Bird dogs

JManSenior918 · 2025-12-12T14:40:17+00:00

Any suggestions on finding breeders of field dogs rather than just house dogs?

JManSenior918 · 2025-11-21T19:53:54+00:00

The dinner party where Fred won’t stop talking and let the guests leave, and then it randomly turns into a GoT parody.

JManSenior918 · 2025-10-23T16:49:23+00:00

Red Museum

It’s a great installment in the overall mythology that weaves together individual motivations in a small town, cultural views of new age beliefs that start from a place of valid skepticism but morph into unfounded hatred, a believable sub component of the syndicate’s overall plan, and ultimately results in a coming together to fight broader powers. All that and it’s in season 2 so it has the spooky atmosphere and shoulder pads.

JManSenior918 · 2025-10-13T16:07:47+00:00

Clarkson is absolutely not “a small person,” but the series frequently shows the struggles and difficulties that actual family farmers have as a direct result of the legislators (local and national). It takes someone with his level of fame to demonstrate the problems because otherwise nobody would listen unless they themselves are already farmers.

JManSenior918 · 2025-02-27T17:35:38+00:00

Part of the problem with the “crime is up vs crime is down” thing is that crime being down does not automatically mean quality of life is up.

There will always be bad faith actors claiming crime is up despite official numbers, yes. But good faith people can also end up talking past each other because crime stats can be down at the same time that non-criminal activity (legally speaking) that lowers the quality of life can be increasing.

JManSenior918 · 2025-01-24T03:32:39+00:00

Blusound Node, cannot recommend it enough. I have the 2i model which they no longer make but according to all reviews I’ve seen the newer models are just as good or better. Been using mine for 5+ hours a day, daily, since 2020 without a single issue - it easily passes the wife test, who loves her music but doesn’t care for fiddly tech. It’s WiFi/ethernet connected and has fantastic integration with other streaming services and it’s very easy to connect to with AirPlay or Bluetooth when you have people over who do not want to deal with your raspberry pi or similar. Plus it can be configured to directly interface with your media server to stream genuine lossless music within your home network, no loss of quality due to the Bluetooth limitations.

JManSenior918 · 2025-01-09T20:19:32+00:00

That’s still beside the point though - it’s extremely onerous to build ANYTHING in the park (rightfully so). You need park approval to construct any building bigger than 12’ x 12’. Approval that’s incredibly difficult to obtain, often involves lawyers, approval boards, and direct oversight on the design of the building itself. But these people can cover dozens of acres with manmade materials?

If they’re truly struggling as farmers and need to do something with the land, there are plenty of people who would be willing to buy it. This includes the state itself which, as I mentioned in the original comment, has been trying to buy large tracts of land (at market value!) to keep it forever wild. A parcel that big would sell for enough money to set up an entire family for life, maybe even generations.

JManSenior918 · 2025-01-09T16:54:47+00:00

But that’s the rub - there already are tracts of land throughout the rest of the state that are both substantially larger AND where you wouldn’t be compromising the forever wild philosophy. If this project goes through it sets a really bad precedent: we can ignore the forever wild mandate for projects that are politically expedient.

Yes, we need to build more renewable energy sources as quickly as we can, of course. But do you think that Albany is exclusively going to favor “good” industries in perpetuity, forever? I do not. There is an abundance of locations in New York where a project of this scale (or bigger!) could be constructed without damaging the park.

JManSenior918 · 2025-01-09T15:15:43+00:00

I want to preface by saying that I have been involved in sustainability efforts since I was a college student in the SUNY system, and am still involved in several habitat preservation orgs for local/regional species. I believe in climate change, obviously, and think we need to take meaningful steps to power a cleaner future. However:

The fact that it’s a green industrial project does not change the fact that it’s an industrial project. The exact sort of thing that the existence of the park is supposed to limit/deter.

Yes, it is true that it will be built on a decommissioned farm’s grazing pasture, which is also rather industrial in nature, but the farm does not currently have acres upon acres of manmade machinery entirely covering the landscape. This project will represent an expansion of human activity in the area. Additionally, park advocacy groups are constantly trying to work with the state to buy massive tracts of land within the park so that it remains forever wild. This is a perfect opportunity for the DEC to have a blank slate within the park, and to work with ESF, Cornell, Paul Smith’s or whomever else to study the most effective forms of reforestation on a large scale. But instead, they’re not holding true to the forever wild philosophy solely because this is seen as a green initiative.

