It may seem slightly above inconsequential, but parking. Parking is a great example of arbitrary rules having longstanding effects. (Really neat video on parking regulations - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUNXFHpUhu8)
As for more inconsequential. Leafblowers Leafblowers immediately banned unless they are
Less than 20db
Zero emission
ONLY USED AFTER 9AM WHY IN GODS NAME ARE YOU LEAF-BLOWING AT 8AM ON A SATURDAY
Yeah no kidding, this guy uses decibel scale but doesn't understand decibel scale. I fucking hate leaf blowers but 55dB seems like a reasonable starting point to me. It won't even barely reach your yard from a neighbor's.
WHY IN GODS NAME ARE YOU LEAF-BLOWING AT 8AM ON A SATURDAY
These people are usually the sorts who rise at 5am regardless of day and have become bored after 3 hours awake. If they think about it at all, they believe that everyone who is not yet up by 8am is a fool who ought to be out of bed, thus that is the perfect time to make noise.
As to why they rise at 5am, take your pick from: i) Old and unable to sleep for long periods - Will be asleep again in an armchair by 11am once they've gone back inside; ii) Military bearing or wannabe - Probably has reveille.wav for an alarm; iii) Abject a-hole who gets a kick out of it. Honourable mention: iv) someone with no choice under direction from one of the above.
You forgot v) collaborates internationally for work, requiring them to be awake early to maximize overlapping hours in their workday.
But even I know not to do noisy shit outside until at least 10. Those few quiet hours in the morning where it seems I’m the only person alive are to drink coffee and cherish.
you also forgot people who work in factories that have to get up at 4:00 a.m. during the week and so they like to sleep in till 5:00 a.m. on the weekends.
I'm guilty of 8am yardwork, but mostly mowing in the hottest part of summer at the coolest part of the day. I'm also guilty of 8pm yardwork when it's just the only time I can find to get it done. I only mow once every 2-4 weeks depending on how much my grass has grown, so I figure that balances it out somewhat
Never live in the japanese countryside. Work starts between 5 and 6am every day (sunrise is before 4:30am at it's earliest where I live). By 9am in August, it's already getting ridiculously hot for working outside.
Seriously, I feel like one of those Rubik's cube champions looking at my yoghurt from all possible dimensions trying to find out if it turned to cheese or not.
I would go with: Remove expiration dates entirely. Because it's not an expiration date, it's a "best before" date. Which when you think about it, it's true that food is "best before" literally any future date you put on the label.
Most of the factors that will cause food to spoil are things not under the control of the companies that package the food. How cold do you keep your fridge at? How long did it take for you to transport the food from the store to your fridge? What was the temperature that day? How long did you have it before you break the seal and start using it? How long was the food outside of your fridge? etc. etc.
Those things are just invented by a marketing department to encourage people to throw out food so they have to buy more. There are no regulations on it, they just put whatever date they think will maximize their profits.
You buy fresh fruit and vegetables (the things that will spoil faster than anything else you buy) there is no expiration date. How do you manage? Look at it, and maybe give it a smell test. The same applies for all food really.
"Best before" dates are a scam that results in food being thrown out prematurely. Grocery prices are too high, we shouldn't allow these kinds of shenanigans to drive prices higher.
First: Yes, best before dates are sometimes arbitrary depending on the product and where you live.
However, basically anything with a package sold commercially has been tested for taste/feel/look over time to determine when quality degrades.
If you make cookies you don't want people only buying up 1+ yr old boxes and thinking your cookies are just supposed to taste like solidified disks of keyboard powder. Having a best before date tells people when your product tastes as intended and when it's only worth buying from the discount bin.
It's fair to say sometimes marketing bullshit influences that date.
Second: Expiry dates are a real thing, at least where I'm from. Fridge/freezer temperatures are meant to be within specific ranges and there are food safety regulations around how long certains items can be outside of those ranges - like for transport or during prep.
Expiry dates are based on testing the development of bacteria colonies/degradation of the ingredients in an average of settings one would expect those products to go through.
Just because something says it's expired doesn't necessarily mean it's unsafe, though. Except: in a commercial kitchen it is illegal to sell expired ingredients because of the testing that goes into determining that date.
I've worked as a chef, have taken multiple food safety courses, had good relationships with food inspectors. And I've worked in a production kitchen where the products were sent to testing facilities for determining the dates we put on the labels.
Even if the best before dates are removed, you need to have A DATE to reference the age of the product. Maybe it wont spoil in one week, but if its been 2 or 3 I would really like to know.
In the UK they have two categories. One is Best Before and the other is Use By. A product will have one or the other but not both. One is a recommendation and the other is a command. And out of date cracker is different to out of date raw chicken. (eggs have a Display Until and a Use By date on the same pack).
Laptop keyboard layouts. There is no reason they should be so different.
Specifically, those laptops that have full-sized left and right arrows, but half-sized up and down arrows - those earn 1 week of jail time for the CEO per unit sold.
While we're at it, the power button must be in the same place on all laptops.
I prefer to keep ctrl where they are. But if you insist on moving left ctrl to caps Lock, that means that bottom left is available for compose.
Compose is best to have on the left side, as the first key struck immediately after it is usually one of the characters on the right. Plus, historically, keyboards that actually had a dedicated compose key had it in the left. Where shift is now, I think.
I'm very much fine with that, too. I just think it was on the right on Sun keyboards. Either way, not the most common key but infinitely more useful than a caps lock.
It has some niche use(r)s. I for one use it daily - My preferred keyboard layout is US Dvorak, but as a noggie I sometimes need to type æøåÆØÅ, so I use compose for those, as well as the occasional trademark, copyright, degrees, etc.
The Sims 2 had wonderful keyboard shortcuts for toggling walls and jumping between floors via Home and End and Page up and Page Down respectively and this was carried through to The Sims 4
A pretty-much arbitrary system based on a standard letter size of 8.5 in x 11 in, with multiples and fractions thereof. It lacks the critical √2 aspect ratio, so pages designed for one size have the wrong proportions when scaled up or down.
There are basically no requirements for maintaining trademarks. If a company owns a name they can use that name and branding forever, no matter how false it becomes, no matter how much the business or product changes, they can keep the name. This shouldn't be the case.
If an ice cream company is named after their two founders, the company shouldn't be able to keep using their names after they're no longer involved. But under current laws they can.
A glass company can build its reputation on making heatproof glass, then change the glass so its no longer heatproof, while still selling it under the same name. This is unjust.
Companies should be forced to rebrand upon major changes. Current trade mark laws are fundamentally misleading.
The point of trademarks is to avoid market confusion.
MTV didn't instantly eliminate all of it's programming and created new programming overnight. They had reality TV shows playing alongside music videos in the 90s. There are some people that might like a reality show that was on MTV when they were playing music videos, then suddenly the name of the company changes because they don't play music and those people can't find the show they like? Even though it's still on, still being made by the same company, but under a different name because curmudgeons don't think it's appropriate that a company with the letter M in it's name isn't focused on music?
Trademarks are about people being able to know which company they're buying from. The name of the company is relatively arbitrary. You could start a company making computers and give it an arbitrary name like I don't know "Apple". then people will associate the quality of the computers with that arbitrary name "Apple". Well you could if someone didn't do exactly that already. It's not so much the name it's the consistency that matters most.
And many names we just kind of forget their origins because they're irrelevant to what the company now does. Does Motorolla have to change it's name because they no longer make record players for cars? Does DC have to rebrand because very few of their comics are about detectives? KFC can't call themselves that because a vast majority of their restaurants aren't in Kentucky?
I'd actually go the other way if anything. Make it illegal for a company to change it's name. Facebook promotes eating disorders to teenagers? Sorry you aren't changing your name to Meta, you can't do bad shit and erase that negative brand association by re-branding. You want your brand to be considered good? Then do better.
I like this. It's stupid that LA has the Lakers... because LA is known for it's lakes? They also have the Dodgers... yeah because people are always dodging streetcars in LA?
