agegamon @ agegamon @beehaw.org

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2 yr. ago

Let me share a somewhat related anecdote:

I live in Portland. Bought a house two years ago (yay hyper-specialized job privileges, etc!) and chose a fixer-upper in a good neighborhood, as it was one of the only things in my budget that wasn't way out in suburban hell. Many of my criteria for buying were just "make sure this isn't a rotting, radioactive dump" but I did want to make sure I could get an e-bike and ride to the store eventually.

Well. The new place was actually so close to a little local grocery chain that I just had to walk two blocks to it! I was so stoked.

Then, we "managed" the way through the first year by really pinching pennies while we took care of all the critical house fixes, so we didn't go there a lot. In reality we saved very little by doing this and wasted a ton of driving time and cost, but I did wake up and start waking to the little store more as things "stabilized."

And then it fucking closed. The little store wasn't bringing in enough dough to pay their criminally high rent. And so, we were stuck driving further to save a very much imaginary penny on each item we bought anyway. And you know what? I was fucking wrong. I should have been going to the little local store from day one, not to fucking winco and freddys.

I can still ride my bike to the store but it's so much further that we can't "just walk." It's either a 10m e-bike ride with a cargo basket strapped on, or a stupid 3 min car ride that sometimes takes 10mins due to traffic anyway. What a waste when we had something so much better and more walkable.

Still, can't complain. If I had moved to suburbia biking to the store would be a stupid and suicidal joke 🤷🏻‍♀️

My rule for a while has been to limit myself to one major subscription at a time. It really curtails the rampant streaming costs.

I made an exception for spotify for a while (so I'd have spotify + one streaming service + maybe one small low-cost one) but with how expensive they've all gotten I've reverted to only spotify and low-cost stuff.

Right now I just have spotify and dropout TV so I can catch up on Dimension 20.

I'm sorry, I hate Elon and Tesla (and with good reason) but saying that an EV is rolling e-waste is going too far.

My model 3 has been bulletproof for the last five years. It's a 2017 model, one of the earliest, so take that for what you will. The earliest models like mine were apparently some of the better ones until 2021+ model years. I wouldn't consider buying one now due to Elon's tomfuckery and the unresolved racism issues within Tesla, but to claim that they're rolling trash isnt correct.

Plus, the fact is that virtually all cars (ICE models as well!) are rolling out of factories with dozens of integrated computers and touchscreens. It's very hard here in the US to get something cheap that doesn't have any electronics - basically imposible. And, if you do the compromise on cheaper and fewer electronics, the reality is that the poor grade of those cheap electronics will actually lead to a shorter lifespan and more overall repairs.

I'm not suggesting for that reason to go buy an EV - certainly not a new Tesla. A used one might be fine. But more broadly, electronics in cars (not just EVs) are really a huge problem. Unless they're designed with repairability and durability in mind, all new cars have this issue, and you can't single out Tesla for this.

Trump

There's the problem though, zero science and/or logic was involved. It was actively rejected. Something something freeze peach....

I'm afraid for humanity's future.

In my opinion, companies shouldn't have "water rights" in general, regardless of whether their owners/founders/whatever that person is are alive or dead. If you think critically about how our resources are used, the idea that someone can just wander along, buy up some land, and then consume all the resources that are on it or pass through and charge other people for them is completely insane. Just because you have a big fat wad of money, you get to fuck everyone else over by claiming critical resources? What??

That'd be like Elon Musk blocking the sun with a giant rocket umbrella, then charging everyone a twitter blue sky fee to literally see sunlight (maybe I shouldn't give the guy ideas... he seems the type of ruthless capitalist who'd actually do it).

At least in the case of farming, there's some honest work and genuinely beneficial product coming out the other end that leaves us with a reason for a company to own and control the land. Though, I'll not pretend that all farming is equal or good, some of it isn't conscionable either. But sucking down fresh stream water to shove into crappy plastic bottles is just an insane thing for us to allow to exist.

I know you said it was multi-ply, but did that pan actually have anything other than a copper core? For example, steel or magnetic stainless steel? Some multi-ply cookware still isn't induction compatible because those magnetic core materials aren't included. Copper alone is not compatible with induction because it can't respond to the magnetic field produced by the induction hob (which is why I'd be skeptical of anyone saying copper "draws too much current," if anything it draws too little or none at all)

I always do the magnet test on new cookware now, or look for people doing it in review videos. The more magnetic material used (within reason, obviously!) the better the pan will respond to the stove.

All the 1%-ers bawling about how they're not getting enough infinite profits at the expense of all of us couldn't possibly have anything to do with this, right?

/s 🙃

"Cyclists can be dangerous (road hazard/traffic hazard) and annoying, rude and disrespectful but they don’t...."

Sorry but no, you're absolutely off-base. Cyclists are forced to bend over backwards in a world optimized for sociopaths to rage around in 4000lb+ murder machines, and short of literally killing someone there are few or no consequences if they screw up.

Cyclists are not the root cause of the problem here. Horrific infrastructure and car drivers certainly are, though.

