A similar hijack will soon(ish) become impossible, as the current train protection system will be replaced by ERTMS.
Basically, the current system works by injecting a small current signal on one rail and trying to sense it on the other rail. A train's axle shorts the rails together, so sensing it means a train is present. Or, in this instance of sabotage, a jumper wire.
ERTMS L2, which is being installed over the next decade or two, primarily uses axle counters and train position reporting, so a jumper won't do a thing. You can still fool an axle counter, but that's rather easy to fix: just drive a known-good train over the section.
Sure, I know that on an intellectual level. But I will say, I find these reports quite unsettling to read due to the extreme specificity. Especially since some of the examples they chose to include clearly aren't terrorists and just sound like... regular scientists doing their 9-5 job.
Like I know Google can read any of my emails, but I also don't see them do monthly blog posts describing intimate details from each email they found in one guy's Gmail inbox who their algorithm flagged as "maybe possibly kinda sketchy: 70% confidence"
Walking barefoot, over all manner of surfaces, feels good, increases your connection to your surroundings, and slows you down.
I've done it lots, both in the countryside and in the city. You have to watch out for spiky plants and fox shit in the country, and in the city you soon learn which surface textures require more care :-)
"Where would I find enough leather to cover the entire surface of the earth? But with leather soles beneath my feet, it's as if the whole world has been covered." - Shantideva, 8th century Buddhist monk
Did you know that walking barefoot in the Southern US was how most people contracted hookworm? At is height an estimated 40% of the population in certain regions had the parasite which was know to cause a "mental haze". Some historians attribute the disease (again, contracted by walking barefoot outdoors) to have caused the stereotype of the "lazy slow southerner" [1].
Do you feel walking barefoot is worth the risk of catching this and other potentially hazardous diseases?
Are you walking on human feces a lot? Hook work was a problem because of a huge lack of sanitary conditions. Less about being barefoot. Would I walk around barefoot in my yard? Absolutely.
I live in a city and I cannot tell you how often I see dogshit on the sidewalk, like just in the middle of the sidewalk
the only neighborhoods where I don't see this are the ones where there's some nice retired older person who diligently cleans the shit up. but it's not like they bleach the spot, they just pick up most of the poop. so yeah, there's feces everywhere
Sad to here. I lively in a quiet remote place in the mountains and I usually only find fox shit, or occasional cat shit if anything. People here in Switzerland do usually care. And I got the same impression from _most_ our neighbour countries.
I walk my dog twice a day every day rain or shine. I've picked up his poop 100% of the time - as do most other members of my suburban community. Our parks and sidewalks are mostly dog poop free.
Having said that, I've observed four cases where dog poop is more likely left behind.
1. Small dogs - owners of small dogs seem far more likely to leave dog poop behind. Perhaps because they think the poop is itself small?
2. Older owners (often owners of small dogs, but not always) - seem to care less.
3. Off leash dogs in parks - will often poop at the far edges of parks while their owners chat. Edges of parks and near bushes are minefields.
4. Rainy days - people just want to get home, clean off their dog and be done. So they seem more likely leave poop behind.
it's not a person issue, it's a systems problem in the same way that desire paths reflect bad design. regular garbage receptacles maintained by the city with poop bags would solve this issue but there's not one for miles in my neighborhood. similarly, human waste would be similarly reduced if there were more public restrooms that are maintained as part of the public good
problem is that it requires municipalities and counties to take ownership and they don't give a shit and thus we get the shit we deserve
>but there's not one for miles in my neighborhood.
Pet owners should know to bring bags with them, as they are taking the pet out for it to shit somewhere other than their yard.
It's 100% an asshole pet owner problem. Owning a pet that is shitting somewhere other than your own yard means bringing bags on walks and being prepared to hold that shit filled bag in your hand for the rest of the walk until you can throw it away at home.
It can be partially mitigated by having trashcans and poop bag dispensers, but I've stepped in dog shit next to a poop bag dispenser. Because having trashcans and bags be available doesn't change asshole pet owner habits.
From being barefoot? I think it’s pretty low on the risk list. There is absolutely an animal hookworm but it does not have the some risk as human hookworm.
Sure if you eat the poop in your backyard you might get something so that is always important to think about!
