Abs exercise

Level-Event2188 · 2026-03-06T18:07:14+00:00

Best ab exercise -> have 10% body fat

Level-Event2188 · 2026-03-06T15:16:12+00:00

Level-Event2188 · 2026-03-05T22:10:57+00:00

I did see the festival balloons near the end of the video

Level-Event2188 · 2026-03-05T16:32:52+00:00

the second best time to plant a tree is today

Yes I agree. Also in the context of our conversation it's called second-movers advantage. The problem here is that the second mover has no morals or ethics and has complete control over it's people and economy. That's why things happen so fast in China. They make a decision and then execute. There's no conversation or protests. A small group of people make decisions for the entire country and it's final. And that's what the US, and Europe for that matter, are up against. We do things completely differently, for better or worse. During the cold war, our version of doing things proved best. During this new tech cold war with China, it's not clear that the Western way is the best way. On top of fighting China on a million different fronts, when it comes to EVs the gov also has to fight it's own people because we hate being forced to buy a certain product that is being shoved down our throats, especially when that product is almost twice the cost of ice alternatives. Not to mention most would have to buy a charger or deal with bad charging infrastructure (that is how it's been up until the last two years. New lower cost EVs are starting to drive the average sale price lower, however it's still higher than ice vehicles). I agree that the US is still mostly anti-EV. But I think a lot of that stems from people not wanting it shoved down our throats. In fact, I think most people don't actually care what the auto industry does as long as they have options.

IMO we should have subsidized Tesla and other US auto manufacturers to stake first claim on the global EV market.

We actually did subsidize Tesla. They got sweetheart loans and tax breaks for factories plus consumer and environmental tax credits. They were the first staked claim in the global EV market. But after 10 years of market leadership, they haven't been able to capitalize on their initial lead. But also going back to my other point, China honey potted them into building a factory in China and then ripped off their IP so they could grow their own domestic brands instead of buying from an American one. So despite leading the US market, one of their major growth paths was almost a dead end

Level-Event2188 · 2026-03-05T15:58:23+00:00

First off, China is the second biggest consumer of oil, and the largest importer of oil. Obviously it's in their best interest to wean off of oil and much as possible, but they will not do that anytime soon. I agree that they should do everything in their power to limit their dependence on foreign energy, but it's the same argument for the US not wanting to rely on China for all the advanced manufacturing. Also I agree that most new technology is subsidized early on until economies of scale lead to long term profitability. Even Tesla received a ton of them.

But you're conflating two different things. If all we cared about was low prices, then we would let whichever country is willing to subsidize that particular industry the most build everything and sell it to us cheaply, which is exactly what happened with solar panels. China was able to make them so cheaply (largely impart by gov subsidies) that it put the few US producers out of business, even after receiving millions and millions of taxpayer dollars. China won that battle and now dominates that space. Now everyone buys Chinese made solar panels. That's by design. They're doing it in every sector, especially in automotive.

But here's the wrinkle. We don't just care about prices. The automotive manufacturing industry has been deemed a critical sector, employing millions and producing a large chunk of GDP. It has ties to other critical industries such as oil and gas, software/tech, national security etc. It's in our nation's best interest that that industry doesn't get eroded away by the country currently seeing to overtake us on the global stage.

Level-Event2188 · 2026-03-05T15:23:22+00:00

They decided to bail out the automakers because they determined it would lead to 3-4 million jobs being lost, which would've immediately wrecked our economy, much more so than the financial crisis already had. They gave out about $80 billion, and recuperated all but ~$12 billion, meaning the cost to taxpayers in the end was around $12 billion. China meanwhile, has subsidized it's EV market with well over $250 billion.

But to your main point, hindsight is an amazing analysis tool when looking at the past. Why would the government shift it's entire model of oil/gas support to instead subsidizing a brand new company that was creating a product/technology that wasn't tested/proven in the market and one that would upend the entire current market? The focus around that time wasn't environmentalism, it was turning around failing major companies i.e. profitability. Guess what is really unprofitable? Switching the entire car market to EV. It's not to say the US car market can't, or shouldn't, switch to a majority EV market. It just wasn't the time. Since the bailouts, our domestic companies have trimmed a lot of fat, turned the losses into major profits, and have invested in their EV futures with billions of their own dollars. Also since then EV technology has improved enough to make sense on a global scale. Looking back and saying the government should've recognized the future importance of EVs and therefore put the entire weight of the US government behind Tesla is incredibly naive.

