bluGill
@bluGill@fedia.io
- Comment on Is the world more volatile now or is it just the abundance of news? 1 day ago:
I doubt there is a single year in human history (including before writing) where somebody in your village has not in some form made the claim or asked the question. There is always some old person reminiscing about how much better the past was, and young people who hear of bad news and wonder if maybe the past was better since they only hear about really really bad things in stories not the day to day bad but not enough to tell around the fire.
- Comment on What’s a reasonable tip for a barber? (America) 1 day ago:
- Barbers do no get tips. Hair stylists do get tipped though, all your big chains are stylists.
- Comment on Why don't politicians during a hearing let the person they are questioning actually answer questions and speak? 3 days ago:
Fair enough, but the other comments reveal many people who think the democrats do act in good faith the majority of the time. That is also implied by the accusation of republicans, instead of politicians.
- Comment on Why don't politicians during a hearing let the person they are questioning actually answer questions and speak? 3 days ago:
If you think it is mostly republicans then you are not honest in your evaluation of who is doing what why. Confront your bias.
- Comment on Just got arrested for a supposed DWI even though I blew a 0.0000000. Don't cops need to read your Miranda rights to you? I asked for a blood or hair follicle test and I was denied. WTH is happening? 6 days ago:
I assume in the USA? Not all countries have Miranda or right to remain silent laws. In some you are required to talk.
- Comment on Just got arrested for a supposed DWI even though I blew a 0.0000000. Don't cops need to read your Miranda rights to you? I asked for a blood or hair follicle test and I was denied. WTH is happening? 6 days ago:
If you get their badge number you can really make them mad when your lawyer hits them for unlawful detention. They can stop you but it needs to be fast. Talk to a lawyer for details in your state.
- Comment on Centrist Democrats Rebuke Party’s Left Wing: ‘We Are Capitalist, Not Socialist’ 1 week ago:
Marx is one of a long string of 'experts' that don't value work that isn't obviously the result of working with hands. Mind work is very important
- Comment on Centrist Democrats Rebuke Party’s Left Wing: ‘We Are Capitalist, Not Socialist’ 1 week ago:
They should claim to be liberals. Capitalism is a statement that Marx invented because he knew it was a losing battle to be against the freedom of classical liberalism. Since them capitalism has been made useful in economics in the same way spherical cows are useful in physics. However capitalism as most countries practice it is a result of liberalism not a goal in itself.
- Comment on Could heating oil subsidies be reduced or replaced with subsidies for installing electric heating and houses.? 1 week ago:
If a single person working alone can install them in a weekend - which happens all the time - a pro who has experience in doing this often should be able to do it for $1000 or less. It is a lot of labor but not more than $4000 worth. At least not the normal case.
- Comment on Could heating oil subsidies be reduced or replaced with subsidies for installing electric heating and houses.? 1 week ago:
The other thing we need to do is investigate why they charge so much to install heat pumps. I can buy a mini-split for around $1500 (depending on size), but they will charge me $4500 to install it - which seems unreasonable for the labor.
- Comment on Could heating oil subsidies be reduced or replaced with subsidies for installing electric heating and houses.? 1 week ago:
Almost, but the temperature difference is generally much greater in winter than summer meaning there is more demand for energy in winter. Also solar (and sometimes hydro) power is less effective in winter. Both factors mean that a grid that can handle summer might not be able to handle winter heat.
Remember, the above are factors. Your local grid's exact energy mix matters here, some will have no problems.
- Comment on Could heating oil subsidies be reduced or replaced with subsidies for installing electric heating and houses.? 1 week ago:
Not just size, location. The best heat pumps stop working at around -20. Where I live it gets colder than that for a few days every couple years so I must have secondary heating.
The common heat pump in the US is only good to 25. There is no reason for this, but I don't know how to fix it.
- Comment on The Republican Party used to be very big on smaller government. What caused them to turn into the party of big government over reach? When did it happen? 1 week ago:
It was a minority that got some power over marketing. They have always voted small government when Democrats have the president office, and even more strongly when the Democrats also have congress. As soon as they get enough power to do anything they are big government.
Though I will grant slightly less big government than Democrats in the past. It isn't clear now.
- Comment on Once lunar colonies are established, would they attempt to break away? What would independent lunar republics look like? 1 week ago:
The moon is too close and I don't think it will ever be self sustaining. Any attempt to rebel and they get starved out. The more likely thing is they defect to some other country that starts supplying them. (This is still highly unlikely). I don't think people will live on the moon long enough to try that - they may spend a year there and someone will have a baby there, but they will all go home to earth.
Mars could potentially support a self sustaining outpost large enough to rebel. Mars is also far enough away that it wouldn't be worth attacking. They will likely be let go as soon as they are self sustaining because earth will be bored by then and glad to not support them. Unlike the moon, going back home is a long trip so people will try to avoid it.
- Comment on Once lunar colonies are established, would they attempt to break away? What would independent lunar republics look like? 1 week ago:
I'm most amused to discover they had two computers total on the moon. Almost as amusing as 1930s sicfi where computers were humans
- Comment on 2 weeks ago:
I would guess that the tattooer had no clue. That is incompetence better explains this than malice
- Comment on What is the hate against Pit Bulls? Everyone I've met are super friendly like my BC. Or are they the new Doberman for this cycle? 2 weeks ago:
The type of people who want a dog to bite are going to be getting something like the size of a pitbull. A much smaller dog and a human can easily fight it off, they can do some damage, but not as much as the people who want a dog to bite would like their dogs to give. A larger dog and the owners wouldn't be able to control if the dog would attack the owners, so they won't accept that.