The MTV thing though... I think they've already made it so the M doesn't stand for anything now. They removed the "Music Television" part off of their logo anyway.
Basketball:
"Soon it was commonplace for entire teams to change cities in search of greater profits. The Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles where there are no lakes. The Oilers moved to Tennessee where there is no oil. The Jazz moved to Salt Lake City where they don't allow music.
The Raiders moved from Oakland to LA back to Oakland, no-one seemed to notice."
Do I not amplify the background noise when I turn it up myself? I think they're looking more for a "variable volume" option rather than any actual audio engineering
You wouldn't turn up the volume when you know the scene is meant to be quiet. Or at least, you wouldn't turn it up so high you can hear the background noise at the level you want to hear dialogue.
It frustrates me to no end that you can customize audio levels for vocals, music, sound effects, etc in video games, but you can't individually customize anything volume-wise on a TV.
To branch off from this, can i be the regulator for anyone using speaker phone in public/shops for 1v1 conversations by holding the phone next to their face to talk and walking around.
Packaging for supermarket products should have what the product is big and the branding small. Not the other way around.
Oh. Sound mixing on movies/tv shows should be such that voice lines are always perfectly audible even on shitty speakers. Make actors e n u n c i a t e like they did in the 30s. Christopher Nolan has a lot to answer for, turning all of media into mumblecore chief among those things.
LEDs on electronics need either a maximum brightness or an adjustable brightness. I have taken to covering the LEDs on charger bricks with Sharpie/tape (often multiple layers of tape) to dampen the brightness because I cannot function with these damn things at night.
Lmao, I worded that wrong. Like, they should all have a way to seal them shut again. Most of them you just open, I want a little ziploc top or something
My cats eat through the bag of any pet food in the house, unless I put it somewhere so completely unreachable its difficult for me and impossible for my wife to get to it. We just use a couple of old coolers to store theirs and the dogs food.
I have a food container myself since almost all of my cat's food (that she'll eat anyway) come in those bags that have to be clamped or tied in sole way. 😔
The one I buy has a Ziploc but it's very shittily attached to the inside of the bag. So sometimes it breaks off and then both sides of the Ziploc are stuck to one wall of the bag and it becomes useless.
Address numbers are to be placed in a prominent position, with a font that is legible from the street and illuminated at night, on every building in cities and towns.
Out in the country address numbers are to be displayed on reflective signs at the end of the driveway and again if/when a shared driveway splits.
Those yellow bump things for blind people. They need to follow a spec that then in turn cart manufacturers, wheelchair manufacturers, and wagon cart manufacturers all build around so that when I travel over them they don’t jostle my whole cart around and tip over my drink.
Most sewn tags I don't have much of an issue with, since I can remove them if they're annoying.
But some, often the most annoying ones, are sewn with the same thread as the garment itself, meaning you will unravel the garment if you try to take it off. Argh.
Oncoming car headlights should not blind you. Companies need to stop making these and if they are custom jobs, this should be easy tickets for the police.
This is legislated in the US. Just not enforced and cars became taller since the law was written (-3ft/75ft iirc, may vary by state).
In Scandinavia they actually care about this and high beam use is part of diver training. It's nice. Also semi trucks will happily blind you with a thousand Suns if you forget. So it's rare to get blinded in night driving.
The adaptive headlights that fix this are not legal in the US, but in other countries they can be used and will selectively dim parts of their light beams that point at other cars.
Can probably work with a cyclist with a light. But in any case it’s not as big of a deal as a pedestrian or cyclist. Anyways brighter lights might be safer since the driver can more easily see pedestrians and cyclists.
As a pedestrian often struggling to see what the heck I'm doing when walking along a road at night, I'm not sure I agree with it being not such a big deal. I mean, true, I can't really cause an accident that big considering I'm not a multi-ton death machine, but...
As for brighter = safer, I'm not sure either. Wouldn't people see better in the inevitable area outside of their headlights if headlights weren't so bright as to set their eyes up into "daylight mode"?
I think the concept of night adjusted eyes are already pretty lost in any city these days. We’ve moved away from sodium lamps so night vision isn’t really activated as all. In this situation, you’d want the driver to see as much as possible and from as far away as possible so they can react to pedestrians. And having used vehicles with both OEM LED and normal halogens, the brighter LED definitely makes it easier to see.
Ugh, don't remind me of how the transition to LEDs was handled. Should we use yellow LEDs to make it non-obnoxious? Nah, just blast everyone's eyes with cool white LEDs.
A modern standard for indoor lighting receptacles.
It’s silly that we ship a driver and circuit board packed into the lightbulb just to make it compatible with screw bulb receptacles. We should have a new socket that accepts efficient lightbulbs and that can reuse or modularize driver electronics. Instead, the market has gone for full integration at the expense of the consumer.
If you build a new home these days, you get the lightbulb and fixture integrated together. This necessitates replacing the entire assembly when it fails, and when you have to do this eventually you’re going to have mismatched indoor lighting unless you had the foresight to buy extra units.
We need a new lightbulb socket standard, but for modern lighting.
Having some kind of control signal available over wire would be nice, though. So the only way to dim lights wasn't to turn them on and off again a hundred times a second. That would also enable timers and automatic lights for those who want them. Without clouds.
I love telling my phone to turn off my lights in bed, or changing the color of my lights with a simple command. It’s super handy and I’m never going back.
Ahhh. I see. Yea, just make all the receptacles the same! Hue is nice in that the bridge doesn’t need to connect to the internet to communicate with the devices, and the lights only go through the same bridge.
Those electronics are frequently for converting AC to DC and/or regulating the LEDs off current, or for built-in features like zwave, color changing, etc.
Assuming you are mostly interested in getting rid of the AC conversion stuffz are you suggesting adding DC light outlets in each room? Where would you cconvert from mains?
Personally, I'd like to convert pretty much all of my lighting to 12v or 24v DC, but want to make sure I understand what you had in mind.
I'd like ALL game advertising to be composed of at least 50% actual in game screenshots or or videos, but that would actually be consequential and good
For inconsequential, remove stupid-proofing from certain products, like "warning: contains eggs" in egg cartons
There’s generally higher throughout if people just stand on both sides.
Throughput isn't everything though, for instance in train stations some people hurry for a connection, I would say let the latency sensitive ones bypass the others, except in situation where there is a concrete throughput issue.
I think most of these ideas are great but actually too consequential.
Chargers should have an LED that displays red while charging and green when finished. An amber LED toward the end is acceptable. I'm not making this up. I have an item that only displays solid red, when it's finished charging.
I'm partial to blinking for charging and solid for charged. Allows single color LED which is cheaper. Then if you do use multi-color or RGB you can turn red for incompatible/error.
Ok, but if you are still tailgating me in the right lane because I'm doing the speed limit, I'm allowed to deploy James Bond style gadgets from my car at you.
Minus the UK and few others, most countries left lane is fastest and people should pass on the left. Passing on the right causes more accidents, and weaving in and out of slow traffic does too. If slow traffic gets out of the left lane then that’s all avoided.
Tell that to the civil engineers who designed spaghetti bowls full of splits and left-exits and ignored surface street routes and mass transit so even when the freeways are moving at the speed limit there is enough traffic that there is no guarantee there will be enough space to move over at the perfect time.
This is a lovely enough idea for actual intercity travel, and it only takes a couple of clueless asses to make that frustrating, but I see people who think it's actually realistic in populated areas and I shake my head.
I absolutely agree with you. My former flatmate didn't like to use the dishwasher because according to her, it wouldn't clean the dishes properly. Yet she would load the dishwasher by stacking the plates horizontally... as you would store them in a cupboard
Nah, "Regular" is reserved for when you've been eating in the same place for a long time and you walk in there like "Ey Tony, gimme the regulah" and the cook goes "Coming right up boss".