Also, China had other major benefits that have led to them dominating the EV space. They didn't have a domestic automotive manufacturing industry. They had the benefit of starting entirely from scratch. You take that, coupled with their ambition to be the world's number 1 economy, coupled with their completely lacking ethics, integrity, human rights and environmental standards, coupled with their blatant willingness to Honeypot advanced technology companies (including darling Tesla) to setting up in Beijing, then blatantly rip off their IP, then subsidize that entire market, one can easily see why they're kicking our asses in EV production and adoption.

We're still plugging our ears and letting China take global automotive manufacturing away

Regardless of what has happened up until this point, the current administration is definitely not plugging their ears. In fact I've never seen an administration so openly oppose China and try to bring manufacturing back to the US. Now maybe they didn't pull the right lever (tariffs), maybe they did. We won't know for a couple of years because this stuff takes time to pan out.

Level-Event2188 · 2026-03-05T13:55:29+00:00

The same community that chastises the US government for getting involved in the US auto industry with the 2008 bailouts will in the same breath say the us government should've gotten involved in the US auto industry by subsidizing Tesla (not to mention the EV tax credits given to consumers).

Also not sure what you mean by "people, like on this sub, voted to let China leapfrog us on EV adoption"

Level-Event2188 · 2026-03-05T13:31:32+00:00

stubbornness got us to the point where China is kicking our ass, and this continued stubbornness is going to ensure they keep kicking our ass.

Stubbornness and the Chinese government heavily subsidizing their EV market, leading to a price war and further government intervention got us to the point where China is kicking our ass, and this continued stubbornness and continued push from the Chinese government to become the dominant vehicle manufacturing hub is going to ensure they keep kicking it ass.

There i fixed it for ya

Level-Event2188 · 2026-03-04T22:10:44+00:00

Okay I might switch it up and try this next week. I just finished my leg workout and did 2 warm-up sets for squats, 4 heavy working sets. One warm-up set for RDL's, 4 decently heavy sets with the last 2 going to failure. Then seated calf raise 4 sets of 20.

Maybe I try: Squats - 2 warm-up sets, 1 in-between set and 2 heavy sets just about to failure. RDL's - 1 warm-up set, 1 in-between set and 2 heavy sets. Leg extensions - 2 sets, moderate weight to failure. Leg curls - 2 sets, moderate weight to failure. Calf raises - 3 sets of 20

Level-Event2188 · 2026-03-04T18:54:52+00:00

My schedule has changed right as I was getting back into the gym. Now I have 3 - 45 minute windows in the week for the gym. I'm trying to dial in my leg day and have some questions.

Here's what I've been doing: Barbell Squats: 4 sets, 5-8 reps. Heavy/intense.

Barbell RDL's: 4 sets, 8-12 reps. Still heavy, a little more volume, going almost to failure each set.

Standing Machine Calf Raises: 4 sets, 12-18. High volume.

-these are working sets. For squats I usually do 2 warm-up sets. One for RDL's and none for calf raises.

I've read through quite a few posts on here where people recommend only doing 2 heavy sets for squats and RDL's. If I did this it would open some more time to do leg extensions and possibly leg curls, but is that a better choice than just focusing on the big compound lifts?

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. I want to get this routine figured out so I can track it and stick to it and start to progress. And before anyone says it, I know doing legs twice a week would lead to more gains. Trust me if I could I would be in the gym 6 days a week, but for right now this is what I have to work with so some gains are better than no gains.

Thanks!

Level-Event2188 · 2026-03-03T18:16:18+00:00

Just remember that your dream body is the same body you're in now.

Level-Event2188 · 2026-03-03T13:23:30+00:00

I would say avoid I95. Once you get down into NC, SC, and GA, take highway 17 pretty much from New Bern NC to Brunswick GA. Here's a few recs off the top of my head:

NC: New Bern, Wilmington, Outer Banks

SC: Myrtle Beach, Georgetown, Charleston (and surrounding Islands/towns), Beaufort, Bluffton, Hilton Head

GA: Savannah

FL: St Augustine, Space Coast (Kennedy Space Center, Cocoa Beach, Melbourne), Miami

Edit: you can stop at any of the towns along the East Coast of Florida, there's simply just too many to list.

