You’re getting absolutely railed on your connection charges; that’s like $4.88CAD a day!?
I recently resigned with our provider so we only have 21 days of usage, we’re in summer, and we have a 5 bed, 3 bath two-storey home with solar panels for 4 adults and a child:
Factoring in the exchange rate, $1CAD ~= $1.12AUD; just makes the comparison even worse.
My state’s energy composition locally is ~35% renewables, mostly wind and solar, with the rest being a mix of natural gas, black & brown coal.
As an aside, our feed-in tariff (i.e. how much we get paid to export excess solar into our grid) has absolutely cratered over the last few years: down from ~15c during COVID to only ~3.3c this year - it really incentivises us to explore solar batteries as an option.
Sure this was a thing back in the day with incandescent lightbulbs - but like, you can leave a 10W bulb on for like 4 days straight for the price of 1kWh (20c USD here in Australia), right?
My morning caffeine clearly hadn’t kicked in because I stupidly forgot to circle back round to that point. 🤦🏻♂️
Ultimately, my biggest worry is that Trump’s absolute piss-poor understanding and implementation of tariffs has very likely ‘poisoned the well’ to the point that they could probably never be successfully implemented in our lifetime by an actual competent Government - assuming the US ever gets another chance to elect one ever again.
Smart, specific targeted tariffs paired with grants/incentives to American companies to foster local production of critical goods (think CHIPS Act) can be a good thing, if they are done in such a way that it doesn’t send an entire industry/market into financial shock.
Like, if you want to onboard silicon wafer manufacturing (as a prime example); you would announce a small tariff to start off with, and a clear road-map of it increasing over time - allowing time for companies to build the necessary infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities onshore.
Once the industry has settled and matured, those tariffs could begin to be slowly pared back to ensure that free-market competition continues to keep prices in check.
But this would only work in an actual free-market economy, and not in the oligopoly-in-a-trenchcoat that currently exists in the states.
I’m an Australian, so I feel kinship with Canadians over this entire issue.
I wasn’t being serious in the argument, rather using absurdism to point out that the entire “Canada as the 52st state” is unworkable - and would gloriously blow up in Trump and the republicans face.
It’s honestly a much less stressful thought exercise than the potential balkanisation of the United States - nuclear power experiencing a civil war would not turn out well for anyone.
I’m not American and I don’t want to see Canadians lose their sovereignty.
I was using argumentum ad absurdism to point out that this entire “proposal” would be self-defeating for Trump and the Republicans. It’s an absolute non-starter.
At least make the offer enticing, give Canada the option to join as 10 states (one per province); giving them an allotment of the 435 house seats and 20 senators.
I’m pretty sure that would be more than enough to swing the house, senate and presidency towards the left for the next few generations at least.
Canada could literally save the US if that were the case.
I imagine that FC6 should play at least as well as FC5; and I’m glad that you enjoyed it!
I was primarily referring to the fact that it has the lowest review % on Steam of the modern Far Cry games (FC6 at 70%, 3-5 all at 80%+).
I’m sure I’ll give it a try once the kid’s a little older, I have more time on my hands, and it goes on sale to the point that I can pick it up without second-guessing the decision (probably sub-$20USD?)
Far Cry 5 did a lot right, and significantly improved on the formula that was in place from Far Cry 3 (which was also an incredible game, at the time).
I tried Far Cry 4, but found myself not liking the map design (not sure if it was the verticality, or the colour palette); but I might revisit it again one day. Have never tried 6, but the general consensus seems pretty ‚meh’.
It feels like the odd-numbered Far Cry games tend to be better received, so hopefully Ubisoft can continue that tradition with the inevitable Far Cry 7!
Still going through Prince of Persia: Sands of Time from last week - the combat is quite repetitive, though the platforming is as good as I remember so that more than makes up for it!
I can definitely see how Assassins Creed was eventually born from this series.
Kid’s just fallen sick, so I’ll likely STILL be playing this in next week’s thread too - so don’t judge me too harshly - I promise I still have that gamer cred! 😅
Leaning more into the management style of games, might be worth checking out Two Points Hospital (spiritual sequel to Theme Hospital), and the more recently released Rwo Points Museum?
Part of me thinks that Grassley might just be holding on to try and unseat Strom Thurman as the oldest ever sitting senator (Thurman made it to 100 years, 29 days).
Chuck Grassley last won his Senate election in 2022, and is not due for re-election until 2028.
The margin was 56.0% to 43.8%; so I’m pretty sure he’s expecting to weather the current storm of protest and wait for it to die down - and see what’s going to happen come the 2028 Presidential election cycle, namely if Trump is going to try and run again somehow.
If he were to go against Trump’s policies now, it just puts him in the crosshairs of the MAGA crowd and Elon’s dark-money.
It takes a minimum of $200K USD to raise a child from birth to 18; which works out to ~$1K/mo.
If the Government were serious in wanting to address the aging population issue, the best way to tackle it would be to provide family funding at this level for a family’s first ~3 children.
Would it be expensive? Absolutely it would be in the initial term - but the increase in economic activity would arguably more than cover it in the long run.
Would it lead to inflation? Not if the costs were derived from taxes due to the government (which currently get dodged), rather than through national debt.
Would it lead to a positive outcome for the nation? Arguably yes, but there may also be unintended consequences to the negative. Human greed knows no bounds, after all.
For the price they were asking, I honestly would’ve expected physical (e.g. floppy disk shaped flash drives) copies of Doom 1&2, equipped with controls onboard to play the games directly off of them.
I’m a Data Analyst, I’m always curious! 🤣
You’re getting absolutely railed on your connection charges; that’s like $4.88CAD a day!?
I recently resigned with our provider so we only have 21 days of usage, we’re in summer, and we have a 5 bed, 3 bath two-storey home with solar panels for 4 adults and a child:
Factoring in the exchange rate, $1CAD ~= $1.12AUD; just makes the comparison even worse.
My state’s energy composition locally is ~35% renewables, mostly wind and solar, with the rest being a mix of natural gas, black & brown coal.
As an aside, our feed-in tariff (i.e. how much we get paid to export excess solar into our grid) has absolutely cratered over the last few years: down from ~15c during COVID to only ~3.3c this year - it really incentivises us to explore solar batteries as an option.