Further: all toasters should be able to steal the sunbeam radiant control patent since it's being squatted on and not used in any toaster on the market
This is what I always struggle with. Is this curry Indian spicy, or American spicy? There have been times where the "lesser spicy" food has brought me to my knees, and other times where the hottest item on the menu was a cakewalk.
Yes. I've never had anything in Europe labeled as "spicy" that wouldn't be outclassed by a mild hot sauce in the US. Closest I've come is an Indian restaurant in London. Also the hot sauce at Nando's was an honorable mention.
Meanwhile the minimum spice level at the hole in the wall Mexican restaurant down the street in Texas is at the same level and hot enough in the high end that I can't handle it. It's perfect.
If you do any industrial processing step which creates something harmful for the environment, your company is responsible for undoing that step after nobody wants the result any more.
This creates an incentive to recycle and build stuff to be able to deconstruct it's components. Less stuff in the landfills and more raw materials for recycling.
Let the consumer bear the cost by paying the real price of a product and not mother nature.
Packaging should be made to be reusable. Glass jars must have easily removable labels, plastic wrap would only be allowed for sterile equipment, otherwise you have to use paper and other biodegradable materials. Branding would have to be completely removable too. Basically, packaging would remain a product of the state, and would be completely controlled. Corporations would have to pay packaging tax to subsidize control of this.
Anyone who lets their dog bark outside for 10+ continuous minutes (except in case of emergency) loses dog privileges for a year. One year added for every five minutes over 10.
ShotSpotter installs can be repurposed to locate homes of negligent owners who are annoying the entire neighborhood by letting their dogs bark unmitigated.
My neighbor texted me the one time they had their dog barking in the backyard for 10 min + with an explanation of why he was out there, and the offer to bring him back in if it was too noisy in our house. 10/10 great neighbor, and honestly made me not mind the barking at all
That they were trying to train their toddler to sit at the table but having an issue because the toddler wants to give the dog the table food and the dog wants to get that food which knocks the toddler over because the toddler is just learning to sit at the table. They normally put the dog out no problem but the dog knows the toddler is at that table now so is extra motivated to be let back in. A short term thing, and they needed the toddler to be able to focus.
Expand allergy warning labels on products. Mammal product allergy exists, it's called alpha-gal syndrome - one of the issues that can arise from a tick bite. I would like to see allergy labels for beef, pork, gelatin, and carrageenan alongside the ones for milk, wheat, nuts, etc.
Stickers put on products by manufacturers or retailers must either be on the product packaging or be made with the material that leaves no residue behind when peeled off.
What about that pyramid with an eyeball on there? US money is weird as fuck and everyone is just all "yup these are completely normal things to have on our currency."
Brian Brushwood once referred to the reverse of the USD $1 bill as "a ticket to the illuminati show."
Fun fact: The Great Seal of the United States of America has a front and a back just like a coin. The eagle with the shield and the olive branch and the arrows is the front, the All Seeing Pyramid is the back. And while the Obverse of the Great Seal is used quite a lot, the only prominent use of the reverse is on the $1 bill.
New "No Ads" holiday. No ads on TV or the entire internet for one day, physical billboards can stay, digital billboards must be turned off, essentially all form of digital advertisement is disallowed. If a company breaks those rules, it is fined 50% of its average annual revenue.
Break up the monopoly that Match Group and Bumble Inc hold on the market, by working with the Federal Trade Commission and UK Competitions & Markets Authority.
Introduce caps on what apps can charge for Premium features. Charging the same price as several World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV subscriptions just to see likes is scummy as fuck.
Introduce mandatory ID verification to dissuade fake users, and have very strict regulations on how said data is processed and stored, with massive fines for data breaches that could easily have been avoided.
Have a correct appeals process towards account penalties/closure and outlaw the use of shadowbanning.
E-bike legislation. Here in BC Canada, you're limited to 500W motor and 32KPH. while I have no problem with the speed limit, I think they should allow up to at least 1000w motors. Heavier individuals such as myself would crush a 500w motor.
For glassware, try buying tempered glass. It's more resistant, but most importantly, when it breaks, it tends to break into cubes rather than into a million little sharp knives.
Bwahaha, I had a tempered measuring cup, a big one I used for pancake batter, stuff like that. One day I gently tapped it with a wooden spoon and it exploded. Pancake batter and (yep, not sharp) tiny pieces of glass everywhere! That was the day I learned tempered glass can store energy. It wasn't that one tap, but every thwack it ever received built up, until it could not store any more and it exploded. Very interesting to learn but very messy.
It's fine. No metallic taste since it's not a reactive metal. In the microwave you just have to make sure it doesn't contact the edge. You only get arcing of metal when there are sharp points or loops, which aren't present on a disc.
The THC content of edibles. It's unregulated in NYC so everything seemingly has between 30mg and 1250mg while I'm sitting here with a 10mg hard limit. A few states have a 5mg or 10mg per serving limit and it's wonderful
Early access and beta and alpha terms for games. Also, early access has a time limit.
Alpha - we're adding and removing features.
Beta - we're 90% polishing 10% adding/removing.
Early access - just fixing bugs. Maximum 3 to 6 months.
You can stay in alpha and beta as long as you want. I don't want to change game dev actuality. I just want the terms to reflect what's actually going on.
Emergency brakes should be a handle that pulls a mechanical cable that directly actuates the rear brakes. Simple and reliable, like you would want in an emergency.
Drinking straws are too wide/girthy on average. Every fast food and coffee place uses giant straws, while a relatively skinny straw provides a vastly superior drinking experience, in my view.
Advertisements should always say what the thing is and what it does.
Disney + show ads on YouTube are like, two dialogue lines, and then "Stream now on Disney Plus". Only thing more annoying than an ad is an ad where you don't even understand what the hell they were trying to sell you.
Every keyboard must have a home and end key that doesn't require pressing additional keys like fn, and home must go to the start of the line, while end goes to the end of the line.
The top speed of cars is limited to the highest speed limit in the country they're certified for.
For emergencies, there's a covered switch on the dash which disables the limit, calls 911 and transmits your position to them.
Weather control isn't, but to many of us the weather itself is, in the sense that stuff tends to happen regardless of the weather here and people look at the weather and think "meh". By keeping it in line though, some things would become easier.
In-game currency and microtransactions are fine, as long as the app can pay out for the same service/item. If I can buy a sword for $5, I can also sell that sword to the app developer and get $5 back. If I can pay $1 to skip a level, I can redeem $1 for beating said level.
First one I disagree with. Most people think things that they don't necessarily agree with, especially as first impressions. I might have to tell someone I think they look shady, and It turns out I just have some sort of unconscious bias.
I am fine with that. I want to know. Such information says far more about yourself than it does about me. I will find out this information in short order by inference. Why not save me the time, and anyone else for that matter. It is okay to disagree pleasantly, online or in person.
How about we just make tipping rounding and pay people a living wage? You know in Europe, eating out is not more expensive than it is in the US and they don't beg for tips. It's such bullshit here
I'm not from North America but I live in Canada now. I find tipping is ridiculous. But if I'm going to be forced to tip it should be made clear to me before the transaction starts. I'm not saying this is the best solution. Tipping should obviously be abolished but I'm just answering this question.
You are basically never forced to tip. I’ve seen some places auto add tip for huge parties, but it was known upfront. Otherwise it’s always a skippable option.
I hate tipping as much as the next guy but it really doesn’t bother me that the option exists, just hit 0 and move on if you feel like they shouldn’t get a tip. (Ex. Fast food)
You're down playing the social and anchoring forces. For instance, you're in a long line and you're prompted to pay, the no tip or tip less than the default options is always more difficult. These default options are used by employers as a way to under pay staff. If these default options were made clear before the purchase there would be a pressure for businesses to reduce or remove those options. As it stands, the default options is a strong anchor.
I disagree. Hardest I’ve ever seen to not tip is click “other amount”, press 0, you’re done.
Your argument about a livable wage would have made sense years ago when there was a separate wage for tipped workers. Everyone in Canada get paid at least minimum wage now.
