A thought occured to me the other day: there is absolutely no reason that headlights have to be on the upper part of the front grille. Mount them as close to the ground as possible. (Like busses and some cargo trucks) At least it will address a situation where pickup truck / SUV headlights are at eye level for drivers of anything smaller.
First we had Merlin Appholes who would submit misidentified and similar sounds as “sightings”, but Cornell tightened the tolerances on the recognition model.
Now this. But to be fair, even before AI there was a subset of “birders” who loved to exagerrate via ignorance. Cardinal = scarlet tanager (it’s red), american robin = baltimore oriole (duh, orange), red-winged blackbird = Bobolink (it says this meadow has Bobolinks, therefore, any large bird on grass = bobolink), and so on.
(USA)
Less lawn care and more native plants: save money on fertilizer, save time on mowing, grass looks better too, you get fireflies and birds.
Own tomatoes taste much better. And they grow like weeds in subtropical regions of the US, so very little effort needed there.
Repair and DIY: You want to get ripped off by some person who will also put minimum effort into fixing your house or things? Or worse, company salesman who will wear you out with endless speeches until you agree? “Want it done right? Do it yourself”.
Solar power: This is MY power.
No car / smaller car / older car: Gas is expensive (ironic for Americans, I know, but it’s a common complaint)
Smaller house / apartment: Save lots of money on heating and cooling, pay less taxes and lower insurance rates.
But to even get this far, we have to somehow overcome cultural norms, such as: my neighbor(s) whose hobby is mowing the grass twice a week; people ordering shit on Amazon as the default; stupid laws about solar; wanting a bigger car, house, yard for no practical reason.
And I can’t find a good selfish argument against big tech and AI - it’s free, and most people are indifferent about external costs and surveillance.
If those “improperly adjusted” or pointing forward headlights weren’t the same height as my eyes, they would not be a problem. Which is my exact point.