I bet if go down to county or city level, you‘ll find differently colored areas such as cities relying on old steel, coal, textile economies. At least here in Germany I know areas where many people left their home areas in the 90ies. But that’s probably a geography lesson.

I second your proposal. Just call them all „Bart“ and „ Maggie“ if female

Holy shit I had a Note 7 - and loved it.

I‘m the one with that rope. A Lemmnja.

Muss ich mir merken Thermit-Reaktion. Wenn dann bald die humanoiden Roboter in Kriegen eingesetzt werden (und sie endlich wissen wie Türen zu öffnen sind), dann werde ich die Terminator therminieren.

https://www.chemie-schule.de/KnowHow/Thermitreaktion

Oh, I see it’s an English thread. So, actually that will be my way of fighting the Terminator in the coming wars with Humanoid Robots (once they figured out how to handle door handles). I will thermitinate the Terminator. As a note to my future self.

Okay, I might sound too negative. After WW2 car culture took off in Germany and Japan as well. May be a bit later due to overall wealth.

However, the OT asked how it comes that both countries have different urban planning - not building the city around cars despite having big car manufacturers.

My point is simply that the structure of German and Japanese cities were already shaped when cars were invented. Sure, there were bigger „modernizations“ with big streets cutting some cities in halves. But that’s more a niche.

The US had a population boom after WW2 and so the cities start to spread. Build car-friendly. https://marketsize.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/USPop.jpg

As the engine car was invented in 1886, I would say trains and trams were already there. Way before the car entered the scene. Just later at 1908 with Ford T cars became affordable for the non-rich.

People at that time hadn’t a huge radius of movement. There wasn’t simply not much need.

That is a bit how humans always explained human experiences - by explaining it through how modern technology works.

Years ago it were mechanical mechanisms that explained how we think. Before that it was a pinhole camera. Today it is information technology.

But that‘s not how humans think, interact, and live in the world. You’re model doesn’t explain why some people are boring and some are meszmerising. Some spoken words can resonate with your body and emotion (think of songs) some not. Some people such as Italians speak with hands and gestures as well and need it to understand the other.

That‘s why for me web calls are okay for just some information sharing but when it comes to even more intense and effective exchange, humans have to be in one room - to be in wave.

With just showing an idea, the problem is that humans aren’t in your head and see the world through the windows of the eyes (pinhole camera concept). Humans interact and move and see the world. That’s btw one of the breakthroughs in robotics - moving robots can much better interact with the world.

I don’t think this is the cause of it though: No money for buying cars. My guess is, it’s because there were more alternatives such as trains and public trams and cities are more densely build out of history.

Despite the US, Germany(& Europe) and Japan had a huge railway network spanning all cities and even smaller cities. The area I lived in Germany had the first railway 1840. Japan 1872. US 1827. However, if you look into the network expansion the US never reached the density and complexity of both others due to it’s sheer size.

With the advent of trains all bigger European and Japanese cities began to build public tram systems. To such an extent that it spans most of the citied nowadays. This is still not the state in US. One can literally see the difference when visiting US, German, and Japanese cities todays.

Moreover, US hadn’t cities that grow organically throughout the centuries. And there is much space available. No dense historic city centers, no growing city rings. E.g. you can easily cross an one million city such as Cologne by bike in 1-1,5 hour. (And adding traffic jams and parking lot search time, bike is more efficient and easy)

Interactive map railway network Germany: https://interaktiv.morgenpost.de/bahn-schienennetz-deutschland-1835-bis-heute/

Video railway network Japan https://jref.com/threads/video-150-years-of-japan-railway-network.504981/

Video railway network US https://youtu.be/a8lX5A2q-Eo?si=-zjdLE1Wz8TlyCbt. Wiki https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transportation_in_the_United_States

Public tram systems in US https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_streetcar_systems_in_the_United_States

Still those are much smaller than in some US cities.

If you‘re so picky, I‘ll as well. I wrote it spans across, not includes all.

And France is the only one country that spans across all time zone on the globe.

Real world applications is what comes to light at the „Slope of Enlightment“ If QC has some, the tech is at this point.

One of my first games. I stared at those moving lines for a long time.

Ok fair enough.

Yes, that was close to where I live in Western Germany. Last outburst of old thinking (I hope). Meanwhile, the power company said in the news, it doesn’t need that entire area and forest anymore, because renewables have gone too competitive. Coal is too costly now.

If you like to see a moon-alike area in a densly populated area in Western Germany - the open field coal area Hambaxh: https://maps.app.goo.gl/H47EKatEDyKut3XZ6?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy

As big as city of Cologne. I‘m happy that this is going to stop by 2030. Or even faster

You didn’t get my point that I didn’t neglect it. I just mentioned that it also saved Europe of being enslaved by ancient Roman Empire.

Later Christianity changed it‘s view on slaves and invented Rassism for put Africans and American natives into slavery. Ever heard of Spanish-born of French men slaves in Americas?

And to make it even less black/white or god/bad, some more nuances: Habe you heard of Munch armies in Americas? Or were it soldiers? Do you draw any difference between governments, church, and religion?

And when the sun and wind aren’t active?

That is a serious issue. Under the hood the power grid is being reengineered to solve it. Lot of battery storages, pump lakes, and may be hydrogen conversion. Still this is an open issue. I love to follow the discussion in blogs and podcasts.

Yepp, that is the luck of geology.

At least we‘re on a track to carbon zero as you can see here: https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-energy-consumption-and-power-mix-charts

It‘s not perfect and could be faster. However, we‘re way better than other countries that don’t move.

Edit: I forgot to mention, that half the year Germanies power is over 50% from renewables. Share is increasing every year.