• Danquebec
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      5 months ago

      Once, as a teenager, I switched channels on the TV, and there was a movie. A caption appeared on screen: “Rhode Island”.

      “Nice!” I thought. “I always like movies set in cultures that are very foreign to mine.”

      As the movie went on, I was increasingly confused, as those Greeks, or Turks, seemed very similar to US Americans, and the setting appeared to be the USA. (It was dubbed in French, so I couldn’t tell from the language)

      I soon figured that it must be a location in the USA named after an Old World location.

      • nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 months ago

        New England has two types of place names. Old English colonial names and Native ones. Like a river called Woonasquatucket from the very same state you mentioned, Rhode Island.

        • Danquebec
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          5 months ago

          Interesting.

          Here in Québec, most towns and villages either have a native name, or saint’s name.

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      That should be clear. Palestine is a nation, but not a location.

      Edit: I don’t know why people are so upset. This is a factual statement, not meant to discredit Palestine, and is a very important part of Israel’s oppressive leverage. As a direct result of their displacement, Palestine is a people. The nation is wherever the Palestinians live. The land they govern is only defined by their occupation.

      Palestine is recognized by the UN as self-determined nation of people. It is not a country with internationally recognized borders. That is why their land is referred to as Palestinian territory and not the country of Palestine. It’s also why Netanyahu wants to evict them for easy circumvention of international law prohibiting settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.

      https://www.un.org/unispal/document/the-right-of-the-palestinian-self-determination-19-dec24/

      • Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        not a location

        …what?

        Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in the southern Levant region of West Asia. It encompasses two disconnected territories — the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, collectively known as the Palestinian territories — within the larger region of Palestine.

      • Atelopus-zeteki@kbin.run
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        5 months ago

        And as a nation it has been in the news a lot lately. And may be divided into an Eastern portion, and a Western portion, no?

      • LimeZest@discuss.tchncs.de
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        5 months ago

        People outside of the US probably don’t know about the train wreck in Ohio. It never hurts to add a little clarification.

        • Dashi@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          With all the stuff going on, i am in the us and forgot their was a train wreck in ohio.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        It’s both. Just like any other nation. If you go to France, your location is France and you’re also in the nation of France.

        Same with Palestine.

        • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          But it’s not. If Palestinians leave territory, that land is no longer considered Palestine. Palestine is where the Palestinians live. Their nation has territories defined by residence, but is not a country with borders. I wasn’t slighting Palestine. It’s just the unfortunate state of their international recognition.

            • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              Historically, maybe, but not legally. It’s the reason Netanyahu wants to evict them. He can circumvent the laws on settlements on occupied territory without invading another nation if the people are no longer there, because it is not part of a Palestinian country. They’re a displaced people without sovereign borders. The nations that show them the respect of recognition as a sovereign nation have not set agreed-upon borders to define Palestine as a country. It’s important to know the law to see how he’s circumventing it.

              https://www.un.org/unispal/document/the-right-of-the-palestinian-self-determination-19-dec24/

                • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  I’m stating a fact. It isn’t subjective. You don’t have to like it, but that doesn’t make it false.

                  You should know this if you care about Palestinians. It’s a very important part of how Netanyahu’s “favor” of evacuation rather than bombing immediately allows Israel the legal right to claim an area as their own.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                Are you under the bizarre impression that a place just loses its name like that? If every French person left France, its name would change?

                • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  France is a country, not just a nation. Their borders are internationally recognized, regardless of inhabitants. The same can be said for the large swaths of unpopulated Newfoundland in Canada and Siberia in Russia. The land isn’t forgone due to being uninhabited. The same is not true for Palestinian territory.

                  Palestine is an internationally recognized nation-state. A nation because they are a group of people that share a common culture, and a state because they govern themselves. It is not a country according to the UN. The 1949 armistice line, or “Green Line,” made up the boundaries of Israel, the West Bank (the area west of the Jordan River) and the Gaza Strip. It only determines where Palestine isn’t, not where it is. Palestine’s border is only determined by an Israeli agreement, and not internationally recognized by the UN. Therefore, if Palestinians leave an area, it is no longer considered Palestinian territory.

                  That’s exactly why Netanyahu is trying to coerce evacuation of regions. Once uninhabited, he can legally begin occupation of land that is no longer considered Palestinian territory.

                  https://www.nad.ps/en/our-position/borders

                  https://fmep.org/issues/borders/

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        A. it’s both.

        B. This is the United States where we regularly question why the FBI isn’t stopping Russian influence in the Georgian Parliament.

        • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          It’s not according to the UN. Their occupied land is Palestinian territory. If they vacate, it is no longer theirs, leaving it available for Israel to claim. It’s a large part of the occupation problem that Palestinians face.

          In contrast, Ukraine has internationally recognized borders. The currently Russian occupied towns and cities are still Ukraine, not Russia.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Is that not a geographical location then? So they are both a nation and a country?

            • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              They are a nation, not a country.

              “Nation” refers to a group of people who share a common culture, history, and language. It’s a term that’s often used to describe a community of people who identify with each other and have a sense of shared identity.

              On the other hand, “country” refers to a geographical area that is controlled by a government. It’s a more concrete term that describes a physical location rather than a group of people.

              https://thecontentauthority.com/blog/nation-vs-country

              • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                I’m aware of the difference. But your own post mentions the geographical area that Palestinians govern. So I’m at a loss as to how you can day there isn’t also a Palestine country?

                • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  They only govern it because they reside in it. The governance of land is what defines the “state” in nation-state. Unlike in a country, if they leave an area, it is no longer Palestine. That’s a problem for Palestinians. If they vacate due to bombings, they forgo the right to their territory. That’s exactly why Netanyahu is trying to force evacuations. International law is against Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories, not Palestine, because it is not a recognized country.

                  In contrast, the same actions in Ukraine do not change that it’s still Ukraine. When the Ukrainians evacuate and Russia takes control of a city, it becomes a Russian occupation of Ukraine.

                  I’m just trying to educate on the matter, not discredit Palestine at all, but people seem to be too sensitive to want to know the intricacies of the problem.

      • geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml
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        5 months ago

        You don’t appear to know the difference between a country and a location.

        Palestinians do not care much that they do not fit your arbitrary Western definition of a country.

  • Atelopus-zeteki@kbin.run
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    5 months ago

    I’m so glad that Norfolk Southern is going to pay for all of the necessary remediation. Really a very considerate, and socially/ enviromentally conscious company. Bravo!

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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      5 months ago

      What are you talking about? Some politician grimaced as he took a sip of water and another one put it to his lips without actually taking a sip. Everything is fine!

      • Atelopus-zeteki@kbin.run
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        5 months ago

        Just hoping to shame Norfolk Southern into action. It was worth inconveniencing a few electrons/ photons, dammit.

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    It’s 2024. Why are trains still derailing? Surely there’s a better engineering design than this.

    • Sunforged@lemmy.ml
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      Rail workers do not have the proper time to fully inspect cars and arrange them in the proper order due to understaffing and the high volume created by maximized rail schedules that prioritize profits over safety.

      That’s a huge reason why rail workers wanted to go on strike before there was bipartisan cooperation led by Biden to take away their labor rights.

      • dumbluck@midwest.social
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        5 months ago

        It’s cheaper to pay the fines when accidents happen than it is to run the trains safely. Just the cost of doing business.

      • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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        5 months ago

        led by Biden to take away their labor rights.

        Yet if I criticize him, I’m accused of refusing to vote against Trump and told that I’m the problem.

        • Incandemon@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          That’s only because you individually have been made responsible for the election. Every one else was at the meeting and didn’t want the job. Good luck, and don’t choose wrong!

        • Sunforged@lemmy.ml
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          5 months ago

          They only tell you your the problem? I got called a Chinese psy-op the other day.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      The engineering is fine, great even. Executives have demanded that the trains run at the red line, for maximum profit. With no safety margin, when something goes wrong it goes really really wrong. That’s why it was so important to hold them accountable and so fucked that we didn’t. It’s just a matter of time until the next accident.

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      It’s effectively impossible to engineer around knowingly unsafe operation. The trains are fine, it’s the railroads operating them unsafely and the state and federal governments refusing to maintain infrastructure that is the problem.

      • jake_jake_jake_@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        i wish the govt was in charge of maintaining the infrastructure, and i wish the govt owned the infrastructure then prioritized passenger traffic over freight so we could get some semblance of a working regional rail system.

          • catloaf@lemm.ee
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            5 months ago

            They often do prioritize passenger trains, but if it’s single track already occupied by a long, slow freight train, the passenger train is going to have to wait anyway.

      • reddig33@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I dunno. You never hear about high speed rail in Japan derailing, or the monorail at DisneyWorld going off the track. There was some crazy invention ages ago where a train with a gyroscope actually traveled on a single rail. We’ve got to do better than this.

        • catloaf@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          Yeah, because they actually care about safety and put money into maintenance.

          Most derailments happen due to operational error such as too much speed for the track (preventable with ATC), equipment failure (preventable with better inspection and maintenance) or external factors like a car on the tracks (not really preventable without major gate upgrades).

          The only real technological innovations are automated train systems, but that technology already exists, we just don’t use it in the US because the private rail operators make more money by cutting corners, not spending on upgrades.

    • Steve@startrek.website
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      5 months ago

      Thats line saying why are bridges still collapsing

      Because zero effort has been put into maintenance!

    • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Boats still sink, planes and cars still crash. Fundamentally, transportation will fail. The question is are these failures within an acceptable rate due to unforseen issues, or is this a problem with the system that operates and profits off of these devices, letting safety slip to maximize profit?

  • aaaaace@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    5 months ago

    Maybe have a transportation secretary who has experience in transportation, as opposed to being a consultant and focusing on ticket refunds instrad of aircraft doors coming off and trains exploding…or would that hurt profitability?

  • Crismus@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    So nice that before this happened, the railworkers wanted to strike duets safety concerns and understaffed Railroads. All to keep them from taking days off and lowering profits.

    Good old Joe Biden (friend to the working man) denied the strike request because interfering with Christmas shipping would be a problem.

    I think the railworkers should have called his bluff and all off the job. Unlike Reagan and the Air Traffic Strike, the military can’t just take over those jobs. He couldn’t replace the entire unionized jobs like the AIR Force could take over flight operators.

    • BigFig@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      And then they negotiated behind the scenes and got most of what they wanted without a strike. The part that anti Biden posters conveniently leave out every time they bring this up

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        For roughly half the unions. The Rail companies gave a ton of stuff to their IT department and everyone called it a win to save face. Meanwhile the guys on the trains themselves are only sporadically getting wins. The points system that automatically fires people for being sick notably still exists which means one of the core complaints, (people literally falling over dead on the job because they worked through being sick) is unaddressed. As is the low staffing numbers on the actual trains and maintenance crews. To be clear a bunch of those guys officially have sick days now, but the points system will still deduct points if they miss a duty call that day.