ToaKraka
Dislikes you
User ID: 108
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
3hr ago
I don't have a college certificate on the topic. But, as I understand it, the business of single-family-residential real-estate development consists of several different paths.
(1) Buy a medium-sized lot; subdivide it into a few small lots; and (a) sell the small lots to people who want to build custom houses, or (b) collaborate with a homebuilder to build on the small lots "speculative" houses that you'll sell to people who want to buy new houses.
(2) Buy a large lot; subdivide it into many small lots, plus drainage features and new roads; give the new roads to the municipality; give the drainage features to a homeowners' association; and (a) sell the small lots to people who want to build custom houses, or (b) collaborate with a homebuilder to build on the small lots "speculative" houses that you'll sell to people who want to buy new houses (getting a bulk discount with the homebuilder either way).
Regarding options 1b and 2b, people tend to dislike my house designs. Regarding all four options, I do not have access to a small loan of one million dollars.
Why does it matter if a disused tunnel is in disrepair?
The opinion indicates that the tunnel's failure is causing subsidence in a roadway above it.
How much do you think the land is worth?
As I said above, each of the two lots is assessed by the county govt. at 30 k$. Zillow does not have Zestimates for them, but does show that many comparable lots within a few hundred feet have recently sold for 30–40 k$.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
7hr ago
According to the federal and state GIS maps, the nearest flood zone is 900 feet away, and the nearest wetland is 1000 feet away.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
8hr ago
I assume since gramps hasn't been getting constant notices about the lawn being overgrown, they are not in an incorporated area?
They are in a municipality. They're filled with trees, not just bushes, so I guess they've been promoted from "unkempt lawn" to "random patch of forest".
Like based off of minimum size and setbacks, or did you also check the hydrology?
They are surrounded by houses, and do not appear to be in a federally-designated flood zone or a state-designated wetland.
Since you are retired and associated with New J⁎rsey, aren't you constitutionally required to snowbird, even if you hardly go outside of your climate-controlled shack?
(1) If I had known about these properties prior to buying land in Pennsylvania, I might have considered purchasing one (though I'm not a big fan of living in Hurricane Land). But I definitely am not rich enough to own two houses.
(2) Infuriatingly, my climate-controlled shack STILL is not complete, as the electric company needs to upgrade the transformer on the nearest utility pole before it can provide service. It's now two months past the "tentative completion date" in the contract.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
9hr ago
To clarify, the /sdg/ thread provides links to uncensored non-local services.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
10hr ago
Guidance for generating images with uncensored/decensored AI models is available in the "Local Diffusion General" and "Stable Diffusion General" threads on 4chan's technology board. (I haven't personally tried it.)
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
12hr ago
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A person has been convicted of "sexual battery". He is on the sex-offender list, and is required to register his "place of employment" with the county sheriff's office. His employer is a janitorial service: every day he shows up at a central location and is transported by the company to an assigned jobsite. He registers the central location as his place of employment.
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The service assigns him to work at a children's camp in a different county. After several weeks of being transported to that location every day, he is charged with the felony of failing to update his registered workplace. He argues that (1) the law is unconstitutionally vague, and (2) it defies common sense for the law to require him to update his registered place of employment every time his employer changes his jobsite. But the trial judge rejects his arguments, and he pleads no contest and is sentenced to three years of probation. The appeals panel and the state supreme court affirm.
Originally published in year 1727, recently uploaded to Project Gutenberg:
The BENEFIT of FARTING EXPLAIN'D:
OR, THE FUNDAMENT-all CAUSE of the Distempers incident to the Fair Sex Inquir'd into:
Proving à Posteriori most of the Disordures in-tail'd on them are owing to Flatulencies not seasonably vented.
Wrote in Spanish, by Don Fart-in hando Puff-indorst Professor of Bumbast in the University of Craccow.
AND Translated into English at the Request and for the Use of the Lady Damp-Fart, of Her-fart-shire.
The Thirteenth Edition, with Additions, revis'd by a College of Phyzz-icians, and approved by several Ladies of Quality.
To which is added, a Certificate of its Virtues, from the Court of the Princess ARSEMINI.
Together with some Verses on a Lady's Fart, in the Philippic strain.
ALSO a Meditation on T——d, wrote in a Place of EASE.
(It appears that "T——d" stands for "Turd".)
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1967: A railroad company acquires a railroad line, including a tunnel. (I can't figure out the tunnel's exact location, but it's somewhere in this rectangle.)
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2000–2001: The company asks the federal STB (Surface Transportation Board) for permission to abandon service on the line. The STB grants permission.
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2001–2002: The company asks the state PUC (Public Utility Commission) for permission to "abolish" 29 rail crossings, including the tunnel. However, the PUC grants permission to abolish only 27 crossings. The two remaining crossings, including the tunnel, cannot be abolished because negotiations between the company and the state DOT (Dept. of Transportation) for "final disposition" are ongoing.