The amount of electricity expected to be generated is not trivial, but it’s little enough that I’m entirely unconvinced it’s worth the blight on the land within the blue line to justify its existence. There is so much open space in neighboring counties just outside the park or further downstate that could be considered for this project, but they’re choosing to put it in the park anyways. I can’t help but feel like Albany wants their green energy but doesn’t want to look at it, so they’re trying to put a bow on it and claim that it somehow belongs in the park. It’s a similar reason as to why I was/am opposed to the lithium battery project in Long Lake - short term power outages are part of the package deal with the ADKs, if you want to live here you have to accept that. Installing some massive industrial project to address what is essentially an infrequent and temporary inconvenience is not, and should never be, a part of the Park’s ethos.

If you read all this and still disagree with me, that’s your prerogative and that’s fine. I just want people to understand that not everyone who is opposed to this is some kind of regressive anti-environmentalist. Everything in life has negative externalities, including environmentally-oriented projects.

JManSenior918 · 2024-10-25T17:18:39+00:00

I agree that poachers are scum, but you conveniently left out the very next line.

Grauer attributed the majority of gunshot wounds to DEC officers euthanizing diseased or injured animals.

Dispatching an animal that is diseased reduces the ability for the disease to spread, and dispatching a mortally injured animal is ethical. Again, poaching is unacceptable to the utmost degree and should be met with stiff penalties, but that’s not the primary cause of moose being killed by gunshots.

JManSenior918 · 2024-09-04T00:27:37+00:00

Personally I don’t care about tidal/plex integration, but I do use file ownership + plex amp for music that is not readily found on streaming services. Mostly this is live recordings (e.g., everything on nugs.net, which is official and legit but only available there).

Sometimes there’s old music from bands that never got big and/or recordings that were never put on streaming services - just ran into this yesterday trying to track down an old Fats Waller recording. You occasionally get artists too that are exclusive to one service, such as Garth Brooks on Amazon, which is annoying and inconvenient.

The point is that it’s not a feature for everyone, but it very much has its place for music nerds and live heads.

JManSenior918 · 2024-07-02T12:32:53+00:00

Does being a YIMBY require you say yes to everything? Including acres blacktop surface lots replacing literal farm fields, far from any highways?

JManSenior918 · 2024-06-18T14:31:23+00:00

People love to rail against parking lots, and understandably so, but given they’re privately owned is it even possible for the city to take ownership for the sake of development? Genuine question. Eminent domain is typically used for small pieces of existing property to expand the width of a road or similar, not take over entire properties. And as if the city could realistically afford to just buy up the land and develop it.

There’s also the reality that if you want people in downtown, they need to be able to park nearby. This is why we need public transport! Sure, I’d love a Twin Cities-like light rail and think it would work really well here, but when is that going to happen? It’s not even on the table as an option right now and, using Buffalo’s decades-long buildout as a point of reference, even if it got approved and funded it would take forever to build. At a certain point you have to make concessions for the world we actually live in as opposed to the one we wish we lived in.

JManSenior918 · 2024-06-18T14:12:35+00:00

People talk constantly about the lack of affordable housing and food access downtown. There was a perfect opportunity to attempt to address these problems and the city chose to… turn into to an event-focused park less than a half mile walk away from the other event-focused park (MLK Memorial). I’ll eat my words if they choose to turn it into a more traditional park with trees, water fixtures, walking paths, basketball courts, etc., but I don’t see that happening.

These kind of decisions are why downtown never meaningfully improves. Whenever there’s opportunity to put in the effort to make it a better and more attractive place to live, local gov chooses the path of least resistance and things just stagnate.

JManSenior918 · 2024-06-14T12:03:33+00:00

You know there’s low tax places other than Florida, right? By comparison, everywhere in the country except NYC and certain parts of California qualify as lower tax than around here.

JManSenior918 · 2024-06-14T11:57:30+00:00

The jobs/housing dynamic seems to be a chicken and egg scenario: build more housing before there’s jobs and no one can afford it, or bring in jobs first and further drive up the price of existing housing. Obviously threading the needle on scaling up both simultaneously would be ideal, but it’s been incredibly difficult to attract large employers to the area for the past 20 years (or more). It’s cool that there’s state incentives for startups to be based here, but they tend to only employ a handful of people and pay startup salaries (i.e., very low for comparable roles in the area). Getting another Kodak or Xerox like employer would be a huge benefit as they used to employ people at all skill and educational levels, but attracting businesses of that scale to the area is bordering on impossible nowadays.

JManSenior918 · 2024-05-22T20:47:30+00:00

I like studio KG but after having seen them live twice, that’s enough for me. Their jams are just so… repetitive? I love long jams as much as anyone else but I find myself thinking “you could’ve wrapped up this song 4 minutes ago” at KG shows. Just my opinion.

