If it's Biden vs. Trump part II, God help us all. I use AI almost every day now. I would not have guessed that two years ago.
Happy Winter Solstice.
Oops. I got a bit aggressive when nerfing emails. I'll fix it. Going to be doing some overall updating and maintenance soon. Actually Hubski now passes comments to GPT and notifications are nerfed when GPT senses the reply could increase the chance of conflict.
Hey, that was a lot of lobsters.
We have a structural problem. Urban voters have less influence. https://ballotpedia.org/Population_represented_by_state_legislators It is extremely unlikely there will ever be a majority in the Senate that will change this structural problem. Rural America is a depressing, and weird, and it is in control of the Federal government.
Starting to be a little more often now. I used to fly way too much before the pandemic. This was leisure. We just got back from Marseille and Barcelona. It was a family trip, and it was very nice. My wife and daughter would typically be visiting in China at this time, but who knows when that is going to be possible again.
We have very few newbies coming in, and I doubt changing the signup in that way will reduce the numbers. In fact, I suspect it might have the opposite effect. Also, spam is a massive pain in the ass. Just three regularly engaged users can have a significant impact on this place. Signaling from the outset that Hubski is clearly more interested in users than growth might be beneficial. I can definitely tweak the rate at which a hubwheel is earned.
SCOTUS got hacked by the GOP, so it functions like their base is the country. Roe vs Wade benefited the GOP as a battle, but fucks them as a victory.
Got my energy back.
Started a new painting. I want 10 lifetimes, minimum.
We watched Minari this week, and it was pretty good. However, my wife and I agreed afterwards that there is a soft white liberal racism that limits the foreign film market in the US to heartbreaking stories of love and loss. Parasite was a refreshing exception.
Started on adding foreground color to the trees. We are going to Puerto Rico for a few days next month. That will be the first flying vacation since before times. Looking forward to it. Here's something I am looking for: Decentralized storage, doesn't need to be persistent, can be very small (as little as a few MBs), but needs to be free.
Socialism bad/capitalism good is a conversation below my standards. Student debt is complicated. It's worth discussion. There are many facets that can be discussed. Loans may have enabled the price of education to increase, which may have led to more students needing to get loans for the same education. The fact that student debt is extremely difficult to erase, and almost never is by bankruptcy, may have caused lenders to give money when the risk of default was high. Liberal politicians may helped to create this problem in an effort to make college education more available. Warren's plan might not be the best approach, but the economic damage of the student debt might be greater than doing something to absolve it, so it might be worth considering in light of these factors. The argument against it above considers just one factor and would probably get Facebook some ad revenue. We don't get any ad revenue.
The other day my wife mentioned to me that the J&J shot used an adenovirus. I replied that it couldn't be true. One failure of early gene therapy is that the human body raises immunity to the adenovirus vector, and thus, subsequent therapies using adenovirus fail because the body raises a response against it. Also, many people have innate immunity to adenovirus due to prior infection. But it is true. The J&J vaccine uses adenovirus. So people that got J&J either nerfed it because of prior immunity, or will nerf it and possibly all other adenovirus therapies in the future. On a related note, my pal's brother who was terminal and on chemo had a heart attack and died a few hours after his second Pfizer vax. He is unvaccinated, and is understandably fearful after his brother's death. I had to concede to him that it is possible that his brother's heart attack was related. It does put stress on the body and his brother was in very bad shape. I did advise him to get vaccinated however. He is healthy and in his 50s, and I assured him that covid is the greater risk. Hopefully he does. Then two days ago another friend texted that his elderly mother was in the hospital for a mini-stroke. He mentioned that she had her Pfizer booster just two days prior, but not in suspected connection, only that it was a good thing since she was in the hospital. I suspect that these multiple vaccination doses come with a risk for elderly and weakened individuals. It sucks, but nothing is simple. I've had two Moderna shots, and I'll get my booster. We are probably going to face a day when we have hard evidence of vaccination risks, and it is going to be fuel for the anti-vaccination fire. Started to paint something for my daughter's room, but it is starting to look too creepy.
Sorry about that. Surprise expiry. I'll get it fixed as soon as I can get on my laptop.
Miami is doomed because it is built on a dissolving sponge. The top floors are going to fall onto the bottom ones. https://www.nola.com/opinions/article_154a03f8-d82a-11eb-8e31-5f68830a4031.html Venice has a clay foundation with anaerobic muck on top.
Generalizable relationship advice seems like a fool's errand, whatever the prescription.
My gut. Also BTC is nearing the bear phase of it's 4-year boom bust cycle based upon its reward halving. Meanwhile ETH is being pulled off exchanges, locked into DeFi for yield, into ETH2 staking contracts, and due to the EIP-1559 in the July fork, will have a ~30% reduction in issuance. Late this year, more likely early next, ETH will transition to proof-of-stake, which will cut issuance far more drastically. In short, BTC is going into a bear, and ETH is going into a scarcity-driven bull.
I think I am done with this painting for my cousin. He wanted a fantasy scene, and this is about as fantastic as I get atm. I call it Where the elves live. I had a seed idea that got a couple of people excited and it looks like it is going to be a legit thing. I'll share details when it is a bit more concrete. It is an evironmental effort. I am returning to the cottage in a couple of weeks to get more work done on the sauna that claimed my finger tip last October. We need to put in a large reclaimed window facing the lake, install the cedar benches and paneling, finish the breezeway paneling, and brick/cement board in the area for the stove. The stove will be fed from the outside. It is being manufactured by a guy near the cottage, but won't be done until July, so we'll install it when we come back then. I might use that extra roof panel to create a side roof that we can stack wood under. Cedar paneling probably costs more than platinum. I am afraid to look. My nail is growing out from my shorter fingertip. It looks like I'll have a full width nail, so that it nice. However, it is uncomfortable to have something break through your skin at 0.5mm per day.
That project is the cat's ass.
I'm not so sure. I do think equities are overvalued, some crazy so, and that stock prices may deflate, but the US just dropped A LOT of helicopter money. The infrastructure bill is going to drop a lot more money on the right people. I believe that trickle up economics are very powerful under the right circumstances. I see a crypto bear in the next year or so, but I don't think it will be long-lived for Ethereum and functional assets on it. I see a lot of misguided experimentation followed by disillusionment, then followed by a complete remaking of the global financial system. I expect an explosion in solar in the next decade. It makes sense on every roof.
Even voters that don't like taxes don't typically bother the government about military spending. It's never much of a campaign issue although the costs are very high. I believe the problem has to do with a perception of what is valuable, and the political advantage in arguing about it at election time. That said, I'd pay a subscription for access to clean toilets all around. You could make an AirBnB-like service where businesses with toilets could allow members to use them without having to buy a slice of pizza, etc...The government wants to provide for poor people and other people. It doesn’t want to make them pay — or old people — they don’t want to pay, but the government doesn’t want to raise taxes and provide their healthcare.
Dagnabbit.
Done and done. Maybe we'll get another European!
Holy crap. We should do a new run of stickers.
Avoid lightning for six weeks following vaccination.
Just cooler and more bratty.
She needs to be charged.
I have a friend that put in half of his life savings at $5. It's worked out for him.