It's deliberately more difficult to not tip, it's always more buttons and less obvious. Ideally tipping should be abolished (with employees being paid a decent wage) but until then, some form of regulation would be helpful. Otherwise there is no pressure for businesses to act better. I still think my suggestion fits into the theme of this thread.
All vehicles have an auto-sensor that detects when the steering mechanism is turned past a certain point and activates the fucking turn signal. Deactivates it once the steering mechanism returns past that point.
Better rule, if the vehicle detects that the turn signal is not active and you're making a turn, it engages temporary self driving and delivers an electric shock to the crotch .
On multi-lane merge ramps is the guy in the right lane signalling his left blinker because his steering wheel is turned or is he planning to dive into your lane before the merge?
As someone who uses a Nintendo switch and an Xbox, the A and B buttons should be in the same place on all game controllers.
I can get behind this one.
Fucking yes. @[email protected] for world president.
While I agree with the first thing, I'm concerned what someone with the name Arbitrary might do with more power!
What if they ban chocolate chips on waffles?? I'd be doomed!
No bans of chocolate chips on anything will ever be issued. You have my word.
I fully endorse you now, without knowing anything else! Woo party with waffles with chocolate chips on them time!
It may seem slightly above inconsequential, but parking. Parking is a great example of arbitrary rules having longstanding effects. (Really neat video on parking regulations - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUNXFHpUhu8)
As for more inconsequential. Leafblowers Leafblowers immediately banned unless they are
So 10 times quieter than a silent room?
They said regulate, it’s up to the industry to create a compliant product
They need to suck sound out of the environment
/s
Oh no... Guess we can't have leaf lowers anymore.... Shame...
Can we have leaf highers?
It must be quieter than the sound of a leaf hitting the ground!
Yeah no kidding, this guy uses decibel scale but doesn't understand decibel scale. I fucking hate leaf blowers but 55dB seems like a reasonable starting point to me. It won't even barely reach your yard from a neighbor's.
These people are usually the sorts who rise at 5am regardless of day and have become bored after 3 hours awake. If they think about it at all, they believe that everyone who is not yet up by 8am is a fool who ought to be out of bed, thus that is the perfect time to make noise.
As to why they rise at 5am, take your pick from: i) Old and unable to sleep for long periods - Will be asleep again in an armchair by 11am once they've gone back inside; ii) Military bearing or wannabe - Probably has reveille.wav for an alarm; iii) Abject a-hole who gets a kick out of it. Honourable mention: iv) someone with no choice under direction from one of the above.
You forgot v) collaborates internationally for work, requiring them to be awake early to maximize overlapping hours in their workday.
But even I know not to do noisy shit outside until at least 10. Those few quiet hours in the morning where it seems I’m the only person alive are to drink coffee and cherish.
you also forgot people who work in factories that have to get up at 4:00 a.m. during the week and so they like to sleep in till 5:00 a.m. on the weekends.
I'm guilty of 8am yardwork, but mostly mowing in the hottest part of summer at the coolest part of the day. I'm also guilty of 8pm yardwork when it's just the only time I can find to get it done. I only mow once every 2-4 weeks depending on how much my grass has grown, so I figure that balances it out somewhat
Small bladder, but I still refrain from impacting others.
Never live in the japanese countryside. Work starts between 5 and 6am every day (sunrise is before 4:30am at it's earliest where I live). By 9am in August, it's already getting ridiculously hot for working outside.
Relevant podcast episode:
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-los-angeles-leaf-blower-wars/
My neighbor likes to do yardwork at 10pm
Luckily he has electric equipment so it doesn't make as much noise
Except for the days he decides to do woodworking too
Relevant podcast episode:
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-los-angeles-leaf-blower-wars/
Print the food expiration date above the label barcode. Black ink on white background.
Honestly ANY standard would be an improvement over the current reality.
Expiration date see:
the back of your own head
Seriously, I feel like one of those Rubik's cube champions looking at my yoghurt from all possible dimensions trying to find out if it turned to cheese or not.
I would go with: Remove expiration dates entirely. Because it's not an expiration date, it's a "best before" date. Which when you think about it, it's true that food is "best before" literally any future date you put on the label.
Most of the factors that will cause food to spoil are things not under the control of the companies that package the food. How cold do you keep your fridge at? How long did it take for you to transport the food from the store to your fridge? What was the temperature that day? How long did you have it before you break the seal and start using it? How long was the food outside of your fridge? etc. etc.
Those things are just invented by a marketing department to encourage people to throw out food so they have to buy more. There are no regulations on it, they just put whatever date they think will maximize their profits.
You buy fresh fruit and vegetables (the things that will spoil faster than anything else you buy) there is no expiration date. How do you manage? Look at it, and maybe give it a smell test. The same applies for all food really.
"Best before" dates are a scam that results in food being thrown out prematurely. Grocery prices are too high, we shouldn't allow these kinds of shenanigans to drive prices higher.
Please don't die from this advice.
First: Yes, best before dates are sometimes arbitrary depending on the product and where you live. However, basically anything with a package sold commercially has been tested for taste/feel/look over time to determine when quality degrades. If you make cookies you don't want people only buying up 1+ yr old boxes and thinking your cookies are just supposed to taste like solidified disks of keyboard powder. Having a best before date tells people when your product tastes as intended and when it's only worth buying from the discount bin.
It's fair to say sometimes marketing bullshit influences that date.
Second: Expiry dates are a real thing, at least where I'm from. Fridge/freezer temperatures are meant to be within specific ranges and there are food safety regulations around how long certains items can be outside of those ranges - like for transport or during prep.
Expiry dates are based on testing the development of bacteria colonies/degradation of the ingredients in an average of settings one would expect those products to go through.
Just because something says it's expired doesn't necessarily mean it's unsafe, though. Except: in a commercial kitchen it is illegal to sell expired ingredients because of the testing that goes into determining that date.
I've worked as a chef, have taken multiple food safety courses, had good relationships with food inspectors. And I've worked in a production kitchen where the products were sent to testing facilities for determining the dates we put on the labels.
The expiration date isn't for the customer. It's for the grocer. They should not be allowed to sell expired food.
They should be allowed and required to give away or offer for donation any food that is still edible after its expiration date.
By all means, eat all the expired food you want. I certainly do. Just don't try to sell it to anyone and we're golden.
Even if the best before dates are removed, you need to have A DATE to reference the age of the product. Maybe it wont spoil in one week, but if its been 2 or 3 I would really like to know.
Most food has a Julien Code to tell you when it was manufactured/packaged.
I'm gonna fucking get sick from every milk yogurt and ayran in existence, DO NOT DO THIS
I think it would be better to replace it with "fabricated on" date
In the UK they have two categories. One is Best Before and the other is Use By. A product will have one or the other but not both. One is a recommendation and the other is a command. And out of date cracker is different to out of date raw chicken. (eggs have a Display Until and a Use By date on the same pack).
Laptop keyboard layouts. There is no reason they should be so different.
Specifically, those laptops that have full-sized left and right arrows, but half-sized up and down arrows - those earn 1 week of jail time for the CEO per unit sold.
While we're at it, the power button must be in the same place on all laptops.
Adding a copilot button to a laptop, 10 years jail
no trial
I wholeheartedly agree. But unfortunately my regulated standardized keyboard would probably be very unpopular, especially in the US.
ANSI keyboard no more. ISO keyboards only.
Caps Lock has no use beyond writing angry replies in the YouTube comment section, so Caps Lock will be replaced by Compose.
Adding a power button, or anything similar such as suspend, in a place where it might be pushed by accident is highly illegal.
Oh, and all keyboards will be US Dvorak from now on. Sure, you can change the layout in software, but the lettering on the keys remain dvorak.
And 50% of all keyboards sold will have to have a penguin instead of a windows logo on the menu key.
Caps lock is stuck in what is a great place for a modifier. Specifically ctrl. Compose can be somewhere to the right.
