Beyoncé Lost the Role of This Disney Princess After Refusing to Audition - "Beyoncé was almost a Disney princess. Emphasis on almost. According to Jen Rubin, author of Confessions of a Casting Director, the Queen Bey was one of several high profile Hollywood women who were in the running for the lead voice role in The Princess and the Frog... While Beyoncé was casting directors’ first choice for Tiana in the 2009 animated film, she ultimately lost out on the opportunity to play the iconic character after acting a bit too entitled for her own good."
Singaporean who migrated to Australia at 11 jailed 4 months for defaulting NS - "A 28-year-old Singapore-born man who migrated to Australia at the age of 11 was jailed four months on Wednesday (17 June) after he pleaded guilty to remaining outside Singapore without a valid exit permit between 18 June 2008 and 5 March 2017 – in contravention of the Enlistment Act. Remington Fhang Lim, who has been an Australian citizen since he turned 17, told the court that he was not aware that Central Manpower Base (CMPB) had directed him to enlist for national service (NS) until four years ago, when his father informed him that he had been called up for NS for the first time... his parents had been granted Singapore citizenship a month before Lim was born in Singapore in 1991. His father was a Malaysian by birth, while his mother was born in Trinidad and Tobago. Both were unfamiliar with the concept of NS, said Quah. According to the prosecution, Lim’s father and mother now hold Australian citizenships. Lim also has two younger sisters... In 2009, when Lim attained his Australian citizenship, his father received a letter from CMPB informing that Lim was required to enlist for NS in Singapore. Under the Enlistment Act, all male citizens and Singapore permanent residents must register for NS upon reaching the age of 16-and-a-half years old. Lim’s father then corresponded with CMPB without notifying his son... “Mr Lim’s father requested that CMPB allow Mr Lim to defer his NS call-up, as Mr Lim was about to sit for his HSC (Higher School Certificate) examinations shortly and Mr Lim’s father did not want this NS issue to distract Mr Lim from his exam preparations,” the lawyer said. However CMPB eventually declined the request for deferment. Lim was kept in the dark regarding his father’s entire correspondence with CMPB, said Quah. Lim also did not think he would be liable to NS as he had never considered returning to Singapore, and had integrated into life in Australia. It was only in 2016 that Lim’s father reminded Lim about his NS obligations and to renounce his Singapore citizenship. Upon finding out that he was liable to serve NS, Lim decided to leave his job, his fiancee and life in Sydney to fulfil his responsibilities... In sentencing Lim, District Judge Ong Luan Tze commended Lim for voluntarily returning to serve NS and to face his charges. However she stated that she was bounded by the High Court’s decision in sentencing such matters, and that a lack of knowledge was not a “lawful excuse”."
So much for the principle of not punishing someone because of someone else's actions
This is what happens when you take up the poisoned chalice of Singapore citizenship
Thai citizen born in Bangkok pleads guilty to defaulting on NS in Singapore - "He was born and raised in Thailand, and graduated from Thammasat University Bangkok. Ekawit Tangtrakarn, a 24-year-old Thai national whose mother is Singaporean and whose father is Thai, even served three years in the Royal Thai Army. But on Tuesday (28 August), Ekawit, who was also a Singapore citizen until he was 22, pleaded guilty to one count of remaining outside the Republic without a valid exit permit between 17 April 2010 and 16 October 2015 in the Singapore State Courts. Ekawit’s actions are a breach of the Enlistment Act... This is the first case of its kind where a National Service defaulter coming back to face charges was not liable for NS at the time of the charges for the sole reason that by then, he was no longer a Singapore citizen or permanent resident, according to the prosecution. The charge comes about because Ekawit did not fulfil his National Service obligations, even though he ceased to be a Singapore citizen in 2015. Ekawit was registered as a Singaporean citizen by his mother when he was one even though the family had moved to Thailand before he was born. Ekawit was no longer a Singapore citizen as from 17 October 