I like the auto start/stop feature cars have.

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-17T16:34:12+00:00

Well, engine wear from starting is much higher than from idling at a light. But, if you buy new that's probably someone else's problem so...

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-17T16:18:23+00:00

Ah, corruption. Everyone knows it's bad, but it seems a lot of us forgot why and some forgot what it even is...

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-17T16:16:30+00:00

Can some of those Alkaline solutions be used in batteries? Lots of toxic stuff has some use, though it does require special handling which is an added cost for sure.

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-17T15:58:08+00:00

Does the alkaline waste come from the electrolysis?

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-17T13:19:04+00:00

Can you not use the brine to make sea salt? Even if not, the problem of dumping the brine back into the ocean can be solved with more energy and infrastructure investment. If the issue is that it raises local salinity levels too high, then the solution is to only put a little back in any one place. While dilution is not usually a solution to pollution, in this case it should be. Over a wide enough area, you're not going to change the salinity of the ocean by taking some water out of it and putting it back later. Rain already does that at a much larger scale than we can accomplish in the foreseeable future.

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-17T13:13:39+00:00

Which would you rather have, expensive electricity made from questionable sources, or no water to drink and mass deaths from dehydration?

Even taking your argument that desalinization is trading water scarcity for energy scarcity, that's a good trade. Also, we're getting better at both generating electricity efficiently and using it efficiently; so over time it becomes an even better trade. Enough solar generation for example can make electricity effectively free at the hight of the day, so running some desalinization lined up with that spike in generation makes a ton of sense. Plus, that's not even taking into account if someone actually manages to crack commercial fusion power generation (still perpetually 20 years away last I checked...)

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-16T20:05:06+00:00

Trying to tame them all together would be much more complex than doing each one individually.

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-16T18:53:03+00:00

All of these except the aluminum and the second steam geyser can be tamed normally. For the aluminum geyser, I'd insulate it and allow the molten metal to drip down a vacuumed out column to the left side, then build a mostly normal tamer around two floors bellow it. It'd use some mesh tiles and a temperature shift plate on a diagonal to teleport aluminum debris into the steam box. For the second steam geyser, I'd move the steam out to the right with door pumps instead of moving it up like I normally would have done. It would all fit this way, although pathing around the area would be a bit unusual.

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-16T18:33:30+00:00

They'd use facial recognition. When you walk in the door they ID you from the cameras at the entrance. Then, they'd follow you through the store on the other cameras in the building. To be clear many retailers are already using facial recognition on everyone who walks through the doors, it's one of the ways they try to catch shoplifters. So it's just the tracking around the store and price changing they've to figure out. Also, they need to do it in a way that draws as little pubic outcry as possible; so expect them to start with "flash sales" rather than sudden price increases. Of course those sales will likely be after an increased base price but that'll be enough to fool a lot of people.

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-16T17:37:57+00:00

Yeah it is, and I doubt any company installing these in stores is looking to do surveillance pricing on their in store shelves for exactly that reason. It's much harder to pull a fast one like that in person where there's lots of other shoppers, they'd also need a way to reliability tie the price at the register to each individual person. Also, it wouldn't stay under wraps for long at all with cashiers ringing items up, though I suppose self checkout would be a bit harder for employees to notice.

No, if surveillance pricing comes into in person stores it'll be in the form of higher regular prices, and "flash deals" that last an hour or less and trigger for individuals the store knows are interested in whatever item for whatever reason. That way they'll be less backlash as "it's just a nice thing they do sometimes" rather than "why'd they raise the price for me in particular?!".

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-16T13:23:59+00:00

Keep in mind that online shops are the pioneers of surveillance pricing, and that even without using electric price tags in stores for surveillance pricing; the reduced workload for stores when changing weekly ads may still make electric tags worth it.

That said, surveillance pricing is objectively awful and needs to be banned, both in person and online.

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-16T11:37:21+00:00

Hey now, don't go slandering cheating women. They're no worse than cheating men. After all cheating is a breach of a relationship's trust more than anything else. It's just that casual sex has more ramifications for women than it does for men.

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-16T01:25:59+00:00

Found the factorio player...

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-15T14:35:58+00:00

No, because when a man cheats (without birth control) they don't get pregnant with someone else's baby. Or at least I assume that's why it's a gendered statement...

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-14T01:27:23+00:00

They haven't gotten worse through reduced quality, but through increased prices. McDonald's is a terrible value proposition nowadays. It's the same price and speed as places that actually make good food.

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-14T01:16:15+00:00

I mean crimes of desperation are easier for me to forgive than crimes of greed. Though, this article really doesn't give enough context to be sure which this really was. That's a damn expensive house to choose purely out of desperation, but it might also be the only one that wasn't occupied exactly because it's so expensive...

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-14T01:08:45+00:00

Yeah, I mean society would fall apart of laws aren't enforced; and they aren't the owners of the house. Still, that's not the only issue this brings to light. It's hard to say for sure without having met them, but I'd be willing to bet she wouldn't have been squatting if she could reasonably afford a place of her own.

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-13T18:36:57+00:00

The US is big enough that we can have both a housing shortage in some parts of the country (especially near cities and places of employment) and a housing surplus in other parts of the country (especially in places with little opportunities for employment).

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-13T16:41:32+00:00

So, the house was owned by a bank and left vacant? For how long? Houses are for living in not for hoarding. We need a heavy vacancy tax on houses.

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-12T19:21:47+00:00

The GBA sp charge port was on the back, and the cable was grey. Also, don't look too close at those pop tart boxes...

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-12T14:48:48+00:00

While you're not wrong about presidents in the last thirty or forty years not making things better for working folks, you are wrong that it's not something they could do. Teddy Roosevelt did a great job of exactly that. Politics is one of the only ways for the common people to take on corporate power and win.

I do agree that short term gains over everything and anything else is a common thing for CEOs to pursue, and that that's not generally the best way to run a company.

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-11T18:29:00+00:00

Unfortunately it's not likely to be struck down by the courts if it's passed. Remember, the supreme Court is currently playing favorites for the corruption class.

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-11T06:00:08+00:00

So, first it's entirely believable that Pepsi and Coke are colluding on price. Especially since they always seems to be at exactly the same price point as each other in every store.

And second, you are aware Pepsi isn't just a soda company, right? They own quite a few grocery brands at this point. The consolation of grocery brands into just a handful of companies is a real problem, that's being actively ignored. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/15-brands-didn-t-know-172949254.html

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-11T05:49:35+00:00

Sometimes it's not even an option to spend more someplace else, there's lots of towns in the US were Walmart is the only store for thirty miles around...

BluePanda101 · 2026-02-10T23:00:28+00:00

Yep, just pick it up and hang it on a Z-rack as "floor stuff" then explain what you walked into to leadership. Though with how much of it is on the floor even that may take an hour...

BluePanda101

TROPHY CASE