wcarron

Nonsense. There are multiple clear corridors that public transportation makes perfect sense for. A high-speed rail line from Fort Collins down south through Denver, to Colorado Springs, and potentially as far south as El Paso, seems obvious.

The Utah North-South corridor, as well. A line going from LA-LV-St.George-SLC area also makes enough sense. Not to mention a line connecting Tucson-Phx-Prescott-Las Vegas (potentially going to Reno as well). A Seattle-Portland train makes sense. A whole PCH line makes sense.

there's always something to complain about, isn't there?

Lmao, tell me you truck cosplay without telling me.

The vast, vast majority of construction sites don't need a dualie. Hell, half of them don't need a truck. I've seen and met numerous plumbers, electricians, and carpenters who roll up in a van. My uncle was a GC for 40 years. My other uncle was a union pipe/sprinkler fitter. My cousin is an electrician. My other cousin owns a roofing company, and my pops is an architect who regularly makes site visits. None of them owned a work truck. The only one who does own a truck is the roofer who got a Raptor for fun.

The majority of truck owners do not haul large cargo. The majority of construction workers do not bring tools requiring a bed each day. Lawn crews use trailers for their actually large equipment. With fewer and fewer exceptions each year, trucks are increasingly bloated emotional support vehicles for insecure and obnoxious turds.

While you were right in calling that an exaggeration, the only people who I've ever seen use a dualie for real work were all towing horses.

I have never seen a person with a dualie who actually hauled things. They're cosplay items. Fuel efficiency is a negative for that market segment.

I think your question carries the seeds of the answer within it.

Really? I think he was very open in his admiration for some of the anarchists mentioned in The Rebel, calling Kaliayev & co, 'men of the highest principles' and refers to other anarchists' "profound considerations for the lives of others".

Doesn't matter how you or I got wherever. What matters is seeing where you are, where you want to be, and doing what it takes to get there. You're correct in that I was at that time, 100% a weak lecherous person. A slave to my desires for chemical escapism and pleasure. I chose, eventually, not to be ruled by them. Anyone and everyone can. It's not a moral failure to slip up. It's not a moral failure to say "I choose and desire to use nicotine or watch porn or [insert "vice" here] without reservation.", either. The moral failure is the rejection or abdication of the responsiblity for your actions.

I heartily disagree. We are not slaves and victims to our biology and environments. We are, and always have been, our own masters. Want to lose weight? Eat less. Want to eat healthier? Stop buying fast food. Want to get fitter? Go to the gym. Want to make make more friends. Force yourself into more social interactions. Want to quit nicotine? Suck it up and shiver in cold sweats on your floor for 4 days.

You can throw whatever objections you desire here. They are not sustained. Ultimate culpability and responsibility has always been with us.

Do you think I'm post-willpower? That's laughable. I still, and probably always will, crave nicotine. I drive by gas stations all the time and that little voice "just one tin" is there. I say no. Anyone can. Simply put: It is a choice. You choose what you do and are, every single time, without exception. That is the freedom to which every human is sentenced.

Not that I like social media or tech companies (I detest them). But it's not a special case. Media companies, cable companies, newspapers, etc. They've all enjoyed the ability to manipulate and 'guide' what people see and what opinions they form, for a long time. It's nothing new.

Never gonna happen. The US gov't will never willingly cede control of all the testing and missile ranges and the economic/military power projecion the islands provide it.

Frankly, from a realpolitik standpoint, I would be supremely annoyed at the government if it were to allow secession. It's really too valuable of a landmass to let go. Doing so would drastically alter the pacific theater as china continues a military buildup, threatens Taiwan, and manufactures islands in the south china sea.

While the author rightfully decries the bloating of the Rav4, it's pretty close to a perfect size for a couple who consistently travels outdoors. Our '14 Subie crosstrek just shit its transmission out and we migrated to a used pre-facelift Rav out of necessity, being in a small city with little pub transport and poor infrastructure.