2015, when he didn’t take the Oath of Renunciation, Allegiance and Loyalty (Oral) within 12 months from the age of 21... Ekawit’s lawyer, S Radakrishnan, said that his client had no reason to believe that he would still be liable to serve in the armed forces of a country that he did not really understand or had links to. “For all intents and purposes, (Ekawit) was born, lived, studied, served national service and found a job in Thailand, and identifies as a Thai national. He has spent his entire life to date residing in Thailand,” said Radakrishnan. “He has never received any benefits from any social, economic, or educational services rendered by the Singapore government or its statutory boards.” Apart from short visits to his grandmother who lives here, Ekawit never lived in Singapore long enough to comprehend the gravity of the charges he is facing now... Ekawit’s mother Genevieve Lim was the only one who kept in touch with the Central Manpower Base (CMPB), a unit under the Ministry of Defence that oversees National Service enlistees. When Ekawit was seven years old, she flew to Singapore and informed CMPB that her son wished to renounce his Singapore citizenship. However, she was told that he could only do so at the age of 21. According to Radakrishnan, Lim also flew to Singapore when Ekawit was 14, to apply for an exit permit for him. However, she was unable to afford the S$75,000 bond that was required to secure the exit permit. Ekawit’s father, the sole breadwinner of the family, only earned a monthly salary of 25,000 Baht (S$1048.03), the lawyer told the court. The family could not find anyone else to execute the bond on their behalf... it was untrue that Ekawit had not benefited from being a Singapore citizen, as Ekawit had used his Singapore passport to travel in and out of the country on one occasion... said the DPP, his insubstantial connection to Singapore is not a mitigating factor. If this was so, others would be able to evade NS simply by saying they had no connection to Singapore."
The Singapore passport is so precious because it can be used to enter Singapore
Nine weeks’ jail for Singapore National Service defaulter who grew up in Hong Kong - "A 22-year-old Singaporean was sentenced to nine weeks’ jail in a district court on Tuesday , after pleading guilty to defaulting on his National Service (NS) obligations for four years and nine months. Jonathan Lee Han Wen, who has a Singaporean mother and British father, left Singapore for Hong Kong when he was a month old. He lived and studied there, as well as in the United Kingdom, until he returned to Singapore for good in September last year and enlisted in NS... The Ministry of Defence said in a statement that he had “wilfully remained overseas” to pursue his university studies despite being aware of his obligations. The ministry added: “In doing so, he had gained an unfair advantage vis-à-vis his peers who served dutifully when called upon to do so. “If we allow Singapore citizens or permanent residents who are overseas to evade NS or to choose when they want to serve NS, we are not being fair to the vast majority of our national servicemen who serve their country dutifully, and the institution of NS will be undermined.”... As a Singapore citizen, Lee was issued Singapore passports when he was aged one, nine, 14, 20 and 21 respectively. He travelled to Singapore on 22 occasions using these passports from his birth until January 2017, mostly to visit his mother’s family. He also used the passports to travel to a number of places including Australia, China, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand. He chose to use either his Hong Kong passport or Singapore passport based on the visa requirements of his destination country... his mother also applied several times for him to defer NS until the age of 21, pending the renunciation of his Singapore citizenship. The applications were rejected as male Singapore citizens have to serve NS before citizenship renunciation applications can be considered... The university told him that he could not defer his education for two years and he would be withdrawn from the course if he did not re-enrol after deferring for a year. Mr Ganapathy added that Lee was “a teenager who never once considered Singapore his home” as he lived in Hong Kong for most of his life. Lee’s mother had “never spoken to him in detail about his obligations and her conversations with the Central Manpower Base” as well."
