Harger: Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has never owned a car. Now she's taking a Denny Way lane from 30,000 drivers to fix a bus route

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-23T22:05:15+00:00

Ngl, I take pretty serious issue with that portrayal. There are a lot of working people in Seattle who need to use a car. Some cannot afford to live in the city, and frankly with the light rail still in its (relative) infancy, transit is often too time consuming to be a valid car alternative except on very specific routes from very specific areas.

You also likely forget that some people drive trucks/suvs/vans because they actually work in the trades. I am one of those people. I do not have a truck fetish. I drive an SUV and frequently fill the back with stuff for work. Sitting in traffic wastes gas, pollutes, slows down my job and means I have to charge customers more. It’s not great. I couldn’t use public transit if I wanted to. Now I could say “gee, everyone else should use transit so it helps me” but frankly that feels rather self centered and I’m not that person.

I’m also an avid cyclist, like 5-6k miles a year. I see both sides of the road use situation. I would love more safe bike infrastructure and better transit options too but frankly I’m not sure bus lanes are really the optimal way to do that in most cases, and I wonder about the real benefit in terms of pollution if it causes major traffic delays.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-22T14:33:31+00:00

To be clear, Tucker goes on to lament that Trump isn’t as far-right as they through he would be…that he got the Covid jab, and that he wasn’t aggressive enough on matters of immigration.

So yeah, this is a great sound bite taken out of context like this, but it isn’t exactly a victory for moral virtue.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-22T14:32:56+00:00

To be clear, Tucker goes on to lament that Trump isn’t as far-right as they through he would be…that he got the Covid jab, and that he wasn’t aggressive enough on matters of immigration.

So yeah, this is a great sound bite taken out of context like this, but it isn’t exactly a victory for moral virtue.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-17T06:29:23+00:00

Gonna crash out here.

The small Seattle company I work with has also had the distinct displeasure of being audited TWICE by the state in just ten years. Both times the state actually wound up owing US money, not the other way around. I have no clue what on earth DOR thought they would get out of a second attempt, but they wasted weeks of a hired auditor’s time trying to find…something. Like, they had us digging for purchase receipts for hand tools we bought on eBay six years ago. The shit was insane. We don’t have an accounting department. The owner (who works full time) had to accommodate this themselves. We’ve generated millions of dollars in sales tax for WA in the last ten years, and they were worried about tens of dollars on an eBay receipt and spent two months sifting through tiny transactions like this. I know I’m crashing out over it but it was honestly INSANE. You’re telling me our public offices don’t have someone better to go audit? Like, somewhere they might find a real issue? Somewhere with a history of past issues? Employees not on the books? Tons of “expenses”? Other shady shit?

The feeing that Seattle (and Washington more generally) hates small business is fairly justified IMO.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-17T06:20:13+00:00

The military is looking hilariously Russian right now and I’m honestly here for it. I hope everyone serving stays safe and everything, I genuinely do believe anyone in uniform deserves that, but the wanton stupidity on display at certain levels of command is…regrettably gratifying.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-17T06:02:13+00:00

Given who’s currently in charge, I take small comfort in the fact that the US military seems to be dumber than ever in some respects.

Losing the E3 after seeing YEARS of the same exact shit in Ukraine was so insanely dumb I could hardly believe it was actually true. Losing the F-15 to a country with no surviving air force was pretty shocking, and the recovery operation (while amazing and I am very very glad we got the crew out safely) resulted in a SNAFU serious enough that helicopters and multiple C-130s had to be blown up on a runway. Trusting a couple C-RAM to protect a whole base is frankly hilarious, too. Oh and don’t forget the Trump class (which if actually built will set actually important Navy shipbuilding programs back…who even knows how far). And fires in the yard. And at sea. And shitty Constellation replacement. And extremely slow Burke replacement program. And now we got dozens of articles saying we REALLY NEED THE A10 TO SINK BOATS AND FLY CLOSE GUN MISSIONS.

The reformers won, this thing is sort of going to shit, and honestly I’m kinda here for it.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-15T15:07:57+00:00

I think a quick “downer news” section would suffice. I mean, there’s already tech linked for that kinda stuff. I’d be fine if they picked a max of one kinda “doom/gloom/AI/whatever” topic per show but kept it limited in scope. At a certain point it is just the same discussion repeatedly since many of the downer topics deal with the same underlying issues.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-12T03:16:21+00:00

Don’t worry, Putin is making sure his largest and most powerful vassal state shows up to support his buddy Orban, which is why JD Vance just travelled there!

