(Justin)

Tech nerd from Sweden

  • 4 Posts
  • 906 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 10th, 2023

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  • No.

    Western powers don’t support the Sunni forces. They supported the Kurds off and on, who are one of the most democratic and multilateral governments in the middle east, but it was the Sunni forces who overthrew Assad.

    The US definitely didn’t like Assad using chlorine gas on civilians, and called airstrikes on his military occasionally, but Obama, Trump and Biden never strove for a regime change there.

    This regime change was caused by Syrian economic issues, Turkish aid, reduced infighting between the Kurds and the Sunnis, and the collapse of Russia’s illegal Wagner PMC.












  • Ah ok, interesting. Then you know better than me, I live in Sweden and I’m just looking at Google Maps.

    There of course will always be neighbors who put more effort into their property and neighbors who don’t, and Swedish villages are arguably just as sprawly. But yeah, mandating the kinds of plants you can grow seems like it kind of becomes a monoculture and a chore.

    Do you get the feeling that the neighborhood is a bit weird/car-dependent compared to most dutch neighborhoods? There definitely seems to be a lot of alternative living stuff that the uniqueness attracts, but the fact that there is no public transportation and the strange road structure makes it seem like it would be very different from a normal neighborhood. I even see a concrete walking path to the south of the village with a dedicated parking lot for some strange reason.


  • I mean, it’s a suburb of Amsterdam. 25 minute drive to the A10 inner ringroad. Seems a bit wasteful to use land like this.

    Ignoring that, and sorry to be a conservative, but what does sprawly mixed residential/agricultural planning offer over traditional rural village planning? If you look at google maps and you go a bit further east to a real rural village like Okkenbroek, you can find houses with much nicer yards, more access to nature, and less oppressive roads. A mix of detached homes and rowhouses, and beautiful public places like the church on the north side, a centrum and school on the west edge, and various benches and walking paths. There are even 3 bus stops with hourly departures in each direction, 25 minutes to a dense city with 100k people.

    Compare these two supermarkets from Almere Ooosterwold and Okkenbroek.

    https://maps.app.goo.gl/bbghhXcQjDwsjXiu5 https://maps.app.goo.gl/gMuxn15oK2PsrcQDA

    Both are about 4km away from their respective villages, but one is surrounded by giant parking lots next to a highway, and the other is a converted house across from a school playground nestled in the neighboring village. Almere Oosterwold seems incredibly car focused. There are more cars than bicycles and no bicycle roads separated from cars. There are no busses. If you are too young/old to drive and don’t want to/can’t bike in the middle of the street, then you’re screwed. You need to take a taxi just to go to the store.

    I just get the feeling that the neighborhood in the article is just an American culdesac polluted by amateur farming. But hey, it’s just one neighborhood, and I’m sure there’s plenty of people who enjoy it and call it home.