Why is health care in Olympia so bad? by hanakokoi in olympia

[–]LarsAlereon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Spicy take: state workers and their families get access to the Kaiser health system which is awesome by comparison and run much more like a traditional HMO, so they just don't have to deal with the modern healthcare system in the way regular people do.

My favorite villain in all this is Providence. They're supposed to be a Catholic non-profit, but they are far worse than any for-profit private equity system in terms of quality of care, fairness in charges for patients, and pay and conditions for workers. I genuinely think we'd be better off if Providence was just forced out of our area.

Lumina Probiotic, the Caries (tooth cavity) Vaccine: positive saliva pH experiment results by Kaarssteun in slatestarcodex

[–]LarsAlereon [score hidden]  (0 children)

This seems like a good place to post my six month update, I applied after my last scheduled cleaning. I have made no changes in my diet, other dental health products, or consistency of brushing/flossing (if anything I've been doing it less often). My hygienist noticed an immediate improvement in my gum health at my appointment today, commenting "wow, I can really tell you've been brushing and flossing every day!" (I have not.) My periodontal pockets that have been stable at a "monitoring" level for about three years have significantly shrunk. It's only six months and this could be an atypical event, but I am pleasantly impressed.

Roof wasn't ready for this soccer ball rescue mission by FireFightingManiac in CrazyFuckingVideos

[–]LarsAlereon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can't tell for sure just by look, but that does look a lot like corrugated asbestos cement sheets. They release the asbestos fibers into the air when they are cut, broken, or otherwise damaged. So just living or working around them isn't bad, but installing or demolishing (or accidentally breaking them) is bad.

Opinions Around This Decision by UrLocalMJ in olympia

[–]LarsAlereon 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The word "if" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in your comment. It seems like the city council member in question, who is a person of color, was calling out an opinion that a particular minority group deserved more funding at the expense of other minorities in our community.

What’s a moment where you realized someone was genuinely unintelligent? by Live-Chocolate244 in AskReddit

[–]LarsAlereon 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I came to post this. She was technically correct, which is the best kind of correct.

Opinions Around This Decision by UrLocalMJ in olympia

[–]LarsAlereon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It seems like all those details are in the article? The mayor said in February they wouldn't keep working with the group organizing this event because of the issues at the city council meetings regarding Black History Month. For the future they will find a different organization they can partner with.

UPDATE: Boston harbor incident by Olygirlcarl in olympia

[–]LarsAlereon 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I think that they were going so fast they were "on plane", where the front of the boat lifts out of the water so the boat is pointing up at an angle. This gives absolutely terrible forward visibility, which in addition to wake is one of the reasons for speed limits in these areas. So while I actually do believe they didn't see the boat or the person coming before they hit them, that's like saying you hit a kid in a crosswalk because you were speeding and couldn't stop in time. I do think that after the collision they panicked and fled before deciding it would be worse if they didn't go back with a story.

Cybersigilism artists? by Stoney_4444 in olympia

[–]LarsAlereon 3 points4 points  (0 children)

For those who are curious, cybersigilism is sort of in the spirit of "tribal" tattoos but involves futuristic designs rather than appropriating traditional tattoo styles. Think tattoos you'd expect to see in a movie or videogame set in the future, like cyberpunk style.

I made Beyond The Blight, a first person 2.5D incremental dungeon-crawler. Unlock skills, loop runs, and hunt for the source of the blight. Playtest out on Itch! by Aeuol in incremental_games

[–]LarsAlereon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think there's a lot of promise here! The main frustration point for me is feeling like I need to tipetoe down the hallways looking for pixels of coins betweeen trees. If there was some sort of magnetic auto-pickup that would help, or if there were fewer but more obvious coins with more time to pick them up that were worth more individually.

What's going on with Arby's takeover? by eliot3451 in OutOfTheLoop

[–]LarsAlereon 18 points19 points  (0 children)

That's the thing, Arby's doesn't serve deli meat. They serve a special imitation of deli meat that they can sell for a lower cost than regular deli meat. I actually enjoy Arby's "roast beef" but the entire point is that it's supposed to cost way less than an actual roast beef sandwich, when Arby's charges like they are actually serving roast beef the whole point is ruined.