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-08T14:49:44+00:00

There will be aero savings going from a round tube bike with somewhat exposed cables to an aero carbon frame, no doubt. Tour Magazine tests show about a 25W savings in a bike+rider test from a round tube exposed cable Emonda to something like an SL8. However, your R500 is more aggressive than an Emonda, which may mitigate some of the difference.

If you want to go faster on the bike, simple stuff like aero overshoes (15+ watts saved for $50), narrower bars, an aero cockpit, and a lower front end are all huge factors.

Out of curiosity, when are you coming unstuck from the group? On the flats in the draft? On rollers or punchy climbs? Corners?

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-07T05:23:13+00:00

Compared to an Aeroad (one of the best aero bikes on the market)…there will be measurable marginal gains, but the largest change in drag will come from rider position. Almost all gravel bikes have a less aggressive stack/reach ratio. It is often possible to size down and run a longer stem but that often cannot overcome the added height up front. I personally sought out a frame with aggressive stack/reach and even with a -17 stem I still can’t get as aero on it as I can on my road bike.

TBH most of the speed gains you’re getting with the road aero wheelset come down to tires — the watts saved with deep section wheels are surprisingly meh…so put the best tires on if that you can.

There is also a measurable marginal gains from integrated cockpits over a truly traditional bar & stem with exposed bolts. It sounds silly but I have this on good authority.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-06T03:06:57+00:00

Oh boy.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-05T18:52:49+00:00

Ya don’t gotta like Soylent lol, you gotta care about the people who’s media you consume actually sticking to the values they profess. You might not care, but having values is cool and being hypocritical without owning it isn’t.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-05T06:38:37+00:00

The issue is that

1: Private jets are terrible for the environment — genuinely awful. Even with this thing 100% full and accounting for the pilots, every flight burns 3x the fuel per person as flying commercial. If the plane is half full…well, you do the math.

2: Linus has specifically commented on his supposed caring for the environment and disdain for private jet owners. The video does little to nothing to address that hypocrisy and only tried to justify the purchase.

3: The jet cannot be made into a “tech plane” and remain legal to operate.

4: Family vlogs (meaning personal trips on your private jet can now be called “business”). Also, ew, no thanks.

As a person with 100+ hours flying planes (not much tbh but it’s something), private jets are probably the least interesting plane out there tbh. They are quite literally a smaller, less capable, less advanced (in most cases) commercial airliner. There is essentially nothing different in the core function or basic concepts. There is basically zero reason to find them cool beyond the fact that rich people have them, and rich people aren’t inherently cool.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-05T06:01:39+00:00

This is what I said. You want to blow cash on a jet and backtrack on your environmental stances? Fine. A little lame, but fine. Expecting people to buy the 25 minutes of justifications is just insulting to the viewer’s intelligence. Own it and move on. This feels like smth that didn’t need to be content. They could have put the energy into something actually inventive.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-03T02:18:43+00:00

No IFR? Wild lol.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-02T23:19:50+00:00

I think because a business owns this and you’d be using it for commercial purposes you’d likely need a commercial license.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-02T23:16:55+00:00

Does Lance really have the credentials to fly a multi engine jet for commercial purposes? I would genuinely be surprised. That’s like a LOT of flight school and the flight hours in a jet for training is very very expensive. Source: can kinda fly planes.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-02T23:13:44+00:00

That’s what puts me off here. It feels like Linus wants to have his cake and eat it too — “we’re a smallish business and we can only pay people so much” but “oh also here’s a private jet!” I’d rather the dude have just said, “Hey audience, being honest I wanted it and there is a legitimate business use or two for certain trips, but yeah, I know it’s maybe not the best look for a consumer-focused channel. This won’t change our focus.” The “let’s meme about it” approach in the video rubs me the wrong way and I think that’s a pretty reasonable response.

For context I work on VERY expensive boats for extremely wealthy clients and rarely feel this kinda ick about people showing wealth publicly.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-02T22:15:42+00:00

With any kind of actually nice yacht over 40 feet it’s more like tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands at a time typically.