This quantifies the cost of one of the most powerful passports in the world
Foreign parents of Singaporean boys worry over national service issues - "Singaporean males are required to apply for exit permits from the age of 13 should they stay overseas for three months or longer. If the overseas stay is longer than two years, they are required to put up a bond amount of $75,000, or an amount equivalent to 50 per cent of the combined annual income of their parents for the preceding year, whichever is higher. The bond comes in the form of a banker’s guarantee... For Daniel Yap, a Singaporean who is married to a Finnish citizen, the bond amount would be a bigger concern – the couple has four sons and the family is presently residing in Finland. In a Yahoo News Singapore commentary, Yap flagged his concern that the bond amount that he may have to put up is equivalent to the cost of an apartment in Singapore... Loy and lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam pointed out that under the Constitution, a child born in Singapore to a foreign parent and a Singaporean parent shall be a Singapore citizen by virtue of his birth. The exceptions to this rule are if both parents are foreigners; “his father was an enemy alien and the birth occurred in a place then under the occupation of the enemy; or his father, not being a citizen of Singapore, possessed such immunity from suit and legal process as is accorded to an envoy of a sovereign power accredited to the President”, according to the Constitution... Loy pointed out that there are some misconceptions that NS defaulters are typically punished with fines and not imprisonment. He said that the High Court set out new sentencing benchmarks last year that peg the penalties for NS dodgers to the length of their default period. Under the benchmarks, those who default for two to six years face a jail term of two to four months, while those who dodge NS for seven to 10 years face a sentence of five to eight months’ jail. For those who evade NS for 11 to 16 years, they face a jail term of 14 to 22 months while who do so for at least 17 years may be jailed between 24 months and 36 months... Thuraisingam noted that of particular interest is that the extent of an NS defaulter’s connection to Singapore is not a factor in the sentencing process. “This is because the assessment of the degree of the defaulter’s connection to Singapore is within the prerogative of the Ministry of Defence (Mindef), and as such, is a matter of Mindef policy, not law”"
More proof that Singapore is not a good place for poor people
Swiss fighters heading to Ukraine risk prison - "Service in a foreign military in banned for all Swiss citizens"
Military service - "Having another citizenship does not, in general, influence Swiss military requirements. Swiss who can show they have dual citizenship and have fulfilled military service requirements, civil service or other related duties in that country are excused from Swiss military obligations according to accords signed with those states. Agreements exist with, among others, Germany, France, Austria, Italy and the US."
Good luck to male Swiss-Singaporean dual citizens
After Ekawit Tangtrakarn, Singapore NS obligations need clarity - "Finland allows dual citizenship and for minors to renounce their citizenship. It also has mandatory national service. Should my children serve in the Finnish Army first, would they also be able to serve in the SAF? Or vice versa? The answer was yes – there is no restriction against serving in multiple militaries, at least from Mindef’s point of view. That answer struck me as oddly pragmatic for a country that doesn’t allow dual citizenship. I asked specifically if any of my sons, especially considering that one of them is only a year old, could theoretically give up their citizenship without serving NS. I don’t recall the precise answer, but I was given the clear impression that it was a negative. Perhaps the officer merely repeated the point that renunciation was impossible until age 21, and that enlistment is at age 18. Was it phrased to say “no” without saying “no”? In any case, that was the only answer I could get out of her. In 2006, Deputy Prime Minister and then Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean said that “only those who have emigrated at a young age and have not enjoyed substantial socio-economic benefits are allowed to renounce their citizenship without serving national service.” Given that one cannot renounce citizenship until the age of 21, and that NS liability begins at age 16 and a half, it is unclear how this is accomplished, and the authorities are tight-lipped on how a Singaporean might access this conditional right to renounce their citizenship without serving NS. It is also unclear how the Enlistment Act applies to persons from the age of 16 and a half, but has provisions for persons aged 13 in its section on Exit Permits, with the addition of the undefined term “relevant child”. It is especially unclear why Ekawit is being charged for defaulting on his NS obligations, given what Teo had said. The period of his offence corresponds to his age from about the date of his conscription until the end of his citizenship. The shroud of secrecy as well as the eagerness to prosecute even those defaulters who left at a young age may stem from a fear that Singaporeans will exercise such an option once we know it is on the table. While the implications of having a large chunk of our population leave that way are significant, it sets up a strange paradox – Singapore recognizes that there is a point before which a male child is expected to be fully liable for NS, but sets up its visible laws and regulations such that there is a de-facto liability from birth (or at the point of becoming a citizen)... something is already broken: boys like Ekawit Tangtrakarn are paying the price for our neuroses. And if Singapore cannot do right for this one estranged former son, all the future sons of Singapore, especially those with a choice of which nationality to identify with, would think twice before joining the family."
