Alabasata
25d ago
On warrior-representatives: I'd be curious to hear your take on Jason Crow.
Alabasata
1mo ago
I like to hope that graphical calculators are not a thing any more
Go to any office supply store near you. Are TI-83s still for sale?
Alabasata
1mo ago
As someone who grew up in the exurbs, they aren't safe either. Our basement was broken into by the neighbor's kids. Our family dog was killed in the backyard & its eyes plucked out. I was shot at by BB guns. My dad was unable or unwilling to protect.
And the worst part? The only way to physically escape was to drive somewhere else. Which meant middle-school me was stuck in a neighborhood of low-key abusers. Cable TV, console gaming, & pulp sci-fi books were the only viable escape. So I used them.
I'm in a city now. There are still problems, much like you describe. But now there's different places my children can go to escape problem families and problem people if they have to - and they don't have to drive to get there.
I don't believe the car is worth killing. But I don't believe it should be depended on as an escape hatch. Too much happens in the years between 6 and 16, before one can more easily flee.
Alabasata
2mo ago
ancient hominid fossils
This is news to me. And I'm unable to find a source on the search engines. Is this being reported anywhere?
Alabasata
3mo ago
At first glance, Colorado is not as incentivized as Washington - at least to get that filthy federal lucre.
If I'm missing context here, I'd love to know more.
Alabasata
3mo ago
Sort of? Back in the late 00's I went on a torrenting binge of some of the big series: Transmet, Preacher, and Cerebus. Already read Sandman in the early 00s, and wanted more DC/Vertigo-themed stuff. They were some of the big ones talked about back then.
Are they still recommended? No idea, not my scene any more.
Alabasata
3mo ago
I am very amused by this collection of Transmetropolitan-influenced caricatures.
Please, do go on.
Alabasata
3mo ago
UBI would be a new inflationary pressure, as it directly increases the money supply. Our Federal Reserve would need to to interpret that as another tool along with interest rates - if they were to employ it effectively.
(I'm not sure how things work across the pond.)
Alabasata
4mo ago
When your personal contributions are greater than your investment gains: total stock market index funds. Doesn't matter which, just pick one.
When your investment gains are greater than your personal contributions: diversify from index funds into a mix following the "efficient frontier". Here's a calculator, though the free version is capped at 10 years of historical records.
Alabasata
4mo ago
The life a neighbor 15 miles away probably isn't even worth saving. That's not the point.
However, the money I have represents enough power to affect an African. It is not enough power to affect a fellow American. When I donate to VLCOL-based charities I am buying an effigy of influence.
Feeling powerful feels good. That is enough.
Alabasata
4mo ago
"Malicious compliance" is an old political procedure. If you're told to reduce the library department because of budget cuts, you don't start looking at the programs people don't attend. You cut the hours of the desk clerks, closing the library early. You let the Karens complain to city council - who probably reverse the decision - and you force some other poor sap to make cuts instead.
This is a textbook application, and it's no surprise it's making the news cycle.
Alabasata
4mo ago
Who says it has to be unilateral? It's very unlikely you're the only one who wants better conditions. You may just not know your probable allies yet.
Alabasata
4mo ago
There are more. It's the first thing I thought of.
It's also a self-inflicted isolation from one's neighborhood, and that carries knock-on effects where it becomes harder to put down roots. Less chance to see the talents of your neighbors, less chance to share your talents with their families, less Slack in your systems to absorb actual shocks.
Maybe you don't value that as much as I do. That's okay.
Alabasata
4mo ago
For a certain income level & standard of living, yes. I know where the "good school districts" are in my state, and we don't earn enough to afford housing in them. Cheaper states are a net decrease in quality of life for commute time, job prospects, and quality of community. It's a local maximum with a lot of activation energy to find a new maximum.
I'm aware this is not your problem to solve. The incentives are greatest for me to make lemonade where I'm at, and uncover opportunities where I'm at.
Alabasata
4mo ago
The downside of school choice is more car traffic and less buses.
As a travelling technician, my quality of life is much lower during the school year. Urban planners trying to minimize car traffic hate this trampling of the commons. And a certain striver mentality is going to look down on parents taking shortcuts to go where the good schools are instead of applying "the grass is greenest where you water it" and actually getting involved.