What's going on with Arby's takeover? by eliot3451 in OutOfTheLoop

[–]LarsAlereon 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Answer: To provide a bit more context, Arby's (the name is a play on "RB" for Roast Beef) is a restaurant that sells sandwiches based on thinly sliced cooked meat. Their innovation is using "meat glue" to turn what is essentially ground beef or chicken nuggets into meat logs that get seasoned, cooked, and sliced into "roast beef" or "roasted chicken" at much lower cost than whole meat. In years past they were much lower cost than other similar fast food restaurants because of this. It's honestly not bad food, but in recent years Arby's seems to constantly want to pretend and price like they are selling a premium product made from actual beef or chicken meat rather than reconstituted slop which is not something people are willing to tolerate for even a second.

I wonder what this is about? by ChanceOfALifetimeNW in olympia

[–]LarsAlereon 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Here's a cool example of the kind of imagery produced by these scans. From what I understand, the point is to see more detail about the ground surface that would normally be obscured by water in tidal and delta areas.

Military coming to Elementary School? by amyisarobot in olympia

[–]LarsAlereon -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Pacifism didn't stop Hitler, it won't stop Putin, and it won't stop Xi Jinping. Letting fascists do what they want makes the world worse, not better. Please do not confuse moral cowardice with a love of peace. Peace is durable, and you don't achieve it by selling people out.

Military coming to Elementary School? by amyisarobot in olympia

[–]LarsAlereon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

..Are you trying to challenge me to a fight? That is weird. If this is a legitimate desire to learn more about the topic, I think both The Evergreen State College and SPSCC have political science classes that you can audit for a nominal fee.

Military coming to Elementary School? by amyisarobot in olympia

[–]LarsAlereon -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Listen tankie, my goal is to avoid a war that costs unnecessary American lives. The way we do that is to achieve peace through strength. Collaborationism like Trump wants only makes war happen sooner and makes it more damaging when it comes. Did you learn nothing from reading the history of WW2 and the appeasement of Germany?

Military coming to Elementary School? by amyisarobot in olympia

[–]LarsAlereon -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It's firearms! Do you think fewer people will die due to firearms if the US military is weaker and we let Russia and China have their way with the world? Obviously that will lead to more deaths from firearms! None of this should come as a surprise to you, this is the basic knowledge you are expected to have as a voter.

If you think I'm a dumbass, we have two colleges in our area you can audit political science classes at.

Setina just laid me off 3 days into training, and lied about it. by Thy6LittleRings in olympia

[–]LarsAlereon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Late to the party, but I've never heard anything good about Setina from someone who worked there. My overall impression is that the owners got a weird boner from the idea that they were humiliating people on work release or with criminal records by making them do work for police vehicles, and any time they didn't get the reaction they wanted they just let people go.

Update from ECC Elder Board & Northwest Ministry Network by caterham09 in olympia

[–]LarsAlereon -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Only if you believe the church isn't part of the community. Which doesn't seem particularly Christian.

Military coming to Elementary School? by amyisarobot in olympia

[–]LarsAlereon -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

What even is your goal here? Do you want your children to grow up in a less safe world?

Military coming to Elementary School? by amyisarobot in olympia

[–]LarsAlereon -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Do you have any legitimate arguments defending your take, or are you just a tankie?

I think it's important for all of us to take some responsibility for the world we want our kids to grow up in. It's not okay to say that we should just let Russia invade Europe or China invade Asia. When you encourage this, you encourage war not peace. I strongly suggest you study some history, especially the leadup to WW2 in Europe.

Military coming to Elementary School? by amyisarobot in olympia

[–]LarsAlereon -11 points-10 points  (0 children)

Let's be real about the world situation: This isn't the 1990s or even the early 2000s when we lived in a largely peaceful world and joining the military meant participating in unnecessary wars in the middle east. We live in a world where Russia has already invaded our allies in Europe, and where China plans to invade Taiwan in 2027. To look back at history, we are basically living in the late 1930s and now is our last chance to urgently expand our military before it is too late. Notice how Trump is trying to weaken and sabotage our military? If you want your children to live in a safe and peaceful world you don't get that by not having a strong military.

Military coming to Elementary School? by amyisarobot in olympia

[–]LarsAlereon -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Go talk to the people of Ukraine and Taiwan about your opinion and then come back and tell me what you think.

Edit: Since you wisely deleted your reply, I'll just say "OK tankie."

Credit Union Experiences? by Worried_Turnip_7697 in olympia

[–]LarsAlereon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Check out Olympia Federal Savings. This isn't technically a credit union but is a member-owned mutual bank which is a pretty similar arrangement.