I just really, really wish a carmaker would make something that size, and put it on a real 4x4 platform. AWD is okay, but if you're really gettin' out there, sometimes you just need that extra capability. As of right now, there's basically no true 4x4 out there that has decent cargo space and isn't absolutely gigantic. New Jeeps are as big as old Hummers (which used to be considered massive), the Bronco has piss-poor cargo space for just how bloated the thing is. The 4Runner is getting bigger almost every year.

There simply are no worthwhile new, small, capable vehicles for sale. A Rav4 or Outback sized body-on-frame 4x4, with an 8 speed auto or 6-spd manual, good suspension, cupholders that fit a Hydroflask, and some sturdy roof rails and a hitch to hold a bike rack is the ideal outdoor vehicle, imo. Toss in the new niceties like wireless phone charger, CarPlay/Android Auto, and blind spot detection, adaptive CC, etc. to make paved driving a bit nicer, and you're golden.

Easy, it's 0.38mm.

I'm in favor of anything that negatively impacts China. They are our greatest geopolitical enemy. Ban it. Ban Huawei products. Ban Chinese entities from any and all ownership of real estate or natural resources. Impose monetary limits on investments in pure financial instruments from their nationals. Make travel to the US more painful for their citizens. Punitively tax US companies who move their manufacturing to China.

Sounds like hell on Earth

Where's Ted K when you need him?

It is common, you just don't want to admit it. It's all over the western US and many, many towns have been impacted. Palm Springs and Joshua Tree aggressively responded for a reason. Because STRs, particularly in Jtree, were inflating home prices at an extraordinary rate and forcing long term residents out.

There Are many localities where AirBnbs and other STRs make a significant proportion of housing. The town 45 minutes from me is over 15% AirBnbs/STRs. My town is better, but still has too many STRs.

It's not just pedestrians. I think I'll never ride motorcycles on public roads again. I just don't trust drivers. They're all talking, texting, watching a fucking YouTube video or TikTok reel. I've seen people eating spaghetti with a fork and knife while driving! It's insane how selfish and unaware drivers are, and it got way worse after Covid. Lax licensing standards and the average U.S adults abysmal literacy levels (read: the average driver neither knows nor can they comprehend the very basic laws governing driving) contribute to turning streets into a chaotic carnival.

Combined with the massive size of vehicles, ridiculous amount of illegal modifications, and nonexistent enforcement of traffic/vehicle laws, there is absolutely nothing surprising about this news.

I mean, 5.11a is really not that hard. Of course, there are levels to the game. 13 pitches changes the calculus a bit, but he regularly does 50+ pitch linkups. So, that's basically just a warmup for him (and others).

Not without risk, but then again, neither is driving to the crag.

One could also just make the base rate $150/day and then you'll definitely make it untenable for as many people as possible, which is apparently the goal. This leads to an outcome which is you think is an unfair distribution. But luxuries are necessarily for those who can afford them.

The 'cost' of the action is the same. A vehicle in the city is a vehicle is a vehicle and therefore the toll should be flat, unless that type of vehicle in particular causes more damage to roads or empirically worsens outcomes like traffic or pollution relative to other types of vehicle. Charging people more because they are wealthier is unfairly discriminatory.

That's one I like actually, maybe something like the blue book value of the car?

Suppose two people make the same amount of money. One chooses to buy a cheaper car and pays higher rent for a nicer apt. The other, the opposite. Under your pricing scheme, you're unjustifiably charging two persons of equal means different rates.

You can adjust this many ways. One person gets a cheaper car but spends more on luxury vacations or invests more aggressively or spends large sums eating at nice restaurants often or buys expensive clothes or or or etc.

Edit: Lastly, why should we be charging expensive cars more? A BMW M4 is, by all measures, much less irritating to have to share the road with than a large SUV or Ford F-250 (god forbid it's also lifted). Tolls should scale with vehicle size and weight and when vehicles have poor fuel efficiency, not the sticker price.

