You must love the 25% property tax increase he just levied on Orange county as retribution for Disney not supporting his “no gender in school” idiocy. The biggest property tax hike in history as a punishment for not falling in line….a tax hike that, thanks to Trump, is no longer deductible on federal taxes.

No sympathy for Disney, they gave Trump over $10 million. Reap what you sow…it’s going to make any additions they planned for Disney World all but impossible to permit, meaning Disney will no longer be investing in Florida, won’t be hiring contractors, buying construction supplies, won’t be paying for services like good roads, police, firemen, street lights, etc, hurting Florida more than the lost tax money….but for residents of Orlando this politically motivated attack is going to be extremely costly and will end the level of services provided by Disney until now….I think it’s over $160 million a year in bills they just transferred to their citizens over sour grapes…or as you say, doing a fair job.

Once again…..Biggest property tax hike ever, and an end to Disney construction, for purely political spiteful motives with absolutely no gains to the state, the county, residents, or anyone.

🤦‍♂️

The fact that both cars were black was likely a factor.

Anyone who’s driven at night on LA freeways would expect exactly this. Between oncoming semi trucks with their brights on, signs, intermittent street lighting, etc, night vision is non existent. Anything not lit is invisible beyond 30 ft ahead.
Also, out driving your headlights is the norm almost everywhere. Low beams illuminate about 150 ft ahead, at 65mph it takes over 500 ft to stop on average (according to google), farther for heavy vehicles, worn brakes, and trucks. A recipe for disaster.

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i am just going to add to the opinions and perspectives that @MilkmanDan ,@ChaosEngine ,@dannym3141 and especially @newtboy who i agree with so clearly that i swear we are related.

since many dynamics have already been covered, i.e:police culture,racism,incompetence etc etc.

i shall offer a historical perspective in the ways of the power dynamic.

while this is a power vs powerlessness dynamic dealing with agents of the state,it helps to understand just how we got to this point,and it is NOT the first time we have been here.

see:labor movement of the 30's and the labor strikes,and the response from not only the business community but our own government.

see: the civil rights movement and segregation,and how demagouges used political power to divide by way of racism,and then used police to intimidate,beat and imprison.

there are many MANY examples here in america where the police have been used to suppress and oppress a people or community for less than altruistic reasons,and most certainly not aligning with the ideology we were taught in school the function of police.nevermind the syrupy sweet,idealized picture shoved down our throats since an early age.

so we see on our facebooks,our twitters and/or whatever social media you prefer,that black lives matter...and the counter point,that NO..ALL lives matter.

now this would make sense in a world that never took history into account,or a growing cultural norm of violence and oppression that had been slowly seeping into poor communities (mainly black and latino).

oh wait..
that's right.
social media pundits NEVER fucking consider any of those factors,because just like bill o'reilly,those are pesky nuances and context conflict with their own narrow narrative.

but let us consider them and how they may possibly be a major driving factor in americas current climate.

let us take ferguson as an example,that is a good place to start.
and let us go back to 2008,where we can see the boiling begin to take place in this extremely impoverished community which was already struggling.

the population is a black majority,poor to working poor.home ownership is low,food stamp recipients are high and the future is pretty bleak.

in 2008 ferguson received approximately 18% of it's total fiscal revenue from misdemeanor infractions i.e:traffic,parking,moving violations.small time stuff.basic fines for small infractions.in 2008 that number jumped to 66%.

why?
what happened?
what changed?

well the comptroller of ferguson (and greater st louis),along with HUNDREDS of other smaller municipalities across the country,had bought the rotten fish that wall street was selling in the form of bullshit derivatives.

now wall street and the big banks got their tax payer bailout,but towns like ferguson did not.they lost millions,sometimes billions.this meant pensions were either reduced or outright denied,because there was NO money!

but a town still has to pay police.
fire fighters and school teachers,
clerks and judges,
keep the roads paved and the street lights working.

so what is a local government to do?
can't tax the working class who own homes.you already jacked their property tax to the roof.
can't tax the local business,you already squeeze them as well.
how about those non-property owning people in ferguson?
they need to pay up as well,and let's use the police force to relinquish them of the paltry money they don't have.

to the tune of 66% of all of fergusons revenue.
that is insanity.

so what if you live in ferguson?
chances are you are black,and either poor or working poor.

you make,if you are lucky,20 grand a year and by one man's testimony he paid over 2,000 in traffic tickets in one year.the majority of americans dont see those kind of numbers their entire lifetime.

and what if you began to realize that it was not just you.that almost every person you know or talked to had similar stories.

would you begin to feel a tad bit targeted?