Hank Green is just so... awesome. Both Hank and John are, really. I'm not saying everyone should be exactly like them (they're both white, both men, etc) but I wish more people would take the initiative to cultivate the positivity that they exude. I know I could do a fair bit better at being positive myself...

There are two groups of people who support capitalism as it exists today:

1. The truly rich, the 1%, who exclusively got that way by exploiting the 99% as much as physically possible, and
2. The portion of the 99% who've been brainwashed through various methods into thinking that they can become rich -or- that the rich will "watch out for them" or some equivalent fairytale

Uuuuuuuugh. I thought of this as soon as I saw the title of this post. I'm so sorry...

What really gets me is when it's not immediately afterward that this happens, but like 30 mins or an hour later, and you've washed your hands well - or so you thought - after cleaning up. But there was just enough oil left somewhere that you still get burned when you go for your eyes.

At least here in north america, it'd really help if city designs aren't based on being surgically attached to cars. Parking lots and stroads are horrific uses of space, not to mention being dangerous and surprisingly ineffective (at least in the case of stroads).

The Dutch have it right. Cars are a viable and sometimes necessary method of transit, but there are far better ways to get around. And in exchange for sitting in traffic surrounded by empty parking lots and stroads, your city becomes more compatible with trees, grass, parks, and just nature in general.

At the risk of being condescending... don't worry too much about it for now. I assume the reason you can't switch is because your parents or someone else is paying for it and won't allow your input. If that's the case, when you get to the point of being able to pay for it yourself, you get to choose exactly what you want.

Becoming self-sufficient is pretty wild, come to think of it. Also mildly traumatizing and occasionally terrifying, but mostly great. Need a new phone? You get whatever you want, if you can. Same with housing, transit, etc. If shit wasn't so unbelievably expensive it'd be even better...

See, that's the batshit insane thing about this whole situation: these conservatives are so brainwashed that they typically don't care why people don't want to be around them. They often view it as a good thing that they're in fly-over states/counties. So long as reasonable people with brains (and all women, and all lgbtq+ people, and all pregnant people, and all non-christians, etc etc) are excluded or subjugated, they feel like they've "won."

I highly recommend the This American Life episode on the subject (ep 792 - When To Leave). The episode takes place before the OB-GYN actually decides to leave Sandpoint, and brings some thoughts to the idea of why many families - including myself and some of my family - can no longer call these states like Idaho home. The return of theological hatred-is-the-point laws and governance in places like Idaho is just outright terrifying. They're going to become (and in some ways already are) incompatible with modern, fair, and just human existence.

"Might" thats real cute.

Seriously though, there's some real insidious shit that goes on here in the US as far as mandates minimum fuel economy in large cars, which is definitely not helping this whole cost problem.

Basically, the US both nerfs requirements extremely quickly for more wasteful vehicles (such as SUVs and trucks) and nerfs the requirements within each individual category (like car, truck, mid-size SUV, etc) as the physical size of the vehicle gets closer to the max allowed size within that category.

This is a total win-win for automakers, as they can skate by with lower efficiency vehicles (reducing cost a lot) while making them physically bigger (not that much more expensive) and pocketing the difference. Oh and bigger is better so on top of that you just pay a fat-car tax straight to the automaker.

It's really properly fucked.

YouTube for more: https://youtu.be/mQDegCqiVnU

In the US, people with mall crawlers and enshittified "sports" cars will cheat emissions tests (assuming the state has them) and then revert their coal rolling and earsplitting mods again right afterward.

I imagine it's fairly simple to do the same for noise at the DEQ/MOT inspection. I imagine there's some sort of removeable noise damper they can shove in and bam, they get a pass.

Bus-only traffic lanes (or bus/streetcar shared lanes) are also easy to "add" by repainting existing shared use lanes. Where I live (Portland OR) the city converted a few of our major streets to work like this, and it's noticeably improved the bus experience during heavy traffic.

Some people just aren't in a position to deal with riding around in 100F+ heat like we've had this last week, myself included. Having quick bus access (and busses with AC!) has been so great!

In the first place, an AirBNB host should either: a) have house rules about how any electricity is used, regardless of source; or b) should factor uncontrolled use into their budget and thus expected pricing of the unit.

An irresponsible guest leaving the lights, TV, and some of their personal appliances on all day could do more damage than charging a car.

So could an irresponsible guest that sets the AC at 65 all day long. I can say from experience that A/C use costs more than charging my model 3 nightly, especially when I'm home all day and the thermostat can't go into away mode.

I generally agree about hotels, but most hotels with EV chargers that I've stayed at were blocked by people in ICE cars, and hotels usually won't make the offending car move. (Not that I'd ever plan a trip that way.... too risky.)

Since someone already mentioned dashcams and cast iron, my vote is: a bidet toilet seat attachment.

Fancy ones can roll $200+ but a super simple one with just a cold water hookup and no electricity will knock you back $50-60. I bought one right as covid was beginning to hit the west coast, and instantly realized I could never - ever - go back.

Huge bonus of the toilet seat style bidets is that, since you aren't actually replacing the toilet, they take like 5 mins to install and can be done in a home, condo, apartment, wherever.