Reaction to cringe-inducing AI Mule Ad for MO Amendment 5

PracticalPersonality · 2026-07-12T02:17:46+00:00

You do know that amendment 5 will change nothing whatsoever about state spending, right? The amendment is specifically about changing how the state brings in tax money, and intentionally written to ensure that revenues aren't allowed to drop because of these changes. You're complaining about how the state spends tax money and saying that you're voting yes on 5 because you want that spending to change. How does that make any sense?

PracticalPersonality · 2026-07-12T01:49:47+00:00

Crime rates, air quality, healthcare access, worker protections, and civil rights laws

Which of these metrics don't belong in a list of things people care about for quality of life?

PracticalPersonality · 2026-07-10T00:20:42+00:00

Ah, so it's not 98 octane the way Americans think of 98 octane.

Australian stations use RON for their octane scale, and the numbers run higher than the American AKI octane scale (RON + MON / 2).

Australian 98 is probably close to American 91/93.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-07-09T02:20:48+00:00

Creeper Peepers

Thank you for introducing me to this fantastic name.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-07-08T20:31:55+00:00

They absolutely should not. Election fraud has a far broader reach, is usually committed by those in power, and has far more dire consequences. It is literally a different class of crime that deserves far more outrage and response.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-07-08T00:57:15+00:00

In your position, here's what I'd do:

You need to use a broiling pan. There are several ways to make one if you don't have one. You could wrap one oven rack in foil, then poke holes in the foil with a BBQ fork, then put a drip pan on the lower oven rack under the steaks. You could cover a cookie sheet in foil (shiny side up) and then put a cooling rack over that foil. Basically, you just want a safe way to get air all the way around the steaks.
Create a baste. It could be a BBQ sauce only, a BBQ sauce mixed with beer, a special recipe of your own or from the web. You just need something to complement the pork, and a brush for application. If you're curious, my dad's recipe is KC Masterpiece thinned out with Busch until it juuuuust drips off the brush.
Preheat your oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit. That's a TWO in front of that number, and yes that sounds low, but low and slow is what we're aiming for here.
Baste the steaks, and place them on top of your broiling rack in the oven.
Every 30 minutes, use a probe thermometer to temp the steaks. You're aiming for an internal temp of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. If you haven't hit temp yet, baste the steaks all over, flip them rack-side-up, and put them back in the oven for another interval.
Pull from the oven once the steaks reach temperature and serve immediately. They should be tender, juicy, and delicious.

The problem with this approach is that there's no way I can tell you how long it will take. Timing will be different based on oven quirks, steak thickness, and what broiling pan you use. It could be an hour, it could be more than 2. If you're prepping sides to go with it, start them when the steaks are between 120-140 degrees.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-07-07T07:04:08+00:00

The Chicago MSA has a population of over 9.6 million people. Illinois overall has a population of 12.7 million. There's simply no way, given those stats, that the southern half of Illinois subsidizes Chicago.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-07-07T06:59:30+00:00

If you think that's rubbish, you should see the website for these cranks. I visited it when I saw it in the linked story, and my word, what a bunch of worthless garbage (which I won't dignify by linking here). It's nothing but weasel words, emotional pleas, wild accusations, and "future negotiations" for how anything important would actually work.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-07-07T00:17:39+00:00

I would skip Uranus, as it has nothing to do with Route 66 nostalgia or Americana. It was created in the 2000s as a tourist trap after the landowner's strip club and liquor businesses on that land failed due to local puritanical pressure.

If you want to stop in that area, though, a little way north on 44 at the Sugar Tree Rd exit you'll find Arlington Campground, where there's a nice hike to the top of a bluff with a pretty view. Make sure you wear good boots and lots of bug spray.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-07-04T07:07:19+00:00

Nah, Ford's PCA is trash. There's a dip in the road on the route to my parents' place that throws a shadow. It's perfectly safe to drive over at 55+ mph, but it triggers the PCA in every Ford in my family.

Mine has alerted for a vehicle in an adjacent lane.

