Wait, what do they teach in North America? Never heard the term "following distance" before now. Sounds misleading.
In Britain at least we call it "braking distance" and you're supposed to leave 2 seconds at least between you and the person in front. Count it off a lamp post/sign etc.
In certain at-risk areas they use chevrons on the road and signs telling you to keep at least 2 chevrons between you and the car in front.
People definitely always get into my braking distance in slower moving traffic, so that happens here too of course. But when things are moving well I likely push the limit and am generally moving faster than most others: going by GPS speed vs speedo, pushing a little into the discretionary and unofficial +10% guidance etc. And weirdly enough I do this for safety and fuel economy.
I generally prefer to avoid other vehicles as much as possible in all situations. But I was a motorbike rider in my youth. Once a defensive driver...
From that perspective, following distance sounds way more like a gap I want to close up than braking distance does.
> In Britain at least we call it "braking distance" and you're supposed to leave 2 seconds at least between you and the person in front. Count it off a lamp post/sign etc.
Indeed, that is the usual definition in the US for following distance. Along with a typical example of how to determine it for yourself.
We usually use the term braking distance to describe the distance that would be required to stop the car based on current conditions and speed. This is not necessarily going to be the same as the following distance.
I do not know how they came up with the 2-4 second following distance recommendation. As you point out, this is in line with what the UK recommends as well. Probably it is a compromise between safety and practicality.
> It would have to be further than braking distance to be at least as safe?
Other way around. Following distance can be less, because the guy you are following cannot stop instantly unless he hits an immovable object or gets into a head-on crash. If he panic stops, then as long as your car performs similarly in braking you just need to have enough distance to allow for your own reaction time.
AFAIK braking distance for most cars is around 5 seconds at highway speed. Few people routinely set their following distance that long.
Braking distance and following distance are two distinct things.
Following distance is the rule that you should leave a 2 second gap in front of you. That is often less distance than the braking distance.
You should be always able to see that your braking distance is or will be clear, and that sets the maximum speed you should drive at as you approach areas with reduced visibility, like corners or the brow of a hill. You must learn braking distances for the driving test.
I guess I should talk about some benefits to users, and who users should be.
For: localisation departments, dev teams who want AI translation with human polish (which persists into future projects), language service providers, translation agencies and solo translators or small teams who want access to LLM work at scale.
Does: traditional CAT tool jobs - fast TM matching across millions of segments, but also full QA (think Xbench, 35+ checks), full LQA (check every segment for linguistic issues), dubbing and subbing uploaded videos or YT links, voice cloning and full timing adjustments.
Innovations: use language assets from any language to improve LLM outcomes, use condensed versions of famous style guides, custom rules per client, connectors with previews and screenshot integration, content creation studio for multilingual inspiration.
I've tried to make the tool appeal to linguists, with speed and features they'll like, as well as the corporate side with detailed analysis, scoring, and maximal use of existing use (penalties, priorities, cross language).
I read it last year, enjoyed the book, no existential crisis.
I already subscribed to the idea of the self and identity being independent and constructs. A lot of reflection around that and physics in younger years maybe helped.
Not to stand up for bad laws, but what is wrong with everyone in the comments? On what planet would they not have considered all angles? The peanut gallery has gotten ridiculously loud of late.
The discussion has devolved to such a point that people from outside the UK keep parroting this (likely Kremlin originated) line that the UK is now a Muslim stronghold with no free speech when in reality it just continues to uphold the values it has influenced the world with, one of the few positives from its dark past, of protecting those unable to protect themselves. Hate speech and punching down. As if inciting violence is completely harmless and no bad ever comes of it.
Many freedom-focused people without direct experience of disability, bullying or discrimination have no way to relate to that concept, and the echo chamber amplifies the intellectually dishonest takes until they take hold. Which is exactly what the angry, seething, downtrodden richest people in the world seem to want right now. I wonder why. What a sorry, hopeless state we've allowed to happen. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, sure, but the ones who've worked hardest to develop theirs should be weighted the most. Now a Russian bot has the same value on a platform as a nuclear scientist or, dare I say it, a real journalist. Because it's entertaining and tickles some dangling dopamine receptors. I'm sure people will wind their necks in when the ultimate result has finally played out and we'll cycle back to cooler heads prevailing, but I fear we'll have to go there first before we get back.