It's all tradeoffs in the end. On the whole, I'm no fan of your solution.
Alabasata
4mo ago
ELI5 how military action versus a drug supplier is winnable when the War On Drugs is winding down as ever-expanding legalization? I predict a lot of scope creep "since we're alrrady there anyway".
Alabasata
5mo ago
I'm not worried about death. That's inevitable.
Post-pandemic worried me. I heard a lot of stories about how people were profoundly affected by COVID & the lockdown. I...wasn't especially. I worked, I shopped with a mask on, I went home.
If my lifestyle was such that a national state of emergency barely affected my weekly routine...what parts of society have I missing out on all this time?
Dying? It sucks, but it's not a problem. Living on a pandemic-proof autopilot? Problem.
This may not answer your question about the Big Stuff. But hopefully this will help answer why I'm not especially interested in Big Stuff questions.
Alabasata
5mo ago
Factorio: Space Age progress is going slow. The bare bones of the lava planet factory is automated, and its science is being delivered with few hiccups. The ruins planet factory is now underway & the first science packs are being crafted now.
Rolling for quality this go-round is still a chore. I knew enough to bring blue-quality advanced miners to maximize my rolling chances. Probably should have brought logistics bots with me instead of trying to build them from scraps scratch. Not to mention buildup of higher-quality materials on the lava planet occasionally creating jams & back up.
I wonder when I'll be ready to really start building the Mark II of home planet's base. Kinda thinking I should wait until unlocking some researches from the swamp planet first. But maybe I'll run out of patience first, so hard to say.
Alabasata
5mo ago
Khan Academy has pretty much solved this problem for pre-college math.
It depends on the goal you're trying to accomplish. I used KA as a private tutor to measure my student's work in between sessions. As anybody who plays music will tell you, it's the practice between sessions that makes a habit. Those who used it, tested better. Those who didn't - did not. Which is well and good if all you're trying to do is test surface-level knowledge. KA does introductory and standardized word problems very well.
I reflect also on how "passing the test" was insufficient for me to earn enough income to support myself. But that may be a problem that pre-college math was never meant to solve?
Alabasata
6mo ago
First off, /r/Parenting is not the only game in town. I personally prefer /r/Daddit, largely due to earlier members posting actionable advice like the concept of 20 second hugs. There is some reee'ing as the sub has grown (e.g. "Why do people default to moms as the relevant authority?!", relationship troubles above the paygrade of Internet Strangers) but it generally upvotes posts displaying agency so I lurk there more often.
To answer your question, I only have experience with toddlers so my perspective is limited. Right now the majority of the behavior work we do is picking up toys, tantrum mitigation & risk management during playtime. For the latter, partner & I have settled into classic gender roles: mother's "safety first" vs. father's "she'll succeed or she'll learn something".
Generally, daughter isn't doing enough yet to put herself at enough risk (as I perceive it) where I have to intervene much. I'm sure that will change, but I don't know when or how that will be. Maybe drugs, maybe content diet, maybe choosing her friends - hard to say. But I know I'll have to draw lines eventually.
Alabasata
6mo ago
Swapped out laptops due to a hardware error. Now running a x10 science/railworld run, as per my usual style.
Just got back up to running space science again. Only shipping up raw material after placing enough platform to support iron/steel smelting. It's a slow run to craft things in space that only require iron, but the long-term resource savings are worth it, I feel.
Probably won't hit Vulcanus again until next week. I'll be more ready than last playthrough.
Alabasata
6mo ago
This is the first time I've ever heard about Griggs v. Duke, and I grew up around Roe v. Wade Republicans. Mostly because they were government workers or independent contractors, never managers or small business owners.
I'm not sure what to do with this new information.
(Helen Lovejoy: "Won't someone think of the children?")
A YIMBY, /r/FuckCars or Tim Burton fan could use this to argue against any development where children would be driven to school by bus or their parents:
"Disconnecting children from their neighborhood robs them of the ability to learn from the excellence of those who live within it. They go off to college out-of-state not because of their wanderlust or Hero's Journey, but because they never learned of the value in where they lived. Thus the value must live somewhere else."
It is not hard to claim (with evidence!) that children live in an environment that was not built for them. They are less important to land use planners than any adult, cishet or degenerate. The adult outranks the child or the unborn, and rank has its privileges.
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