Re: Awfully quiet in here...

On Mon, 11 Nov 2024 19:09:02 -0600, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

On 11/11/2024 1:42 PM, William Hyde wrote:

Paul S Person wrote:

On Sun, 10 Nov 2024 15:06:22 -0500, William Hyde
<wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
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D wrote:

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On Sat, 9 Nov 2024, Cryptoengineer wrote:
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On 11/9/2024 4:04 PM, D wrote:

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On Sat, 9 Nov 2024, Paul S Person wrote:
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So if not having a lot of people around is a good thing, Wyoming
would
probably work.

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Do you think I would be allowed to wear a cowboy hat and walk around
with a gun in Wyoming? That would be a strong incentive!

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For citizens who meet the other requirements for firearms possession,
yes. You don't even need a permit. I'm not sure about green card
holders.
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pt
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Hooray! =D Yet another dream that the US would make come true! It truly
is the land of the free compared with shitty old europe which I
passionately hate so much!

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Some years ago Duke University ran a job search for a senior scientist.
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An American scientist resident in Denmark was flown in and gave an
exceptionally good talk.  At dinner the conversation turned to his life
in Denmark, and he seemed very happy with it.
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So told him that, while I was not myself on the search committee, I
thought it was almost certain that he'd be offered the job and asked if
he would take it.
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"Absolutely not!" he said, puzzled that I would even ask.
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So opinions differ.
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Duke is in Durham, NC, possibly too warm for your wife.  And it has lots
of sidewalks to attract liberals, though as I found in an October walk,
ankle-destroying breaks in the sidewalk can be obscured by colourful
autumn leaves.

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Saves the city from having to fix the sidewalks: out of sight, out of
mind.
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Well, until they get sued, anyway.

 
Halifax was the exact opposite.  They fixed sidewalks which were
perfectly fine.  The reason being that the city is mildly corrupt, and
people wanted those contracts. Still, they were a pleasure to walk on.
 
For contrast, sidewalks on the Dalhousie campus in Halifax were a
positive danger, but never fixed as the University always had something
different to spend its limited cash on.  Like office redecoration for
administrators.
 
An elderly retired professor died from a fall owing to broken sidewalks
at A&M.  The site was taped off, but not repaired in the two years
before I left Texas.
 
Some years ago there was a competition in Toronto to find the oldest bit
of sidewalk.  The winning pavement was dated 1918 and was in perfect
shape.  It was, however, under a bridge and thus somewhat sheltered.
 

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(The local university once install a road bump that injured five
people, one of whom died. The fifth, who didn't die, won a $16M
judgement against them. Only then did they remove it and replace it
with something less dangerous. Never underestimate the power of a
lawsuit payout to change minds.)

 
In Texas the payout would have been limited to 500k.
 
I wasn't hurt enough to consider suing Durham.  Besides, if one demands
low taxes one gets low service, and I can't sue the voters, can I?
 
Caveat Pedestrem.
 
(Someone correct my Latin, I'm sure that's wrong).
 
 
William Hyde

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Texas damage lawsuits are limited to $500K plus actual economic damages.
 I am not sure how the economic damage of a death would be calculated
but it could be in the millions for taking care of dependents.

Future earnings, usually.

For disability, future earnings  (since the victim can't work) plus
the cost of care.

Of course, since I am not in Texas, I am using the criteria I have run
into in local news stories. In Texas the answers may be different.

Also, Federal courts vs State courts may matter.

Incidentally, the $16M was for the 40% share of liability that the
University was allocated. The victim was allocated 60% of the
liability. (He was riding a bicycle and /knew/ the bump was dangerous;
it was his avoidance effort that produced the injury. Apparently the
jury felt that riding a street with a speed bump that he /knew/ to be
dangerous involved acquiring a certain amount of responsibility for
the result.)

Nonetheless, the bump got replaced with something less likely to cost
$16M!
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"