Yes I took the bait, but no regrets, I'll die on this hill. Hate bullies and liars with a passion.
I agree. I also don't know how that could realistically be achieved, with everything nowadays being lowest common denominator, aid budgets being slashed and drawbridges being raised. It would take an extraordinary initiative by an extraordinary person or group.
I should have said why I'm against "Libre" as a term. I'm into FOSS, so I get it, and speak other languages, so I get Libre has a wider adoption elsewhere. But not in the English-speaking world. And I'd guess that was the target "primary market" over, say, France. Free is typically cost-free, as in beer as they say, and freedom can only be "liberties and rights", not cost. So imo Freedom is a solid choice. There is likely a better choice, but if we're keeping things simple, that'd be one approach.
Agree. I've mentioned to a few friends how that feeling of emptiness and scale is quite awe inspiring and was a first for me. Theory can't replicate how small and isolated you physically feel when you are between systems. At least not for me.
I'm a Brit who speaks Swedish, and recently watched the Swedish TV company SVT's documentary "Sweden in the war" (sverige i kriget). I can maybe add some info here just out of personal curiosity on the same subject.
There were basically right wing elements in every European country. Sympathisers. This included Sweden. So that's what OP was getting at in part. Germany was somewhat revered at the time, as an impressive economic and cultural force. There was a lot of cultural overlap, and conversely the Germans respected the heritage and culture of Scandinavia and also of England, which it saw as a Germanic cousin.
The documentary did a good job of balancing the fact that Sweden let the German army and economy use its railways and iron ore for far longer than it should have, right up until it became finally too intolerable to support them in any way (discovery of the reality of the camps). Neutrality therefore is somewhat subjective in that respect.
They had precedent for neutrality, from previous conflicts where no side was favoured, so imo they weren't implicitly supporting the nazi movement, despite plenty of home support. It's a solid strategy from a game theory perspective. No mass bombings, few casualties, wait it out, be the adult in the room. Except they didn't know how bad it would get.
In their favour they allowed thousands of Norwegian resistance fighters to organise safely in Sweden. They offered safe harbour to thousands of Jewish refugees from all neighbouring occupied countries. They protected and supplied Finns too. British operatives somehow managed to work without hindrance on missions to take out German supplies moving through Sweden. It became a neutral safe space for diplomats, refugees and resistance fighters. And this was before they found out the worst of what was going on.
Later they took a stand, blocked German access and were among the first to move in and liberate the camps/offer red cross style support.
Imo it's a very nuanced situation and I'm probably more likely to give the benefit of the doubt at this point. But many Danes and Norwegians were displeased with the neutral stance as they battled to avoid occupation and deportations.
As for Japan, I'd just add that I read recently on the BBC that some 40% or more of the victims of the bombings were Koreans. As second class citizens they had to clean up the bodies and stayed among the radioactive materials far longer than native residents, who could move out to the country with their families. They live on now with intergenerational medical and social issues with barely a nod of recognition.
To think it takes the best part of 100 years for all of this to be public knowledge is testament to how much every participant wants to save face. But at what cost? The legacy of war lives on for centuries, it would seem.
In Britain at least we call it "braking distance" and you're supposed to leave 2 seconds at least between you and the person in front. Count it off a lamp post/sign etc.
In certain at-risk areas they use chevrons on the road and signs telling you to keep at least 2 chevrons between you and the car in front.
People definitely always get into my braking distance in slower moving traffic, so that happens here too of course. But when things are moving well I likely push the limit and am generally moving faster than most others: going by GPS speed vs speedo, pushing a little into the discretionary and unofficial +10% guidance etc. And weirdly enough I do this for safety and fuel economy.
I generally prefer to avoid other vehicles as much as possible in all situations. But I was a motorbike rider in my youth. Once a defensive driver...
From that perspective, following distance sounds way more like a gap I want to close up than braking distance does.
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