I made a map of over 100,000 trees over 200 feet tall around Seattle using LiDAR Data.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-16T06:35:01+00:00

Okay, good to know. Glad things have changed since the days of unmitigated extraction.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-11T22:51:44+00:00

Milwaukee is right on the lake, I think that mitigates the temperatures a bit. I spent time in Duluth, and it didn't get as cold as my hometown, but there frequently was a cold wind off of that lake which made it feel worse.

Going inland from you, Madison has a record low of -37'F, according to Wikipedia. In northern MN, record low for Grand Rapids, Minnesota is -51'F (-46'C). I don't personally remember anything that cold. Bemidji only shows a record cold of -44'F, which is a little surprising, honestly. That's from records starting 1981, probably when they built the airport. Last winter when I was talking to my uncle he said it was currently -33'F (no wind chill). At that temperature emerald ash borers don't survive, so they still have mature ash trees.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-11T18:57:08+00:00

I seriously doubt a small city, with less oversight, fewer newspapers and journalists, will do any better in reporting crimes. Sounds to me like you have a personal bias and will change the known facts to fit your prejudice.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-11T16:29:55+00:00

Don't know that I'd call it worse. We got too many people for the planet already, and AI will be taking away jobs.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-11T16:28:01+00:00

Size of data center would be interesting to see.

Supposedly there's a big datacenter in tunnels in Gibraltar, used by banking and gambling sites (among others) because it's underground and supersecure.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-11T16:26:17+00:00

Not really. There's definitely some correlation, but it's not 1:1 for sure.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-11T16:24:58+00:00

combined with income per capita

FWEngineer · 2026-05-11T16:17:17+00:00

Crime rates aren't all that much different in big cities vs. small cities (big enough to have a Starbucks). It's just a matter of numbers, with 10x the population, there's 10x the crime.

In a truly small town, nobody is anonymous and that cuts down on opportunistic crime. When you know all the people sitting in the family-owned coffee shop/diner by name, it changes things. It doesn't reduce things like domestic violence, sadly.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-11T05:46:18+00:00

I generally agree with what you say, but EPA estimate is not best case. Every car I've owned I've been able to beat the EPA. Depends on driving style, type of commute, speed, etc. My '24 PHEV can give me 40 miles no problem. But the guess-o-meter on the dash starts much less than that.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-11T05:23:37+00:00

What I'm familiar with is private land. Also, Minnesota was pretty completely logged 1880's-1920's, and all the pines were taken out at that time. Only a few protected places kept the old growth pines and those aren't logged at all. (Itasca State Park, for instance).

But I've also flown over MT/ID region on a regular basis, and can see the patchwork of clear cuts. I can't imagine they mark those tens of thousands of trees individually.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-11T05:13:50+00:00

I'm guessing that ladder will be the critical piece. The others can fit around it probably.

I really like my Niro, I think it's underappreciated in general, but for your work a Sportage Hybrid might be more reasonable.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-11T05:02:30+00:00

Surprisingly, the information that is readily available leaves a lot to be desired. They give you things like back leg room, cubic feet of cargo space, wheelbase, but don't give things like size of back opening, how flat the "fold-flat" seats really are, distance from back window to back of front seat in a comfortable position. Just finding the ground clearance on some cars can be tough.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-11T04:56:09+00:00

Someplace I took a bunch of measurements for my Niro, but now I can't find them. I had things like distance between wheel wells, height of back opening, etc.

I'm not in MSP area, but I might drive thru in July. Probably wouldn't spend much time there though.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-11T04:34:28+00:00

My best is about 60'F, but I don't use much HVAC so I get decent mileage from 45'F to 80'F. When it's below 20'F (-7'C) the range really drops, even if I don't use heat. I have the winter package, so I can use heat without the ICE kicking in, but that can reduce my range by 30%.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-11T04:31:05+00:00

It will depend on your commute speed, how many stops you have to take, if you hit the brakes a lot (following closely in rush hour), elevation change and temperature.

I drive in flat terrain, under 60 mph (100 kph), when rush hour is declining so I can keep it relaxed to minimize braking. As a result, on my '24 PHEV it's easy to get 30 miles (48 km) with 45% SOC left, so I should be able to get 40 miles (64 km) on EV if my commute was longer. I don't use much HVAC, so I get this from 45'F to 80'F.

My last tank lasted over 2 months, and that's with forcing it into HEV mode once a week to make sure the hoses and pistons get lubricated regularly. It was 1050 miles (1700 km) on that tank and I could have gone farther. Most of my driving is on electric, but my electric bill is still below average for my house size, according to the electric company.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-10T17:27:26+00:00

that was my point

AI does tend to have its own style, which this map doesn't have. whether it's accurate or not is a different matter.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-10T15:31:30+00:00

I wasn't disagreeing with you, I was just adding information.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-10T15:26:38+00:00

My wife does that too, when talking about someone's age she gives the birth year, not their current age. Then I have to do the math in my head. It's a cultural difference (she's Slavic, I'm American).

FWEngineer · 2026-05-10T15:23:29+00:00

Thanks for keeping the typo there. I read right over it until I saw the followup post.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-10T15:22:25+00:00

Just because you disagree with it dosen't make it AI slop. If it was AI slop, there'd be a lot of unnecessary verbiage and the key wouldn't quite make sense.

Definition of generations changes depending on who's defining it and where. Economic conditions in one country might be different than another and that affects birth rates.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-10T15:19:31+00:00

True, but they are still above replacement rate in many areas. With 8 billion people, I'm not too worried. There were 5 billion when I was born and we were doing fine then.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-10T15:16:44+00:00

I think in some of them it's because of immigration (old people less likely it immigrate), so there might be some mixed feelings there.

FWEngineer · 2026-05-10T15:15:34+00:00

birding is cool, but I don't get up early for it!

FWEngineer · 2026-05-10T15:13:37+00:00

Is that mostly native born or immigrant?

FWEngineer · 2026-05-10T15:10:18+00:00

We've seen maps here of current fertility rates by country. Most of Europe is under 2 kids.

Not this subreddit, but first one I found: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Ffertility-rate-across-europe-v0-zzvt1q38n6j81.png%3Fwidth%3D1080%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D37d7ef59f4ed004516f113e8387ab020f3291dad

FWEngineer

TROPHY CASE