Good luck if Finland and Singapore demand you serve your national service at the same time - you're going to be a defaulter in at least one country
How do I report something I see in a Facebook group? | Facebook Help Center - "Reporting a post to an admin won't send a report to Facebook."
This won't stop many people from believing this superstition (many groups have a "no reporting" rule)
Dogspotting Society | Hey everyone! I'm excited to be here and thanks Jeff, Marty, and Jason for inviting me | Facebook - "Hey everyone! I'm excited to be here and thanks Jeff, Marty, and Jason for inviting me. Today we're rolling out some new features to help groups elevate experts and discussion within their communities. This includes the ability for admins to designate community members as group experts with a badge. Admins can collaborate with group experts to host Q&As, share perspectives, and respond to questions. I'm excited for you to try these updates, so I wanted to do a Q&A on something I may be a bit of an expert at: owning a Puli! Looking forward to sharing what I've learned -- and continue to learn -- about being a dog dad to the one and only Beast. I'll kick off a Q&A in a separate post."
"a group that relies HEAVILY on rta being graced by zuck himself!"
Meme - "Movies where a creature of another species with a love for good food meets a mess of a human down on his luck living in a shitty apartment and the creature can control the guy’s action and he’s unwilling at first but they learn to cooperate and together they can stop the evil rich man trying to take them down *Ratatouille, Venom*"
Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
The good thing about this recipe is it's no drain for the potatoes after boiling
Kefir and Intestinal Microbiota Modulation: Implications in Human Health - "In the last decades changes in the pattern of health and disease in Latin America and in the world has been observed, with an increase in cases of chronic non-communicable diseases. Changes in intestinal microbiota composition can contribute to the development of these diseases and be useful in their management. In this context, the consumption of fermented foods with probiotic properties, such as kefir, stands out due to its gut microbiota-modulating capacity. There is an increasing interest in the commercial use of kefir since it can be marketed as a natural beverage containing health-promoting bacteria and has been gaining international popularity in Latin America. Also the consumption of these drinks in Latin America seems to be even more relevant, given the socioeconomic situation of this population, which highlights the need for disease prevention at the expense of its treatment. In this narrative review, we discuss how kefir may work against obesity, diabetes mellitus, liver disease, cardiovascular disorders, immunity, and neurological disorders. Peptides, bioactive compounds and strains occurring in kefir, can modulate gut microbiota composition, low-grade inflammation and intestinal permeability, which consequently may generate health benefits. Kefir can also impact on the regulation of organism homeostasis, with a direct effect on the gut-brain axis, being a possible strategy for the prevention of metabolic diseases. Further studies are needed to standardize these bioactive compounds and better elucidate the mechanisms linking kefir and intestinal microbiota modulation. However, due to the benefits reported, low cost and ease of preparation, kefir seems to be a promising approach to prevent and manage microbiota-related diseases in Latin America and the rest of the world."
‘WE ALL QUIT’: Burger King sign going viral after workers walk out - "Rachael Flores, general manager of the Burger King in Lincoln, Nebraska, since January, posted this photo on her Facebook account. The sign in front of the store reads, “WE ALL QUIT -- SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.”... She said the Burger King had no air conditioning for weeks while she and her employees were made to continue working. The kitchen reached over 90 degrees at one point. Flores was hospitalized for dehydration. She said her boss reacted by saying she was being a “baby.”"
Facebook - "LOL. This leftist movie critic really doesn't like Shut In. I don't know how that can be considering we NEVER EVEN SENT HER A SCREENER TO REVIEW! She hasn't seen the movie, yet she's convinced it's "just as bad as you think." In her "review" she seemed to revel in the chance to, and I quote, "tell a white man that his movie ideas are bad." The leftists in Hollywood want The Daily Wire to fail. They see us building an alternative to their woke propaganda machine and they feel threatened."
- ">be 30 year old white woman
Meme: - "*2 man luge* I feel like this event was born out of a lie that got out of hand"
Meme - "LOST ROOMBA !!!