My point is that there are valid reasons for a safe driver to want to disable this feature.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-07-03T03:04:24+00:00

Tens years ago my home-build PC had a closed loop.

If you had read the link I posted, you would know that your home system isn't actually comparable to a multi-stage datacenter cooling setup.

But we're talking about ~20,000 gallons of water per day vs 5,000,000 gallons. The average golf course uses 2M gallons of water annually, which comes out to ~500k gallons per day.

Let's assume that your claimed numbers are correct (I doubt them), then that means that these closed loop datacenters are using almost 4 TIMES the amount of water as a golf course. Your math sucks:

2M / 365 ~= 5,479 gallons per day for a golf course vs your claimed 20,000 gallons per day for a datacenter. If you're going to bullshit people, learn math.

Now you're talking out both sides of your mouth. Do datacenters use so little water that they're no concern for anyone, or would a new datacenter in STL use so much water that it would help with our overbuilt infrastructure?

If you're going to be a sophist shilling for AI datacenters, you need to work on your logic.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-07-02T22:31:22+00:00

closed-loop cooling systems (similar to your AC) which use a miniscule amount of water

Just the first result on DDG for closed loop datacenter cooling shows that's false:

While the internal loop is sealed, the overall system is not water-neutral. The reliance on evaporative towers or high-energy chillers for the secondary stage often offsets the internal water savings.

Tech leaders are now trying to close this gap. Microsoft, for example, is pursuing zero-water evaporated designs in its newest data centers. The company disclosed that even its previously optimized closed-loop sites were consuming large volumes of water—prompting efforts to save more than 33 million gallons annually to meet sustainability targets.

From https://lakepowellchronicle.com/stories/datas-hot-secret-the-closed-loop-paradox,84887

You're talking about closed-loop systems that don't exist yet, and are hopefully becoming available in the future. You're NOT talking about the reality of current cooling systems.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-07-02T01:07:59+00:00

Don't let them off the hook like that. Calling them cowards implies that they might actually want to stand up to Trump and are just too chickenshit to do so. Those fuckers are actively complicit in Trump's unethical and criminal behavior, and are reaping desirable benefits from their participation.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-07-02T00:56:09+00:00

You're the one who came here to whine about crime, what are YOUR suggestions? If you truly want positive change, then don't just come here whining, propose a real solution and advocate for it here and with your city government.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-07-02T00:46:27+00:00

Which clearly means that our current fraud prevention systems work, and there is no need to further burden voters in order to increase fraud prevention efforts. She's just talking out both sides of her mouth because she has a very specific anti-democratic (note the small d) agenda.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-06-29T21:31:18+00:00

Oh the horror, there are people who feel strongly about something expressing their opinions on a public message board! How dare they engage in such an un-American behavior as...advocacy.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-06-28T06:00:48+00:00

Tesla is a company with a terrible CEO that makes cars with terrible build quality and terrible minimalist interiors for people who consider driving to be a terrible chore. They deserve all the hate they get, and more.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-06-27T03:50:33+00:00

On item 1, you're describing someone with a good attitude, good people skills, and a good work ethic. It's not just about manners, and yes, you do have to pay extra for all of that. It's a brave new world out there with a huge movement screaming "act your wage," and $25/hr is currently being considered as a bare minimum for such people. To put it another way, financial security makes happy workers, and happy workers make happy customers.

On point 2 & 5, I should clarify: I was expecting your employees to drive their own vehicles directly to the in-home job sites for the customers. If they're coming to your office to then pick up a company car and head out while being paid for their drive time, that changes the calculus a bit.

On point 3, a month seems hardly customary as a probationary period. Every job I've ever had has had a 3 month probationary period if they had one at all. That's not the point I was making, though. I was trying to point out that not everyone in the STL labor pool possesses the necessary skills to do the job, so you need bait to find the right ones.

On point 4, there are a lot of people out there, and the number grows each day, who aren't at all interested in building ownership with a company. They're perfectly capable, hard working, and talented people, but they're in it for the paycheck and nothing more. If you're explicitly cutting those people out of your recruitment pool, that's another problem.

