jkf
59m ago
It's why I never understood the fuss about White Lotus -- I finally watched the first season awhile ago, after hearing real-life people going on about how great and profound it was -- and I was like, "American tourists are shallow and annoying, often selfish and high-maintenance too!" doesn't really seem that insightful to me... much less something I want to watch on TV!
jkf
2d ago
Probably not dispositive -- crack (or meth I suppose) only stays in your system for a few hours at the best of times AFAIK -- not sure what impact dead in a ditch for a few weeks would have, but I can't imagine it would help with detection?
jkf
2d ago
The Maryland autopsy actually noted that his coronary artery had 50-percent occlusion, which was unlikely to be the cause of death.
'Crack bender' strikes me as more likely than 'out for beers' considering these guys' bios -- which could be a bad combo with heart disease?
jkf
5d ago
We have thermometer records going back to the 1800s
It's true, but pretty uncommon to have exactly the same thermometer in exactly the same location (within the same environs) for even a few decades -- datasets like HADCRUT are heavily massaged by true believers, and the longest-term measuring locations tend to be in areas particularly vulnerable to urban heat-island and other local effects. Also the areas said (by current models) to be expected to experience the most local warming are sparsely populated (pretty polar) and have limited historical data of any kind.
I'm more "so what" than full-denier -- but I think "we don't really know with high certainty how much average global temperatures have increased since the 1800s" is a pretty viable position.
jkf
6d ago
How do I as a guest know your floors are to that level of clean?
The pile of shoes by the door, probably?
jkf
6d ago
You... think that global temperature (whatever that even means) has a direct linear relationship with (average) atmospheric CO2?
I'm fairly sure that's an oversimplification...
jkf
6d ago
Regardless one and two does indeed imply three
They don't really say anything about the magnitude of three though -- unless you have a good model of the system as a whole, which we don't.
jkf
7d ago
"You really think a startup would do that? Just go on the internet and tell lies about their revenue!?"
jkf
11d ago
Other manufacturers like Nissan have blockers that keep you from clearing codes or running bi-directional tests. https://dobkinlaw.com/trapped-by-the-tech-why-congress-is-battling-automakers-over-your-right-to-self-repair/
"it’s the fast-approaching reality of vehicle ownership" (from the article) -- maybe, but I can't see anybody saying that this is happening now? (A quick google on "nissan blocks clearing codes" doesn't turn anything up, for instance)
A standard OBDC tool will still do most reasonable things on most cars -- whatsmore, it's actually way easier to get a factory-equivalent bidirectional tool than it used to be due to bootleg Chinese stuff that plugs into a laptop. For GM, you've needed a Tech2 for bidirectional communication for about 30 years -- these used to cost $10k, now you can get a $100 dongle from China.
EV manufacturers do not even have OBD ports.
Not sure this is true (a light googling seems to suggest that North American manufacturers use a standard port), but if so it's another good reason not to buy an EV (or that EV, if it's limited to (say) Tesla)!
I've also had a car where everything is poorly accessible, and that accessing certain parts of the engine require specialized tools or taking the whole thing apart.
This has been a common bitching point since sub-compact Japanese cars started replacing enormous American boats -- I don't love it, but the existence of drawling hillbillies on Youtube who show you the real way to do these jobs (as opposed to what the service manual tells you) has improved the situation immensely.
jkf
11d ago
I've said this many times before, but cultural generations of the 20th century make a lot more sense if you start Boomers at 1940 and GenX at 1960 -- in both cases (also to some degree with Silent and Millenials) the trailing five years seem to end up a bit lost; Boomers as usual try to be special about it with "Generation Jones", but I'm pretty sure it's a general thing.
It's most obvious if you look at musicians -- you will struggle to find Boomer rock icons not born between 1940 and 1945, and similarly central GenX grunge people are strongly (though less exclusively) born 1960-65. The argument could be made that punk rock was a GenJones phenomenon though...
jkf
11d ago
Lots about that life is now illegal or made impossible. Car needs to be fixed? Modern cars now transmit real-time diagnostic data wirelessly directly to the manufacturer. If you have an issue that needs to be fixed, you need to take it to an official shop because the manufacturer will not tell you what the diagnostic data says. Also, car electronics and machinery have been intentionally made difficult to repair without highly specialized knowledge.
I think you either have a definition of 'modern' that's like ten years in the future, or are just wrong -- the newest car in my stable (wife's) is three years old and I can work on it just fine. In particular, engine-related jobs (eg. head gasket) are basically no different than they were in the sixties. (or the Grapes of Wrath, for that matter)
On-board diagnostic computers, while not without their foibles, actually tend to make life easier than in the past so long as you are prepared to spend fifty bucks on a scan-tool; furthermore Youtube + brand specific forums mean that the chances that someone somewhere has done the exact job you are contemplating and documented it in detail online are very near to 100%. (unless you are driving something really weird or it's been altered from the factory state previously)
On the whole, fixing your own car has never been easier -- and I've been doing that since high school in the 90s, dealing with vehicles produced ~1969-2023 and resources ranging from dusty manuals in the physical library to youtube and pirated factory literature from shady Russian sites. (most recently a full engine-out rebuild on my kid's 2016 -- precipitated by enshittification of engine design due to EPA fuel-efficiency standards, but I digress)
jkf
15d ago
Not that I don't believe your account, but I'm curious if anyone's done a proper longitudinal study on the efficacy of vapes as a means of weaning oneself off tobacco.
