You should read some history or foreign current affairs. Markets without food subsidies are chaotic with prices skyrocketing and plummeting based on crop yields. This drives farmers out of business and causes food to be unaffordable unpredictably.
There is a strong social benefit to giving farmers and consumers some price stability.
I really enjoy the ritual of going to the theater. Something about the process of going somewhere specifically to see a film, participating in a large group of people lining up and filing in, then the lights lower and the film is going. Nothing can stop it, no pausing for a pee break or for some douche to explain the backstory or argue some fine point. I think I will always enjoy the whole inconvenient procedure.
There are also some special theaters, some of them are very elaborate architecturally. One theater plays an old wurlitzer before major screenings. The Alamo drafthouse shows fascinating footage before films and does a spectacular job curating special films and events.
There are times I just want to put on a low grade movie and not pay much attention to it, but if I'm in the mood for a special experience going out to the movies can really fit the bill.
It's not a regional thing. Plenty of nasty sweet chocolate all over this fine planet. Plenty of excellent chocolate in USA. Some of my favorite large producers are Trader Joe's and Ghirardelli - both of which make a world class 72% and 85% product.
Human memory is notoriously unreliable, and that is without any bad faith efforts to distort. I keep expecting our fledgling total surveillance to correct this mental defect but so far no luck.
So by your logic, Denmark and Germany should have worse poverty than less green countries such as the US and Somalia. Appears your reasoning is incorrect.
That is a common misconception. Anyone who has to pay for people to handle cash knows that it is not free. It depends on particulars of the business, but in general cash is somewhere between the cost of debit card and credit card fees. You can learn about it from this article [pdf warning]
California seems to have the most uniformly good & adequate roads
Not anymore. When I grew up in the 70s and 80s California roads were the best. Decades of "starving the beast" have resulted in an apocalyptic hellscape. Estimates of annual car damage from bad roads exceed $2000 per vehicle. People routinely total their cars by hitting potholes of ludicrous size. It's embarrassing to drive up to a million dollar house on a beat-to-death road that is somewhat worse than a dirt road.
That is funny! I received the exact same response in northern coastal Norway when I would tell people I was visiting as a tourist. They would look at me pityingly and confusedly, search for the polite way to express it, and settle on "...Why?"
I've always lived in tourist destinations and never wondered why people visit. It was eye opening to imagine living somewhere where they never see tourists, to the point that seeing one is so unusual it must be commented upon.
air pollution isn't necessarily toxic chemically. You could have a charcoal briquet, which is chemically fine and perfectly safe, but if you grind it up into nanoparticles and blast it into the air it will give people heart disease and cancer. Those dangerous microparticles that are the worst part of air pollution are fine if you get them out of the air. A bag of them or liquid slurry won't hurt anyone. I bet the stuff in China's air has some acids and metals in it that are not very friendly, but again get it out of the air and you have made it far safer.
Parent is talking about picking amazon over walmart and staples. Excuse me as I shed a tear for these beleaguered small businesses that are above reproach in their business practices.
Same experience here. I joined prime last year when I moved and needed lots of items quickly and recently canceled. My post-prime shipping is markedly slower - the range of expected delivery is way longer and it nearly always falls at the tail end instead of the front end as it did in the past.
It has alienated me as a customer, I felt that they were attempting to manipulate me into re-priming so now I simply avoid doing business with them unless there is no alternative. Sometimes when I am forced to buy from amazon the price I find with shipping is cheaper than the Prime price, Lolzors!
I'm a long time user of GV and started using hangouts a year or three ago. One nice feature is it supports VOIP so you can make voice or video calls without mobile carrier over wifi. I ended up getting a minimal voice minutes plan and saving a bunch every month. GV still works the same way it always has.
Nautical miles are still used by mariners and pilots because it works out so well. It's 1/60th of a degree of latitude and it makes a lot of navigation math easier. I don't think units are magic or anything, but I'll use whatever is easier for the situation. Sometimes imperial units are easier, and sometimes its easier to specify both.
Ah, I remember that dismissive form from the usenet days. Somehow email spam has been completely and utterly solved for me and many others. I use outlook with aggressive filtering at work, and gmail at home. I rarely see spam and rarely have false positives. I forgot all about spam until I saw your post!
I'm confident the same merry fuckers that fixed email spam can fix phone spam.
Fascinating. In dry western wooded mountain areas people are installing metal roofs because it is one of the most resistant to catching on fire during one of the wildfires. A friend was told by the fire department to install a metal roof!
I suppose it could work both ways. A fire that starts inside your house will have no chance to get out (letting water and firemen in) but a fire that starts outside won't be able to get in easily.
Horseshit. I'm not gonna look it up for you, but the worst roads in the country are in the bay area, where most years they get nothing more harsh than a gentle drizzle. The roads do get pounded by lots of heavy trucks, and the legendary car-destroying potholes make the news constantly.
The wear comes from compressive forces from heavy vehicles. Look it up, and learn.
Years ago I did that to some toner salesman or something who put my number on some sort of mega shitlist. It basically rang nonstop until I changed phone numbers. Now I'm pretty scared of fucking with people who annoy people over the phone for a living.
Have you been to India? All those lunatics are using mobile phones while crashing into each other. Third world countries all have cell phones now. Even super poor ones like Somalia. If anything mobile related deaths are far higher in developing nations.
Slashdot Mirror
You should read some history or foreign current affairs. Markets without food subsidies are chaotic with prices skyrocketing and plummeting based on crop yields. This drives farmers out of business and causes food to be unaffordable unpredictably.
There is a strong social benefit to giving farmers and consumers some price stability.