Because the government doesn't care whatsoever about the 4th amendment except when it applies to gov't representatives and their puppeteers.

That's so ridiculously tone deaf, self-righteous, and demeaning. Lots of talented devs work in thousands of companies.

Learn some humility and perspective.

You probably know how to drive from your house to a number of destinations without a GPS. Other's... don't,

Well then they should learn how to fucking navigate. Learn where North is and go from there.

Yeah, we're all pretty concerned about that. We'll see if we get another heavy monsoon season to dampen the potential for big fires midsummer. Fingers crossed.

Unfortunately, we've got a bunch of events coming up that are going to draw big numbers of off-roaders and 'overlanders' who are, imo, some of the worst and least responsible recreators. Some of us are bracing for fires being started by them.

Here in Flagstaff and NAZ we've been getting hit hard by huge wildfires. The amount of fuel in these forests is mindblowing, and terrain is often a big challenge, too.

Luckily, we had a heavy monsoon season last year and a brutal winter. So much water that roads/levees have broken and lakes that are normally dry beds were overflowing. This has abated the normally horrible winds of April/May. This wet and abnormally calm weather has allowed for some action and I'm beyond pleased to have seen numerous prescribed burns in the forests around town this year. I really hope they can keep it up and treat a few thousand more acres before conditions turn.

The forest service seems like it does a good job here with fuel and flood management. There are still pockets of land that are wayyyy overladen/undertreated but much of the area, especially near town has been treated with thinning and slash and burn piles.

Unfortunately, the logging industry here is deteriorating and one of the longest-running operators closed shop. A few factors contributed to this, including the failure to open an OSB plant in Winslow, and the closure of a local mill just before the turn of the millenium. A damn shame, as logging ops really bolster the ability of the FS to manage fires.

You'll often see guys carrying 44 magnums in grizzly country, but the evidence seems to suggest that common 9mm rounds are effective enough. Even the lowly 22 rimfire is represented in the data with success against black bears (but not polar bears). I don't know anyone who would recommend 22 rimfire for deer let alone bears.

Given this, I think it's reasonable to select the venerable 7.62x39. This is a common chambering for semi-automatic and even automatic rifles with high-capacity magazines, which would obviate the need to load each bullet individually. It also is easy to obtain armor-piercing rounds in this caliber if penetration is your concern. This is still a punishing round to fire a lot of, but with a modern recoil management system it's manageable.

So, the .308 is extremely common in the US and is somewhat similar to the 7.62x39. A .308 fires a typical round with, oh about 2500 ft-lbs of muzzle energy. Meanwhile a 44mag has maybe 1000 ft-lbs of muzzle energy. An Ak-47 is also 7.62x39 and has ~ 1500 ft-lbs of energy. That's a hell of a lot more grunt than a 44 magnum, any way you dice it.

At that point, skip the armor-piercing or FMJ and go hollow point. There's more than enough power in that round and the larger wound channel is probably a plus.

Eh, my subie is almost 10 years old at this point. The nav is definitely quite old and clunky, but works fine as long as you don't expect it to be snappy like a modern smartphone. I don't think it's much in need of an update; that's just modern expectations advancing at a ridiculous pace thanks to tech.

I'm not saying that these are inherently bad. Hell, I'd enjoy having programmable 2-driver power-adjustment settings for the driver seat. That, dual zone climate control, and google maps built into the nav are basically the only luxury features I think really add value to a car. But I'm not dying without them. Meanwhile, my wife wants all that, android auto, ventilated seats, a moonroof, the side-view mirror blind spot assistance things, automatic cruise control, an auto-dimming rearview mirror, automatic lights/brights, being able to start the car remotely, etc.

Yeah, it feels like at some point I'll have to just buy a freakin kit car to get something simple.

Fair. That's not nothing, but again, it's a tradeoff. I'd take a plain old mirror for the sake of simplicity/cost instead of the slightly higher efficiency.