The Waiting Place

[EK WAFFLR]

Pah. I'm Norwegian through and through. (With some Italian, Portugese, Spanish, Scottish and Jewish thrown in for good measure)
I dare ya to out-drink me!

[Doktor Howl]

Pah. I'm Norwegian through and through. (With some Italian, Portugese, Spanish, Scottish and Jewish thrown in for good measure)
I dare ya to out-drink me!

You have a standing invitation to come to Tucson at any time of year (Spring & Fall are most comfortable), and take part in the Upstairs Balcony Invitational Bourbon Swilling Olympics.  Puking over the cliff out back onto golfers is extra points.

[EK WAFFLR]

Pah. I'm Norwegian through and through. (With some Italian, Portugese, Spanish, Scottish and Jewish thrown in for good measure)
I dare ya to out-drink me!

You have a standing invitation to come to Tucson at any time of year (Spring & Fall are most comfortable), and take part in the Upstairs Balcony Invitational Bourbon Swilling Olympics.  Puking over the cliff out back onto golfers is extra points.

I appreciate that!
I'll make sure to put Tuscon on my list when I finally get my arse across that pond.

[Doktor Howl]

Pah. I'm Norwegian through and through. (With some Italian, Portugese, Spanish, Scottish and Jewish thrown in for good measure)
I dare ya to out-drink me!

You have a standing invitation to come to Tucson at any time of year (Spring & Fall are most comfortable), and take part in the Upstairs Balcony Invitational Bourbon Swilling Olympics.  Puking over the cliff out back onto golfers is extra points.

I appreciate that!
I'll make sure to put Tuscon on my list when I finally get my arse across that pond.

We're a measly 4024 Km from New York, so it's not too far out of the way.

[EK WAFFLR]

Pah. I'm Norwegian through and through. (With some Italian, Portugese, Spanish, Scottish and Jewish thrown in for good measure)
I dare ya to out-drink me!

You have a standing invitation to come to Tucson at any time of year (Spring & Fall are most comfortable), and take part in the Upstairs Balcony Invitational Bourbon Swilling Olympics.  Puking over the cliff out back onto golfers is extra points.

I appreciate that!
I'll make sure to put Tuscon on my list when I finally get my arse across that pond.

We're a measly 4024 Km from New York, so it's not too far out of the way.

[maybe stupid question]Are there trains[/maybe stupid question]

[Doktor Howl]

Pah. I'm Norwegian through and through. (With some Italian, Portugese, Spanish, Scottish and Jewish thrown in for good measure)
I dare ya to out-drink me!

You have a standing invitation to come to Tucson at any time of year (Spring & Fall are most comfortable), and take part in the Upstairs Balcony Invitational Bourbon Swilling Olympics.  Puking over the cliff out back onto golfers is extra points.

I appreciate that!
I'll make sure to put Tuscon on my list when I finally get my arse across that pond.

We're a measly 4024 Km from New York, so it's not too far out of the way.

[maybe stupid question]Are there trains[/maybe stupid question]

Yes.  They're not much cheaper than planes, and they take 4-5 days, rather than 5 hours.

[El Sjaako]

Not really sure why I took the trouble to look this up but anyway:

[maybe stupid question]Are there trains[/maybe stupid question]

Yes, but they cost about as much as a plane ticket (on the random dates I looked up it was $371.20 for a plane and  $362.00 for train). The train takes 83 hr, 25 min. You can get there cheaper (I found about $180) by bus ("Greyhound"), but then you have to sit on the bus for about 60 hours.

[EK WAFFLR]

Humm. I might do the Greyhound thing. I want to actually see stuff too. Besides I'm used to bus rides.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Amtrak and greyhound are good if youre going from say boston to philadelphia and dont have a car. Anything beyond that distance youre better off flying.

[LMNO]

Or, you could rent a unicycle.

[Doktor Howl]

Humm. I might do the Greyhound thing. I want to actually see stuff too. Besides I'm used to bus rides.

Not a 4000 Km bus ride.

And not in America.  Things happen on our busses, Waffle.  People go missing, or worse...But nobody ever talks about it, because the people that matter can afford the plane ride.

[Freeky]

Humm. I might do the Greyhound thing. I want to actually see stuff too. Besides I'm used to bus rides.

Not a 4000 Km bus ride.

And not in America.  Things happen on our busses, Waffle.  People go missing, or worse...But nobody ever talks about it, because the people that matter can afford the plane ride.

Yes, unfortunately.   That.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Humm. I might do the Greyhound thing. I want to actually see stuff too. Besides I'm used to bus rides.

Not a 4000 Km bus ride.

And not in America.  Things happen on our busses, Waffle.  People go missing, or worse...But nobody ever talks about it, because the people that matter can afford the plane ride.

It's not quite as bad as what goes down on the buses in Canada, but yeah, it's bad.

[Doktor Howl]

Humm. I might do the Greyhound thing. I want to actually see stuff too. Besides I'm used to bus rides.

Not a 4000 Km bus ride.

And not in America.  Things happen on our busses, Waffle.  People go missing, or worse...But nobody ever talks about it, because the people that matter can afford the plane ride.

It's not quite as bad as what goes down on the buses in Canada, but yeah, it's bad.

They only had the one cannibal.  It's not like they make a habit of it.

[Kai]

Dok Howl -

I'm not anonymous here. I haven't been for a while now. You can easily trace my name and verify all sorts of things about me. Likewise, people could find me /here/ by searching my full name on Google.

While taking the jump from anonymity was scary, it's such a great relief to have done it. But I will admit, I post less about the sort of things I used to post. I post less altogether. I don't join in discussions of things I wouldn't have in a public place, because, yes, this is a public place.

In The Selfish Gene, Dawkins talks about evolutionary stable states, and among other things, Prisoner's Dilemma. You can reach an ESS where cooperation becomes the norm and defecters/cheaters become a small minority. But the only way this happens is: A) people take steps to be cooperative at first interaction, rather than refusing to cooperate until the other person shows cooperative behavior, and B) people have to see each other as individuals, and not as faceless names on a screen.

And we do see each other as individuals, somewhat. But there's still enough anonymity that people feel free to take shots at each other, or defect first, or retaliate when people try to cooperate, because there is very little social karma involved.

You want a sure way to make things more respectful? Get rid of the anonymity. Make people responsible for their actions, in the same way they would be if they met on the street.

As unpopular as this idea will be, it would work. As long as 'us vs them' presides, communication doesn't happen. I've found some real relationships build with people here when I've met them IRL, or talked with them over the phone, because there is no longer any guess as to whether they are a 'cheater', hiding behind a screen name. For me, anyway.