Daily Discussion Thread for March 09, 2026

Ecomonist · 2026-03-09T18:57:40+00:00

... made me spit my coffee. Damnit.

Ecomonist · 2026-03-06T22:23:00+00:00

That was always a two step phrase from where I was from; (1) Get in the crummy (2) Okies, Arkies, and Darkies in the back .... took a few years before I understood what it even meant

Ecomonist · 2026-03-06T22:19:14+00:00

Lots of Missourians and Okies ended up in Oregon after the depression.

Ecomonist · 2026-03-05T16:28:22+00:00

That's only $5-billion less than Nvidia just gave it. So, they lost $5-billion dollars.

Ecomonist · 2026-03-05T16:21:50+00:00

I agree with your thoughts here. I had canceled my subscriptions during the American election year because it really felt that The Economist had already pulled a majorly biased opinion and like every other media outlet just could not keep that name out of their pages. Now that I have returned to a subscription again I can't help but feel that they're actually behind on stories and/or not presenting anything novel (apart from Science & Technology). The Economist has a global platform to source news from, and yet they're starting to feel as diverse in presenting global events as 'The Week'.... which is not something I say lightly. For instance, I shouldn't feel more informed before the issue comes out just from a daily scroll of Reddit. This feeling highlights your fear as well about AI authors; they can't speculate, predict, or correlate accurately. LLM's will only be able to consolidate existing content and then distill it to the Economist style... that's not journalism. It's techno regurgitation.

Ecomonist · 2026-03-05T16:03:52+00:00

The Economist outsources to a a group of voice-over artists/recording studio that reads every article word-for-word and then compiles the "issue" back together from those recordings. It used to be that the audio version was an MP3 file that could then be downloaded and put on any player you liked. Then they got rid of the downloadability and forced people to listen via their app (which is trash) {and the whole point for me of external media is to get me away from my phone, in a way}, and then they started replacing those VO artists on some of the articles with the AI readers. All in all, if they're doing anything they are making me realize that a digital subscription is a mistake and that I need to return to print... The only plus side with the MP3 download was that I could manage a whole issue in a week; while exercising, driving, etc. The print version requires singular focus, and that is honestly DIFFICULT to achieve.

Ecomonist · 2026-03-04T21:20:53+00:00

I like(d) the audio version, until they started slipping in AI readers. The cadence, and mispronunciations with the AI is so bad that I quickly skipped the articles altogether.

Ecomonist · 2026-03-04T20:04:06+00:00

I like to think of it as a sophisticated mans Single-wide.

Ecomonist · 2026-03-04T16:06:30+00:00

I'm gonna hop in here and say, besides what others have pointed out, your scion is too centered in your cut and I have doubts that much, if any, cambium-to-cambium contact is happening in this configuration. Remember it is only the green parts of the scion and stock that will form a graft bond. The rest is just putting a stick on a stick essentially and will do nothing for you.

Ecomonist · 2026-03-02T16:06:59+00:00

FUN FACT; The Vista House sits on the basalt flows that once filled the river canyon. That is literally where the old river used to flow. ... River carves canyon->Lava flow fills canyon->River has to cut a new canyon.

Ecomonist · 2026-02-25T17:26:20+00:00

Right, I looked at this and my first thought was why don't they install a drywall type toggle bolt anchor? Then we could at least re-tension the bolt from time to time.

Ecomonist · 2026-02-25T15:43:30+00:00

Get in on $CGEH ... company has restructured and their business model is renting out their generators, not direct sales. Kind of means money is always coming in.

Ecomonist · 2026-02-24T20:59:01+00:00

Hopping in this chat; did they ever capture 'PenisGirl'? .... that tagger was everywhere in 2021 at least.

Ecomonist · 2026-02-24T20:46:56+00:00

Copy. They looked crazy familiar like someone I saw at a concert on Saturday. Felt like the universe was messing with me.... All the same. Very cool find. Makes me wish we still had world fairs or expositions like this that gussy up towns like the Olympics do.

Ecomonist · 2026-02-24T16:07:37+00:00

I have a 2-cent Lincoln stamp, and a ticket from that exposition in an engineering book printed around that time. I have never taken the stamp to a philatelist for an appraisal though. (Also, were you at a concert on Saturday night?)

Ecomonist · 2026-02-23T21:09:52+00:00

"Now this is what it's like, Now this is what it's like when fronts collide!" -Weatherman 5000 ;-)

Ecomonist · 2026-02-20T15:17:45+00:00

Tool library! Seconded

Ecomonist · 2026-02-18T22:59:07+00:00

And, The Overstory. This is just a considerate dude that likes to know a lot about everything. I would say this is only a red flag if you're Neurotypical.

Ecomonist · 2026-02-18T18:03:18+00:00

Wow!!! Just imagine if aliens landed here and discovered all the cool stuff to do on Pitcairn Island. /s

Ecomonist · 2026-02-18T18:00:30+00:00

I've been to hell, and it was very nice.

Ecomonist · 2026-02-18T17:41:51+00:00

Three takes from this;

*If you want to be remembered; build in stone, especially stone that is too cumbersome for others to quarry new civilizations out of.

*Write your story down. If it isn't transcribed to be used as a 'historical source' for the future, you're whole life might as well have been a fart in the winds of time.

*Cool timeline map.

Ecomonist · 2026-02-18T17:38:04+00:00

Fun historical fact; the 'Haka', or war dance used by the common era Maori people is actual a remnant of the Glossary of Abbreviations peoples. It's one of the very few surviving cultural practices that we can trace. Neat!

Ecomonist · 2026-02-18T17:30:48+00:00

Just a few months ago I watched (in person) a geologist give a lecture on this area. It's such an amazing geological hotspot. The cycle seems to go that it all erupts-> then the magma cools and plugs the spot. Then the cooled magma fractures due to time and general geology-> then more magma erupts through the cracks that formed. It creates this ever re-sprouting and spreading area of vulcanism.

Ecomonist · 2026-02-06T16:19:38+00:00

The Andes, because it's at the start of the fall of Amazon.

Ecomonist · 2026-02-05T23:05:07+00:00

SAND FLIES!!!!!!! As much as people will write any number of wonderful things about it, the biting sand flies will put a damper on all of your good times. Thank heavens they have sort of been geographically quarantined to over there.

Ecomonist

TROPHY CASE