public transport. If we're lucky, we'll find a way for all these modes of transportation to form an intertwined and accessible network that is efficient and sustainable. We should keep trying to make it happen.

Sent you a message with a photo of the recipe. I hope it worked.

I appreciate that you don't tell kids that they have to participate, but honestly, even telling the others to be "respectfully quiet" seems a bit odd to me.

A democratic state is something you pledge allegiance to by actively participating, by making use of your democratic rights and by putting energy into building and shaping the system we all live in. That's what democracy is meant to be, a system of all people working together and valuing the needs and opinions of others, working out the best solutions for everyone through discourse. It's not a religion or a god that you pray to in silence, that's a bit absurd, isn't it?

Sounds great! If you ask me, the gradual approach is perfectly valid, I'm in the same boat. It's not as black and white as some people paint it to be.

I highly recommend her one pot lentil mushroom lasagne. If you want, I can dm you the recipe :)

Stumbled on this comment again and now I'm curious: did you check it out and did you like it?

Honestly, I want both. I live in Germany and my city has pretty decent public transit. But there are still way too many cars in the city, most streets have parking spaces on both sides, leaving only a small sidewalk. I want people to not be dependent on owning cars anymore. I want personal cars in the city to be replaced by self-driving cabs that you can just order when you need them. Imagine how cool that would be. There would be centralized (underground??) self-driving car storages and if you need a car, you just order one via an app and they just come to wherever you are autonomously and drive you wherever you want to go. You could basically get rid of all public parking spaces, it would be awesome.