I prefer to keep ctrl where they are. But if you insist on moving left ctrl to caps Lock, that means that bottom left is available for compose.
Compose is best to have on the left side, as the first key struck immediately after it is usually one of the characters on the right. Plus, historically, keyboards that actually had a dedicated compose key had it in the left. Where shift is now, I think.
I'm very much fine with that, too. I just think it was on the right on Sun keyboards. Either way, not the most common key but infinitely more useful than a caps lock.
It has some niche use(r)s. I for one use it daily - My preferred keyboard layout is US Dvorak, but as a noggie I sometimes need to type æøåÆØÅ, so I use compose for those, as well as the occasional trademark, copyright, degrees, etc.
You forgot interrobang‽ The most important and incredulous reason for a compose key.
Preach! I need all my keyboard shortcuts, dammit.
The Sims 2 had wonderful keyboard shortcuts for toggling walls and jumping between floors via Home and End and Page up and Page Down respectively and this was carried through to The Sims 4
Legend has it that there my be up to 2 other uses for these keys, too.
But surely not more than 2, that would be crazy.
Makes it so hard to use console command history
International standard paper sizes (A4 etc.) in the U.S.
Metric units aka SI units aka sanity
I assumed it was global... What do you use in the US?
A pretty-much arbitrary system based on a standard letter size of 8.5 in x 11 in, with multiples and fractions thereof. It lacks the critical √2 aspect ratio, so pages designed for one size have the wrong proportions when scaled up or down.
That sounds like a massive pain in the backside.
No, it promotes Freedom(tm).
Sports teams that change cities must also change names.
No more "Utah Jazz".
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Jazz
Similarly, cable channels that veer from their original content must also change their names. Mtv hasn't been Music Television in decades.
Sounds like you want trademark reform.
There are basically no requirements for maintaining trademarks. If a company owns a name they can use that name and branding forever, no matter how false it becomes, no matter how much the business or product changes, they can keep the name. This shouldn't be the case.
If an ice cream company is named after their two founders, the company shouldn't be able to keep using their names after they're no longer involved. But under current laws they can.
A glass company can build its reputation on making heatproof glass, then change the glass so its no longer heatproof, while still selling it under the same name. This is unjust.
Companies should be forced to rebrand upon major changes. Current trade mark laws are fundamentally misleading.
The point of trademarks is to avoid market confusion.
MTV didn't instantly eliminate all of it's programming and created new programming overnight. They had reality TV shows playing alongside music videos in the 90s. There are some people that might like a reality show that was on MTV when they were playing music videos, then suddenly the name of the company changes because they don't play music and those people can't find the show they like? Even though it's still on, still being made by the same company, but under a different name because curmudgeons don't think it's appropriate that a company with the letter M in it's name isn't focused on music?
Trademarks are about people being able to know which company they're buying from. The name of the company is relatively arbitrary. You could start a company making computers and give it an arbitrary name like I don't know "Apple". then people will associate the quality of the computers with that arbitrary name "Apple". Well you could if someone didn't do exactly that already. It's not so much the name it's the consistency that matters most.
And many names we just kind of forget their origins because they're irrelevant to what the company now does. Does Motorolla have to change it's name because they no longer make record players for cars? Does DC have to rebrand because very few of their comics are about detectives? KFC can't call themselves that because a vast majority of their restaurants aren't in Kentucky?
I'd actually go the other way if anything. Make it illegal for a company to change it's name. Facebook promotes eating disorders to teenagers? Sorry you aren't changing your name to Meta, you can't do bad shit and erase that negative brand association by re-branding. You want your brand to be considered good? Then do better.
"Local" sports teams should be comprised only of locals. No buying and trading from other regions.
I like this. It's stupid that LA has the Lakers... because LA is known for it's lakes? They also have the Dodgers... yeah because people are always dodging streetcars in LA?
The MTV thing though... I think they've already made it so the M doesn't stand for anything now. They removed the "Music Television" part off of their logo anyway.
Basketball:
"Soon it was commonplace for entire teams to change cities in search of greater profits. The Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles where there are no lakes. The Oilers moved to Tennessee where there is no oil. The Jazz moved to Salt Lake City where they don't allow music.
The Raiders moved from Oakland to LA back to Oakland, no-one seemed to notice."
That's called a compressor and you could run your stereo through one or use a mobile app to do the processing on your phone.
All of my my windows machines that are hooked up to screens have Loudness Equalization enabled, which works a dream!
My Linux boxes have another software I can’t remember the name of, which do the same thing but does require more tuning.
I couldn’t watch anything without it.
If you have a surround setup, try boosting only the center speaker. Dialog is usually played through that.
Someone else mentioned a compressor. If your tv/hifi has a night mode, it’s doing that exact thing.
This is not as straightforward as you might think. If there's an actual quiet part it would amplify the background noise.
Do I not amplify the background noise when I turn it up myself? I think they're looking more for a "variable volume" option rather than any actual audio engineering
You wouldn't turn up the volume when you know the scene is meant to be quiet. Or at least, you wouldn't turn it up so high you can hear the background noise at the level you want to hear dialogue.
It frustrates me to no end that you can customize audio levels for vocals, music, sound effects, etc in video games, but you can't individually customize anything volume-wise on a TV.
If you play videos through VLC player, you can adjust the dynamic range, which sounds like what you are looking for.
If you run Linux, you can even do it at the system level.
every date MUST be in RFC 3339 format. e.g. 2024-09-08, with optionally the time: 21:41:24+02:00
and hell no not ISO 8601 cause then people would use stuff like 2024W154
Thank you! Also nobody wants to buy a copy of an ISO standard
I think that ISO 8601 is available for free. But agreed that the RFC version is superior.
Would you allow long dates?
For example, Jan. 11, 2022, or 7 September 2010.
no, for cross-language interoperability. ok I just noticed that this breaks other calendar systems but well
Especially hiking trails
Having a conversation with a voice assistant in public should be a minor felony.
It can be in some places.
To branch off from this, can i be the regulator for anyone using speaker phone in public/shops for 1v1 conversations by holding the phone next to their face to talk and walking around.
I don't know, my emotions?
I lol'd
Dishwashers and dish sets have complimenting standards. E.g.
Dishwasher rack is set A.
Dishes (plates, bowls, tupperware, etc.) Would advertise as "fitting rack sizes A,B, & D!"
Check out this person with their "matching dishes"! Well, aren't you fancy?
The number of hotdogs in a hotdog pack and the number of hotdog buns in a hotdog bun pack cannot be coprime
Packaging for supermarket products should have what the product is big and the branding small. Not the other way around.
Oh. Sound mixing on movies/tv shows should be such that voice lines are always perfectly audible even on shitty speakers. Make actors e n u n c i a t e like they did in the 30s. Christopher Nolan has a lot to answer for, turning all of media into mumblecore chief among those things.
LEDs on electronics need either a maximum brightness or an adjustable brightness. I have taken to covering the LEDs on charger bricks with Sharpie/tape (often multiple layers of tape) to dampen the brightness because I cannot function with these damn things at night.
I want all counties to come together and agree what sounds we use for animals.
All bags of pet food must be self sealing.
Your wish is granted. All pet food bags now have integrated AI to help with SmartSeal self sealing.
A finger on the monkey's paw curls.
Lmao, I worded that wrong. Like, they should all have a way to seal them shut again. Most of them you just open, I want a little ziploc top or something
The cat food I get has the plastic Velcro at the top. It's pretty handy.
My cats eat through the bag of any pet food in the house, unless I put it somewhere so completely unreachable its difficult for me and impossible for my wife to get to it. We just use a couple of old coolers to store theirs and the dogs food.
Our cat food bag gets emptied into a big old tupperware. Cat can look, but can not touch.
I have a food container myself since almost all of my cat's food (that she'll eat anyway) come in those bags that have to be clamped or tied in sole way. 😔
The one I buy has a Ziploc but it's very shittily attached to the inside of the bag. So sometimes it breaks off and then both sides of the Ziploc are stuck to one wall of the bag and it becomes useless.
