At the very least, they should raise real estate taxes on empty units. This will penalize people for owning several vacation homes, as well as incentivize landlords to lower rates in order to fill the unit.

Difficult to enforce, but send a few people to jail for real estate tax fraud and the rest will fall in line.

Well, according to China, those waters are their territory, which means that the presence of foreign military vessels is an invasion.

Practically speaking, I think you could call that area a contested region, so minor skirmishes like this are expected and could escalate to war (like Crimea eventually did).

I think that the Philippines approach has been something like, ‘You can claim those waters if you want, but you can’t possibly keep us from entering them, so we’re just going to ignore you until you start killing our people, and then we’re gonna call in big brother America.’

India is one of the last places I’d like to visit. This is based on how India has been portrayed in various travel shows over the years (Amazing Race, Top Gear). It looks crowded, dirty, and the locals often aren’t very friendly, especially towards women.

One of your main exports to the west is scam calls. It’s a huge PR problem and your government refuses to address it. Your other main export right now is Russian oil.

Indians used to have a fairly large online presence in English-speaking spaces with mixed results. There were a lot of helpful tech bros on YouTube, but also a lot of horny dudes on Facebook. I don’t really see much of either of those anymore though.

My wife works in software testing and has regular interactions with Indians. Some are really nice, but others are really not. Misogyny is far too common and when Indians are rude they are boldly rude.

I didn’t realize he wasn’t trying to sell his game, so I guess we need a different analogy.

Ok, imagine you and your brother are making a website where friends can post about their lives and keep up with each other during and after college. You’re pretty open with your project and then one day the one weird guy in your friend group launches your project without consulting you. The project takes off and makes billions of dollars. You sue the weirdo and he gives you some money, but you’re still pissed about it. Did you get Zucked?

Ok, so imagine that you’re hungry and you come across a sandwich shop that has your favorite sandwich for $15, but the shop next door has the exact same sandwich for free. Which sandwich are you gonna eat?

No, wait, that’s not important. Most people are gonna eat the free sandwich, so even if you eat the $15 sandwich, you’re statistically irrelevant.

Yeah, maybe some people that weren’t hungry are gonna get a free sandwich, but the people who were hungry are also getting free sandwiches, which means that the guy trying to make a living selling $15 sandwiches is gonna have to close shop unless he starts lacing his sandwiches with cocaine.

It sounds like your situation is similar to mine. My father is a sociopathic narcissist and I didn’t realize it until I was 30 when he effectively disowned me. It hurts to be rejected by a parent to such a degree and I was pretty depressed for a while, but it helps to know that he suffers from a mental illness. Knowing this also helped me to disown him, in turn. He was always toxic and harmful and I find now that I am happier without him in my life.

I do often wonder in what ways my life may have been better had I had a supportive father, but it’s much more productive to look forward than to lament over what could have been.

I hope that you are able to move past your father’s negative influence and be better off for it. Some men are just miserable people.

Oh, man, LotR is the exception to the rule. I can definitely still enjoy a 12 hour journey to Mordor.

Mine certainly is.

If you want to compare your attention span to what it once was, try watching older media. The wife and I were watching the walking dead and I was getting bored and that’s only 10 years old. Try watching 2001: A Space Odyssey without any distractions. It’s torture.

My phone knows when I have sex? I mean, it’s on the nightstand so… maybe, but, how? It’s not like we’re wearing our watches to bed.

So if you buy a Nissan for your teenage kid, is Nissan still allowed to track and share their sexual escapades performed within the vehicle?

Also, how do they know when you’re engaged in sexual activity? Heart monitors in the seats? Humidity sensors in the AC unit? Or is it cameras in the cabin? Cause that’s a very fine line to walk.

Black Licorice

My mother likes black licorice and so my sister and I grew up eating and enjoying it every Easter. Turns out most people hate the stuff.

I listened to a couple of his seminars on narcissism and thought, “Hey, this guy knows what he’s talking about!” But the more I listened to him, especially his more recent stuff, the more I realized he doesn’t actually know what he’s talking about.

I guess he just had a handle on narcissism from his own personal experience as one.

It’s fairly common for ocean-front condos in Florida to have parking garages that are below sea level. If the surf rises enough to breach the seawall then it will flood the garage levels and not the condos where people are likely sheltering. This is most likely where those Teslas were parked, so it’s unlikely that they were subjected to the hurricane force winds.

This is already happening in Florida after the hurricane flooded some Teslas. Apparently lithium ion batteries don’t like salt water.

An aside: I support EVs and a renewable future. It’s important that we acknowledge and address these issues in this early stage of adoption. Also, call your senator and have them support the Motorcycle Parity Act so I can afford a Livewire S2.

deleted by creator

Back in 2007 I worked in an office that required basic MS Excel / Word competency. The office manager led her to her desk and instructed her to turn on her computer (nothing fancy, a basic workstation with a large round button).

She couldn’t figure out how to turn it on. The office manager sent her home and she never came back.

Definitely refinement.

Man used to build ‘natural’ tools and shelters and some still do in the most remote parts of the planet. Mud huts and arrowheads are man-made yet also natural. I think we left the ‘natural’ path when we started smelting, domesticating, tanning, irrigating, etc. We took naturally formed materials and refined or processed them into something you can’t just stunble upon in nature. A billion planets in a billion years will not naturally produce an internal combustion engine without some sort of intelligent intervention.

I’m glad that most of the older formats are gone. Screws are cumbersome, USB formats were intentionally varied for profit, and molex would break itself before you could seat it properly.

I love USB-C for its universality and SATA cables are a nice alternative to the old IDE. I wish they’d come up with a better solution to the plastic clips on my Ethernet and PSU cables.

As for my favorite… Maybe 3.5mm? I mean, it’s old as dirt but still super functional. Nice chunky clicks and usually a solid connection. I miss having a 3.5mm port on my phone. It obviously has some drawbacks, but it’s a solid contender.

And if they start harmonizing it’s called a Chumbawamba