Larry of the Lawn

7 minutes ago, maarsen said:

And where does the battery heating energy come from? Extremely long extension cords?

I had an older pre-computer, naturally aspirated diesel truck for years.   Was super cheap for what it was, but required some extra planning in the winter.  Block heater, insulated blanket to throw over hood in extreme cold, mix some kerosene into the fuel when below freezing... I always had a 100 ft extension cord in the cab for the block heater when I was away from the house, arranged for parking at work that let me plug her in.  A couple times actually ran a gas generator in the bed to heat it so I could drive home at the end of the day when working in the boonies.  Didn't you guys (Canadian diesel operators) used to run your old diesels all winter up there so you didn't need to start them cold?

I'd imagine if you live north of 38 or so it'd make sense to invest in a heated charging area, and not rely on charging away from the home base in the winter.  

6 hours ago, Kalbear said:

 

Good news to some extent is that now that the immigration is basically dead senate Republicans 

Well in that case, let's build the damn wall

The Two Pan inspired predictive models for the 118th Congress

Chimpanzees: Congress devolves into a civil war.

Result: Death and suffering abound

Bonobos: Congress devolves into an indiscriminate orgy broadcast on every media outlet in the world.

Result: A computer scientist, witnessing the practical logistics of the debauchery, ponders the mechanics necessary to secure the incipient climax efficiently, has a eureka-moment of inspiration and creates a compression algorithm that will become integral to the world's first true AI.  

24 minutes ago, karaddin said:

The commentary on women's looks in this thread, or kicking off a civil war with Republican governors deciding to back Texas picking a fight with the federal government? Or both.

The first part, but yeah, fuck it, let's not have a civil war either.  

Can we not do this 

When is political violence ok?  I humbly submit this explanation:

Quote

."According to two reports, as pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the presidential election on January 6, freshman GOP Rep. Nancy Mace tried to convince her staff to let her get attacked.

The Washington Post reports Mace was so incensed at then-President Donald Trump that she brought up the idea of approaching rioters head-on in the hopes she would get punched in the face and become the "face of anti-Trump Republicans."

 

https://news.yahoo.com/nancy-mace-said-she-wanted-160909332.html

Quote

Those sources told the Beast that Mace explicitly said she wanted to "get punched in the face" for "media attention."

I'm seeing comments on Bluesky comparing this to a Tim Robinson skit or a Judy Gemstone scheme.  

13 minutes ago, TrackerNeil said:

Cynicism about politics is IMO just lazy. It's easier to cry doom and gloom than it is to try to make some kind of positive change. Sometimes it really is okay to be earnest.

 

A lot of the people, in my experience, who do cry gloom and doom about politics are also out there making actual positive changes in their own communities.  It's not some kind of paradox to be cynical about the political process and still volunteer or fill a need or go to town council meetings and remind some of these rightwing goons that people are paying attention to what they're doing. 

43 minutes ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

It's the cliche of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. It's amazing how many people fall into this trap and they're usually among the least qualified to get anything accomplished. 

There's more to it than that.  There are people and corporations who have a lot of money and resources invested in things NOT getting better for people.  If we don't constantly put pressure on politicians and institutions to change they aren't going to.  Look at health insurance.  Costs continue to rise because we simply won't get rid of the middleman.

Is there some slow path to eliminate health insurance companies and shareholder profits from being the gatekeeper here?  Like an actual plan that these people im voting for are pushing for? Nope.  

So some people get pissed when we're told to shut up and vote for Democrats and stop complaining.  If we don't complain the people in charge won't do shit.  

Just watched first two episodes.  Agree about the Twin Peaks Bob reference.  Pretty on the nose.  

Yeah fuck this rain.  Everytime we start to get a little snow...

I hiked the blackhead range of the Catskills last week scouting to see if any local back country steep stuff was skiable, was close but but needed a bit more cover.  Did a half day of flat stuff.  And now more rain.  And fog and rain next two days, going to lose whatever base is up there.  

Global warming is driving me north.  Any Canadian boarders want to marry me so I can get citizenship?  

@Spockydog

Been wanting to ask this but didn't want to sound like to much of a starfucker, but do you... Do you get to meet Monty Don or Carol Klein?

14 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I hate… hate… hate… hate… hate… HATE… this tactic with the white hot passion of a thousand burning suns.

Sometimes… it works.  But recall 2016 when everyone claimed it was impossible for Trump to win and Clinton to lose.

When this backfires… we all lose.

Well, I'm not convinced there's much evidence that a bunch of Dems and independents gave Trump the nomination.  The media certainly couldn't get enough of him but that's another story altogether.  

I think it'd be pretty easy to argue that a Cruz, Graham, or Christie presidency could have been even more damaging.  Trump's disinterest in legislating and governing kept him from doing much with the 2016-2018 Congress.  Obviously impossible to say when speculating on a counterfactual, but who knows?  

I think it's very unlikely that we'd get a scenario where Dems and independents organize enough to vote in statewide Republican primary for president and change the result.  I have friends that do that for local and in-state positions but I'd love to see some evidence that this is what happened with Trump.  A bunch of yahoos on a fantasy board hoping a Trump-Clinton election would have been the easiest for Clinton to win in 2016 is a far cry from it putting Trump in the Whitehouse.

16 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

 

Now, I know BK wouldn’t have given him anything remotely like that kind of money, but if his wages had been living wages maybe his life and the lives of his children would have been a lot less hand to mouth.

