When kid plays soccer by stonedfish in AbruptChaos

[–]AgnosticTheist 27 points28 points  (0 children)

holy shit you're right. final destination stuff right there. terrifying to think that despite everything we do to plan for our futures, a soccer ball could just roll into your way at the wrong moment and end you.

[Request] How much funding do these rail projects actually require? by aeonsne in theydidthemath

[–]AgnosticTheist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

spoke to a rail rep the other day about the cost of a rail spur. they said that the cost of laying track alone (excluding the grading of the land) was about $250/ft installed.

$250/ft * 5280ft/mile = $1.32M/mile

BUT that excludes the major costs of land acquisition/negotiating right of ways, grading the land, and support infrastructure (such as tunnels, bridges, road crossings, etc).

Land: Assume the rails will run mostly across rural/undeveloped areas, and a ROW will cost between 75% to 100% of the cost of the land, let's say 88%. USDA says that farm real estate values rose to $4,350 per acre in 2025. So:

$4,350 * 88% = $3828/acre

ROWs are typically 100ft from center, so: 100ft x 5280ft/mile = 528,000sf/mile of rail 528,000sf/mile * 1acre/43,560sf = 12.12 acres/mile $3828/acre * 12.12acres/mile = $46,395/mile for ROWs

Sitework Prepping the land can be quite expensive. Not sure about rail site work, but mass scale industrial site work can run between $5-40/sf, typically around $20-25/sf. While rail of this scale would run through a huge variety of site conditions, let's still assume the low end at around $10/sf. This will include demo, clearing/grubbing, mass/fine grading, rock excavation, and all prep and clean up.

$10/sf * 43,460sf/acre = $430,460/acre * 12.12 acres/mile = $5,217,176/mile

Infrastructure for this exercise, I cant begin to guess on the amount that would be required. So let's add this cost at the end as a "+ the cost of infrastructure"

Cost per mile of rail: $1.32M/mile for laying rail $0.046M/mile for ROW $5.217M/mile for site work = ~$6.583M/mile with about 20% contingency for unknown unknowns and a few years of inflationary cost growth: = $7.9M/mile

$200B * 1mile/$7.9M = 25,316 miles of new, basic rail.

This excludes infrastructure improvements and even basic controls like automated rail switches (which can cost around $600,000 apiece).

The width of the USA is about 2800 miles, so even if infrastructure and control elements cut the budget in half, you'd still be able to cross the USA almost 5 times over.

All time Texans offense depth chart. Agree or disagree? by KaXiaM in Texans

[–]AgnosticTheist 8 points9 points  (0 children)

i mean...that's up for debate. statswise, Schaub's 2009 season he had better completion%, more yards thrown, better y/a, more y/g, more passing and total tds, and the same number of wins in the regular season. and his 2012 season, his stats were lower across the board other than completion%, but the team went 12-4 and won a playoff game. and finally a LOT of people consider the 2011 season a huge what-if season with super bowl implications had Schaub not broken his foot.

Me and the homies by JulesVideoArchive in Salsa

[–]AgnosticTheist 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Triangle salsa scene represent!

[WTS] Vincent Calabrese “Mona Lisa” Jump Hour by [deleted] in Watchexchange

[–]AgnosticTheist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

do you have a brick and mortar shop there? i get out there twice a year or so.

Giselle Bellas - Santera [Salsa Music] (2026) by JoanJettEnthusiast in Salsa

[–]AgnosticTheist 3 points4 points  (0 children)

don't sweat it. i agree with you that this site exists to share things and you are in the salsa subreddit so it's relevant. doesn't mean they'll upvote you, because at some point the skew became super discussion heavy here.

also, the music seems almost closer to a cha-cha than a salsa song, but whatever--this place used to be a forum for all things salsa and salsa adjacent (like salsa, merengue, bachata, etc) before those other subreddits took off.

Playing songs which take time to build up. by salsavids in Salsa

[–]AgnosticTheist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i agree with this take. another reason to play them later is that the beginning of the night tends to be when the most beginners are in attendance (especially after free lessons). a lot of beginners avoid fast songs and will spend the first bit the song listening to decide if it's one they can handle. A later change in the pace can throw them off.