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2002, later: Despite lacking the PUC's permission, the company sells to a third party a large property that contains the tunnel.
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2012: The PUC erroneously assumes that all 29 crossings have been abolished by now, and closes the case.
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2019–2025: The PUC opens a new investigation of the tunnel, which has fallen into disrepair. It finds that the company cannot weasel out of responsibility just because it sold the tunnel (without govt. permission) back in 2002. It assigns to the company 2.8 M$ of repair costs, as well as future maintenance costs.
Weird anecdote:
>Be me
>Visit 85-year-old grandfather
>He complains that he hasn't been feeling very motivated to do stuff lately
>Ramble at him regarding how designing code-compliant houses and subdivisions is a fun retirement hobby
>He mentions that his uncle gave him two vacant lots in Florida a while ago (he lives in New J⁎rsey), but he doesn't want to give them to anybody else because the property tax would be a burden
>Look up the county property records later
>Somebody (presumably grandfather's uncle) bought the lots for 4 k$ in 1977, and gave them to grandfather for free in 1984
>For each lot, assessed value is 30 k$, and "burdensome" property tax is 300 dollars per year
>This fogey has been letting perfectly good land sit overgrown, 900 miles away from him, for literally 40 years without either building something on it or selling it
>MFW
>Send him an email explaining that the lots are buildable under the municipality's zoning code (minimum house size 1200 ft2—example design is attached), but I would just sell them since they're so far away
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
1d ago
I do not have the technical knowledge that would qualify me to answer that question.
Denizens of this website who are more knowledgeable than I am have pointed out that NearlyFreeSpeech.net's increasingly-authleft political views have started to throw the validity of its name into some doubt (1 2 3), but they have not leveled any technical criticisms at it.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
1d ago
I haven't seen any, so I made one just for you.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
1d ago
It doesn't make sense to me why area should be the key ontological factor for deciding which map is best.
The General Assembly says:
Emphasizing that cartographic representations constitute an essential component of geospatial information and have a lasting influence on the perception and understanding of territorial realities on a global scale,
Considering that maps constitute a fundamental educational, scientific and cultural tool that shapes the perception of the world and the collective imagination of peoples,
Recalling the Charter for African Cultural Renaissance, in particular article 3 relating to the rehabilitation and enhancement of African heritage,
Recognizing that certain cartographic distortions of sizes of continents, inherited from history, have contributed to their incorrect perceptions, leading in particular to a symbolic minimization of Africa in collective imaginations and knowledge systems,
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
1d ago
The technical term is "cartogram".
Front-page news on Reddit: The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution recommending the Equal Earth projection (pseudocylindrical, equal-area) over the Mercator projection (cylindrical, conformal). This is the culmination of a campaign that has been backed by the African Union for the past year.
The General Assembly
[Two pages of preamble]
(1) Affirms that cartographic distortions of continental sizes inherited from history have cognitive, educational, cultural, geopolitical and socioeconomic impacts and constitute historical biases, the correction of which will promote recognition, justice and development, particularly with regard to the African continent;
(2) Recognizes that the Mercator projection, widely used around the world, particularly distorts, from the perspective of area representation, continental masses located far from the equator, resulting in a proportional shrinkage of Africa and other regions;
(3) Declares that the Equal Earth cartographic projection offers a more accurate representation of the sizes of continental landmasses and to this end is a relevant option for improving the accuracy of the cartographic representation of the world;
[Two pages of "emphasizing", "encouraging", "inviting", and "urging"]
The resolution does not actually require the Equal Earth Projection to be used, even internally at the UN.
| Vote | Count |
|---|---|
| Yes | 164 |
| No | 1 (USA) |
| Abstain | 6 |
| (Not present) | 22 |
Comparison between cylindrical equal-area projection (Behrmann variant) and Equal Earth projection:
| Output | Cylindrical equal-area | Equal Earth |
|---|---|---|
| Notes | — | θ = asin(√(3)/2⋅sin(φ)) A1 = 1.340264 A2 = −0.081106 A3 = 0.000893 A4 = 0.003796 |
| x | √(3)/2⋅λ | 2√(3)λcos(θ)/(27A4θ8 + 21A3θ6 + 9A2θ2 + 3A1) |
| y | 2/√(3)⋅sin(φ) | A4θ9 + A3θ7 + A2θ3 + A1θ |
| Shape | Familiar rectangle | Weird dirigible |
| Verdict | ♥️ | 🤮 |
Previous discussion of map projections
(If you hate all map projections and want to pretend that you're looking at a physical globe, use the orthographic projection—or, if you're really deviant, the general perspective projection.)