That is why, in general, (understand there are exceptions). Big dogs tend to be very friendly. Because any big dog that's not friendly, the owner is going to put it down before it kills someone. Thus big dogs are bred to be friendly. A Pitbull is about the largest dog that you could breed to be unfriendly without risking harm to yourself.
Again, this does not say anything about any particular dog breed. It says something about the type of people who would have a mean dog.
- Comment on Why are the SMS limits orders of magnitude smaller than data limits bandwidth-wise? 2 weeks ago:
Because it is a budget plan. They are buying 2,000,000 SMS messages per month because 25 years ago with g1 and g2 protocols it made sense to sell them that way, and then trying to divide that between their 10,000 customers without running out. Similar for voice and data, they buy so much and divide between all customers.
Contracts could be sold a different way. However nobody wants to because the big companies want an option for budget minded people to get a little money out of them, while still giving them bad enough service that they all but the cheapest will run to the "big boys" with the unlimited plans. The budget companies need something they can sell that is cheaper than the "big boys", realistically they have exactly the same product and so somebody needs to introduce some artificial limit someplace to make it work.
- Comment on 3 weeks ago:
Keychron k6, and a separate phone stand. That is a full size (60%) mechanical keyboard connected with bluetooth. I have and use others (see the other replies) when I need max portability and a quick comment. However a real keyboard beats anything you can do on a touchscreen. I recommend you get one.
- Comment on 3 weeks ago:
I used thumbkey for a couple months. I could use it, but it was never fast. YMMV
- Comment on I read somewhere a while back that most or at least half of California wildfires are cause by faulty electrical company equipment. Is this true? And how come no one has ever reported it? 3 weeks ago:
Many of those forests need to burn regularly. Check with a qualified forester for your area but often the forest needs to burn so who cares.
- Comment on I read somewhere a while back that most or at least half of California wildfires are cause by faulty electrical company equipment. Is this true? And how come no one has ever reported it? 3 weeks ago:
Many of those forests need to burn regularly. Check with a qualified forester for your area but often the forest needs to burn so who cares.
- Comment on [deleted] 4 weeks ago:
Because high price is what makes them exclusive and so they compete on high price. Then they give everybody a scholarship - something else they can compete on - which with a little math gives you the real price.
A friend of mine is department head of a local private university. He says that they have consistently found nobody chooses a university for the low price. Meanwhile some choose against a school because if the cost is too low "you must get what you pay for". If you get admitted to that school you automatically get a 40% scholarship - which is to say they don't even want 40% of the money they are charging, but marketing insists they need to charge at least that much. Most students are getting other financial aid above the automatic scholarship as well, only the rich pay the real maximum price. Students who care about costs are looking at what scholarships the school offers them, which is to say everybody knows the sticker price is a lie and they ask about the real costs.
Until people start rejecting the system it won't change. You alone are not enough. So let this be advice to you: don't look at the sticker price. Ask someone to give you a the price after all scholarships apply. It will likely be much more affordable. Though do take your time to understand the fine print, otherwise you could find the scholarship doesn't apply to you after you have the bills and so must take a large loan to pay them.
- Comment on 4 weeks ago:
Most people don't care about the color. For whatever reason the factory started making them in red so that is what people bought. Other colors exist if you look for them, but there is rarely reason to look. People just grab something cheap and move on without thinking. If the red was sold out they would grab the blue.
- Comment on 4 weeks ago:
You never go to parties where there are more people than storage space for cups? Americans often do this. Often at a park. We can get this in a 100 pack for the cost of of 4 real glass cups.
- Comment on 4 weeks ago:
Solo is the brand that makes them. They make other colors too but red is by far most common
- Comment on Google reCaptcha intentionally failed without telling me, how is this allowed?? 4 weeks ago:
It might break some sort of law, depending on what country you are in. However you will spend millions of dollars on a lawyer if you try to do anything about it. Depending on your countries laws you might or might not get that back. And that is assuming you win, there is always a chance you lose despite having an "air tight case" (you might find a lawyer that will take the case for the winnings, but not charge if you lose).
- Comment on How do you avoid AI music? 5 weeks ago:
Buy real CDs from artists I see play in person. Or CDs of artists that are long dead.
CDs are key, streaming random tracks you have no clue what you will get.
- Comment on How come Nurses are not bound by the same rule is a lawyer is to a defendant or a wife to a husband or a priest? If someone says something on their death bed why are we suppose to report? 5 weeks ago:
None of those are absolute.
If your bankruptcy lawyer discover you committed murder they don't have to keep silent (I'm not sure what the law or bar ethics rules are, but probably they need to report it - they don't have the right skills to defend you). Asking a bankruptcy lawyer for a referral to a murder defense lawyer would probably be protected though - even if they don't know one.
A priest can keep silent or not. Different religions have different rules. In some you confessed and their job is to pray for your spiritual forgiveness and they won't say anything. In others they will say doing your time (turn yourself in) is the right action. In some cases they can make a judgement call of what to apply.
A doctor cannot talk about your health conditions to random people. However they can talk to those with a need to know, if your condition is criminal then those people may get a need to know.
- Comment on How come people are stupid nowadays? Especially on social media 5 weeks ago:
They always have been. Long before the internet political parties have been using rage bait to fund raise and get the vote. You might not remember it, and it might not have been as in your face if you were not an identified person who would respond, but I have got snail mail from various groups that are some variation "guess who is harming our children" every few months from some group or another - often from opposing groups in the same month.