Meme - @doubletexts: "During my interview today i poured some water into a cup and it overflowed a little bit "Nervous?" asked the interviewer I simply replied, "No I just always give 110%""
Meme - "I'm a:
Meme - "CLAIMS HE TRACE HIS LINEAGE BACK TO KING TUT
Car rammings are the preferred tactic among U.S. extremists. - "This year, within the U.S. alone, victims and survivors of such attacks have included a Palestinian American Muslim family in Maryland; cyclists in Show Low, Arizona, and Waller County, Texas; crowds in Minneapolis and Elizabeth City, North Carolina, that had gathered to commemorate Black victims of police violence; Kellogg workers striking in Nebraska and miners striking in Alabama; and a group on the Brooklyn Bridge that had gathered to commemorate George Floyd. Chicago, Los Angeles, and many other cities have reported similar incidents; meanwhile, a driver who’d joked about running over protesters and had purposefully struck Black Lives Matter rallygoers last year in Johnson City, Tennessee, was cleared of charges this September."
College enrollment is lower now than it's been at any time in the last half-century - "Could it be that more and more people are looking around and figuring out that going $60,000 into debt for a devalued liberal arts degree isn't exactly the best deal?"
Facebook - "A Taiwanese Maths teacher named Changhsu uploads his maths lessons on PornHub to take it to a wider audience. Speaking to a magazine, he said, "Since very few people teach math on adult video platforms, and since there are so many people who watch videos on them, I thought that if I uploaded my videos there, a lot of people would see them." Changhsu has received rave reviews online and now has a verified Pornhub channel with the username ‘changhsumath666’. The course earns Changhsu 7,500,000 New Taiwan dollars (more than $250,000) per year"
Woman who ate 32 sushi rolls in one sitting rushed to the ER - "Danielle Shapiro, 24, wanted to get her money’s worth at a $50 all-you-can-eat sushi buffet at Sushi 85 restaurant in Mountain View, California... Shapiro was rushed to the emergency room with severe stomach pains. That’s where she was diagnosed with gastroesophageal reflux disease, commonly known as acid reflux."
Should Traffic Lights Be Abolished? - Freakonomics - "BERESFORD: I’m the president of the U.K. Roundabout Appreciation Society, also known as Lord of the Rings. That’s my official title...
How to Get Anyone to Do Anything - Freakonomics - "Stephen DUBNER: You make a really provocative but resonant argument that a lot of behaviors are copycat behaviors, including workplace or school shootings, terrorist attacks, product tampering. What should media outlets do about those events? You may say their coverage is dangerous. They say it’s their duty to cover it intensely. Why are you more right than they are?
>meet Italian person for first time
>become enraged
AITA for how I handled the pizza creep?
I 31F am a member of a group that convenes monthly to discuss current events. After our last meeting, someone suggested getting pizza. One of our members lit up and said they knew a great place to get pizza, a small independent pizzeria. I'm all about supporting small businesses, so I agreed. When we arrived, the manager was very off. He greated my fellow group member very enthusiastically. He called her something in Italian that sounded weirdly intimate. He led us to a table and then handed out menus. We ordered without issue, even though his vibes were very unsettling. After he left, I asked the group member who recommended the place if they knew him personally, and they said no. They said they just went to the pizzeria a lot and was friendly with the manager. Before our pizzas arrived, he brought us an order of garlic knots. None of us ordered any garlic knots, and I tried to correct his mistake. He said that they were complimentary as a thanks for choosing his establishment. I thought this was very presumptuous. After he left, I mentioned to the table that I thought it inappropriate to serve food no one ordered, because someone might be allergic. The group member said the knots were made from the same type of dough as the pizzas we all ordered, so there was no way anyone was allergic. Still, I didn't have any. After our pizzas arrived, we ate without issue. The problem was when the bill arrived. No one was charged for their drinks, even though prices are listed on the menu. I pointed this out to the manager, to the annoyance of the group. He said it was a perk of being a regular. I said that I wasn't a regular, and he said he hoped I would decide to become one after today. At that point I'd had enough. I said his behavior was creepy and asked for my bill to be fixed. He looked upset, but he took the bill. The other members of the group got annoyed with me. The one who had recommended the pizzeria was visibly angry, saying that I embarrassed them and potentially ruined the awesome discounts they get. I said that I felt uncomfortable with his overly familiar behavior and that the free food felt like a power play, a way to feel as though he had authority over us. They rolled their eyes and said I was ridiculous. They then got up to go talk to the manager. They came back, slammed my new bill on the table and then stormed out. I paid in cash and left quickly as well, as I felt uncomfortable. I've been thinking over the situation and can't think of anything I did wrong, but some of other group members I texted said I went way overboard. Did I?"