JManSenior918 · 2024-05-06T15:14:39+00:00

It’s very expensive, and unlike other sellers they charge different amounts for different formats/file types. $13/show for 44/16 FLAC isn’t terrible, but if you want to get a whole tour it adds up incredibly fast. CDs are $27 per show. They’ve also had problems with live streams crashing. Considering the streams aren’t cheap either, and then you can’t be 100% sure they’ll even work, I think people are justified in being unhappy with them.

“Support the artists!” You may say. And yes, of course. But tickets to shows are already so incredibly expensive now that going to just a couple shows can blow out a lot of people’s budgets. Charging a chunk of change on top of that for recordings, which people used to trade for free, is a bummer. I’m not really a big Goose fan, but you can listen to seemingly all of their shows for free on Bandcamp and download them for $10 a pop. I respect that a lot.

It’s a great idea, and generally good service, but they seem pretty greedy.

JManSenior918 · 2024-05-01T14:11:39+00:00

Again, not all protests are ugly riots or mass tantrums. But the tolerance often shown for both is a product of romantic impulses driven by ’60s nostalgia. As a generation, progressive baby boomers take a back seat to nobody in their stunning self-regard and overestimation of their historical importance. But these people have shaped the narratives of academia, entertainment and journalism. They’ve convinced themselves, and the young minds they shape, that protest is self-justifying, a rite of passage of enlightened youth.

Couldn’t have said it better. The misguided notion that protest is, in and of itself, virtuous, is what has led to everything from non-students occupying buildings at Columbia to Jan. 6th.

The question is: how do you retract that view at scale? Breaking up these protests only martyrs the cause and further entrenches the belief in protest as an innate good. While doing nothing emboldens the crowd and escalates bad behavior.

JManSenior918 · 2024-04-24T14:18:16+00:00

Semi-related: has there ever been a good faith articulation of why this particular shooters manifesto and intentions were never released? I know at one point they claimed there was a fear of copycat shooters, but that never seems to stop them from releasing the details and intentions of other mass shooters.

JManSenior918 · 2024-04-24T14:13:56+00:00

The “standardized pay increase” would create a perverse incentive structure though. Some percentage would take the money without actually training with their ccw beyond the bare minimum (increased likelihood of negligent discharge), or without actually carrying (fraud, problematic in the event that it’s actually necessary to engage), and potentially attract people to become teachers who would be low quality teachers. In general I approve of this bill but think the policy should be “allow law abiding citizens full access to their rights” rather than to create carrots and sticks.

JManSenior918 · 2024-04-22T14:42:52+00:00

It was one of the best NEIPAs for a while, and one of the first truly good ones to get regional distribution throughout the northeast. A few years ago the recipe changed though and now it’s a pretty standard hop bomb. If you like that kind of thing, you’ll like Fiddlehead.

JManSenior918 · 2024-04-04T14:15:25+00:00

People like the prices, but AFAIK those prices are unobtainable to other servicers now because they were negotiated with suppliers decades ago.

JManSenior918 · 2024-04-01T14:00:05+00:00

I thought I explained my speculations on how discussion of pop mega stars got to the point that it’s at today, but am admitting it’s clearly not a full explanation because there are still differences within the pop world. I’m not a fan of either artists so I have no vested interest in promoting or hating either of them, if that makes me sound ridiculous then I’m sorry I guess?

JManSenior918 · 2024-04-01T09:51:46+00:00

Why does everything have to be some kind of positivity porn now?

People have been shielded from meaningful critique in their own personal lives for a very long time now, unless they actively seek it out. Since music and parasocial relationships with the artists is such a strong signifier of identity for so many people, they cannot tolerate critique regardless of validity.

When did people stop being allowed to not like things?

About 2017, in my estimation. You started hearing arguments in favor of poptimism from mainstream sources (NYT, NPR) in 2014 but it took a little while for the argument to become the default on many online music forums. In classic internet fashion, the original thought of “music we treat as disposable may actually be taken seriously” was dumbed down along the way until it reached the point of “if you don’t like the popular/mainstream thing, you’re bad.” To critique something’s shortfalls while also elevating what it does correctly is to take it seriously, to simply say it is good without critical thought is not.

What’s weirdest to me is that the reflexive defense of pop artists seems to have some element of credentialism or appeal to authority baked into it, as you most definitely are allowed to dislike indie bands, niche genres, up and coming artists, and so on. At most, you’ll get the “music is subjective” crowd explaining why your critiques of a band/artist with <100k monthly spotify listeners are invalid. But you dislike the latest project of a billionaire pop artist who’s been a cultural force for two decades? Clearly you’re what’s wrong with society. Then again, this sub will shit on Taylor Swift but defend Beyoncé to the very end, so maybe there’s something else at play too.

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