I'm not familiar with Westchester specifically but, to me, suburbia isn't good for any of those things you mentioned. To me suburbia feels like a giant mass produced parking lot and is an incredibly depressing display of concrete! Nature is nowhere to be found in the suburbs. The real estate is very expensive in desirable suburbs and traffic is still bad in the suburbs, just bad in a different way than in a bigger city.
Right now I live in what I guess would be described as a town. Its ~100 miles from any major urban area and it's much more effective at providing the majority of the things you mentioned plus amazingly short commute times! It also has some sorts of benefits you would associate with the city as well - for example, I can walk to at least 10 establishments as well as 2 parks whereas when I lived in a suburb the street I lived off of was 4 lanes 45 MPH and didn't even have a sidewalk. Even if it did have a sidewalk the noise of a mass of neverending SUVs buzzing past is unpleasant.
You would also have no problem driving almost everywhere in a smaller city.
I think you're describing the difference between a suburban town vs. a suburban bedroom community. The latter usually lacks services and amenities [1] or a real sense of community, so on the weekends you're forced to commute just to get a good meal.
Luckily both exist -- often times the sweet spot is to live near downtown + transit of a smaller town. Then you get a faster commute, some walkability, and the option to do things in town as well.
IDK, I would not, personally, consider my town in any way suburban. It's European "founding" predates the American revolution and the vast majority of the construction in the town center is pre war and it's nowhere near any major or even minor urban area.
My opinion on suburbia that I stated was based on what would be "suburban town" moreso than a "suburban bedroom community." I've never lived in the latter.
I know it's just my opinion though, I know some people like suburbia but smallish towns like mine are better at providing greenery, nature, and a low cost of living plus a pleasant environment. To me suburbs are the opposite of that. (Getting to the airport is a giant pain in the ass though...)
Pretty much the first thing I did when I moved here was take a walk!
That is not how Westchester is. I would love to live in Westchester or Hudson Valley towns. The problem is due to shitty trains, the commutes are far too long.
Look at a town like Beacon NY. Beautiful place with ridiculously cheap real estate.
If we had high speed trains we could link these cities to NYC for daily commuting and it would pay for itself with increased property values.
There's so much value being lost and inconvenience beared by us because of shitty government.
High speed trains only reach high speeds because they don't stop. They're not high acceleration and deceleration trains. MNR has too many stops (and curves, but setting that aside) for high speed to matter.
Of course, you can run them express, but then they probably wouldn't stop in small towns like Beacon or Cold Spring. Amtrak is basically this on the New Haven line, how many people actually take it to commute?
Uh! I was once referred by a real MD to a real (licensed) physical therapist who worked in a real physical therapy office who performed a purely quack "procedure" (craniosacral therapy) on me and they billed my insurance for "physical manipulation" which they paid. My insurance specifically excludes craniosacral therapy as a covered expense.
Uh,I felt terrible about the whole thing, it seems like a cut and dried case of insurance fraud to me. My MD said she was sending me to physical therapy so I thought I'd be getting real treatment and didn't think about it further. I never heard of craniosacral therapy before that but it was clear that the physical therapist was practicing woo once I was actually there.
The worst thing is, since craniosacral therapy claims to treat almost every symptom and every disease she may refer 90% of her patients. :(
>The scam begins when a consumer answers a call and the person at the end of the line asks, “Can you
hear me?” The caller then records the consumer's "Yes" response and thus obtains a voice signature. This signature can later be used by the scammers to pretend to be the consumer and authorize fraudulent charges via telephone.
In other words they splice together "do you want to authorize these charges?" And your "Yes" and present this as "proof" to the credit card company you authorized the charges you are disputing.
I should have added a caveat, I actually agree with you and I, too, was skeptical of the fact this has been happening. However, since the FCC released an official document about it I figured it was worth mentioning as a theoretical possibility. I am unaware of many cases where the FCC spread urban legends without getting actual complaints, so people presumably have actually been complaining about this happening to them to the FCC, or at least them believing it's happened to them.
The "can you hear me" call would have to take place AFTER a scammer had already charged your card for a dubious service. They would (probably?) have to have a merchant account with a payment processor for that.
That says nothing about phone numbers, just addresses.