His name is "Higgins".
35cm / 9cm high / 2.8kg
DOES NOT BITE!!!
Roomba app info:
Battery: 3%
Dust bin: 190%
My husband left our bungalow door open and our Roomba escaped !!! We followed his cleaning track for 4 Km down to the beach where we lost his trail. HIGGINS CAN NOT SWIM !!! Please help us to bring Higgins back! #TEARMEOFF"
Man
Woman
Sad Person
And I'm Seeking:
Men
Women
Pictures of Chonky Animals"
DOESNT EVEN KNOW HIS FATHER"
The usual liberal media clickbait. There is no evidence any of the incidents was perpetrated by extremists. Even if you downgrade the accusation to racism, only in Chicago was the car attack allegedly motivated by racism (more details had not come out when I researched the case) and in Elizabeth City there is only peripheral evidence that the perpetrator was racist (much less that the attack was motivated by racism) and in another case (Los Angeles) no one was touched by the car.
The best estimate we could find puts the U.S. total at around 7,000. The U.K. has as many as 25,000 roundabouts, and of course it’s much smaller than the U.S. France has as many as 50,000 roundabouts...
About a quarter of all crash fatalities happen at intersections. So how do roundabout and non-roundabout intersections differ on fatalities? Looking at U.S. crash data from 2017 to 2019, you see that 0.1 percent of crashes at roundabouts result in a death. That could be the death of a driver, passenger, pedestrian, cyclist, anyone. 0.1-percent: that’s 1 death per 1,000 crashes at roundabouts. Okay, and how about your standard, four-way intersection, with traffic lights or stop signs? The death rate there is 0.4 percent, or 4 deaths per 1,000 crashes. Even worse is what’s called a “Y” intersection — picture a capital “Y,” with a three-way convergence. For every 1,000 crashes at a “Y” intersection, there are nine deaths...
Studies by transportation scholars have found that converting a standard intersection to a roundabout does significantly cut fuel consumption and carbon emissions. Transportation scholars point to yet another advantage of roundabouts: smoother traffic... roundabouts reduce congestion. Why is that? Well, think about how a traffic signal manages traffic.
Mike McBRIDE: A traffic signal is not efficient at all...
During his tenure, McBride oversaw the building of roughly 90 roundabouts. As of the mid-1990’s, there were very few, if any, roundabouts in Indiana.
McBRIDE: But in 1996, Mayor Jim Brainard became the mayor of Carmel...
Signalized intersections are definitely more familiar to people, so they’ve got a much wider public acceptance than roundabouts. But really, signalized intersections are designed for maximum efficiency, basically about an hour-and-a-half a day — maybe 45 minutes in the A.M. peak hour and 45 minutes in the P.M. peak hour. That’s about 20 percent of the daily traffic. We’ve all been sitting at an intersection, at a red light, when there are no opposing traffic cars where we’re just sitting there, burning fuel, wasting our time. Well, a roundabout, it does very well in those peak hours. And we know it’s safer. And at maximum efficiency is the other twenty-two-and-a-half hours a day, whatever that might be. So when you think about it from a sustainability and a reduction-of-fuel-consumption standpoint, roundabouts really have the upper hand...
DUBNER: How much has the technology changed over the past, let’s say, 50 years for traffic lights generally?
CROCKETT: One of the major innovations in recent years, which is actually pretty simple, is the transition from incandescent to L.E.D. bulbs. So, a lot of cities have made that big switch. And it’s dramatically reduced their electricity bills.
