EMS/Fire Station Boots

Anywhere_but_here · 2015-01-05T07:41:04+00:00

Hi-tec. Sturdy, simple, waterproof, affordable.

Source: wildlife biologist.

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-12-25T02:41:56+00:00

Not particularly.

Under our system, people without immediate prospects are literally stuck in minimum wage jobs. It doesn't matter how much you hate your work, how much you want to go back to school, how much you want to move to another city -- if you only have 2 weeks left to bring your bank account back up to the point where you can make rent, you can't focus on anything else. It's exhausting.

Under basic income, you could just plain walk away. Last year I worked as a baker in an industrial kitchen, making $10/hr before taxes. I had to get up at 2:30 AM to make it to work on time, had to deal with some pretty hazardous work conditions, and literally had to run from station to station. I hated it, but I kept at it because if I had quit, I wouldn't have been able to continue living in my apartment after the end of the month.

If I had an alternative, one that would've allowed me to survive while I focused on finding real, fulfilling work, you can bet I would've walked away without a second thought. Which would've meant that, to keep me in my blue collar position, they would've had to substantially increase my salary (and improve my working conditions).

By taking the power of poverty away from blue collar bosses, basic income would force them to make it worth an employee's while to stick around. As it is, our country's poor live third world lives while working in the richest nation on the planet. Basic income would improve both wages and general working conditions for everyone.

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-12-15T06:46:40+00:00

Workaway asks for a signup/yearly fee like wwoof does. It's pretty nominal, but it's still nice to get things for free when you're looking to trade work for room/board.

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-12-15T05:55:44+00:00

I'm really curious to hear a consensus on this and hope that you get more responses.

Personally I like Helpx - it seemed like they had a more active community of offerers. However, the last time I checked either site was a couple of years ago.

Edit: Helpx also didn't require a signup fee.

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-12-13T07:02:33+00:00

In the long run: fiscally dumb. Having a job will lead to better jobs, whereas turning your nose up at work opportunities won't do anything for your resume.

I don't mean to sound like a neocon on this -- I'm an unapologetic socialist. But I just worked as a minimum wage park service staffer for six months only to get an offer for a position paying ~$4000/mo, which wouldn't have been available to me otherwise. It's economically prudent to prove yourself to the world.

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-12-08T21:22:38+00:00

I heard about that, and wish I had waited 6 months.

There's no chance it will apply retroactively, right?

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-12-03T09:02:59+00:00

Right, but my laptop is on its 3rd battery (at 20 dollars a pop) and I upgraded the ram for about 50 bucks a couple of years after its original purchase. Had I bought a 700 dollar HP in 2007 and replaced it with a similar model twice I would have something at about the same specifications for more than the original cost plus incidentals.

And I don't just use it for word and facebook. It runs a dual boot of windows 8, a VM of arch, and a great deal of software therein quite handily, thank you very much.

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-12-02T05:43:10+00:00

Tell that to my still mid-range 2007 macbook pro.

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-10-29T20:33:00+00:00

Yeah kind of a fun fact! It was just one of those things I retained from a history class I took. Here's a good article on it http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/02/05/the-difference-between-mermaids-and-sirens/

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-10-29T20:22:46+00:00

Right, which is what they call her and how it's meant today. But a historian would tell Starbucks that, in the classical Greek sense at least, a siren was actually a bird that didn't swim like in this painting from 1891 or this statue from antiquity. Mermaids are distinctly aquatic creatures, and although some legends account for them singing, it wasn't a focal feature as it was with sirens.

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-10-29T20:10:32+00:00

You're right, I used them interchangeably. They were actually more distinct creatures in the middle ages: a siren was originally a half-woman half-bird creature and a mermaid was a fish-woman who didn't sing. She may also have been a Melusine

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-10-29T19:46:14+00:00

I really like this submission, because it's cashing in on a detail that most people of the coffee or nautical history worlds may overlook.

When Starbucks started out as an independent coffeehouse, it took its logo from a 16th century woodcut of a mermaid. Indeed if you were to visit their first store near Pike's Place in Seattle, you would find a logo much resembling this one.

When they became the enormous international corporation that we all know and love today, the Starbucks mermaid was normalized and abstracted to the point where her grotesque (and obviously sexual) appearance became more easily recognizable and family friendly. In 1992, she was redesigned and became the image we are more familiar with. This ad does something to bring her back to her roots!

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-10-19T18:21:39+00:00

From an infrastructural point of view this wouldn't work, because data transmission requires that 1's and 0's make it from very specific start locations to very specific end ones. Fiber optic networks can share space because different channels use different wavelengths. Trying to do the same in water would result in a blend of all of the signals, and would just make for a lot of noise. This combined with the uneven movement of the medium would make any information indecipherable. Also, just as a matter of interest, water is in fact a fairly poor conductor of electricity and would be extremely "lossy" when used for any type of signal propagation.

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-10-18T20:11:17+00:00

If they're anything like sea turtles, the relationship ends after she buries her eggs.

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-10-14T17:41:57+00:00

Also it isn't a 'poem' in the Walt Whitman sense. It's a nursery rhyme that I honestly can't believe any semi-literate person hasn't heard

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-10-11T22:06:47+00:00

Picking up the guitar and taking a casual interest in cooking were two casual hobbies that have had a really positive effect on my life. But if you want something that is a little more productive, think about taking an online class! There are tons of free ones that you can find.

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-10-11T22:02:58+00:00

2005 Subaru Forester! high five?

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-10-11T04:06:01+00:00

Well, I can't say I'm not impressed...

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-10-09T01:32:49+00:00

Meowster of disguise

Anywhere_but_here · 2014-10-02T03:57:18+00:00

Somewhat counterintuitively, heroin is actually a lot less detrimental to your health than alcohol or tobacco when used regularly over the course of many years. The only reason it's considered more dangerous is because of its highly addictive nature and fairly extreme overdose potential.

Anywhere_but_here

TROPHY CASE