 

100%.  I know something similar has been meme-ified before, but you read about some 10 year old kid raising $20k to pay for the first round of their mother's chemotherapy... That's not a touching and inspirational story, it's horrifying.  We shouldn't have to be crowd fund healthcare and living, but that's where we're at.    

15 minutes ago, Phylum of Alexandria said:

Some interpretations sound cool to me. Like, when Mercury is in retrograde, using that time for rest and quiet contemplation. Doesn't have to be about fate or magical rites if you don't want it to be.

Yeah, listening to my friend talk about some of the Hermetic, Sumerian, and Mithraic myths and how they were incorporated into Hellenistic astrology was pretty cool.  Including the myth of Innana as an explanation for the planet Venus, which my friend made a rather convincing argument for being the story the Barbie movie was drawn from.  

I certainly have a very different opinion of astrology now than I did previously.  I don't put any stock in it but it's pretty fascinating to see some of the ways people have interpreted the movement of the planets and astronomical events over human history.

11 minutes ago, The Marquis de Leech said:

Several points on Astrology:

• The modern newspaper variety has nothing to do with the way it was traditionally practiced.
• Astrology and Astronomy were considered the same thing for most of human history.
• Countless ancient writers, from Aristotle to Augustine, condemn astrologers. This notion of superstitious ancients versus sceptical moderns ignores that humans have been having this conversation for thousands of years.

Galileo, Brahe, and Kepler were all astrologers, and it seems to have persisted amongst astronomers even after Newton.  In Mason & Dixon Pynchon has Neville Maskelyne, Charles Mason, and James Bradley all doing charts on the side for money, but I haven't been able to find any  confirmation on those three actually practicing astrology.

A good friend of mine is really into classical astrology and while I was initially skeptical and pretty judgmental about this interest, I was very impressed to see what a good grasp of astronomy he has.  

There is one other pretty specific issue that Biden failed to deliver that could also be a factor in keeping people home - student loan debt.   Sure, they made things a little better but the reversal of the $10k / $20 k policy probably didn't help him any.  

13 minutes ago, TrackerNeil said:

I'm glad to hear it. That didn't work for Chris Christie, but I guess hope springs eternal. 

Either way, the instant Trump wins the nomination, Haley will line up right behind him. One lesson I learned from 2016 is that there is no conservative principle that outweighs the desire to win.

I wonder about this all the time.  Like, I get that there are people who can't stomach any Dem, so will vote GOP.  But is there any principle they are actually voting for?  I'm not talking about Trump people, but the "rank and file" GOP voter.  Punitive abortion laws?  Because beyond that I'm not really sure what conservative principles the current GOP even represents.  

I think it's just vibes and voting against what you don't want from here on out. 

2 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I’m a little surprised.  Why back out after his second place finish (all be it a tight second) in Iowa?

Maybe he knows that continuing to run is only going to tank his "brand" even more.  Whoever is last standing against Trump is going to be the "biggest rino electoral loser ever" or some shit.  He doesn't embarrass himself any more this round and he can live again to run sometime in the future.  

22 minutes ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

Absolutely. 

Huh.  I think I missed the posts where someone was claiming that some religious text is a better authority on something than the prevailing scientific consensus.  Would you care to help me out here?

16 minutes ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

Look in the mirror. Was Scientology not clearly made up? Was Mormonism not clearly made up? Why are there several different versions of the Bible? We can play this game forever. Let's go back to ancient Egypt. Moses freed the slaves, except Ramesses II wasn't actually the Pharaoh at the time. Or how about the Greek oracles huffing gas? I can keep going if you want and that's before we address the rampant plagiarism. Funny how so many sun gods have overlapping traits. 

You keep moving the goalposts.  First religion and science can't co-exist.  Now it's that religions are man made.  We all know religions are man made and used to control people.  These are platitudes and cliches.  

Do you seriously think anyone posting here is endorsing the historical textual authority of any religious documents?

2 minutes ago, Rippounet said:

.

Most of the "science" that lead to neoliberal exploitation is actually bullshit. Economics especially is so bad at science, that quite a few economicsts see it as a religion ("free market fundamentalism").

 

Good point about religion in economics.

That part of @Phylum of Alexandria's post you quoted, I was thinking along the lines of navigation, colonization, industrialization, resource extraction,  but I guess none of that started as "neoliberal", but the exploitation dynamic works just as well with the Age of Exploration as with the Petroleum Age and Better Living Through Chemistry, and the Age of Information.  

47 minutes ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

Believing that the equivalence of a Spiderman comic is the same as the periodic table is kind of scientific. 

They're meant to be stories we learn lessons from. Once you believe they're real you're going down a dangerous path. 

I think there's some talking past each other here.  No one has equated science and religion.  Saying two things can co-exist is not equating them.

3 minutes ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

Giving them equal value is the problem. Religion is just folklore. 

Believing an easily falsifiable statement such as "religion and science cannot coexist" isn't being very scientific minded.  

7 hours ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

Spirituality and science can coexist. Religion and science really can't. 

But they do and have.

I think some very religious people who have made undeniable contributions to science would strongly disagree.

Here's Einstein:

"Science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration towards truth and understanding. This source of feeling, however, springs from the sphere of religion"

Between that and Newton I don't know how you can make that claim.

I'm guessing the fact that we essentially had two incumbents as the assumed nominees before the primaries even started would keep turnout down a little lower than usual.

And even the Iowa GOP must have some quantifiable fear of going into a building and shuffling around in a giant crowd with COVID cases on the rise.