what if the city of ferguson started to become very creative with not only their rules but how they enforced those rules?

what if every year the fines went up?
not remained the same,but actually UP? every year.

what if,as a community people began to actually fear the police? to experience anxiety just by the sight of a patrol car,even though they were not engaging in anything illegal? and who knows...maybe there is some new ordinance on the books that you are unaware of?

would you become paranoid and suspicious of law enforcement?

and then..what if....you started losing friends to cops.people you grew up with being shot in the street,and every time the mayor comes out and calls it a "justifiable killing".

would that make you feel any better?
any less paranoid or anxious?

there was ONE police shooting in ten years and then..as if by magic ..(which is how the media seems to always portray this..shocking news..at 11)..you lose 5 friends in a year.all to cops..all "justifiable".

would you begin to think there was a conspiracy?
targeting you and your neighbors?

i BET you would.
i know i would.

now lets look at the cops.

they are just a tool.
an instrument for the state to uphold the law and write citations for infractions.they dont MAKE the laws,nor the infractions,not even the fines.

they just do what they are told.

and they are told to go into these poor and working poor neighborhoods and write tickets,a LOT of tickets.

do you really think they are unaware of the growing hostility towards them? the looks of disgust,fear and apprehension?

but...this is their job,and they do what they are told.

they see.
they know.
they are aware of the growing hatred towards them,and this makes them anxious..and defensive..and in some horrible,tragic cases...trigger happy.

a natural and normal response to heightened stimuli in the face of great uncertainty.

so they react impulsively and out of fear in a way that ten years ago would have been unheard of.

they think themselves good cops.
they do a good job.
they do what they are told.
and the people hate them for it.
so they respond instinctively and with poor judgement.

we..as citizens,respond with disgust and indignation when a cop abuses his/her authority.we see this as a major moral breach in the citizen/cop relationship,because we feel as agents of the law they should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us...and rightly so,but when you put a human being in a tense and dangerous situation,not of their making,they will fail at some point to react correctly and with sound judgement.

they SHOULD be held accountable,but so should the city council members and the mayor and all the local representatives who created this toxic climate in the first place.

the lesson to be learned here is that nothing is a binary situation when people are concerned.

so when black lives matter protestors address people to make them aware of the situation,this is what they are talking about.the police killing are only a last stage manifestation of a situation that began in 2008 on wall street.

and we need to be aware,because right now it is the predominantly black communities,but soon coming to a neighborhood near YOU.

the poor and working poor have become expendable.no longer relevant to the system.which is why police shootings are being handled the way they are.our value is ever increasingly being judged on how well we can feed the system.

until this disparity is addressed there will continue to be police shootings.people will die and there will be no indictments.

because police do what they are told.

it is up to us to make policy makers accountable for their actions,and in doing so address a toxic climate that both the poor,working poor and cops alike have to swim in.

stop forcing cops to write tickets to fund a city that lost it's savings due to fuckhead bankers.

this blood..all of it..is on those bankers hands.

haha awesome street light fix for TO MUCH LIGHT when trying to use a telescope @ 1 min mark http://youtu.be/rXrcm7DgDbA

My thought was actually to have multiple projectors per block approximately 10 feet up (building mounted) with sensors to identify people and have them 'place' a smallish ball of light at about 8-10 feet up that floats above and in front of them, but with much less light needed than a 'street light'...and maybe stationary one's in intersections (these could even have 'covers' to stop wasted light from going up). Or, it could project tiny lights (like in the video) near ground level to illuminate the sidewalk, but that's not as useful by far.
By my estimation, there could be less pollution because there would be fewer, smaller lights on at any one time (where normal lights are just ON all night). I agree, there are many issues to solve, but it's doable if thought about thoroughly.
It's a little too late to worry about 'light pollution'...in fact I bet it's not on the average person's radar. Sadly, many people in cities have never seen stars at night and don't have a clue how much is hidden from them. (I live in the boonies of far N cali, and we still have light pollution from nearby towns, but nothing like in a city...I've even watched the international space station get re-supplied while sitting in my hot tub! That was amazing!).

Awesome technological *quality !
I can imagine this replacing ALL outdoor lighting. How cool would it be for street lights and signal lights to no longer require large poles, but just be a light floating in mid air 10 ft above? It could clean up metropolitan areas immensely, and remove many obstructions to taller vehicles/loads.
They just need to power up, add color, and stop the blinking so they don't trigger epileptics.

EDIT: My wife just pointed out that it's highly likely that we're now going see 'wacky wavy digital arm flailing tube men' on every corner once they commercialize this. :-(

Is it harassment if the pretty girl on the bus catches you staring at her reflection in the window, like, 3 times in a row?