DUBNER: I know L.E.D. bulbs cost a lot more upfront, although they also last longer. Are there other downsides to the L.E.D. bulb?
CROCKETT: So, one thing we’ve seen happen is that in Midwestern states like Illinois or Minnesota, the L.E.D. bulbs save on energy, but they actually didn’t produce enough heat to melt snow in the winter. So that obscures vision for drivers. And at one point, it caused a rash of traffic accidents. So, those cheaper L.E.D. bulbs had to be affixed with these special heat-lamp attachments that negated any savings that they would have had...
The Federal Highway Administration, they estimate that traffic signals account for about 295 million vehicle hours of traffic delays per year. If you work it out based on median household income figures, it’s about $2 billion in lost time...
BRAINARD: If you’re converting a four-way stop to a roundabout, the roundabout is always going to be less expensive... So you got operating costs in addition to that. You have to send engineers out to reset the timing, which somehow gets off on a regular basis. And then every 25, 30 years, you have to replace that apparatus. And then you have a cost in a thunderstorm, the electricity goes out, you have to send a police officer out to direct traffic at a traffic light. The roundabout keeps working.
But what if an intersection already has traffic lights, and you want to convert it to a roundabout? Brainard says this easily pays off in the long run; but in the short run:
BRAINARD: There’s a substantial cost. Couple of million dollars per intersection, probably on average. Because you’re taking out that light, you’re probably buying some additional land in the corners. You have to move underground utilities out from under the light... if you can’t get in and out of an area because it’s congested, people are going to avoid that area. We can move 50 percent more cars per hour through a roundabout than you can a stoplight...
One reason the roundabout remains unpopular in the U.S. is probably that it just seems too European...
One survey published in a transportation journal found that most drivers, just before a roundabout was built in their area, were anti-roundabout. Within six weeks of operation, about half the drivers approved. And once the roundabout was in place for at least a year, the vast majority of drivers approved."
CIALDINI: Because of that last word, “intensely.” They give us the news. They are invaluable for that. The problem is when they sensationalize it for ratings. That bothers me because the actions described are contagious. We’re seeing it right now with shootings, just a cluster of them. One after another after another, because people are learning from the news what other disturbed people do to resolve their issues...
DUBNER: You write throughout the book that automaticity — automatic responses — is key to influence, that you want people to make a decision without thinking about it. Why is that?
CIALDINI: We live in the most information-overloaded, stimulus-saturated environment that’s ever existed. So, we need to be able to make our choices based on shortcut decisions...
Let’s take a study done in Japan in the Covid-19 pandemic, where they looked at the willingness of a Japanese citizen to wear a mask, and they looked at a variety of possible reasons: their perception of the severity of the disease; the perception that they were susceptible to it; the perception that the people around them would be susceptible to it. None of those made any difference. The only one that made any difference was the number of people they saw wearing masks."
DUBNER: It would seem like the Internet is made for fabricating social proof. How big of a problem do you see that being?
CIALDINI: Big, big problem. Because it’s very difficult for us to check on the validity of that information. But here’s how we are dealing with it. On those review sites that we check before we make a purchase, the average number of stars that most lead to a purchase is not five; it is a sweet spot of between 4.2 and 4.7 stars.
DUBNER: Because five is just too good to be true...
CIALDINI: There’s a big mistake that public-service communicators make with regard to social proof. They tell us that so many people are drinking and driving, so many teenagers are committing suicide, so many people are choosing not to be vaccinated. And what that does is to legitimize that choice out of social proof. If a lot of people are doing it, it must be the right thing to do. I had a graduate student who was coming to work with me from California, and he and his fiancée — the woman he described as the single most honest person he had ever known in his life; she wouldn’t borrow a paper clip that she did not return — they decided, “Well, let’s go see the Petrified Forest in northern Arizona on our way to work with Cialdini.” And they were standing in front of a sign at the entrance that said, “So many people are stealing petrified wood and crystals that the forest is endangered.” Some kind of language like that. And my graduate student, while he was still reading the sign, felt this elbow in his ribs, and his invariably honest fiancée said, “We better get ours, too.”"