Address numbers are to be placed in a prominent position, with a font that is legible from the street and illuminated at night, on every building in cities and towns.
Out in the country address numbers are to be displayed on reflective signs at the end of the driveway and again if/when a shared driveway splits.
Having addresses be easily legible for emergency services isn't inconsequential, and is legally required where I live.
I wasn't even thinking of emergency services. I was thinking selfishly as a pizza guy.
Well, pizza is pretty important, too.
Delivered to this place awhile back:
It's ugly as hell, but I'm damn sure I know which apartment is which
Those yellow bump things for blind people. They need to follow a spec that then in turn cart manufacturers, wheelchair manufacturers, and wagon cart manufacturers all build around so that when I travel over them they don’t jostle my whole cart around and tip over my drink.
https://www.access-board.gov/prowag/technical.html#r30512-dome-spacing
Tags on clothing must be printed on, with some exceptions where sewed letters are allowed. None of that free hanging tag BS.
Most sewn tags I don't have much of an issue with, since I can remove them if they're annoying.
But some, often the most annoying ones, are sewn with the same thread as the garment itself, meaning you will unravel the garment if you try to take it off. Argh.
Oncoming car headlights should not blind you. Companies need to stop making these and if they are custom jobs, this should be easy tickets for the police.
Seems kind of consequential to me. But I agree.
This is legislated in the US. Just not enforced and cars became taller since the law was written (-3ft/75ft iirc, may vary by state).
In Scandinavia they actually care about this and high beam use is part of diver training. It's nice. Also semi trucks will happily blind you with a thousand Suns if you forget. So it's rare to get blinded in night driving.
The adaptive headlights that fix this are not legal in the US, but in other countries they can be used and will selectively dim parts of their light beams that point at other cars.
But what about pedestrians, cyclists, etc.?
Can probably work with a cyclist with a light. But in any case it’s not as big of a deal as a pedestrian or cyclist. Anyways brighter lights might be safer since the driver can more easily see pedestrians and cyclists.
As a pedestrian often struggling to see what the heck I'm doing when walking along a road at night, I'm not sure I agree with it being not such a big deal. I mean, true, I can't really cause an accident that big considering I'm not a multi-ton death machine, but...
As for brighter = safer, I'm not sure either. Wouldn't people see better in the inevitable area outside of their headlights if headlights weren't so bright as to set their eyes up into "daylight mode"?
I think the concept of night adjusted eyes are already pretty lost in any city these days. We’ve moved away from sodium lamps so night vision isn’t really activated as all. In this situation, you’d want the driver to see as much as possible and from as far away as possible so they can react to pedestrians. And having used vehicles with both OEM LED and normal halogens, the brighter LED definitely makes it easier to see.
Ugh, don't remind me of how the transition to LEDs was handled. Should we use yellow LEDs to make it non-obnoxious? Nah, just blast everyone's eyes with cool white LEDs.
Yet another thing we’ve fallen behind on.
A modern standard for indoor lighting receptacles.
It’s silly that we ship a driver and circuit board packed into the lightbulb just to make it compatible with screw bulb receptacles. We should have a new socket that accepts efficient lightbulbs and that can reuse or modularize driver electronics. Instead, the market has gone for full integration at the expense of the consumer.
If you build a new home these days, you get the lightbulb and fixture integrated together. This necessitates replacing the entire assembly when it fails, and when you have to do this eventually you’re going to have mismatched indoor lighting unless you had the foresight to buy extra units.
We need a new lightbulb socket standard, but for modern lighting.
And it must not connect to wifi or the internet.
Having some kind of control signal available over wire would be nice, though. So the only way to dim lights wasn't to turn them on and off again a hundred times a second. That would also enable timers and automatic lights for those who want them. Without clouds.
Local ZigBee is fine, like all the 12v IKEA lighting.
I love telling my phone to turn off my lights in bed, or changing the color of my lights with a simple command. It’s super handy and I’m never going back.
Ahhh. I see. Yea, just make all the receptacles the same! Hue is nice in that the bridge doesn’t need to connect to the internet to communicate with the devices, and the lights only go through the same bridge.
Have you not heard of Home Assistant?
Those electronics are frequently for converting AC to DC and/or regulating the LEDs off current, or for built-in features like zwave, color changing, etc.
Assuming you are mostly interested in getting rid of the AC conversion stuffz are you suggesting adding DC light outlets in each room? Where would you cconvert from mains?
Personally, I'd like to convert pretty much all of my lighting to 12v or 24v DC, but want to make sure I understand what you had in mind.
I would ban adverts IRL, like billboards and stuff.
Nah, I'd say do the reverse, ban digital advertising. Keep IRL ads as they are today.
I'd like ALL game advertising to be composed of at least 50% actual in game screenshots or or videos, but that would actually be consequential and good
For inconsequential, remove stupid-proofing from certain products, like "warning: contains eggs" in egg cartons
Gameplay.. cutscenes are in the game.
When I think gameplay, I think of someone actively playing the game. Not cutscenes.
I think that's what they were trying to say, since the original comment just mentioned "in-game", but they probably meant gameplay.
The front panel connectors on a motherboard should all be standard and be a single connection.
Ban pharmaceutical advertising.
Ban the display of the US flag in public by private individuals including police except on national holidays and public/government buildings.
I was on vacation in the USA recently, and the existence of pharmaceutical advertisements was shocking. The amount of them was even more shocking!
There was a time when this wasn't a thing. It wasn't even that long ago (for some of us)
I didn’t realize repealing the First Amendment was “inconsequential.”
I didn’t say you can’t talk about pharmaceuticals or the flag.
Reverse the polarity of circuit diagrams so electrons flow along the arrows drawn for current.
relevant xkcd
I love a lot of the ideas in this thread but a ton of them are actually consequential.
stand on the right of the escalator, walk on the left, or go to fucking jail
(reversed in countries where they drive on the left)
also no single wide escalators. (MTA, cut that shit out!)
Usually not reversed anywhere because most people are right-handed.
There's generally higher throughout if people just stand on both sides.
Noted exceptions being if it's not a massive bolus of people trying to leave or also if the walk side is fully saturated with walkers.
but I am impatient and also I hate escalators and want to spend as little time on them as possible :[
I hope there's more of them in your life.
Sinner.
found the escalator engineer
Well, then, moving sidewalks at least.
They're not rides!
Throughput isn't everything though, for instance in train stations some people hurry for a connection, I would say let the latency sensitive ones bypass the others, except in situation where there is a concrete throughput issue.
Institute maximum ad space limits that an individual corporation or organization are allowed to buy per unit of eyespace.
Also, adverts put up on your behalf contribute to that limit, so no SuperPAC shenanigans.
Should at least resolve the issue of being spammed endlessly by adverts from the same group over and over and over again.
I think most of these ideas are great but actually too consequential.
Chargers should have an LED that displays red while charging and green when finished. An amber LED toward the end is acceptable. I'm not making this up. I have an item that only displays solid red, when it's finished charging.
Red/green colorblindness is a thing. I would suggest a flashing lamp for charging and a steady light for charged.
That is also acceptable.
I had a drone like that. Blank so you don't know it's working until it lights up for done
Thank you!!
OLED steam deck uses white and green which is confusing too
I'm partial to blinking for charging and solid for charged. Allows single color LED which is cheaper. Then if you do use multi-color or RGB you can turn red for incompatible/error.
Nah, blinking when done. It's a call to action of sorts.
Yeah sure, same difference to me. Just not solid on for both.
Fast lane is for passing only
Already is, just that nobody enforce this.
Ok, but if you are still tailgating me in the right lane because I'm doing the speed limit, I'm allowed to deploy James Bond style gadgets from my car at you.
Read more better.
Where? Unless you're saying people need to pull over on the shoulder because someone wants to speed in the right hand lane.
