Law, Government, & Politics
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Background: One unfortunate consequence of the invention of the car is that cities started being designed for car-only use. In most cities built in the last ~70 years, the concept of a high-density walkable residential-and-commercial space only exists in shopping malls and amusement parks (Figure 1). The Issue: The main issue here is that cars…
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Background: Many countries today have incredibly old leaders. This isn’t a problem per se, but as elected representatives (and un-elected dictators) reach their 80s and 90s, the likelihood of them not being mentally sharp enough to reliably run a country greatly increases. Most people would be skeptical of allowing a 10-year-old to run a country,…
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Background: Some parks and recreational areas prohibit off-leash dogs. If a person brings a dog to one of these areas and lets it run around off-leash, there’s the possibility that this person will be issued a citation and a small fine (Figure 1). Proposal: However: is it really fair for only the human to be…
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Background: The Romans were notorious for brutally executing people who had been accused of crimes such as: (Interestingly, these are still popular crimes in the modern era!) The Issue: These capital punishments, which include the cliche classic of being fed to lions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damnatio_ad_bestias) or being drowned in a bag full of snakes, were—arguably—a tad excessive.…
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The Issue: Legal contracts are often verbose and uninteresting to read. It can also be very hard for a person to motivate themselves to read a contract and find all the parts where a signature is required. Certain online services have made this somewhat easier (they typically jump directly to the parts the require signatures,…
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Background: In the years before the invention of the car, the only way to design a city was with walking (or at least public transit) in mind. However, once cars became widespread, cities started being designed with wide roads and large areas set aside for parking. The Issue: This style of design made driving very…
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Background: Imagine the following scenarios: In each of these situations, you would probably say “if you want quality work, you’ll need to actually pay for it! What did these idiots expect when they offered such an insultingly low amount for an important job?” The Issue: Yet, when it comes to public officials, this is how…
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Background: Many modern nations lay claim to ancient treasures—some of which are in the hands of other countries! But sometimes it’s difficult to determine the “legitimate” owner of an artifact after hundreds of years. Example: Easter Island—which is owned by Chile—is the home of many famous stone statues (“moai”: 🗿). If a UFO relocated all…
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Background: Many cities have restrictive zoning requirements that, perhaps justifiably, prevent certain types of construction (for example, building a pesticide manufacturing plant next to an elementary school). Some restrictions are a bit more arbitrary: many “homeowners associations” (HOAs) enforce extremely specific details about the exact shades of beige that a garage door can be painted,…
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Background: Every so often, a ridiculous story comes out about someone driving 400 miles to the wrong location because they went to the “right” address (“123 Snake Street”) in the wrong city. In the ancient “paper map” days, this type of mistake would be nearly impossible, but modern GPS systems make it possible for a…
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