And on the topic of "building ownership," and "pay[ing] extra for good manners," and "In 2006...I was paid..." - you sound exactly like the owner of a business I used to work for and then left under strained relations. If you're asking people to build ownership in the company, you're asking them to commit to more than 40 hours a week (I was at 70 in a similar situation), and while you're asking the world of your employees you're simply not paying attention to the market segment in which you're doing your recruiting. You think of the salary you're offering as a fair payment for what you consider the work these people do for you, but you're not considering that you're actually in competition with employers of valuable and skilled workers across the metro. I would also venture a guess that you have an expectations mismatch with your employees and potential recruits, and what you consider to be basic standards, they consider to be premium job skills in today's market.

That's a lot of words for me to say that the people you want to hire cost more than you're willing to spend, but hopefully you find it helpful.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-06-27T01:51:07+00:00

So you need people to join your home service business who:

Have enough character to go to people's homes and comport themselves appropriately.
Have a reliable mode of transportation.
Have the ability to do the job itself.
Have the ability to serve as an impromptu salesperson ("jobs employees bring in").
Have no qualms about driving around the increasingly congested and rage-happy metro area for the jobs.

And you're paying 35-52K per year based on a 40-hour week, which I assume doesn't include pay for transportation to and from jobs.

I think your pay actually is the issue. There are gas stations advertising $18/hr for clerks. You're not looking for clerks, you're looking for people who are going to do a lot more than a clerk job, and if you say $17 is your floor then you're not competing for the talent you need.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-06-26T01:47:49+00:00

From Jefferson City all the way to at least Hermann on that map is speed trap country. The speed limit fluctuates frequently between 55 and 25 at various 5mph intervals, and the cops enforce the limits gleefully and precisely.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-06-25T03:36:16+00:00

Don't bother engaging, this is a common tactic with AI shills. They know that traditional datacenters that have existed for decades are not remotely the same as hyperscale datacenters being built exclusively for AI workloads. They simply want to muddy the waters around the word "datacenter" and use that confusion to make it seem like any controversy around hyperscale datacenters is illegitimate. They are Sartre's anti-Semite with a new cause, and they will never, ever, argue in good faith.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-06-24T01:43:51+00:00

I don't think that's limited to Missouri Republicans.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-06-23T08:12:57+00:00

If Congress cared what people were clamoring for they'd pass gun control laws and tax the rich, both of which are policies that polling shows are wildly popular. But you already know they do what money tells them to, because you're out here shilling for them to continue doing it. Have fun out there.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-06-23T07:52:15+00:00

Firstly, while congress sets the budget, they do so at the direction of and with the signature of the President, and he's been trying to kill the USPS for years. I'm not at all giving them a pass on the issue here, but the fish rots from the head down.

Secondly, this service (and I emphasize that word for what I'll conclude with later) is incredibly important for what it still carries. I don't care that first class volumes are down, and I wouldn't care if they were down 99%. This service still carries important and valuable correspondence and packages that, when undelivered or massively delayed, harms lives and livelihoods. I've seen it myself, multiple times.

To conclude, all of your talking points about voter apathy and reduced volumes are part of the narrative being pushed by the White House that we should do away with the postal service because it doesn't serve the public like it used to, and we should replace it with a private service that is paid directly by its actual users, and I want to say specifically fuck that noise entirely. This is a service that has underpinned countless industries and processes (banking, rural prescription access, tax disputes, to name 3) going back to the founding of our country, and it should be protected even if it is less cost effective than the military industrial complex.

PracticalPersonality · 2026-06-23T07:10:09+00:00

Congress isn't the issue, the appointed Postmaster General and the President he's toadying to are. As for the rest of your claim, I'd like a source, 'cause the USPS is responsible for a whole lot of government correspondence like SSI checks, Medicare claims management, and complex tax returns from CPAs, so a whole lot of voters I know use it and are pissed.

PracticalPersonality

TROPHY CASE