For a lot of people in suburbia, the entire concept of indoor “third spaces” is mostly “pay to play” at the end of a drive. A big exception to this is/were shopping malls, but those aren’t always close by. To get to more a functional social fabric, we have to provide more convenient ways of interfacing with our neighbors that don’t always require money to change hands.

Perhaps this is a predictably orange-pill response, but we need to change zoning in a big way. Each suburban development has the street plan and infrastructure to support small businesses and common spaces, walking-distance from everyone’s front door. All it takes is to allow small-scale commercial development in corners of these collections of tract-homes and, just like that, you can have something like a functional village. Beyond that, encouraging more development of community recreation space, both indoor and outdoor, would go a long way to provide a place for people to mingle.

Edit: strip-malls don’t count. They’re often at the very edge of residential areas, and are tied up with way more capital than what I’m talking about. That’s why they’re made up of franchises, require ridiculous amounts of parking, and contribute to “stroads” and all the knock-on effects and hostile architecture that requires.

If only there was a better way…

including those monitoring changes to sea ice extent in the polar regions

Ah, there it is. Kicking climate change under the carpet again, I see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vJjIUPRWjg

I was gonna say. With a crater that large, we all lose.

You know what 'ol Jack Burton says at a time like this?

“AI e-girl” you say? I know a contractor that might have what you’re looking for.

Yup. They’re called “Whole Paycheck” for a reason.

I keep forgetting that the Watergate Scandal was the part other politicians cared about.

This moment calls for more beans.

I know everyone points out the problems with Nest, Ring, and various talking/listening/spying agents. For me, one of the worst offenders was a garage door motor that came with WiFi capability. Damn thing has the ability to just open up a door on my house on command. There’s no way am I putting that online.

Workers risk a few things, depending on the job:

• Health
• Time
• Opportunity (could be working someplace else that’s better)

These have a lot of dimension to them, including how one quantifies what “pay” actually is/for, what legal restrictions there are around taking the job (e.g. non-compete, non-arbitration), work/life balance, and so on.

Risk comes into play where the employee takes a bet that the job won’t destroy their health, work only as much as is absolutely necessary, and have taken a position at the optimal balance of responsibility, personal growth, retirement prospects, and income. It’s a risk since there are substantial barriers to changing to a new job, so you can wind up “stuck” in a bad position, but can’t know until after you start.

Combining “company quarterly review” with “dental cleaning”, while time efficient, is a kind of sensory combo that’s right up there with “nuts and gum”. Sounds great until you think it through a bit.

Edit: I’ve actually done the latter by accident. 1/10 - “I don’t know what I expected.”

if a mask is necessary

I’m not sure if this will be the case, but does that cover the case where they’re the reason? Because that’s one way to ensure escalation to “tear gas on hand, everywhere, at all times.”

This is what I keep telling the Mrs.

What’s crazy is that not only is that the same species as broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower, but practically the entire plant in that photo is edible.

Computer Scientists: Physics is just the application of discrete state machines.

Okay, but do I really need to draw this many circles to prove what value Pi has? Also, it’s all in Greek.

What we want: OS updates that make the system more performant, more accessible, easier to use, smarter at using battery power, and more secure.

Apple: Let’s make everything an unreadable mess and tax the GPU to shit just for fucking UI elements, because we’re out of ideas.

… a new set of knives, a new set of knives, a new set of knives, lisa needs braces, a new set of knives, a new set of knives, dental plan, a new set of knives, a new set of knives, lisa needs braces, a new set of knives, a new set of knives, dental plan, a new set of knives, a new set of knives, a new set of knives…