The most awkward interaction with women is at night, when they are walking alone in the dark, and you are behind them and they can see your shadow from the street lights and your footsteps getting nearer. I can't slow down and just keep distance because then I am a stalker. I can't speed up because then I am chasing her. So now I am trying to do all the things I think a rapist wouldn't do, which is exactly how I imagine a rapist would think, so I try to stop thinking like that. Tension mounts until I am within striking distance, when she takes a quick glance over my shoulder and sees my grimace (a poor attempt to produce a friendly smile), and accelerates to the maximum possible walking pace without offending british insensibilities. Her max is my medium, so we continue onwards into the darkness in silence, a couple of feet apart, air full of tension, neither willing to deescalate by crossing the road. Awkward. But maybe that's just me.

Unwanted attention is pretty uncomfortable. To me, harassment suggests sustained unwanted attention. I guess the problem is for the guy it's not sustained, but for the woman it is. If she is getting it from every corner, then the net result is harassment. Catcalling is just plain rude and disrespectful tho, no excuse for that.

And they wonder why we drink so much coffee.. Try to stay awake without any sunlight.. Yeah, you pretty much have to if you want to stay sane...

It's filmed in southern Finland, you go 500km north and it's way more drastic. But since most of the people live in the south, this shows how it is for majority of people. I live smack dab in the middle, it's not far from this. We get sunsets around 15:00 in the winter and no street lights in the summer. Around mid summer, there's enough light so you can read a book 24/7 outside. At this time of year, sunset is around 21:30 and only getting later day by day. Two months from now, it doesn't set at all..

Cutting back on light pollution isn't too hard if lighting and building designers and the like would just care. For highlighting a building, rather than have lights pointing up, put the lights under the eaves pointing down. (I actually don't get why people light up their houses so much, especially if there are street lights nearby as well, that makes that much more light for a thief to have in the house without having to use a flashlight or turn on lights or anything else to give away their activity, plus it just doesn't make sense to me to highlight a house 99.999% of the time) Along the sidewalk of the local shopping center strip, they have these big 3' round lights shining light in all directions, but if they simply capped it, and had a reflector on top to direct light down and around, they could achieve better light distribution for pedestrians for far less energy, a win all the way around for them. Light is still reflected off the ground up, but isn't as intense. Street lights can be made to cause less glare and direct light better, which again saves energy while keeping the light needed for the road just as good if not better. The problem is, those fixtures aren't widely used yet, so they cost more than the normal ones (supply and demand working out there, plus just gouging). I would bet that even a major city could greatly cut their light pollution down without sacrificing safety, and perhaps increasing it, and saving energy with just a few steps. Problem is most people don't know much about it, nor care, save for those of us who would love to have a nice telescope, but find it hard to justify especially when the skies nearby aren't dark enough... Really just need to start modifying zoning laws and restrict accent lighting and do better on street lighting where/when needed (and cutting it when not needed, which is perhaps far more often the case, since it is usually just a security blanket while not providing any security at all)... But yeah, since that isn't likely to happen, not much is likely to happen and those of us wanting to see the night sky in its glory are stuck with long drives...

this guy is as left wing as you can get, but it's interesting his take on James Holmes.

I knew James in school, he was actually pretty cool, smart, and one of the popular kids, strange what time does to people.

course I hate political correctness with a passion and would love to see the political correctness movement mowed down and the citizens rise up and overthrow the liars the cheats in politics and hang them from the street lights as a warning to other corrupt politicians and the corrupt police forces :

So I guess you could say it's the environment. Normally down to earth normal folk that think for themself and not think how others want them to get corrupted by the poison they are raised in and around, then you add to that a mental illness and you have an explosion waiting to happen.

My difference is I want them dead but I know it's wrong and will never do it, James on the other hand didn't have that filter in his head, he wanted to make a statement and the normal filter that says "no thats wrong" didn't click in and the son of a bitch went and did it.

Sad, he was such a great guy in school.

I suppose street lighting is OK. I suppose.

It's a street light!

protesters should move on from practicing their 1st amendment right to practicing their 2nd amendment right and execute these treasonous bastards and hang the politicians and fat cat bankers from the street lights.

just as leading up to 1776 started off with peaceful protests and gatherings and nothing ever changed and were beat down or jailed for speaking out, until protesters back then had had enough and took up arms to force change and to take our country by force.

the same needs to happen now.

Benjamin Franklin said it himself a country needs a revolution every 200 years to avoid a tyrannical government from taking hold.