I really enjoy the ritual of going to the theater. Something about the process of going somewhere specifically to see a film, participating in a large group of people lining up and filing in, then the lights lower and the film is going. Nothing can stop it, no pausing for a pee break or for some douche to explain the backstory or argue some fine point. I think I will always enjoy the whole inconvenient procedure.
There are also some special theaters, some of them are very elaborate architecturally. One theater plays an old wurlitzer before major screenings. The Alamo drafthouse shows fascinating footage before films and does a spectacular job curating special films and events.
There are times I just want to put on a low grade movie and not pay much attention to it, but if I'm in the mood for a special experience going out to the movies can really fit the bill.
You can email deep dish, just need to use strong compression.
It's not a regional thing. Plenty of nasty sweet chocolate all over this fine planet. Plenty of excellent chocolate in USA. Some of my favorite large producers are Trader Joe's and Ghirardelli - both of which make a world class 72% and 85% product.
With a 1 horsepower burst of gas!
The race to the bottom is underway.
Goddamn this race is boring. 1.5 inches a year! I think racing lichen would be more entertaining.
Human memory is notoriously unreliable, and that is without any bad faith efforts to distort. I keep expecting our fledgling total surveillance to correct this mental defect but so far no luck.
So by your logic, Denmark and Germany should have worse poverty than less green countries such as the US and Somalia. Appears your reasoning is incorrect.
That is a common misconception. Anyone who has to pay for people to handle cash knows that it is not free. It depends on particulars of the business, but in general cash is somewhere between the cost of debit card and credit card fees. You can learn about it from this article [pdf warning]
California seems to have the most uniformly good & adequate roads
Not anymore. When I grew up in the 70s and 80s California roads were the best. Decades of "starving the beast" have resulted in an apocalyptic hellscape. Estimates of annual car damage from bad roads exceed $2000 per vehicle. People routinely total their cars by hitting potholes of ludicrous size. It's embarrassing to drive up to a million dollar house on a beat-to-death road that is somewhat worse than a dirt road.
That is funny! I received the exact same response in northern coastal Norway when I would tell people I was visiting as a tourist. They would look at me pityingly and confusedly, search for the polite way to express it, and settle on "...Why?"
I've always lived in tourist destinations and never wondered why people visit. It was eye opening to imagine living somewhere where they never see tourists, to the point that seeing one is so unusual it must be commented upon.
air pollution isn't necessarily toxic chemically. You could have a charcoal briquet, which is chemically fine and perfectly safe, but if you grind it up into nanoparticles and blast it into the air it will give people heart disease and cancer. Those dangerous microparticles that are the worst part of air pollution are fine if you get them out of the air. A bag of them or liquid slurry won't hurt anyone. I bet the stuff in China's air has some acids and metals in it that are not very friendly, but again get it out of the air and you have made it far safer.
Parent is talking about picking amazon over walmart and staples. Excuse me as I shed a tear for these beleaguered small businesses that are above reproach in their business practices.
Same experience here. I joined prime last year when I moved and needed lots of items quickly and recently canceled. My post-prime shipping is markedly slower - the range of expected delivery is way longer and it nearly always falls at the tail end instead of the front end as it did in the past.
It has alienated me as a customer, I felt that they were attempting to manipulate me into re-priming so now I simply avoid doing business with them unless there is no alternative. Sometimes when I am forced to buy from amazon the price I find with shipping is cheaper than the Prime price, Lolzors!
costive
adjective
constipated.
slow or reluctant in speech or action; unforthcoming.
"if he did ask her she would become costive"
I'm a long time user of GV and started using hangouts a year or three ago. One nice feature is it supports VOIP so you can make voice or video calls without mobile carrier over wifi. I ended up getting a minimal voice minutes plan and saving a bunch every month. GV still works the same way it always has.
Nautical miles are still used by mariners and pilots because it works out so well. It's 1/60th of a degree of latitude and it makes a lot of navigation math easier. I don't think units are magic or anything, but I'll use whatever is easier for the situation. Sometimes imperial units are easier, and sometimes its easier to specify both.
Ah, I remember that dismissive form from the usenet days. Somehow email spam has been completely and utterly solved for me and many others. I use outlook with aggressive filtering at work, and gmail at home. I rarely see spam and rarely have false positives. I forgot all about spam until I saw your post!
I'm confident the same merry fuckers that fixed email spam can fix phone spam.
I work for a big company and incompetence is de rigeur. If you saw how bad nearly everyone is at their job it would make you cry.
Fascinating. In dry western wooded mountain areas people are installing metal roofs because it is one of the most resistant to catching on fire during one of the wildfires. A friend was told by the fire department to install a metal roof!
I suppose it could work both ways. A fire that starts inside your house will have no chance to get out (letting water and firemen in) but a fire that starts outside won't be able to get in easily.
Road wear is almost 100% weather.
Horseshit. I'm not gonna look it up for you, but the worst roads in the country are in the bay area, where most years they get nothing more harsh than a gentle drizzle. The roads do get pounded by lots of heavy trucks, and the legendary car-destroying potholes make the news constantly.
The wear comes from compressive forces from heavy vehicles. Look it up, and learn.
Privacy through obscurity!
I'm not sure how to take legal action against an anonymous overseas call centre, I doubt your courts have jurisdiction.
Years ago I did that to some toner salesman or something who put my number on some sort of mega shitlist. It basically rang nonstop until I changed phone numbers. Now I'm pretty scared of fucking with people who annoy people over the phone for a living.
Have you been to India? All those lunatics are using mobile phones while crashing into each other. Third world countries all have cell phones now. Even super poor ones like Somalia. If anything mobile related deaths are far higher in developing nations.