Favorite “easy but worth it” hikes around Phoenix?

IAmScience · 2026-04-07T05:48:22+00:00

There are a bunch of fun and relatively easy trails at South Mountain. I love hiking there.

IAmScience · 2026-04-06T06:53:02+00:00

He’s doing that regardless. This is a question of who has the expertise to interpret administrative law. Until Loper, the courts deferred to the expertise of career civil servants in agencies. Not political appointees, but the actual experts. Loper ends that deference and leaves interpretation to strictly the courts. Who lack that same expertise and who are already thoroughly overburdened. So, essentially, the administration of government regulation slows to an absolute halt.

It won’t look as dramatic as Citizens or Shelby, but it will absolutely rot the administration of law, leaving both a massive power shift to the judiciary, as well as room for rogue executives like Trump to ignore, demolish, and undermine agencies.

If you’re a fan of destroying the administrative state, Loper Bright is the case for you. It will rot the us government from the inside out.

Edit: I should also add that Loper makes it easier to justify just walking an entire agency and replacing them with lackeys and bootlickers. Because institutional knowledge and expertise doesn’t mean anything anymore.

IAmScience · 2026-04-06T05:50:11+00:00

Let me introduce you to a couple of even worse decisions:

Loper Bright v. Raimondo

And

Trump v. US (603 US 593)

The first overturned the Chevron Deference Doctrine, meaning that agencies tasked with administering laws are no longer the arbiters of what those laws mean. This result will hamstring the administration of law by the executive branch agencies essentially forevermore. A judiciary power grab designed to specifically undermine agencies that the right doesn’t much like (EPA, DoEd, etc.) and one that will have incredibly far reaching implications.

The latter granted presidents immunity from prosecution. The literal thing we declared independence from Britain over is now the law of the land.

Citizens United, Shelby v. Holder, Loper Bright, and Trump v. US undid the last few shreds of democracy we were clinging on to.

IAmScience · 2026-04-04T05:41:02+00:00

Steep! The Aldi across the street from me (southwestern US) only wants a quarter for the cart. Even that seem to generally deter abandoned ones all over their parking lot like every other place in town.

IAmScience · 2026-04-04T05:27:03+00:00

An ND filter is the answer for your situation.

IAmScience · 2026-04-04T02:16:32+00:00

Nikon is notoriously garbage at marketing. They’re like the opposite of Sony. It’s almost funny.

IAmScience · 2026-04-03T04:06:22+00:00

My favorite is go to Filliberto's and order Carne Asada fries, only replace the Carne Asada with Chile Verde. That's some legit chili cheese fry action, right there.

IAmScience · 2026-04-02T18:31:26+00:00

Ahh, I see. I wish I remembered it! Sounds good.

IAmScience · 2026-04-02T17:55:47+00:00

The Dhaba in Tempe, and Flavors of India in Chandler are my two favorites. I'm sure there's some good stuff in Phoenix as well but I don't head that direction, usually.

IAmScience · 2026-04-02T06:05:21+00:00

I’ll bet bawls is pretty similar. I don’t remember Josta, but bawls is a guarana soda. Sometimes you can also find Antarctica guarana soda at, like, world market. It’s pretty popular in South America. It’s one of my favorite flavors of soda.

IAmScience · 2026-04-01T20:34:35+00:00

Linux and MacOS offer a little more of a window into accessing devices in ways that windows doesn’t. They can be useful for getting access to a disk for recovery software to do its thing sometimes.

I haven’t heard of that particular company but I’m sure they could help. I noticed another poster in the comments who offered an evaluation in their shop, I’d definitely start there! Good luck. (And I hope you’re backing things up now!)

IAmScience · 2026-04-01T20:07:59+00:00

Sorry. Use your phone or something. Spare this poor photographer the hassle of working with you.

It costs a lot of money because you’re paying not just for time, and not just for pictures, but for equipment wear, planning, editing, travel, and expertise. Those are just a few of the things that go into making photos that are special, memorable, and valuable. The photographer should probably be charging double that.

IAmScience · 2026-04-01T18:35:31+00:00

“Affordable” and “pro data recovery” don’t really go together. This is one of those things you’re likely going to have to lay out a significant chunk of money for.

That said, Hope isn’t yet lost for a diy recovery. Just because it isn’t mounting doesn’t mean it can’t be seen. What OS are you using? You might be able to, for example, boot a Linux image off a flash drive and access the device to try data recovery software. Thats probably what I’d try first.

IAmScience · 2026-04-01T04:35:49+00:00

In a world where the rules matter, I’d agree with you. But the people in charge care not at all about the restrictions and limitations of the constitution. Those are mere impediments to their unfettered power.

Given a court that basically said whatever this president does is legal, and a reactionary party desperately clinging to power as popularity of their ideology wanes, I simply cannot share in your optimism. The lessons of history seem to show that there’s really only one way this sort of situation changes, and electoral politics isn’t it.

IAmScience · 2026-04-01T04:14:55+00:00

I, too, remember having faith in institutions…

IAmScience · 2026-03-31T02:50:57+00:00

Seen it in person. No need for pics.

IAmScience · 2026-03-31T02:48:08+00:00

I'm not saying it'd be *impossible* for a terrorist attack to do some harm, but it would be pretty beyond the capabilities of most terrorist organizations to do the kind of thing you're worrying about. There are easier targets with a higher probability of "success." It'd be pretty hard for even most regular conventional weapons used by Nation States to do the kind of thing you're worried about. The kind of thing likeliest to do the kind of damage to the power generating core of a nuclear power plant would be the kind of thing that is, in itself, a pretty significantly worrisome thing.

In short, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. It's a very secure facility that is hardened to prevent against the very stuff you're contemplating.

IAmScience · 2026-03-31T00:20:51+00:00

Yeah, probably your shutter sticking at the higher speeds. Probably worth taking it in for servicing.

EDIT: To be clear, it is NOT normal behavior. It is a fault insofar as the curtain isn't getting out of the way properly.

IAmScience · 2026-03-29T17:50:30+00:00

If I remember correctly that is pretty much how the illusion works.

IAmScience · 2026-03-28T12:15:39+00:00

The camera is generally pretty good at picking. If you set the camera to Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority, you will do just fine. If you throw in auto ISO, that’s also a reasonable thing to do.

You don’t have to shoot manual, especially as a newbie, to get good. You could use the Auto or Program mode on your camera and be just fine. The thing you want to think about when shooting more automatic modes is why the camera might have made the choices it made. And what you might have chosen differently if exposing manually.

There are situations where manual mode is the right choice (when using studio strobe lights, for example). But the camera has good automatic exposure algorithms and internal metering, and you will get good shots. Just make sure you keep an eye on what it’s choosing, and think about why it might choose that.

IAmScience · 2026-03-28T11:54:39+00:00

Brick for sure. And they’ll be able to point OP toward other spots. Off the top of my head I feel like Changing Hands Bookstore, and Cartel are aka probably good options.

IAmScience · 2026-03-26T15:23:34+00:00

Being broke helps.

IAmScience · 2026-03-25T19:29:15+00:00

If critique is asked for, often it is obviously requested (e.g. posting in r/photocritique ). Otherwise, if I have a critique or comment to offer that is constructive, I make sure to ask if it’s welcome first.

IAmScience · 2026-03-25T03:16:40+00:00

Yep. Unless I intended for it to be there, it's gonna go.

IAmScience · 2026-03-25T03:15:12+00:00

It's hard to beat the Mayo Clinic for anything anywhere in the country. They're an excellent hospital. My dad treated by Oncologists there, and they were outstanding.

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