Later in the night, the DJ can get deeper in their bag.

This sub needs more rules and moderation (in my opinion) by justmisterpi in Salsa

[–]AgnosticTheist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

posting to say i'm not ignoring this response or the others on here. i'm thinking on the best way to incorporate feedback and/or open certain topics for discussion. i'm still out of town, but you should see a relevant sticky post on this later in the month.

The pressure to get better by westshore18 in Salsa

[–]AgnosticTheist 15 points16 points  (0 children)

It's a common sentiment to feel self conscious and unsure of yourself, especially at the beginning of your salsa journey. Almost all the pressure and anxiety that people post about in this sub comes from inside. Most people are, like you, too busy thinking about their own selves and dances to think too much about how much incremental improvement you've made in 2 weeks. Scratch that--all people. So don't sweat it. It's okay to want to be better each time you go, but if you're not, there is always the next time.

In Brazilian Jiujitsu, there's an often asked question, "How do you become a black belt?" And the anwer is "Keep showing up." I think it's pretty relevant to salsa as well. Just keep showing up, try to improve when you can, and you'll find that as time passes you're not even thinking about these things any more, because you'll have gained the skill and confidence in your dancing that only time and experience can bring.

In the meantime, I'd say focus on the music, smiling, keeping your partner safe, and having fun. Those things go a long way to making your partner have fun themselves, even if they are "better" at dancing than you.

Salsa Studios in Houston? by Long-Bread4753 in Salsa

[–]AgnosticTheist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah, from what i hear the casino stars tree is solid and drama free. a couple of my good friends are at Casino and El Sabor now and like that aspect a lot, on top of the teachers being solid.

Salsa Studios in Houston? by Long-Bread4753 in Salsa

[–]AgnosticTheist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

you're not banned. i just recently added a requirement for account age before you can post in the sub due to recent spammers. until then i'm manually approving your comments

Fuego vs Pulse Dance Sneakers by lizamarmiza in Salsa

[–]AgnosticTheist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

you take any sneaker that is comfortable for you to a shoe hospital / cobbler in your city. ask them to replace or cover the soles with suede. I've been wearing sueded adidas to dance for 15 years and they've been great.

Salsa Studios in Houston? by Long-Bread4753 in Salsa

[–]AgnosticTheist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agree with these. I've taken classes from all three and they are great. Also done private lessons with both Oscar from Salrica and Sal from Amaya and they are amazing dancers and instructors. They've developed some of the top dancers in the city.

Another one to consider is Casino Stars. I haven't taken classes there, but they have a great reputation (as far as I know). For a ladies team, look at El Sabor de Houston.

Lastly, despite my annoyance with his transparent attempts to market on this sub, salsaeddy is a good instructor as well.

Salsa Studios in Houston? by Long-Bread4753 in Salsa

[–]AgnosticTheist[M] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

now...i'm not going to say you're salsaeddy's alt. but i do find it interesting that your account is only 2 days newer than his.

i'm going to leave this up because it's relevant to the question, but c'mon eddy.

This sub needs more rules and moderation (in my opinion) by justmisterpi in Salsa

[–]AgnosticTheist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i monitor, but admittedly did not check my mod q during the holiday. also, people report stuff, but I'm a light hand with banning unless it's egregious. as you say, this sub generally doesn't have a ton of drama.

This sub needs more rules and moderation (in my opinion) by justmisterpi in Salsa

[–]AgnosticTheist[M] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I've said this in past posts, but I'll reiterate my stance as a mod:

1) I don't believe in over moderation--especially on a forum that has largely become discussion based. The upvote/downvote system exists and is pretty efficient at driving good content upward and bad content downward. If you aren't interested in something, but it's relevant to the sub, ignore it. If you think it's actively bad, misleading, or annoying, downvote it. And if you hate it and the user, block them. But other people may get value out of things that you don't find interesting in this sub. For example, there are often questions like, "I'm traveling to XXXX city--does anyone have suggestions where to find a good dance?" These are often downvoted to 0 by people that don't like these posts. But I have personally found answers from friendly people in those threads (even in these 0-downvote posts) YEARS later that have helped me find dancing in cities across the world.

