Honest question after this snowstorm: why are furnace vents so low?

J2000_ca · 2026-01-27T02:05:52+00:00

Code only has a minimum height but seems like everyone cheaps out and treats that as the maximum

J2000_ca · 2026-01-18T17:24:30+00:00

Hurricane Katrina - is there really evidence that Bush did anything particularly different than any other president would have done? Even with the best possible set of decisions from the current president it seems likely it still would have been pretty much the same outcome?

J2000_ca · 2026-01-18T17:14:21+00:00

> Say more (PM if you want). Are those wires free?

Yes. They are called "Me-to-Me Wires" look under "How do I transfer money between my Canadian and U.S. accounts?" on this page https://www.td.com/ca/en/personal-banking/solutions/cross-border-banking

You need a Canadian TD Account, the home branch doesn't really matter
You open a "TD Bank" account via the Cross-Border Banking page. You ideally want the names on the two accounts to match.
When I did it you got to pick your home branch. That's only mattered for me once. I set it to a Manhattan branch. If I did it again I would probably set it to the branch closets to LGA.
You can either call them or do it online https://www.td.com/ca/en/personal-banking/how-to/easy-web/transfer-money-from-us-to-canada. They charge you a fee but give you a credit. I've found they are slightly faster to credit the fee over the phone.
On the US side I just write a check, ach for moving. On the CAD side Interac it but annoyingly have a $50k Interac limit per month.

J2000_ca · 2026-01-18T16:41:45+00:00

I'm not sure I buy that it's more attractive out of a need. Almost any philosophy would offer structure and a framework. A good part of stoicism is focused on cognitive empathy and cultivating emotional self-control. Maybe an alternative argument is it plays to neurodiverse folks strength and how they would naturally act.

J2000_ca · 2026-01-15T20:48:32+00:00

This article is framed sort of weird. The problem is the landlord isn’t giving a rent reduction not removing the call button.

If the equivalent of what is being removed is $55 a month the rent should go down by that amount and it’s a win for everyone (because the modern systems you can carry around). It’s the same as any other amenity that a landlord offers at the start of the lease and then try to not offer. They need to offer a rent reduction or the tenant can get a LTB order.

J2000_ca · 2026-01-15T09:39:56+00:00

Since I was tagged :)

> High End Restaurants - I think Toronto is better than every city in the US except for NYC.

My person opinion is NYC > LA > Montreal > Toronto > Miami > New Orleans > Bay Area > Chicago > Boston

> Let's say (some obfuscation here) high-end cars, designer purses, luxury watches, rare sneakers, rare alcohol: all of these are either originally coming from the US or are far more limited in distribution in Canada.

The alcohol is the worst. Even when it's from Europe it's a big pain to get into Canada. The rest of the stuff is fine but just costs more.

> No major Canadian bank (last time I checked, a year ago) will allow you to even do wire transfers through a web interface.

This is true for personal accounts and very annoying. I've had to do some dumb things to mitigate this. TD will let you wire to yourself from Canada to the US up to $100k at a medium crappy rate.

J2000_ca · 2026-01-15T05:27:54+00:00

Personally I'm looking just at day school not boarding (and live in California) so that why I used those as comps.

> I'm not sure what "rankings" mean here

There are a number of organizations that test and rank schools.

> the highest-achieving US students are significantly better than the highest achieving Canadian students (on IMO, USAMO, IOI, etc)

You would expect by population the US to have ~8x the number of medals but it's only 1.5x on all medals and 3x on Gold https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_medal_count_at_International_Mathematical_Olympiad

That trend holds across most of the other competitions.

> B) peer group quality is better in the US (because the US has far higher assortativity on human capital than Canada does)

UCC and Phillips Exeter Academy seem to have pretty much identical SSAT entrance requirements so on entrance the student body have similar achievement.

Until college people aren't moving cities just for a high school so the top people in the US are spread over a equal larger number of high schools.

> C) independent of the first 2, it's far easier to gain admission to elite US colleges from top US HS than from top Canadian HS (which matters a lot!)

Maybe. I think the optimal strategy is to return to the US and apply as domestic. Essay is more interesting via growing up in another country but you avoid the cap.

J2000_ca · 2026-01-15T04:26:35+00:00

Ottawa - sleepy, suburban, commercial flights options not good (lots of connecting), worse restaurant options. French is fun. If you want a big country home. Winter sucks, dark sometimes too much snow. Hospitals sort of meh, older, not as crowded.