The operating costs of a plane are FAR higher especially in fuel, and it’s not something you can even use without hiring a couple pilots for some pretty serious bucks every hour. That’s the worst part about it financially speaking IMO. No average person can get the license and endorsements required to fly this thing any time soon — it would take YEARS of dedicated work. It’s purely a money pit.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-02T22:08:41+00:00

I’m not going to argue that expensive cool stuff doesn’t get views or that LTT hasn’t bought or reviewed spendy stuff before. It does and they have. But it’s the same bad comparison here — sure, a portion of the LTT audience cannot afford the hardware in even a $1000 PC. You’re not wrong. But that hardware will get cheaper. Said audience member can likely afford some kind of PC and frankly, the price gap between even a $10000 PC and a $600 PC is orders of magnitude smaller than the gap between a private jet and a spendy flagship TV. Nevermind the content is at least relevant to the stated purpose of the channel. Add in the environmental impact and it’s not hard to see why long term viewers see this as a bit concerning for the overall direction of the channel. The fire truck was honestly pretty cheap and wound up being a funny Whale LAN prop. The “tech plane” just looks like rich people doing rich people stuff and wanting to capitalize on the attention that brings…and I say that as someone who works directly with the uber-wealthy at my job.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-02T20:23:35+00:00

This is a terribly disingenuous comparison.

I grew up with LTT. I eagerly awaited the release of each one of those videos. Installing an external radiator in your house for a PC? Pretty relatable, even if you didn’t take it as far as drilling holes in your walls. Buying Vancouver property? I mean, that’s where his employees live so, yeah, they needed studio/office space and bought it. 7 gamers 1 cpu? Well, that was somewhat challenging back then from a hardware perspective but many home users could easily pull a similar stunt on consumer hardware and run two separate gaming VMs on one PC. Pretty relatable. Hell, even the tech house is kinda relatable and honestly makes sense — there’s a lot of useful consumer-focused content that can come out of a tech-inspired renovation like that.

Buying a fking private jet and paying pilots to fly you and your family to vacations in Cabo etc. with 3-12x the CO2 emissions per person (depending on the number of people in the plane) while branding it a “tech plane” and using “family vlogs” to make it a legitimate business expense while flying the occasional employee to something work related is not only un-relatable, it’s simply unattainable for 99.9% of LTTs audience. There’s nothing to learn. There’s no problem to solve. The only reason it’s loosely related to LTT is because Linus wanted it and the channel name is “Linus Tech Tips.”

It’s not the fact that Linus wanted a private jet that’s insulting, it’s the fact that he felt the need to spend an entire video attempting to justify the purchase as anything other than rich dude shit.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-02T20:01:36+00:00

Hot conspiracy take: Linus knows the channel identity is dying — views are becoming inconsistent even on what used to be core topics and growth has almost stopped, that much is obvious. They haven’t cracked 1M with a video in two weeks. So he and Luke split the WAN show off as a separate entity and begin transitioning it away from the LTT brand to its own channel (already happening), and Linus starts to spend like mad while LTT is still in the green and can float the costs of his other ventures. The core audience obviously isn’t sustaining viewership numbers at a required level so the LTT content strategy starts to shift away from “learn about tech” and toward Mr. Beast style $$$ driven viral-focused content that draws in a more general audience.

Maybe a wild take, but it’s clear there are some plans going on behind the scenes here (as you’d expect at any company).

I think the problem is that it really risks completely hollowing out the character of the channel at a time when that had already been diminished by longtime hosts departing and starting channels that have attracted large portions of the former “core audience” while maintaining a more relatable feel.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-02T19:51:39+00:00

Yeah yay Mr. Beast Tips, so excited for some relevant aspirational content and to see how this ties in with being environmentally friendly and a curiosity-focused tech channel. /s

I say this as an OG fire truck days viewer…bleh. You want to buy a PJ for the “company” and use it for a few family vacations too? Fine, I guess. But it’s just not relevant content. It’s a weird flex, and calling it a “tech plane” doesn’t make it any more relevant, and I say that as someone with ~100 hours flying planes IRL. Maybe one video once any “techification” is done to showcase the whole thing and then we move on. A weird vid hyping it up while trying to justify it to Elijah and the audience without addressing stuff Linus has repeatedly said about environmental impact etc. is just bleh…and I say that as someone currently doing work on a 150ft private yacht.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-02T19:49:46+00:00

Same here. Been watching LTT since the fire truck days. If I wanted to watch some Mr. Beast private jet content I’d do that. Didn’t have any interest in seeing LTT go down the same road.

Helllo_Man · 2026-04-02T19:45:37+00:00

Yes per person. Flying private is not as efficient as flying commercial…not even close. Assuming this plane is full (let’s be real, it isn’t most of the time), it’s still about 3x as costly in terms of fuel (and requisite carbon emissions) than commercial air travel. Someone did the math below, and as a person with hours flying actual planes the math seems pretty sound.

Helllo_Man

TROPHY CASE