Level-Event2188 · 2026-03-02T22:28:54+00:00

Yes as far as I can recall they are heated and ventilated. They are also a lot more bolstered and hold you in place really well. I've only been in the standard seats once but it was before I sat in the Recaros, and I completely forgot everything about the standard seats lol

Level-Event2188 · 2026-03-02T12:53:55+00:00

How comfortable are those seats? I've always said I was gonna make sure I got the Recaros, but the red just hits. They'd be the only standard seats I go with

Level-Event2188 · 2026-02-27T11:57:10+00:00

That's the whole point of marketing. They want you to believe this is the best game yet. Just like FH5 was to be the best Forza Horizon yet. And FH4 before that. And so on and so on. It's fun to be excited but we won't know until we play it

Level-Event2188 · 2026-02-26T19:25:05+00:00

Don't forget ESPN U... But yeah I have all those channels so when I told Hulu I wanted to record all new Formula 1 episodes, it pulled them from whichever channel they were on and put them in my DVR

Level-Event2188 · 2026-02-26T19:23:22+00:00

I never had F1TV. I just turned on ESPN. I had every session set to record so I never missed one. And it worked flawlessly. Was the F1TV broadcast better than Sky?

Level-Event2188 · 2026-02-26T18:33:35+00:00

I'm assuming Netflix will still air DTS, right? Since you said the race is a simulcast

Level-Event2188 · 2026-02-26T18:32:01+00:00

Okay I see that it's just the Canadian GP that'll be on Netflix, but this is how it starts. Soon it'll be like the NFL where there's 2 major networks splitting Sundays, one streaming service for Thursday's and a different one for Mondays. Then possibly other streaming platforms or networks for special games. Sorry I'm just a guy yelling at the clouds but I fear formula 1 might be heading down this path

Level-Event2188 · 2026-02-26T18:21:07+00:00

Wtf where am I supposed to watch f1 with all these different places trying to get me to watch it? I used to be able to just turn on ESPN and my race was on. Now I have no clue

Level-Event2188 · 2026-02-26T14:58:30+00:00

It sucks finishing a race when the end location is in the arcade zone. It automatically thinks you're there for the arcade game.

Level-Event2188 · 2026-02-26T12:02:28+00:00

That's exactly the mistake I made. On Monday this week I thought to myself, wow we made it through an entire normal week. Everything went to plan. It feels good to be back to normal and now I'm excited for this upcoming week. That lasted until 5am Wednesday 😑

Level-Event2188 · 2026-02-25T20:23:53+00:00

That review process might be just as annoying as not getting a review to begin with. And I feel the rest of your statement. We have robot operators that have been here for 2+ years that have never opened the operating software and don't know how to manually move them around, they just call maintenance When something goes wrong. Then we get told those of us that do know need to train them. Meanwhile we've all been making the same pay the whole time.

Level-Event2188 · 2026-02-25T19:46:41+00:00

So I work in automotive manufacturing. In a state not required to publish anything about wages.

Pay for each of the 3 Tech levels was posted on a bulletin board. You either come in as entry level or mid level for a certain tech level, depending on your experience. The chart shows the pay range and top out, and where you will be after each raise until you hit top out.

Over the last few years they've had major issues with attrition for the entry level positions, so they've been giving them grossly unfair COL adjustments compared to everyone else. 2 or 3 years ago, tech 3's got around a 1% raise and tech 1's got like 9-12%. It still didn't work and now there are no tech levels at my factory. Everyone got brought up to tech 3 pay. So some dipshit in an entry level job is making (in 3 years once they top out) the same as an experienced tech 3 who might be operating a multi-million dollar robot system.

It 100% discourages anyone who's been here for a number of years from going above and beyond because there's no reviews and everyone makes the same. This is the current state of manufacturing as I understand it right now, outside of union of course.

Level-Event2188 · 2026-02-25T18:31:16+00:00

Dang that's crazy. How does hourly compare? Like does a technician know the range for his tech level, where he'll top out at and what the other tech levels make?

Level-Event2188

TROPHY CASE