thouartfrugal

Not calling you out personally, Lauchs and I do apologize if it seems that way. Just that reading in your question the usage of "your side" and "the other side" brought to mind once again the fact that many people I know have come to view politics a team sport. Didn't decide anything about your beliefs.

In this study, were the terms "conservative" and "liberal" self-applied by the subjects? People do adopt those labels for themselves, but I would urge careful consideration before doing so. Where they can be useful in describing one's position on a specific issue, when applied directly to the person they are needlessly reductive. Exactly the sort of thing that facilitates the mental assignment of oneself or others into an imaginary camp on one side of a false dichotomy.

The essence of what you are saying makes sense to me, and I do understand those terms are routinely applied to people both by themselves and by others. But your post, though well-meaning also serves to perpetuate the "conservatives vs. liberals" view of political discourse. I realize I may be Sisyphus under the boulder here, but it's my challenge to the United States political duopoly.

Do you consider yourself a partisan? The pervasive notion that there are "two sides" and you must be on one of them, it results in ordinary citizens viewing one another with suspicion and fear. It's a useful lie that serves the interests of those who would foster division in order to maintain the cultural status quo.

Not calling you out in particular. Just that I think about this every time something is posted that perpetuates this false "our team, their team" narrative because it's a powerful, insipid tool of oppression against the common person. True, people differ on contentious issues, sometimes irreconcilably. But if we are made to view one another as dyed-in-the-wool adversaries over that, we will fail to discover our common interests much less promote them through solidarity.

Not denying that the two major political parties in the United States do hold seemingly unassailable dominance in major elections like the one we're entering, largely due to determining winner by first-past-the-post. And yes, sadly it's very often the case that a meaningful vote will support one of those parties. But it doesn't have to be this way forever. In fact, I will be able to vote for city office candidates by ranked choice starting this year!

Sorry for the rant. Not an expert. Just a dude who wants to love his neighbor.

Gonna go with Donkey Kong (1994). Made for a handheld (Game Boy) but also prominently features an enhanced mode enabled by running it on Nintendo's Super Game Boy accessory for the SNES/Super Famicom (actually mine's an SGB2–even better).

Nice pick! Was my first experience playing a Rogue-like game, though I wouldn't know that term for at least two decades.

I'm as old as my tongue, and a little older than my teeth.

Is it required to give them useful data? Thinking of using an old smartphone with bogus personal info, single-purpose email account etc.

Try playing Sonic the Hedgehog some more and expressing how it makes you feel.

Not sure how many knew about "Compact Mode", but when that quit so did I. Was once as simple as appending ".compact" to the end of a Reddit URL to switch to a nice, simplified interface without ads.

That one gets me too :) If I'm on foot I often consider just hopping up and walking across the hood.

edit: Actually there is one circumstance in which I will drive past the crosswalk and stop: green-signaled left turn where oncoming traffic has right of way. Stop past the crosswalk, complete the turn when the way is clear. It's legal where I live, at any rate.

This one baffles me: leaving a huge gap when stopping a vehicle at a traffic signal. Ordinary intersection in flat terrain, I'll pull right up to the marker/crosswalk/vehicle ahead:

|=|[::]

Sometimes see other drivers a bit back. OK fine, maybe it's alright. Suppose it's good in the event of a stopped rear-end collision, to protect pedestrians/vehicles in front:

|=| [::]

But what's with this nonsense? Is it just me? I don't remember seeing this earlier than the last ten years or so. Not a sensible safety gap, no. I'm talking two, three or more car lengths of space! Nowhere near the inductive loop sensor:

|=|<---------->[::]

This is without any property entrances on either side, mind you. That I could understand since it leaves a space for traffic to pull out, or in from the oncoming lane. This just seems to occupy space for no purpose other than to reduce traffic density on one block and increase it in the trailing block (?).

Completely baffled; what am I missing? Where did this come from? Is it just me? Even worse is when I stop my vehicle behind theirs and then they creep forward a car length or two, making me look like a dummy.

Macross often draws me back even if for nothing other than the outstanding music.