Minus the UK and few others, most countries left lane is fastest and people should pass on the left. Passing on the right causes more accidents, and weaving in and out of slow traffic does too. If slow traffic gets out of the left lane then that’s all avoided.
But that's already regulated.
It’s never enforced in the US and it’s incredibly frustrating
While I understand this, are you referring to freeways only?
Or do you include any street with a > 30 mph speed limit regardless if I need to be in the left lane for the stoplight in 1.5miles?
It's almost always safer to sit in that lane when it's busier than changing lanes
everlast minuteFreeways
Tell that to the civil engineers who designed spaghetti bowls full of splits and left-exits and ignored surface street routes and mass transit so even when the freeways are moving at the speed limit there is enough traffic that there is no guarantee there will be enough space to move over at the perfect time.
This is a lovely enough idea for actual intercity travel, and it only takes a couple of clueless asses to make that frustrating, but I see people who think it's actually realistic in populated areas and I shake my head.
I absolutely agree with you. My former flatmate didn't like to use the dishwasher because according to her, it wouldn't clean the dishes properly. Yet she would load the dishwasher by stacking the plates horizontally... as you would store them in a cupboard
I’m impressed they managed to work out the complex process of inhaling and exhaling with that few working brain cells.
But how am I supposed to wash my good kitchen knives?
Same as you wash the poop knife. In the toilet.
All of the good knives i have say to only hand wash them.
Right so you take it really seriously... Regulating something inconsequential now has consequences and they're draconian!
If you are selling three sizes of something, the sizes are called "small", "medium" and "large".
“Regular” instead of medium should be ok.
If there are only 2 sizes you can pick any 2 of the labels.
"Medium" should not be allowed if there are only 2. Medium is in the middle. "Regular" would be fine, but I can't remember ever seeing it.
Nah, "Regular" is reserved for when you've been eating in the same place for a long time and you walk in there like "Ey Tony, gimme the regulah" and the cook goes "Coming right up boss".
If your toaster can't fit a slice of Warburton' Toastie comfortably, then the CEO of the toaster company gets toasted to death at the stake.
Further: all toasters should be able to steal the sunbeam radiant control patent since it's being squatted on and not used in any toaster on the market
You have to put the highest scoville rated ingredient on your hot food stall.
I do not want to be surprised in either direction.
If I eat somewhere new around here and am warned about something being spicy I always ask
I remember an Indian place in Copenhagen had three levels of spiciness: Indian, British or Danish.
This is what I always struggle with. Is this curry Indian spicy, or American spicy? There have been times where the "lesser spicy" food has brought me to my knees, and other times where the hottest item on the menu was a cakewalk.
Yes. I've never had anything in Europe labeled as "spicy" that wouldn't be outclassed by a mild hot sauce in the US. Closest I've come is an Indian restaurant in London. Also the hot sauce at Nando's was an honorable mention.
Meanwhile the minimum spice level at the hole in the wall Mexican restaurant down the street in Texas is at the same level and hot enough in the high end that I can't handle it. It's perfect.
Even in the US it varies, little towns in PA consider black pepper spicy...
If you do any industrial processing step which creates something harmful for the environment, your company is responsible for undoing that step after nobody wants the result any more.
This creates an incentive to recycle and build stuff to be able to deconstruct it's components. Less stuff in the landfills and more raw materials for recycling.
Let the consumer bear the cost by paying the real price of a product and not mother nature.
Motorcycles have a maximum volume
Alternatively 13 months of 28 days
Packaging should be made to be reusable. Glass jars must have easily removable labels, plastic wrap would only be allowed for sterile equipment, otherwise you have to use paper and other biodegradable materials. Branding would have to be completely removable too. Basically, packaging would remain a product of the state, and would be completely controlled. Corporations would have to pay packaging tax to subsidize control of this.
If a food package is not resealable, the nutritional information must state how many calories are in the entire package.
Anyone who lets their dog bark outside for 10+ continuous minutes (except in case of emergency) loses dog privileges for a year. One year added for every five minutes over 10.
ShotSpotter installs can be repurposed to locate homes of negligent owners who are annoying the entire neighborhood by letting their dogs bark unmitigated.
My neighbor texted me the one time they had their dog barking in the backyard for 10 min + with an explanation of why he was out there, and the offer to bring him back in if it was too noisy in our house. 10/10 great neighbor, and honestly made me not mind the barking at all
What was their explanation?
That they were trying to train their toddler to sit at the table but having an issue because the toddler wants to give the dog the table food and the dog wants to get that food which knocks the toddler over because the toddler is just learning to sit at the table. They normally put the dog out no problem but the dog knows the toddler is at that table now so is extra motivated to be let back in. A short term thing, and they needed the toddler to be able to focus.
No more daylight saving clock change. If I want to get up an hour earlier, I'll set my alarm to do so.
Companies can not own other companies.
Expand allergy warning labels on products. Mammal product allergy exists, it's called alpha-gal syndrome - one of the issues that can arise from a tick bite. I would like to see allergy labels for beef, pork, gelatin, and carrageenan alongside the ones for milk, wheat, nuts, etc.
And cocoa. It's a common allergen, causing migraines.
just use primate byproducts and alpah-gal shouldn't be affected
I just want it to be more clear what products are in my food.
under my brutal dictatorship, laptop power buttons may not be a key on the keyboard. It must be a separate button elsewhere on the chassis.
When buying toilets, people should be able to test the flush in the shop
Good rules!
Bottom right = standing or lying? Tag should be on flat also and must tell the bed size.
I think my butters are opposite colors.
Stickers put on products by manufacturers or retailers must either be on the product packaging or be made with the material that leaves no residue behind when peeled off.
Replace "in god we trust" on money with Satan.
Replace with "in Satan we trust" or jus plainly leave it at "Satan"?
It’s gotta be the latter. Then have a PSA campaign explaining that it stands for something-something-Nation.
An illustration of Satan
What about that pyramid with an eyeball on there? US money is weird as fuck and everyone is just all "yup these are completely normal things to have on our currency."
Brian Brushwood once referred to the reverse of the USD $1 bill as "a ticket to the illuminati show."
Fun fact: The Great Seal of the United States of America has a front and a back just like a coin. The eagle with the shield and the olive branch and the arrows is the front, the All Seeing Pyramid is the back. And while the Obverse of the Great Seal is used quite a lot, the only prominent use of the reverse is on the $1 bill.
U.S. has the Dr. Bronner's soap label of currencies.
That's the Masonic conspiracy, it's cool.
Fun fact, that wasn't on money till the "red scare" after WW2.
The pledge of alligance didn't include "under god" originally either.
All shoe and clothing companies must use universal measurements and sizes
New "No Ads" holiday. No ads on TV or the entire internet for one day, physical billboards can stay, digital billboards must be turned off, essentially all form of digital advertisement is disallowed. If a company breaks those rules, it is fined 50% of its average annual revenue.
Online dating apps. I'd:
Break up the monopoly that Match Group and Bumble Inc hold on the market, by working with the Federal Trade Commission and UK Competitions & Markets Authority.
Introduce caps on what apps can charge for Premium features. Charging the same price as several World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV subscriptions just to see likes is scummy as fuck.
Introduce mandatory ID verification to dissuade fake users, and have very strict regulations on how said data is processed and stored, with massive fines for data breaches that could easily have been avoided.
Have a correct appeals process towards account penalties/closure and outlaw the use of shadowbanning.
E-bike legislation. Here in BC Canada, you're limited to 500W motor and 32KPH. while I have no problem with the speed limit, I think they should allow up to at least 1000w motors. Heavier individuals such as myself would crush a 500w motor.
Bumper height of vehicles.
Glassware must be rated to survive short drop onto wood floor at a minimum.
(The fitted sheets we have do have tags for top and bottom with hanging tag at bottom. I would say just don't give them hanging tags at all.)
For glassware, try buying tempered glass. It's more resistant, but most importantly, when it breaks, it tends to break into cubes rather than into a million little sharp knives.