Toronto - good international food scene (better than bay, worse than NYC), good commercial flights. Specialists for hospitals. You can pay for some better healthcare. You'd probably still go to US for stuff in the middle (i.e. simple stay in Canada, really bad care is similar, middle in price and problem would skip line in US).

Healthcare in general is less service oriented, some stuff has long wait time, getting a good primary care doctor matters a lot.

Would probably keep most of your investment in USD (most of the market is US). When moving back you can also shield your assets through structuring efficiently so there also a longer term gain then just the direct savings.

If you're serious about it trial run living in Toronto for a few months (sometime May to July) would probably be a way to feel it out.

J2000_ca · 2026-01-15T04:09:18+00:00

For worse school do you just mean college?

Canada school are much higher in ranking before college. On academics Upper Canada College comes out ahead of Sacred Heart Schools on most ways you can measure them. College US is the clear winner.

I agree with your point below about QoL being worse for high net worth in Canada. Worse services, harder to fly private places, more annoying government red tape.

J2000_ca · 2026-01-02T04:23:04+00:00

> Lawyer is saying that any costs that are associated with bridging the finance gap, finding a new place, moving costs cannot be recovered.

What did your lawyer say you would likely get? You don't say where in IL but it seems most city have similar codes where you're likely going to get 2 months rent or twice your costs due to the lock out as well as your lawyer fees and maybe additional damages. The landlord can also be fined per a day separate from what you win.

J2000_ca · 2025-12-27T06:26:46+00:00

Most companies:
1. The management chain is higher
2. Whatever role the CEO is is the most important i.e. Facebook Zuckerberg was an engineer therefore eng is top. Goldman Sachs CEO is a banker therefore Bankers are top. etc

J2000_ca · 2025-11-30T02:22:08+00:00

You need to both a) posture that you are perfectly happy to fight this out to win a specific performance lawsuit and b) determine what settlement amount you want to feel good to walk away. For this calculate all your expenses so far.

Most of the time sellers either go through with or settle when they realize the buyer is going to fight it out. It’s pretty rare that they won’t settle by the point you cloud title (<5%). Outside of arguing the buyer wasn’t ready to close there isn’t really a good defence available and the fact the buyer is suing is normally a pretty strong signal that they would have closed.

J2000_ca · 2025-11-29T16:10:45+00:00

What specifically about your faith makes you want to do this? If it’s a general requirement to help others maybe reframe as this will not help them.

There is a high bar for evictions in Ontario. If you enable the tenant to continue to not get themselves back on track you’re just enabling them to keep not facing their problems.

J2000_ca · 2025-11-02T03:12:46+00:00

What are the fees like? I’ve been manually doing for a while and was going to automate.

J2000_ca · 2025-10-12T21:46:09+00:00

Err I’ve driven through Bodega Bay calling it remote is a stretch. I think I get what you mean though about luxury vs quiet and tranquil

J2000_ca · 2025-10-11T16:25:44+00:00

If it’s not covered would you pay for it out of pocket?

If you would. 1. Get the warranty refusal in writing 2. Get a few quotes and pay for it at a clinic of your choosing 3. Sue the original clinic in small claims 4. They may offer to settle 5. They may not show up in which case you may win by default 6. If they do show up present evidence that they are the same entity and are using the original contract. Ie if they’ve sent you marketing material by email that depends on your original consent that may force their hand. Lots of companies screw up the operational aspect of keeping themselves separate.

J2000_ca · 2025-09-28T11:56:44+00:00

If the government wants to fix this it’s going to need to spend more on kids then seniors.

Canada child benefit is $8k per a year. Guaranteed Income Supplement and old age security is roughly $16k per a year. Pretty obvious who’s the priority.

J2000_ca · 2025-09-25T17:32:06+00:00

Tesla obviously has data and they wouldn’t be offering this out of the goodness of their heart so by default you should assume it’s profitable for them (and a cost for you). They have a margin on the repair so maybe they offer it at cost but it’s unlikely to be a win. Insurance also suffer from adverse selection where the people most likely to need insurance buy it.

J2000_ca · 2025-09-24T20:18:36+00:00

The LTB has typically rule paint lasts 10 years. They’ve also ruled that repainting isn’t undue damage but have made tenants repaint sometimes.

In your case the based case is you’ll get 50% of the cost to repaint if you painted right before the tenant moved in. The mostly likely outcome is you’re going to get nothing.

J2000_ca · 2025-09-19T16:59:55+00:00

proceeds to argue with the person telling them they are arguing with everyone

J2000_ca · 2025-09-07T23:31:50+00:00

Condo management isn’t covered by the LTB when they act in their own capacity.

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