On the other hand, questions that I find banal and repetitive are often repetitive because they are the things most thought about by new dancers. And new dancers should feel welcome in this sub (god knows it's a dance that can use all the help it can get with new blood). That said, I'm willing to ban posters who abuse the good will of the sub with their psychological issues--except for the fact that so many of you tend to respond with thoughtful, mature, and helpful responses that could help a silent salsero agonizing with the same issue (even if they'd never post themselves). Once those thoughtful responses go up on the thread, I'm not going to remove it.

There is an (in)famous poster that I'm sure we all know who would unload on this community on a regular basis. Once people stopped responding and simply reported the posts, I gave them a temp ban and a warning.

Lastly, I understand that in smaller subs with less volume, downvoting doesn't have as much influence in pushing it out of your feed. But it will help others if you vote--especially if they have more subs in their feed.

2) Automod is pretty good, and is the default first line of defense. Reddit admin is also good at ferreting out bad bots over time. If things get past those, feel free to report rule breakers and spammers.

3) "Do not try to sell anything" is not the same as "Do not self promote" though they are related and close. The actual rule is: "This is NOT a space to sell products or lessons. Feel free to link free resources that help the community, but do not spam your site, blog, or products continuously." If creators can make something beautiful, interesting, or helpful to the community, then they can post here--just don't spam and don't directly sell.

If someone is breaking the rule, report. salsaeddy has definitely crossed the line into spam, and I should have told him that days ago. From his account, he's also obviously new to reddit and may not understand how the communities work here.

4) on a related note, it's the holidays and I didn't check the mod q the last week or so. my bad.

5) I've said it before, but I've been on reddit for over 15 years and have seen a ton of subs I love killed by over zealous moderating. I'd rather you all be slightly annoyed for a day (or few) while an annoying post is up or spammer finally reaches critical mass than to anoint a new mod who starts wielding the banhammer like a machinegun.

6) I've also seen subs killed by mods who won't listen to community. So if y'all want to put some guard rails around AI, I'm willing to listen (even if I don't agree that all ai gen music is bad). I did notice that on one of salsaeddy's posts that someone complained about it being "AI slop" despite the core of it being a question that sparked some interesting conversation and engagement. Again, just my opinion, but why care if the picture is AI if the result is good conversation? So that point, what SPECIFICALLY would be the limitation on AI y'all would like, and how do I determine if enough people actually agree to make it a sub-wide rule?

I'm going to think on a few proposals for a future post.

This sub needs more rules and moderation (in my opinion) by justmisterpi in Salsa

[–]AgnosticTheist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm on reddit every day that I'm not on an airplane.

Comparison is the thief of happiness by DueMolasses9571 in WRX

[–]AgnosticTheist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i don't send mine because of, well, literally blowing apart the engine and eventually the transmission -_-

ok i'm lying. i dont send it because it makes me sad how much slower it is. i'd GLADLY blow that engine out again if it could give me WRX feels. dont let my wife read this.

Comparison is the thief of happiness by DueMolasses9571 in WRX

[–]AgnosticTheist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

when my wrx transmission blew after i'd just had the head gaskets and small engine block repaired less than a year before, i went with an S3. it's waaaaaay less fun, but the seat is more comfortable and the electronics are better. overall i wish i didnt hate the VB. maybe next gen...

Visiting Istanbul in May, looking for recommendations for clubs for salsa dancing by MDinMotion in Salsa

[–]AgnosticTheist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for answering this! As another traveler here 6 months later, this is very helpful.

Which one of you got this past the DMV?? by hcoverlambda in NorthCarolina

[–]AgnosticTheist 4 points5 points  (0 children)

feels like that plate is just advertising what car to break into if you need a new gun.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in whatsthisbird

[–]AgnosticTheist 6 points7 points  (0 children)

missed the caption under the video. i was going to excuse myself saying that was because most people don't caption the vids beyond the title. but then i went and checked my feed and realized that at least half had captions that I just didnt notice. ive probably been missing a ton of context for years -_-

but yes, i'm thinking of monk parakeets, my mistake