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
1d ago
The other commenter said:
People keep saying this but never share the prompts.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
2d ago
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Architecture is an art degree, while civil engineering is a STEM degree
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But the govt. requires you to be an architect, not a civil engineer, in order to design a utilitarian apartment building, office building, school, or prison
Make it make sense. (Though, to be fair, not all states have this requirement.)
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
3d ago
This article (originally written in year 2014, but revised since then) lists a zillion possible reasons for the death of fan magazines ("zines").
One active magazine pays five cents per word to authors. I don't know whether that's low or high.
A Reuters article indicates otherwise.
The AfD surged into first place in Sunday's state election in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt but fell just short of an absolute majority, with 39 of 83 seats in the regional legislature.
While mainstream parties, including Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU conservatives, have long refused to work with the AfD, in a policy known as the "firewall", the far-left BSW reaffirmed its readiness to play kingmaker after it cleared the 5% threshold to enter Saxony-Anhalt's state parliament [with five seats, which is enough to form a majority with AfD].
"We've made no secret from the beginning that we'll talk with all parties. The AfD is part of that," Thomas Schulze, the BSW party's lead candidate in the Saxony-Anhalt state election, told Reuters on Monday.
Schulze said the mainstream parties' refusal to work with the AfD was "undemocratic". Germany's domestic intelligence agency has branded the AfD as "extremist".
As well as their hostility to Germany's political establishment and their social conservatism, the two parties share a number of priorities, including a hostility to mass migration (which the BSW says harms local workers' rights), suspicion of the mainstream media, and a desire to end financial and military support for Ukraine and restore ties with Russia.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
4d ago
five years
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
4d ago
Rational fiction at its finest. Are you sure Eliezer didn’t write this?
I have added to my page of fun LLM prompts a section called "autistic woman". (To be clear, the story that I linked above is not AI-generated.)
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
4d ago
Article from right-wing commentator
The lunatic progressive-left Amadeu Antonio Foundation has formulated a horror scenario of all the deeply troubling and antidemocratic things the voters of Sachsen-Anhalt may be on the verge of enabling, which I am happy to present to you via the breathless histrionics of The Atlantic:
Imagine that it’s October 2026, and one of Germany’s 16 federal states has come under the control of a far-right government for the first time since the Nazi era. With an absolute majority in the state Parliament and one of its own installed as state premier, the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, quickly begins implementing its agenda. The interior minister announces an emergency remigration program: abolishing asylum, revoking the residence permit of any foreigner convicted of a crime, pledging to review all naturalization decisions made during this century, and incarcerating those designated for deportation. The government stops classifying Ukrainians as war refugees and ends their social benefits. European Union flags disappear from public buildings. The mainstream press is shunned in favor of influencers aligned with the party’s ideology. The government authorizes vigilante groups to act as an auxiliary police force in regions with high crime rates.
You could be forgiven for wondering whether the Amadeu Antonio Foundation is running some kind of deep-cover pro-AfD campaign. All mainstream press coverage, activist whining and cartel-party rhetoric seems dedicated to the singular goal of constructing the AfD as a genuine alternative to the present dysfunctional political order of the Federal Republic. The enemies of the AfD want nothing more than to convince voters that the party will prove powerful and effective if given access to the levers of power. They will remigrate the migrants, fold up the rainbow flags and restore order. “Please don’t vote for the AfD, they might well just fix something.”
…
The possibilities that await us tomorrow are therefore these:
(1) A three-party Landtag, with SPD and Greens both failing to get more than 5% of the vote. In this case, there is no doubt that the AfD will have a clear majority of Landtag seats and that Ulrich Siegmund will be the next Minister President Sachsen-Anhalt.
(2) A four-party Landtag, with SPD scraping in but the Greens falling short. In this case, the AfD will need to outperform the polls just slightly and capture 43% or more of the vote. This is conceivable but it will be close.
(3) A five-party Landtag, with SPD and Greens both achieving representation. In this case, the AfD will almost certainly not win the vote share necessary for a parliamentary majority.
During college, after a lecture from a teaching assistant I took it upon myself to inform him that he'd said "you know" literally N times (I don't remember the specific number, but it was in the dozens) and suggest that he avoid that in the future.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
6d ago
No direct link because I remember hearing something about YouTube links showing the account source and I'm too lazy to figure that out.
Just keep the "?v=XXXXX" part of the link and delete anything that comes after it, such as "&si=YYYYY". This is a problem only if you use the "share link" button in YouTube's interface; it doesn't show up if you copy the link directly from your browser's address bar.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
6d ago
It's like one of my Japanese animes! Though I assume that a "niggers/pajeets need not apply" caveat must be inserted.
I technically am eligible to take the exam and obtain a professional engineer's license, but while I was employed I saw no reason to go through the process, since my employer offered no incentive for it. Previous discussion
(It was hilarious to see all the best employees constantly leaving for private employment in part due to this reason. Compare this recent announcement of special bonuses, and even special positions, for licensed employees at NYSDOT.)
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