Doesn't seem like it would be too different this way from patches/lozenges, which I expect have been studied properly given that they are medical-type items?
jkf
21d ago
I mean that Ukraine is militarily important to Russia in a hypothetical war with tanks rolling (one way or another) through the Fulda Gap and nukes flying, so Russia prioritizes current actions to mitigate the risk of this (low probability) hypothetical. Similarly with China's policies on Tibet and/or Taiwan. (ie. they are mostly due to strategic considerations in the case of war with India or the US, rather than some deep ideological feeling that Tibet or even Taiwan ought to be Chinese)
Europe did this in the 19th century but doesn't anymore; the US kind of does it, but through puppets and diplomacy (plus CIA ops, probably) in far-flung places rather than in their own backyard.
If the US were thinking this way, they would absolutely be serious about military force in Canada (risk of becoming a Chinese puppet) and Greenland (risk of becoming a stepping stone for either China or Russia) -- I don't think Trumps ruminations on this come from the same place, it's more like trolling at this point.
jkf
21d ago
Moving your borders closer to NATO does not suggest a fear of invasion. Neither does draining your manpower and weapon stockpiles.
Creating a geographical buffer between your enemies and your core is absolutely valid strategy, even if it costs some -- what it's worth is another question of course.
My current operating model is that Russia and China are both still playing "Great Game" diplomacy, in which military wargame type considerations have a voice at the table -- most of the West is definitely not, with the US being an exception in that it's torn between Deep State 5-d chess and Fukuyama-flavoured quokka-ism.
jkf
22d ago
At least two -- tobacco has killed many multiples of plausible smallpox totals!
jkf
22d ago
It's not a goal at all though -- it's a tool in service of their (other) goals.
jkf
23d ago
Neither -- it's a demoralization tactic against the stale pale straight majority.
English people literally think that there has been significant black Representation in their population since Roman times -- this is a direct result of decades of work by progressives at the BBC.
The impact is that the native English population will put up with (seemingly) literally anything -- very helpful for the progressive project!
Similar tactics are at work in the USA -- the exact group being 'represented' is not that important; LGBTetc works just as well as racial minorities. So long as the majority is underrepresented/delegitimatized, the intended purpose is served.
jkf
26d ago
Technically speaking you can attach 'program code', but it only gets published if it's less than 300 lines, with each line under 72 characters. Which is not a lot of STL or GCODE, and you'd need either a very lax or very sympathetic patent examiner.
You could maybe describe the gcode in structured natural language, such that a 'translator' could convert it back?
ie: "we claim an arrangements of parts as follows: 'bolt': a rectangular prism 8cm*2cm*2cm with 3mm longitudinal grooves at the midpoint" etc etc etc
pretty boring patent app, but I think such a description would contravene various ghost gun regulations, and seems to fall much more obviously under free speech than a gcode file?
jkf
26d ago
are we supposing the Trump monitors are all too retarded to notice anything?
You just need to fabricate some excuse to keep them away from you -- if they object, have them arrested! (I know this sounds far-fetched, but it's literally what happened in 2020)
While this may be harder going forward (while Trump is in power, at least) there are lots of ways to do fraud that aren't readily observable at the time of counting -- "harvest ballots and don't try to hard to authenticate them on election day" for example.
"Hey guys I just had a thought, I know we don't know each other well but let's rig this election"
You are not getting it -- this conversation never happens, people just do stuff.
I haven't been to Australia since the 80s (very nice, very safe, very distinct un-American culture), but I can assure you that the major urban centres of Canada are pretty full of addicts in tents and other screaming maniacs. StatsCan will probably say that these are disproportionally Indians, but my feeling would be that it's a lot less disproportionate than it used to be -- many many skinny white crackheads, and significant numbers of chubby white schizos.
The real problem here is that it's bleeding into the (previously) nice 30-100k population centres -- people there are pissed.
When you get super-rural there's little homelessness but a fair amount of drug-associated petty crime -- probably a little worse than the past, but people do have guns so there's a bit of a disincentive. Actual remote reservations vary wildly -- some are pretty bad, others more or less have their shit together. This probably boils down to whether the individual leadership are actually good people, or are more interested in siphoning government/resource revenue off for themselves; both are common. To be fair there's a lot of pressure from band memberships to siphon the revenue directly to the entire population of that particular reserve -- which seems less corrupt but also doesn't usually work out particularly well.
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