I am still missing the point sorry. Infection risk from parasites is quite low via ingestion and even lower via skin. It’s quite low of a risk for ground vegetables and it’s why you want to rinse everything off to begin with. Non-zero but highly unlikely. Some eggs can last years but again washing your produce off is important.
But also, hookworm infections are known to suppress allergies and asthma, help inflammatory bowl disease, and improve insulin resistance in people with type 2 diabetes.
Just because your immune system is fighting for your life against a parasite and doesn't have time for side quests doesn't make contracting a parasite good for you
Just because you call something a parasite doesn't make it bad for you. It might be bad, or good, or some of both, or depend on other factors at different times.
If you count cells and genes instead of mass, every human hosts more non-human life than human. Call them parasites and delete them and die.
Given that you know these terms you must be aware we have invented different words for organisms that have mixed effects (positive and negative) on the host organism. Parasite, commensalist and symbiote. If you don't want folks who know these words to argue with you you should not use the wrong ones.
Feel free to explain how the labels change the facts. Examples of beneficial effects have already been cited from "scientific literature".
The argument was only to point out that just because labels are black & white doesn't mean life is black & white, and treating a label as reality is stupid.
No one went so far as to say "everyone should go get hookworm". That would also be a stupid thing to say, and more to the point: a stupid thing to think anyone was saying.
You can get most of the benefits of walking barefoot without the hookworm by wearing a good pair of barefoot shoes. I personally love my Xero Prios. If you want the full experience at the expense of looking like a freak, you can get those Vibram Five Fingers toe shoes.
Why would that give you the benefits of walking barefoot? If the point is to pick up bacteria, shoes are shoes. It doesn't matter if the toes are separated or not.
GP said the benefits of walking barefoot are "feels good, increases your connection to your surroundings, and slows you down."
In that context it seems like barefoot shoes would still work. They are essentially foot condoms, so you get most of the same sensation without the potential ickiness.
Those are other benefits but the literal topic at hand--and the reason going barefoot was brought up in the first place--is to have contact with the earth.
One could simply use ballet shoes, instead of that overpriced stuff. They come in different styles, colors, materials, are foldable(ususally), and can be considered disposable.
Those people were walking barefoot near an unsanitary latrine. Is there a lot of human feces where you might walk barefoot? If not, you don't really have to worry about hook worm.
How did the southern US solve this issue? They just started building their latrines deeper.
I think I can live without my connection to asphalt, concrete, dirt, broken glass and literal shit while living in the city, which has nothing to do with nature.
I have five, and they are amazing. Youngest is 9 months.
We have an old car goiong to the scrapyard in a couple of weeks, and today I sat in the passenger seat of it as my 13 yr old grandaughter drove it around one of our fields getting more and more confident as I encouraged her to stop, put it in reverse, and drive in the opposite direction.
From "this is too difficult" to "I want to be a rally driver" in a few dozen gear changes.
Memories like this are some of the luxuries of life. For her, for me, for her parents, and her siblings watching.
Reading the parent reminded me that my first time behind the wheel was in my uncle's Citroen Diane on Black Rock Sands in north Wales when I was maybe 8 or 9. I say this as someone who barely remembers my childhood at all, so yeah, she'll remember this forever.
Exactly. Amazing. My 6 year old kido started to paddleboard this summer and just today took our tandem kayak out by himself into the bay and handled it well despite the wind and waves.
Would be hard to imagine a better feeling than watching him grow into a capable young dude.
When I was a child I'd spend many hours building, painting, and then distressing Airfix models, and then I went on to make my own spaceships from scraps. Ugh, how many times I would accidentally cut myself with a scalpel, lol, or drive my mum crazy with needing more of those little pots of paint.
Just typing it out brings back such fond memories. None of my grandchildren are interested in such things :-(
I can't imagine how much energy is wasted on what should be, a trivial thing that might run on a 9v battery for 10 years, or, like I had in a house I owned, a door bell that uses no battery at all...just a rope and a bell.
Maybe I'm just too primitive but I let dogs handle it. I homestead in a remote Indian village and many stray dogs I look after instinctively take care of my property. There are false positives sometimes but that's okay. I like it when they alert me for potential small intrusions around my house, like snakes, monitor lizards etc.
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