Selling an address updating service to parties that already have your address is not the same as "straight up sell[ing] your phone number when you move."
From the horses mouth:
"The information you supply will be used to provide you with the requested mail forwarding and related services. Please be aware that this service is voluntary, and that requested information is required to provide the service. Collection of information for this service is authorized by 39 U.S.C. §403 and 404. We do not disclose your personal information to anyone, except in accordance with the Privacy Act. Authorized disclosures include limited circumstances such as the following ... to mailers, if already in possession of your name and old mailing address, as an address correction service. Information will also be provided to licensed service providers of the USPS to perform mailing list correction service of lists containing your name and old address. A list of these licensed service providers can be obtained at the following URL: http://ribbs.usps.gov/ncoalink /documents/tech_guides/CERTIFIED_LICENSEES"
They imply they only provide the new address but saying "the information you supply" leaves it open to for them to provide your phone number along with your new address.
Back when I didn't have any money my phone budget was $8 a month. Minutes 10 cents a piece, IIRC. People didn't really text very much back then but those were 10 cents a piece as well. Each dime mattered to me very much.
There's also people with plans that only allow X minutes a month.
People on prepaid or pay as you go plans don't get unlimited minutes. You can't really just dismiss this segment of the population. It's a bit like saying "coffee is a free beverage for everyone because most offices provide coffee for employees."
I suspect people on extremely limited plans know to screen their calls or manage in some way.
If not that is unfortunate but hardly justification to upend cellular calling because a few people paid $0.10 / minute extra answering calls from spammers.
There are advantages and disadvantages to those types of plans, and that is one of the disadvantages.
Sure I can. Many pre-paid plans also offer unlimited minutes, and even in the case of those that don't, you can absolutely just choose not to answer the phone if you don't recognize the number, or just flat-out don't feel like answering.
Look, I get that the US is different in that it charges for incoming calls, and that's weird to you. That's fine. I think it's weird that Spanish people voluntarily let themselves be chased by enraged bulls, but hey, I let people choose the risks they want to take[1]. Would I prefer free things over not-free things? Sure. But that's the model that US carriers chose, and, absent government regulation to the contrary, it's absolutely their right to choose that model. And I honestly just don't care enough about it to lobby the gov't to change those regulations, and it seems that a majority of Americans feel the same way, so... so what?
[1] Modulo unethical treatment of the bulls themselves, but that's another issue.
I wouldn't even think about bringing up natural selection to my young Earth creationist coworkers. Not touching that with a 10 foot pole, it would only end badly. There's a reason they say don't talk about politics or religion with your coworkers. Harmony is good for getting work done and I go to work to work.
I'm saying that as some who has actually worked with young Earth creationists before.
I won't speak for all young Earth creationists, but I don't have a problem with natural selection as a means of selecting from existing genetic diversity within a kind, especially as that process is observable and repeatable around us.
Where I contend with evolutionists is the typical narrative that the existence of natural selection implies a process that creates said (structured, positive) genetic diversity from which to select. This latter process is disputed, not the former.
I would be curious to hear your colleagues perspective.
I apologize in advance as there's no non-morbid way to ask this but... what happens to the images on your server if you die tomorrow? It would be exactly the same situation, right? They would exist until your bill is due in a couple years then your account will be deactivated and your images will linkrot.
I have the server paid up for 10 years and the domain for 15. But it's true, eventually all things must end. I do have credentials for all the things written into my will so I guess it ultimately depends on how much my children care about preserving my helpful forum posts.
He's not advocating people rely on his server, he's saying hosting it himself allows him to quote freely without worry. If someone else wanted to quote him and followed his example, they would not have a problem when he died.
Right now I live in what I guess would be described as a town. Its ~100 miles from any major urban area and it's much more effective at providing the majority of the things you mentioned plus amazingly short commute times! It also has some sorts of benefits you would associate with the city as well - for example, I can walk to at least 10 establishments as well as 2 parks whereas when I lived in a suburb the street I lived off of was 4 lanes 45 MPH and didn't even have a sidewalk. Even if it did have a sidewalk the noise of a mass of neverending SUVs buzzing past is unpleasant.
You would also have no problem driving almost everywhere in a smaller city.