Bwahaha, I had a tempered measuring cup, a big one I used for pancake batter, stuff like that. One day I gently tapped it with a wooden spoon and it exploded. Pancake batter and (yep, not sharp) tiny pieces of glass everywhere! That was the day I learned tempered glass can store energy. It wasn't that one tap, but every thwack it ever received built up, until it could not store any more and it exploded. Very interesting to learn but very messy.
Interesting. I didn't know. Maybe my glasses will explode one of these days.
Although as long as it doesn't turn into tiny knives that I'll still occasionally find under my feet months later, I wouldn't mind much.
Tried this, they're all broken. Corelle flatware lasted quite awhile, but were still no match for my wife and kids. Everything is now stainless steel.
I'd be worried about microwave compatibility, as well as a metallic taste in my water. How are things, really?
It's fine. No metallic taste since it's not a reactive metal. In the microwave you just have to make sure it doesn't contact the edge. You only get arcing of metal when there are sharp points or loops, which aren't present on a disc.
I don't have anything to add, I just want to say this is a phenomenal question, lol.
The THC content of edibles. It's unregulated in NYC so everything seemingly has between 30mg and 1250mg while I'm sitting here with a 10mg hard limit. A few states have a 5mg or 10mg per serving limit and it's wonderful
I would make the written English language 100% phonetic.
I would make SI mandatory in the US.
I would make one night a week a "have dinner with the neighbors" day.
Edit: I would make bidet toilets mandatory. Dry toilets would be phased out like cars without back-up cameras or asbestos insulation.
Early access and beta and alpha terms for games. Also, early access has a time limit.
Alpha - we're adding and removing features.
Beta - we're 90% polishing 10% adding/removing.
Early access - just fixing bugs. Maximum 3 to 6 months.
You can stay in alpha and beta as long as you want. I don't want to change game dev actuality. I just want the terms to reflect what's actually going on.
Grapefruit from the supermarket must always taste of grapefruit.
Emergency brakes should be a handle that pulls a mechanical cable that directly actuates the rear brakes. Simple and reliable, like you would want in an emergency.
Drinking straws are too wide/girthy on average. Every fast food and coffee place uses giant straws, while a relatively skinny straw provides a vastly superior drinking experience, in my view.
Time zones,
No, you can’t just have a half an hour difference!
No more street lights. Nighttime is now dark the way it should be.
Cheating in online video games is criminally punishable
https://youtu.be/bDRjE4e45cE
Beautiful
Ceiling fans should all have physical controls. Shitty 4 button remotes that don't even work half the time don't cut it.
Advertisements should always say what the thing is and what it does.
Disney + show ads on YouTube are like, two dialogue lines, and then "Stream now on Disney Plus". Only thing more annoying than an ad is an ad where you don't even understand what the hell they were trying to sell you.
INTERNET SHOULD BE A PUBLIC UTILITY! SAME AS WATER, TRASH SERVICE, ELECTRICITY AND GAS.
Movie intros must be 10 seconds or less.
Clearly written weight netto of the product and second weight ( it can be smaller caps ) the weight netto 1 year before for the same product
Gender separated bathrooms, they're an unnecessary way to increase cost for no real benefit
Every keyboard must have a home and end key that doesn't require pressing additional keys like fn, and home must go to the start of the line, while end goes to the end of the line.
Women's clothing now have the same definition for what is xs s m l xl and etc
The top speed of cars is limited to the highest speed limit in the country they're certified for.
For emergencies, there's a covered switch on the dash which disables the limit, calls 911 and transmits your position to them.
I misread this as regurgitate, weird suggestions. Hahaha.
I'd make the weather more predictable so I could adapt to it.
Would you like define pi to be 3 while you're at it?
What use would I get out of this?
Much easier math
Just make it 1, then the math is even easier.
That's the kind of thinking we need!
"inconsequential"
"relatively inconsequential"
Nothing is 100% inconsequential.
Don't think that weather control is relatively inconsequential.
Weather control isn't, but to many of us the weather itself is, in the sense that stuff tends to happen regardless of the weather here and people look at the weather and think "meh". By keeping it in line though, some things would become easier.
OK...?
Harris Walz should make policy announcements from this thread, surely they would get a ton of more votes
Coffee shop tables should be 3 legged to prevent them from wobbling and me spilling my coffee when I lean onto the table even just a bit.
ban stateist flags
no, but seriosly, I wouldn't ban anything
Ban banning things 🤯
No olives shall be added to feta in oil.
In-game currency and microtransactions are fine, as long as the app can pay out for the same service/item. If I can buy a sword for $5, I can also sell that sword to the app developer and get $5 back. If I can pay $1 to skip a level, I can redeem $1 for beating said level.
Universal remotes. Why should my remote work on a tv in the Andromeda galaxy?
Simple. 1.
Fruit and Veggies should be in order from least ripe to most ripe to make it easier to eat a healthy diet overtime.
First one I disagree with. Most people think things that they don't necessarily agree with, especially as first impressions. I might have to tell someone I think they look shady, and It turns out I just have some sort of unconscious bias.
I am fine with that. I want to know. Such information says far more about yourself than it does about me. I will find out this information in short order by inference. Why not save me the time, and anyone else for that matter. It is okay to disagree pleasantly, online or in person.
I'm just saying that the difference between what someone thinks and what they believe is the majority of their personality.
Nobody can back in to park.
Backing in to park is so much better though. Better viability of the parking space with mirrors. And then when you leave there’s less to think about.
Ending bodily autonomy is pretty consequential.
Tell me you've never worked a day in your life without telling me you've never worked a day in your life.
Tipping, the default tipping options should be displayed next to the price of the item.
Hard disagree. Tipping should be abolished and restaurants forced to pay a living wage should be the only regulation around tipping.
Lol, I'm not saying this is the ultimate solution. I'm answering the question. I also think tipping should be abolished.
How about we just make tipping rounding and pay people a living wage? You know in Europe, eating out is not more expensive than it is in the US and they don't beg for tips. It's such bullshit here
I'm not from North America but I live in Canada now. I find tipping is ridiculous. But if I'm going to be forced to tip it should be made clear to me before the transaction starts. I'm not saying this is the best solution. Tipping should obviously be abolished but I'm just answering this question.
You are basically never forced to tip. I’ve seen some places auto add tip for huge parties, but it was known upfront. Otherwise it’s always a skippable option.
I hate tipping as much as the next guy but it really doesn’t bother me that the option exists, just hit 0 and move on if you feel like they shouldn’t get a tip. (Ex. Fast food)
You're down playing the social and anchoring forces. For instance, you're in a long line and you're prompted to pay, the no tip or tip less than the default options is always more difficult. These default options are used by employers as a way to under pay staff. If these default options were made clear before the purchase there would be a pressure for businesses to reduce or remove those options. As it stands, the default options is a strong anchor.
I disagree. Hardest I’ve ever seen to not tip is click “other amount”, press 0, you’re done.
Your argument about a livable wage would have made sense years ago when there was a separate wage for tipped workers. Everyone in Canada get paid at least minimum wage now.
It's deliberately more difficult to not tip, it's always more buttons and less obvious. Ideally tipping should be abolished (with employees being paid a decent wage) but until then, some form of regulation would be helpful. Otherwise there is no pressure for businesses to act better. I still think my suggestion fits into the theme of this thread.
All vehicles have an auto-sensor that detects when the steering mechanism is turned past a certain point and activates the fucking turn signal. Deactivates it once the steering mechanism returns past that point.
But the idea of an indicator is to indicate that you will soon turn the steering wheel, not that you've already started to turn it.
Better rule, if the vehicle detects that the turn signal is not active and you're making a turn, it engages temporary self driving and delivers an electric shock to the crotch .
That would make some people do that on purpose
On multi-lane merge ramps is the guy in the right lane signalling his left blinker because his steering wheel is turned or is he planning to dive into your lane before the merge?
So it would engage if you switch lanes, but also if the road curved slightly...?